June 18, 1869 – The good people of Johnson County are rewarded with second post office. Located on the west side of the Iowa River, it was in Coralville, with Lemuel G. Wilson serving as its first postmaster. And when the U.S. Post Office decides on a city’s name – believe me – it’s now “official”!
Did you know that Coralville’s name is derived from the fossilized coral that is found within the limestone on which the mills and dam on the Iowa River were built.
Yet the village on the Iowa River that was first formed around the Territory’s largest grist mill and dam became known to many as Clarksville when Ezekiel Clark and his brother-in-law, Samuel J. Kirkwood, took over the mill in the 1850’s. In 1866, the townspeople renamed it Coralville, opened its first post office in 1869, and incorporated the village in 1873. Yet despite all that, many locals continued to call it Clarksville even at the turn of the century. Come read the full story.
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