[3] Charles City is a significant commercial and transportation center for the area.

[4] The Ho-Chunk people, also known as Winnebago, had long occupied this area and had a village along the Cedar River.

In 1851 Joseph Kelly, the first-known European-American settler in the area, came here after the Ho-Chunk had been pushed out.

He believed that the site was ideal for a town, as it had water from the Cedar River and adjacent timberland to supply building needs.

After graduating from the University of Wisconsin, Hart and Parr developed a two-cylinder gasoline engine.

3 is the oldest surviving internal combustion engine tractor in the United States.

It is displayed at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C.[8] In 1929, Hart-Parr was one of the four companies that merged to form Oliver Farm Equipment Company and finally the White Farm-New Idea Equipment Co. At its peak in the mid-1970s, the sprawling plant complex encompassed 23 acres and employed nearly 3,000 workers.

[citation needed] The 1980s farm crisis and other economic pressures led to the closing of the plant in 1993.

The Floyd County Historical Museum preserves the plant's history and memories in an extensive collection of documents and artifacts.

[9] National women's rights leader Carrie Lane Chapman Catt spent her girlhood years on a farm south of Charles City.

Catt is well known as a prominent leader of the woman's suffrage movement and was instrumental in gaining passage of the 19th Amendment, ratified on August 18, 1920, which granted women the right to vote.

[10] On June 9, 2008, record flooding caused major damage in the town.

Charles City's historic suspension bridge, which crossed over the Cedar River, collapsed.

Charles City is in a location subject to tornadoes, and has been severely damaged by them many times in its history.

In the summer of 1858 (possibly July 21), while still known as the village of St. Charles, a "Terrific Tornado" was recorded.

The path of the tornado ran through the southeast part of the city, missing the business district.

[12][13]Many people around the region remember Charles City as the site of a devastating F5 tornado that ripped through town on May 15, 1968.

It resulted in 13 dead, hundreds injured, and was one of the largest twisters ever recorded in the state, this storm destroyed much of the downtown – 256 businesses and 1,250 homes.