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History · Woolstock

Woolstock’s post office opened in 1868, and 46% of its homes were built before 1940

Below: maps from 1978 on and the census since 1900.

1868first post office
0on the National Register
46%homes built before 1940
1famous people
Add an old photoShare a memory
Quick answers

How Woolstock began

When was Woolstock founded?

1868

The Woolstock post office opened in 1868, the earliest record of the town by name.

First census: 274 in 19002020 census: 144158 years
Founding year: the first Woolstock post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓

What stands out about Woolstock’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 Woolstock are in the public archives yet. The rest are in attics and albums.Boom and bustPeaked at 317 in 1930; 144 people lived here in 2020.Old housesHalf of Woolstock’s homes were built before 1951.
★ What stands out · Help out

Start Woolstock’s collection

The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Woolstock’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
People over time

Woolstock, census by census

01002003001900192019401960198020002020Peak: 317

Peaked at 317 in 1930; 144 people lived here in 2020.

13 censuses, 1900–2020.

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

The story

How Woolstock came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Woolstock.

Read it all →

Woolstock township was established in 1858, and its first Post Office for Woolstock was in 1868, located near the location of the Historic French Church, about 3 miles east of the town's location today. Woolstock was relocated when platted by the Western Town Lot Company in 1881, that relocated many rural communities towards newly laid railroad lines. The name was made by Gilbert Perry because of the settlers early trade of raising sheep for wool. Woolstock is the only town in the world with its name.

Located, east of the Boone River, the Native Americans used the area for hunting, fishing, and lodging. The Sauk and Meskwaki tribes continued to use the river seasonally through the first quarter of the 20th century.

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

From the old history books

What they wrote about Woolstock in 1915

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

one hunilred and twenty-li\e to twu hundred dollar> ])er acre, owing to location and di>tance from railroads. Prior to the building of the .\'(jrth Western railroad from Webster (_"ity to I'.agle (Irove junction, the people of Woolstock township mostly traded in the lirst-named place, hut after the…
History of Wright County, Iowa, its peoples, industries and institutions1915Read the page →
Read the text

one hunilred and twenty-li\e to twu hundred dollar> ])er acre, owing to location and di>tance from railroads. Prior to the building of the .\'(jrth Western railroad from Webster (_"ity to I'.agle (Irove junction, the people of Woolstock township mostly traded in the lirst-named place, hut after the completion of the roatl, and the establishment of the station known as Woolstock, a number of W'ebster City men established branch houses, and some started new business enterprises at the new railroad statical, which has since come to be a good trading place.

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

Woolstock, 1868 to 1978

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

  1. 19th century
  2. 1868Post officeThe Woolstock post office opens
  3. 20th century
  4. 1914Born hereGeorge Reeves is born here
  5. 1930CensusPopulation peaks at 317
  6. 1978On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
By decade

Woolstock, decade by decade

Today2 recent
Woolstock, Iowa City Hall2021Woolstock, Iowa City HallIAMap-doton-Woolstock2004IAMap-doton-Woolstock
On the map

Woolstock on the map, 1978 to 1984

Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Woolstock. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.

Woolstock on the 1978 USGS mapWoolstock on the 1984 USGS map1978Woolstock 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 Woolstock.

Questions about Woolstock’s history

What year was Woolstock founded?

The Woolstock post office opened in 1868, 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), 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.