Now home to over 90, residents, the land that today is known as Story County was originally prairie, with the exception of some groves along the larger streams in the area. It was also home to various native tribes and nations including the Ioway and Meskwaki.
In , the boundaries of Story County were established. The county has an area of square miles and is square in shape. In the south part of the county Iowa Center prospered notably. Iowa Cente r was laid out in August, , but was doing some business in The town was laid out principally on the west quarter of section 10, with a tier of blocks off the east side of the southeast quarter of section 9. The firm had its headquarters and main business at Iowa Center with important branches at Cambridge, Clyde - a little over the line from Collins township into Jasper county - and Colo, the latter place being the one for railroad shipments.
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With such business interests at Iowa Center, and with no railroad south of about the middle of the county, excepting the narrow gauge in the extreme southwest, Iowa Center ranked distinctly next to Nevada and Ames among the towns of the county. It's only rival south of the principal towns, was Cambridge, which had rather lost in importance with the building of the narrow gauge and the transfer of traffic away from the Skunk river crossing at that place.
It has two mills, and is in the midst of an excellent country, and is surrounded by good settlements. It is situated mainly on the west fourth of section 10, township 82, range 22, near the east bank of East Indian Creek, seven or eight miles southeast of Nevada. Kirkman was probably the first citizen who lived on his own land, his entry dating April 8, , it being the second entry made. Thomas Lowe, who afterwards lived in the county many years, made an entry in section 26, township 82, range 23, on the twelfth day of November, , that being the first entry.
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Squire M. Cory made the third entry, July 9, , nearly twenty-five years ago, and as a Story County land owner outranks any other living man, and is still a resident of Story, and on the farm he then entered. For some years these settlements were mainly in the two distant parts of the county, the southeast and the west.
