Iowa
Old Press
Des Moines Leader
Des Moines, Polk co. Iowa
September 18, 1895
Interesting History of Iowa ---- Three Foreign States
Have Claimed Jurisdiction
At various times this State has been ruled by the monarchs of
Spain, France, and England; that is, they have ruled it to the
extend of giving it away to various people whom they didn't
dislike enough to behead. The State of Iowa has been passed
around like a municipal franchise among people who didn't
appreciate it, and at last had to develop itself without any
foreign aid.
Capt. Frank E. Landers, Secretary of the State Executive Council,
is the author of a little work that has much merit as a graphic
expositon of some of the most interesting figures in connection
with the history of the State. It consists of a book of maps,
showing the development of the territory that is now the State of
Iowa, from the dawn of the history of the Western world. There
are, in all, about 150 maps, carefully drawn with the pen,
showing the State at each period when some legislative or other
change was made to mark a period or a development in its history.
They show first the developments of the Territory and State, and
afterward the changes from time to time in the Congressional,
legislative, and judicial districts; also the organization of the
counties and their changes in name. On the margin of each map are
notes indicating the changes, and explaining the legislative or
other enactments by which they were brought about.
The first alleged ower of the State of Iowa was Spain, which
claimed everything in the world for a while, by virtue of the
accidental discoveries of Columbus, who never knew he had found a
new continent. Then John Cabot came along and discovered
Labrador, and England claimed everything in sight, or out of
sight, on this account.
Capt. Landers, presumably being of English extraction, doesn't
pay any attention to the other claims, and begins with that of
England. His first map is a simple outline of the State, marked
"Plymouth Territory." The marginal notes explain that
it was part of the territory granted to the Plymouth Company in
1620, by James I of England. The grant comprised the territory
between the 40th and 48th degrees of north latitude, from the
Atlantic to the Pacific.
The Plymouth Company concluded not to build any railroads west
that year, and the next map shows the State divided into three
zones, by east and west lines. The south and north zones still
belong to the Plymouth Company; the middle one to the
Massachusetts Bay Company.
The next map shows the south zone owned by Lords Say, Seal, and
Brooke, by virtue of another grant from the King of England, who,
whatever faults he may have had, was a good fellow about his
land, and gave it away freely.
After this there is a map which shows that the south part of the
State belonged to the Province of Virginia. The next change is
shown by the map of 1652, which gives the whole north half of the
State to Massachusetts. This grant included the site of what has
sonce become famous as Sioux City. On the whole, it would have
been cheaper if Massachusetts had held on while she had it,
instead of waiting 250 years and then lending all its money on
Sioux City town lots, and taking the place under foreclosure.
The same map which gave Massachusetts the north half of the State
names Connecticut as the owner of the next strip south. The
Connecticut people had as that time just set themselves up in
business, and for some time they held on to the strip, for even
at that time it was known that Iowa had the most fertile soil on
earth.
It was about this time that the French began to claim rights in
this territory. They doubted the right of King James and his
successors to give away a lot of ground that they had never seen,
and that may be was not there at all. So they sent over a man
named La Salle III to find out if there was such a country. He
found it, and advised his King, Louis XIV to go to giving it away
too, just by way of manifesting an interest in it and
establishing a claim. For in the peculiar system of generosity
which Kings and potentates affect, the giving away of a thing
gives them a peculiar and inalienable right to it. So Louis gave
the entire Mississippi Valley to Anthony Cruzart. Mr. Cruzart,
however, was infatuated with the effete and luxurious life of
Paris, and in a short time he ceded the country back to the King,
who gave it away again, this time to the Western Company.
This company was as unappreciative as its predecessor, and, after
raising corn and potatoes in its mind's eye for three years, got
discouraged, and ceded the whole back to the King.
After a while, along in the latter part of the eighteenth
century, France ceded a large part of the Western Hemisphere to
England, including all that section west of the Mississippi
River. But the next time the thing appears the entire State of
Iowa is named "Province of Louisiana," having been
re-ceded to France. Finally, in 1803, the United States bought
from France the Province of Louisiana, and Iowa for the first
time became a part of the United States.
The next map shows the State labeled "District of
Louisiana." A district was a sort of overgorwn county in
those days, and the District of Louisiana was under the control
of the Governor and the Judges of Indiana Territory. After this
the Territory of Louisiana was established. It was ruled by a
Governor and three Judges, appointed by the President -- that is,
it was nominally ruled in this way. As a matter of fact, the
three Judges, the Governor, and the President at that time
supposed there was nothing here except a section of the Great
American Desert. They regarded it probably as somewhat less
valuable than the Territory of Alaska is now esteemed.
The next map, dated 1812, shows the State marked "Territory
of Missouri." It was part of one of the Territories carved
out of the Louisiana Purchase. After a while, when Missouri was
made a State, the name, which was about the only thing to
indicate that it had any connection with civilization, was
changed to "Territory of Michigan," and Iowa was for a
while a dependency of Michigan, which was then about one-third as
large as the whole of Europe. At this time appears the first
subdivision of the State. The Blackhawk Indian boundary, about
forty miles west of the Mississippi, and practically parallel to
it, marked the territory which was then open to white settlement.
The County of Dubuque included most of the eastern end of the
State. The other county included the southeast corner of the
State, and was named Domine. The imported style of spelling had
not at that time been adopted; the people of the section were
poor, and they managed, by hook or crook, to struggle along with
the domestic article of spelling of a French name. There is no
more pleasing evidence of the early development of culture in the
great West than the fact that at an early date the people of Iowa
discovered their homespun system of spelling was too old
fashioned, and adopted the Parisian article. But for their
forethought the capital of Iowa might be an ordinary place
instead of a French city.
The next thing that happened to the State of Iowa was its
annexation to Wisconsin. Michigan had got admitted to the Union.
The Territory of Wisconsin, was organized out of the battered
remnants, and the present State of Iowa became a part of it.
Several more counties were cut out of the eastern part of the
State, but all except a fringe along the Mississippi was still
wilderness, and a man who wandered out of sight of the Father of
Waters after night was liable to leave his scalp as an evidence
of good faith in the hands of some Blackhawk Indian.
After this the changes are rapid. New counties were organized by
each Legislature. In 1838 the name of Iowa was adopted for the
first time, and appears on the map of this date. It was then
"Territory of Iowa."
The name "State of Iowa" adorns the 1846 map. A line
drawn from the northeast to the southwest corner of the State on
this map will just about cut off the organized from the
unorganized part of the State. East and south of this line the
counties were about as now; north and west the Pottawattomie and
Winnebago Indians were still in control, and no counties had been
organized.
On the 1851 map appears for the first time the list of counties,
nearly as it now is. What is now Lyon was then Yell, the present
Calhoun was then Fox, and the Hamilton of to-day was then Risley.
From this time on, the development of the State into its present
form was rapid; in fact, the internal lines have changed little.
The Congressional, judicial, and Legislative districts have
changed considerabley from time to time and all the developments
are marked by the maps. At one time there was a curious
legislative mistake by which a tier of townships, now belonging
to Guthrie County, was left out in the cold, and formed a sort of
No Man's Land for a while. In the reorganization of the
boundaries of the counties these four townships were accidentally
cut off from one county, but not annexed to another, and during
the biennial period from one Legislature to another they had no
allegiance to any county. The people could not hold any elections
for county officers, and, in fact, had few pleasures left in
life. The next Legislature annexed them to Guthrie, and they have
never rebelled against its rule.
[transcribed by S.F., October 2007]