Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Plymouth yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.
Plymouth is a city in Cerro Gordo County, Iowa, United States, along the Shell Rock River. The population was 375 at the time of the 2020 census. It is part of the Mason City Micropolitan Statistical Area.
Its first post office opened in 1860. Its population held steady between the last two censuses: 382 in 2010, 375 in 2020.
Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.
From the old history books
What they wrote about Plymouth, 1890–1917
Passages that mention Plymouth, cut from the printed page as they were published.
History of the counties of Woodbury and Plymouth, Iowa, including an extended sketch of Sioux City, their early settlement and progress to the present time1890 · page 553Read the page →
Read the text
Village of Merrill. — At present Merrill is the only regularly platted town site in Plymouth township. It was originally platted February 27, 1872, by the Railroad & Town Lot Company. In the spring of 1888, William Frost, a pioneer homesteader and now a grain dealer at this point, bought land to the west of the old plat, and made an addition of about fifty acres. The first house erected at Merrill was by C. K. Smith and was used as a residence, and for a general store, as well. Mr. Smith being disappointed over the county seat not finally
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
History of the counties of Woodbury and Plymouth, Iowa, including an extended sketch of Sioux City, their early settlement and progress to the present time1890 · page 467Read the page →
Read the text
road.— This line, over which there has been no little litigation from time to time, owing to the land grants and non-compliance of contracts in regard to the same, was completed through the northwest corner of Plymouth county, in 1874 and 1875, with station points at Akron, in Portland township, and Westfield, in Westfield township. This road's completion, however, did not increase actual settlement much, for the lands were claimed by the government, and also by the railroad company, and, being in litigation until about 1882, but few settlers came
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
The late Henry Detloff, for years one of the best-known pioneer farmers and stockmen of Plymouth county and one of the most extensive landowners in Elgin township, was a native of Germany, but had been a resident of this country since 1869 and of Plymouth county since 1876. He came to this country, a poor German boy, practically empty-handed, but by careful management succeeded far beyond the measure of most men and at the time of his death in the fall of 1915 was the owner of eleven hundred acres of excellent land and had long been regarded as one of Plymouth
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
Philip Emmert, a well-known retired farmer of Plymouth township, is one of the first white persons born in Plymouth county and has lived in this county all his lite. He was born on a pioneer farm, the place on which he is still living, in Plymouth township, November 20, 1863, son and only child of Peter and Henrietta (Lentz) Emmert, natives of Germany, who became early settlers in Plymouth county, where the former died on August 15, 1902, and where the latter is still living. | Peter Emmert was born in 1829 and came to the United States in 1854,
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.
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 (1), 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.
2004