Iowa Territory

“ In 1843 his father removed with his family to Iowa Territory, making his home near Burlington, where John W. was reared on a farm. In 1860 he removed to Nebraska and was soon after elected a member of the Territorial Council where he won distinction as a fluent speaker and acquired wide influence in that body. ”

“ Nevertheless, it would be sheer antiquarianism to catalogue the treaty and conventions of 1803 and the several acts of Congress establishing the District of Louisiana, the Territory of Louisiana, the Territory of Missouri, and the Territory of Michigan as Constitutions of Iowa.
Furthermore, a Constitution is the fundamental law of a people, not of a geographical area; and since the Iowa country was practically uninhabited prior to 1830, the earlier Territorial governments, which have been mentioned, had for Iowa only a nominal political significance. ”

“ Union men in the northern counties of Missouri were often driven from their homes and sought refuge in Iowa with their families. In counties where the Union men were in the majority, they retaliated by driving out Rebels, who sheltered them. This condition of affairs was stirring up civil war in our own State. In order to meet this emergency a military district was formed known as the “Western Division of Iowa,” and troops were raised for service in this territory and the adjoining counties of Missouri, if necessary. ”

“ The Constitution of the Territory of Iowa is clearly an outgrowth of American political development. In its provisions is summed up the final product of that most interesting series of evolutionistic transformations in Territorial government that took place throughout the North and West. ”

“ Now, judging from the almost unexampled emigration that has been flowing into all potions of the Territory since its organization, we should estimate the population of Iowa alone, at not less than one hundred thousand persons! ”

“ On the map accompanying this little book Lieutenant Lea has shown the territory now embraced in Iowa as it was then, 1835. Very much of it at that time had never been seen by white men. The southern boundary of the “Neutral Grounds” began at the Mississippi River nearly opposite Prairie du Chien and ran southwesterly to the Des Moines River near the south line of Webster County and the strip was about forty miles in width. The Iowa River above the junction of the Red Cedar was called Bison, and the Cedar was laid down as the Iowa. ”

“ Twenty-five thousand people have settled on lands in Wisconsin Territory west of the Mississippi River, in what is called the ‘Iowa District,’ improved farms, erected buildings, built towns, laid out cities and made valuable improvements, but have not yet been able to secure any kind of title to their homes and farms. ”

“ For, since the introduction of the bill, "we have admitted a territory on the southwest much larger than Iowa and Florida together--a territory that may be cut up into forty States larger than our small States, or five or six States as large as our largest States. Where and how is the balance to be found by the North and East for Texas? Where is it to be found but in the steadfast part of America? If not there, it can be found nowhere else. God grant it may be there! Everything has been changed. An empire in one region of the country has been added to the Union. ”

“ The county was named for Robert Lucas the first Governor of the Territory of Iowa. In 1846-7, the year of the Mormon exodus through Iowa, several families stopped at Chariton Point near the river of that name in Lucas County, where they built cabins and remained several years. They were the first white settlers in the county. ”

“ The last Legislature, in anticipation of the admission of Iowa as a State, had, during the winter of 1844-5, postponed the session of the Legislature until May, 1845. But the Constitution with the boundaries of the proposed State as fixed by Congress, met with determined opposition from the people. The natural western boundary was the Missouri River, and
THEODORE S. PARVIN
many of the most sagacious and patriotic citizens were unwilling to permit the Missouri slope, embracing one-third of the most fertile portion of the Territory, to be forever severed from the State. ”

“ DES MOINES COUNTY as first established in 1834 embraced nearly one-half of the territory of the future State of Iowa. But in December, 1836, the counties of Lee, Van Buren, Henry, Louisa, Muscatine and Cook were created from territory within its limits. ”

“ The importance of the west is further evidenced by the removal of the Capital after the first session of the Legislative Assembly from Belmont in eastern Wisconsin to Burlington in western Wisconsin. The constitutional history of Wisconsin up to the division of the Territory in 1838 is, therefore, clearly a part of the Territorial history of Iowa. ”

“ He was a mechanic and in 1842 came to the new Territory of Iowa, making his home in Washington County. He became an active Whig politician and in the spring of 1846 was chosen a member of the Second Constitutional Convention which assembled at Iowa City on the 4th of May and framed the Constitution under which Iowa was on the 28th of December following admitted as a State. ”

“ Fourthly, the population of the Territory, which was increasing with unparalleled rapidity, was so widely scattered as to make it practically impossible to give equal force to the laws and equal efficiency to the administration of government in all of the frontier communities. ”

“ In 1839 Iowa City was selected as the site for the seat of government of the newly created Territory of Iowa. The legislature met for the first time in 1841 and continued to hold its sessions here until 1857, when Des Moines, on account of its more central position, was made the capital. ”

“ The early settlers of Iowa represented the whole Union and not any one section of it.
The Growth of Population. — In 1838 the Territory of Iowa had a population of 22,859; by 1844 this number had increased to 75,152. This rapid growth in population represents the pioneer scramble for cheap land in a fertile region. ”

“ The few settlers about Detroit and along the Raisin River had suffered greatly from the British and their savage Indian allies and many had abandoned their homes. The tide of immigration kept farther south, seeking homes in the rich lands of Indiana, Illinois and Missouri up to 1820. Iowa had not yet been named but was embraced in the great indefinite Northwest Territory and was occupied by Indians, as well as the traders, miners and trappers who had permission of the natives to come among them.
The first steamboat that ascended the Mississippi to the limits of Iowa, reached St. ”

