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From Iowa Publications Online, http://publications.iowa.gov/ Submitted to Genealogy Trails by Larry Wells
*Residents
from Bohemia numbered 9,098 and 9,500 in 1915.
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Marquette and Joliet Find Iowa Lush and Green Before 1673, however, the region had long been home to many Native
Americans. Approximately 17 different Indian tribes had resided here at
various times including the Ioway, Sauk, Mesquaki, Sioux, Potawatomi,
Oto, and Missouri. The Potawatomi, Oto, and Missouri Indians had sold
their land to the federal government by 1830 while the Sauk and Mesquaki
remained in the Iowa region until 1845. The Santee Band of the Sioux was
the last to negotiate a treaty with the federal government in 1851. The Sauk and Mesquaki constituted the largest and most powerful
tribes in the Upper Mississippi Valley. They had earlier moved from the
Michigan region into Wisconsin and by the 1730s, they had relocated in
western Illinois. There they established their villages along the Rock
and Mississippi Rivers. They lived in their main villages only for a few
months each year. At other times, they traveled throughout western
Illinois and eastern Iowa hunting, fishing, and gathering food and
materials with which to make domestic articles. Every spring, the two
tribes traveled northward into Minnesota where they tapped maple trees
and made syrup. In 1829, the federal government informed the two tribes that they
must leave their villages in western Illinois and move across the
Mississippi River into the Iowa region. The federal government claimed
ownership of the Illinois land as a result of the Treaty of 1804. The
move was made but not without violence. Chief Black hawk, a
highly-respected Sauk leader, protested the move and in 1832 returned to
reclaim the Illinois village of Saukenauk. For the next three months,
the Illinois militia pursued Black Hawk and his band of approximately
400 Indians northward along the eastern side of the Mississippi River.
The Indians surrendered at the Bad Axe River in Wisconsin, their numbers
having dwindled to about 200. This encounter is known as the Black Hawk
War. As punishment for their resistance, the federal government required
the Sauk and Mesquaki to relinquish some of their land in eastern Iowa.
This land, known as the Black Hawk Purchase, constituted a strip 50
miles wide lying along the Mississippi River, stretching from the
Missouri border to approximately Fayette and Clayton Counties in
Northeastern Iowa. Today, Iowa is still home to one Indian group, the Mesquaki, who
reside on the Mesquaki Settlement in Tama County. After most Sauk and
Mesquaki members had been removed from the state, some Mesquaki tribal
members, along with a few Sauk, returned to hunt and fish in eastern
Iowa. The Indians then approached Governor James Grimes with the request
that they be allowed to purchase back some of their original land. They
collected $735 for their first land purchase and eventually they bought
back approximately 3,200 acres. The first official white settlement in Iowa began in June 1833, in
the Black Hawk Purchase. Most of Iowa's first white settlers came from
Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, Indiana, Kentucky, and Virginia. The great
majority of newcomers came in family units. Most families had resided in
at least one additional state between the time they left their state of
birth and the time they arrived in Iowa. Sometimes families had
relocated three or four times before they reached Iowa. At the same
time, not all settlers remained here; many soon moved on to the Dakotas
or other areas in the Great Plains. Iowa's earliest white settlers soon discovered an environment
different from that which they had known back East. Most northeastern
and southeastern states were heavily timbered; settlers there had
material for building homes, outbuildings, and fences. Moreover, wood
also provided ample fuel. Once past the extreme eastern portion of Iowa,
settlers quickly discovered that the state was primarily a prairie or
tall grass region. Trees grew abundantly in the extreme eastern and
southeastern portions, and along rivers and streams, but elsewhere
timber was limited. Early settlers recognized other disadvantages of prairie living. Many
people complained that the prairie looked bleak and desolate. One woman,
newly arrived from New York State, told her husband that she thought she
would die without any trees. Emigrants from Europe, particularly the
Scandinavian countries, reacted in similar fashion. These newcomers also
discovered that the prairies held another disadvantage - one that could
be deadly. Prairie fires were common in the tall grass country, often
occurring yearly. Diaries of pioneer families provide dramatic accounts
of the reactions of early Iowans to prairie fires, often a mixture of
fear and awe. When a prairie fire approached, all family members were
called out to help keep the flames away. One nineteenth century Iowan
wrote that in the fall, people slept "with one eye open" until the first
snow fell, indicating that the threat of fire had passed. Pioneer families faced additional hardships in their early years in
Iowa. Constructing a farmstead was hard work in itself. Families not
only had to build their homes, but often they had to construct the
furniture used. Newcomers were often lonely for friends and relatives.
