Iowa
History Project
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MOELLER, HUBERT L. Our Iowa Its Beginning and Growth; New York, Newsom and
Company: 1938
The first important trail or route across southern Iowa was not made by Indians, traders, or settlers. It was made by a religious group of people who were on their way to a new home in the West because they had been driven from their former homes.
MORMON HARDSHIPS
Joseph Smith, a farmer's son, claimed to have found some gold plates on a hill in New York in 1827. He said he could read the markings on them and called them "The Book of Mormon." He organized a new church and named it "Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints." The name was so long that people called members of the church "Mormons."
The Mormons were driven from the states of New York, Ohio, and Missouri. They they settled at Nauvoo, Illinois, across the Mississippi River from the present town of Montrose, Iowa. More than 14,000 Mormons settled there and it became, for a time, the largest city in Illinois. A large temple was built at Nauvoo. But the Mormons did not get along well with the other settlers of Illinois. Other people said that the temple was really a fort and that the Mormons wanted to rule the state. Joseph Smith and his brother Hyrum were killed by a mob at Carthage, Illinois, in June, 1846.
TO UTAH
The Mormons decided to move again and sent some men West to find a place for a new home. These men chose a site which is now known as the Salt Lake Valley, around Salt Lake City, Utah. In that new land there would be no other people to bother them. After the place had been chosen there came the task of moving the thousands of members out into the great wild and open West.
Several hundred families had moved from Nauvoo into southeastern Iowa. Governor Lucas, in 1839, had promised a Mormon elder that his people would be given all the rights and privileges of other people while they lived in this territory. Iowa was the first territory or state in which the Mormons were treated kindly. Some Mormon families remained here in Iowa.
The Mormons began to leave Nauvoo in February, 1846. Sometimes the ice on the Mississippi was strong enough to hold the teams and wagons, so they crossed on it. Usually the ox teams and goods had to be ferried across the river. By May, 16,000 had crossed the Mississippi. Their first camp in Iowa was at Sugar Creek and the second at Richardson's Point, in Lee County.
ACROSS IOWA
The spring was cold and wet with much snow on the ground, as these people started on their long wearisome journey. Slowly, the long line moved westward. There were 3,000 wagons, 30,000 head of cattle, and many horses, mules, and sheep, scattered along the trail. It crossed the counties of Lee, Van Buren, Davis, Appanoose, Wayne, Decatur, Lucas, Clarke, Union, Adair, Cass, and Pottawattamie. There were no roads and the spring weather had made the ground soft. Sometimes one mile was as far as they could travel in a day. One diary reports: "The roads in many places are almost impassable on account of the mud. We camped in a wet, swampy place."
As the first group traveled along it erected stations at which cabins were built and gardens planted. There were eight such stations in Iowa. The groups that came later rested at these stations and used the corps that had been raised. Some of these stations, as Garden Grove in Decatur County and Mount Pisgah in Union County, became permanent settlements. The last camp in Iowa was on the Missouri River. At first this camp was called Millers Hollow, later Kanesville, and finally Council Bluffs. Many Mormons settled and lived in that section for a number of years.
The Mexican War broke out in 1846, while the Mormons were crossing Iowa. Captain Allen was sent to get young men of the Mormon group to enlist in the army. Five companies of one hundred each were enlisted to be used as a part of an expedition into California, which at that time belonged to Mexico. They were called the "Mormon Battalion." After the war was over, some of the battalion remained in California while others went to their new home in Utah.
Brigham Young, who became leader of the Mormons after Joseph Smith's death, and led them to their new home, followed Smith's doctrines. One which was preached at Nauvoo was polygamy, or the right of a man to have more than one wife. Some of the Mormons did not believe in polygamy and therefore organized themselves into the "Reformed Church of Latter Day Saints." This group settled at Lamoni, Decatur County, and there is still a strong congregation of that church there.
THE FOREIGN MORMONS
The Mormons sent missionaries to Europe. By 1855 these workers had hundreds of people who wanted to go to Utah. Most of them were very poor and could not pay their way. The church leaders told them that they would bring them as far as Iowa City by train and that, since the railroad did not go beyond Iowa City, they would have hand carts for them there. They could then, so they were told; walk to Utah and carr their goods in the carts.
