Buys Iowa For 5 Cents Per Acre

DUBUQUE, JEFFERSON

Posted By: JCGS Volunteer
Date: 6/11/2018 at 13:20:31

Buys Iowa For 5 Cents Per Acre
Wonder who would believe that every acre of land in this community was at one time purchased for five cents an acre. President Jefferson bought it from Napoleon for that price in 1803 as part of the Louisiana Purchase.
Not only that, but political fees charged him with wasting money on a lot of worthless land. That’s when Iowa became part of the United States. The value of the land had not increased one cent during the 130 years it had been under the jurisdiction of France and Spain.
During its first 30 years as part of the United States, Iowa was occupied entirely by Indians except for a few daring whites such as Julien Dubuque who mined at the site of a city since named after him.
As late as 1845, when Asa Whitney offered to pay 45 cents an acre for a railroad right-of-way across northern Iowa, a Congressional Committee declared that the land was not worth more than 10 cents an acre.
A new era opened following the acquisition of the Black Hawk Purchase in 1832. Permanent white settlement began on June 1, 1833. In the years that followed, a steadily swelling tide of immigration flowed into the Black Hawk Purchase.
In a single generation American frontiersmen conquered the wilderness that constitutes the eastern half of Iowa. They did this with the axe, the plow, and the flail – aided by their horses or slow-moving oxen. They hunted with their rifles and fished in the crystal clear streams that emptied into the Mississippi. Deer, elk, buffalo, and bear fell to their unerring aim and added to the family larder. Small game was readily trapped in the forests and on the prairies.
While they were breaking the tough prairie sod and wresting a living from the rich black soil that lay beneath, these pioneers did many other things that helped to make Iowa the great state it is today. They established schools, academies, and even a great State University of Iowa.
They brought religion to the frontier and founded fine Christian colleges. They transplanted the politics and social customs of their native states to the Iowa frontier. By 1838 these sturdy frontiersmen had won for themselves a separate territorial existence; by 1846 they had achieved statehood; during the Civil War they contributed almost 80,000 volunteers to the Union Army.
In the final analysis it was the plain and sturdy pioneers who were responsible for transforming a sprawling prairie wilderness into one of the richest commonwealths of the Union. In many respects these men must be considered the real builders of the Hawkeye state. But it also took leaders with visions, high ideals, boundless energy, and unflagging determination to encourage and direct the progress of these grass-roots Iowans through the four or five generations that constitute the first century of Iowa history. In politics and constitution making, in education and religion, in agriculture and industry, these leaders have played a decisive role.
Source: Monroe Mirror, July 1952