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Quiz about Iowa County Alphabetical
Quiz about Iowa County Alphabetical

Iowa County Alphabetical Trivia Quiz

I've been wanting to do an alphabetical quiz, so here is my first effort. Have fun! Explanations of the source of county names is from the 1977 publication, "The Counties and Courthouses of Iowa" by LeRoy Pratt.

A multiple-choice quiz by shvdotr. Estimated time: 8 mins.
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Author
shvdotr
Time
8 mins
Type
Multiple Choice
Quiz #
373,427
Updated
Dec 03 21
# Qns
25
Difficulty
Average
Avg Score
19 / 25
Plays
243
Awards
Top 10% Quiz
Last 3 plays: Guest 162 (19/25), Guest 69 (23/25), Guest 23 (25/25).
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Question 1 of 25
1. Five Iowa counties begin with the letter A, but only one is also a presidential name--two presidents, in fact. Corning is the county seat. Which of these is it? Hint


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Question 2 of 25
2. Seven Iowa counties begin with the letter B. One is named after a heroic leader of his people who fought a war against the United States. The county seat is Waterloo. Which county is it? Hint


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Question 3 of 25
3. An even dozen Iowa counties begin with the letter C. One in particular was named for a slave-holder who was also Vice President of the United States. The county seat is Rockwell City, and it had previously been named Fox County, for a Native American tribe. Can you pick the vice-presidential name? Hint


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Question 4 of 25
4. Seven Iowa counties begin with the letter D. Although three Iowa counties share the names of states, this is the only one specifically named for another state. In this case it was the state whose senator advocated Iowa for statehood. Can you figure out this county's name? Hint


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Question 5 of 25
5. Well, only one Iowa county begins with the letter E. Bordering on Minnesota, this county's seat is Estherville. It is named after an Irish patriot and revolutionary who was executed for leading an uprising against the British in 1803. If you know the names of any famous clowns, you might be able to choose the only one of the following names which is also an Iowa county. Hint


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Question 6 of 25
6. Only four Iowa counties begin with F. The next county, whose seat is at Charles City, was named for an individual whom Iowans hold dear. He was the only member of the Lewis and Clark Expedition to die on the journey, and he died and was buried in Iowa. Do you know this man who has an obelisk monument on the edge of Sioux City and the county named for him? Hint


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Question 7 of 25
7. Three Iowa counties begin with G. Of them, one is named for an outstanding general in the Revolution who earned the nicknames of "The Savior of the South" and "The Fighting Quaker." He forced Cornwallis to leave the Carolinas and head for Virginia, where he finally surrendered. Jefferson is the county seat of what county? (People may envy you if you get this one right.) Hint


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Question 8 of 25
8. Seven Iowa counties begin with the letter H. One is named after a President, and one after a signer of the Declaration of Independence. But the one I'm asking for now was named for a famous Prussian geographer, naturalist, and explorer. Which of these is it, whose county seat is Dakota City? Hint


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Question 9 of 25
9. Only two Iowa counties begin with the letter I. Which one is named after a mountain in Greece? Hint


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Question 10 of 25
10. Five Iowa counties begin with J. Two are named directly after presidents, while a third shares the name of two presidents but is named for neither. Rather, he is named for the ninth VICE President of the United States, who served under Martin Van Buren. Iowa City is the county seat. Can you pick it out? Hint


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Question 11 of 25
11. Only two Iowa counties begin with the letter K. One of them, with an area of 973 square miles, is the largest. Its county seat is Algona, and it was named for a Hungarian patriot who struggled for the rights of his people within the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Which county is it? Hint


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Question 12 of 25
12. Five Iowa counties begin with the letter L. This county is unique in that it is Iowa's southernmost county, the only one that has land extending south of the rest of the Iowa-Missouri state line, but it has TWO county seats. Can you identify the county whose seats are Keokuk AND Fort Madison? Hint


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Question 13 of 25
13. Of the ten counties beginning with "M", which is named for America's first outstanding Chief Justice, a man who has been called "the Man who Made the Court Supreme"? Hint


