Some things don't seem to change much, Truro is a small town of about 500 people. As a matter of fact, it has always been a small town of about 500. Although the population hasn't changed much, other aspects of the town have changed since it was first platted as Ego, IA. It wasn't until 1884 that the town was officially renamed Truro. The possible origin of the name Truro was the engineer on the train that ran through the town. He suggested the name Truro after his hometown of Truro, Mass. "After due consideration the name met with general agreement, and in 1884 Ego was officially renamed Truro."

Ed Jones first came to Truro in 1918 by train from his former home in Clarke County. He remembered his first impression of Truro as being "the awfullest place I ever got landed." Jones and his family remained in or near Truro, farming outside of town for most of their lives. Now, far from being the "awfullest place," Truro is home to the Joneses, said Ed's wife of 57 years.

Ed remembered Truro back in the days when the railroad was a big part of the town. Three passenger trains going both directions would run through town each day as would two freight trains. During the war Ed remembered looking down from his farm outside of town and seeing the soldiers leap from the train and run along besides for a time.

In 1918 Truro was the proud home of two grocery stores, two hardware stores, three produce houses, an undertaker, a hotel, a livery barn, two garages, a drug store, two restaurants, a doctor, a veterinarian, a machine yard, two lumberyards, a stockyard and a practically brand-new schoolhouse.

Then Ed recalled, the whole county changed. The railroad started to go out and we got trucks and Model T's and it made it easier to go to Winterset and Indianola. The trip that had once taken a day by horse and buggy now took only a few hours.

Today Truro has one gas station, a bar/restaurant, a funeral home, bank, telephone office, post office, library, barber shop, grain elevator, retirement home and is home to the Interstate 35 k-12 Schools.

Why stay in a town that has shrunk so dramatically? Well, in ways, said Ed, that question is hard to answer but, on the other hand, "If you plant a tree the roots start to grow and the longer you stay the bigger the roots grow," he said.

This story has been updated.