This vivid mural, painted by Greg Holdren in 1998, shows activity in the town of Exeter in the early 1900s.
When Exeter was incorporated in 1879, there were already sixteen businesses in operation. Its growth was largely due to the Burlington and Missouri River Railroad, which was building westward in the area in 1871. Immigrants from eastern states and Europe soon inhabited this railroad town. Some of these residents, who migrated from Exeter, New Hampshire, suggested the new town's name. In 1896, Charles C. Smith built a factory which produced index tags for sixty-six years and shipped them worldwide.