During the summer of 1856, about 1,300 of these foreign people, mostly from Great Britain, arrived in Iowa City. They had no idea as to the kind of trip that was ahead of them. For a while they camped just outside of Iowa City, waiting for their carts to be made ready. Finally they started. There was one cart for each five people in which they carried their bedding, food and clothing. The hand carts had to be pushed or pulled by the men and women as they walked across the country.
The group of foreign Mormons was divided into five sections. The first three reached Salt Lake City before winter but the other two were caught in the winter storms and suffered terrible hardships. Their food gave out, their oxen strayed away, and many of the people became sick and died. Some of the men stopped on the way to work, in order that they might get food. Others begged on the way.
Although Iowa people did not believe as the Mormons did, they were good to them and helped them all they could on their long journey of fifteen hundred miles.
THE AMANA COLONY
One of the largest, and perhaps the most interesting, of Iowa's colonies is that of Amana. The people of this colony came from Germany and had been driven from their home country because of their religious belief. They first settled on land which they bought from the Indians near Buffalo, New York. When more settlers came from Germany and more land was needed, the leaders of the colony decided that they must move westward because land in New York was too expensive. A committee of men from the colony came to Iowa in 1854 and bought about 3,300 acres. The next year some of the colonists moved to Iowa and built the first village, which they called Amana. It was ten years before all of the colonists had left New York.
The Amana colony grew until there are now seven villages. Each has its own church and elementary school. There is one high school for the entire colony. At present the colony owns about twenty-six thousand acres of land and consists of about eighteen hundred members.
Until June 1932 no one in the Amana Colony owned anything for himself. The colony as a group owned everything. Everyone in the colony worked for the group. In 1832, however, three-fourths of the members voted to reorganize the colony. Now the colony owns the land but each member works for himself.
THE ICARIANS
Another Iowa colony that believed in community ownership was a group of French people known as Icarians. The founder of this colony was Etienne Cabet who wrote a book called "Voyage en Icarie." This told of a trip to an imaginary ideal community. After reading the book, many French people wanted to establish a community such as had been described. They decided to do so in America. In February, 1848, sixty-nine Icarians, as Cabet's followers were called, left France for Texas. They did not like conditions as they found them in that state and soon looked for a new location. Since the Mormons had just left Nauvoo, Illinois, the Icarians went there and Cabet himself with about five hundred of his followers joined the colony at that place.
Some people said that the Icarians were not religious because the colony was not based upon religion. In answer to this, Cabet said, "If anyone should say that the society is contrary to the laws of God, he would be mistaken. We are Christians. The Gospel is our law. Our community is founded not only on fraternity, equality, and liberality - but also upon morality and temperance - on marriage and family relations - on education and industry - on peace and respect to the laws, and we shall always pray for the prosperity of the great and powerful American Republic."
The Icarians at Nauvoo quarreled and separated. The smaller group under Cabet's leadership went to St. Louis. In 1860 the larger group of nearly two hundred fifty moved to Adams County, Iowa. They bought three thousand acres of land but since they could not pay for all of it they kept only about half. The town which they built was named Icaria. Mills and shops were built. Many lines of business were carried on by the colony but farming was the chief occupation.
The Icarians were hard workers and carefully caved their money. As a result, they became quite wealthy. But, as in the case of the Amana colony in recent years, the younger members of the colony wanted to won property themselves. Since the members could not agree on many matters, the colony was divided in 1877. The younger party kept the village while the older party moved to a new location on the eastern end of the community lands.
In 1883 the younger party moved to California where the organization was soon broken up. The older party received a new charter under the name of New Icaria. It continued until 1895. Then, with only twenty-one members left, it was necessary to dissolve the organization. Each member received enough property to be considered fairly wealthy.
TRAPPIST MONASTERY
Another religious colony in which no one owns any land for himself is the Trappist monastery in Dubuque County. The Cistercian or Trappist Monks founded this colony in 1849 and it is still active, although only a few monks live there at present. They own and operate an extensive farm and have a number of fine buildings.
