Lehigh's first settlers, a Mr. Reed and Mr. Wright, set up a steam sawmill on the site in 1855. Originally, the town was named Slabtown because slabs, scrap from the mill, were used in construction. By 1870, there was a Methodist church and a school, and Oliver Tyson had purchased the mill and expanded it, adding a flour mill. Soon after this, Tyson opened a store. The town was later renamed Lehigh, comparing the local coal veins to those of Pennsylvania's Lehigh Valley.
Passages that mention Lehigh, cut from the printed page as they were published.
History of Fort Dodge and Webster County, Iowa1913 · page 207Read the page →
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John C. Retallick. and to Mr. and Mrs. Barrowman one child has been born, Hypatia Barrowman. Mr. Barrowman has served as mayor of Lehigh for several terms but for the past twenty-live years he has been at heart a socialist and not interested in present political issues as advocated Ijy the old political parties. He was one of the early pioneers of Lehigh, having settled in that town at a time when the entire mercantile business was conducted from three small stores, one of which was located on the east side and
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History of Fort Dodge and Webster County, Iowa1913 · page 15Read the page →
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M. X. Corey attended the puhlic schools of Lehigh and later was a student at Drake Lnixersity in Des Moines. Ever since the starting of the mill at Lehigh he has been associated with the work of the same and in May, 1908, purchased the plant and has since operated it. He has made many improvements on the same and now lias a private electrical plant, which supplies both his mill and residence.
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Scans and text from the Internet Archive. Books published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
Timeline
Lehigh, 1855 to 1923
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
Nothing in the archives for these yearsWeddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
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, 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), the USGS Geographic Names Information System, Sanborn fire insurance maps (Library of Congress) 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.
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