Pioneers frequently contracted communicable diseases such as scarlet
fever. Fever and ague, which consisted of alternating fevers and chills,
was a constant complaint. Later generations would learn that fever and
ague was a form of malaria, but pioneers thought that it was caused by
gas emitted from the newly turned sod. Moreover, pioneers had few ways
to relieve even common colds or toothaches. Early life on the Iowa prairie was sometimes made more difficult by
the death of family members. Some pioneer women wrote of the heartache
caused by the death of a child. One women, Kitturah Belknap, had lost
one baby to lung fever. When a second child died, she confided in her
diary: As thousands of settlers poured into Iowa in the mid-1800s, all
shared a common concern for the development of adequate transportation.
The earliest settlers shipped their agricultural goods down the
Mississippi River to New Orleans, but by the 1850s, Iowans had caught
the nation's railroad fever. The nation's first railroad had been built
near Baltimore in 1831, and by 1860, Chicago was served by almost a
dozen lines. Iowans, like other Midwesterners, were anxious to start
railroad building in their state. In the early 1850s, city officials in the river communities of
Dubuque, Clinton, Davenport, and Burlington began to organize local
railroad companies. City officials knew that railroads building west
from Chicago would soon reach the Mississippi River opposite the four
Iowa cities. With the 1850s, railroad planning took place which
eventually resulted in the development of the Illinois Central, the
Chicago and North Western, reaching Council Bluffs in 1867. Council
Bluffs had been designated as the eastern terminus for the Union
Pacific, the railroad that would eventually extend across the western
half of the nation and along with the Central Pacific, provide the
nation's first transcontinental railroad. A short time later a fifth
railroad, the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul, and Pacific, also completed
its line across the state. The completion of five railroads across Iowa brought major economic
changes. Of primary importance, Iowans could travel every month of the
year. During the latter ninetieth and early twentieth centuries, even
small Iowa towns had six passenger trains a day. Steamboats and
stagecoaches had previously provided transportation, but both were
highly dependent on the weather, and steam boats could not travel at all
once the rivers had frozen over. Railroads also provided year-round
transportation for Iowa's farmers. With Chicago's pre-eminence as a
railroad center, the corn, wheat, beef, and pork raised by Iowa's
farmers could be shipped through Chicago, across the nation to eastern
seaports, and from there, anywhere in the world. Railroads also brought major changes in Iowa's industrial sector.
Before 1870, Iowa contained some manufacturing firms in the eastern
portion of the state, particularly all made possible by year-around
railroad transportation. Many of the new industries were related to
agriculture. In Cedar Rapid, John and Robert Stuart, along with their
cousin, George Douglas, started an oats processing plant. In time, this
firm took the name Quaker Oats. Meat packing plants also appeared in the
1870s in different parts of the state: Sinclair Meat Packing opened in
Cedar Rapids and John Morrell and Company set up operations in Ottumwa.
As Iowa's population and economy continued to grow, education and
religious institutions also began to take shape. Americans had long
considered education important and Iowans did not deviate from that
belief. Early in any neighborhood, residents began to organize schools.
The first step was to set up township elementary schools, aided
financially by the sale or lease of section 16 in each of the state's
many townships. The first high school was established in the 1850s, but
in general, high schools did not become widespread until after 1900.
Private and public colleges also soon appeared. By 1900, the
Congregationalists had established Grinnell College. The Catholics and
Methodists were most visible in private higher education, however. As of
1900, they had each created five colleges: Iowa Wesleyan, Simpson,
Cornell, Morningside, and Upper Iowa University by the Methodists; and
Marycrest, St. Ambrose, Briar Cliff, Loras, and Clarke by the Catholics.
