2From the moment that the surveyor set down his tools in 1846 to the instant that the Flying Farmers crossed the sky at the centennial celebration, the history of Centerville, Iowa, has gifted us with a unique insight into the mid-American experience. Though the population never exceeded 8,600, immigrants from more than forty different countries created a community that was both melting pot and crucible--just like the nation at large. The town forged an identity through the Underground Railroad, the Civil War, race relations, education debates and World Wars I and II while its people survived the dark history of Prohibition, crime, the Ku Klux Klan, the Mafia and the Depression. In this definitive history, Enfys McMurry captures both the particular feelings of Centerville's citizens and how they reflected and participated in the larger American story.