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Question 14 of 25
14. Iowa has no counties beginning with N, but does have some ENDING in N. This question is not for the birds. Can you identify which county is named for a famous American painter who was actually born in Haiti? Hint


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Question 15 of 25
15. Iowa has two counties beginning with O. Which one was named for the great Seminole chief who refused to sign a treaty with the United States? Hint


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Question 16 of 25
16. When I was a youngster and was on the road with friends, either going somewhere socially or on a school bus, for example, we had a little game we played with this county, since license plates in Iowa had the name of the county issuing each plate on it. The first person to see this plate would shout out the name and then had the "right" to punch someone in the shoulder. Which county, which also contained Iowa's capital, was it? Hint


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Question 17 of 25
17. Iowa has no counties that begin with Q, but does have one with a Q in the name. This county, with a county seat of the same name, was named for the first permanent settler in Iowa, a Frenchman whose first name was Julien. He mined lead in the area and the Spanish granted him a land grant to do so. The county sits across the Mississippi River from Wisconsin and Illinois. Which of the following is it? Hint


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Question 18 of 25
18. Mount Ayr is the seat of the only Iowa county whose name begins with the letter R. Lying on the Missouri state line, it is one of four Iowa counties with a name not shared by any other U.S. county. Named for the hero of the Battle of Palo Alto in the Mexican War, this county's name is reminiscent of a Wagnerian opera. Can you guess it? Hint


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Question 19 of 25
19. S is the first letter in the names of five Iowa counties. One of them, with its seat at Davenport, is named after a famous American general whose nickname was "Old Fuss and Feathers." During his 53 years of military service, he was also nominated at one time for President of the United States. What county is it? Hint


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Question 20 of 25
20. Two counties in Iowa begin with T, one of which is named for the twelfth President of the United States. Bedford is the county seat. Can you name this county that borders Missouri? Hint


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Question 21 of 25
21. Creston is the seat of the only county in Iowa beginning with U, and the county is named for the very nature of the USA. Which of these names would that be? Hint


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Question 22 of 25
22. Only one Iowa county begins with the letter V. Keosauqua is the county seat. Which name of Dutch origin is it? Hint


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Question 23 of 25
23. We could have had two questions for counties beginning with the letter W, because Iowa has ten of them. Clarion is the county seat of a county which our sources say was named after TWO men. These brothers were governors of New York and Indiana. Which of the following do you suppose is the correct answers? Hint


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Question 24 of 25
24. No Iowa county name begins with the letter X, but one does have X in its name. Nine Iowa counties are named for Native American tribes and eight for famous Native chiefs or leaders. Which of the following Native American tribes is also the name of an Iowa county? Hint


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Question 25 of 25
25. Iowa has no counties beginning with either Y or Z, so we will choose our final question from some of Iowa's counties that have a Y in their names. Which of these counties, whose county seat is Corydon, is named for a famous Revolutionary War general with a "Mad" nickname? Hint



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Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts
1. Five Iowa counties begin with the letter A, but only one is also a presidential name--two presidents, in fact. Corning is the county seat. Which of these is it?

Answer: Adams

 Our source for the county names credits John Adams, the second U.S. President, for being the person after whom Adams County was named. There is no Arthur County in Iowa, although Ida County does boast the town of Arthur.
2. Seven Iowa counties begin with the letter B. One is named after a heroic leader of his people who fought a war against the United States. The county seat is Waterloo. Which county is it?

Answer: Black Hawk

 The Black Hawk War was fought in 1832, and is another sad chapter in the disgraceful history of treatment of Native peoples by the United States government. Among the notable veterans of the Black Hawk War were future presidents Zachary Taylor and Abraham Lincoln.
3. An even dozen Iowa counties begin with the letter C. One in particular was named for a slave-holder who was also Vice President of the United States. The county seat is Rockwell City, and it had previously been named Fox County, for a Native American tribe. Can you pick the vice-presidential name?