Other church colleges present in Iowa by 1900 were Coe and Dubuque
(Presbyterian); Wartburg and Luther (Lutheran); Central (Baptist); and
Drake (Disciples of Christ). The establishment of private colleges coincided with the
establishment of state educational institutions. In the mid-1800s, state
officials organized three state institutions of higher learning, each
with a different mission. The University of Iowa, established in 1855,
was to provide classical and professional education for Iowa's young
people; Iowa State College of Science and Technology (now Iowa State
University), established in 1858; was to offer agricultural and
technical training. Iowa State Teachers' College (now University of
Northern Iowa), founded in 1876 was to train teachers for the state's
public
schools. Catholics also moved into Iowa soon after white settlement
began. Dubuque served as the center for Iowa Catholicism as Catholics
established their first diocese in that city. The leading Catholic
figure was Bishop Mathias Loras, a Frenchman, who came to Dubuque in the
late 1830s. Bishop Loras helped establish Catholic churches in the area
and worked hard to attract priests and nuns from foreign countries.
Before the Civil War, most of Iowa's Catholic clergy were from France,
Ireland, and Germany. After the Civil War, more and more of that group
tended to be native-born. Bishop Loras also helped establish two
Catholic educational institutions in Dubuque, Clarke College and Loras
College. Congregationalists were the third group to play an important role in
Iowa before the Civil War. The first group of Congregationalist
ministers here were known as the Iowa Band. This was a group of 11
ministers, all trained at Andover Theological Seminary, who agreed to
carry the gospel into a frontier region. The group arrived in 1843, and
each minister selected a different town in which to establish a
congregation. The Iowa Band's motto was "each a church; all a college."
After a number of years when each minister worked independently, the
ministers collectively helped to establish Iowa College in Davenport.
Later church officials move the college to Grinnell and changed its name
to Grinnell College. The letters and journal of William Salter, a member
of the Iowa Band, depict the commitment and philosophy of this small
group. At one point, Salter wrote the following to his fiancee back
East: By 1860, Iowa had achieved statehood (December 28, 1846), and the
state continued to attract many settlers, both native and foreign-born.
Only the extreme northwestern part of the state remained a frontier
area. But after almost 30 years of peaceful development, Iowans found
their lives greatly altered with the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861.
While Iowans had no battles fought on their soil, the state paid dearly
through the contributions of its fighting men. Iowa males responded
enthusiastically to the call for Union volunteers and more than 75,000
Iowa men served with distinction in campaigns fought in the East and in
the South. Of that number, 13,001 died in the war, many of disease
rather than from battle wounds. Some men died in the Confederate prison
camps, particularly Andersonville, Georgia. A total of 8,500 Iowa men
were wounded. Many Iowans served with distinction in the Union Army. Probably the
best known was Grenville Dodge, who became a general during the war.
Dodge fulfilled two important functions: he supervised the rebuilding of
many southern railroad lines to enable Union troops to move more quickly
through the South; and he directed the counter intelligence operation
for the union Army, locating Northern sympathizers in the South who, in
turn, would relay information on Southern troop movements and military
plans to military men in the
North. Iowa women also served their nation during the war. Hundreds
of women knitted sweaters, sewed uniforms, rolled bandages, and
collected money for military supplies. Women formed soldiers' relief
societies throughout the state. Annie Wittenmyer particularly
distinguished herself through volunteer work. She spent much time during
the war raising money and needed supplies for Iowa soldiers. At one
point, Mrs. Wittenmyer visited her brother in a Union army hospital. She
objected to the food served to the patients, contending that no one
could get well on greasy bacon and cold coffee. She suggested to
hospital authorities that they establish diet kitchens so that the
patients would receive proper nutrition. Eventually, some diet kitchens
were established in military hospitals. Mrs. Wittenmyer also was
responsible for the establishment of several homes for soldiers'
orphans. The Civil War era brought considerable change to Iowa and perhaps one
of the most visible changes came in the political arena. During the
1840's, most Iowans voted Democratic although the state also contained
some Whigs. Iowa's first two United States Senators were Democrats as
were most state officials. During the 1850s, however, the state's
Democratic Party developed serious internal problems as well as being
unsuccessful in getting the national Democratic Party to respond to
their needs. Iowans soon turned to the newly emerging Republican Party;
the political career of James Grimes illustrates this change. In 1854,
Iowans elected Grimes governor on the Whig ticket. Two years later,
Iowans elected Grimes governor on the Republican ticket. Grimes would
later serve as a Republican United States Senator from Iowa. Republicans
took over state politics in the 1850s and quickly instigated several
changes. They moved the state capital from Iowa City to Des Moines, they
established the University of Iowa and they wrote a new state
constitution. From the late 1850s until well into the twentieth century,
Iowans remained strongly Republican. Iowans sent many highly capable
Republicans to Washington, particularly William Boyd Allison of Dubuque,
Jonathan P. Dolliver of Ft. Dodge, and Albert Baird Cummins of Des
Moines. These men served their state and their nation with distinction.
