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History · Baxter

Baxter’s post office opened in 1872, and 30% of its homes were built before 1940

Below: maps from 1975 on and the census since 1900.

1872first post office
0on the National Register
30%homes built before 1940
1famous people
Add an old photoShare a memory
Photo: PopePompus · CC BY-SA 4.0
Quick answers

How Baxter began

When was Baxter founded?

1872

The Baxter post office opened in 1872, the earliest record of the town by name. Another post office, Independence Centre (1871), opened inside today’s city and later closed.

First census: 427 in 19002020 census: 962154 years
Founding year: the first Baxter post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).

What stands out about Baxter’s past

Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.

A history waiting to be writtenNo old photos of Baxter are in the public archives yet. The rest are in attics and albums.
★ What stands out · Help out

Start Baxter’s collection

The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Baxter’s history is told.

Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
0 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.
Share a family photoSign in to add one+10
The story so far

Baxter, in brief

Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Baxter yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.

Baxter is a city in Jasper County, Iowa, United States. Baxter is located 33 miles (53 km) northeast of Des Moines. The population was 962 at the 2020 census.

Its first post office opened in 1872. Between the 2010 and 2020 censuses its population fell from 1,101 to 962 (-13%).

Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.

From the old history books

What they wrote about Baxter in 1920

Passages that mention Baxter, cut from the printed page as they were published.

Hill has spent several years as township trusee anil on the school board. He is president of the Farmers Lumber Company at Baxter, and a director of the Baxter Telephone Company. (No picture obtainable.)
Honor roll, 1917-1918-1919, Jasper County, Iowa in the World War1920Read the page →
Read the text

Hill has spent several years as township trusee anil on the school board. He is president of the Farmers Lumber Company at Baxter, and a director of the Baxter Telephone Company. (No picture obtainable.)

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

Baxter, 1871 to 1975

Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.

  1. 19th century
  2. 1871Post officeThe Independence Centre post office opens
  3. 1872Post officeThe Independence Centre post office closes
  4. 1872Post officeThe Baxter post office opens
  5. 20th century
  6. 1908Born hereClaire Dodd is born here
  7. 1975On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
By decade

Baxter, decade by decade

Today6 recent
BaxterIAWelcomeSign2025BaxterIAWelcomeSignBaxterIACommunitySchool2025BaxterIACommunitySchoolBaxterIowaPopPlot2021BaxterIowaPopPlotInterstate 80 - Iowa2014Interstate 80 - IowaInterstate 80 - Iowa2014Interstate 80 - IowaIAMap-doton-Baxter2004IAMap-doton-Baxter
On the map

Baxter on the map, 1975 to 1984

Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Baxter. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.

Baxter on the 1975 USGS mapBaxter on the 1984 USGS map1975Baxter sheet · 1:24,000

U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Baxter.

People over time

Baxter, census by census

02004006008001,0001,2001900192019401960198020002020Peak: 1,101

Between 427 and 1,101 people in every census since 1900.

13 censuses, 1900–2020.

U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Baxter’s Wikipedia page.

Places that used to be

Lost post offices and places now gone

Baxter’s post office has been open since 1872. Another post office, Independence Centre, opened and closed inside today’s town.

Independence Centre
1871–1872
Baxter
1872–today
18701950today
Gone or out of use
Baxterlocale

US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).

Questions about Baxter’s history

What year was Baxter founded?

The Baxter post office opened in 1872, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).

Memory lane

What the archives can’t tell you, neighbors can.

Town Square →
Start a conversation
Sources

Where this page comes from

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). How TownRatings grades history →

From Wikimedia Commons (6), Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, U.S. Census counts (via Wikipedia), 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.