# History of Iowa From the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the Twentieth Century/1/15

​IN June, 1834, Congress passed an act providing that
It will be seen that this territory embraced the State of Iowa, a large portion of the Dakotas and Minnesota. For the purpose of temporary government all of this territory was attached to and made a part of Michigan. At an extra session of the Sixth Legislative Assembly of Michigan held in September, 1834, the Iowa District was divided into two counties by running a line due west from the lower end of Rock Island. The territory north of this line was named Dubuque County, and all south of it was Des Moines County. A court was organized in each county, the terms of which were to be held at Dubuque and Burlington. The first court was held in a log house in Burlington in April, 1835. The first judges were appointed by the Governor of Michigan for the new counties and were Isaac Loeffler, of Des Moines County, and John King, of Dubuque.
On the first Monday of October, 1835, George W. Jones, who lived at Sinsinawa Mound, in the present limits of Wisconsin, was elected a delegate to represent Michigan Territory in Congress. He secured the passage of a bill creating the new Territory of Wisconsin, which also embraced Iowa and a part of Minnesota and Dakota. General ​Henry Dodge, an officer of the regular army, was appointed Governor; John S. Homer, Secretary; Charles Dunn, Chief Justice; David Irwin and William C. Frazier, Associate Justices. Dubuque and Des Moines counties made up the judicial district over which David Irwin presided.
Governor Dodge ordered a census to be taken of the new Territory in September, 1836, and it was found that the two counties in the Black Hawk Purchase, Dubuque and Des Moines, had a population of 10,531, which entitled them to six members of the Council and thirteen members of the House of Representatives in the Territorial Legislature. At the election held on the first Monday in October of that year, Des Moines County elected to the Council, Jeremiah Smith, Joseph B. Teas and Arthur B. Ingham. In the House of Representatives were Isaac Leffler, Thomas Blair, John Box, George W. Teas, David R. Chance, Warren L. Jenkins and John Reynolds. The county of Dubuque sent to the Council, Thomas McCraney, John Foley and Thomas McKnight; to the House of Representatives, Loring Wheeler, Hardin Nowlin, Hosea T. Camp, Peter H. Engle and Patrick Quigley.
The first session of this Territorial Legislature convened on the 25th of October, 1836, at Belmont, which had been designated by the Governor as the temporary Capital of the newly organized Territory. Peter H. Engle, of Dubuque, was elected Speaker of the House, and Henry T. Baird, of Brown County, was chosen President of the Council.
An act was passed by this Legislature authorizing the establishment at Dubuque of the “Miners' Bank.” The charter required that the bank should have a capital stock of $200,000 dollars, to be divided into shares of one hundred dollars each. Ezekiel Lockwood, Francis Gehon, John Kirk, William Myers, L. W. Langworthy, Robert D. Sherman, William W. Carrill, Simeon Clark and E. M. Bissell were named in the charter as the first directors,
MINERS’ BANK BILLS First Bank Established on Iowa Soil
​who were to hold their positions until a new board should be chosen by the stockholders. One-tenth of the amount of each share was required to be paid in at the time of subscribing and the balance at such times as required by the directors. This was the first bank established in the limits of Iowa.
An act was passed organizing out of the territory embraced in Des Moines County, the counties of Lee, Van Buren, Henry, Louisa, Musquetine and Cook.
By an act of this session, the permanent Capital of the new Territory was located at Madison. An act was passed incorporating the Belmont and Dubuque Railroad Company and authorizing it to construct a single or double track from Belmont to the most eligible point on the Mississippi River, “The road to be operated by the power and force of steam or animals, or any mechanical or other power.” The company was prohibited from holding or speculating in any lands in the Territory other than those upon which the road should run—or that might be necessary to operate the same. It was further provided that the company should not charge to exceed six cents per mile for carrying passengers, nor more than fifteen cents per ton per mile for transporting any species of property. As this was the first act authorizing the construction of a railroad in Iowa, its provisions may be of interest as a matter of history, although the road was not built.
The site of Belmont, which was the first Capital of Wisconsin Territory when Iowa was included within its limits, was in the southwestern part of what is now the State of Wisconsin. The location of the little prairie village of that day is thus described by one who was there during the first session of the Territorial Legislature:
Belmont contained but a few houses and was poorly prepared for the accommodation of the members of the Legislature. The sessions were held in a story-and-a-half frame building, designed for a store. Major J. Smith, who was a member from Des Moines County, proposed to erect a suitable building to accommodate the Legislature, if it would remove the capital to Burlington. His offer was accepted and on the 3d of December, 1836, an act was passed locating the seat of government at Burlington until March 4, 1839, unless public buildings were sooner completed at Madison. Belmont with its beautiful location was distanced in the rivalry of new towns and, failing to secure a railroad, gradually disappeared; a fine farm only marks the site of the first Capital.