Another political issue facing Iowans in the 1860s was the issue of
women's suffrage. From the 1860s on, Iowa contained a large number of
women, and some men, who strongly supported the measure and who worked
endlessly for its adoption. In keeping with the general reform mood of
the latter 1860s and 1870s, the issue first received serious
consideration when both houses of the General Assembly passed a women's
suffrage amendment in 1870. Two years later, however, when the
legislature had to consider the amendment again before it could be
submitted to the general electorate, interest had waned, opposition had
developed, and the amendment was
defeated. The arguments against women's suffrage ranged from the charge that
women were not interested in the vote to the charge that women's
suffrage would bring the downfall of the family and would cause
delinquency in children. Regarding the defeat of the 1916 state
referendum on the female vote, Iowa-born Carrie Chapman Catt, a leader
for the women's suffrage cause, argued that the liquor interests in the
state should accept responsibility as they had worked hard to defeat the
measure. During the long campaign to secure the vote, however, the women
themselves were not always in agreement as to the best approach to
secure a victory. Catt herself led the final victorious assault in 1918
and 1919 in Washington with her "winning plan." This called for women to
work for both state (state constitutions) and national (national
constitution) amendments. Finally, in 1920, after both houses of the
United States Congress passed the measure and it had been approved by
the proper number of states, woman's suffrage became a reality for
American women everywhere. Iowans were not alone in their efforts to attract more northern and
western Europeans. Throughout the nation, Americans regarded these new
comers as "good stock" and welcomed them enthusiastically. Most
immigrants from these countries came in family units. Germans
constituted the largest group, settling in every county within the
state. The great majority became farmers, but many also became craftsmen
and shopkeepers. Moreover, many German-Americans edited newspapers,
taught school, and headed banking establishments. In Iowa, Germans
exhibited the greatest diversity in occupations, religion, and
geographical settlement. The Marx Goettsch family of Davenport serves well as an example of
German immigrants. At the time of his emigration in 1871, Goettsch was
24 years old, married and the father of a young son. During a two-year
term in the German Army, Goettsch had learned the trade of shoemaking.
