The subjects of the first six interpretive pillars around the courthouse square in Jefferson were announced at the Jefferson city council meeting Tuesday. Alan Robinson, Jefferson Matters: Main Street program director, told the council that installation will be done this spring.
Honored on bronze plaques will be Captain Albert Head (1838-1922), banker, landowner and legislator; Mahlon Head (1835-1920) banker, first mayor and first fire chief of Jefferson and state legislator; Guy C. Richardson (1888-1979), attorney and first chair of Iowa State Aeronautics Commission; Dr George H. Grimmell (1855-1918), first doctor in Jefferson; Eva Leonard (1898-1947), of Grand Junction, a Ziegfeld Follies girl called “the Venus of Iowa”; and Dr George Gallup (1901-1984) of Jefferson, pollster and founder of the American Institute of Public Opinion.
Robinson said the committee did not receive as many applications as expected, but members hope that seeing the first six plaques will prompt more applications. The committee had proposed separating the subjects of the plaques by whether their larger sphere of influence was in Jefferson or in the county at large; that plan has been discarded, Robinson said.
Cost of each plaque is $1,500. The city of Jefferson has agreed to pay for 10 plaques out of remaining Streetscape funds. The county board of supervisors has OKd funds for two plaques. A total of 18 posts and pillars are available for plaques.
