Centerville, Iowa Centerville, Iowa Appanoose County Courthouse in Centerville Appanoose County Courthouse in Centerville Official seal of Centerville, Iowa Location of Centerville, Iowa Location of Centerville, Iowa Centerville is a town/city in and the governmental center of county of Appanoose County, Iowa, United States. The populace was 5,528 in the 2010 census, a diminish from 5,924 in 2000. After the turn of the 20th century Centerville had a booming coal quarrying industry that thriving many European immigrants.
Map of the Centerville region from 1908, showing the barns s and shipping coal mines (shown in red) of the region.
The first coal mine in Centerville was opened in 1868, with its mine shaft about one-half mile from the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad depot.
The Centerville Block Coal Company, organized in 1894, merged the operation of various mines in the region to turn into the dominant quarrying company.
In 1914, Centerville Block Coal produced over 100,000 tons of coal, ranking among the top 24 coal producers in the state.
Centerville Block's biggest competitor, formed around the same time, was the Scandinavian Coal Company, organized by a group of Swedish immigrants. By 1938, coal manufacturing in the Centerville region was 600,000 tons per year. The mines were in the Mystic coal bed, 125 feet below ground in Centerville but exposed at the surface in Mystic, 5 miles to the northwest. Centerville Block Coal's Relay Mine Number 3 was positioned on the west side of town (Number 31 on the map).
Local Assembly 1020 of the Knights of Labor was based in Centerville and had a membership of 150 in 1884. On April 1, 1885, 325 miners in town went on strike, protesting a 20% drop in wages reflecting a decline in the demand for coal amid the summer months. Later, the United Mine Workers of America had a very strong existence in Centerville.
In 1912, UMWA Local 553 in Centerville had 1194 members, making it the second biggest UMWA small-town in the country. The biggest UMWA small-town was in Buxton, Iowa.
In 1910, the Scandinavian Coal Company drilled a 550-foot exploratory hole in Centerville, discovering a deposit of gypsum and anhydrite 10 feet thick near the bottom.
The Centerville Gypsum Company was formed to exploit this deposit, and between 1912 and 1913, the business bored a shaft down to the gypsum.
The Sunshine mine, about 3 miles west of Centerville (number 30 on the map), was very small in 1908, with just a horse-powered hoist at the pit head. By the 1930s, this was a large mine with an attached quarrying camp and a mountain of mine waste 500 feet long. The Sunshine Mine Drive-In is a theater on the former mine site that opened in 2005. Centerville experienced its peak populace in the early 1900s as the popularity of coal peaked.
This accomplishment culminated in the building of Rathbun Dam, near the town/city of Rathbun, Iowa, forming Rathbun Lake, known as "Iowa's Ocean", that was dedicated on July 31, 1971 by President Richard M.
In June 2006 the Centerville Daily Iowegian reported that the city's biggest employer, a Rubbermaid plant, that opened in Centerville in 1985, would shut down in September 2006 displacing 500 workers.
The Barker Company, of Keosauqua, Iowa that manufactures many lines of refrigerated, non-refrigerated and hot display cases for the supermarket, convenience store and food service industries positioned a manufacturing plant in Centerville in 1998.
Both the town/city of Centerville and Appanoose County have a very high poverty rate and low character of life because of this and other factors.
As county seat, Centerville had a grow retail sector, serving citizens from lesser communities and farms in the region as well as small-town residents.
Many shops were positioned around the Courthouse Square Historic District, which has hundreds of parking spaces between the shops' sidewalks and the courthouse lawn in effect, six-lane wide streeting around the Appanoose County Courthouse provides four lanes of enhance parking.
In the latter decades of the 20th century, Centerville, like many other small American communities, experienced a change in its retail economy as many long-established locally owned shops closed, due in large part to loss of company to large nationally owned retailers.
Forming the barns helped to bring Rubbermaid to the town/city The Southern Iowa Railroad was an electric interurban that used to connect Centerville to Moravia with a branch to Mystic.
Since the 1990s, Centerville has concentrated on character-of-life issues in an attempt to attract and keep young families in the area.
An example of this is the former Continental Hotel, positioned on the Centerville square.
