Iowa

“ Some few men were beginning to realize that the rapid settlement of the Iowa country was not an isolated provincial episode but the surface manifestation of a current that was of National depth. Far-sighted statesmen whose eyes were neither blinded by the lights of the moment nor yet always riveted upon that which for the time was most brilliant, saw that a plain, common-looking pioneer farmer from across the Mississippi had come upon the stage of National Politics and had already begun to play a role in the great drama of American Democracy. ”

“ This was Iowa, as it was first seen by white men, and no more enchanting land ever met the gaze of explorers. For six days the Frenchmen remained with their Indian friends, traversing the valley of the river, hunting elk, buffalo and prairie chickens, fishing and bathing in the pure waters, feasting on the choicest of the products of the fields, forests and streams. The natives exerted themselves to provide every entertainment possible for their white visitors, and urged them to prolong their stay. ”

“ 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! ”

“ It is equally apparent, to those who really know their Iowa, that, far from being a dead level of uninteresting prosperity, our state is rich in suggestive literary material, ready and waiting for the authors of the future. Topographically, Iowa abounds in surprises. In the midst of her empire of rich rolling prairie are lakes and rivers, rugged cliffs and wooded hills, villages and cities set upon hills overlooking beautiful valleys through which streams wind their way seaward, her east and west borders defended by castellated rocks overlooking our two great rivers. ”

“ 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. ”

“ As they passed up along the west shore of Iowa they describe the country as a vast prairie, the great valley of the Missouri broadening out on the Iowa side into immense meadows, many miles in width, and level as a floor, covered with a dense growth of tall waving grass. ”

“ 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. ”

“ The chiefs harangued for hours not only upon the beautiful meadows, the running streams, the stately trees, and the other beloved objects which they were called upon to surrender to the white man, but upon the moon and stars and rain and hail and wind, all of which were alleged to be more attractive and beneficent in Iowa than anywhere else. ”

“ The Iowas reside on the De Moyen and Iowa rivers in two villages. They hunt on the W. side of the Mississippi, the De Moyen, and westward to the Missouri; their wars and alliances are the same as those of the Sauks and Reynards, under whose special protection they conceive themselves to be. They cultivate some corn, but not so much in proportion as the Sauks and Reynards. Their residence being on the small streams in the rear of the Mississippi, out of the highroad of commerce, renders them less civilized than those nations. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ WHILE Iowa is one of the younger states of the Republic, as compared with the Thirteen Colonies which won independence from Great Britain through the War of the Revolution, it has a history which may be traced with some degree of certainty for a period of more than two hundred years. ”

“ They were probably the first white men who ever traversed the beautiful rolling prairies of that region.
It had now been sixteen years since the western borders of Iowa had been partially explored by Lewis and Clark, and through their reports made known to the country; but so far as is known no permanent settlers had erected cabins in that region, or broken the prairie sod for farms. French and half-breed traders made their trips up and down the Missouri and its tributaries in pursuit of their vocation for many years after this before we find any attempts to open farms or lay out towns. ”

“ Iowa has the richest land, the lowest illiteracy rate, the largest percentages of native-born whites and motor-car owners, and the most moral and forward-looking cities of all the States, and Nautilus is the most Iowan city in Iowa. One out of every three persons above the age of sixty has spent a winter in California, and among them are the champion horseshoe pitcher of Pasadena and the woman who presented the turkey which Miss Mary Pickford, the cinema princess, enjoyed at her Christmas dinner in 1912. ”

“ No connected history of Iowa from the earliest period down to the close of the Nineteenth Century is in existence and the time has arrived when the growing prominence of our State among the members of the Union would seem to justify the presentation of a narrative of the important events of the past. ”

“ Iowa, of about the same population as Minnesota, [Pg 252] is two-thirds native and equally Nordic. It has contributed heavily to the prairie and mountain States, and also to the Pacific Coast, but the standing joke which ascribes to Iowa the parentage of all Southern Californians seems to be not quite exact—at least California as a whole has received more of its population during the past generation from Illinois, Missouri, New York, and Ohio, than from Iowa, which stands only fifth in the list. ”

“ The Iowa River flows through the county from the northwest in a southeasterly direction furnishing water power and along its banks are found borders of woods and excellent stone quarries. The first settlement was made by Greenbury Haggins who came with his family from Keokuk County in 1849 and made a claim on the Iowa River and in the southeast corner of the county. During the next season Samuel Smith, James A. Dawdey, William Robinson and Abraham Grimsley came with their families and settled in the same vicinity. In the fall of 1850 Jacob Kidwiler made a claim about ten miles above Eldora. ”

“ How well and wisely the people of the Nineteenth Century who occupied Iowa, accomplished this mission, has been partially recorded in the preceding volumes of this history. The generations to come will want to know more of the lives of the leaders in the work of founding the State which, in the opening years of the Twentieth Century, has attained a position among the members of the Union which by general consent is regarded as creditable to its architects. ”

“ 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! ”

“ The Iowa farmer has kept up with the procession, and he certainly is as intelligent, as wide-awake, and as shrewd and keen as the merchant, the banker, and the professional man in his business dealings. But he came to Iowa at the proper time, and for that reason he had the advantage of the old settlers who came to New England or to Jamestown. ”

“ It then branches into three forks called the 'Turkey Foot.' Ten miles up the Iowa from its mouth is a village of the Iowa Indians. From the Iowa to Rock River we generally found beautiful prairies on the west side, and in some places very rich land covered with black walnut and hickory timber. A short distance above the mouth of Rock River we came to the great rapids of the Mississippi, which extend up the river a distance of eighteen miles. [2] These shoals are continuous chain of rocks, reaching in some places from shore to shore. ”

“ 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. ”

“ But another great change comes; the waters again cover the northwestern portion of the State and ages come and go before the sea recedes, never to return. Iowa has finally been raised above the sea level and the waters drain toward the ocean, forming great rivers, and plowing deep channels through the oozing sediment. The sun and wind finally dry the surface; forests and rank vegetation again make their appearance; animals come forth from Nature's nurseries and spread themselves over the land, and roam through the jungles, preying upon each other in their struggle for food. ”

“ HORACE BOIES, thirteenth Governor of Iowa, was born on a farm in Erie County, New York, on the 7th of December, 1827. He received but a common school education and when sixteen years of age removed to Wisconsin and worked some time on a farm; returning to his old home he decided to study law. ”

“ In September, 1869, he went west, locating at Fort Dodge, Iowa, then a village of a few hundred inhabitants. He was young, full of courage and enthusiasm and from the start won his way to a good practice. He was an active Republican in those exciting years of reconstruction and one of the most eloquent public speakers in northwest Iowa. ”

“ The founding of settlements in Iowa in 1849–50 is but a part of a larger movement now beginning, which, in the course of a few years, resulted in the establishment of numerous settlements in Wisconsin, Iowa, and southeastern Minnesota. ”

“ CHARLES J. IVES of Cedar Rapids is an illustration of a class of citizens of Iowa, starting in boyhood with only an inheritance of intellect, energy and a laudable ambition to accomplish something worth living for, has attained a high position in one of the great industries of the age. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ The new settlers found Iowa as they had so often heard of it as "a wilderness of prairie land." It was well watered, and along the streams could be found enough timber to erect fences and furnish fuel and rails. They generally located in the edge of the timber and along the streams, and hesitated about locating on the prairie till much later. There they found richer land than along the timber. These first settlers came from the far east and south, Ohio, Indiana, New York, Virginia, South Carolina, and the New England states. They came from Maryland, from Kentucky, and Tennessee. ”