At Tuesday’s meeting, the Jefferson City Council approved purchasing four solid bronze plaques honoring historical figures in Greene County to be placed around the downtown square.

The City as well as the County Supervisors are working in conjunction with Jefferson Matters: Main Street to eventually fill up all 22 brick columns around the square to recognize prominent figures or events that happened in the county more than 25 years ago.

Jefferson Matters Program Director Alan Robinson says the four that their committee chose were Mahlon and Albert Head, Guy C. Richardson and Eva Leonard.  Mahlon Head was Jefferson’s first mayor and served as a lieutenant in the Civil War along with his brother Albert who was a captain and both served with the 10th Iowa Volunteers.  They both built the Head House Hotel (now the Lincoln Building on the south side of the square) and the Head Brothers Opera House (now the Sierra Community Theatre).  They also established the first banks in Jefferson.

Richardson built Jefferson’s first airport and was the first chairman of the Iowa Aeronautics Commission.  He was also a major contributor to the economic growth of Jefferson and Greene County.  Eva Leonard was from Grand Junction and was an entertainer and dancer in New York and performed in many productions and shows from the 1920’s-’40s.  She also sang on WHO Radio in Des Moines with the Greene County Band.

He believes the plaques will be installed by the Bell Tower Festival in June.

“We do want to get these four up by Bell Tower (Festival) and maybe a few others.  But then we want to kind of wait towards the spring when people can actually get out there and see what’s going on and then do another launch or announcement to encourage others to provide some more nominations.”

Robinson states that each plaque costs $1,500 and will be made locally and that the City agreed to fund eight plaques with community-donated funds but that only four have been chosen at this time.