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]



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