Early Tiffin businesses
Tiffin Brick & Tile Co. first appears in the 1884-1885 H.R. Page & Co. Business 
Directory for the state of Iowa. E. L. Chamberlain, A. D. Finley and E. E. Dennis are listed as owners. The factory operated until 1925 when it was destroyed in a fire of an unknown origin. Fifteen men were employed and three kilns turned out a carload of tile each day. The Tiffin Savings Bank, now Slim’s Tavern, is constructed of brick from the Tiffin Brick & Tile Co.
In 1860, the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railroad service came to 
Clear Creek Township. In 1935, the Tiffin Depot was destroyed when the train jumped tracks. Agent George R. Seigle, who was new to the area, was asleep on a cot in the station when the accident occurred. The accident was caused by a broken archbar on a railcar containing cement. The accident involved a second locomotive and 16 loaded freight cars including one filled with California navel oranges. Others contained produce, livestock, cement and tractors. Residents recall buying bushels of oranges for $1.
The Don Brant Store on Main Street was the site of Tiffin’s first grocery 
store, owned by the Hamilton Bros. The two-story store included a community hall on the second floor. Brant occupied his store on the same site until Robert and Jessie Madden bought the store in 1946. Later, Perry & Judy Becker operated the grocery. Local artist and Tiffin council member Rusty Brotherton acquired the store for a residence and studio. Today, a duplex stands on the lot.
In the 1930s Jay Baldwin operated a grocery store along Marengo Road, 
Highway 32 (now Highway 6). In December 1933, the Tiffin Post Office located to the grocery and Jay served as postmaster. Clifford Reynolds was a mail carrier. In 1962, following Baldwin’s retirement, Ned Langenberg became postmaster of the post office in the same location. Since then the post office has moved twice, each time to a new building. Currently, the post office is located at 424 State Street.
Joseph M. Douglass owned the first sawmill along Clear Creek in an area known as Copi (now a ghost town), according to the 1865 Iowa Gazetteer. 
The Iowa State Gazetteer and Business Directory for 1881 lists Tiffin among the state’s cities, villages and post offices. This Gazetter identifies Plymisser & Douglass as owners of grain, coal and lumber enterprise. The Tiffin Lumberyard pictured was located south of Railroad Street in Tiffin.
Re: Tiffin Veteran’s Memorial
Yale Hamilton, was the first recorded burial in the Tiffin Cemetery, and a signer of the Claims recorded by the Claim Association of Johnson County, Iowa. He served in the War of 1812, New York Militia, as a Private, in 1st (Hopkins’) Regiment, and a Corporal in 3rd (Smith’s) Regiment. He participated in the Siege at Fort Erie.
His oldest children were born in New York, before he moved to Ohio, Indiana and Johnson County, Iowa.
He is my gr-gr-gr-Grandfather.