The town of Ellsworth was platted in October, 1880, by John I. Blair, for the Western Town Lot Company. This was the real estate division of the Toledo & Northwestern Railroad. Ellsworth is located in Sec. 30-87-23 of Lincoln Township and in Sec. 25-87-23 of Lyon Township. It has a very close history to two other settlements: Lakin's Grove and Callanan. This railroad town drew its population from these two communities. The Callanan depot was moved to Ellsworth. The next building to be moved into Ellsworth was the L. R. Bjelde Blacksmith Shop, which came from Lakin's Grove.

Ellsworth United Methodist Church - built in 1883

The original plat consisted of eight blocks: four east-west and two north-south. The streets running east-west were Decora, and Des Moines Avenues. The streets runnng north-south were Delphi, Desota, Dewitt, Dayton, Dearborn Streets. It is interesting to note that all seven streets names started with the letter D. This did not happen in any of the other Hamilton County towns.

The town was named Ellsworth to honor the memory of Col. Elmer E. Ellsworth, of the Chicago Zouzves, who was murdered in Virginia in the War of the Rebellion. One source said that it was named for a railroad official, another stated that it was named for an Iowa Falls banker. The real reason for the name was confirmed in a book published by the Chicago & Northwestern Railroad Company, which gave the reasons for the names of all of the towns it created.

A post office was established on Jan. 20, 1881, and is still in service. It was located in the General Store, owned and operated by John Ringstad and Chris Thoreson. This business was moved to Ellsworth from Callanan. Ringstad became the first postmaster. He also served as the first mayor and the first Justice of the Peace.

The town grew slowly as other buildings were moved in. New construction also began. Starting in 1885 a two-story frame school building was built to house the primary grades on the first floor and the grammar grades on the second. The school was enlarged in 1900 by the addition at the rear. This part was used to house the upper grades. In 1913 a brick building was built to house the grade school. In 1916 another building of similar design was put up across the street to house the High School. The first six grades were located in the grade school; grades 7-12 in the high school building. A small gymnasium was located in the basement of the high school. A new gymnasium addition was added to the high school in 1951. The grade school was demolished in 1975. The students began attending South Hamilton School in Jewell after a reorganization in 1962. The high school building and gymnasium were sold to the town to serve as a community center.

Ellsworth's major industry has been turkey processing. Its humble beginning may be attributed to town banker, Homer Brinton. He raised turkeys on his farm. During the busy Thanksgiving and Christmas seasons the processing was done in the bank basement. In 1929, William Thompson, a young farmer and college graduate raised 50 turkeys on his farm, assisted by his brother Raymond. By 1935 the turkey business on the Thompson farm a mile east of Ellsworth was a mass operation. Raymond quit his teaching job and went to work with the turkeys full time. Other area farmers joined in, and by 1952 there were 70 turkey raisers concentrated in a 10 mile radius of Ellsworth. A Central Cooperative Turkey Producers of Ellsworth was organized in 1944. At a peak there were about 3 1/2 million pounds of turkey produced annually. Eventually, the business was sold to others, and today the processing plant is the home of Uncle B's Bagel factory. This first started in Ames and was moved into the vacant turkey processing buildings. In 1966, the Louis Rich turkey processing plant has announced that it will cease operations. Local farmers are now investigating how they can manage to keep it open, as this is the last turkey processing plant to serve Hamilton County.

The 1990 census shows a population of 396.