Osage was platted in 1853 on a low rise of the prairie, a little over a mile from the Cedar River. The extensive grid of the town was broken by a four-block public square, and, to the north, by Huldship Park, composed of another fourblock segment. In the center of the town's grid, provision was made for a oneblock square to encompass the county courthouse; a second block to the east was set aside as a “College Square.” The tracks of the Illinois Central Railroad, along with the passenger station and yards, cut across the north-south, eastwest grid at its southwest corner.