When even the maps leave you behind

Stiles, Iowa no longer shows up on maps. It’s just a handful of people living there now. The old general store still stands however, complete with rusting Pepsi signs. I think the name was maybe Country Cupboard although it’s hard to tell.

Stiles, or Stilesville, as it was called in the early days, so named for Stiles Carpenter of early County fame, was platted around 1840. Stiles is located in the south central part of Grove township. In 1858 the population of Stiles was one hundred people, today, January 1975, thirty people live in this small village. Change has wrought its toll.

Around 1900 Stiles had three stores, a gristmill, a blacksmith shop and saw mill, both of these owned and operated by Mr. Nemitz and in later years by his son Omer. Two doctors, Dr. Dunlavey and Dr. Giles and each had their own drug store with rows of jars and bottles of pills and powder… There were two Lodges, the I.O.O.F. no. 202 and Quitman no. 217 of the Masons. The hitching racks of the town, and they had a good many, were always filled on Saturdays, especially with the people bringing corn, wheat, etc. to be ground into meal and flour, and the eggs to be exchanged for groceries, calico or whatever. While around the pot-bellied stove problems were heard, digested, repeated, discussed and sometimes solved.

The store on the west side of the north-south highway of Stiles is still in use and the owner-operator is Lloyd White, a grandson of Lloyd White an early resident of Stiles.

(From This is Davis County, Iowa, Davis County, Iowa, 1976)

There is a gravestone in the Stiles cemetery for Lloyd O. White (as well as his grandfather, Lloyd Buelan White). He passed in 1978 so I would guess that’s when the store closed. Just a guess of course.

A photo from 2001.

As you drive through these little towns, or what’s left of them it’s hard to fathom that they were full of businesses, that there were banks and churches and mills and multiple stores and pharmacies…and they were all full of people. And now they sit, surrounded by accumulated trash and seemingly endless abandoned vehicles. I don’t know why these towns felt bleaker than usual. I suppose it was a combination of the weather and our moods and the endless comedy of errors that made up our trip. As much as I love worn down buildings it’s hard to imagine stepping out of your house in some of these little towns, looking around and thinking that it’s a great day to be alive. But of course we get so used to seeing what’s around us that we stop seeing it. I don’t know. I mean once that little general store brought everything people needed to that little town. And now I order from Amazon far too often (new walker coming tomorrow—very excited). Ahh, so many puzzles in life.

Ending on a positive note: I made a milkshake for Ernie with the expensive protein powder and he liked it and drank it all (well, it was small, but STILL)!

Onward.

Love,
Cynthia