Exira, Iowa at 150 - From the WPA Guide to Iowa
My hometown, Exira, Iowa, is celebrating 150 years of existence this year, and in honor of the occasion, we hope to have a few articles about Exira here on Festung Europa. To start things off, here is the description of Exira from one of my favorite books about Iowa, the WPA Guide to Iowa from 1938, reprinted by the Iowa State University Press of Ames, Iowa, in 1986. The WPA Guide offers an interesting look at the state through driving tours, just when automobile ownership was spreading to the farming and middle classes of the state. Exira is on the 36th mile of Tour 7, Section B., from Carroll to the Missouri Line on the then new US Highway 71 (p. 415).
Here is the description of Exira, straight out of the guide:
EXIRA, 36 m. (1,227 alt., 937 pop.), founded by Judge D.M. Harris, dates back to 1857, and is the oldest town in the county. The town was named for Exira Eckman of Ohio, who, with her father, Judge John Eckman, was visiting relatives when the town was platted. One of the promoters had intended to call it Viola, for his own daughter, but when Judge Eckman offered to buy a town lot if the place were named for his daughter, the change was made at once.
Exira, on high ground, has an unusual number of trees. Most of the business structures are of brick. An old building, now used as a bakery, was the first county courthouse, before Audubon became the county seat in 1879. A block north of this building is a residence that was the first schoolhouse in the county.
An APIARY, near the City Park, houses 700 colonies of bees that produce 50,000 pounds of honey annually.
Among the five churches in Exira is a small DANISH LUTHERAN CHURCH. Many of the services are conducted in Danish.
At 37 m., R. about 50 feet, is the PLOW TREE. The plow was left standing against a low fork of the tree, which is on the Leffingwell farm, in the early 1870's. The tree grew around it and today only a part of the implement is visible.
Here is the description of Exira, straight out of the guide:
EXIRA, 36 m. (1,227 alt., 937 pop.), founded by Judge D.M. Harris, dates back to 1857, and is the oldest town in the county. The town was named for Exira Eckman of Ohio, who, with her father, Judge John Eckman, was visiting relatives when the town was platted. One of the promoters had intended to call it Viola, for his own daughter, but when Judge Eckman offered to buy a town lot if the place were named for his daughter, the change was made at once.
Exira, on high ground, has an unusual number of trees. Most of the business structures are of brick. An old building, now used as a bakery, was the first county courthouse, before Audubon became the county seat in 1879. A block north of this building is a residence that was the first schoolhouse in the county.
An APIARY, near the City Park, houses 700 colonies of bees that produce 50,000 pounds of honey annually.
Among the five churches in Exira is a small DANISH LUTHERAN CHURCH. Many of the services are conducted in Danish.
At 37 m., R. about 50 feet, is the PLOW TREE. The plow was left standing against a low fork of the tree, which is on the Leffingwell farm, in the early 1870's. The tree grew around it and today only a part of the implement is visible.
Comments
And for the middle name of "Iowa", we'll throw in a Festung Europa T-shirt as well.
DMSR