Meet Drake



History & Development of Drake




The Drake Tourism Billboard is the brain child of the staff at Commercial Resources, Inc. located in Centerville, Iowa. Drake was designed to provide tourism information to the guests of the newly opened Honey Creek Resort located 10 miles north of Centerville. The staff wanted to find a fun and unique way to direct tourists to interesting places in the area, as well as to recognize the historical relationship between former Iowa Governor Francis Drake and Centerville.



Francis Drake lived in Centerville, Iowa at the time the Civil War broke out. He was commissioned as Lieutenant Colonel of the 36th Iowa Volunteer Infantry in August 1862. He was mustered out as Brigadier General. On July 17, 1895 he was nominated by the Republican Party for Governor of Iowa. He was elected Governor on November 5, 1895, serving 1896 through 1898.



General F.M. Drake, a successful businessman, banker, lawyer, adventurer, railroad builder, Civil War General, founder of Drake University, and major philanthropist did not forget Centerville after serving as Governor of Iowa. A delegation of community leaders called on the Governor to ask for assistance in building a library. Joe Huston, co-publisher and editor of the Centerville Daily Citizen reported on the meeting, "I went with a committee to call on Governor Drake to interest him in joining a request to the Carnegie Library Foundation for a library. He listened to us and then said something like this: 'My friends, I cannot join you in this request for the reason that when Centerville gets a library, I am going to give it.'



Francis Drake died in Centerville, Iowa in 1903, and is buried in Centerville's Oakland Cemetery.



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