What you know about Jewell ?

Did you know why our town is called Jewell (Junction)?

      The War of 1812 helped to make Jewell Junction possible.   Grants of 160 acres were given soldiers to help encourage settlers to come and settle west of the Mississippi River.   A grant was given to William Winslow, a physician of Maine.   He sold this grant of land to a Cornelius Haden in 1856 for less than $1.00 per acre.   There were settlers along the Skunk River in 1855 and along the Boone River in the 1840s.   Between the two rivers was little but prairie and timber.   David T. Jewell bought this grant and brought his family to this area by wagon in 1877.

     The narrow gauge railroad (three feet between the rails), the Des Moines and Minnesota Railroad, had been built north from Ames in 1877, with the expectation that it would extend to Alden.   Instead, it terminated near the corner of the four Hamilton townships (Ellsworth, Scott, Lyon, and Lincoln), where the railroad crossed the Skunk River.   At that spot, the busy boom town of Callanan was started, but it lasted only three years.

About Callanan, the early settlement before Jewell started.

     During 1880, the Toledo and Northwestern Railroad built a westward rail line from Tama City on its mainline, aimed at Minnesota and the Black Hills.   It formed a junction with the north-south narrow gauge Des Moines and Minnesota Railroad that formerly terminated at Callanan.   A town was laid out at the junction of these railroad lines.

     By 1882, the Toledo & Northwestern Railroad bought out the narrow gauge Des Moines and Minnesota Railroad and converted it to a standard gauge (four feet eight and a half inches) line.   That rail line north of Ames had passed through Gilbert, Story City, Randall, and had terminated at Callanan.   The portion of the line that crossed the South Skunk River to enter Callanan was abandoned and rerouted to Jewell Junction.   The Toledo & Northwestern soon became known as the Chicago & Northwestern Railroad.

     The town of Jewell Junction was laid out at this junction, and was named for David T. Jewell.  It was created in Section 28-87-24 by the real estate division of the railroad, the Western Town Lot Company.  This same company platted the towns of Ellsworth, Randall, Stanhope, Stratford and Kamrar.

     The north-south streets in the original plat were First (a curved street), Second, Third, Fourth, and Fifth Streets.  The east-west streets were Lyon, Main, Rienhart, and Idaho Streets. Main Street was later changed to Jewell Street.   As the town prospered, the name of the town was simply known as Jewell, though to many, it remains Jewell Junction.

     The Jewell post office was established on December 27, 1880.   That post office was located about 40 rods south of the depot.   Mrs. Laura E. Cooper served as the first of 14 postmasters during Jewell's first 100 years.   The post office was never called Jewell Junction.   John Foster served as the first rural mail carrier starting in 1903.   The five digit zip code for Jewell was introduced on July 1, 1963.

     The Jewell Telephone Company was started in 1902 by about 30 businessmen.   Frank Snyder served as president.   Within three years, the number of subscribers had grown to 125.   In 1905 the Jewell and Ellsworth Telephone Company was created.

     One of the store buildings was moved from Callanan during the winter of 1881-1882.   The reason buildings were moved in the winter was because they could be more easily put on skids and pulled by teams over the frozen ground. (This was true of so many buildings that were removed from the settlements of Lakins' Grove, Callanan, Hook's Point, and other towns that failed to attract a railroad.) This building was placed along Main Street.   That first school was held in the rented back room, with William Anderson serving as the teacher.   The next year, a school district was organized and the school was moved to a different building south of the railroad tracks.   Anderson was the only teacher for one year.   In 1883 Howard Smith was added to the school staff.   By 1890, a whole block was purchased and a two-story brick structure was built.   Two years later a four-year high school program was added.   In 1905 an addition was constructed on both ends of the school.

This building took care of the school needs for another 20 years.

Population figures from United States Census Bureau. Did you know that once upon a time, Jewell was home to the first college of Hamilton County?      - - - - -       Yes, Jewell had the first college in Hamilton County.   It was established in Jewell in 1893 by the Jewell Lutheran College Association.   The majority of the members of this association were Scandinavian Lutherans from the surrounding counties.   In 1897 it became apparent that larger support was needed for the school, so the college and all of its property was transferred to the Iowa District of the Hague Synod, under whose management the college grew and progressed in other ways.      In 1902 a ladies' dormitory was constructed, but a year later the main college building burned, killing two students, Julius Peterson and Burton Millang.    In February of 1904 it was decided to build a new Main Hall.       Because many Lutheran Colleges had been established in Iowa and the declining enrollment made it harder to pay bills, it was decided to close Jewell Lutheran College in 1925.  The college property was purchased by the Jewell School District.

Did you know who owned the first automobile in town?      Dr. C. J. Christensen came to Jewell in 1902 just after he graduated from the College of Medicine at the University of Iowa.   He operated his medical practice in Jewell until 1937.   The start of his practice was in the days of the horse and buggy, and he did made house calls using his buggy.   Dr. Christensen soon purchased the first automobile in Jewell, a red 1908 Maxwell, and could use it instead of his buggy.

