The above-titled publication was issued free by the Maxwell Tribune to subscribers who were paid up to January 1, 1899 with the objective of getting old subscribers to pay up and to attract new subscribers. (It is likely that the directory corresponds to late 1897 to early 1898. Farm leases ended in March and that is when most moves were made.) The original copy is located in the Iowa State University Library. The photocopy from which this transcription was made was generously provided by J. Shrader.

In the publication the directory entries are organized alphabetically by the first letter of the surname within township or town. The amount of information varies.

It is evident that mistakes were made by the publishers in some entries. The transcription may have added some errors. but since the original was printed the transcription was easy. However, some of the numbers were not well-defined in the transcription copy with the result that some of the acreage data may be incorrect.

• Surname.   This is the searchable field, and is always present.
• Given Name.   Usually present, but sometimes only "Mr." or "Mrs." appears.
• Rental.   An "R" appears in this field is the person is renting the property. This appears in township entries but not town entries.
• District.   This district number for township entries is included in the data but there is no explanation.
• Post Office.   The post office for the family. In some of the rural areas the post office may exist in another township or even another county.
• Count.   This is the number of people in the family. This field is not included for most of the town entries.
• Acres.   This is usually included in the township (rural) entries, unless the person in the entry owns no acreage.
• Location.   The township name (for rural residents) or town name.
• Occupation (Comment).   The occupation is given for some of the town entries. Comments are placed in parentheses and contain information that doesn't fit into another information field.

For more about the Directory, read the Introductory from the Directory.