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History · St. Paul

St. Paul’s post office opened in 1863

Most of St. Paul was built recently: 6% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1971. Below: maps from 1981 on and the census since 1880.

1863first post office
0on the National Register
6%homes built before 1940
2famous people
Add an old photoShare a memory
Photo: PopePompus · CC BY-SA 4.0
Quick answers

How St. Paul began

When was St. Paul founded?

1863

The St. Paul post office opened in 1863, the earliest record of the town by name. Another post office, Saint Paul (1863), opened inside today’s city and later closed.

First census: 37 in 18802020 census: 109163 years
Founding year: the first St. Paul post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).

What stands out about St. Paul’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 St. Paul are in the public archives yet. The rest are in attics and albums.
★ What stands out · Help out

Start St. Paul’s collection

The first neighbors to add old photos shape how St. Paul’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

St. Paul, in brief

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

St. Paul or Saint Paul is a city in Lee County, Iowa, United States. The population was 109 at the time of the 2020 census. It is part of the Fort Madison-Keokuk Micropolitan Statistical Area

Its first post office opened in 1863. Between the 2010 and 2020 censuses its population fell from 129 to 109 (-16%).

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

From the old history books

What they wrote about St. Paul in 1879

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

rival points, and their enterprise foiled them at every turn. This enterprise has resulted in not only maintaining the natural advantages of location, but in fortifying it with a net-work of railroads that bids defiance to the combined influence of all rival interests between St. Louis and St. Paul…
The history of Lee county, Iowa, containing a history of the county, its cities, towns, &c.1879 · page 625Read the page →
Read the text

rival points, and their enterprise foiled them at every turn. This enterprise has resulted in not only maintaining the natural advantages of location, but in fortifying it with a net-work of railroads that bids defiance to the combined influence of all rival interests between St. Louis and St. Paul, on the one hand, and Chicago and Omaha on the other. Keokuk enterprise and foresight secured a combined railway and wagon bridge across the Mississippi River, that not only secured the trade of a large section of Illinois, but opened direct communication with Eastern trade-centers. The same enterprising

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

St. Paul, 1863 to 1981

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

  1. 19th century
  2. 1863Post officeThe Saint Paul post office opens
  3. 20th century
  4. 1901Post officeThe Saint Paul post office closes
  5. 1910Born hereSebastian Menke is born here
  6. 1914Born hereMaurice John Dingman is born here
  7. 1981On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
By decade

St. Paul, decade by decade

Today2 recent
StPaulIowaCatholicChurch2024StPaulIowaCatholicChurchIAMap-doton-StPaul2004IAMap-doton-StPaul
On the map

St. Paul on the map in 1981

The U.S. Geological Survey’s map of St. Paul.

St. Paul on the 1981 USGS map1981Salem sheet · 1:24,000

U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of St. Paul.

People over time

St. Paul, census by census

010018801900192019401960198020002020Peak: 141

Between 37 and 141 people in every census since 1880.

14 censuses, 1880–2020.

U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on St. Paul’s Wikipedia page.

Famous people

2 famous people were born in St. Paul

Writers, athletes, leaders and more, ranked by how widely they’re known.

See all →
M
Maurice John DingmanSixth bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of D… · b. 1914
S
Sebastian MenkeCatholic priest of the Diocese of Davenport who… · b. 1910
Places that used to be

Lost post offices, old corners and burying grounds

Another post office, Saint Paul, opened and closed inside today’s town.

Hamlets and corners on the map
Saint Paul
1cemetery inside St. Paul
Saint James

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

Questions about St. Paul’s history

What year was St. Paul founded?

The St. Paul post office opened in 1863, 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 (2), 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.