Brooklyn, Iowa: Brook on Each Side

The town of Brooklyn, Iowa sits in Poweshiek County, which is named for the Meskwaki chief Poweshiek. The county was still new when the first families were staking claims to the prairie. Robert Manatt and his son William arrived from Holmes County, Ohio and began farming the land.

William eventually laid out most of the town. When it came time to name the place, the story goes that a surveyor noted that two small streams ran on either side of the settlement, one on each flank. The phrase coined was simply this: there is a brook over there and a brook over there, with good land between, so call it Brookland.

The name was soon shortened to Brooklyn. A railroad line brought prosperity, and for a while the town boasted a Victorian hotel and a grand opera house on its main street.