Prosperity is located in the southwest quarter of section 25 of Herrin Township. It was along the road that is Herrin Street in Johnston City, extended south, just across Lake Creek from Boyd Knob School. There were four or five mines within walking distance of the spot and the Illinois Central Railroad built a lean-to depot where the Herrin Street road crossed the railroad. The station was named Prosperity. A hamlet built up around the station.
Prosperity was not far from Johnston City and no business was ever developed there.
In the first half of the 1920s the mines in the lowlands of Lake Creek experienced devastating water seepage. One by one the mines filled with water. The houses were torn down or burned until only three of the original houses remain. They are remodeled beyond recognition. However, the lots in Prosperity were not vacated. New houses have replaced old ones. Today Prosperity is a quiet rural residential hamlet one-half mile south of Johnston City on Herrin Street.
(Ghost Towns of Southern Illinois, by Glenn J. Sneed, published 1977)