Named for the original proprietor Daniel Martin, the Keokuk County community of Martinsburg was platted in 1855. With a population of 112, the resident count has been in a continual decline since its peak at 332 in 1900. The pictured City Hall was erected in 1968 in the park where the first school had been located. In addition to city meetings, the hall serves as a polling place for town residents.
In 1900, a series of four brick buildings were constructed in the Keokuk County town of Kinross to form what was known locally as the “Brick Block.” Businesses operating in the block included a hardware store, druggist, general store, and local bank. In 1972, the Kinross Bank moved its grandiose two story location within the brick block to the modest building pictured which now serves as the City Hall.
Kinross has continued to lose businesses and population in the ensuing years; in 2010, the population was 73, down from a peak of 142 residents a hundred years prior.
The modest Post Office in the Keokuk County town of Webster operated from June 20, 1855 to April 22, 2011. Prior to its closure, the small office was open four hours each day to serve the community’s 88 residents. Webster’s population peaked at 178 in 1930.
Postal service was established in Keswick in Keokuk County, Iowa, on November 12, 1879. Mail volume at the local post office increased on July 1, 1902, when rural free delivery was established in Keswick and six other Iowa communities. Keswick’s one carrier route spanned 23 miles, serving 810 area residents. The establishment of the rural route resulted in discontinuation of the post office location in nearby Ambrose in adjacent Iowa County.
The Keswick Post Office moved to its current location in 1965, when a downtown building was restored by two residents and leased to the US Postal Service.