Answer: Calhoun

 John C. Calhoun, a nationalist as well as a states' rightist, was elected Vice President under two different presidents: both John Quincy Adams and Andrew Jackson. He also served in the Senate and in the House. Because of his disagreement with Jackson over governmental sovereignty of the states, he became the first Vice President to resign.
4. Seven Iowa counties begin with the letter D. Although three Iowa counties share the names of states, this is the only one specifically named for another state. In this case it was the state whose senator advocated Iowa for statehood. Can you figure out this county's name?

Answer: Delaware

 The senator was John M. Clayton, after whom another Iowa county was named. The county seat for Delaware County is Manchester.
5. Well, only one Iowa county begins with the letter E. Bordering on Minnesota, this county's seat is Estherville. It is named after an Irish patriot and revolutionary who was executed for leading an uprising against the British in 1803. If you know the names of any famous clowns, you might be able to choose the only one of the following names which is also an Iowa county.

Answer: Emmet

 Robert Emmet was an Irish nationalist who was executed by the British in 1903 at age 25. He was hanged for high treason and then drawn and quartered in Thomas Street in Dublin, the last person sentenced to this procedure by a British court. Emmetsburg has one of only four statues of this Irish patriot in the world, the others being in Dublin, Washington (D.C.), and San Francisco.
6. Only four Iowa counties begin with F. The next county, whose seat is at Charles City, was named for an individual whom Iowans hold dear. He was the only member of the Lewis and Clark Expedition to die on the journey, and he died and was buried in Iowa. Do you know this man who has an obelisk monument on the edge of Sioux City and the county named for him?

Answer: Floyd

 Sergeant Charles Floyd was the only fatality in the Lewis and Clark Voyage of Discovery. He died of what was called "bilious colic" at the time, also the cause of death of President Zachary Taylor in 1850. Floyd was only 22 at the time of his death in 1804.

Franklin County was named for Benjamin Franklin. Fremont County was named for John C. Fremont, pathfinder and Mexican War general. Fayette County was named for the Marquis de Lafayette, a French national who greatly aided the Americans in the Revolution.
7. Three Iowa counties begin with G. Of them, one is named for an outstanding general in the Revolution who earned the nicknames of "The Savior of the South" and "The Fighting Quaker." He forced Cornwallis to leave the Carolinas and head for Virginia, where he finally surrendered. Jefferson is the county seat of what county? (People may envy you if you get this one right.)

Answer: Greene

 Nathanael Greene was born in Rhode Island. As Washington's second-in-command in the South, Greene's campaign, assisted by such military luminaries as Poland's Tadeusz Kosciuszko, Virginia's Light-Horse Harry Lee, and the "Swamp Fox" Francis Marion, checked Cornwallis' activities and forced the British out of the Carolinas.
8. Seven Iowa counties begin with the letter H. One is named after a President, and one after a signer of the Declaration of Independence. But the one I'm asking for now was named for a famous Prussian geographer, naturalist, and explorer. Which of these is it, whose county seat is Dakota City?

Answer: Humboldt

 Alexander von Humboldt made famous trips to both South America and Russia. The Humboldt Current is named for him.
9. Only two Iowa counties begin with the letter I. Which one is named after a mountain in Greece?

Answer: Ida

 Ida County's seat is Ida Grove, so identifying it in the question would have been too easy. Mount Ida, which is actually on the island of Crete, is that island's highest point. Ionia is a Chickasaw County town and is also the name of a region in Turkey, which once was of Greek culture. Ireton is a Sioux County town. Marengo is the county seat of Iowa County.
10. Five Iowa counties begin with J. Two are named directly after presidents, while a third shares the name of two presidents but is named for neither. Rather, he is named for the ninth VICE President of the United States, who served under Martin Van Buren. Iowa City is the county seat. Can you pick it out?

Answer: Johnson

 Richard Mentor Johnson was the only Veep in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries who was elected by the Senate under provision of the Twelfth Amendment. He also represented Kentucky in both the Senate and the House, but not at the same time.
11. Only two Iowa counties begin with the letter K. One of them, with an area of 973 square miles, is the largest. Its county seat is Algona, and it was named for a Hungarian patriot who struggled for the rights of his people within the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Which county is it?

