LINN COUNTY'S
NEWEST TOWN

ELY THE LATEST COMMUNITY
TO INCORPORATE

Begins Municipal Existence With a Strong List of Officials - Some Things of Interest Concerning the Village - Good Business Field.

George L. Kent, mayor
Joseph Lorenc, recorder
Joseph Holets, treasurer
Frank Janko, marshal
J.C. Dvorak, N.J. Jordan, Joseph Novotny, John Asenbrener, M.D. Vanourny and Godfrey Truhlar, members of the council.

Having concluded to enter upon corporate municipal existence these are the men wisely selected by the people of Ely to give shape to their first official acts and to order their first improvements - to lay the foundation for the town, the city or the other form of government that progress and increasing size may bring into existence.

All these men are well known in the southern half of the county and the most of them have an acquaintance larger than the county, and the wisdom of the voters will not be called in question in making the selection.

Potential Strength
As potential strength, Ely has a population of 200, among whom are forty-seven voters, and there are fifty-one dwellings within the territory of 200 acres that has been incorporated.

Various lines of business are well represented, and Ely has been, since its foundation, a good trading point for the farmers, the merchants having practically the advantages of city existence in their location and the ease with which they communicate with the whole-sale trade of Cedar Rapids.

The people of the village and the farmers who trade at that point supply the force that has made Ely what it is and that will be responsible for advancement.

The lines represented at this time are -
Three general stores
One drug store
Two harness shops
One hardware
Two agricultural implement stores
One bank
One church
Two school buildings
One grain elevator
One creamery
One lumber yard
Two blacksmith shops
Two butcher shops
One shoemaker
One carpet weaver
One saloon
One hotel
One undertaker and furniture

These lines of business would alone stamp the place as a typical "center" of a western farming section, and it may be said that personally and socially the merchants of Ely have a hospitable manner that is calculated to win friends in any of the affairs of life.