A MORMON COLONY
Charles B. Thompson, a Mormon from Nauvoo, started a colony near Onawa in Monona County in 1853. The colony owned several thousand acres of land. Thompson called himself "Father Ephraim" and the "Chief Steward of the Lord." All the property was to belong to him. Some of the men became dissatisfied. They threatened to hang Thompson and chased out of Iowa.
A STRANGE COLONY
One of the strangest colonies in Iowa was that founded by Abner Kneeland. It was located south of Farmington, in Van Buren County. Mr. Kneeland did not believe in God or any kind of religion. In 1838 he founded a town called Salubria, in which people who believed as he did lived. A few years later Kneeland died and the colony soon disappeared.
FRENCH CANADIANS
The first settlers who came to Iowa land, before it had been bought by the United States, were mostly French Canadians. That is, people of French descent who had been living in Canada. Not many such settlers came, however, and no permanent settlements were made by them.
OUR EARLY SETTLERS
Following the French Canadians, settlers came to Iowa from Missouri, Kentucky, and other southern states. These people settled mainly in the southeastern and southern part of the state. A number of early settlers also came from New England and the Middle Atlantic states.
Among those who came from New England were several groups of Friends, or "Quakers" as they are sometimes called. One Friends' settlement was near Salem. Here the settlers took an active part in the anti-slavery movement by providing a station for runaway slaves on the underground railway.
FOREIGN IMMIGRANTS
Many people came directly from European countries to Iowa. Often a few, whom we call pioneers, settled in Iowa from a certain locality in Europe. When they saw the wonderful opportunities that were here, they wrote to their friends and relatives back home and urged them to come. Many did so and the result was that Iowa's cheap farm land was quickly taken up and its population increased rapidly.
SCANDINAVIANS
Iowa has many citizens today who are descendants of immigrants from Norway, Sweden, and Denmark.
Several families of Norwegians settled in Lee county as early as 1840. They came from Missouri.
From 1849 to 1860 the Norwegian immigration was directed to northern Iowa and southern Minnesota. The first settler from Norway in this section came to Clayton county in 1846. Others soon settled in Fayette, Allamakee and Winneshiek counties.
Luther College was established at Decorah in 1862 and that city soon became widely known as a center for Norwegian interest and culture. Few immigrants have come from Norway since 1890.
The first Swedish settlement in Iowa was at Bush Creek - later New Sweden - in Jefferson county in the fall of 1845. Other settlements were soon made in Henry and Wapello counties and by 1850 tow hundred fifty immigrants from Sweden had located in Burlington.
The counties of Boone, Hamilton, and Webster had many early Swedish settlements. Madrid, in Boone county, was first named Swede Point.
DUTCH
In 1847 about seven hundred Hollanders arrived in St. Louis, looking for a new home. A committee that was sent out to look for a suitable location chose a place in Marion county, Iowa, where they founded the town of Pella.
The first winter many of the Dutch settlers had to live in dugouts with straw-thatched roofs. But they were a hard-working people who saved their money and soon were able to build fine homes, schools, and churches.
Later many Dutch people settled in Sioux county.
ENGLISH
Some wealthy Englishmen, the Close brothers, bought 30,000 acres of land in Plymouth county. Others from England bought more land. Young Englishmen of "noble" birth came to work on the farms and to build up an estate. In some cases, wealthy parents sent irresponsible sons with the hope that they might become useful citizens. About six hundred English people settled near Le Mars but many later moved away.
IRISH AND GERMANS
Two countries from which many immigrants came were Ireland and Germany. More came from Germany than from any other European country. Davenport was an early headquarters for Germans. Before a railroad had been built across Illinois, many of these immigrants came to New Orleans and hence up the Mississippi to various points in Iowa along that river. Later German settlements sprang up in many sections of Iowa.
HUNGARIANS
Not many immigrants Not many immigrants who came to Iowa failed to stay. Most of them built permanent homes and the influence of their rugged and sturdy lives is still left. There was one exception. A group of Hungarians who were driven from their own country after an unsuccessful revolution, settled in Decatur county in 1850. The winters were too cold for them and most of them soon moved to Texas.
RECENT IMMIGRANTS
Since Iowa has become settled it has received many immigrants from Italy and Greece. Most of these people live in the cities and towns. Their European training and background are not such as would lead them to farming in a state like Iowa.
