The history of the United Methodist Church in the Jasper County town of Reasnor dates to the founding of the town. Early Reasnor records suggest in 1877 that 24 Methodist men and women were responsible for the initial platting of the town. Services were held at the local railroad depot until the first church was constructed in 1879. The present Reasnor United Methodist Church building was constructed in 1898, though it was originally occupied by the Union Evangelical Church. The church shares a pastor with the church in the nearby unincorporated town of Killduff.
The Cherokee Public Library was organized by a group of twelve local women in 1886 and officially operated out of a permanent space in 1898. By January 1903, Cherokee had received confirmation of a $10,000 grant awarded by the Andrew Carnegie Foundation. The grant was increased by $2,000 the following year, and the new building was formally dedicated and opened in April 1905. A significant expansion project added two floors to the rear of the building in October 1998. The library is open six days a week to serve residents in Cherokee and the surrounding area.
In 2009, the city council in the Keokuk County town of Hayesville voted unanimously to demolish West Lancaster School #9, which had been a fixture in the community for over a century. In addition to serving students, in its heyday, the two-room country school served as a mayor’s court and a gathering place for lawn movies shown on the school’s back wall.
In the 1960s, the school closed and has been used only sparingly as a polling space since. Before its demolition, it suffered from a crumbling foundation, interior led paint and a ruined roof. The cost to preserve and remove the school would have exceeded $100,000.
The Monona County town of Castana was established by the Western Town Lot Company in July 1886. The reason for the town’s name is unknown, but two of the theories noted in A Dictionary of Iowa Place-Names by Tom Savage are below:
One story about the town’s name was that a Mr. Day thought that the oak trees growing in the area resembled chestnuts, so he called the site Castana. He thought the name was the Latin term for chestnuts… Another story is that the name came from a place in Asia Minor.
The town was incorporated on March 3, 1891. Construction began on the pictured town hall building in 1936; work completed and the building opened the following year.
Postal service was established in the Winnebago County community of Leland on November 18, 1881, though for the first four, the town was known as Lelandsburgh. The name was chosen in honor of the community’s first Postmaster, J. D. Leland, whose home served as the initial Post Office location. The Post Office was moved six times before settling in its present location in 1965.
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