Biohazard Cleanup Near Downtown Jesup Jesup, IA

Jesup is a city mainly in Buchanan County, Iowa, with a small part extending into Black Hawk County; its Black Hawk County portion lies within the Waterloo-Cedar Falls metropolitan area.

Jesup was named for Morris Ketchum Jesup, president of the Dubuque and Sioux City Railroad, and the town was platted by trustees of that railroad on land that had been purchased from the Sac and Fox in 1842.

Jesup was incorporated on March 18, 1876, and its motto is 'The Right Place.'

Jesup's first schoolhouse was built in 1865, and a stone grain elevator went up along the tracks in 1867, anchors of the young railroad town.

Jesup had a population of 2,508 at the 2020 census, living in 1,008 households - about 12 percent of Buchanan County's total population.

Jesup has been growing thanks to new subdivisions and its proximity to the Waterloo-Cedar Falls metro; it jumped 41 percent in population during the 1970s alone, from 1,662 in 1970 to 2,343 in 1980.

The Jesup Community School District runs a single pre-K through 12 campus in town and also operates three one-room Amish schools north of Jesup that serve the area's large rural Amish population.

Jesup is also home to St. Athanasius Catholic School, which has offered preschool through eighth grade since the 1950s.

Jesup is the hometown of the Ying Quartet, the Grammy Award-winning string quartet formed by four siblings who grew up in the town.

Jesup's city center sits in Perry Township, and the whole city covers just 1.78 square miles.