County Past
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Union County, Iowa

Historic newspapers, landmarks, and county history layers for genealogists and local historians.

—newspaper titles
—digitized titles
6historic places
—earliest paper
1851formed
12,138pop. 2020
36cemeteries
—CW battlefields

At a glance

Summary

The National Register of Historic Places includes 6 listed properties in the county, first listed in 1973. Most listings are in or near Creston, Arispe, Afton.

Summary generated automatically from the source data on this page.

Newspapers

Library of Congress

Newspaper directory data for Iowa is not yet loaded on this site. Browse Union titles at the Library of Congress.

National Register of Historic Places

NPS NRHP

4 of 6 listings mapped; some locations are restricted by NPS to protect sensitive sites.

6 listed properties
PropertyCityTypeListed
Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad-Creston StationCrestonBuilding1973
Grand River BridgeArispeStructure1998
Iowana HotelCrestonBuilding2009
Jefferson Elementary SchoolCrestonBuilding2002
Odd Fellows BlockAftonBuilding2014
U. S. Post OfficeCrestonBuilding1978

Source: National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places. Property links open NRHP nomination files at the National Archives.

County formation

Newberry AHCB

Union was formed in 1851 (1851-01-15) from Pottawattamie.

UNION created from POTTAWATTAMIE and Non-County Area 4 attached to MONROE.

Source: Newberry Library, Atlas of Historical County Boundaries.

Population by decade

Census

Union County population from 1860 to 2020 (Census historical series).

20k11k2,0121860188019201940196020002020
1860188019001920194019501960198020002020
2,01214,98019,92817,26816,28015,65113,71213,85812,30912,138

Sources: U.S. Census Bureau historical county population (Forstall 1790–1990) and public-domain / CC0 county population series through 2020.

Cemeteries & historical places

USGS GNIS

36 cemeteries and 2 historical populated places (ghost towns / former settlements) recorded in USGS GNIS for this county.

Cemeteries — 36 of 36 listed
NameLatLon
Abel Cemetery40.97989-94.14337
Bethel Cemetery41.05992-94.06913
Beulah Cemetery41.05938-94.07654
Bragg Cemetery41.12826-94.14318
Browns Mountain Cemetery41.05016-94.10034
Bruning Cemetery40.90554-94.40765
Calvary Cemetery41.05831-94.39106
Cedar Grove Cemetery41.12131-94.22143
Claypool Cemetery41.01314-94.02703
Cornwall Cemetery40.90474-94.11006
County Home Cemetery41.04516-94.25942
Cromwell Cemetery41.04741-94.46095
Dodge Center Cemetery41.12843-94.18383
Evergreen Cemetery41.11495-94.28519
Graceland Cemetery41.03729-94.35416
Greenlawn Cemetery41.0326-94.18611
Groesbeck Cemetery41.11061-94.12424
Grove Chapel Cemetery40.93505-94.39413
Harmony Cemetery40.9372-94.33634
Homewood Cemetery40.92233-94.04295
Ide Family Cemetery40.97777-94.35024
Leas Cemetery40.90821-94.02183
Lorimor Cemetery41.11301-94.05154
Lytles Grove Cemetery41.01969-94.43208
McDuffie Cemetery40.95374-94.41068
Morgan Cemetery40.90796-94.4527
Mount Pisgah Cemetery41.05107-94.10076
Norris Family Cemetery41.00832-94.15856
Old Jerusalem Cemetery41.11465-94.308
Olinger Cemetery40.96901-94.02765
Otterbein Cemetery40.99918-94.08853
Prairie Lawn Cemetery41.1367-94.37669
Saint Edwards Catholic Cemetery41.0357-94.21354
Spaulding Center Cemetery41.11446-94.41869
Thayer Cemetery41.03771-94.03567
West Union Cemetery41.01962-94.07206
Historical populated places — 2 of 2
NameLatLon
Afton Junction41.01666-94.12356
Shepard40.99027-94.15412

Source: USGS Geographic Names Information System (public domain). Cemeteries from the 2021 NationalFile archive; historical places from GNIS HistoricalFeatures topical extract.

Historical markers

HMdb link

Marker text and photos from the Historical Marker Database (HMdb) are not embedded here. HMdb allows non-commercial reuse with attribution, but commercial/compensated use needs written permission; this is a commercial site, so we only link out.

Search HMdb for Union County, Iowa

Terms: hmdb.org/copyright.asp. Linking is encouraged by HMdb.