John King, of Dubuque, published the first Iowa newspaper. He came from Ohio to the “Dubuque Lead Mines” in 1834. He was satisfied that the little village was destined to become an important city. In 1836 he determined to establish a newspaper, and returning to Ohio, purchased at Cincinnati a Smith hand-press with type and material sufficient to issue a small weekly paper. He also brought from Chillicothe a young man by the name of William Gary Jones, to take charge of the mechanical department of the office. The foreman and chief typesetter was Andrew Keesecker, who came from Galena. He set the type for the first number of the Du Buque Visitor, which was issued on May 11, 1836, and dated “Du Buque Lead Mines, Wisconsin Territory.” As a matter of fact, Dubuque was then in Michigan Territory, which at that time comprised Michigan, Wisconsin, Iowa and Minnesota.
An act had been passed by Congress for the creation of the Territory of Wisconsin, which would take effect on the 4th of July. Judge King thought it allowable
BUILDING AT BELMONT, WISCONSIN Where Iowa was First Represented in a Legislature in 1836
​therefore to anticipate what would soon be accomplished and give the location in Wisconsin Territory. In that remote frontier village beyond the reach of regular mails, it was found to be very difficult to issue a weekly newspaper and much more difficult to secure financial support. Consequently the paper experienced frequent changes of proprietors and names. In 1838 it became the Iowa News; in 1841 the Miners' Express; in 1855 the Express & Herald; and finally the Dubuque Daily Herald.
In 1842 the old hand-press was sold and moved to Grant County, Wisconsin, where it was used to print the Herald. In 1849 James M. Groodhue purchased the press and shipped it by steamboat to St. Paul, landing there April 18. Ten days later he issued the first number of the Minnesota Pioneer, the first newspaper established in that Territory. After service in various frontier towns in 1867 this press was purchased by Siminton Brothers, who used it to print the Sauk Centre Herald.
This pioneer press, which did service for twenty-six years in western frontier towns, was one of the important agents of civilization, and deserves a place in the history of the times. On this primitive machine were printed the first newspapers on the banks of the upper Mississippi, the first in western Wisconsin, in Iowa, and Minnesota. It was thus intimately associated with the early settlement and development of three States and Territories of the Northwest.
The first act regulating the sale of spirituous liquors in Iowa was passed at the session of 1836. It provided that the county supervisors might authorize any person to keep a grocery under such restrictions as a majority might deem expedient, with permission to sell spirituous liquors, provided he should pay into the county treasury nine dollars a month for one year. Any person selling such liquors without a license was liable to a fine of ten dollars for each offense. An act was also passed for the establishment of a territorial wagon road from Farmington, on the ​Des Moines River, via Moffett’s mill, Burlington, Wapello and Dubuque, to a point opposite Prairie du Chien.
It was during this year, 1836, that Dr. Isaac Galland established the second newspaper in the limits of Iowa, at Montrose, and called it the Western Adventurer. Two years later he moved to Fort Madison, and the paper was purchased by James G. Edwards, who converted it into an organ of the Whig Party, changing the name to the Fort Madison Patriot. The first number of the Patriot published a bill which had been introduced into Congress by the territorial delegate, George W. Jones, for a division of the Territory of Wisconsin, and the creation of a new Territory west of the Mississippi River to be named Iowa. The editor of the Patriot, in an article on the subject, writes:
The suggestion met with general favor and the people of Iowa from that day became known as “Hawkeyes.”
The second session of the Wisconsin Legislature assembled at Burlington (in Iowa) on the first Monday in November, 1837. Previous to its meeting, a call had been issued for a convention of delegates from the west side of the Mississippi River to assemble at Burlington on the 6th of November, for the following purposes:
First—To memorialize Congress to pass an act granting the right of preëmption to actual settlers on government lands.
Second—To memorialize Congress on the subject of an attempt by the State of Missouri to extend her northern boundary so as to embrace territory claimed as a part of Wisconsin.
Third—To memorialize Congress for the organization ​of a separate territorial government in that part of Wisconsin lying west of the Mississippi River.
The convention assembled at the appointed time, and consisted of the following delegates, chosen by the counties represented:
Dubuque County—P. H. Engle, J. T. Fales, G. W. Harris, W. A. Warren, W. B. Watts, A. F. Russell, W. H. Patton, J. W. Parker, J. D. Bell and J. H. Rose. It will be remembered that Dubuque County at this time embraced all of the country north of the latitude of the south end of Rock Island, while the original county of Des Moines had been divided into Lee, Louisa, Van Buren, Henry, Muscatine and Des Moines counties. These counties sent the following delegates:
Des Moines County—David Rorer, Robert Ralston and Cyrus S. Jacobs; Van Buren County, Van Caldwell, J. G. Kenner and James Hall; Henry County, W. H. Wallace, J. D. Payne and J. L. Myers; Muscatine County, J. R. Struthers, M. Couch, Eli Reynolds, S. C. Hastings, James Davis, S. Jenner, A. Smith and E. K. Fay; Louisa County, J. M. Clark, William L. Toole and J. J. Rinearson; Lee County, Henry Eno, John Claypool and Hawkins Taylor.
