Discover Redfield

Museums & History

Two museums downtown, and the story of how Redfield became Redfield.

Redfield is one of the oldest towns in Dallas County. Two museums downtown carry that history: a historical museum that opened in 2014 with photographs going back nearly a century, and the Grand Army of the Republic Lodge, the last building still standing on its original site from the original town. The rest of the block burned in a 1900 fire.

How Redfield became Redfield

The town was first platted as New Ireland by three Irish immigrant brothers, Patrick, Thomas, and Michael Cavenaugh, who arrived in Dallas County in the early 1850s. Early pioneers called it "Irishtown," and one of the Cavenaughs' first buildings, a hewed-oak log cabin, hosted many of the community's earliest gatherings.

A settler named James Redfield arrived in 1855 and established a competing town called Wiscotta a short distance away. When the railroad chose to run its lines through New Ireland instead, Redfield and his partners bought the plat from the Cavenaugh brothers. In the fall of 1860 the town was formally renamed Redfield.

James Redfield went on to serve as an Iowa State Senator, and later gave his life at the Battle of Allatoona Pass in Georgia during the Civil War, in October 1864.

A stop on the Underground Railroad

Fifteen months before the town took its new name, the abolitionist John Brown led twelve freedom seekers across Iowa. On February 16, 1859, his three-wagon caravan stopped overnight at the farm of Jonathan M. Murray, a Maine-born abolitionist who lived about a mile east of what is now Redfield.

Brown's stop was one moment in a larger network. Redfield sat on the Underground Railroad's Quaker Divide route, and local Quakers, including the Cook family, helped house and move freedom seekers through Dallas County. A Freedom Trail marker at the Redfield Depot commemorates the story.

Visit the museums

Redfield Historical Museum

814 First Street. Opened in 2014 and maintained by the Redfield Historical Society. Home to a large collection of school composite photos from the 1920s through the 1990s, along with many other photographs and artifacts from the town's history.

Visiting hours

Season: May through November

Hours: Saturdays, 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.

Off-season and weekdays by appointment. Call 515.833.2929 to schedule.

Grand Army of the Republic Lodge

1213 Thomas Street. The last remaining building from Redfield's original downtown. A 1900 fire leveled the block, and the Lodge is the only structure still standing on its original site. Dallas County Conservation Board led its restoration. Today the ground floor is a museum, and the Post Meeting Room is upstairs.