Ankeny: the town the railroad helped make

Ankeny begins with a founder and a rail line. The City of Ankeny says John Fletcher Ankeny and his wife Sarah founded the community in 1875, and that John Ankeny was a Des Moines businessman, politician, and stockholder in the Minnesota Narrow Gauge Railroad that was later built through the town. A 2025 city proclamation marking Ankeny’s 150th birthday adds that the Ankenys had purchased 80 acres in 1874 and that the town was officially formed in 1875.  The railroad was not an abstract piece of background history. The city says the narrow-gauge line was completed from Des Moines through Ankeny to Ames between 1874 and 1880, and that passenger service began in July 1880, with a one-way fare to Des Moines of 33 cents. For a new farming community, that rail connection meant access, circulation, and the possibility of becoming more than a crossroads.  The settlement was still tiny in the beginning. Both the city and the Ankeny Area Historical Society say that by 1881 the town consisted of just seven houses, a Methodist church, a depot, a combination store and post office, a livery stable, a blacksmith shop, a rooming house, a machine shop, and a school. Newspapers arrived by train on Fridays, and there was no mail delivery. That is the kind of detail that makes early Ankeny feel less like a suburb-in-waiting and more like a fragile little rail town trying to become real.  The early economy was agricultural, which fits the place John Ankeny founded. The Historical Society says farmers in the area raised sorghum for molasses and drove hogs from Ankeny to market in Keokuk, a trip that took seven days. That older farm rhythm still matters because it reminds you Ankeny’s first identity was not speed, growth, or modern convenience. It was rural production, long travel, and rail-linked commerce.  Formal town status came later. The city says Ankeny incorporated on February 28, 1903, with a total incorporated area of one square mile, and that seven years later the U.S. census counted 445 residents. It is hard to look at present-day Ankeny and fully hold that number in your head, which is part of what makes the town’s early story so useful. It restores scale.  So the strongest first Ankeny story is not really about growth yet. It is about origin: a founder, a spouse, a rail investment, a few buildings, a church, a depot, and a tiny place that believed connection to Des Moines and Ames might be enough to build a town. In many ways, Ankeny has spent the last 150 years proving that early bet was right.