Do you know of Gale ???
This page is an orphan - a placeholder until we can discover more about Gale. When we encounter a name that is new to us, we add it to our Gazetteer with the hope that we'll discover more information in the future. Such is the case with Gale.
Our sources for Gale (see Mentions and References below) indicate that it was a community with a post office by the same name. Unfortunately our sources aren't clear about the location of Gale other than they indicate that Gale would be found somewhere in Woodbury County, Iowa.
From the Blevins / Hellbock List: The post office opened in 1871 and closed in 1888.
This entry could have originated in error. It might be that a source had a misprint, was simply wrong or we made a transcription error while referencing it. Many of the documents we reference are from the 1800s and the early 1900s, with some easier to read than others.
Part of the difficulty in identifying whether a name is a post office or a community lies with how Post Offices were named. We've prepared an article with our understanding of how post offices were named: Naming of Post Offices.
Communities Also Named Gale ...
We found fifteen communities that share the name Gale.
Within Iowa, the name Gale is unique.
Beyond Iowa, we know of another fifteen communities that are located throughout in the United States.
- Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
- California
- San Bernardino County
- Please visit our profile page for the California community of Gale [San Bernardino County].
- Idaho
- Madison County
- Please visit our profile page for the Idaho community of Gale [Madison County].
- Illinois
- Alexander County
- Please visit our profile page for the Illinois community of Gale [Alexander County].
- Indiana
- Hendricks County
- Please visit our profile page for the Indiana community of Gale [Hendricks County].
- Kansas
- Michigan
- Oceana County
- We found mention of this community, but have little information.<1> For the information that we do have, please visit our profile page for the Michigan community of Gale [Oceana County].
- Ontonagon County
- We found mention of this community, but have little information. For the information that we do have, please visit our profile page for the Michigan community of Gale [Ontonagon County].
- New York
- Saint Lawrence County
- Please visit our profile page for the New York community of Gale [Saint Lawrence County].
- North Carolina
- Oregon
- Pennsylvania
- Washington County
- Please visit our profile page for the Pennsylvania community of Gale [Washington County].
- South Dakota
- Utah
- West Virginia
- Upshur County
- Please visit our profile page for the West Virginia community of Gale [Upshur County].
- California
Miscellaneous References and Mentions for Gale ...
We've created the following list to keep track of the sources that proved useful in adding to our knowledge about Gale:
Found in a comprehensive list of Post Offices that was created by Cameron Blevins and Richard Helbock.<2>
Article: Index to Abandoned Towns of Iowa
Taken from The Annals of Iowa (Volume 18, Issue 3 - Winter 1932)
Written by: Mott, David C.
Business Atlas and Shippers' Guide (1895)
Published by Rand McNally & Co.
A note taken from the Shipper's Guide for Gale - Services available: had a Post Office, no Railroad mentioned
More Orphans in Woodbury County ...
Can you help?
As we explained above, when we encounter a name that might be a community or a post office we add it to our Gazetteer. If we have little information to go with the name, we call them Orphans. Below are Orphans that we believe to be located in Woodbury County.
| Brughier Bridge | North Side |
| Crawford | Odd |
| Discord | Peiro |
| Dodds | |
| Rock Branch | |
| German City | |
| Sargent's Bluffs | |
| Hedge's Siding | Shore Acres |
| Hoskins | |
| Wickham Spur | |
| Lakeport | Wolfdale |
| Lozier | Woodbury |
Footnotes ...
| <1> | If we encounter the name of what might be a community, our methodology is to add that name to our Gazetteer as a placeholder. As we find more information about that community, it will be added to our Gazetteer. Just as a reminder: Our definition of a community is rather broad and includes those places (or areas) where several families lived and had a name which identified that place. For example, you might hear somebody say that they are going over to Bird Creek to see Pete ... Bird Creek is just a gas station and a couple of homes at the crossroads. While it might not be on the map, everybody in the area knows it by that name. Places of interest include buildings at a crossroad, several families clustered in a hollow or maybe the location of a way station. It also includes places like mines, lumber camps, ferry crossings, etc. The community might still exist, is now gone or only existed for just a short period of time. Also keep in mind that Gale could have been on the original document by mistake, misspelled, the original/alternate name of a community that we've listed elsewhere or was placed in the wrong county. Sometimes a post office or train station would have a different name than the community where it's located, so two names might be referring to the same community - we're working to straighten it all out. |
| <2> | A copy of their list with background information can be found at: https://cblevins.github.io/us-post-offices/data-biography/ |