Ottumwa, Iowa
Overview
Ottumwa is a city in and the county seat
County seat
A county seat is an administrative center, or seat of government, for a county or civil parish. The term is primarily used in the United States....

 of Wapello County, Iowa
Wapello County, Iowa
-2010 census:The 2010 census recorded a population of 35,625 in the county, with a population density of . There were 16,098 housing units, of which 14,552 were occupied.-2000 census:...

, United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

. The population was 24,998 at the 2000 census. It is located in the southeastern part of Iowa, and the city is split into northern and southern halves by the Des Moines River
Des Moines River
The Des Moines River is a tributary river of the Mississippi River, approximately long to its farther headwaters, in the upper Midwestern United States...

.
The young town was severely damaged during the Flood of 1851
Flood of 1851
The Great Flood of 1851 occurred after record-setting rainfalls across the U.S. Midwest and Plains from May to August, 1851. Hardest hit was the State of Iowa, with significant flooding extending to the Lower Mississippi River basin. Historical evidence suggest flooding occurred in the eastern...

.

In 1857, coal
Coal
Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock usually occurring in rock strata in layers or veins called coal beds or coal seams. The harder forms, such as anthracite coal, can be regarded as metamorphic rock because of later exposure to elevated temperature and pressure...

 was being mined from the McCready bank, a site along Bear Creek four miles west of Ottumwa. In 1868, Brown and Godfrey opened a drift mine
Drift mining
Drift mining is either the mining of a placer deposit by underground methods, or the working of coal seams accessed by adits driven into the surface outcrop of the coal bed. Drift is a more general mining term, meaning a near-horizontal passageway in a mine, following the bed or vein of ore. A...

 four miles northwest of town.
 
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