Dutchtown, Iowa

Last updated
Millheim, Iowa
Unincorporated community
Nickname: 
Dutchtown
USA Iowa location map.svg
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Millheim
Location in Iowa
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Millheim
Millheim (the United States)
Coordinates: 42°33′7.95″N91°24′39.52″W / 42.5522083°N 91.4109778°W / 42.5522083; -91.4109778
Country Flag of the United States (23px).png  United States
State Flag of Iowa.svg Iowa
County Delaware County
Time zone UTC-6 (Central (CST))
 • Summer (DST) UTC-5 (CDT)

Millheim (also known as Dutchtown) is an unincorporated community in Delaware County, Iowa, United States. [1]

Contents

Geography

Millheim is located between Oneida and Thorpe, in sections 2 and 3 of Delaware Township. [2]

History

Thorpe, Millheim, and Oneida, Iowa, along the Chicago and Great Western Railroad Thorpe Millheim Oneida Iowa Delaware County.png
Thorpe, Millheim, and Oneida, Iowa, along the Chicago and Great Western Railroad

Millheim was platted by R. Stewart on July 21, 1858. It was named by John Kaltenbach, who "gave the new town the name of his birth-place in Baden, Germany". [3] It was in sections 2 and 3 of Delaware Township. [4]

Kaltenbach built a sawmill in 1853, on Honey Creek. He added a flour mill in 1864, but the flour mill proved inefficient. It was later sold to a Mr. Olmstead, who sold it to Mr. Clugston, who sold it to T. Holmes. [3]

The first home was owned by a man named Sherman, who opened a grocery store in the community. In 1868, a log church building was constructed in Millheim. A glove and mitten factory, owned by Chester Burgiss, operated from 1872 to 1875. [3]

Millheim was also known as Dutchtown; this was an alternate name in use by the time of the publication of The History of Delaware County, Iowa, in 1878. [3] Millheim was selected (by drawn lots) as the county seat for Delaware County. This was unsatisfactory to the residents of the county, and the community selected was Delhi. [5]

Trade at Dutchtown had dwindled by 1914, with one author remarking, "As a trading point Millheim, or "Dutch Town," as it came to be known, is now a thing of the past." [6] By the 1930s, Millheim was considered an abandoned town, and was listed as such in the 1931 publication The Annals of Iowa. [7]

See also

References

  1. ↑ U.S. Geological Survey Geographic Names Information System: Dutchtown, Iowa
  2. ↑ Plat Book of Delaware County, Iowa, 1930. Rockford, IL: WW Hixson. 1930.
  3. 1 2 3 4 The History of Delaware County, Iowa. Chicago, IL: Western Historical Company. 1878. pp. 560, 344.
  4. ↑ Township plat book of Delaware County, Iowa, 1894. JE Davis. 1894. p. 19.
  5. ↑ Tuttle, Charles Richard; Durrie, Daniel S. (1875). An Illustrated History of the State of Iowa. Chicago, IL: Richard S. Peale and Company. p. 486.
  6. ↑ Merry, John F. (1914). The History of Delaware County, Iowa, and Its People. Vol. 1. Chicago, IL: S. J. Clarke publishing Company. p. 333.
  7. ↑ Mott, David C (1931). "The Annals of Iowa". p. 517. Archived from the original on 3 June 2024. Retrieved 5 August 2025.


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