Information about Buxton, Iowa by Rachelle Chase
While anxiously awaiting Netflix’s release of “Self Made: Inspired by the Life of Madame C.J. Walker,” the question popped into my head, “Had Madam C.J. Walker ever visited Buxton, Iowa?” The question was a plausible one. People—especially African Americans—beyond Iowa had heard of this amazing town. Buxton was a coal mining town of 5,000 residents […]
While researching how African Americans ended up being 55% of the population in Buxton, Iowa—which was established by Consolidation Coal Company—I did not expect to discover that one of the men who’d recruited African Americans to work in the company’s mines was Major Thomas Shumate, a Confederate officer. Within five to six years of establishing […]
I recently became a deltiologist. This new obsession is thanks to John Taylor, who introduced me to the word, and to John Taylor and John Jacobs who have shared their knowledge, fun of postcard collecting, and fascinating postcards. Both are among those who have allowed me to include their rare Buxton images in my books. […]
In 1906, Robert Gilbert Wells, an African American author and publisher in Buxton, Iowa ran ads soliciting agents to sell his new book, “Anthropology Applied to the American White Man and Negro.” The ad placed in the March 3, 1906 issue of the Richmond Planet provided a summary of the book: AGENTS WANTED. To […]
John Jacobs, an avid collector of Iowa history memorabilia, shared an article from an unidentified newspaper that lists the twelve things that no other town in Iowa – and in some instances, “the world” – had. While I have not been able to verify that these items existed only in Buxton, here’s what I know: […]
On December 28, 1900, a little over a month after first 100 employees of the Consolidation Coal Company moved from Muchakinock to Buxton, plans were underway for the Twentieth Century Club banquet. Part of those plans were to invite well known people, such as Buxton Superintendent Ben Buxton, Iowa Governor Leslie Shaw, and President McKinley. […]