Worthington, IA

Worthington is a Dubuque County city of 382 people at the 2020 census, up from 381 in 2000. Iowa 136 passes through town between Cascade and Dyersville, and that road position echoes the older transportation story. The Dubuque South-Western Railroad, a local branch of the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul system, was contracted to establish a line from Farley toward Cedar Rapids, giving the developing settlement a place in the county's rail network.

Amos Worthington arrived in 1858 to open a general store, and by November the settlement was being called the village of Worthington. The name arrived with the store. The town now falls within the Western Dubuque Community School District: students attend Dyersville Elementary, Drexler Middle in Farley, and Western Dubuque High in Epworth. St. Paul School, a Catholic school that began around 1874, closed in 2015 after its enrollment had fallen to 26. Worthington's through-road, railroad beginnings, and school connections all point outward to the surrounding Dubuque County communities.