iPentimento | Genealogy and History

Where is Clinton, Iowa Anyway?

My husband grew up in Clinton, Iowa, and when he and I came back from two years in Germany I became familiar with my new hometown and its newspaper, the Clinton Herald.

Old Clinton Pictures on Facebook

I’m a member of a group on Facebook called Old Clinton Pictures, and the very reason this group came to be in the first place was a because of a big mistake the Clinton Herald made on their website. Although I had never been a participant in the forum hosted on the Herald’s site, I found out later that one person had uploaded hundreds of old historic Clinton photos to share with the rest of the members of the forum.

Then, arbitrarily, the Clinton Herald took down the forum and all those pictures were ‘lost’ to everyone. I suppose it could be said that you shouldn’t put all your eggs in one basket, but that really isn’t the thrust of this article. Just to add insult to injury, recently the Herald had posted on their site a small blurb asking for readers to submit their old photos. If they got about ten they said, they would do a slide show. Sorry Herald, too little, too late!

When I, and many of the other people in the Old Clinton Pictures group heard about that, we made a beeline right to the Clinton Herald website and gave them a good raking over the coals. Many times, something good comes from something bad that happens, and that’s just the case here. As it turns out, the OCP group is doing very well at Facebook and there are already over 1000 members and growing.

Lillian Russell Lived In Clinton

Clinton, Iowa is a wonderful old town established in 1855 and is located at the eastern most point in Iowa on the Mississippi River.  One of the most famous people that ever lived there was Lillian Russell, one of America’s noted singer/actresses of yesteryear.

Even if you have no real connection to Clinton, Iowa, the old photos being shared on Facebook by the Old Clinton Pictures group are worth the price of admission! Check out my old picture postcard of Clinton, Iowa. What year do you think it was taken?  What are the cars in this photo doing that you can no longer do in Clinton?