Chickasaw County Iowa


Introduction to the 1906 County Directory

with editorial comments by Webmaster, Jannette Hendricks

"The 1906 Chickasaw County Directory" is actually entitled:

Illustrated Directory and Historical Sketches of Chickasaw County, Iowa  1906.

The subtitle is a bit more lengthy and goes:  "Containing a list of the farmers of the county and all persons in their homes who get mail.  Also City Directories of New Hampton, Nashua, Lawler and Fredericksburg; a county map and a map of each township, shopwing the names of the land owners and the size of their farms: Also all school houses, roads, churches, etc. Biographical sketches of many of the prominent citizens with many attractive illustrations."

I apologize for perhaps boring you with my editorial comments, but I think it is in your interest for me to share my experience and observations with you, if you intend to search the 1906 Directory looking for your ancestors.

The 1906 Directory is an interesting little book, and it is small in size, measuring approximately 6 x 9 inches.  I spent the better part of two years transcribing the data in this book, as well as, analyzing the content.  Part of my analysis has been to periodically cross reference this data with county census records.  The closest census to the 1906 Directory is the State Census of 1905 and then the two federal census schedules of 1900 (preceeding) and the 1910 (succeeding) the 1906 Directory.  One of the things that prompted me to devote time to this somewhat painful analysis is that I would get confused now and then, thinking I should really be finding so-and-so in the Directory, and wasn't!  In order to deal with my consternation about what was going on, I was compelled to wander down that road (of analysis) to see if I could understand why, since there is no one alive to ask, that I know of.

Here are some general guidelines and things to keep in mind when searching this data.

  • The 1906 Directory is not the equivalent of a census.
  • There were many families in Chickasaw County in 1906 that do not appear in the Directory.
  • Even within households, members of families are not listed.  I do not know why.
  • There are numerous spelling errors.  I have taken the liberty of correcting spelling errors, where I am certain, otherwise I have transcribed the data as-is.
  • Their intent was to publish the directory information by township, in alphabetical order.  There are many errors in the alphabetization.  I have not consistently corrected for this error, so just be aware that now and then surnames will appear out of order.  (They didn't have computers!)
  • I have no idea what criteria was applied in the development of this directory as to why people were included or excluded.  If I knew that, I would tell you.  (Even with my analysis, I have not come up with a credible theory on that.)
  • The presentation of the data is pretty self explanatory, except that the numbering system for each family is my own invention and serves several purposes, including being able to identify the exact number of people in a household.  I have made the "head of household" bold, as it helps to quickly spot them on the page.

What is important to keep in mind with respect to the 1906 Directory is that it is a nice supplement to the state and federal censuses, but if your people don't appear in it, don't draw the wrong conclusions.

If your people do appear in it, that's great, it's one more means of documenting your people in Chickasaw County in the 1906 timeframe.

If we maintain the right perspective concerning this data and remember that it should be considered supplementary to other data sources we will not get off-track.  Even with its shortcomings, I think we are better off with this data source than without it.

A Personal Example:  My grandmother was born in May 1904. She does not appear in this 1906 Directory, in her household.  It would be a gross error for me to conclude (assuming, of course, that I didn't know better) that she was not alive in 1906, because she doesn't appear listed in this directory.  Or to assume that I had her date of birth wrong, that she must have been born after 1906, because she wasn't listed in the 1906 Directory.  (In the case of a federal or state census schedule, however, these kinds of conclusions would be more reasonable, but do not apply these kinds of conclusions based on findings in this directory alone.)