Burnside is an

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a parcel of land that is not governed by a local general-purpose municipal corporation. (At p. 178.) They may be governed or serviced by an encompassing unit (such as a county) or another branch of the state (such as th ...

in Webster County,

Iowa Iowa ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the upper Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders the Mississippi River to the east and the Missouri River and Big Sioux River to the west; Wisconsin to the northeast, Ill ...

, United States. Burnside has a

post office A post office is a public facility and a retailer that provides mail services, such as accepting letter (message), letters and parcel (package), parcels, providing post office boxes, and selling postage stamps, packaging, and stationery. Post o ...

with the ZIP code 50521.

History

Present-day Burnside was laid out as a town named Buchanan on June 16, 1856. It was later renamed Hesperia. A post office was established in 1875 and the town was an important

stagecoach A stagecoach (also: stage coach, stage, road coach, ) is a four-wheeled public transport coach used to carry paying passengers and light packages on journeys long enough to need a change of horses. It is strongly sprung and generally drawn by ...

stop between

Boone, Iowa Boone ( ) is a city in Des Moines Township, Boone County, Iowa, Des Moines Township, and county seat of Boone County, Iowa, United States. It is the principal city of the Boone, Iowa Micropolitan Statistical Area, which encompasses all of Boone ...

and Humboldt, Iowa. The conductor of the first

Minneapolis and St. Louis Railway The Minneapolis and St. Louis Railway (M&StL) was an American Railroad classes#Class I, Class I railroad that built and operated lines radiating south and west from Minneapolis, Minnesota for 90 years from 1870 to 1960. The railway never reached ...

train passing through town in 1882 was a friend of

Ambrose Burnside Ambrose Everts Burnside (May 23, 1824 – September 13, 1881) was an American army officer and politician who became a senior Union general in the American Civil War and a three-time Governor of Rhode Island, as well as being a successfu ...

, who had recently died. The town was renamed in his honor. Burnside's population was 63 in 1902. The population was 83 in 1940.

Education

It is located in the

Southeast Valley Community School District Southeast Valley Community School District is a rural public school district headquartered in Gowrie, Iowa. The district includes sections of the following counties: Webster, Calhoun, Boone, and Greene. Municipalities in the district inc ...

, which formed in 2023. Burnside includes the Southeast Valley Middle School, while

Southeast Valley High School Southeast Valley High School is a high school in Gowrie, Iowa, United States, operated by the Southeast Valley Community School District. Prior to the merger into Southeast Valley district in 2023, the school was operated by the Prairie Valle ...

is in Gowrie. Despite its small size, Burnside was the location of the area high school, Southeast Webster, originally known as Central Webster. The high school hold about 250 students 7-12 grade. It was a part of the

Southeast Webster-Grand Community School District Southeast Webster-Grand Community School District was a rural public school district headquartered in Burnside, Iowa. It, along with Prairie Valley Community School District, operated under the name Southeast Valley and they are the Jaguars. ...

, established on July 1, 2005, by the merger of the

Grand Community School District Grand may refer to: People with the name * Grand (surname) * Grand L. Bush (born 1955), American actor Places * Grand, Oklahoma, USA * Grand, Vosges, village and commune in France with Gallo-Roman amphitheatre * Grand County (disambiguation), ...

and the

Southeast Webster Community School District Southeast Webster Community School District was a school district in Iowa. Communities served include Burnside, Dayton, Harcourt, and Lehigh. It operated Burnside Elementary School, Dayton Elementary School, Southeast Webster Middle School, a ...

.REORGANIZATION & DISSOLUTION ACTIONS SINCE 1965-66
."

Iowa Department of Education The Iowa Department of Education sets the standards for all public institutions of education in Iowa and accredits private as well as public schools. It is headquartered in Des Moines. Organization As of 2020, the Iowa Department of Education c ...

. Retrieved on February 23, 2019. Southeast Webster-Grand merged into the Southeast Valley district in 2023. It was previously served by the

,Home
Southeast Webster Community School District. January 11, 1998. Retrieved on February 24, 2019. which was formed on July 1, 1991, with the merger of the Central Webster Community School District and the Dayton Community School District.

Notable person

* Clark R. Mollenhoff, journalist

References

Unincorporated communities in Webster County, Iowa Unincorporated communities in Iowa {{WebsterCountyIA-geo-stub