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History · Casey

Casey’s post office opened in 1869, and 62% of its homes were built before 1940

Below: 1 old photo or paper from 1875 on and old-book passages.

1869first post office
0on the National Register
62%homes built before 1940
1old photo or paper
1famous people
Add an old photoShare a memory
Photo: Jared Winkler · CC BY-SA 4.0
Quick answers

How Casey began

When was Casey founded?

1869

The Casey post office opened in 1869, the earliest record of the town by name.

2020 census: 387157 years
Founding year: the first Casey post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓

What stands out about Casey’s past

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

A history waiting to be writtenOnly 1 old photo is in the public archives. The rest are in attics and albums.Old housesHalf of Casey’s homes were built before 1938.
★ What stands out · Help out

Start Casey’s collection

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

Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
0 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.
Retake an old viewDallas Center, Casey, DeSoto, Dexter, O…: stand where they stood+15Share a family photoSign in to add one+10
The story

How Casey came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Casey.

Read it all →

Casey was platted in 1869. The community has the name of a railroad man. The firm John and James Casey, Contractors, from Erie, Pennsylvania, under John F. Tracy, President of the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific, built the railroad across Iowa, and through Casey, from 1866 to 1869. Most of the streets in the town are named for Union Army generals in the American Civil War.

On June 29, 1880, Casey was officially incorporated as a city.

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

From the old history books

What they wrote about Casey in 1876

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

Casey, situated on the C, R. I. & P. Railroad, twelve miles west of Stuart, and six miles east of the west line of the county, is a thriving town of 525 inhabitants, noted as are all our western towns and villages, for the enterprise and industry of her citizens. Its surroundings are among the most…
Centennial history of Guthrie county, Iowa1876 · page 103Read the page →
Read the text

Casey, situated on the C, R. I. & P. Railroad, twelve miles west of Stuart, and six miles east of the west line of the county, is a thriving town of 525 inhabitants, noted as are all our western towns and villages, for the enterprise and industry of her citizens. Its surroundings are among the most beautiful and picturesque in the county, the hills and groves on the south and west, relieving in pleasant contrast, the prairies of the north and east. It has been

Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
They are also proprietors of the hack line between Casey and Guthrie Center, and from Casey to Fontanelle. These gentlemen, too, are old settlers, having come to the county in 1857.
Centennial history of Guthrie county, Iowa1876 · page 106Read the page →
Read the text

They are also proprietors of the hack line between Casey and Guthrie Center, and from Casey to Fontanelle. These gentlemen, too, are old settlers, having come to the county in 1857.

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

Casey, 1869 to 1905

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

  1. 19th century
  2. 1869Post officeThe Casey post office opens
  3. 1875In the archiveDallas Center, Casey, DeSoto, Dexter, Ogden, Perry, Shell Rock and Adel, Iowa. (0018.158)
  4. 20th century
  5. 1905Born hereThomas William Duncan is born here
By decade

Casey, decade by decade

One decade in the archive so far: the 1870s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.

1870s1 item
Dallas Center, Casey, DeSoto, Dexter, Ogden, Perry, Shell Rock and Adel, Iowa. (0018.158)1875Dallas Center, Casey, DeSoto, Dexter, Ogden, Perry, S…
Today3 recent
CaseyIowaPopPlot2021CaseyIowaPopPlotCasey, IA2020Casey, IAIAMap-doton-Casey2004IAMap-doton-Casey
Then & now

Stand where they stood

No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as an old one and they appear here side by side.

Dallas Center, Casey, DeSoto, Dexter, Ogden, Perry, Shell Rock and Adel, Iowa. (0018.158)
Retake this viewDallas Center, Casey, DeSoto, Dexter, Ogden, Perry, Shell Rock and Adel, Iowa. (0018.158), 1875

Find the spot, match the angle, and add your photo. It becomes the first then-and-now pair on Casey’s page.

Retake this view · +15

Questions about Casey’s history

What year was Casey founded?

The Casey post office opened in 1869, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).

Memory lane

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

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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 (4), 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.