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History · Lacona

Lacona’s post office opened in 1855, and 49% of its homes were built before 1940

Below: old-book passages.

1855first post office
0on the National Register
49%homes built before 1940
2famous people
Add an old photoShare a memory
Photo: PopePompus · CC BY-SA 4.0
Quick answers

How Lacona began

When was Lacona founded?

1855

The Lacona post office opened in 1855, the earliest record of the town by name.

2020 census: 345171 years
Founding year: the first Lacona post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).

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

Start Lacona’s collection

The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Lacona’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 so far

Lacona, in brief

Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Lacona yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.

Lacona is a city in Warren County, Iowa, United States. The population was 345 at the time of the 2020 census. It is part of the Des Moines metropolitan area.

Its first post office opened in 1855. Between the 2010 and 2020 censuses its population fell from 361 to 345 (-4%).

Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.

From the old history books

What they wrote about Lacona, 1879–1908

Passages that mention Lacona, cut from the printed page as they were published.

Lacona, the only railroad station in the township, was laid out by Willis Clevenger and Samuel Myers in 1856. At the last state census in 1905, it had a population of five hundred and fifty.
The history of Warren County, Iowa1879Read the page →
Read the text

Lacona, the only railroad station in the township, was laid out by Willis Clevenger and Samuel Myers in 1856. At the last state census in 1905, it had a population of five hundred and fifty.

Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
The settlers were never too busy to go from three to ten miles to help raise a cabin. A general good feeling? existed. There was seldom a lawsuit those days, but if there was one every man went. On one occasion, a certain man swore out a warrant for the arrest of one Isaac Myers, now an honored cit…
History of Warren County, Iowa1908 · page 358Read the page →
Read the text

The settlers were never too busy to go from three to ten miles to help raise a cabin. A general good feeling? existed. There was seldom a lawsuit those days, but if there was one every man went. On one occasion, a certain man swore out a warrant for the arrest of one Isaac Myers, now an honored citizen of Lacona, for assault and battery. Tt became the duty of father, he being constable, to arrest Isaac, so he repaired to where he was at work in a field, and as they journeyed toward Squire John Willis, two miles east of Lacona. they met 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.

Timeline

Lacona, 1855 to 1956

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

  1. 19th century
  2. 1855Post officeThe Lacona post office opens
  3. 20th century
  4. 1932Born herePaul Shupe is born here
  5. 1956Born hereDave Baker is born here
By decade

Lacona, decade by decade

Today3 recent
LaconaIowaWillisCabin2025LaconaIowaWillisCabinLaconaIowaWelcomeSign2025LaconaIowaWelcomeSignLaconaIowaCityPark2025LaconaIowaCityPark
Famous people

2 famous people were born in Lacona

Writers, athletes, leaders and more, ranked by how widely they’re known.

See all →
D
Dave BakerAmerican baseball player · b. 1956
P
Paul ShupeAmerican football coach, athletics administrator · b. 1932
Places that used to be

Places now gone

Lacona’s post office has been open since 1855.

Gone or out of use
Laconalocale

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

Questions about Lacona’s history

What year was Lacona founded?

The Lacona post office opened in 1855, 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 →
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), 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.