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Iowa News from across the
Country
- 1836 -
The Milwaukee
Advertiser
Milwaukee, Wisconsin Territory
July 21, 1836
The Iowa District - A little work has been published at
Philadelphia, accompanied by a Lithographic Map, entitled 'Notes
on Wisconsin Territory', by Lieut. Albert M. Lea, U.S. Dragoons.
The notes are confined to a tract of country called the Iowa
District, constituting in geographical extent, but an
inconsiderable part of the Wisconsin Territory. This Territory,
according to the late act of Congress by which it is established,
is bounded on the east by lake Michigan and the State of the same
name, on the north by the British possessions, on the west by the
White-earth, and the Missouri river, on the south by the State of
Missouri and Illinois. It consequently embraces an immense extent
of territory, sufficient to form a number of States. The Iowa
District consists of that portion of the Wisconsin Territory
which lies on the west side of the Mississippi river and borders
on the north; upon the State of Missouri. It is two hundred miles
in length, from north to south, and is not more than fifty miles
in width, extending that distance west from the Mississippi.
This district is deserving of particular notice, on account of
its beauty and fertility, the richness not only of its soil, but
of the productions of its mines, and the rapid increase of its
population. Near the close of the year 1835, a little more than
two years from the date of the first settlement, the population,
exclusive of Indians, was sixteen thousand. During the last
winter and the present summer the emigration has been extremely
rapid, particularly from the States of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois,
Kentucky, and Missouri. The population of the district is
described to be remarkably industrous, orderly and intelligent.
The Mississippi river is navigable for steamboats drawing three
feet of water, along the whole length of the district. The
district is intersected by a great number of streams, some of
which are navigable, and most of them afford in some part of
their course, falls affording eligible mill sites. The soil is
rich, producing in abundance, either corn, wheat, rye, oats or
potatoes. The produce with negligent cultivation, is equal to 50
to 100 bushels of the white corn of the South, or of the yellow
flint corn 40 to 75 bushels, wheat 25 to 40 bushels, oats 60 to
71 bushels. There is abundance of bituminous coal, limestone, and
in the northern part of the district, the finest lead mines in
the United States. These various recommendations, together with
the salubrity of the climate, present the strongest attractions
to emigrants, and the country is in consequence rapidly building
up. The increase of population is so rapid, that a new state will
undoubtedly be soon formed, north of Missouri, including this
district. It is chiefly a free population, and it will form a
free state.
[transcribed by S.F., November 2008]
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Republican Compiler
Gettysburg, Pennsylvania
September 27, 1836
It appears from various sources, that the population of Wisconsin
territory is even now not less than 50,000 and the tide of
emigration is so prodigious, that we may anticipate that next
congress will subdivide it into several territories, and before
the next census, we shall have the states of Iowa and Wisconsin.
Iowa contains now from 25 to 35 thousand inhabitants, and may,
when a state, have a length of 450 miles, by a suitable breadth;
being on the west side of, and embracing the head of the
Mississippi, known by the technical name of Itasca, which is,
according to recent travellers, thus curiously formed from the
Latin: ver-itas, truth, and ca-put, head; whence Itasca, the true
head of the Mississippi! Unless explained, one would no more
suppose that Itasca, in Iowa territory, is named from Latin
words, than that Selma and Xenia are Greek and Losantville the
old name of Cincinnati, a pedantico-mongrel compound of Latin,
Greek and French with the initial letter of the Indian word
Licking -- the name of a confluent in the Ohio, which has its
mouth, os, opposite, anti, to the town or city, ville. To the
west of the future state of Iowa others will soon be added, and
the child lives who will travel through twenty states lying north
of the mouth of the Ohio, and West of the Mississippi, and
containing 20,000,000 of beings, as yet unborn.
[transcribed by S.F., March 2005]
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Alton Telegraph
Alton, Illinois
October 5, 1836
Wisconsin Territory
Gov. Dodge has ordered an election in this territory, on the
second Monday of this month, of a delegate to Congress, and also
a Council to be convened at Bellmont, Iowa county, on the 25th of
October. The apportionment of members from the respective
counties, is as follows:
-The county of Demoine is entitled to seven members of the House
and three of the Council.
-The county of Dubuque, five members of the House and three of
the Council.
-The county of Ioway, six members of the House and three of the
Council.
-The county of Brown, three members of the House and two of the
Council.
[transcribed by S.F., Nov. 2003]
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Farmer's Cabinet
West Virginia
October 14, 1836
New States - The western papers, that is, of the 'far west,' are
beginning to talk of two new states to be called Wisconsin and
Iowa, to be cut out of the present Territory of Wisconsin. A
paper printed at Grand Gulf says there are 60,000 inhabitants in
the Territory, about equally divided between the districts of
which it is proposed to make new states. Iowa lies west of the
Mississippi river, and is 450 miles in length. To the west of the
future State of Iowa, (says the abovenamed paper,) other states
will soon be added, and the child
lives who will travel through TWENTY states lying north of the
mouth of the Ohio, and west of the Mississippi, and containing
twenty millions of human beings as yet unborn!- New Yorker.
[transcribed by C.J.L., July 2005]