Pg 585

         INTRODUCTORY. This is a world of progress. History is being made day by day. Events follow each other with lightning-like rapidity, astonishing even to the quick-thinking men of the nineteenth century. But a little more than half a century—only fifty-five years—has passed since the territory comprising the great commonwealth of Iowa was in the peaceable possession of the red men. Today it is divided up into ninety and nine organized counties, with a railroad reaching the seat of justice of every county, while telegraph and telephone wires are stretched here and there, and the hum of machinery in daily use by the farmer and mechanic is heard on every hand. The wonderful transformation that has taken place can scarcely be realized even by those who have been the most active in the work. The old pioneer as he now sits in his easy chair, while in memory his mind wanders back to other days, feels that he but dreams, and would express no surprise if, instead of the palatial residence, the great fields of waving corn that greet his eyes, would appear the humble log cabin and the tall prairie grass, with the fleet-footed deer and other wild game that he had been accustomed to see. But it is only in imagination, or rather in dreams, that these old familiar scenes can be recalled. The ever-living present is here, and the pioneer knows that he is but one among over 2,000,000 now inhabiting this beautiful land. He sees around him enterprising cities with their diversified industries, while the country has been changed from its primitive state, school-houses built upon nearly every cross road, and churches upon every hillside.