Wellman, IA

Wellman is a Washington County city whose name came with the railroad. Joseph Edward Wellman set aside 40 acres for the line and depot in July 1879, and the city incorporated in 1885. Before that shift, settlement centered on the English River: Wassonville had a gristmill, ferry, and road trade, but repeated flooding pushed the replacement village of Dayton onto higher ground in 1855. Wellman became the rail-centered town south of the river, with the old story still visible at the Wellman Heritage Museum in the former 1909 bank. If you’re orienting yourself, it’s English River, railroad, and a town built after the water changed the plan.