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History · Seymour

Seymour’s post office opened in 1871, and 46% of its homes were built before 1940

1871first post office
0on the National Register
46%homes built before 1940
1famous people
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Photo: PopePompus · CC BY-SA 4.0
Quick answers

How Seymour began

When was Seymour founded?

1871

The Seymour post office opened in 1871, the earliest record of the town by name.

2020 census: 634155 years
Founding year: the first Seymour post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓

What stands out about Seymour’s 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 Seymour are in the public archives yet. The rest are in attics and albums.Old housesHalf of Seymour’s homes were built before 1951.
★ What stands out · Help out

Start Seymour’s collection

The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Seymour’s history is told.

Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
0 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.
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The story

How Seymour came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Seymour.

Read it all →

The first coal mines in Seymour were opened in 1884. In 1902, the Numa Block Coal Company took over these mines. In 1908, the largest coal mine in Appanoose-Wayne Coalfield was Numa Block number 2, known as "Big Jim." "Big Jim" was located just 1 mile (1.6 km) east of the Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul Railway Depot, and was able to produce 100,000 tons of coal per year at full capacity. The Mystic coal seam was just over 2 feet (0.61 m) thick here, reached by a 202-foot-long (62 m) shaft. Numa Block Mine number 3, the Sunshine Mine, was in the southeast part of town, served by the Rock Island, with a 240-foot-long (73 m) shaft to the Mystic seam.

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

By decade

Seymour, decade by decade

Today2 recent
SeymourIowaCityPark2024SeymourIowaCityParkIAMap-doton-Seymour2004IAMap-doton-Seymour

Questions about Seymour’s history

What year was Seymour founded?

The Seymour post office opened in 1871, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).

Memory lane

What the archives can’t tell you, neighbors can.

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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 (2), Wikipedia, Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people, the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock) and the USGS Geographic Names Information System. Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.