Editing Osage, Iowa (section)

== History ==
The first plat of the town was started in 1854 by a Dr. Moore and named after his eldest daughter “Cora”, but the name was never recorded. In 1855 a Mr. Gibbs arrived from Massachusetts, representing wealthy capitalists in Massachusetts and Connecticut. He prevailed upon Mr. Orrin Sage, a great banker from Ware, MA to invest in this community, and later Mr. Sage gave $2,000 and 600 acres of land to the Library Building Fund. Because of his benevolence, the town’s name was changed to Osage in his honor.<ref>{{Cite book |title=History of Iowa, Mitchell County and Worth County |publisher=Originally published by Union Publishing Company of Springfield, Illinois |year=1883 |edition=Rpt.in History of Mitchell County Iowa 1883. Mason City, IA: Klipto Printing Co., 1975 |location= |pages=395–96}}</ref>

In the winter of 1855-56, Dr. S. B. Chase of Decorah purchased land in the southwest part of the tract and in the spring of 1856 platted the present City of Osage. He named the east-west streets generally for trees and numbered the north-south streets. He was also responsible for setting out maple trees to line the streets. Even today, Osage is referred to as “the City of Maples”.  Dr. Chase built an elaborate residence and office on Free Street in 1869. That house still stands today and is used as apartments. Ten years after Dr. Chase’s death in 1891, Free Street was renamed Chase Street to honor his many contributions to Osage.<ref>{{Cite book |title=History of IOwa, Mitchell County and Worth County |publisher=Originally published by Union Publishing Company of Springfield, IL |year=1883 |edition=Rpt. History of Mitchell County Iowa 1883, Mason City, IA: Klipto Printing Co., 1975 |pages=398}}</ref>

Several of the businesses in Osage occupy structures built in the 1870’s. City Hall occupies the former Sage Library Building constructed in 1910 after a $10,000 gift from Andrew Carnegie. The very first library building was built in 1876 one-half block west of the current City Hall/Sage Library building.<ref>{{Cite book |title=The Story of Mitchell County 1851 - 1973 |publisher=Klipto Printing Co |year=1973 |location=Mason City, IA |pages=81}}</ref> A Subway sandwich shop occupies the ground floor of the building today and the date of 1876 along with “Sage Library” is seen in the concrete and brick work of the second story. In 2002, a four-block area of Main Street was placed on the National Register of Historic Places. On both sides of Main Street within the district, one to multi-story masonry commercial buildings stand which were constructed in the late nineteenth to early twentieth centuries. (There are a few vacant lots and some newer buildings as a result of demolition and fire.) The Osage Commercial Historic District retains sufficient integrity and reflects how the town of Osage has prospered over the years. Main Street is 100 feet wide and was first paved in 1910. Since that time, it was repaved in 1975 and decorative sidewalks were built and trees planted in street boxes. The Main Street project was named the best municipal paving project in Iowa in 1975 by the Iowa Concrete Paving Association.<ref>{{Cite book |title=150 Years in Osage, Iowa 1956-2006 |publisher=Mitchell County Press-News |location=Osage, IA |publication-date=2005 |pages=62–63}}</ref>