This volume in the Family Maps series contains newly created maps of original landowners (patent maps) in what is now Benton County, Iowa, gleaned from the indexes of the U.S. Bureau of Land Management. But it offers much more than that.

A memoir from a schoolteacher of growing up in the heart of the Midwest during the Great Depression describes life on an Iowa farm during a time of endless work, resourcefulness, no tolerance for idleness or waste, family, and kinship.

It was designed by the railroad's architect and chief engineer, H.F. White, and built by A.H. Connor & Company of Cedar Rapids. The single-story brick structure was constructed on a limestone foundation.