The town of Wellsburg (originally spelled Wellsburgh) was laid out in 1884 by George W. Wells. Its north-south, east-west grid was platted south of the tracks of the Burlington, Cedar Rapids, and Northern Railroad. A depot, grain elevators, stockyards, and corncribs were built parallel to the north side of the railroad. There was a modest amount of building activity in the community of the 1880s and 1890s, but changes and growth have been slow in the twentieth century.