Below are excerpts from the Iowa Backroad Town Signs web site. This article was written by Brian McMillian, October 21, 2011.
A modest sign welcome visitors to the Jasper County community of Valeria highlighting the railroad romance that led to its establishment. In the early 1860s, the William H. Johnson family, including his sister Edna Valeria, left the South and settled at the present-day site of Valeria.
Edna fell in love with a young civil engineer named McBride, who worked for the Chicago and Great Western Railroad. They convinced her father to allow the tracks to cross his land on the condition the depot would be called Valeria. The couple eventually married, though McBride left the railroad to become a dentist.
To read the entire article, please go to iowabackroads.com/town-sign-valeria-iowa.
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