Vernon is an

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a region that is not governed by a local municipal corporation. Widespread unincorporated communities and areas are a distinguishing feature of the United States and Canada. Most other countries of the world either have ...

in Van Buren County, in the

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its sover ...

Iowa Iowa () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States, bordered by the Mississippi River to the east and the Missouri River and Big Sioux River to the west. It is bordered by six states: Wisconsin to the northeast, Illinois to the ...

Geography

The community is across the

Des Moines River The Des Moines River () is a tributary of the Mississippi River in the upper Midwestern United States that is approximately long from its farther headwaters.U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe Na ...

from Bentonsport.

History

Van Buren was

plat In the United States, a plat ( or ) (plan) is a cadastral map, drawn to scale, showing the divisions of a piece of land. United States General Land Office surveyors drafted township plats of Public Lands Surveys to show the distance and bear ...

ted on June 12, 1837, by Henry Smith, John Smith, S.C. Reed, and Isaac Ree. The community was originally known as South Bentonsport, as it lay on the south side of the Des Moines River, across from Bentonsport. During the early years, a

ferry A ferry is a ship, watercraft or amphibious vehicle used to carry passengers, and sometimes vehicles and cargo, across a body of water. A passenger ferry with many stops, such as in Venice, Italy, is sometimes called a water bus or water taxi ...

provided connection between Vernon and Bentonsport over the Des Moines. A

grist mill A gristmill (also: grist mill, corn mill, flour mill, feed mill or feedmill) grinds cereal grain into flour and Wheat middlings, middlings. The term can refer to either the Mill (grinding), grinding mechanism or the building that holds it. Grist i ...

was built in Vernon in 1845. This mill was later used as a

wool mill Textile Manufacturing or Textile Engineering is a major industry. It is largely based on the conversion of fibre into yarn, then yarn into fabric. These are then dyed or printed, fabricated into cloth which is then converted into useful goods s ...

and then a

flour mill A gristmill (also: grist mill, corn mill, flour mill, feed mill or feedmill) grinds cereal grain into flour and middlings. The term can refer to either the grinding mechanism or the building that holds it. Grist is grain that has been separat ...

. A pottery opened in Vernon in 1848. The Methodist Episcopal Church of Vernon opened in 1856. The Vernon post office opened in 1853. By the 1870s, a hotel and blacksmith shop were also located in Vernon. The population of Vernon was 386 in 1902. The Vernon post office closed in 1903. Vernon's population was 78 in 1925.

References

Unincorporated communities in Van Buren County, Iowa Unincorporated communities in Iowa {{VanBurenCountyIA-geo-stub

Geography

History

See also

References