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January 24, 1853 – Fourteen years after our founding, the City of Iowa City is incorporated.
The City of Iowa City was founded on May 4, 1839. And, unlike most other U.S. cities, which were formed through private funding and investments, lowa City was uniquely created by the United States government, with all of the land being donated to the Territory of Iowa by the U.S. government. Thus, over our first fourteen years of existence, Iowa City had no local governmental system in place. Interestingly, the good citizens of Iowa City must have been satisfied with the arrangement, as we resisted five attempts by the Iowa Legislature to have our city incorporated. Some believe the reason for the hesitancy was the fact that in the unincorporated status, no one paid any taxes! But, finally, after yet another strong effort to sell the positives of incorporation, on January 24, 1853 – fourteen years after our founding – Iowa City was incorporated, with the installation of our first mayor and city council on April 6, 1853.
This Day In History is an Our Iowa Heritage blog series that offers you a little bit of Iowa trivia from a large selection of stories on our website. Subscribe to this FREE blog and you’ll get a new email from us daily. Click to learn more.