Story County Genealogical Society

08/28/2026

Lunar eclipse tonight.

08/28/2026

It’s August 27th, which means it’s time to celebrate Huxley, which incorporated on this date in 1902!

The history of Huxley actually begins decades before there was a town. In May 1855, members of the Palestine congregation left Lisbon, Illinois, for Story County, forming the foundation of the Norwegian community that would develop in this part of Palestine Township. The land on which Huxley was eventually established remained farmland until 1881, when Thor Oleson sold it to the Milwaukee Land Company as the railroad pushed through the area.

S.S. Merrill, a surveyor and president of the Milwaukee Land Company, platted the new village and named it Huxley in honor of his uncle, Thomas Henry Huxley, the prominent nineteenth-century British biologist and writer. The original plat, recorded in 1882, consisted of four blocks containing 47 lots. Railway Street ran along the south side of town, while First Street formed its northern boundary. The completion of the Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul Railroad through Huxley that same year transformed the little settlement into a growing community.

Businesses quickly followed. Knud Mikkelson opened a mercantile operation, A.L. N.J. Thompson established a general merchandise store in 1884, and Jacob Stenson became the village blacksmith. Additional stores and services appeared as Huxley became a trading point for the surrounding countryside. By 1900, the community had 199 residents, along with established churches, schools and businesses.

After several unsuccessful attempts, residents finally secured an election on incorporation. Forty-two people signed the petition, and Huxley officially became an incorporated town in August 1902, with Judge J.R. Whitaker granting the final approval. The railroad continued to shape the town’s development, and another transportation milestone arrived in 1906 when the first interurban train entered Huxley. That electric line gave residents a convenient connection with Des Moines for decades before the Huxley depot closed in 1953.

Only one picture today because time is getting away from me, and I have lots of programs coming up over the next few weeks. Still, I couldn’t let Huxley’s anniversary pass without sharing at least a little of its history!

Huxley Iowa History, Huxley Police Department, City of Huxley Iowa, Story County Genealogical Society

08/25/2026

Long before Iowa became a state, this land already had a history.

For thousands of years, the region now known as Iowa was home to Indigenous nations with their own languages, governments, economies, traditions, and deep relationships with the land. Among the nations connected to Iowa were the Ioway, Sauk, Meskwaki, Otoe, Missouria, Omaha, Ho-Chunk, Dakota, and others.

Even the name Iowa has Indigenous roots. It comes from the Ioway people, whose history is deeply connected to the region long before Iowa entered the Union in 1846.

The 1800s brought enormous changes.

As the United States expanded westward, a series of treaties transferred millions of acres of Indigenous land to the federal government. The Sauk and Meskwaki were particularly connected to eastern Iowa, where they had lived, hunted, farmed, and maintained communities along the Mississippi River.

In 1832, the Black Hawk War ended with the defeat of Sauk and Meskwaki forces led by Black Hawk. The conflict was followed by the Black Hawk Purchase, through which a huge area of eastern Iowa was transferred to the United States, opening the region to large-scale American settlement.

But Indigenous history in Iowa did not end with removal.

Some Meskwaki people returned to Iowa and refused to abandon their connection to their homeland. In 1857, Meskwaki families purchased land in Tama County. Over time, they acquired additional land and established what became known as the Meskwaki Settlement.

That story matters because the history of Iowa is not simply a story of people who disappeared after settlement.

Today, the Meskwaki Nation remains in Iowa. Its community continues to preserve its language, traditions, culture, and sovereignty while maintaining a connection to the land their ancestors called home.

Iowa's Indigenous history is a story of loss and displacement—but also of survival, resilience, return, and cultural continuity.

Iowa did not begin in 1846.

Its history reaches back thousands of years, and the Indigenous nations connected to this land are still here today.

Map shown is a visual representation of Indigenous nations historically connected to the Iowa region. Boundaries are approximate and are not intended to represent exact historical territorial borders.

08/25/2026

08/18/2026

Dave Baker from the 29thState will be at the Gilbert High School. Sunday August 23, 2026 at 2:00p.m.

08/17/2026

IOWANS OF IMPACT
Ada Hayden - born on this date, August 16, 1884.

Ada Hayden was born just north of Ames at a time when the native prairie that had once covered most of Iowa was rapidly disappearing. She grew up on her family's 80-acre farm, where prairie stretched north of the house toward nearby wetlands. It was there that she first became familiar with the native grasses and wildflowers that would eventually shape her career and lead her to become one of Iowa's most important early conservationists.

While attending Ames High School, Hayden met Iowa State College botanist Louis Pammel, who recognized her interest in the natural world and encouraged her to pursue botany. After graduating with honors in 1904, she entered Iowa State, where she was an honor student, class officer, member of a literary society and member of the women's basketball team. She earned her bachelor's degree in botany in 1908, followed by a master's degree from Washington University in St. Louis in 1910. In 1918, Hayden became the first woman to earn a Ph.D. from Iowa State.

Hayden eventually joined the Iowa State faculty, where she combined her scientific work with considerable talents as a writer, artist and photographer. She assisted Pammel with publications, produced botanical illustrations and photographed Iowa plant life. In the early 1920s, she helped prepare instructional lantern slides for the Botany Department, often taking and hand-coloring the photographs herself. She later became assistant curator of Iowa State's herbarium and is credited with adding more than 40,000 carefully documented plant specimens to its collection.

Her work increasingly took her into the field, where Hayden saw firsthand how little remained of Iowa's original prairie. She traveled across the state locating and documenting surviving remnants, recording their plants and making recommendations for their preservation. Convincing people to protect prairie was not always easy. Unlike state parks offering fishing, boating, camping and other recreation, an untouched patch of grass could be difficult for the public to appreciate. Hayden understood that these remnants represented complex ecosystems and surviving pieces of the landscape that had defined Iowa for thousands of years. Her efforts ultimately helped secure protection for 26 prairie areas.

There was some irony in Hayden's work to preserve Iowa's landscape. The family farm where she had first developed her love of native plants became hers in 1914, but financial circumstances forced her to sell it in 1941. She nevertheless continued her conservation work until near the end of her life. Hayden died at Mary Greeley Hospital on August 12, 1950, right before her 66th birthday, and was buried in the Ames Municipal Cemetery.

Her work was increasingly recognized in the decades that followed. Hayden was inducted into the Iowa Conservation Hall of Fame in 1967, Iowa State's herbarium was named in her honor in 1987, and both the Ada Hayden Prairie State Preserve in Howard County and the 437-acre Ada Hayden Heritage Park in Ames carry her name today. More important than any of those honors are the pieces of native Iowa prairie that remain. Hayden understood that Iowa's history was not found only in buildings, photographs and written records, but in the landscape itself. Thanks in part to her determination to document and protect it, portions of that landscape survive for us to experience today.

Story County Genealogical Society, Story County Historical Alliance, Story County, Iowa, Ames History Museum, Iowa State University, Iowa State University Extension and Outreach, University Museums, Iowa State University, Howard County Iowa

08/12/2026

Announcing ... Citation Coach! Jan Joyce's new interactive game to help researchers learn how to build citations for the most common types of sources--in print and online.
https://evidenceexplained.com/node/2452