While Lincoln was a young man, the Black Hawk War with the Indians broke out. Lincoln was one of many young men who joined the militia that was organized in Illinois. He was chosen captain of his company but did not get into actual fighting with the Indians. Later, for his services in the Black Hawk War, Captain Abraham Lincoln was given a grant or warrant for land within the present state of Iowa. In this way Mr. Lincoln acquired title to land in both Tama and Crawford counties.
Lincoln never saw his Iowa land but years later when he had two small boys he told a friend: "A great desire sprang up that I would give the boys the warrant, that they should always be reminded that their father was a soldier."
A VISIT TO IOWA
It was probably not until 1857 that Lincoln actually visited Iowa, and then only on business. The Rock Island Railroad Company had built between Rock Island and Davenport the first railroad bridge across the Mississippi. On May 6, 1856, the steamer Effie Afton, worth about $50,000 and carrying 200 passengers, came up the river. She was bound from Cincinnati and St. Louis to St. Paul. As the boat passed the draw of the bridge at Davenport, it struck one of the seven piers and was thrown against another. Stoves and lamps were upset on the boat and a great fire was started. The boat, its cargo, and the draw of the bridge were burned.
Captain Hurd of the Effie Afton, and her owners, brought suit against the railroad company in the United States Circuit Court for Northern Illinois. They asked for damages and, claiming that the bridge obstructed river traffic, said that no bridges should be built across the Mississippi.
St. Louis raised money to support the steamboat owners and Chicago aided the railroad. It was one of the most famous and most important law cases of that time. Its outcome would determine whether St. Louis or Chicago would become the grain center of the Middle West.
The trial began in Chicago September 8, 1857. Abraham Lincoln was one of the lawyers for the railroad company. Before the time of the trial Mr. Lincoln, in company with another lawyer and a bridge engineer, went to Rock Island for several days. They visited both sides of the river, carefully studying the currents of the stream and the remains of the bridge. Thus Lincoln got his first glimpse of Iowa.
The jury disagreed in the bridge case. It never was settled.
LINCOLN IN POLITICS
Soon after the famous bridge case, Lincoln became prominent in politics. he and Douglas staged their famous series of debates in Illinois. Editor Dunham of the Burlington Hawkeye wrote in his paper of the debate at Galesburg, Illinois. He said: "Those we conversed with think Mr. Lincoln the ablest and most popular speaker they ever heard and say he had altogether the advantage of Douglas in the argument, even Douglas' friends acknowledging it."
Lincoln was scheduled to speak at Oquawka, Illinois, on the afternoon of October 9, 1858. Mr. Charles B. Darwin, chairman of the Republican County Committee and a prominent lawyer in Burlington, Iowa, invited Lincoln to speak in that city. Lincoln consented but the meeting was not announced until the morning of October 8. One notice said: "There will be a grand concert this evening immediately after Mr. Lincoln's speech." Perhaps this additional attraction was thought necessary in order to assure a large attendance.
Editor Dunham said of Mr. Lincoln's speech in Burlington: "Grimes Hall was filled to its full capacity . . . A very short notice brought together from twelve to fifteen hundred ladies and gentlemen. His address of two hours fully came up to the standard that has been erected. It was a logical discourse, replete with sound argument, clear, concise and vigorous, earnest, impassioned, and eloquent. We regret exceedingly that it is not in our power to report his speech in full. Mr. Lincoln appeared Saturday evening fresh and vigorous, there was nothing in his voice, manner, or appearance to show the arduous labors of the last two months."
That night Lincoln stayed at the Barrett House. It is said that when he arrived he handed to the clerk a package wrapped in a newspaper. He told the clerk to take good care of the package because it contained his "boiled shirt." It was the only baggage that he had.
AT COUNCIL BLUFFS
In the summer of 1859 Mr. Lincoln and a Mr. Hatch of Illinois campaigned in Kansas on issues that were to come up in the election of 1860. On the way they arrived in St. Joseph, Missouri, "all fagged out," as Lincoln said. A steamboat captain persuaded them to ride to Council Bluffs to see the "up-county" and to rest.