According to the United States Enumeration Bureau, the town/city has a total region of 4.89 square miles (12.67 km2), of which 4.86 square miles (12.59 km2) is territory and 0.03 square miles (0.08 km2) is water. Centerville Historical Population Centerville Iowa east entrance sign Croatian Fest has been held in Centerville on the last Saturday in July since 1987 to jubilate the area's Croatian Heritage.
The school precinct serving Centerville is the K-12 Centerville Community School District.
It consists of Centerville High School, Howar Junior High, Lakeview Middle School and Central, Lincoln and Garfield Grade Schools all positioned in Centerville and the Cincinnati Grade School and Mystic Grade School positioned in the communities of Cincinnati and Mystic.
In 2012 the Centerville School Board voted to close the Cincinnati and Mystic Schools due to financial reasons caused by falling enrollment.
The mascot name for Centerville High School is the "Big Reds" and "Redettes" with the school colors being Scarlet and Black.
The first Centerville High School graduate and the one and only graduate from the Class of 1876 was Jennie Drake, the daughter of former Governor of Iowa Francis M.
Centerville is the home of the Centerville Campus of Indian Hills Community College, a two-year improve college, that was established in 1930 as Centerville Junior College, later known as Centerville Community College.
On October 1, 1970 the college became the Centerville Campus of Indian Hills Community College when it consolidated as an Iowa Area XV Community College, which has its chief campus positioned in Ottumwa, Iowa, known as the Ottumwa Campus of Indian Hills Community College.
In 1970 the present Centerville Campus of Indian Hills Community College was assembled on North First Street in Centerville, Iowa.
The 1921 silent movie, The Wonderful Thing, starring Norma Talmadge, was partly filmed in Centerville and Appanoose County, Iowa.
State Data Center of Iowa.
Tom Savage, A Dictionary of Iowa Place Names, University of Iowa Press, 2007; page 52.
Lees, History of Coal Mining in Iowa, Chapter III of Annual Report, 1908, Iowa Geological Survey, 1909, pages 536 537 WPA Federal Writers Project, IOWA Guide to the Hawkeye State, State Historical Society of Iowa and Hastings House, 1938 and 1949, page 540 Hixton, Fuel Value of Iowa Coals with Analyses of Iowa Coals, Chapter II of Annual Report, 1908, Iowa Geological Survey, 1909, pages 408 Fultz, Out of Door Studies in Geography, I, The Making of the Surface and Soils of the Upper Mississippi Region, The Public School Publishing Co., Bloomington Ill., 1916, Copyright 1908; see chapter V, An Iowa Coal Mine, page 97.
Henry Hinds, The Coal Deposits of Iowa, Annual Report, 1908, Iowa Geological Survey, 1909, page 277.
Part III, Labor Organizations: Knights of Labor, First Biennial Report of the Bureau of Labor Statistics for the State of Iowa, Geo.
Part VIII, Strikes and Arbitration: Strike at Centerville, First Biennial Report of the Bureau of Labor Statistics for the State of Iowa, Geo.
Kay, Gypsum at Centerville, Gypsum Deposits of the United States, United States Geological Survey Bulletin 697, 1920, pages 107 109.
Mc - Kay, Gypsum Resources of Iowa Archived April 15, 2009, at the Wayback Machine., Iowa Geological Survey, adapted from Iowa Geology, 1985, No.
1930's Aerial Photos taken by the USDA on the Iowa Geographic Map Server.
Iowa (2005) at the Internet Movie Database Wikimedia Commons has media related to Centerville, Iowa.
Newspaper archive Centerville Historical Society's archive of region newspapers ranging from 1857 to 2009.
Municipalities and communities of Appanoose County, Iowa, United States County seat: Centerville Centerville Cincinnati Exline Moravia Moulton Mystic Numa Plano Rathbun Udell Unionville Brazil Coal City Darbyville Dean Forbush Iconium Orleans Sedan Walnut City
Categories:
Centerville, Iowa - Cities in Appanoose County, Iowa - Cities in Iowa - County seats in Iowa - Populated places established in 1846 - Swedish-American culture in Iowa - 1846 establishments in Iowa Territory
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