Answer: Kossuth

 Lajos (Anglicized as Louis) Kossuth served as Hungary's Regent-President during the Revolution of 1848. Keokuk was a Sac and Fox leader whose name was used for both a city and county in Iowa, although the city of Keokuk is not located in Keokuk County.

The city of Keosauqua was also named for a Sac and Fox chief. Knoxville was named for Henry Knox, an American Revolutionary general and the nation's first Secretary of War.
12. Five Iowa counties begin with the letter L. This county is unique in that it is Iowa's southernmost county, the only one that has land extending south of the rest of the Iowa-Missouri state line, but it has TWO county seats. Can you identify the county whose seats are Keokuk AND Fort Madison?

Answer: Lee

 Three Iowa counties, Sac, Ida, and Lee, have only three letters in their names. Sac and Ida counties are contiguous and located in Northwest Iowa, while Lee is in Iowa's extreme southeast.

Lee County was named for a New York businessman whose company sold the first land in the future county.
13. Of the ten counties beginning with "M", which is named for America's first outstanding Chief Justice, a man who has been called "the Man who Made the Court Supreme"?

Answer: Marshall

 John Marshall was the fourth Chief Justice overall, but the first to declare a law unconstitutional, and he was the Chief Justice who first applied judicial review. He dominated the Court for 30 years.

James Madison and James Monroe were the fourth and fifth presidents, respectively, while Richard Montgomery was a Revolutionary War general.
14. Iowa has no counties beginning with N, but does have some ENDING in N. This question is not for the birds. Can you identify which county is named for a famous American painter who was actually born in Haiti?

Answer: Audubon

 John James Audubon was the son of a French naval officer and pirate and his 27-year-old mistress, named Jeanne Rabine. His mother died when he was but an infant and his father moved to France, to where he was brought with a half-sister. Originally named Jean Rabin, Audubon was adopted by his father and his wife and was renamed Jean-Jacques Fougere Audubon.

In 1803 at age 18, his father sent him to the U.S., and Jean-Jacques then changed his name to John James.
15. Iowa has two counties beginning with O. Which one was named for the great Seminole chief who refused to sign a treaty with the United States?

Answer: Osceola

 There is also an Osceola County in Florida. Iowa's Osceola County's seat is at Sibley. There is an O'Brien County in Iowa, but Ottumwa (also named after a Native American chief) is a city in Wapello County. There is no place in Iowa named Ottawa. There is also a city named Osceola in Iowa, located in Clarke County.
16. When I was a youngster and was on the road with friends, either going somewhere socially or on a school bus, for example, we had a little game we played with this county, since license plates in Iowa had the name of the county issuing each plate on it. The first person to see this plate would shout out the name and then had the "right" to punch someone in the shoulder. Which county, which also contained Iowa's capital, was it?

Answer: Polk

 With Des Moines, the county seat, state capital, and state's largest city, being in Polk County, the county is also Iowa's most populous, with a 2010 head count of 430,640.
17. Iowa has no counties that begin with Q, but does have one with a Q in the name. This county, with a county seat of the same name, was named for the first permanent settler in Iowa, a Frenchman whose first name was Julien. He mined lead in the area and the Spanish granted him a land grant to do so. The county sits across the Mississippi River from Wisconsin and Illinois. Which of the following is it?

Answer: Dubuque

 Julien Dubuque was born near Champlain, Quebec, and in 1788 received permission from the Mesquakie people to mine lead in what is now the Dubuque area. Dubuque was very friendly with his native neighbors and was an advocate for their rights and privileges.
18. Mount Ayr is the seat of the only Iowa county whose name begins with the letter R. Lying on the Missouri state line, it is one of four Iowa counties with a name not shared by any other U.S. county. Named for the hero of the Battle of Palo Alto in the Mexican War, this county's name is reminiscent of a Wagnerian opera. Can you guess it?

