This small post office is open four hours daily to serve the 214 residents of the Wapello County town of Kirkville. Postal service was established in Kirkville, which was named after founder John Kirkpatrick, in September 1849. The community was officially incorporated in December 1883.
In 1891, Wapello County voters approved $100,000 in bonds to construct a new courthouse in Ottumwa, the fourth since the county was established. The cornerstone of the rough-cut standstone building was laid in September 1892 and the new building was dedicated on May 1894. The courthouse originally featured a large clock tower, but it was removed in 1950 due to structural safety concerns. The Wapello County Courthouse was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1981. Check out the City of Ottumwa website for more details on the courthouse history and architectural characteristics.
The historic Ottumwa Public Library sits on the west side of the community’s Central Park. Constructed at a cost of $50,000, the Bedford limestone building opened to the public on September 24, 1902. Ottumwa was the third community in Iowa to receive a library grant from Andrew Carnegie; the two prior grants were awarded to Fairfield and Davenport in 1892 and 1899 respectively.
The 110-year-old building continues to serve the community of Ottumwa, and the library recently underwent a quarter-million dollar in renovations, including new flooring, furniture, and computer space on the main floor. Two unique attractions can be found inside the historic library: an original Grant Wood painting (Tame Flowers) and 13 Babylonian small clay tablets, which are roughly 4,000 years old and donated to the library in 1927. The Ottumwa Public Library is open Monday through Saturday.
This historic one-room school house sits two miles northeast of Ottumwa in the center of the the unincorporated community of Dahlonega. Built in 1921, the 1,100-square-feet building served area students through the 1958-59 school year. Although it’s been vacant since that time, it served as the township polling place through 1986, and time and money has recently been invested to revitalize the building with a new roof, new paint, and improved interior.
Dahlonega was once a thriving hamlet and in 1843, was one vote short of becoming the Wapello County seat. Legend says the one vote loss was due to Lewis Clapp, an early settler who owned an apple orchard on the west edge of Dahlonega who was concerned a county seat designation would cause the community to grow so much that mischievous boys would steal his fruit.
Despite the election results, Dahlonega experienced growth in the following years and decades. A post office was established within the general store in June 1844, while the first church and school were built in 1846. By 1850, the town population had risen to 150; that number doubled by 1856. By that time, Dahlonega was home to three general stores, a tavern, a blacksmith shop, two meat-packing houses, a public hall, a pottery shop and hotel.
By 1900, the town’s population had diminished and stores and businesses shuttered. The Dahlonega Post Office was officially discontinued November 30, 1907.
A public library was first established in the small Wapello County, Iowa, community of Eldon in 1906, when a private group raised sufficient funds to rent a second-story room above a downtown local business. Within two years, a formal library association had been incorporated under state laws and recurring financial support of the library was transferred to the city. By 1911, efforts began to secure a Carnegie library grant for construction of a permanent library building.
A $7,500 grant was awarded and construction began in 1912. The new library opened and was dedicated in May 1913, and the building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1966. The Eldon Public Library is open six days weekly.