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The twenty-eighth annual meeting of the Iowa Library Association
was held at Iowa City on October 9-11, 1917.
Late
in October the Wayne County Bar Association held a memorial meeting in the
honor of the late Judge W. H. Tetford, who for several years was one of the
appointive Curators of The State Historical Society of Iowa.
Dr.
George Willis Botsford, whose work in the field of Greek and Roman history
ranks him high among American scholars, died on December 14. Dr. Botsford was
born at West Union, Iowa, on May 9, 1862.
A
beautiful regimental flag has been sent to the old Third Iowa Regiment by the
State Society of Daughters of the American Revolution. This regiment is now the
168th Infantry and is a part of the famous Rainbow Division.
The
Department of Public Instruction, following the plan inaugurated last year,
issued a pamphlet containing data to be used in connection with the observance
of “Iowa Week” (the first week in October) and “Iowas Day” (October 5th)
in the public schools of the State.
A
newspaper item relates the interesting fact that Company B, 109th
Engineers, formerly Company B, First Iowa Engineers, of Council Bluffs, has in
its possession the instruments used by the late General Grenville M. Dodge in
surveying for the Union Pacific Railroad.
On
October 9th occurred the death of Brigadier-General Hiram M.
Chittenden at the age of fifty-nine. His name is well known to all students of
western American history because of his important historical works dealing with
the fur trade in the West and the early navigation of the Mississippi River.
A
unique event, which probably could not be duplicated in a very large number of
cases, occurred at Oskaloosa on October 26, 1917, when the H. L. Spencer
Company, wholesale grocers, observed its semi-centennial anniversary.
Charles
A. Dudley, who has been engaged in the practice of law in Des Moines since
1867, died on October 18, 1917, at the age of seventy-eight. Since 1913 he has
been Judge of the District Court of Polk County.
The
Civic Forum is an organization at Ames which has displayed much interest in the
State and local history of Iowa. At a meeting in November a number of pioneers
related their recollections of the early days in this State.
Rev.
Dr. Alvah L. Frisbie, who was pastor of the Plymouth Congregational Church of
Des Moines for twenty-seven years, died on December 16, 1917. Dr. Frisbie
retired from the pastorate in 1898, but has continued to play an active and
influential part in the affairs of the church down to the time of his death.
This
year will occur the diamond jubilee anniversary of Iowa Wesleyan University at
Mt. Pleasant. On every valuable feature of the plans for the proper observance
of this anniversary is the issuance of a complete alumni record and directory.
The
Grant Memorial Fountain in the city park at Atlantic, Iowa, erected in 1886, is
said to have been the first memorial in the United States erected to Ulysses S.
Grant after his death.
Gilbert
S. Gilbertson, former State Senator and State Treasurer of Iowa, died at Des
Moines on November 25, 1917. He was born at Spring Grove, Minnesota on October
17, 1863, and came to Iowa when sixteen years of age. Fri eight years,
beginning in 1889, he served as clerk of the district court in Winnebago County.
He was a Senator in the Twenty-sixth and Twenty-seventh General Assemblies, and
State Treasurer from 1901 to 1907.
Due
largely to the activities of Mr. F. H. Garver of the state normal school at
Dillon, formerly of Morningside College, Sioux City, Iowa, and a member of the
research staff of The State Historical Society of Iowa, much interest in the
marking of historic sites has been aroused in Montana. The Mullen trail, a
famous government wagon road running from old Fort Benton, Montana, to Walla Walla,
Washington, has recently been marked at eight different places by monuments
about twelve feet in height and costing from $1500 to $2000 each. A monument
has been erected at Goodcreek to mark the spot where gold was first discovered
in Montana. Nine markers, some temporary and some permanent, have been placed
along the route of the Custer expedition and the Bozeman expedition of 1874.
About twenty camps and several battlefields along these routes have been
identified.