Farmers Mutual Insurance Association

Alvord Public School. Historic Iowa Postcard Collection, Special Collections and Archives, Grinnell College Libraries.

The east side of Main Street in Alvord looking north. Photo from “Alvord, Iowa: A Century of Memories … and a Dream for the Future.” The west side of Main Street downtown Alvord looking south. Photo from “Alvord, Iowa: A Century of Memories … and a Dream for the Future.”

Early Alvord farmers William Stoltenberg and his son. Fred. Photo from “Alvord, Iowa: A Century of Memories … and a Dream for the Future.”

The first school building was one moved to town from a rural site in 1890. The Alvord independent school district was founded in 1892; one of 29 districts and over 100 school houses in Lyon County at the time. Enrollment was 74 students.

Three church denominations were represented in the early days: Roman Catholic, Congregational and German Lutheran. The first was Sacred Heart Catholic Church, established in 1891 – when the interior of its building had no plastered walls and the only seats were planks set on nail kegs. Mass was only held every fourth week because the priest also served Doon, Larchwood and Rock Rapids. The church’s square block of ground was described as “the finest church property in the Sioux City Diocese.” 1 The Congregational Church started in 1892. It later welcomed Rev. Mrs. Blandford - probably the first ordained woman to serve a church in Lyon County. She served as pastor from 1917-1921.

Lutherans from the Schleswig-Holstein area of Germany started meeting in the area south and west of Alvord in the 1880s. The church’s first business meeting in Alvord was held in June 1893. In December 1900, four local farmers - Henry Jensen, Frank Dunnelly, L.D. Faver and U. Albertus - had telephones placed in their homes and were connected with each other and with a phone in town. The line used a barb wire fence circuit.2

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