Guest, Sign inJoin

Post to Fertile

We’ll email a one-tap link to publish your post. No password, and nothing is public until you click it.
Already a member? Sign in
–Not graded
History · Fertile

Fertile’s post office opened in 1869, and 47% of its homes were built before 1940

Its Register listing is the Rhodes Mill. Below: maps from 1972 on and the census since 1910.

1869first post office
1on the National Register
47%homes built before 1940
1famous people
Add an old photoShare a memory
Quick answers

How Fertile began

When was Fertile founded?

1869

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

First census: 207 in 19102020 census: 305157 years
Founding year: the first Fertile post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓

What stands out about Fertile’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 Fertile are in the public archives yet. The rest are in attics and albums.Old housesHalf of Fertile’s homes were built before 1943.
★ What stands out · Help out

Start Fertile’s collection

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

Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
0 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.
Share a family photoSign in to add one+10
The story

How Fertile came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Fertile.

Read it all →

The community was first called Rhodes Mill after William Rhodes, who settled there in 1856 and built a house.

A land speculator created a fictional town nearby and named it Fontanelle, though the locals called it Putsey. Fertile was established in 1877, and named for the quality of the soil in the valley it was located in. Fertile was incorporated in 1908.

Rhodes Mill is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Timeline

Fertile, 1869 to 1972

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

  1. 19th century
  2. 1869Post officeThe Fertile post office opens
  3. 1898Born hereLeo Elthon is born here
  4. 20th century
  5. 1972On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
By decade

Fertile, decade by decade

Today3 recent
FertileIowaPopPlot2021FertileIowaPopPlotFertile iowa2010Fertile iowaIAMap-doton-Fertile2004IAMap-doton-Fertile
On the map

Fertile on the map, 1972 to 1985

Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Fertile. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.

Fertile on the 1972 USGS mapFertile on the 1985 USGS map1972Fertile sheet · 1:24,000

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

On the National Register

1 historic place in Fertile

The country’s official list of buildings and places worth saving.

place listed
1
National Historic Landmarks
0
none yet
historic buildings protected
1
each building in a district counts
first listed
1978
Rhodes Mill
Rhodes Mill
Buildings
Rhodes MillBuilding

National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places. Photos from Wikimedia Commons, credited on each place’s page.

People over time

Fertile, census by census

0100200300400192019401960198020002020Peak: 397

Between 207 and 397 people in every census since 1910.

12 censuses, 1910–2020.

U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Fertile’s Wikipedia page.

Questions about Fertile’s history

What year was Fertile founded?

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

What is on the National Register in Fertile?

One place: the Rhodes Mill (listed 1978).

Memory lane

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

Town Square →
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), the National Register of Historic Places (1), Wikipedia, Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, U.S. Census counts (via Wikipedia), 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.