Answer: Ringgold

 Washington is the most common county name in the United States, existing in 31 of our 50 states. Next is Jefferson County, found in 27 states. Three are tied for third, included in 24 states apiece: Franklin, Jackson, and Lincoln. Iowa lacks only a Lincoln County of the five. "Das Rheingold" is an opera by Richard Wagner.
19. S is the first letter in the names of five Iowa counties. One of them, with its seat at Davenport, is named after a famous American general whose nickname was "Old Fuss and Feathers." During his 53 years of military service, he was also nominated at one time for President of the United States. What county is it?

Answer: Scott

 At 6'5" Winfield Scott was probably the tallest candidate nominated by a major party for president in the 19th or 20th centuries. He also held the record for serving on active duty as a general longer than any other officer in those 200 years. He was active in five wars, beginning in the War of 1812, and including the Black Hawk War, the Mexican War, the Second Seminole War, and even for a short time, in the Civil War. Scott County is on the Mississippi River, and Davenport is one of the Quad Cities, along with Bettendorf in Iowa, and Rock Island, Moline, and East Moline in Illinois.
20. Two counties in Iowa begin with T, one of which is named for the twelfth President of the United States. Bedford is the county seat. Can you name this county that borders Missouri?

Answer: Taylor

 Zachary Taylor was one of four U.S. Presidents to die from natural causes while in office in the country's first 200 years. He had served only 16 months. Elected as a Whig, he was a war hero who had served in the War of 1812, the Mexican War, and the Second Seminole War, earning the nickname, "Old Rough and Ready."

Tama County is named for a Sac and Fox chief, while Tippecanoe and Thayer are not Iowa county names, although there is a Tippecanoe County in Indiana and a Thayer County in Nebraska.
21. Creston is the seat of the only county in Iowa beginning with U, and the county is named for the very nature of the USA. Which of these names would that be?

Answer: Union

 Urbana is a city located in Benton County in Iowa. There are also Urbanas in Ohio and Illinois. Utica is a city in Oneida County in New York. Utopia is a town in Texas, which also has a Utica.
22. Only one Iowa county begins with the letter V. Keosauqua is the county seat. Which name of Dutch origin is it?

Answer: Van Buren

 Van Buren County is named for Martin Van Buren, the eighth President of the United States. He was also the eighth Vice President, and before that he was Secretary of State. Born in Kinderhook, New York, Van Buren was the only President in the 19th or 20th centuries who spoke English as a second language, as many households in Kinderhook at that time were Dutch-speaking.
23. We could have had two questions for counties beginning with the letter W, because Iowa has ten of them. Clarion is the county seat of a county which our sources say was named after TWO men. These brothers were governors of New York and Indiana. Which of the following do you suppose is the correct answers?

Answer: Wright

 Silas Wright was New York's governor from 1845-1846, while his brother Joseph Albert Wright served as Indiana's governor from 1849 to 1857. Both men also served terms in both the US Senate and the US House. The other three choices were all Native American names: Winnebago being a tribe, one of whose chiefs was named Winneshiek, and Wapello was a Fox chief.
24. No Iowa county name begins with the letter X, but one does have X in its name. Nine Iowa counties are named for Native American tribes and eight for famous Native chiefs or leaders. Which of the following Native American tribes is also the name of an Iowa county?

Answer: Sioux

 Orange City is the county seat for Sioux County. Northwest Iowa, as well as nearby areas of Nebraska, South Dakota, and Minnesota, are swarming with names originating with the Sioux (or Dakota) people and their leaders. Sioux City is the largest city in Northwest Iowa, although it is not located in Sioux County.
25. Iowa has no counties beginning with either Y or Z, so we will choose our final question from some of Iowa's counties that have a Y in their names. Which of these counties, whose county seat is Corydon, is named for a famous Revolutionary War general with a "Mad" nickname?

Answer: Wayne

 "Mad" Anthony Wayne was a general in both the Continental Army and U.S. Army, as well as serving later in the House of Representatives. Wayne County is located in the center of the southernmost row of counties, along the Missouri state line.
Source: Author shvdotr

This quiz was reviewed by FunTrivia editor Pagiedamon before going online.
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