Buxton: Iowa Time Machine June 26, 1914

Iowa Time Machine ⏰: On June 26, 1914, an article in the Iowa Defender warned: “Lots of our best men and women are leaving…” In the early twentieth century, the town seemed to prove that a company town could build a thriving community around coal, yet the same industry that made Buxton boom also led to its bust.

Buxton was founded as a coal mining company town by the Consolidation Coal Company to supply the Chicago and Northwestern Railway, and it stands out in Iowa history for its unusual racial composition and integration. The town was officially established in 1895, following the company's purchase of 8,600 acres in Monroe County and 1,600 acres in Mahaska County. In 1905, the census listed about 2,700 Black residents and 1,991 white residents, making 55% of the population African American; other sources say 70–90% were Black at the town’s peak.

Buxton’s population reached about 5,000 to 6,000 at its height, making it the largest unincorporated coal town west of the Mississippi River and the largest unincorporated community in the United States at one point. It also produced notable African American leaders, including E.A. Carter, the first black graduate of the University of Iowa College of Medicine, and George H. Woodson, who co-founded the Niagara Movement and later helped create the National Bar Association. The town thrived from around 1900 through 1914, then declined as the coal was depleted and the company abandoned it by 1923.

The Defender article captured the growing instability: after a long layoff, the mines had restarted, and the writer hoped they would run regularly because “this has been a very hard year.” The article also noted that many men had been unemployed that spring, which strained churches and mutual aid societies. Buxton’s later decline, including mine closures and population loss, shows how quickly a booming coal town can go bust as the mines give out. #Iowa #History #OTD #Coal #Industry