The story
Read it all →How Lovilia came to be
From Wikipedia’s history of Lovilia.
Coal was known north and south of Lovilia in the early 1900s, and there were scattered "country mines" in the area.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
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History · Lovilia
Lovilia’s post office opened in 1849, and 47% of its homes were built before 1940
Below: 1 old photo or paper, maps from 1929 on, and the census since 1880.
1849first post office
0on the National Register
47%homes built before 1940
1old photo or paper
Quick answers
How Lovilia began
When was Lovilia founded?
1849
The Lovilia post office opened in 1849, the earliest record of the town by name.
First census: 192 in 18802020 census: 472177 years
Founding year: the first Lovilia post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓
What stands out about Lovilia’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
★ What stands out · Help out
Start Lovilia’s collection
The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Lovilia’s history is told.
Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
0 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.People over time
Lovilia, census by census
Peaked at 958 in 1920; 472 people lived here in 2020.
15 censuses, 1880–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Lovilia’s Wikipedia page.
From the old history books
What they wrote about Lovilia, 1878–1896
Passages that mention Lovilia, cut from the printed page as they were published.
The history of Monroe County, Iowa, containing a history of the county, its cities, towns, &c., a biographical directory of citizens, war record of its volunteers in the late rebellion ..1878 · page 383Read the page →
Read the text
The town of Lovilia is nicely laid out on a pretty, rolling piece of ground, gently sloping eastward from a grove of timber on the west, and is situated near the center of Union Township, about nine miles northwest from Albia. It has an abundance of stone and coal, good water, and a beautiful and fertile country adjacent.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
An illustrated history of Monroe County, Iowa [microform]1896 · page 152Read the page →
Read the text
In 1890 M. M. Hinton established the Monroe County Progress in the town of Lovilia. It was conducted as an independent paper, but disclosed a slight tendency towards the Populist party.
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
Lovilia, 1849 to 1929
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
By decade
Lovilia, decade by decade
One decade in the archive so far: the 1880s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
1890s–1990snothing yet
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.
Add from your album
2024
2024
2004On the map
Lovilia on the map, 1929 to 1982
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Lovilia. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.
1929Albia sheet · 1:62,500U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Lovilia.
Then & now
Stand where they stood
No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as an old one and they appear here side by side.
Retake this view1950 Census Enumeration District Maps - Iowa (IA) - Monroe County - Lovilia - ED 68-18, 1880
Find the spot, match the angle, and add your photo. It becomes the first then-and-now pair on Lovilia’s page.
Retake this view · +15Famous people
See all →Famous people close to Lovilia
Nobody well known was born in Lovilia itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.
Questions about Lovilia’s history
What year was Lovilia founded?
The Lovilia post office opened in 1849, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
Memory lane
What the archives can’t tell you, neighbors can.
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 (4), Wikipedia, 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 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.