“ To the seekers after new homes, from the old world, or from the Eastern and Middle States of the Union--be they mechanics, agriculturists, or professional men--Iowa offers many advantages. On her soil, with prudence, economy and sobriety, added to good health, no one can fail to acquire a competency, if not to amass a fortune.
We have said thus much of Iowa, because we believe it to be due to her; due to her enterprise, and due to the worthy people who have made her soil their home;--and because, although no longer one of her citizens, we love her still! ”

“ Half a century hence the sun is sure to shine upon countless villages, silvered spires and domes, denoting the march of intellect, and wealth's refinements, in this beautiful and far off solitude of the West, and we may perhaps hear the tinkling of the bells from our graves.” These descriptions of the country from 1832 to 1835, when Iowa was beginning to attract the attention of eastern people present a vivid picture of the beautiful prairies, rivers, valleys and groves before its soil was broken for cultivation and before its Indian population had removed from their favorite hunting grounds. ”

“ After the close of the Civil War he went to Dartmouth College where he graduated in the class of 1867. He came with his father's family to Iowa, making his home in Keokuk where they engaged in mercantile business. At seventeen years of age he enlisted in the Union army. In 1875 he was elected Representative in the House of the Sixteenth General Assembly, serving one term. In 1883 Mr. Irwin was appointed by President Arthur, Governor of Idaho Territory. After returning to Keokuk he was elected mayor. ”

“ To them it is significant—their opinion can go for what it is worth—that Illinois has not tried the restrictive and prohibitory legislation of its western neighbor, Iowa, which, with its rolling prairies and park-like timber, loved in the season of birds and flowers, is one of the most fertile and lovely States in the West. ”

“ Agriculture was almost the only occupation, where every man had his herd of cattle, ponies, sheep and swine; and each was his own mechanic.
Thus lived the first settlers in the Mississippi Valley for more than a hundred years. But when their country was surrendered to English rule, many left their peaceful homes along the Illinois, the Mississippi and Wisconsin, so strong was their affection for France and its government. During the time that Iowa had been under the dominion of France, no towns had been laid out or permanent colonies established. ”

“ Floating down the Wisconsin, they finally saw before them the broad waters of the Mississippi. It was on the 17th day of June, 1673, that Marquette and Joliet looked out on the bold bluffs of the western shore a few miles below where McGregor now stands. They were the first white men who ever saw Iowa. Pushing out into the current they beheld a wild, beautiful landscape. On the Wisconsin side was a level prairie shore stretching northward for many miles, covered with tall grass waving in the June breeze. ”

“ The rapidity with which the pioneer population of Iowa increased after the Black-Hawk war was phenomenal. It grew literally by leaps and bounds. Men came in from all parts of the Union--from the North-west, from the East, from the South, and from the South-east. They came from Maine and Massachusetts, from New York and Pennsylvania, from Virginia and the Carolinas, from Georgia, Kentucky and Tennessee, and from the newer States of Ohio and Indiana. It is said that whole neighborhoods came over from Illinois. ”

“ A STATE or Nation is in a large degree what its people make it. If they are ignorant, indolent, or bigoted the institutions of the land in which they live will partake of these characteristics. Had Iowa remained a Spanish possession and become settled by immigrants from that Nation, they would inevitably have planted upon its soil many of the institutions, laws and customs of the mother country. ”

“ The Indians are now moving over to the Des Moines, finding the country along the Waubisipinicon, Chicaqua (the Skunk) and the Iowa no longer stocked with game, they are ready to sell. The pressure of settlers along the border has already created a demand for its purchase. The western boundary will soon be extended, and it is hazarding little to say that this district will have a population that will entitle it to admission among the States of the Union by the time the census of 1840 shall have been completed. ”

“ The Making of a State. — A fertile soil and a genial climate are two very necessary elements in the creation of a Commonwealth. A third and most important factor is an intelligent, honest, and industrious people. It has been Iowa's good fortune to have such a population, without which, indeed, the figures given in the previous chapter could never have been written. But long before Iowa was settled by white men other peoples dwelt upon our rivers and roamed across our prairies. ”

“ In the ten years since 1900 the population has decreased in seventy-one counties of the State and increased in but twenty-eight. Cheaper lands in Canada, the far west, and the southwest have been attracting the young men of Iowa, as the Iowa country in the forties and fifties attracted their grandfathers from the older States. ”

“ Iowa occupies a proud position among the States today, rich in fertile soil, rich in minerals, coals, and shales, blessed with a happy and contented people; if given the benefit of improved waterways like the Mississippi, the Ohio, and the Missouri, making them great highways; and if at the same time permitted to improve our tributary rivers and the water-powers of this great Central West, it will make a mighty empire of itself—and Iowa, magnificent State that she is, will be in the center of it all. ”

“ The northern portion rivals Iowa in beautiful rolling prairie, with high divides and park-like forests; its water communication is unsurpassed; its mineral resources are immense; it has noble mountains as well as fine uplands and fertile valleys, and it never impresses the traveller as monotonous. So attractive is it in both scenery and resources that it seems unaccountable that so many settlers have passed it by. But, first slavery, and then a rural population disinclined to change, have stayed its development. ”

“ He was one of the best as well as one of the greatest men we have ever known. No man in Iowa had more to do with the making and shaping of the Commonwealth than he. He had a hand in making both statutes and Constitution. ”