The men arrived in Council Bluffs about ten o'clock in the morning. The boat was to go to Omaha to discharge its cargo and would start the return trip shortly after five o'clock in the afternoon.
The news that Mr. Lincoln was in town quickly spread through Council Bluffs. Two men of the town, N. S. Bates, later its mayor, and W. H. M. Pusey, had been neighbors of Mr. Lincoln in Springfield, Illinois. They took Mr. Lincoln for a ride over the bluffs in an open carriage. On their return they saw through a telescope that the boat had become grounded on a sand bar. The men laughed and told Lincoln that he was now their prisoner. It would take several days to unload and lighten the steamer and get it towed off the sand bar.
Lincoln consented to speak that evening. Handbills were quickly printed and distributed. Palmers Hall was rented. The floor was covered with sawdust which the sheriff had bought for the next term of court. Council Bluffs had no courthouse then and court was held in the hall. The room was lighted by numerous candles on the wall.
A crowd that overflowed the hall greeted Mr. Lincoln that night. Since the speaker's baggage was on the boat, he was forced to appear in the clothes which he had worn that afternoon. He wore leather boots and rough clothing, bespattered with mud from the ride in the open carriage. Some people, when they saw this tall awkward man in such clothing, refused to believe that he was the famous Lincoln. All doubt, however, was soon dispelled when he began speaking. The audience was greatly pleased with the speech. The next evening a public reception was held for Mr. Lincoln.
On the third day the steamer was ready and Lincoln steamed back to St. Joe.
On April 14, 1865, Lincoln was shot by a half-crazed actor at a theater in Washington. An Iowan, James Harlan, Secretary of the Interior, whose daughter later married Lincoln's son, stood at the President's bedside in his dying hour.
GRANT IN IOWA
Ulysses S. Grant,, as did Lincoln, first visited Iowa as an unknown citizen of Illinois. Later, he visited it as a hero of the Civil War.
Before the war Grant was in the tannery and hide business at Galena, Illinois. While there he traveled out of Galena as a salesman and made several trips into Iowa. Little or no record was left of those trips.
On September 29, 1875, the annual reunion of the "Society of the Army of the Tennessee" was held at Des Moines. General Grant was then serving his second term as President of the United States. Together with General Wm. T. Sherman and Secretary of War W. W. Belknap, he was a guest of our capital city on that great occasion. A huge demonstration was held. President Grant was not scheduled to speak that evening but his "boys" loudly called for a speech. Grant gave a short talk which some of his listeners said was the best and most important speech ever made by him. Newspapers in the East, however, criticized it and said that it was a "third-term speech." Some said that it was poor while others said it was so good that he must have had someone else write it for him.
POLITICAL LEADERS OF NATIONAL IMPORTANCE
Iowa has had so many men of influence in our national Government that it would take many books to tell thoroughly of the work of all of them. The discussion will therefore be limited to the men who have served in Presidents' cabinets, and to those who have been influential leaders in Congress. Even then it will be necessary to mention some of them but briefly.
CABINET MEMBERS
Iowa is the agricultural center of the United States. It is but natural that Presidents should have looked to it for leadership in the Department of Agriculture. Four Iowans whose combined service has extended over a quarter of a century have largely made the department what it is today. These are James Wilson, Edwin T. Meredith, Henry C. Wallace, and Henry A. Wallace.
JAMES WILSON
Few men have done more to improve agricultural conditions than James Wilson, familiarly called "Tama Jim," because he lived in Tama county. As a young man he was a successful farmer in his home county. He served several terms in the Iowa House of Representatives and was a member of the national House of Representatives for three terms.
In 1891 he became professor of agriculture and director of the agricultural experiment station at Iowa State College. We can best tell of his work at Ames by quoting Mr. H. C. Wallace, who said: "When Wilson went into the Iowa agricultural college at Ames it was a poor sort of college. There were few students in the agricultural department, and they were called 'hayseeds.' He changed all this. He popularized the agricultural work. . . .He set the experiment station at work studying things Iowa farmers needed to know, and in the six years he was at Ames he wholly changed the spirit there and laid the foundation upon which has been built probably the greatest all-round agricultural college in the country."
