This is just the beginning! Our collection holds over 300 years of history, including rare newspapers, obituaries, marriage records, birth records, and so much more—most of which you won’t find anywhere else!
Three Buildings Were on Site of Riverside in Fifties
Riverside’s early history recalls the McClure farm site as it stood in the 1850s with a big basement barn a pasture of deer and turkeys on the hillside. The town emerged after land owners and Dan Ott Dr William Ott and others surveyed and named Riverside with Dr. Ott honored for giving the town its name. Beardsley Mechling ran Riverside’s first general store in 1872 with a post office in the rear, and the first frame homes appeared along Third and Washburn as families formed a small community ahead of the Muscatine Western railroad’s 1873 arrival.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
Riverside
Nathaniel McClure
Harry Hardy
St. Mary’s Church
McClure
Iowa City
Ainsworth
Muscatine
Boyd
Mr. Boyd
O. C. Boyd
Dan Ott
William Ott
Yatton
Third
Washburn
Wim
Beardsley
George Hardy
Matilda Wieland
Charlie Small
Christadelphians
Thomas Williams
Jesse Boyd
Bon Accord
South Liberty
Middleburg
Richmond
Boyds
E. E. Blythe
A. B. Rose
J. A. Muller
John Mentzer