Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Below: 3 old photos and papers from 1912 on and old-book passages.
Everly dates its founding to 1884 (Wikidata). Its post office opened in 1884.
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Everly’s history is told.
From Wikipedia’s history of Everly.
Everly was founded as Clark in 1884, but soon took its current name because there was already a Clarke, Iowa. Everly incorporated on April 7, 1902.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Passages that mention Everly, cut from the printed page as they were published.
When the town of Everly was surveyed and platted in 1884 there was no well defined purpose in the minds of its projectors other than to afford the few people in the western part of the county a way station. The selection was not due either to the physical conditions prevailing or to accommodate any great number, as there were but few people living in that section at that particular time. Evidently the only purpose was to induce immigration. If this was the motive that prompted the establishment of the town, the object has been most successfully obtained. Everly is located on the southw-est quarter of section 3,
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
When the town of Everly was surveyed and platted in 1884 there was no well-defined purpose in the minds of its projectors other than to afford the few people in the western part of the county a way station.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
J.D. Thompson, proprietor. Was built in 1887 and has been the leading hostelry in the town of Everly since it was opened. Its rooms are supplied with new furniture, excellent beds, and its table suited to the
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
Everly has a good cream market and also a splendid market for hogs, cattle and sheep. It has three elevators on the right of way of the Chicago, Alilwaukee and St. Paul railroad.
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.
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
Born hereFrancis H. Case is born here
In the archiveEverly, IAOne decade in the archive so far: the 1910s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as an old one and they appear here side by side.
Find the spot, match the angle, and add your photo. It becomes the first then-and-now pair on Everly’s page.
Retake this view · +15Writers, athletes, leaders and more, ranked by how widely they’re known.
Everly’s post office has been open since 1886. Another post office, Clark, opened and closed inside today’s town.
US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
In 1884, according to Wikidata. Everly’s post office opened in 1884.
What the archives can’t tell you, neighbors can.
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 (2), the Library of Congress (3), 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.
1912
1912
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