In 1897 President McKinley asked Mr. Wilson to serve as Secretary of Agriculture. He accepted the position and served for sixteen consecutive years under Presidents McKinley, Theodore Roosevelt, and Taft. No other man has ever served so many years in Presidents' cabinets.
When Mr. Wilson became secretary the department was small and unimportant. There were only 2,444 people employed in it. Sixteen years later, when he left it, there were 13,858 employees and the department had become one of the most important in the national Government.
EDWIN T. MEREDITH
In January, 1920, Iowa was again called upon to provide the Secretary of Agriculture. President Wilson appointed to that position Mr. Edwin T. Meredith, publisher of the farm magazine Successful Farming. This magazine had a circulation of over a million.
Mr. Meredith served in the cabinet until March 4, 1921, when President Wilson's term expired.
THE WALLACES
Iowa has the unique distinction of having had both a father and his son serve as secretary of the same department. When President Harding took office on March 4, 1921, he asked another Iowa farm paper editor from Des Moines to succeed Mr. Meredith. This time it was Henry C. Wallace, Editor of Wallace's Farmer. The new secretary was a leader in agricultural work in the Middle West.
Henry C. Wallace served ably as secretary until his death on Oct. 25, 1924.
During the political campaign of 1932 Henry A. Wallace, then editor of Wallace's Farmer, left the party of his father and grandfather, who had been life-long Republicans. "Henry A." supported the candidacy of Franklin D. Roosevelt. When Mr. Roosevelt became President on March 4, 1933, he chose Henry A. Wallace as his Secretary of Agriculture and, in 1938, he is still serving in that capacity.
OTHER CABINET MEMBERS
Several Iowa men have been chosen to positions in the presidential cabinets, aside from those who served as Secretary of Agriculture. In March, 1865, President Lincoln asked James Harlan, then a United States Senator from Iowa, to become his Secretary of the Interior. Mr. Harlan resigned as senator to accept the position. He did not take office until May 15th, however after Lincoln had been assassinated.
Secretary Harlan was very efficient. He discharged some men who did little or no work. Their political friends accused Mr. Harlan of graft. Because he did not agree with President Johnson on certain plans, Mr. Harlan resigned after serving but a few months.
Samual Kirkwood, who served as governor of Iowa during the Civil War, was appointed Secretary of the Interior by President Garfield on March 4, 1881. He took an active interest in Indian affairs. After the assassination and death of President Garfield, Mr. Kirkwood tendered his resignation to Mr. Arthur, the new President. He was continued in office until the spring of 1882.
Others who have served as cabinet members are:
Frank Hatton of Burlington, Iowa, as Secretary of War under President Arthur.
William W. Belknap, of Keokuk, Iowa, as Secretary of War under President Grant, for seven years.
George W. McCrary, of Van Buren county, as Secretary of War under President Hayes, for three years.
:Leslie M. Shaw, of Denison, Iowa, was made Secretary of the Treasury by President Theodore Roosevelt. He served ably for several years.
James W. Good, of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, was appointed Secretary of War by President Hoover, on March 4, 1929. He died while in office about a year later.
OUTSTANDING IOWA CONGRESSMEN
Among the many Iowans who have served ably in our national Congress, the names of four Senators stand out because of the influence and power which they exerted in the Senate. The first is that of William B. Allison of Dubuque. After having served in the national House of Representatives for four terms, he was elected to the United States Senate in 1872, and served there continuously until his death in 1908. He was recognized as an authority on financial matters. Three Presidents offered him a position in the cabinet but he declined, preferring to stay in the Senate. In 1888 he was one of the leading candidates for the Republican presidential nomination.
Jonathan P. Dolliver's long service in Congress was about equally divided between the House of Representatives and the Senate. He served in the lower branch from 1889 until 1900, when he was appointed to the Senate to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Senator Gear. He served in the upper house until his death in 1910. Mr. Dolliver was an outstanding orator in Congress.
Albert B. Cummins was elected to the United States Senate in 1908, after the death of Senator Allison. He had previously served for three terms as governor of Iowa. He continued his service in the Senate until his death in July, 1926.
William S. Kenyon was elected to the United States Senate in 1911 and served until he resigned in 1922 to accept an appointment from President Harding as judge of the United States Circuit Court, Eighth District.