Goettsch and his family chose to settle in Davenport, among Germans from
the Schleswig-Holstein area. By working hard as a shoemaker, Goettsch
managed not only to purchase a building for his home and shop, but also
to purchased five additional town lots. Later, Goettsch had homes built
on the lots which he rented out. He had then become both a small
business man and a landlord. During the next 25 years, Goettsch and his wife, Anna, raised six
children and enjoyed considerable prosperity. For Marx and Anna, life in
America, surrounded by fellow German-Americans, did not differ greatly
from life in the old country. For their children, however, life was
quite different. The lives of the Goettsch children - or the second
generation - best illustrate the social and economic opportunities
available to immigrants in the United States. If the family had remained
in Germany, probably all five sons would have followed their father's
occupation of shoemaker. In the United States, all five pursued higher
education. Two sons received Ph.D.s, two sons received M.D.s, and one
son became a professional engineer. With the third generation, education
was also a crucial factor. Of seven grandchildren, all became
professionals. Moreover, five of the seven were female. As the Goettsch
experience indicates, opportunities abounded for immigrants settling in
Iowa in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The newcomers and their
children could take up land, go into business, or pursue higher
education. For most immigrants, these areas offered a better, more
prosperous life than their parents had known in the old country. Iowa also attracted many other people from Europe, including Swedes,
Norwegians, Danes, Hollanders, and many emigrants from the British Isles
as shown by the following table. After 1900, people also emigrated from
southern and eastern Europe. In many instances, immigrant groups were
identified with particular occupations. The Scandinavians, including
Norwegians, who settled in Winneshiek and Story Counties; Swedes, who
settled in Boone County; and Danes, who settled in southwestern Iowa;
were largely associated with farming. Many Swedes also became coal
miners. The Hollanders made two major settlements in Iowa, the first in
Marion County, and the second in northwest
Iowa. Italian emigration differed from earlier emigration in that it tended
to be male dominated. Typically, the Italian male emigrated with
financial support of family or friends. Once in Iowa, he worked in the
mines to pay back his sponsors; then he began to save to bring his wife
and family from Italy. For two generations, Italian males worked in coal
mines scattered throughout central and southern Iowa. Beginning around
1925, however, the Iowa coal industry began to decline. By the mid-1950s
only a few underground mines remained in the state. Foreign-born in Iowa, 1880, 1900, and 1920
Source: Leland Sage, A History of Iowa (Ames: Iowa State
University, 1974), p. 93 *Residents
from Bohemia numbered 9,098 and 9,500 in 1915. The majority of blacks who migrated to Iowa during the late
nineteenth and early twentieth centuries also worked as coal miners.
Before the Civil War, Iowa had only a small black population, but in the
1880s that number increased considerably. Unfortunately, many of the
early blacks were hired as strike breakers by Iowa coal operators. In
later decades, however, coal companies hired blacks as regular miners.
The most notable coal community in Iowa was Buxton. Located in
northern Monroe County, Buxton contained almost 5,000 people. By
contrast, most coal camps averaged around 200 residents. Consolidation
Coal Company owned and operated Buxton and instigated many progressive
policies. Perhaps most unusual, Buxton had a high black population, at
one time almost 54 percent. Most social and economic institutions were
racially integrated and the town contained many black professionals.
Buxton existed from 1900 to 1922 when coal seams around the area were
depleted. Black families then moved on to Des Moines, Waterloo, Cedar
Rapids and to communities outside the state. After the Civil War, Iowa's agriculture also underwent considerable
change. By the 1870s, farms and small towns blanketed the entire state.
Also in that decade, Iowa farmers established definite production
patterns, which led to considerable prosperity. During the Civil War,
Iowa farmers had raised considerable wheat. After the war, however,
prominent Iowa farmers like "Tama Jim" Wilson, later to be national
secretary of agriculture for 16 years, urged farmers to diversify their
production, raise corn rather than wheat, and convert that corn into
pork, beef, and wool whenever possible. For many generations, Iowa
farmers have followed Wilson's advice. Even though farmers changed their agricultural production, farm work
continued to be dictated by the seasons. Wintertime meant butchering,
fence mending, ice cutting, and wood chopping. In the spring, farmers
prepared and planted their fields. Summertime brought sheep shearing,
haying, and threshing. In the fall, farmers picked corn, the most
difficult farm task of all. Farm women's work also progressed according to the seasons. During
the winter, women did their sewing and mending, and helped with
butchering. Spring brought the greatest activity. Then women had to
hatch and care for chickens, plant gardens, and do spring housekeeping.
During the summer, women canned large amounts of vegetables and fruit.
Canning often extended into the fall. Foods like apples and potatoes
were stored for winter use. Throughout all the seasons, there were many
constants in farm women's routines. Every-day meals had to be prepared,
children cared for, and housekeeping done. With gardens to tend and
chickens to feed and water, farm women had both indoor and outdoor work.
