Queen City was an Adams County,

Iowa Iowa () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States, bordered by the Mississippi River to the east and the Missouri River and Big Sioux River to the west. It is bordered by six states: Wisconsin to the northeast, Illinois to the ...

farming town located about three miles (5 km) northeast of present-day

Corning, Iowa Corning is a city in Quincy Township, Adams County, Iowa, Quincy Township, Adams County, Iowa, Adams County, Iowa, United States. The population was 1,564 at the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census. It is the county seat of Adams County. Cornin ...

, and northwest of the Icarian commune with which it shared a post office. Queen City co-existed with the Icarian colony and was possibly created before the Icarian society was founded in 1854. The town was officially platted in October 1857, after three men purchased from landowner Samuel Larimer for development. Larimer was named Queen City's first postmaster in 1858 when the post office was moved from Icaria. The town grew to a population of about 150, at its peak in the 1860s, and had general stores, a drug store, doctor's office, and two hotels. However, Queen City's fortunes declined when Corning was selected as the local railroad stop in 1869 and county seat in 1872. The number of residents dwindled, and the

plat In the United States, a plat ( or ) (plan) is a cadastral map, drawn to scale, showing the divisions of a piece of land. United States General Land Office surveyors drafted township plats of Public Lands Surveys to show the distance and bear ...

for the town returned to private ownership in March 1885. U.S. Census records reflect that the

township A township is a kind of human settlement or administrative subdivision, with its meaning varying in different countries. Although the term is occasionally associated with an urban area, that tends to be an exception to the rule. In Australia, Ca ...

in Adams County where Queen City was located was called Queen City Township as of 1860 (pop. 212). However, the name was changed to Prescott Township in 1873. Queen City was all but forgotten, and not a significant part of written Adams County history, until Lake Binder was created as a water supply for nearby Corning. When the lake was dug, some tombstones and an estimated 200 gravesites were found. The remains and gravestones were moved to a new location, today just north of the lake, where a monument was built marking the abandoned town in 1980.

References

External links

Contemporary map
of Adams County which shows Queen City and Icaria Geography of Adams County, Iowa Former populated places in Iowa 1857 establishments in Iowa Populated places established in 1857 {{Iowa-stub