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Business Owners Roster — North Liberty
The roster counts 177 name-to-firm linkages across 189 years of a small town's trade. Its shape is the record's shape: a thin founding band, a dense directory band for 1870–1889 (the 1875 atlas and three Polk gazetteers name everybody), a near-empty 1890–1909 band and a thin 1930–1949 band where no gazetteer was read and the carriers name firms more often than people, a full 1910–1929 band on the 1916–17 gazetteer, and a modern band held to public-record strength. Two sweeps print after the bands at their true return: ten women owners, holding the hotel, the millinery line whole, one drug store, the cottage carpet trade, and the beauty trade whole — and in no manufacturing, banking, grain, or auto firm on any carrier reached; and zero Black owners named in any carrier reached, a search-strength negative printed unsentimentally with its settler classes named. Firms the record names without people — and people it names without firms — stand in the business-gaps file, promotable to this roster the day a carrier joins them.
To 1869 — 10 linkages
1837 – 1869
Daniel Antrim — the town's first store, general merchandise (opened 1837; sold the stock 1838).
1870–1889 — 74 linkages
1870 – 1889
L. J. Knepp (Levi J. Knepp) — President, North Liberty Manufacturing Co. (1875 atlas; settled 1857); also Knepp & Houser, saw and planing mill, and Knepp, Dreibelbis & Co., flour mill (Polk 1884–85); justice of the peace in the…
1890–1909 — 7 linkages
1890 – 1909
Henry B. Worster — H. B. Worster & Son, general store, Worster Building, 100 N. Main (built the building 1892 to house a general store; operated it as H. B. Worster and Son in the early 1900s; the firm's full Polk form stands in…
1910–1929 — 51 linkages
1910 – 1929 (the 1916–17 gazetteer band)
Isaac Reamer — President, North Liberty State Bank (Polk 1916–17: capital $25,000). The bank closed 17 January 1927; the course whole is in the banks file.
1930–1949 — 7 linkages
1930 – 1949
Zell O'Connor — O'Connor Electric Shop, 109 N. Main (opened in the 1930s, operated into the 1960s; the shopfront later incorporated into the 1960 bank building). The present O'Connor Delivery is surname only, no link stated.
1950–1989 — 21 linkages
1950 – 1989 (the 1960 nomination items and the 1967 yearbook advertisements)
Kent R. Palmer — Palmer Funeral Home, North Liberty (graduated Indiana College of Mortuary Science 1958; "Owner and Director" in the 1967 advertisement; died 5 December 2006, the firm's own staff page). The succession to his sons…
1990–present — 5 linkages
As of November 2026; public-record strength only
K. R. Palmer — co-owner, Palmer Funeral Homes (the firm's own staff page: in the business since 1984). Public role only. The North Liberty house stands at 202 North Main Street (town links).
Undated — 2 linkages
No date in any carrier reached
Veldman (first name not given) — Veldman Auto Sales, 59905 Crumstown Highway (a North Liberty postal address on township ground outside the town; a motorcycle and automotive dealership per its listing; no founding date found). Boundary-flagged, and expressly not crowned the town's long-lived house.
Starr (first name not given) — Starr Grocery, 119 N. Main (built 1909–1912; advertised in a 1912 town newspaper; a restaurant by 1917). Carried here rather than in band 4 because no carrier gives the proprietor a personal name or the firm a dated opening — the linkage rests on the firm name alone, promotable to band 4 on the 1912 advertisement.
The explicit sweeps: women owners, ten; Black owners, none named
Swept November 2026, printed at true return
Women owners were swept explicitly, and the whole return is ten linkages. The findings and every carrier behind them — the 1875 atlas directory's business column read whole, the Polk town lists of 1880–81, 1882–83, 1884–85, and…
Completeness statement: what was swept, and what remains unswept
November 2026
Swept for this roster: the pass's three findings files whole, and through them Chapman (1880) as carried in the earlier passes and the Story of North Liberty section; Howard (1907) as carried in the earlier passes, including the…