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History · Coalville

Coalville’s post office opened in 1874

Most of Coalville was built recently: 2% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1968. Below: maps from 1923 on.

1874first post office
0on the National Register
2%homes built before 1940
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Quick answers

How Coalville began

When was Coalville founded?

1874

The Coalville post office opened in 1874, the earliest record of the town by name.

2020 census: 651152 years
Founding year: the first Coalville post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓

What stands out about Coalville’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 Coalville are in the public archives yet. The rest are in attics and albums.
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Start Coalville’s collection

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

Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
0 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.
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The story

How Coalville came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Coalville.

Read it all →

Coalville takes its name from the coal mines of the area. It began as one of the northernmost coal mining towns in Iowa. Early settlers were mining coal from outcrops along the Des Moines River by 1860, and in 1870, a mine was opened on Holiday Creek, approximately one mile east of Coalville, with a three-mile tramway to the Dubuque and Sioux City Railroad (later the Illinois Central). Later in 1870, a shaft was sunk at Coalville. The Fort Dodge Coal company took over these mines and opened several more in the Coalville area. By 1880, manual labor was being augmented with machinery in these mines. In 1883, the Fort Dodge Coal company employed 350 miners to produce 30 carloads of coal daily.

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Timeline

Coalville, 1874 to 1923

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

  1. 19th century
  2. 1874Post officeThe Coalville post office opens
  3. 20th century
  4. 1905Post officeThe Coalville post office closes
  5. 1923On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
By decade

No old photos in the archives yet

Weddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.

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On the map

Coalville on the map in 1923

The U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Coalville.

Coalville on the 1923 USGS map1923Lehigh sheet · 1:62,500

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

Places that used to be

Lost post offices and places now gone

Coalville had its own post office from 1874 to 1905.

Coalville
1874–1905
18701950today
Gone or out of use
CoalvillelocaleCoalville Post Officepost office

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

Questions about Coalville’s history

What year was Coalville founded?

The Coalville post office opened in 1874, 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 →
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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 Wikipedia, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock) and the USGS Geographic Names Information System. Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.