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"Past 2 Present"

Story County, Iowa

Books

1. Ross, Earl D. A History of Iowa State College. / The Iowa State College Press, 1942, 451 pgs. # (indexed)

2. The Bomb: 1921 (Iowa State College). / Iowa State College, 1921 #

• Most counties are included in the Iowa statewide books

• Click here for a brief history of Story County

Periodicals

• July 1971
  • Bible - TILDEN
  • Bible - WILLOUGHBY
  • Cemeteries
  • Death Records, Early
  • Heads of Families, Census of 1854
  • Marriages, Early Book I
  • Marriages, Early Book II
  • Probate Records (Intestate)
  • Story County History
  • TILDEN Family History, Notes
  • Will Records Book I
  • WILLOUGHBY Family History, Notes
• October 1971
  • Death Records, 1880-1897
  • Marriage Records
  • Record of Wills, Book II
• The Early Settlers from Norway in Story County, Iowa (April 1972)
• Marriage Records, 1876-1878 (October 1972)
• Marriage Records, 1879-1882 (October 1973)
• 1856 Census Index (Fall 1978)
• 1860 Census Index (Summer 1980)
• Evergreen Cemetery, Collins (Summer 1986)

Palimpsest:

• The Bloomington Herald (October 1940) (Text Only)
• An Invention of the Electronic Digital Computer at Iowa State College, 1930-1942 (September/October 1984)
• Lowell Houser and the Genesis of a Mural (January/February 1985)
• The Ames Corn Mural (January/February 1985)
• A Collaboration in Clay: Iowa State's Prairie Pottery (Fall 1987)

Annals of Iowa History:

• My Years in Story County (April 1951) TEXT Only
• Story County Colony of 1855 (July 1955) TEXT Only

STORY COUNTY was created in January, 1846, and named for Chief Justice Joseph Story of the United States Supreme Court. It lies near the geographical center of the State, being in the fifth tier both from the north and south and in the sixth from both the east and west boundaries. It contains an area of five hundred seventy-six square miles. The Skunk River and several tributaries flow through it in a southeasterly direction, the shores of which are bordered with native woods.
     On the 4th of April, 1848, William Parker settled in a grove near the southeast corner o the county and was the first white man to make a home within its limits. In 1850 James C. Smith of Indiana, with a family of five sons, opened a farm. In the spring of 1851 D. W. and Mormon Ballard, William Brezley and Isaac Atkinson settled in a body of timber which was given the name of Ballard's Grove. The same year J. K. Keighley and S. M. Cary made claims on the Skunk River and G. N. Kirkman settled on Indian Creek.
     In 1853 commissioners selected for that purpose located the county-seat and gave it the name of Nevada. In June the land thus chosen was deeded to the county by J. W. Mortis and a town laid out in which he was the owner of every alternate lot. The first election was held in April, 1853, at which the following officers were chosen: E. C. Evans, judge; Franklin Thompson, clerk; John Zenor, recorder and treasurer; Eli Deal, sheriff, and John Keagley, school fund commissioner. The first term of court was held in a little log cabin at the new county-seat in August, 1854, at which Judge J. C. McFarland presided. The first house in Nevada was built in October, 1853, by T. E. Alderman who was the first store-keeper and postmaster. The first court-house built in 1856 was burned on the night of December 31, 1863. The State Agricultural College was located in Story County in 1859 on a farm of six hundred forty-eight acres lying on Squaw Creek. Story County secured the college by a donation to the institution of $10,000 and several tracts of land from citizens. In 1857 the Nevada Republican, a weekly newspaper, was established by R. H. Shrall. The Northwestern Railroad was extended to Nevada in the summer of 1864 and the town of Ames laid out on its line near the Agricultural College in February, 1865. This town was named for Oakes Ames one of the largest stockholders in the construction company.

Source: History of Iowa: From the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the Twentieth Century by Benjamin F. Gue. New York: The Century History Co. 1903 #