Founding year: Wikidata. First post office: 1856.The full story ↓
History grade
What drives Ackley’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Ackley is more historic than 68% of U.S. towns. Its share of homes from before 1940 holds the grade up; its age pulls it down.
B+
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Ackley’s overall grade.
Iowa towns list more on the Register than most of the country (a typical Iowa town has 9.1 per 10,000 residents, the U.S. 2.4), so Ackley’s 6.7 sits near the middle of its state (50% of Iowa towns have fewer) while its 1 listings outnumber those of 51% of U.S. towns.
How sure. Graded on any two of the three inputs instead, the letter would range from C to A−. The pre-1940 share is a Census survey estimate (±5.6 points). Two sources give 1852.
Founding year: Wikidata (other dates in Quick answers). Homes: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register: National Park Service, May 2026 list; each listing counted once (boundary changes and added documentation belong to their listing), and a historic district counts its contributing buildings. How TownRatings grades history →
What stands out about Ackley’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
In 1852, immigrants began purchasing farms and settling in the north Hardin County area. In the fall of 1852, Lemuel Harvy "Seth" Arledge, a frontiersman who acted as both a physician and preacher originally from Kentucky staked a claim just north of the Hardin County line and built a cabin close to where Highway 57 now passes. Another settler, Thomas Downs, became the first permanent resident of Ackley when he bought Dr. Arledge's claim. Later his widow sold a strip of land from Butler Street to the four county corner for $3.00 an acre to Minor Gallop. Gallop built a house, just east of Highway 57 which became an inn, a stopover for stagecoaches, and the first post office.
Passages that mention Ackley, cut from the printed page as they were published.
History of Hardin county, Iowa, together with sketches of its towns, villages and townships, educational, civil, military and political history ... and biographies of representative citizens1883 · page 685Read the page →
Read the text
road was pushing westward, Mr. Francis concluded to go farther west, and locate in some new town, and there pursue his business. This idea brought him to Ackley. Here, he built the building now occupied by the postoffice, and in it kept the first regular store in the town of Ackley. Mr.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
History of Hardin county, Iowa, together with sketches of its towns, villages and townships, educational, civil, military and political history ... and biographies of representative citizens1883 · page 683Read the page →
Read the text
M. Burns, for a long time previous to his coming to Ackley, had been engaged in the lumber trade at Cedar Falls, but being satisfied that the former place would, in the course of time, take the lead of the latter, he disposed of his business at the Falls and established a lumber yard at Ackley, hauling by team, under con-
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
Scans and text from the Internet Archive. Books published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
Timeline
Ackley, 1852 to 1913
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
Nothing in the archives for these yearsWeddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
Lost post offices, places now gone and burying grounds
Ackley’s post office has been open since 1865. Another post office, Fontaine, opened and closed inside today’s town.
Fontaine
1856–1865
Ackley
1865–today
18501940today
Gone or out of use
Clutterville Schoolschool
1cemetery inside Ackley
Oak Wood
US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
Questions about Ackley’s history
What year was Ackley founded?
In 1852, according to Wikidata. Ackley’s post office opened in 1856.
How does Ackley rank for history?
Ackley is more historic than 68% of U.S. towns. The History grade combines the town’s founding era, the share of homes built before 1940 and its National Register listings. It’s a character grade, so it isn’t part of the overall grade. How it works.
What is on the National Register in Ackley?
One place: the Illinois Central Combination Depot-Ackley (listed 1990).
How old are the homes in Ackley?
40% of Ackley’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±5.6 points), against a typical 22% for an Iowa town; the median home was built in 1952.
Founding dates: Wikidata, Wikipedia, the U.S. post office records of Blevins & Helbock (CC0) and the Census. Homes by year built: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register of Historic Places: National Park Service (list of May 22, 2026). Old photos, postcards and papers: Wikimedia Commons, the Library of Congress and other public archives, credited on each item’s page. Maps: U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (via Esri) and Sanborn fire-insurance maps (Library of Congress). History text and census tables: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Places that used to be: USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
From Wikimedia Commons (4), the Library of Congress (2), the National Register of Historic Places (1), Wikipedia, Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people, the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock), the USGS Geographic Names Information System and old county and town histories (Internet Archive). Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.
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