It's hard to start a history of Brayton without
first mentioning the nearby town of Oakfield. In 1854-55 Isaac
P. Hallock bought from Samuel B. Hopkins the claim that originally
belonged to John S. Jenkins. After making the purchase, he decided
to move to Omaha and sold an interest to his son-in-law, Erasmus
Bradley, who proceeded to build the first store in the county.
The store did well, and Mr. Bradley decided to plat a town around
it. With the help of Alvah B. Brown, they laid out and platted
the town of Oakfield in 1858.
The name was suggested by Elam Pearl, who at that time was erecting
a sawmill on the Nishnabotna at Oakfield. The name suggested was
that of his former hometown in New York. The town lay on the east
side of the road and the Hallocks gave the land for a public park.
It reverted back to the heirs when Oakfield ceased to be a town.
Oakfield/Exira
Rivalry
Oakfield was a rival to Exira until the advent
of the railroad in 1878 when it was eclipsed by the town of Brayton.
It was the custom of the Oakfield people to assume superiority
over the people of Exira when it came to social affairs. If Exira
people got up a festivity or started some local improvement, the
people of Oakfield were prone to go them one better, and so it
went on, straining the cordiality and friendship that should have
existed between the little towns.
Early
Buildings
Oakfield's first school was built around 1858 and stood on
the west side of the town on the edge of a timber. In 1871-72
a new two-story school house was built. It was called the "Oakfield
Academy." Will Brinkerhoff was school principal for a time
and taught the advanced classes, preparing the students to become
teachers. The building was later remodeled and the upper story
removed.
A public hall was built in Oakfield in 1874 and was occupied by
the Odd Fellow's Lodge which was moved there from Louisville.
A Congregational church was organized and used the old school
house as a meeting house. Dr. Richard Hallock was the resident
physician. He was the son of Isaac P. Hallock Sr. who moved to
Oakfield in 1856 and permanently settled there on the site of
the present Hallock homestead. A large and beautiful home was
built in 1892 [now the site of a bed and breakfast owned and
operated by Guy and Ruth Barton].
In the 1870's, interest heightened in the excitement
of new progress brought to the Midwest by the building of the
Rock Island Railroad through the state. Oakfield's visions of
becoming a railroad town were dashed when I. P. Hallock refused
to allow a railroad to cut through his land. Endeavoring to bring
better ways of locomotion into the vicinity, the Jenkins' took
action. John S. and son, John T., owned land adjoining the Hallock
ranch on the west. They staked out land which later became the
Brayton town site, offered the railroad company five hundred dollars
to build the track across the land, and the company accepted the
offer.
Brayton
Is Born
In 1878, the town was platted and named Brayton in honor
of B. B. Brayton, a Rock Island chief engineer. The original plat
covered an area of about 30 3/4 acres, on the south side of the
northwest quarter of Section 19 in the Township 78, north of range
35.
The Jenkins' offered to anyone a free lot if they would erect
a building and establish a business. The town grew rapidly in
its early days.
The first business in Brayton was a blacksmith shop
operated by John Cooper, and grain was handled by Stockdale and
Day in 1878. In 1879, Burton and Kirkpatrick established the first
store handling drugs and in the same year the first general store
opened, operated by C. Crumbling. About 1881, J. Zimmerman opened
a hardware store. Early pool hall operators were F. B. Heath,
F. L. Freeman, Sorensen and George Schlater. The first hotel was
owned by Isaac Jenkins. In 1895, the Bank of Brayton was established
by James E. Bruce. All these were just a few of the businesses
in Brayton during those early years.
In its early days, Brayton boasted a hotel, three general stores,
movie theater, ham radio station, auto work shop, hardware store,
blacksmith shop, post office, two billiard halls, two barber shops,
bowling alley, a bank, large lumberyard, drug store, cream station,
feed stores, two halls for the Odd Fellows and Modern Woodman
lodges, cement factory, livestock office, and yards, cafe, telephone
central office, boarding house, shoe repair shop, two machine
shops, meat market, and as time went by, two oil stations, garages,
a beauty parlor, variety shop with barbering, and a bicycle shop
were added.
In the early 1900's, there were three trains daily, mixed freight
and passenger. A depot, warehouse and grain elevator had been
built on the east edge of town.
Brayton
School
The school was established in the 1890's. It
had served its purpose and the original building still stands.
In recent years it was purchased by the Baptist Church and continues
to be used by them (1978).
After the Oakfield Academy had reduced from a high school to a
grade school, the students from Brayton and Oakfield rode the
train to attend high school at Exira. Some may remember the conductor,
Scott Linn. The train also provided a means of transportation
to nearby Audubon, Exira or Atlantic for shopping or just an outing.
The
Town Incorporates
On March 1899, the town decided to incorporate
and a petition was circulated. The articles of incorporation were
filed for the record the 29th day of August 1899 at 6 o'clock
p.m. by M. N. Esbeck, recorder.
After the town became incorporated, the first election was held.
Dr. W. R. Koob was elected mayor. Some of the council members
were J. T. Jenkins, L. F. Miller, W. H. Pearson, C. L. Bisom,
and J. P. Bendrixin. R. W. Pollock was the first clerk.
Brayton
Thrives
As more people began to settle in the area, a need
for better mail service arose and the first rural route was established
in 1901. One of the early carriers was Johnny Kelly, son of Paul
Kelly. In recent years, Hilda McGovern served thirty years in
the Brayton postal department, 11 of those a postmaster and 19
as a rural carrier.
During the early 1900's, Brayton was a thriving, busy town. Businesses
were being built and changing hands quite rapidly. More mechanized
farming was taking place with the invention of motors and steam
engines. Jens P. Juhl was busy around the Brayton vicinity threshing
grain for farmers.
Although, by our modern standards, it would seem that there would
not be much entertainment in a town of this size, the people of
Brayton seemed to find lots to keep them entertained. There were
band concerts by the Brayton band, ball games between the Brayton
team and other area teams, movies, bowling, house dances, boxing
matches (not always scheduled), box socials and, once a year,
everyone took part in the town celebration.
The
1929 Fire
In 1929, a fire of undetermined origin dealt
the town quite a blow when the north side of one complete business
block was destroyed. Nine buildings in all went up in smoke. As
time went by, the north side of the street was rebuilt. Approximately
two years later, the theater was also lost by fire. Brayton seemed
to have more than its share of fires in those early days. Also
destroyed by fire was the Old Juhl Hall, the Juhl machine shop,
"Scoop" Peters gas station, and a fire of questionable
origin that destroyed a warehouse and an oil tank. With only a
bucket brigade to fight these fires, the chances of saving much
property were very slim.
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Information taken from One Hundred Years in Exira: 1857-1957, and History of Brayton, Iowa: 1878-1978. My comments in brackets.