Two men from Iowa won conspicuous recognition in the national House of Representatives. David B. Henderson of Dubuque, who was elected to that body in 1882 and served for twenty consecutive years, was chosen as Speaker of the House of Representatives in 1899. He is the only man from Iowa who ever served in that capacity and was the first man from west of the Mississippi to be elected Speaker.
Robert G. Cousins of Tipton was elected to the House of Representatives in 1892 and served eight terms. He refused to run for a ninth term. Mr. Cousins soon won a reputation in Washington as being one of the very best speakers in Congress. He became one of the most popular platform and chautauqua speakers of his day.
HISTORIANS OF EARLY IOWA
Prominent among the writers of early Iowa history are Theodore S. Parvin, William Salter, and S. H. M. Byers. All three were well-educated men who spent most of their lives in Iowa.
THEODORE S. PARVIN
Mr. Parvin was a native of New Jersey. In 1837 he graduated from the Cincinnati law school where, a year later, he met Rober Lucas who had just been appointed governor of the new Territory of Iowa. Governor Lucas liked Mr. Parvin and appointed him as his private secretary. The two arrived at Burlington on August 13, 1838. During the next twenty years he held several important governmental positions.
Mr. Parvin was one of the first trustees of the state university and served there for ten years as a professor. He was one of the men who started the Iowa State Historical Society and was secretary of that organization for a few years. He was also one of the founders of the Masonic order of Iowa. As its secretary, he collected, at Cedar Rapids, the largest and most valuable Masonic library in the world.
B. F. Gue, another well known Iowa historian, says, "Mr. Parvin was long regarded the highest authority on Iowa history and biography.......No citizen of iowa had done so much to collect and preserve its early records and history as Theodore S. Parvin."
WILLIAM SALTER
William Salter, a friend of Mr. Parvin, was a native of the State of New York. He attended Union Theological Seminary of New York, New York University, and the Theological Institution of Andover, Massachusetts. At Andover he became a member of the famous "Iowa Band," consisting of a small group of young men who came to Iowa to do missionary work. The group arrived in Burlington October 24, 1843.
Young Mr. Salter preached his first sermon on Iowa soil in a blacksmith shop at Keosaqua on October 29. Seven of the band were ordained as Congregational ministers at Denmark, Iowa, on Sunday, November 5. For the next two years he worked among the "squatters" - a name applied to certain early settlers - in Jackson County.
In 1846 the Rev. Mr. Salter was called to Burlington where he preached his first sermon in a rented hall over a store. He served as pastor of the First Congregational Church at Burlington for sixty-four years.
Mr. Salter became interested in writing history and wrote some of the best biographies that we now have of prominent Iowa men. He had known personally nearly all men of importance in Iowa.
S. H. M. BYERS
Samuel Hawkins Marshall Byers was a native of Pennsylvania. His mother died when he was less than a month old. As a boy of thirteen he came to Iowa with his father and settled at Oskaloosa. He studied law in the office of William Loughridge and was admitted to the bar.
Early in the Civil War he enlisted in the Fifth Iowa infantry. At Missionary Ridge he, with eighty others, was captured by Confederates. For fifteen months he suffered in Libby and other Southern prison camps. Twice he escaped from prison only to be recaptured.
In prison Major Byers began writing. While at Columbia, South Carolina, he wrote the words to "Sherman's March to the Sea." This song made him famous. Here he again escaped prison and watched General Sherman and his army enter the city. General Sherman assigned him to a place on his staff and sent him to General Grant and President Lincoln to report his great victory.
Major Byers filled several important diplomatic positions. In 1893 he built a fine home in Des Moines. He is the author of Iowa in War Times; Twenty Years in Europe, and numerous poems among which are "Iowa" and "Song of Iowa."
NOVELISTS
Iowa has had, and has today, a number of prominent men and women in the field of literature. In addition, there are those who once lived here but are now elsewhere, who have become well-known writers. The story of one of the many has been chosen and is here given because he especially typifies Iowa and his life should be an inspiration to boys and girls today.
