Growing Beyond Their Dreams Blacksmith Shop No town in the mid 1800’s could exist long without the services of a good blacksmith. In fact in those days the blacksmiths shop often appeared first, located at some crossroads, and a thriving village would spring up around it. In the case of […]

Growing Beyond Their Dreams Sawmill Becomes A Grist Mill In the spring of 1857, S.F. Lathrop purchased the town’s first sawmill. Mr. Lathrop had a new plan for the mill and dam. His intentions were to convert the property from a sawmill to a grist mill. While there was still […]

Growing Beyond Their Dreams Post Office The first Post Office was established April 25, 1856. It was a small station on a small route from Waterloo to Eldora. Mail was received once a week through the old stage line to Waterloo.   The first Post Office building was constructed by […]

Growing Beyond Their Dreams Steamboat Rock soon became know as far east as New York, and settlers hurried to be part of it’s growth. For a time it was considered to be the fastest growing town in the county.   The town was for the most part settled by pioneers […]

THE DREAM OF A TOWN The Town Name Many stories are told about the name of the town of Steamboat Rock. The only thing we can be certain of in these stories is that the town has had two names in it‘s history that of “Lithopolis,” and “Steamboat Rock.”   […]

THE DREAM OF A TOWN Growing Through Adversity Farmers anywhere and at anytime find weather to be a great leveler. Our pioneer forefathers were nearly all farmers. Even more than today these early farmers were at the absolute mercy of the weather and his life could be made miserable by […]

THE DREAM OF A TOWN Sawmill And Grist Mill A mill was built in Steamboat Rock immediately before or right after the laying out of the town.   Isaac Lesh, Charles Boyle and Samuel G. Higginbotham, formed a joint stock company and built a Sawmill and dam on the Iowa […]

THE DREAM OF A TOWN A Dream Becomes Reality According to The History of Hardin County, 1883, Isaac Lesh, Charles Boyle and John Royal called on John Shepherd, the first county surveyor in Hardin county to lay out the town in the spring of 1855.   John Shepherd, arrived in […]

THE DREAM OF A TOWN Who Were These Men It is difficult to contemplate that from creation to just under 150 years ago the prairie lay unchanged by man ormachine. It is especially overwhelming when we realize that the red man had been here for an equal period of time […]

THE DREAM OF A TOWN The town of Steamboat Rock, now, a small Midwestern town in central Iowa began as many towns small and large in the middle of the 19th century when men and women from all over the face of the earth were seeking opportunity in the new […]