The first plat of Villisca was laid out in February, 1858, by D.N. Smith, of Burlington Iowa, representing a town company and the Burlington & Missouri River Railroad. By 1906, the city had evolved into the trading center of a rich farming region that covered a diameter of approxmately 25 miles. In this year, 16 passenger trains, 4 mail trains and numerous freight trains stopped daily at the Villisca depot.

   

Villisca was a retail town with 50 retail stores including 5 general stores handling dry goods, groceries, etc., 2 exclusive dry goods stores, 3 clothing and men's furnishing stores, 7 groceries, 4 hardware stores, 2 furniture stores, 4 drug stores, a tobacco store, 4 hotels, 3 restaurants, 7 shoe stores, 3 harness shops, 2 photograph galleries, 3 tailoring shops, a music store, a racket store, 3 meat markets, 2 jewelry stores, 4 millinery stores, a steam laundry, 3 blacksmith shops, a second-hand store, 2 plumbing shops, 2 fuel and feed yards, 2 implement houses, a billiard hall, a wagon shop, 2 poultry houses, 2 livery barns, 2 lumber yards, a grain elevator, 6 barber shops, an opera house, flouring mills, 3 real estate, loan and insurance offices, and 2 artificial lakes. Although there were no saloons in the city, there were two newspapers and two banks.

   

There were 8 factories operating in Villisca in 1906, including a cultivator factory, a cooper shop, a brick and tile yard, a monument and marble works, an ice cream and a cigar factory. Among the professional men living in Villisca were 11 physicans, 2 undertakers, 4 dentists, 2 lawyers, 8 ministers and 4 auctioneers. Farm lands around Villisca were selling fom $60.00 - $125.00 per acre, Corn, wheat, hay, oats, fruit and vegetables were the principal products grown while cattle, hogs, horses and chickens were raised and sold.

   

Villisca boasted two schools, a high school built in 1888 and a grade school built in 1901.The High School employed 5 teachers and had an enrollment of 130 students. The grade school had 10 teachers and 425 students. A music teacher taught students at both schools. Villisca's churches included a Methodist church, a Presbyterian church, a Baptist church, and a Christian church, as well as an Advent Christian, a Christian Science, and a Catholic church. According the the Review," the Protestant churches were centrally located, had good memberships and were doing good work without friction of any sort."

 

Villisca was also home to 13 lodges, two public improvement associations and a city library that housed 1500 books. In 1905, the net valuation of all real estate in the city was approximately $900,000. Personal property was estimated at $500,00- bringing the total assessed wealth of the city of Villisca to $1,400,000.

 

 

Villisca was made a city of the second class in March of 1982 when it's population reached 2000. City government included a mayor and a council of six members that met regularly on the first Wednesday of every month in the City Hall. Other city offices included a city clerk, treasurer, assessor, marshal, street commissioner, health officer and fire chief.

In 1906, a group of Villisca's leading citizen's formed an incorporation under the name of the Villisca Industrial Association. The objective of this group was to secure potential industries to promote the city's long term welfare. The group purchased a 15 acre tract of land, of which they offered generous sites to any and all factories willing to locate in the city.

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