Jewell Swimming Pool is in good shape, but has been around for many years!             This ad was published in the Ellsworth News on July 22, 1964. Not many swimming pools serve their community for more than 50 years! - - - - -

Did you know Jewell once had a real hospital!   This birth article published March 22, 1950

Did you know that Back in the day, Jewell had more churches. Nine or ten churches have served Jewell over the years. Congregational Church…1884… Main Street at the present UCC site  Methodist Church...1883... NE corner of King and Deckor Street, one block west of grocery  Christian Church . . . NE corner of Edwards and Deckor Street, two blocks west of Post Office.  Federated Church . . . The above three congregations merged and by 1933 were meeting in the Congregational building on Main.  In 1956, the congregation had their new current building constructed.  Our Saviors Danish Lutheran: at 225 Main Street, two lots south of the Park on the west side.       Mark Oswald and his family lived there in the current house. Assembly of God . . . started as a Tent church, then moved the old Federated Church building to the corner of Park and Main, just west of Casey’s.   It is now an apartment.   The parsonage was just west.  Bethesda Lutheran (Norwegian Evangelical Lutheran) . . . 1887 church on current site at  the corner of Anderson and Main.     The new church was built by 1955. Good Shepherd Catholic Church . . . 1899 church on west side of Hoffman Street, just north of Harriet Erickson’s house.   Hoffman is now part of Collins Street when it was pushed through from Edwards to Anderson and on to Johnson.   The Catholic Church then occupied the former Christian Church at the NE corner of Edwards and Deckor.   The new church building was built there in 1972.  Immanuel Lutheran (Lutheran Brethren) . . . A 1951 basement church and parsonage next door east at corner of Deckor and Park.   Above ground wood frame church moved on to basement from North St. Petri site two miles east and one north of Randall in 1956.   Now the home for the Jewell History Museum.  Victory Church . . . took over the Immanuel Lutheran building at Deckor and Park.   A new church was built at the corner of East Lane and Anderson Street around 2014, and uses the former nursing home as their activity and learning center. This 1910 Postcard view of Deckor Street in Jewell shows the Jewell Christian Church. The steeple in the background indicates the location of the Jewell Methodist Church.

Did you know that Jewell had a theatre. The image above shows a 1951 listing of coming shows to be seen at the Strand Theatre in Jewell.

Many trains would stop at the Jewell Junction depot.       News report on May 8, 1913 - Northwestern is contemplating building a two stall round house in Jewell.   Trains 30 and 31 from Jewell to Tama lay over in Jewell and a round house is needed to house their engines nights. Do you know why these Jewell train stations have a different shape?

Did you know that in our country there is another Jewell Historical Society? and a town of Jewell and Randall in the state of Kansas?   They are in the Kansas county named Jewell. Jewell County Historical Society (in Kansas) Facebook Page  (These websites open in new browser tabs.) Jewell County Historical Society Museum

     David Jewell's town sat in the northwest part of today's town of Jewell. This was north of the east-west track to Ellsworth and Stanhope.)   The original Main Street is now called Jewell Street.   There was no unclaimed land just waiting for the buyers, because it was already owned by early Hamilton County settlers.   These were the speculators or holders of military grants for their service in the War of 1912, the Mexican American War, or even the Civil War.   Originally, Jewell Junction consisted of hastily thrown together sheds and shanties that either lined the east-west Main Street or sat to the north or south along Second, Third or Fourth streets.   That original town began because there was railroad service planned there, and there was the potential for profit and settlement.

     David Jewell platted the new town in 1880.   Business lots were 25 feet wide by 130 feet deep, and sold for $100 each.   Residential lots were 50 feet wide, and sold for $25.   The town was ready for the railroad.   In the agreement made by David Jewell with the Toledo and North Western Railroad on June 11, 1880 provided the land necessary for a depot, sidings, switches, shops, roundhouse, stockyards and the land necessary to form a junction.   By December 1880 the Toledo and North Western had completed their line planned from Tama to Webster City, and started a second line west, forming new towns of Radcliffe, Ellsworth, Jewell and later forming Stanhope and Stratford; thus the junction at Jewell.

     By 1900, David Jewell's portion of town was practically deserted because most growth was going south of the tracks and train station.   Often referred to as Dog Town, the northwest corner of Jewell has seen a recent revival, especially since the centennial year of 1981 with a number of new homes built in the original Jewell.   Reinhart Street even had to be reopened to accommodate several new houses.

     Although the 1918 map (seen above) shows the Jewell city park at the southern edge of town, today there are now more that 26 homes south of that park.  The Jewell city limit has been extended to the county road that meets the southern edge of the Jewell Municipal Cemetery.   There are now many newer homes south of the Jewell Municipal pool and the Jewell City Park.

      News report on May 11, 1933 - The Standard Oil Co. service station in Jewell led the way in a reduction in gasoline prices announced here Monday.  Ethyl was cut 3.1 cents to 15.6; Red Crown was cut 2.6 cents to 13.1; and Stanolind was cut 4 cents to 12.1 cents a gallon, these prices including the 4 cent tax.