The unincorporated town of Troy has the distinction of being the site of the first Methodist church in Davis County in southeast Iowa. It was organized in 1846, with the first building constructed in 1852. On September 8, 1923, the first load of sand was hauled to Troy for use in construction of a new church. An all-day farewell service was held and the first church building was torn down the following week. The $9,000 building was dedicated on June 15, 1924. The church shares a pastor with the Methodist church in the nearby town of Cantril.
On March 18, 1919, the following notice appeared in the Bloomfield newspapers:
A committee of discharged soldiers and sailors who served the war against Germany asks that all Davis County men who have served in the army, navy or marine corps since April 6, 1917 meet at the K.P. Hall in Bloomfield on Thursday night of this week to form an organization… to promote patriotic enterprise, [form] a closer social relation among [service men], and assist [them] in securing employment in civil life.
The first national meeting of the American Legion was held in St. Louis in May 1919, with a Bloomfield post formally established with 122 charter members on June 24. Construction on a permanent home for the Legion began on December 21, 1924. The new facility was officially dedicated October 4, 1925.
This cemetery sign may be the only marker in the once-thriving Davis County hamlet of Paris. Founded in 1870, the town was named for settler Jackson Paris who offered land to the Chicago and Southwestern Railroad for both tracks and a depot. When population was sufficient to merit a Post Office, the name Paris was already in use for a town in Linn County. The alternate name Bunch was chosen, in honor of a prominent Doctor in nearby Drakesville.
The railroad refused to change its timetables, tickets, and signs to match the Post Office, so from the beginning, the town has been known by two names. Few buildings or signs remain in the rural Davis County town; postal service was discontinued in 1954 and the railroad ceased operations in 1965.
Located on Highway 63 in the Davis County seat of Bloomfield is one of approximately 75,000 Sears-Roebuck mail-order homes. It dates to 1910 and has been restored and repurposed for use as an official Iowa Welcome Center. The staffed center is open seven days a week and features a large selection of useful information for travelers, including maps and travel brochures from Iowa communities, counties, and regions throughout the state. An adjacent picnic area is available for travelers, and the center contains a gift shop which sells handmade Amish crafts.
When a fire ravaged the Davis County community of Paris (Bunch) in April 1912, the Hull brothers immediately began reconstructing their general store building. Shortly after construction of the concrete block building was finished, the Quigley family purchased and renamed the general store, which also housed the local post office. In 1972, the store changed hands one final time when it was sold to resident George Hopkins. Operations ceased later that decade, though the business survived more than 10 years after the railroad left the town and 20 years after the post office was discontinued.
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