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Do you know of Carleton ???

This page is an orphan - a placeholder until we can discover more about Carleton. 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 Carleton.<1>

We found mention of Carleton as a post office (see Mentions and References below), but can't determine its location - other than being located somewhere in Polk County, Iowa.

It's common that the post office is named the same as the community in which it's located (although that's not always case). In this case, we can't match this post office to any of the existing communities in our gazetteer.<2>

From the Blevins / Hellbock List: The post office opened  in 1848 and closed  in 1849.

Communities Also Named Carleton ...

We found seven communities that share the name Carleton.

Within Iowa, the name Carleton is unique.

Beyond Iowa, we know of another seven communities that are located throughout in the United States and Canada. Of these seven communities, four are located in the United States and three are in Canada.

  • Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
    • Florida
      • Putnam County
      • We found mention of this community, but have little information.<3> For the information that we do have, please visit our profile page for the Florida community of Carleton [Putnam County].
    • Michigan
      • Monroe County
      • Please visit our profile page for the Michigan community of Carleton [Monroe County].
    • Nebraska
      • Thayer County
      • Please visit our profile page for the Nebraska community of Carleton [Thayer County].
    • Nova Scotia
      • Please visit our profile page for the Nova Scotia community of Carleton.
    • Oklahoma
      • Blaine County
      • Please visit our profile page for the Oklahoma community of Carleton [Blaine County].
    • Prince Edward Island
      • Please visit our profile page for the Prince Edward Island community of Carleton.
    • Quebec
      • Please visit our profile page for the Quebec community of Carleton.

Miscellaneous References and Mentions for Carleton ...

We've created the following list to keep track of the sources that proved useful in adding to our knowledge about Carleton:

Found in a comprehensive list of Post Offices that was created by Cameron Blevins and Richard Helbock.<4>

More Orphans in  Polk 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 Polk County.

AcmeLundstrom Heights
Apple Grove 
 McCoy
BeaverdaleMidway
BloomingtonMontacute
 Murrow
Canary Lake 
Capital HeightsNobleton
ChesterfieldNorth Des Moines
Circleville 
Clover HillsOak Park
Colonial VillageOakwood
Commerce Mills 
CopePalmer
Cottage GrovePlaza Hills
 Polk
Delaware 
 Raccoon River
Flint JunctionRidgedale
Freel 
 Saydel
GlakeSevastapol
GrandSouth Des Moines
Greenwood 
 Tamworth
HardingThree Rivers
HattonTibbitt
Highland ParkTowner Lake
 Towner
Indianola HeightsTyner
  
Johnston StationWabash Junction
 Wahkonsa
KeenWalnut Creek
KirkwoodWindsor
  
LincolnYoungstown

Footnotes ...

<1>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.
<2>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.
<3>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 Carleton 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.
<4>A copy of their list with background information can be found at:

      https://cblevins.github.io/us-post-offices/data-biography/









 

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This page was last modified/updated: 28 Apr 2025