Mettamora - This town was a very large paper town. It was platted in Sec. 20-89-23 and Sec. 29-89-23 of Williams Township on July 15, 1857, by William H. Merritt. No reason has ever been found for the name of the town. Merritt owned the land and developed a huge plat of 121 lots ,which he put up for sale to eastern speculators on the assumption that the railroad would come through the town. Some lots were sold, but they all were let go for taxes. The town was never settled, and no buildings were ever built here.
It might have been otherwise except for one man, John I. Blair. He was the general superintendent for the Iowa Falls and Sioux City Railroad at the time the railroad was coming west from Iowa Falls. He approached Merritt for concessions of money and land for bringing his railroad through Mettamora. When Merritt turned him down, he ran his railroad through a different place and platted his own town, which he called Williams. Mettamora faded quickly from the scene as a possible town.
The plat showed east-west streets of Hamilton, Buchanan, Pierce, Fillmore, Taylor, Polk, Tyler, Harrison, Van Buren, Jackson, Monroe, Madison, Jefferson, Adams, and Washington. The north-south streets were named Vine, Elm, Rock, Broad, Avenue, Merritt, Willson, Safford, and Grayson.
It is interesting that the street Willson was named for Walter C. Willson of Webster City, who had a financial interest in setting up several towns along the possible railroad line. It was Willson himself, who eventually constructed the railroad from Alden to Webster City in 1869.