Libertyville, Iowa

Episode 186 / 27 August 2020 / 148 min / full

Power Saws, Little Red Wagons & Corpse Finding Cats

"This week we're going back to the Midwest... all the way to Iowa. Oh boy, Libertyville, Iowa... Jefferson County, Iowa this is in, down in southeastern Iowa." about 0:04:40

The case: Murder of Harold Freeberg (September 1991). Read the case file.

The figures, as told in 2020

Population

360

Median age

a little older

Median household income

$51,000

Median home value

$86,400

Two-bedroom rent

$746

Cost of living

75

Religious

38%

Property crime

▼ well under half the average

Violent crime

▼ about half

Murders in Jefferson County before the case

none in 17 years

History, in brief

• Libertyville was platted in 1845. about 0:06:43
• It was originally known as the colony. about 0:06:48
• John Jewett conceived the idea of founding a village, and another man was employed to survey and plat the town site. about 0:06:56
• A. N. Bissel opened the first stock of goods in a building that is now a barn. about 0:07:25
• The Methodists erected the first church in 1846. about 0:08:36
• The first church cost $500 to build. about 0:09:23
• A Presbyterian church followed in 1850, and in 1857 the town got a substantial brick church. about 0:09:36
• By 1857 the town had general stores, dry goods, a lumber yard, a grain elevator, a hotel, a wagon and carriage shop, a shoe shop, a harness shop, a beer saloon, a meat market and a barber shop. about 0:09:47
• The first Fourth of July was observed in 1842 with a barbecue, before the town was platted. about 0:11:08
• Jefferson County holds only about 4,000 people. about 0:11:40
• The town began as a farming community, with the first settlers establishing farms in 1855, and it remains a farming community. about 0:12:03
• During the Civil War two companies were raised for the Union Army: Company H, which did little, and Company E of the 39th Iowa Infantry, formed in 1862, which took part in Sherman's March to the Sea. about 0:12:15
• 1,064 men served in the 39th Iowa; six officers and 58 enlisted men were killed in action. about 0:12:43
• The railway did not reach the town until about forty years after the Civil War. about 0:12:57
• The population has never exceeded 400; it peaked at about 370 in about 1960. about 0:13:07
• The town's area code is 641 and its motto is 'more than just corn, there's also murder'. about 0:06:34

Open the episode file