Linn County is a county located in the U.S. state of Iowa. As of the 2020 census, the population was 230,299, making it the second-most populous county in Iowa. The county seat is Cedar Rapids. Linn County is named in honor of Senator Lewis F. Linn of Missouri. Linn County is included in the Cedar Rapids, IA Metropolitan Statistical Area.
Cedar Rapids is the second-largest city in Iowa, United States and is the county seat of Linn County. The city lies on both banks of the Cedar River, 20 miles (32 km) north of Iowa City and 100 miles (160 km) northeast of Des Moines, the state's capital and largest city. It is a part of the Cedar Rapids/Iowa City region of Eastern Iowa, which includes Linn, Benton, Cedar, Iowa, Jones, Johnson, and Washington counties.
John Mercer Langston was an American abolitionist, attorney, educator, activist, diplomat, and politician. He was the founding dean of the law school at Howard University and helped create the department. He was the first president of what is now Virginia State University, a historically black college. He was elected a U.S. Representative from Virginia and wrote From the Virginia Plantation to the National Capitol; Or, the First and Only Negro Representative in Congress From the Old Dominion.
Mary Adelaide Lundby was a state Senator from the Iowa's 18th District. She served in the Iowa Senate from 1995 to 2009, serving as Minority Leader from 2006 to 2007 and as Co-Majority Leader in 2006. She also served in the Iowa House of Representatives from 1987 to 1995, serving as Speaker pro Tempore from 1992 to 1994. Prior to her election to the Iowa House, Lundby had served as the co-chair of the Linn County Republican party, as a member of the Linn County Republican Central Committee, and as staff assistant to then-senator Roger Jepsen. She graduated from Upper Iowa University, majoring in Political Science and History.
Gwen Hennessey, O.S.F., is a Roman Catholic Franciscan Sister and peace activist, most widely known for her protests against the School of the Americas.
John Taylor Hamilton was a businessman from Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and a one-term Democratic member of the United States House of Representatives from Iowa's 5th congressional district.
George Greene was a lawyer, justice of the Iowa Supreme Court, railroad entrepreneur, businessman, philanthropist, and one of the founders of Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
Troy Mills is an unincorporated community in northern Linn County, Iowa, United States. It lies along local roads north of the city of Cedar Rapids, the county seat of Linn County. Its elevation is 869 feet (265 m). Although Troy Mills is unincorporated, it has a post office, with the ZIP code of 52344, which opened on 10 June 1867, and a full volunteer fire department.
Viola is an unincorporated community in eastern Linn County, Iowa, United States. It lies along local roads, northeast of the city of Cedar Rapids, the county seat of Linn County. Its elevation is 978 feet (298 m). Although Viola is unincorporated, it has a post office, with the ZIP code of 52350, which opened on 7 October 1861.
James Mercer Langston Hughes was an American poet, social activist, novelist, playwright, and columnist from Joplin, Missouri. One of the earliest innovators of the literary art form called jazz poetry, Hughes is best known as a leader of the Harlem Renaissance. He famously wrote about the period that "the Negro was in vogue", which was later paraphrased as "when Harlem was in vogue."
Joy Corning was an American politician who served as Lieutenant Governor of Iowa. A Republican, she was a native of Cedar Falls, Iowa. She graduated from the University of Northern Iowa in Cedar Falls.
Alexander G. Clark was an African-American businessman and activist who served as United States Ambassador to Liberia in 1890-1891, where he died in office. Clark is notable for suing in 1867 to gain admission for his daughter to attend a local public school in Muscatine, Iowa. The case of Clark v. Board of School Directors achieved a constitutional ruling for integration from the Iowa state supreme court in 1868, 86 years before the United States Supreme Court decision of Brown v. Board of Education (1954). He was a prominent leader in winning a state constitutional amendment that gained the right for African Americans in Iowa to vote (1868). Active in church, freemasonry, and the Republican Party, he became known for his speaking skills and was nicknamed "the Colored Orator of the West." He earned a law degree and became co-owner and editor of The Conservator in Chicago. His body was returned from Liberia in 1892 and buried in Muscatine, where his house has been preserved.
Willis Allen "Bill" Glassgow graduated from Shenandoah Iowa high school. Willis was an American football player and attorney. He played halfback for the University of Iowa from 1927 to 1929, was selected as a first-team All-American in 1929, and received the 1929 Chicago Tribune Silver Football as the best football player in the Big Ten Conference. He played two seasons of professional football in the National Football League for the Portsmouth Spartans in 1930 and the Chicago Cardinals in 1931. He practiced law in Iowa from 1933 to 1959, including two terms as the Page County Attorney (1935–1939) and three terms as the Linn County Attorney (1951–1957).
Henry Adams Thompson was an American prohibitionist and professor who was the vice-presidential nominee of the Prohibition Party in 1880.
Elizabeth Ann Mathis is an American politician, non-profit executive and former broadcast journalist who has served as an Iowa State Senator since 2011. A member of the Democratic Party, she was elected to represent the 18th district in a November 2011 special election and re-elected to the redrawn 34th district in 2012. Mathis was the Democratic nominee for Iowa's 1st congressional district in 2022, losing the general election to incumbent Republican Ashley Hinson.
Julieanna L. Richardson is an American Harvard-trained lawyer and the founder and executive director of The HistoryMakers, a nonprofit preserving archival collections of African-American video oral histories.
Brigadier General Alicia A. Tate-Nadeau is a senior officer in the United States Army National Guard and the first woman to be promoted to brigadier general in the Illinois Army National Guard. She currently serves as the Director of the Illinois Emergency Management Agency.
Douglas Lynn Hoelscher is an American politician who served as director of the White House Office of Intergovernmental Affairs in the Trump administration.
Ross Wilburn (1964/1965) is an American politician and social worker serving as a member of the Iowa House of Representatives from the 50th district. Elected in November 2018, he assumed office in January 2019. Wilburn has also served as chair of the Iowa Democratic Party since January 2021.
United States 
