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History · Letts

Letts’ post office opened in 1867, and 51% of its homes were built before 1940

Below: old-book passages.

1867first post office
0on the National Register
51%homes built before 1940
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Photo: PopePompus · CC BY-SA 4.0
Quick answers

How Letts began

When was Letts founded?

1867

The Letts post office opened in 1867, the earliest record of the town by name. Another post office, Ononwa (1857), opened inside today’s city and later closed.

2020 census: 363159 years
Founding year: the first Letts post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).

What stands out about Letts’ 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 Letts are in the public archives yet. The rest are in attics and albums.Old housesHalf of Letts’ homes were built before 1938.
★ What stands out · Help out

Start Letts’s collection

The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Letts’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

Letts, in brief

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

Letts is a city in northern Louisa County, Iowa, United States, established in 1855. The population was 363 at the time of the 2020 census. It is part of the Muscatine Micropolitan Statistical Area. The name is taken from that of local benefactor, Nehemiah Madison Letts (b. 1818 Licking, Ohio – d. 1894 Grandview, Iowa).

Its first post office opened in 1867. Between the 2010 and 2020 censuses its population fell from 384 to 363 (-5%).

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

From the old history books

What they wrote about Letts in 1911

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

Linn's addition to the town of Letts, formerly the town of Ononwa, was laid out by O. H. P. Linn, January 18. 1893. The greater part of the history of Lettsville embraces a period which is within the memory of most of those now living there, and which it has not been our intention to include in thi…
History of Louisa County, Iowa, from its earliest settlement to 19121911 · page 314Read the page →
Read the text

Linn's addition to the town of Letts, formerly the town of Ononwa, was laid out by O. H. P. Linn, January 18. 1893. The greater part of the history of Lettsville embraces a period which is within the memory of most of those now living there, and which it has not been our intention to include in this work, except in a very general way. It was laid out about the time of the advent of the Mississippi and Missouri River Railroad Company, now the Rock Island, and has ever since been a place of considerable local importance, and a shipping point for a number of the leading cattle raisers

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

Letts, 1857 to 1867

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

  1. 19th century
  2. 1857Post officeThe Ononwa post office opens
  3. 1867Post officeThe Ononwa post office closes
  4. 1867Post officeThe Letts post office opens
By decade

Letts, decade by decade

Today3 recent
LettsIAReddickGrave2025LettsIAReddickGraveLettsIACityHallLibray2025LettsIACityHallLibrayIAMap-doton-Letts2004IAMap-doton-Letts
Famous people

Famous people close to Letts

Nobody well known was born in Letts itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.

See all →
Charles Fox ParhamAmerican Charismatic preacher · b. 1873
Max Allan CollinsAmerican writer · b. 1948
Ellis Parker ButlerAmerican writer · b. 1869
J
Joe WieskampAmerican basketball player · b. 1999
Charles E. WinterAmerican politician · b. 1870
Frank O. HortonAmerican politician · b. 1882
Places that used to be

Lost post offices and burying grounds

Letts’s post office has been open since 1867. Another post office, Ononwa, opened and closed inside today’s town.

Ononwa
1857–1867
Letts
1867–today
18501940today
1cemetery inside Letts
Lettsville

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

Questions about Letts’ history

What year was Letts founded?

The Letts post office opened in 1867, 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), 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.