This is a work in progress. Give me a little time… Jeez, this is hard.
1850 — The former reservation of the Sac & Fox people opened to White settlement; a minor land rush ensued. • Fennimore County was authorized, with Muskrat City as seat of government.
1853 — The section that would become Agincourt was purchased by a syndicate of five Philadelphia investors. • Later that year, the Original Townsite plat was filed at the Fennimore County courthouse in Muskrat City. • Former Indian agent Amos Beddowes built the first house at the townsite, a log cabin now in Riverside Park.
1857 — Agincourt incorporated as a municipality, with a mayor and council of four members. [Population ±200]
1858 — Spring floods devastate Muskrat City for the third consecutive year. County residents voted to relocate the courthouse twelve miles north at Agincourt; the original Italianate courthouse building was cut in two parts and moved. Teams of draft horses required five days to move the building to a temporary bridge over Crispin Creek and then to the square set aside in the O.T. for a government building. • The Daily Plantagenet began publication.
1861 — First Civil War casualties were buried at The Shades. John Beddowes was among them.
1860 — The Fennimore County Agricultural & Mechanical Society acquired approximately ninety acres for a fairgrounds on the west bank of the Muskrat River. Construction began with grandstands and a race track.
1868 — Saint Ahab Roman Catholic parish organized by Rev Francis Manning. Construction of the first church began soon after.
18— — Bishop Kemper Academy opened on the block provided in the original townsite east of The Commons.
1888-1889 — Construction of the second courthouse began from designs by East Coast architect William Halsey Wood
1893 — Harney’s Orpheum, Agincourt’s first legitimate theatre at the corner of First Street SW and The Avenue, burned on August 1st. A stock company formed to build it replacement, The Auditorium.
1895 — The Merchants National Bank merged with the Farmers & Mechanics State Bank and reorganized as the F+M+M National Bank. • Construction of The Blenheim hotel. • Opening season at the new Auditorium.
1899 — Enlargement of Saint Joseph-the-Carpenter Episcopal church, with the addition of new transept-narthex and baptistry.
1905 — An archaeological dig at The Mound was organized by archaeologists from the University of Iowa.
1907 — Agincourt celebrated its Golden Anniversary on October 25th (Founders Day), 1907 at the Fennimore County Fairgrounds, including horse racing and a major fireworks display. John Philip Sousa wrote “March to Agincourt” for the event. Founders Day is officially established by the Common Council on October 25th as a day of municipal celebration.
1908 — Construction of the F+M+M Bank at 2 North Broad Street.
1909 — Service began on the Northwest Iowa Transit Company’s [NITC] line between Agincourt and Fort Dodge, where it connected with the Fort Dodge, Des Moines & Southern. • The legislature authorized the Northwest Iowa Normal School in a former county orphanage (vacant since 1905); Dr W.A.K.E. Reinhardt became the first president.
1910 — NITC right-of-way pushed westward toward Storm Lake; a branch line diverted from Fahnstock to the Station-Store at Lake Sturm und Drang. Twice-daily summer service ran to the lake from May 15th to September 1st. Construction of the Wasserman Block.
1912 — Fire consumed the Masonic Lodge at 1 North Broad Street. The lodge built a third floor on the F+M+M bank across the street and donated its former site for “a public library or other community resource”. • Anson Tennant modified the Wasserman Block and opened his architectural office in Suite 205-207. • A short NITC branch line extended to the fairgrounds.
1914 — Architect Anson Tennant received the commission for the new public library; the program grew to include an art gallery and venue for banquets and other community celebrations.
1915 — Anson Tennant sailed for Liverpool on the RMS Lusitania and disappeared with its sinking on May 8th.
1916 — Saint Crispin’s Chapel was added to Saint Joseph-the-Carpenter as a memorial to Anson Tennant, thought to have been lost on the Lusitania. The crypt beneath the chapel serves as a Tennant family mausoleum.
1918 — Influenza Pandemic: the former Episcopal School was used as a hospital and quarantine facility, and a special section of The Shades was set aside for burial of influenza deaths.
1919-1920 — Construction of Asbury Methodist Episcopal church (later Asbury UMC) designed by Liebbe Nourse & Rasmussen, architects of Des Moines.
19xx — The Archers, a Double-A baseball team is organized and a baseball field established at the fairgrounds. • Northwest Iowa Normal signed a coöperative arrangement with the Fennimore County Fair board to share athletic facilities on the fairgrounds.
1937 — Anson Tennant was discovered living in the Basque Country of Northern Spain and reunited with his Iowa family.
1941-1945 — Agincourt went to war.
1950-1951 — Construction of the new Roman Catholic church (Francis Barry Byrne, architect), dedicated as Christ the King. • The grave of Rev Manning was discovered while excavating for the new church and was reinterred at St Ahab Cemetery.
1957 — The Founders Day celebration included “Agincourt Suite”, adapted by British composer Sir William Walton from the score for the Lawrence Olivier film “Henry V”.
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1966 — The “Historic Preservation Act of 1966” was passed by Congress. The Fennimore Heritage Society forms to consider nominations.
1966 — The second Fennimore County courthouse was struck by lightening and burned, though arson is suspected. Commissioners interviewed architects for the new facility.
1968 — The third courthouse was dedicated on July 4th on the plaza defined by the second courthouse footprint.
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2007 — Agincourt’s sesqui-centennial. American composer Daron Hagen wrote “Agincourt Fanfare” for thirteen brass instruments; its world premier occured on Founders’ Day.
2015 — The 600th anniversary of the Battle of Agincourt was celebrated on October 25th, including the premier of “We Few” by American composer Daron Hagen, Agincourt’s official “Composer-not-in-Residence”. A tandem celebration was staged at the Rourke Art Museum in Moorhead, Minnesota.
2016 — “Welcome to Agincourt, Iowa: the town that time forgot and geography misplaced” was presented at the Historical Fictions Research Conference at Cambridge, UK.
2018 — Competition for the design of Saint Ahab’s Chapel at Christ the King R.C. Church.
2018 — “How Cities Happen(ed): The Agincourt Project”, an exhibit focussed on Agincourt history, opened at the Rourke Art Museum during November 2018.
2021 — “What if…?” presented at the Historical Fiction Research Network, Salzburg, Austria.
2023 — “The Agincourt Project” presented at the Lake Superior Design Retreat, Duluth, MN.
2023 — “The Agincourt Project”, article in AIA North Dakota.