The Lincoln post office opened in 1918, the earliest record of the town by name. Wikidata gives 1920. Another post office, Berlin (1883), opened inside today’s city and later closed.
First census: 146 in 19202020 census: 121108 years
Founding year: the first Lincoln post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Wikidata: 1920.The full story ↓
What stands out about Lincoln’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
Lincoln was founded by Charles Spencer and bore a number of short-lived names before adopting Berlin. The community had a population of 61 in 1902.
Berlin incorporated as a city on September 10, 1913. After the outbreak of World War I, Berlin's many German residents faced verbal and physical abuses as part of the wave of anti-German sentiment that swept the country. On June 12, 1918, Berlin officially changed its name to Lincoln.
Passages that mention Lincoln, cut from the printed page as they were published.
History of Tama County, Iowa, together with sketches of their towns, villages and townships, educational, civil, military and political history ... and biographies of representative citizens. History of Iowa, embracing accounts of the pre-historic races,1883 · page 820Read the page →
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Lincoln township was formerly a part of Spring Creek, the two townships constituting one election precinct. In the year 1801, a petition was presented to the Board of Supervisors, praying for a division and that the Congressional township 80 north, range 10, west of the fifth principal meridian be set off as Lincoln town-
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History of Tama County, Iowa, together with sketches of their towns, villages and townships, educational, civil, military and political history ... and biographies of representative citizens. History of Iowa, embracing accounts of the pre-historic races,1883 · page 819Read the page →
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who were farmers in Germany. Jacob came to America in 1865, first settling in Clinton county, Iowa, where he resided until 1875, when he came to Lincoln township, Tama county, and purchased 160 acres on section 4, where he has since resided. He now owns 360 acres of land in Lincoln township, this county, and 160
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history of tama county, iowa its cities, towns and villages1879 · page 91Read the page →
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Lincoln township remained comparatively unsettled until about the year 1870, when a German colony began settling within its borders, and to-day it is thickly populated by a good class of German citizens.
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Scans and text from the Internet Archive. Books published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
Timeline
Lincoln, 1883 to 1980
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
Founding dates: Wikidata, Wikipedia, the U.S. post office records of Blevins & Helbock (CC0) and the Census. Homes by year built: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register of Historic Places: National Park Service (list of May 22, 2026). Old photos, postcards and papers: Wikimedia Commons, the Library of Congress and other public archives, credited on each item’s page. Maps: U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (via Esri) and Sanborn fire-insurance maps (Library of Congress). History text and census tables: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Places that used to be: USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021). How TownRatings grades history →
From Wikipedia, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, U.S. Census counts (via Wikipedia), the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock), the USGS Geographic Names Information System and old county and town histories (Internet Archive). Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.
