Each man paid $1.50 an acre at the government land office in Iowa City.

Surveyors for the Cedar Rapids and Missouri River Railroad moved on from the line's western terminus at Marshalltown in the spring of 1863.

They selected a route along the north side of Linn Creek for the first nine miles because the rising grade was more advantageous.

They bridged Linn Creek, known for its flash flooding even then, a mile and a half west of Cedar Crossing (now LaMoille) where the Waterloo stage line from Marietta to Edenville and Des Moines crossed the creek.

John L. Stevens, an employee of the railroad now known as the Chicago and North Western, platted a town on November 8, 1867, in Section 2, Washington township, under direction of the railroad.