The story
Read it all →How Emerson came to be
From Wikipedia’s history of Emerson.
Emerson was a shipping point on the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
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History · Emerson
Emerson’s post office opened in 1870, and 56% of its homes were built before 1940
Below: old-book passages.
1870first post office
0on the National Register
56%homes built before 1940
Quick answers
How Emerson began
When was Emerson founded?
1870
The Emerson post office opened in 1870, the earliest record of the town by name.
2020 census: 403156 years
Founding year: the first Emerson post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓
What stands out about Emerson’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
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Start Emerson’s collection
The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Emerson’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 Emerson in 1881
Passages that mention Emerson, cut from the printed page as they were published.
History of Mills County, Iowa, containing a history of the county, its cities, towns, etc., a biographical directory of many of its leading citizens, war record of its volunteers in the late rebelllion, general and local statistics ... history of Iowa and1881 · page 531Read the page →
Read the text
This paper was started in the fall of 1869, by H. A. Copeland, at Malvern, who was its editor and publisher until July 14, 1876, when it was taken to Emerson and the name changed to The Emerson Chronicle. It was conducted by Fred Boehner, then a mere boy of fourteen years of age, from the time of its removal to Emerson until May 16, 1879, when Woods & Hall became the publishers and proprietors. On the first of March, 1880, it then passed into the hands of A. G. Parrish, the present publisher. The Chronicle is republican in politics, and devoted to the
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.
By decade
Emerson, decade by decade
2022
2021
2017
2004Famous people
See all →Famous people close to Emerson
Nobody well known was born in Emerson itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.
Questions about Emerson’s history
What year was Emerson founded?
The Emerson post office opened in 1870, 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, 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.