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Community History Archives

Community History Archive Partner

Exira Public Library

Exira, Iowa

Explore this community history collection to discover the people, places, organizations, and events of Exira.

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10Titles

Explore publications and collections from the past.

1885 to 2025Dates represented

See individual titles for available dates.

189,712Archive pages

Historical pages reported for this collection.

Explore local history

Discover the people, places, and stories of Exira, Iowa.

Get to know Exira, Iowa in earlier years through the newspapers shared in the Exira Public Library's digital archive. Its ten titles include material from 1885 to 2025.

You can open the archive using the link below.
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  • Selected titles

    Explore titles such as “Audubon County Advocate Journal” and “Decorah Public Opinion”, shared by Exira Public Library.

  • Free and open access

    No subscription or payment required.

  • A closer look

    Newspaper pages connect individual accounts with a wider story, preserving how events were reported and presented to the readers of the day.

Historical newspapers can connect a family name with the events and everyday concerns of an earlier time, offering more than a date or a name on its own. Bring a family connection, a question about a familiar place or an interest in local history, and see where the sources lead. Explore the archive online for free, without a subscription.

Explore the collection

Titles in this collection

Browse ten titles and 189,712 digitized pages, with material from 1885 to 2025. A partnership between Exira Public Library and Advantage Archives makes this collection available. Some years or items may be missing between the dates shown.

Bring a person, place or date you recognize, and browse the titles below for a first clue in the story you want to follow.

Audubon County Advocate Journal

59,700 pages from 1993 to 2025

Audubon County Journal

68,334 pages from 1918 to 1988

Audubon County Republican

3,626 pages from 1885 to 1894

Audubon News Advocate

22,170 pages from 1961 to 1993

Audubon News Guide

8,398 pages from 1955 to 1961

Audubon Republican

13,610 pages from 1894 to 1909

Decorah Public Opinion

318 pages in 1978

The Advocate Republican

2,568 pages from 1949 to 1950

The Audubon Republican

10,936 pages from 1909 to 1921

The Decorah Journal

52 pages in 1978

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About the Archive

Exira Public Library History Archive

The Exira Public Library , in partnership with Advantage Archives , provides free and open online access to historical newspaper content documenting Exira and the surrounding Audubon County community. The Community History Archive makes local primary sources more accessible to residents, genealogists, students, educators, and researchers interested in the people, families, businesses, farms, schools, organizations, and events that shaped the area. The library's broader genealogy collection also includes historical Audubon County Journal microfilm, vital records, census records, cemetery information, and family histories.

About the Library

About the Exira Public Library

Located at 114 W. Washington Street, the Exira Public Library serves residents of Exira as well as surrounding rural areas and neighboring communities. Its mission centers on providing recreational, educational, and informational materials and services for people throughout the community.

The library provides books, magazines, newspapers, audiobooks, eBooks, DVDs, reference materials, interlibrary loan, public computers, free Wi-Fi, and digital resources. Programming includes children's story times, an annual Summer Reading Program, and adult programs featuring authors, guest speakers, and special topics. A public meeting room also provides space for educational meetings, social activities, and other community uses.

Local and family history research is an important part of the library's resources. Its genealogy collection includes Audubon County Journal microfilm, birth, death, marriage, and census records, cemetery records, and local family histories. By combining these research materials with digital access through the Community History Archive, the library helps bring Exira's historical record to a wider audience.

Exira Public Library photo 1

Library History

History of the Exira Public Library

Historical records document an established library presence in Exira during the early twentieth century. The community appears in Iowa library records from the Carnegie era, including references from 1914, 1915, and 1916. The library has continued to develop as a public resource for reading, research, technology, programming, and community activities.

Preserving Exira's newspaper history remains part of that work. In 2026, the State Historical Society of Iowa awarded the Exira Public Library $15,247 through the Historical Resource Development Program for a project titled "Digitization of Exira's Historical Newspaper Microfilm." The award reflects an ongoing commitment to preserving local newspapers and improving public access to the historical record.

About the Community

About Exira and Audubon County, Iowa

Exira is located in the East Nishnabotna River valley in western Iowa and is recognized as the oldest town in Audubon County. The community was established in 1857 and named for Exira Eckman, daughter of Judge John Eckman of Ohio. According to local history, a proprietor initially intended to call the settlement Viola, but Eckman offered to purchase a lot if the new town was named for his daughter.

Exira's development was closely connected to the settlement and agricultural growth of western Iowa. Railroad development also influenced the area's early history even though the main railroad line ultimately bypassed the community. Agriculture and agribusiness became central to the local economy, while newspapers recorded the activities of farms, merchants, schools, churches, government, families, and community organizations across generations.

One of the most consequential events in Exira's modern history occurred on July 2, 1958, when flooding along the East Nishnabotna River devastated the community. The disaster destroyed 75 homes and 20 businesses and resulted in 19 deaths. Records, photographs, newspaper reports, and other historical materials documenting events such as the flood preserve firsthand perspectives that help connect today's community with earlier generations.

Local History

Did You Know?

Exira's Fourth of July tradition dates back to 1861. The community has continued the celebration for generations, making it one of Exira's most enduring local traditions. The annual festivities have become closely associated with the town and provide an example of the community events documented through local newspapers and historical collections.

More ways to explore and share local history

Research Guidance

Follow a report into its setting

Start with something you would like to understand about the past of Exira. It might be a person, a neighborhood or an event remembered in your family. Use the digital archive shared by the Exira Public Library to follow that question into the historical record. When using historical newspapers, try alternate spellings and nearby dates, then read the surrounding page to place a local story in its time. Compare later reporting or another available title to explore different perspectives rather than treating one account as the whole story. Read the headline and neighboring articles as well as the matching lines. The surrounding page can show whether a report is local news, an editorial, or another kind of account; compare its details with later coverage where available.

Take a place or institution mentioned in a report as a new search lead. Check the issue date and read nearby articles to see how the setting is described. Preserve historical names and boundaries as written, and compare another dated reference before connecting the place to a present-day location.

Record which title, date, page, or item supports a useful lead. Mark unanswered questions before connecting it to a family or community story. A similar name can point you toward another source, but it is not proof of identity.

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Community Partnership

Keeping local history a community resource

This community archive is made possible by the collaboration of the Exira Public Library, its community, and Advantage Archives. Together, these partnerships preserve local sources and give people a way to explore, learn from, and share the history around them.

Advantage Archives covers ongoing archive hosting, storage, development, and maintenance. The institution and its community do not pay a subscription, seat license, annual support contract, or other recurring archive-service charge. Local history remains a community resource, not a subscription to maintain.

Would you like to see more of your community's history preserved and accessible? Start a conversation with your library, newspaper publisher, historical or genealogical society, museum, or school about the materials they would like to share and a possible partnership with Advantage Archives.

Learn about partnerships
Read All About It

Stories, research tips, and archive news

Read All About It connects archive research with the people and institutions preserving local history. Explore partner and community stories, project updates, research ideas, and perspectives on digitization, education, and working with primary sources. Use the articles as a starting point for your next question or a new way to share a discovery.

Newest published articles

March 18, 2025

It’s Your Community’s History, So Why Rent Something You Own?

We believe that history belongs to the communities where it was made - not locked behind paywalls or inaccessible due to budget restrictions. Subscription-based services and large content aggregators are generally more concerned with "content" and less concerned with the history that content contains. Their models typically involve a reoccurring charge for a plan that renews annually or licensing agreements with the library based on population served or circulation numbers. You are essentially Renting Access To YOUR History.
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