21Titles
Explore publications and collections from the past.
Community History Archive Partner
Howard Winneshiek Genealogical Soc.
Cresco, Iowa
Explore this community history collection to discover the people, places, organizations, and events of Cresco.
1834 to 2023Dates represented
See individual titles for available dates.
510,538Archive pages
Historical pages reported for this collection.
Explore local history
Discover the people, places, and stories of Cresco, Iowa.
Get to know Cresco, Iowa in earlier years through the newspapers shared in the Howard Winneshiek Genealogical Soc.'s digital archive. Its twenty-one titles include material from 1834 to 2023.
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Selected titles
In the collection shared by Howard Winneshiek Genealogical Soc., you will find “Cresco Plain Dealer” and “The Elma New Era”.
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Free and open access
No subscription or payment required.
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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 twenty-one titles and 510,538 digitized pages, with material from 1834 to 2023. A partnership between Howard Winneshiek Genealogical Soc. and Advantage Archives makes this collection available. Some years or items may be missing between the dates shown.
If you are tracing a family connection or exploring local history, the titles below offer a place to begin and a thread to follow.
Cresco Plain Dealer
40,946 pages from 1895 to 1945
Cresco Times
760 pages from 1867 to 1868
Cresco Times Plain Dealer
28,228 pages from 1988 to 2020
Elma Graphic
254 pages in 1959
Elma New Era
17,746 pages from 1834 to 1987
Elma Reminder
5,954 pages from 1971 to 1987
Elma Riceville New Era
362 pages from 1943 to 1944
Howard County Platbook
40 pages in 1880
Howard County Times
66,310 pages from 1871 to 1951
Iowa Plain Dealer
4,974 pages from 1881 to 1895
Lime Springs Herald
73,258 pages from 1932 to 2015
Lime Springs Sun
1,532 pages from 1897 to 1905
Record
16 pages in 1906
Recorder
256 pages in 1902
Riceville Recorder
114,028 pages from 1886 to 2015
Sun Herald
13,398 pages from 1916 to 1932
The Elma New Era
2,888 pages from 1903 to 1929
The TPD Cresco Times Plain Dealer
9,600 pages from 2015 to 2023
Times Plain Dealer
124,348 pages from 1951 to 2008
Times Plains Dealer
3,090 pages in 1989
Twice a Week Plain Dealer
2,550 pages from 1910 to 1913
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Partner Story
Mission Statement
Our purpose is to promote genealogy, to encourage genealogical research, inform the public about genealogy, to help our members and others to research their past, and to preserve local resources for use in genealogy, history, and community research for years to come.
Partner Story
Library Resources and Services
The Society houses its resources in the Southwest Corner of the main floor of the Cresco Public Library. The library is handicapped accessible. There is a reader/scanner/computer to view microfilm. Copies from it are free; you can bring your memory stick with USB connection and copy your material; or you can e-mail your material to your electronic devices.
Partner Story
Contact Information
Address: [Insert Address Here] Phone: [Insert Phone Number Here] Email: [Insert Email Here] Website: [Insert Website URL Here]
Partner Story
Hours of Operation
- Monday: [Insert Hours]
- Tuesday: [Insert Hours]
- Wednesday: [Insert Hours]
- Thursday: [Insert Hours]
- Friday: [Insert Hours]
- Saturday: [Insert Hours]
- Sunday: Closed
More ways to explore and share local history
Research Guidance
Look for the story behind a result
Start with something you would like to understand about the past of Cresco. It might be a person, a neighborhood or an event remembered in your family. Use the digital archive shared by the Howard Winneshiek Genealogical Soc. 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. Search a person, place, or event with a second term, then compare the date and context of each result. A repeated name needs more evidence before it identifies the same person or connects two parts of a story.
After recording the issue and page, search a second term tied to the result and compare the surrounding dates and accounts. Keep matching names provisional until the place and context fit. This can turn one result into a better question without turning a repeated name into a confirmed story.
Capture the title, date, and page or item location for a detail you may want to revisit. Label your interpretation as your reading, not the source's own words. Keep enough context with the note that another reader can retrace it.
Community Partnership
Keeping local history a community resource
This community archive is made possible by the collaboration of the Howard Winneshiek Genealogical Soc., 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
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.
May 7, 2025
Why Microfilm is still important in 2023
Preserving documents on microfilm has been a popular method of storage for many years, and it still holds many benefits today. Here…
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May 7, 2025
Don’t Search For An Obituary By Only Searching For An “Obituary”
In the quest to trace our roots and understand our heritage, obituaries often serve as a crucial starting point. Obituaries are undoubtedly…
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April 9, 2025
Unveiling the Hidden Mysteries: Exploring Cold Cases and Unconventional Clues
Even the most esteemed police forces in the county encounter perplexing cold case files. These unsolved mysteries often leave investigators and genealogists…
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April 1, 2025
This Week in History: March 31st through April 6th
Discover History in The Community History Archives. This week in history, there is absolutely nothing to talk about… April Fools! April…
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March 24, 2025
This Week in History: March 24th through March 30th
Discover History in The Community History Archives. It has officially been a year since I started writing This Week in History,…
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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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