New Sharon, IA

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Sharon, Iowa – better known as – New Sharon, Iowa was developed in 1856 and occupies approximately one square mile in Mahaska County.. The first building was erected in 1856 by Edward Quaintance. The town was incorporated in 1871. Today, it is a friendly little town of approximately 1300 people – way out in the middle of everywhere – 12 miles north of Oskaloosa, 17 miles south of Grinnell and 15 miles east of Pella. Through more than a century and a half of growth, our town has kept its charm and beauty.

It was realized in the early fall of 1872 there was a definite need for a structured Fire Department. That was immediately confirmed after the local hardware store owned by H.T. Wright, burned to the ground. The hardware store was housed in a two-story brick building he had recently built and was located on the northwest corner of what is currently Main and Market streets.

New Sharon has had a volunteer Fire Department, and yet today over 150 years later it remains a volunteer organization. In those early days, whenever smoke was spotted, the towns’ people would start yelling and soon afterward the men of the town would show up with pails and blankets and try to extinguish the fire. There weren’t any meetings held then and no records were kept, so subsequently there is not any documentation to rely upon for historical data. Memories of that time have it that the first person to arrive at the scene of the fire would be the person in charge; he was the one who would coordinate the activities of everyone else as they arrived at the site.