Michael W. Lemberger

Established in 1903, South Ottumwa Savings Bank has grown from a simple currency exchange to a full-service financial institution. More than 100 years after erecting its first building on the corner of Church and Weller in Ottumwa, Iowa, the bank proudly opens its newest facility, stretching along Church Street from Weller to Myrtle. Though its footprint in the community has grown immensely since its founding, South Ottumwa Savings Bank remains the community's only home-owned bank, devoted to serving its customers in every possible way.

Businesses pay for advertisements to inform consumers and persuade them to buy products - but years later, those same advertisements are like a time capsule of a community. Ads show how a business develops, how commerce changes, and how the economy waxes and wanes as years go by. The ads reproduced in this book were originally published in city directories listing residents and businesses in Ottumwa, Iowa, and show the development of a community through 90 years of advertising.

Though early settlement in Iowa followed the rivers, it was the advent of the railroads, starting in the late 1850s, which opened up the remainderof the state for development -- bringing goods to residents and sending their crops and products out to the world. Railroads formed the backbone of middle America, with dozens of trains -- freight and passenger -- reaching out to nearly every small town in the region. This collection of photographs from the 1800s to the present day celebrates the railroads and railroaders of southeast Iowa.