This ad, by the Milford Agriculture firm of Harper and Sons (see page 224), ran in the 4 Nov 1944 Cappers Farmer magazine. Harpers lived two miles west and 2 3/4 north of Milford. The ad photo of a boar was edited. Page 224.
During the summer of 1935 Marbelyed floor- ing, 1/4 in thick, was to be placed in the hallway in the basement, 1st stairway up and down, and the landings. It was expected that the task could be completed by the 26th of August, when school started. The cost was $235 but this did not mention the labor involved. The way the article is written makes it appear that the janitor, Mr Mann, would do the labor. Mr Mann was also expected, for $15 extra, to clean the cess pool yet that summer.
From the Nevada Paper of 7 Nov 1871:
Milford --This township now has it entirely in her power to say whether the IM&NPRR (Iowa, Minnesota, and Northern Pacific Rail Road) shall be built or not. A five percent tax must be raised along the entire line to insure the building of the road. As we understand from the officers, the road will have to pass through Milford, if built, and it cannot be built without this aid.. Therefore we see how necessary it is that the last township of the line shall come up even with the balance. No tax, no roads. No cross, no crown.
The implication of this article might be that Milford Twp was the last Township in Iowa to vote on this issue but such was not the case as Milford was not the last township on the proposed line to vote on the matter.
Then, during the middle of Dec of 1871, the following article appeared in the Nevada Paper:
Notice is hereby given that a special election will be held by the legal voters of Milford township, in Story County, State of Iowa , on the 30th day of December, AD 1871, at the Milford schoolhouse in said township, at which election will be submitted to said voters the question of aiding by a tax of five per centum upon the as- sessed value of the taxable property of said township in the consternation of the Iowa, Minnesota and North Pacific Railway (the same being a line of railroad projected to run from some point in the southern part of Iowa through the counties of Jasper, Story and Hamilton, by way of Newton, Nevada and Webster City to the northern boundary of the State of Iowa, said taxes to be expended in Milford Township. ...............
This Milford School would have been the School in the southeast corner of Sec 18. Then in Jan of 1872 the results were published in a lengthy article that explained that consideration was being given to a route further east and this would cause further votes to be taken in other townships.
Railroad---The voting of a five percent tax in Milford Township last Saturday, a majority of 23 in a vote of 90, serves to (establish) a line of townships through Story County, that have voted a five percent tax to aid the IM&NP RR. The townships are Indian Creek, Nevada, Milford, and Howard. Upon the south end of the line between this county and Newton, the company is setting up two lines, one by the way of Prairie City, and the other through Collins Township. Should the latter be adopted, it will be necessary for that township to fall into line also.
History has shown that vote was for nil as the railroad located both to the west (through Gilbert) and to the east (through Fernald). No reason has been discovered to explain exactly what forces came to play that changed the original planning.
On 8 Nov 1935 it was announced that funding had been secured for the replacement of the Blackman crossing with an underpass. (Later S-14) This is about a quarter mile north of the entrance to the Nevada Cemetery. This is a road that one could travel from Milford Township into Nevada. At this same announcement was the funding for an overpass -not an underpass- in Ames. The project in Nevada was listed at $40,000 and the Ames project at $100,000.
On 12 Dec 1936 the road was opened officially for the use of the public. It had been closed since 1 Aug for the $28,000 construction project. Approximately 15,000 cubic yards of dirt was moved in this effort to remove one of the most dangerous grade crossings in this part of the state. No numbers on accidents were listed though. It was not mentioned just how this underpass was constructed. Was the railroad grade raised or were the approaches simply removed? Only the most vivid imagination can speculate on how many lives have been saved by this project and, in all likelihood, some would have been from Milford.