CHARLES CITY is the county seat [Floyd County, Iowa], and is beautifully situated on Cedar river, on the stage route from Cedar Falls to Mitchell.
“In passing up the Cedar river to Charles City on the west bank, the road lies over a rolling prairie. In the ridges limestones occur, as is shown by the presence of occasional fragments lying on the surface, or perhaps here and there an imperfect exposure. The beds, as observed, are mostly shaly, and singularly devoid of fossils. An actual river section seems necessary to the determination of their relations to each other.
“On the Cedar, at Charles City, there is a small opening in thin beds of hard, buff-colored limestone. Under these beds occurs a thick-bedded, light-grey limestone, shading off into buff-grey: it contains numerous concretions. Both the upper and lower beds contain a few fossils, all of which are in a very imperfect condition, so that only one, an Atrypa retieularis, could be made out. There were a few fragments of corals obtained here, which are too poorly preserved to be distinctly recognized.
“The next section was taken at a quarry three-fourths of a mile above Charles City, on the west side of the river. The beds are of very hard limestone, which is mosly fine-grained and rather brittle: they vary in thickness from four inches to one foot; and the different layers resemble each other so much that they could hardly be distinguished in hard specimens, especially as they are all equally unfossiliferous. The whole section exposed is only nine feet above the level of the dam at Charles City, of which two at the base are concealed by detritus.
“The court house at Charles City is built of this rock, which is a good material for building, although too brittle to dress evenly and handsomely. The quarry is conveniently situated for use, as the back-water from the dam sets up as far as that, and allows the blocks to be rafted down to the town. The beds exposed at this point are probably a little higher in the series than those of the section at Charles City."—Geology of Iowa.
The soil is sandy, but excellent, and the water power of the best kind. There are a large flour mill and two saw mills here. The town has, four churches, Baptist, Christian, Congregational and Methodist, a Masonic Lodge, No. 141, and a Lodge of Good Templars; three general stores, two grocery stores, one drug store and one bank. The Charles City Intelligencer is published weekly, by Hon. A. B. F. Hildreth. Population, 700. (Hair's Iowa State Gazetteer..., 1865)