Through their activities however, women produced most of their families'
food supply. During the late 1800s and early 1900s, social activities for farm
families were limited. Most families made few trips to town. Some Iowans
remember that even in the 1920s, they went to town only on Saturday
night. Family members looked to each other for companionship and
socializing. Moreover, the country church and the country school were
important social centers. Families gathered at neighborhood schools
several times each year for Christmas programs, spelling bees, and
annual end-of-the-year picnics. Many rural neighborhoods had distinct ethnic identifications, often
merged into religion. Throughout the Iowa countryside, churches abounded
with designations such as German Lutheran, German Catholic, German
Methodist, Swedish Lutheran, Swedish Methodist, and Swedish Baptist.
In 1917, the United States entered World War I and farmers as well as
all Iowans experienced a wartime economy. For farmers, the change was
significant. Since the beginning of the war in 1914, Iowa farmers had
experienced economic prosperity. Along with farmers everywhere, they
were urged to be patriotic by increasing their production. Farmers
purchased more land and raised more corn, beef, and pork for the war
effort. It seemed that no one could lose as farmers expanded their
operations, made more money, and at the same time, helped the Allied war
effort. After the war, however, Iowa farmers soon saw wartime farm subsidies
eliminated. Beginning in 1920, many farmers had difficulty making the
payment for debts they had incurred during the war. The 1920s were a
time of hardship for Iowa's farm families and for many families, these
hardships carried over into the 1930s. As economic difficulties worsened, Iowa farmers sought to find local
solutions. Faced with extremely low farm prices, including corn at 10
cents a bushel and pork at three cents a pound, some Iowa farmers joined
the Farm Holiday Association. This group, which had its greatest
strength in the area around Sioux City, tried to withhold farm products
from markets. They believed this practice would force up farm prices.
The Farm Holiday Association had onlylimited success as many farmers did
not cooperate and the withholding itself did little to raise prices.
Farmers experienced little relief until 1933 when the federal
government, as part of Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal, created a federal
farm
program. In the economic sector, Iowa also has undergone considerable change.
Beginning with the first farm-related industries developed in the 1870s,
Iowa has experienced a gradual increase in the number of business and
manufacturing operations. The period since World War II has witnessed a
particular increase in manufacturing operations. While agriculture
continues to be the state's dominant industry, Iowans also produce a
wide variety of products including refrigerators, washing machines,
fountain pens, farm implements, and food products that are shipped
around the world. At the same time, some traditions remain unchanged. Iowans are still
widely known for their strong educational systems, both in secondary as
well as in higher education. Today, Iowa State University and the
University of Iowa continue to be recognized nationally and
internationally as outstanding educational institutions. Iowa remains a
state composed mostly of farms and small towns, with a limited number of
larger cities. Moreover, Iowa is still a place where most people live
stable, comfortable lives, where family relationships are strong and
where the quality of life is high. In many peoples' minds, Iowa is
"middle America." Throughout the years, Iowans have profited from their
environment and the result is a progressive people and a bountiful
land. Population of Iowa: 1840 to 1990
2,776,755
88,440
67,831
2,757,537 Includes population of area now constituting that part of Minnesota
lying west of the Mississippi River and a line drawn from its source
northward to the Canadian boundary. This area formed a part of Iowa
Territory in 1840. 1 - Quoted in Glenda Riley's, Frontiers
woman: The Iowa Experience (Ames: Iowa State University Press, 1981), p.
81. 2 - Quoted in Joseph Wall's, Iowa: A
History (New York: W.W. Norton & Company Inc., 1978), p.
70. © 2008 Genealogy Trails - All right reserved
Iowa History and
Demographics
From Iowa Publications
Online, http://publications.iowa.gov/
Submitted
to Genealogy Trails by Larry
Wells
In
the summer of 1673, French explorers Louis Joliet and Father Jacques
Marquette traveled down the Mississippi River past the land that was to
become the state of Iowa. The two explorers, along with their five
crewmen, stepped ashore near where the Iowa river flowed into the
Mississippi. It is believed that the 1673 voyage marked the first time
that white people visited the region of Iowa. After surveying the
surrounding area, the Frenchmen recorded in their journals that Iowa
appeared lush, green, and fertile. For the next 300 years, thousands of
white settlers would agree with these early visitors: Iowa was indeed
lush and green; moreover, its soil was highly productive. In fact, much
of the history of the Hawkeye State is inseparably intertwined with its
agricultural productivity. Iowa stands today as one of the leading
agricultural states in the nation, a fact foreshadowed by the
observation of the early French explorers.
