Fayette, Iowa
a history page

Main Street
1911
looking north
to the first
Volga River Bridge
as the intersection of
Main and Clark Streets
Fayette House Hotel, right
First Bank, left-middle
dirt street, board walks,
electrical poles, water system

West side of Main Street, with the1862 bridge on the left side, with the First bank the three story building one third the way from the left side

OF BRIDGES--from Chats by O.W.S, 1938-43.

In the minutes for the meeting of the Fayette County Supervisors on June 2, 1862, it was reported that the bridge across the Volga at Fayette had just been completed. Prior to that date river fords were used.

In very old deeds for the Westfield mill property there is reference to a point near the south end of a bridge that crossed the Volga river. This was where the Lovers' Lane road that comes down to "Vansyckle" mill on the east side of Westfield (and goes north to "Lynch" place, where house recently burned) formerly crossed the river, passing up the hollow there on north side of river, and going out north toward West Union. I feel quite sure that was the only bridge across the Volga here until 1862 when the Fayette Main street bridge was built. The village of Westfield 5 years older than the town of Fayette.

East side of Main Street with the Fayette House Hotel on the right side.

---The First Town Waterworks System, from Chats---In an old picture of the Fayette House from Minnie Humiston, one can see in the street before the hotel, stands Mr. Hiram Canfield holding a hose into the air from which spurts a stream of water. The water came from a well under the platform in the street and was pumped by a force pump on the street platform. The pump looked like and worked up and down like the old fashioned railroad hand cars. I (O.W. Stevenson) can remember it, and doubtless many others can (1939).

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1911 Main Street, Fayette, Iowa, looking north from the intersection of Main and Clarks Streets, with the
first bridge across the Volga River at the end of Main Street. The First Bank is right in the middle of the pic. The Fayette House Hotel in on the right edge of the pic. An electrical system and water systems are present. Roads are dirt or mud with a board walk in front of the stores, and across the streets at the Main intersections. Buggies, wagons, and riding horses are the means of transportation, but by the next year, during the Fourth of July celebration, the streets will be lined with Model T Fords.