Harrison County was established in 1851 and organized on March 7, 1853. Abram Fletcher, Charles Wolcott and A. D. Jones were appointed by the Iowa General Assembly as Commissioners to organize the county and establish a county seat. They chose the location for Magnolia and gave it its name. The third building that was erected in the town for the county courthouse in 1873 was listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The building was demolished in 2019 due to extreme disrepair and the lack of funds to maintain it.
The county seat was transferred to Logan from Magnolia in 1875.
Peaked at 311 in 1910; 190 people lived here in 2020.
15 censuses, 1880–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Magnolia’s Wikipedia page.
From the old history books
What they wrote about Magnolia, 1888–1915
Passages that mention Magnolia, cut from the printed page as they were published.
History of Harrison County, Iowa, including a condensed history of the state, the early settlement of the county ... together with sketches of its pioneers ..1888 · page 111Read the page →
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This Western Stage Company at this time was more arbitrary and dignified than the railroads of the present day, and scarcely had they made a dozen trips by way of Magnolia until Brown, Meeches, and divers other persons of Calhoun, subsidized the company, and the result was that the county seat at Magnolia was " star routed " and supplied by a side mail from her rival, Calhoun, and subsequently furnished by a by-path from the old " Oaks Station " at the foot of the bluffs, at the
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of the countv. One halt a century and no tax receipt ever contained the words "court house tax" upon its face or back. First, the United States government gave the land to the newly organized county in 1853, on which to place the pioneer court house. The town of Magnolia platted lots, sold them and with part of the money built a court house, while a part went towards putting funds into the treasury to run the county. In 1873, nineteen years after erecting the first building, it was found insufficient for safety of the public records. That court house was condemned in 1873 and the board
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History of Harrison County, Iowa, including a condensed history of the state, the early settlement of the county ... together with sketches of its pioneers ..1888 · page 114Read the page →
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In the fall of 1866, at the time at which the C. & N. W. railroad began her regular trips down the Boyer Valley and had reached Council Bluffs, the Western stage from the last named place to Sioux City was dispensed with so far as the Magnolia mail was concerned, and Magnolia was supplied with mails from Woodbine by a daily service run and operated by George R.
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History of Harrison County, Iowa. Containing full-page portraits and biographical sketches of prominent1891 · page 75Read the page →
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Magnolia was platted by the county — that being the spot named for a countyseat. It was recorded, July 5, 1854 and February 19, 1855. It is on section 5, of township 79, range 43 and section 32, township 80, range 43, in Magnolia Town¬ ship.
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Scans and text from the Internet Archive. Books published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
Timeline
Magnolia, 1853 to 1970
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born 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 (2), 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), 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.
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