The Indians
Iowa's First White Settlers
In most portions of eastern and central
Iowa, settlers could find sufficient timber for construction of log
cabins, but substitute materials had to be found for fuel and fencing.
For fuel, they turned to dried prairie hay, corn cobs, and dried animal
droppings. In southern Iowa, early settlers found coal outcroppings
along rivers and streams. People moving into northwest Iowa, an area
also devoid of trees, constructed sod houses. Some of the early sod
house residents wrote in glowing terms about their new quarters,
insisting that "soddies" were not only cheap to build but were warm in
the winter and cool in the summer. Settlers experimented endlessly with
substitute fencing materials. Some residents built stone fences; some
constructed dirt ridges; others dug ditches. The most successful fencing
material was the osage orange hedge until the 1870s when the invention
of barbed wire provided farmers with satisfactory fencing material.
"I
have had to pass thru another season of sorrow. Death has again entered
our home. This time it claimed our dear little John for its victim. It
was hard for me to give him up but dropsy on the brain ended its work in
four short days... We are left again with one baby and I feel that my
health is giving way."
But for the pioneers who remained on the land 1, and most did, the rewards were substantial. These early
settlers soon discovered that prairie land, although requiring some
adjustments, was some of the richest land to be found anywhere in the
world. Moreover, by the late 1860s, most of the state had been settled
and the isolation and loneliness associated with pioneer living had
quickly vanished.
Transportation: Railroad Fever
Education and Religion
Iowans
were also quick to organize churches. Beginning in the 1840s, the
Methodist Church sent out circuit riders to travel throughout the
settled portion of the state. Each circuit rider typically had a
two-week circuit in which he visited individual families and conducted
sermons for local Methodist congregations. Because the circuit riders'
sermons tended to be emotional and simply stated, Iowa's
frontiers-people could readily identify with them. The Methodists
profited greatly from their "floating ministry," attracting hundreds of
converts in Iowa's early years. As more settled communities appeared,
the Methodist Church assigned ministers to these stationary charges.
"I shall aim to show that the West will be just what others
make it, and that they which work the hardest and do the most for it
shall have it. Prayer and pain will save the West and the Country is
worth it..." 2
Throughout the nineteenth century, many other denominations also
established churches within the state. Quakers established meeting
houses in the communities of West Branch, Springdale, and Salem.
Presbyterians were also well represented in Iowa communities. Baptists
often followed the practice of hiring local farmers to preach on Sunday
mornings. And as early as the 1840s, Mennonite Churches began to appear
in eastern Iowa. The work of the different denominations meant that
during the first three decades of settlement, Iowans had quickly
established their basic religious institutions.
The Civil War
Another
Iowan, Cyrus Carpenter, was 31 years old when he entered the army in
1861. Living in Ft. Dodge, Carpenter requested a commission from the
army rather than enlisting. He was given the rank of captain and was
installed as quartermaster. Carpenter had never served in that capacity
before, but with the aid of an army clerk, he proceeded to carry out his
duties. Most of the time, Carpenter was responsible for feeding 40,000
men. Not only was it difficult to have sufficient food for the men, but
Carpenter constantly had to keep his supplies and staff on the move.
Carpenter found it an immensely frustrating task, but most of the time,
he managed to have the food and other necessities at the right place at
the right time.
The Political Arena
For
the next 47 years, Iowa women worked continually to secure passage of a
women's suffrage amendment to Iowa's state constitution. During that
time, the issue was considered in almost every session of the state
legislature, but an amendment was offered (having passed both houses of
the state legislature in two consecutive sessions) to the general
electorate only once, in 1916. In that election, voters defeated the
amendment by about 10,000 votes.
Iowa: Home for Immigrants
While Iowans were
debating the issues of women's suffrage in the post Civil War period,
the state itself was attracting many more people. Following the Civil
War, Iowa's population continued to grow dramatically, from 674,913
people in 1860 to 1,194,020 in 1870. Moreover, the ethnic composition of
Iowa's population also changed substantially. Before the Civil War, Iowa
had attracted some foreign-born settlers, but the number remained small.
