Stratford was platted in 1880. It was named after Stratford-upon-Avon, in England. A post office has been in operation in Stratford since 1881.
Stratford was actually first founded at Hook's Point, Hamilton County, Iowa. Stratford had a train coming through from 1880 until World War II. Stratford has an independent school system with an elementary school located on the corner of Shakespeare Avenue and Dryden Street.
An F3 tornado struck Stratford on November 12, 2005, with one person killed.
Passages that mention Stratford, cut from the printed page as they were published.
History of Hamilton County, Iowa1912 · page 371Read the page →
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was incapacitated for further service of any kind until 1898. He then became manager of his father's business and continued in that position until 1907. On February 17, 1908, he was appointed postmaster of Stratford and has since continued to serve with great acceptability in that office and has this year been reappointed. He is the owner of the business block which is occupied by the postoffice and is the vice president of the State Bank of Stratford.
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History of Hamilton County, Iowa1912 · page 362Read the page →
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county, and in that office he served for two years. In 1894 he came to Stratford, becoming cashier of the State Bank of Stratford, and to the interests of that institution he has since given his attention. He is one of the stockholders in the bank and is the owner of ninetyfive acres of farm land in Hamilton county, owning also three hundred and twenty acres of land in Webster county. He is also a stockholder in the Security Title & Loan Company of Webster City. The State Bank of Stratford was established in 1891 with a capital stock
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Scans and text from the Internet Archive. Books published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
Timeline
Stratford, 1880 to 1912
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
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.
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 (6), the National Register of Historic Places (1), 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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