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The city of this name, the most important town on the line of the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific railroad, between DesMoines and Council Bluffs, was laid out in October, 1868. The site, at that time, was the property of Franklin H. Whitney, B. F. Allen, John P. Cook and others, and the plat of the same was filed for record, in the office of the county recorder, in the latter part of the same year. The first addition to the new town was made by F. H. Whitney, B. F. Allen, Job Walker, and was by them filed for record May 4, 1869. Dickerson and Keyes made another addition in May, 1871, and Job Walker and F. H. Whitney another in March, 1875. Several others have been added to the rapidly growing city.

The town is beautifully situated on the sides and tops of several knolls, and surrounded by timber. Since the inception of the town, it has rapidly risen in population and commercial importance, until it is not too much to claim for it the title of being one of the most important and prosperous cities in the southwestern part of the State. In 1870, the city had a population of one thousand two hundred souls; in 1875, this had risen to one thousand eight hundred and thirty-two, and in 1880, to three thousand six hundred and sixty-two, and is now not far from five thousand.

On September 9, 1868, Henry Miller commenced the erection of the first house in Atlantic, for a home for himself and family. Its location was the present site of the Park Hotel. He had four men at work on it, and they got it completed with such celerity that they were able to move into it on September l0th, just six days after its erection was commenced. Its dimensions were sixteen by twenty-four feet, and it was two stories in height. When the erection of the Park Hotel was commenced, this house was removed to the southwest part of town, and it is now owned and occupied by Romeo Lawrence.

Mr. Miller's house was the only place where a meal could be obtained for a time. As soon as he finished his own house, he commenced the construction of the Atlantic House (now the Reynolds House), for the Town company. Mr. Miller employed some twenty hands on its construction, and they boarded at his house until it was finished. The first work on the Atlantic House was done on the 20th of September, and it was ready for the plasterers on October 16th. The hotel was opened about the first of November, with some two hundred boarders.

The grading of the railroad had then been about finished, but the Botna bridge had not been built, and the track-laying force was still far away.

When Mr. Miller was building his home, the large body of location-seekers who were quickly coming into the vicinity, would gather round the scene of operations, and ply him with questions as to where the town was going to be located. So he informed Mr. Whitney of the facts, telling him that it was almost impossible to accomplish anything amid so much bother. The latter told him he would at once stake out the town, and ordered two furrows, one hundred feet apart, ploughed from Mr. Miller's house to the railroad grading. Lots were at once in great demand, and then the boom commenced which has resulted in giving to Iowa the present beautiful city of Atlantic.

B. F. Allen, the Des Moines banker and one of the town owners, and a member of the railroad company, wanted the new town called Atlantic, but Mr. Johnson, the civil engineer who made the plat of the town at Des Moines, placed on it the name "Avoca," and said he wanted it called so. The plat accordingly came down that way. A man named Eggleston, a painter by trade, had just come in from Grove City with a stock of goods, and painted a sign for himself and one for each of two other merchants, all of which bore the word "Avoca." His own was the first one he completed, and he hung it up over the sidewalk; it read, "The Avoca Store." But before the others were put up, Mr. Whitney had gone down to Des Moines, and on returning, announced that he had succeeded in having the name changed back to Atlantic. As a consequence, the two other signs were never put up, at least, as they were at first painted. It will undoubtedly be a surprise to most of Atlantic's people at the present day, to learn that but fourteen years ago, their town was for several days named Avoca. But it is a fact, nevertheless.

Eggieston's store was the first in Atlantic. He came from Grove City. He tore down his store there one Saturday in the first half of October, 1868, and removed it to the new town; on Sunday he put it together again, on what is now Chestnut street, the next lot south of where Whitney's elegant business block stands. It was fourteen by sixteen feet in size, built of pine lumber, and contained a fair stock of groceries and provisions. The building was burned in the fire which destroyed that row of buildings.

The next store after Eggleston's, was the drug store of McFadden and France; their store was located on the northwest corner of Fifth and Chestnut streets; the next store was that of Southwick, who kept dry goods and groceries, on the southwest corner of Fourth and Chestnut; the next store was a drug store, kept by Montgomery and Wyncoop, across the street east from McFadden's; a blacksmith shop was put in by Tharp, where the implement store now stands, across the street from Martin's hardware store, about the same time Eggleston's store was started.

The first boot and shoe store was put up by a man named P. Kirby, at the side of McFadden and France's store.

The first jewelry store was erected by the side of Kirby's store, and was kept by Jacob Schneider, from Mansfield, Ohio.

All these men had families except McFadden and France.

France did not remain long; his health was bad, and he went back to Des Moines, where he underwent medical treatment, and was compelled, on account of his sickness, to take a great deal of medicine. Mistaking some bed-bug poison for one of his medicines one night, he took a dose of it, and died from its effects.

John Bennett and Son, who came from Ohio, were the first to run the Atlantic House; they continued the business until December 21, 1869, when J. R. Reynolds purchased the building and business.

Parker had commenced and finished a boarding house while the Atlantic House was building, and commenced taking in travelers and regular boarders. This building is now Haven's store.

Transcribed by Cheryl Siebrass, March, 2022 from: "History of Cass County, Together with Sketches of Its Towns, Villages and Townships, Educational, Civil, Military and Political History: Portraits of Prominent Persons, and Biographies of Old Settlers and Representative Citizens", published in 1884, Springfield, Ill: Continental Historical Co., pp. 852-855.