Jefferson County Online A part of the IAGenWeb and USGenWeb Projects The State of Iowa Growth and Progress

When Wisconsin Territory was organized, in 1836, the entire population of that portion of the Territory now embraced in the State of Iowa was 10,531. The Territory then embraced two counties, Dubuque and Des Moines, erected by the Territory of Michigan, in 1834. From 1836 to 1838, the Territorial Legislature of Wisconsin increased the number of counties to sixteen, and the population had increased to 22,859. Since then, the counties have increased to ninety-nine, and the population, in 1875, was 1,366,000. The following table will show the population at different periods since the erection of Iowa Territory:

The most populous county in the State is Dubuque. Not only in population, but in everything contributing to the growth and greatness of a State has Iowa made rapid progress. In a little more than thirty years, its wild but beautiful prairies have advanced from the home of the savage to a highly civilized commonwealth, embracing all the elements of progress which characterize the older States.

Thriving cities and towns dot its fair surface; an iron net-work of thousands of miles of railroads is woven over its broad acres; ten thousand school houses, in which more than five hundred thousand children are being taught the rudiments of education, testify to the culture and liberality of the people; high schools, colleges and universities are generously endowed by the State; manufactories spring up on all her water courses, and in most of her cities and towns.

Whether measured from the date of her first settlement, her organization as a Territory or admission as a State, Iowa has thus far shown a growth unsurpassed, in a similar period, by any commonwealth on the face of the earth; and, with her vast extent of fertile soil, with her inexhaustible treasures of mineral wealth, with a healthful, invigorating climate; an intelligent, liberty-loving people; with equal, just and liberal laws, and her free schools, the future of Iowa may be expected to surpass the most hopeful anticipations of her present citizens.

Looking upon Iowa as she is to-day -- populous, prosperous and happy -- it is hard to realize the wonderful changes that have occurred since the first white settlements were made within her borders. When the number of States was only twenty-six, and their total population about twenty millions, our republican form of government was hardly more than an experiment, just fairly put upon trial. The development of our agricultural resources and inexhaustible mineral wealth had hardly commenced. Westward the "Star of Empire" had scarcely started on its way. West of the great Mississippi was a mighty empire, but almost unknown, and marked on the maps of the period as "The Great American Desert."

Now, thirty-eight stars glitter on our national escutcheon, and forty-five millions of people, who know their rights and dare maintain them, tread American soil, and the grand sisterhood of States extends from the Gulf of Mexico to the Canadian border, and from the rocky coast of the Atlantic to the golden shores of the Pacific.