Princeton, IA

Princeton is a Scott County city whose earliest local story starts with Giles and Haswell Pineo, who settled in the township around 1836. By 1838, the predecessor community of Elizabeth City had a store, a ferry across the Wapsipinicon River, a mill, and a distillery. Those four pieces tell you what the place needed at the start: river crossing, supplies, grain work, and a little commerce. Princeton is now part of the North Scott school district, but the old Wapsipinicon crossing still gives the city its best local handle—a small Iowa town built where the river made business possible.