JOHN HERBERT QUICK
John Herbert Quick was born on a farm in Grundy County, Iowa, on October 23, 1861. Hence he knew pioneer life in Iowa. When but twenty months old he was stricken with infantile paralysis which left his feet and ankles permanently deformed. In spite of his physical handicap he worked on his father's farm and attended the country school. Friends and admirers of Mr. Quick, a few years ago, purchased the little old one-room country school building which he attended, and moved it to the park at Grundy Center where it is being preserved as a memorial to him.
Mr. Quick taught in rural and city schools from 1877 until 1890. He studied law in a law office and was admitted to the bar in 1889. From 1890 until 1908 he practiced law in Sioux City and was mayor of that city from 1898 to 1900. He held other important positions but we are interested in him here as a writer.
Herbert Quick, as he was familiarly known, wrote many volumes. Three of them were Iowa novels, Vandemark's Folly (1921). The Hawkeye (1923), and The Invisible Woman (1824). He wrote his autobiography, One Man's Life, in 1825. Two volumes, The Brown Mouse, a novel, and The Fairview Idea, dealt with educational problems and were no doubt the result of his teaching experiences in Iowa.
Mr. Quick was greatly interested in the improvement of farm life and wrote many articles along that line. He died May 10, 1925.
EDUCATIONAL BUILDERS
The three men in the educational field who are here presented have been chosen because of their influence upon Iowa not only during their lifetime but also in the traditions of service they left us and in the institutions.
HENRY SABIN
Henry was born in Pomfret, Connecticut, October 23, 1829. He graduated from Amherst College in 1852 and taught in Connecticut and New Jersey until 1870 when he became superintendent of schools at Clinton, Iowa. He was Superintendent of schools at Clinton, Iowa. He was Superintendent of Public Instruction in Iowa from 1888 to 1892 and again from 1894 to 1898.
Mr. Sabin wrote an educational book entitled Common Sense Didactics. He became best known for a report which he wrote on rural school problem.s This report was made as chairman of a "Committee of Twelve" for the National Education Association. It is said to be one of the best, if not the best, discussions of the rural school and its problems that was ever written.
The Making of Iowa, a textbook, for boys and girls, was written by Mr. Sabin and his youngest son, Edwin.
Mr. Sabin died on March 23, 1918.
WILLIAM BEARDSHEAR
William Miller Beardshear was a native of Ohio. When he was fourteen years old he enlisted in the Union army. After the war he attended and graduated from Otterbein university. He became a United Brethren minister and preached in Ohio. For two years he attended Yale Theological Seminary.
In 1881, Mr. Beardshear was elected president of Western College at Toledo, Iowa. Although a young man for such a position, his enthusiasm and ability soon won him recognition. In 1889 he accepted a position as head of the Des Moines public schools. Two years later he became the president of the Iowa State College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts at Ames. It was here that Mr. Beardshear did his greatest work and gained his real fame.
Iowa State College, as it is now known, had been subject to much criticism and ridicule when Mr. Beardshear became its president. He reorganized some of the divisions of the college and brought new men to the staff. By so doing he laid the foundation for what has since become one of the greatest institutions of its kind in America.
HOMER H. SEERLEY
Homer Horatio Seerley was born on a farm near Indianapolis, Indiana, on August 13, 1848. At the age of six he came with his parents to a farm near South English, in Keokuk County, Iowa. He attended a rural school and taught in one after taking a preparatory course at the State University of Iowa. He graduated from the University in 1873 and the following fall began his work in the Oskaloosa public schools. During his first three years there he served as assistant principal, principal, and superintendent. He remained as superintendent eleven years.
In 1886 Mr. Seeley was invited, by the Board of Trustees, to become Principal of the Iowa State Normal School at Cedar Falls, which later became the present Iowa State Teachers College. It was as president of Iowa's outstanding teachers' college that Mr. Seeley rendered his greatest service to the cause of education. He was a firm believer in the saying, "As is the teacher, so is the school," and that the boys and girls of Iowa are entitled to well-trained teachers.
Mr. Seerly presided over the teacher-training institution at Cedar Falls for forty-two years, from 1886 to 1928. When he began his work there the school was a small struggling affair, but ten years old. When he closed his work, the institution ranked among the foremost teachers' colleges of America.
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