Primrose is an

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a parcel of land that is not governed by a local general-purpose municipal corporation. (At p. 178.) They may be governed or serviced by an encompassing unit (such as a county) or another branch of the state (such as th ...

in Lee County,

Iowa Iowa ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the upper Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders the Mississippi River to the east and the Missouri River and Big Sioux River to the west; Wisconsin to the northeast, Ill ...

, United States.

Location

Primrose is located in Harrison Township, near the junction of Primrose Road and 150th Avenue, about northwest of Donnellson.

History

Primrose was laid out by George W. Perkins and James H. Washburn in 1844. It was named Primrose by Minerva McCulloch, an early resident, after the wild roses that grew in the area. A post office was established in Primrose in 1845, with Exum McCulloch serving as the first postmaster. Primrose had become well established by 1850. Most settlers of the town were German immigrants from

Bavaria Bavaria, officially the Free State of Bavaria, is a States of Germany, state in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the list of German states by area, largest German state by land area, comprising approximately 1/5 of the total l ...

and

Lower Saxony Lower Saxony is a States of Germany, German state (') in Northern Germany, northwestern Germany. It is the second-largest state by land area, with , and fourth-largest in population (8 million in 2021) among the 16 ' of the Germany, Federal Re ...

; sermons at the church were given in German until World War I. A two-story school was built in Primrose in 1850, which served 130 students at its peak. By 1868, Primrose contained blacksmith shops, coopers, doctors' offices, a mill, and several hotels and general stores. Primrose's population was recorded at 178 in 1878, which had decreased to 150 in 1914. The post office closed in 1953. Today Primrose consists only of a few houses.

Notable person

Richard Proenneke Richard Louis Proenneke (; May 4, 1916 – April 20, 2003) was an American self-educated naturalist, conservationist, writer, and wildlife photographer who, from the age of about 51, lived alone for nearly thirty years (1968–1998) in the mounta ...

(1916–2003), naturalist, conservationist, and writer

References

Unincorporated communities in Iowa Unincorporated communities in Lee County, Iowa 1844 establishments in Iowa Territory Populated places established in 1844 {{LeeCountyIA-geo-stub