The story
Read it all →How Elliott came to be
From Wikipedia’s history of Elliott.
Elliott was founded in 1879. On March 14, 1882, Elliott was officially incorporated as a city.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
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History · Elliott
Elliott’s post office opened in 1879, and 53% of its homes were built before 1940
Below: old-book passages.
1879first post office
0on the National Register
53%homes built before 1940
Quick answers
How Elliott began
When was Elliott founded?
1879
The Elliott post office opened in 1879, the earliest record of the town by name. Another post office, Wilson (1870), opened inside today’s city and later closed.
2020 census: 338147 years
Founding year: the first Elliott post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓
What stands out about Elliott’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
★ What stands out · Help out
Start Elliott’s collection
The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Elliott’s history is told.
Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
0 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.From the old history books
What they wrote about Elliott in 1900
Passages that mention Elliott, cut from the printed page as they were published.
Directory, Montgomery County, Iowa, 1899-19001900Read the page →
Read the text
eT ae aoe of Elliott fies on the extreme northern line of the county, in Sherman It is fourteen miles north of Red Oak, on the Griswold branch of the C. B. “a oe town was located in 1879, and originally called Wilson’s postoffice.
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
Elliott, 1870 to 1879
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
By decade
Elliott, decade by decade
2021
2019
2004Places that used to be
Lost post offices and places now gone
Elliott’s post office has been open since 1879. Another post office, Wilson, opened and closed inside today’s town.
Wilson
Elliott
18701950today
Gone or out of use
Elliottlocale
US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
Questions about Elliott’s history
What year was Elliott founded?
The Elliott post office opened in 1879, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
Memory lane
What the archives can’t tell you, neighbors can.
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 (3), 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.