After the Civil War, the number of immigrants increased. In 1869, the
state encouraged immigration by printing a 96-page booklet entitled
Iowa: The Home of Immigrants. The publication gave physical, social,
educational, and political descriptions of Iowa. The legislature
instructed that the booklet be published in English, German, Dutch,
Swedish, and Danish.
Proportionately
far more southern and eastern immigrants, particularly Italians and
Croatians, went into coal mining than did western and northern
Europeans. Arriving in Iowa with little money and few skills, these
groups gravitated toward work that required little or no training and
provided them with immediate employment. In Iowa around the turn of the
century, that work happened to be coal mining.
Coal
Miners
Country
1880
1900
1920
All countries
261,650
305,920
255,647
Germany
88,268
123,162
70,642
Sweden
17,559
29,875
22,493
Norway
21,586
25,634
17,344
Denmark
6,901
17,102
18,020
Netherlands
4,743
9,388
12,471
England
22,610
21,027
13,036
Scotland
6,885
6,425
3,967
Wales
3,031
3,091
1,753
Ireland
44,061
28,321
10,685
Switzerland
4,584
4,342
2,871
France
2,675
1,905
2,125
Austria
12,027
13,118
4,334
Czechoslovakia*
9,150
Russia
535
1,998
7,319
Italy
122
1,196
4,956
Canada
21,062
15,687
8,929
Totals for other
countries, such as Belgium, Hungary, Poland, Yogoslavia, and Greece, are
not included because each country's foreign-born was less than 1,000 in
any census year.
Life in a coal camp differed greatly from life in more settled
Iowa communities. Most residents described the camps as bleak and
dismal. The typical coal camp contained a company store, a tavern and
pool hall, a miners' union hall, and an elementary school. Only rarely
did coal camps contain churches or high schools. Coal camp residents had
few social or economic opportunities. Most sons followed their fathers
into the mines, and daughters tended to marry miners and continued to
live in the camps.
The Family Farm
Vast Changes
In
1933, native Iowan Henry A. Wallace went to Washington as secretary of
agriculture and served as principle architect for the new farm program.
Wallace, former editor of the Midwest's leading farm journal, Wallace's
Farmer, believed that prosperity would return to the agricultural sector
only if agricultural production was curtailed. Further, he believed that
farmers would be monetarily compensated for withholding agricultural
land from production. These two principles were incorporated into the
Agricultural Adjustment Act passed in 1933. Iowa farmers experienced
some recovery as a result of the legislation but like all Iowans, they
did not experience total recovery until the 1940s.
Since World War
II, Iowans have continued to undergo considerable economic, political,
and social change. In the political area, Iowan experienced a major
change in the 1960s when liquor by the drink came into effect. During
both the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Iowans had strongly
supported prohibition, but in 1933 with the repeal of national
prohibition, Iowans established a state liquor commission. This group
was charged with control and regulation of Iowa's liquor sales. From
1933 until the early 1960s, Iowans could purchase packaged liquor only.
In the 1970s, Iowans witnessed a reapportionment of the General
Assembly, achieved only after a long struggle for an
equitably-apportioned state legislature. Another major political change
was in regard to voting. By the mid-1950s, Iowa had developed a fairly
competitive two-party structure, ending almost 100 years of Republican
domination within the state.
Strong Traditions
(A minus sign
(-) denotes decrease
Increase over preceding
census
Census
Population
Number
Percent
1990
-137,053
4.7
1980
2,913,808
3.1
1970
2,825,368
2.4
1960
136,464
5.2
1950
2,621,073
82,805
3.3
1940
2,538,268
67,328
2.7
1930
2,470,939
66,918
2.8
1920
2,404,021
179,250
8.1
1910
2,224,771
-7,082
-0.3
1900
2,231,853
319,556
16.7
1890
1,912,297
287,682
17.7
1880
1,624,615
430,595
36.1
1870
1,194,020
519,107
76.9
1860
674,913
482,699
251.1
1850
192,214
149,102
345.8
1840
43,112
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