TOLED0, the county seat [Tama County, Iowa], is situated upon parts of sections 15 and 22, in township 83, range 15, west of the 5th principal meridian, on high, rolling prairie, and is sheltered on the west and northwest by a range of bluffs about a mile distant, covered with timber. Deer Creek runs between the bluff and the town. The town contains three dry goods stores, five grocery stores, two hotels, one drug store, one jewelry store, one clothing store, two photograph galleries, two tailor shops, two millinery shops, one barber shop, two carriage shops, two harness shops, three blacksmith shops, two cabinet shops, one cooper shop, one agricultural warehouse and one printing office. The Iowa Transcript is published weekly, by N. C. Wieting. There are five churches in the place, belonging, respectively, to the Methodists, Congregationalists, Presbyterians, Baptists and Catholics; also a large and substantial two-story brick school house, in which a graded school is taught. There are four attorneys and five physicians.
The natural route of the Iowa Central Railroad is in the valley of Deer Creek, near the borders of the town, and will, beyond a doubt, be built there within a short time. This will give it the benefit of the St. Louis market, as well as that of Chicago. Population about 800. (Hair's Iowa State Gazetteer..., 1865)