The officers selected by the convention were: president, Cyrus S. Jacobs; vice-presidents, J. M. Clark and Wm. H. Wallace; secretaries, J. W. Parker and J. R. Struthers.
The following committees were appointed: to draft a memorial on the right of preëmptions, Engle, Kenner, Payne, Struthers, Patton, Rorer and Smith; to draft a memorial on the subject of the disputed boundary, Eno, Claypool, Kenner, Ralston, Davis, Watts and Toole; to prepare a memorial for a separate territorial organization, Rorer, Hastings, Caldwell, Myers, Claypool, Rinearson and Harris.
The report on settlement of the disputed boundary with Missouri, asked Congress to appoint commissioners to run the line between Missouri and Wisconsin and to adopt such measures as might be necessary to settle and establish said boundary line. The memorial praying for a division of the Territory of Wisconsin was as follows:
“The memorial of a general convention of delegates from the respective counties in the Territory of Wisconsin, west of tho Mississippi River, convened at the Capitol at Burlington in said Territory, November 6, 1837, respectfully represents:
“That the citizens of that part of the Territory west of the Mississippi River, taking into consideration their remote and isolated position, and the vast extent of country included within the limits of the present Territory, and the impracticability of the same being governed as an entire whole, by the best administration of our municipal affairs, in such manner as to fully secure individual rights, and the rights of property, as well as to maintain domestic tranquillity and the good order of society, have by their respective representatives, convened in general convention as aforesaid, for availing themselves of the right of petition as free citizens, by representing their situation and wishes to your honorable body, and asking for the organization of a separate territorial government over that part of the Territory west of the Mississippi River.
“Without in the least designing to question the official conduct of those in whose hands the fate of our infant Territory has been confided, and in whose patriotism and wisdom we have the utmost confidence, your memorialists cannot refrain from the expression of their belief, that taking into consideration the geographical extent of her country, in connection with the probable population of western Wisconsin, perhaps no Territory of the United States has been so much neglected by the parent government, so illy protected in the political and individual rights of her citizens.
​“Western Wisconsin came into possession of our government in June, 1833. Settlements were made and crops grown during the same season; and at that early day was the impulse given to the mighty throng of immigration that has subsequently filled our lovely and desirable country with people of intelligence, wealth and enterprise. In a little over four years, what has been the condition of western Wisconsin? Literally and practically a large portion of the time without a government. With a population of thousands she has remained ungoverned, and has been left by the parent government to take care of herself without the privilege on the one hand to provide a government of her own, and without any existing authority on the other to govern her. From June, 1833, to June, 1834, there was not even the shadow of government or law in all western Wisconsin.
“In June, 1834, Congress attached her to the then existing Territory of Michigan, of which Territory she nominally continued a part until July, 1836, a period of a little more than two years. During this time the whole country west, sufficient of itself for a respectable State, was included in two counties, Dubuque and Des Moines. In each of these two counties there were holden during this time of two years two terms of a county court of inferior jurisdiction, as the only sources of judicial relief, up to the passage of the Act of Congress creating the Territory of Wisconsin. That act took effect the 3rd of July, 1830, and the first judicial relief afforded under that act, was at the April term following, 1837, a period of nine months after its passage; subsequently to which time there had been a court holden in one solitary county of western Wisconsin only. This your memorialists are aware has recently been owing to the unfortunate indisposition of the esteemed judge of our district; but they are also aware of the fact that had western Wisconsin existed under a separate organization, we should have found relief in the service of other members of the judiciary, who are at present in consequence of the great extent of our Territory and the small number of judges dispersed at too great a distance, and too constantly engaged in the discharge of the duties of their own district, to be able to afford relief to other portions of the Territory. Thus with a population now of not less than twenty-five thousand, and of near half that number at the organization of the Territory, it will appear that we have existed as a portion of an organized Territory for sixteen months with but one term of court.
“Your memorialists look upon these evils as growing exclusively out of the immense extent of country included within the present boundaries of the Territory, and express their belief that nothing would so effectually remedy the evil as the organization of western Wisconsin into a separate territorial government. To this your memorialists consider themselves entitled by right, and the same obligation that rests upon their present government to protect them in the enjoyment of their rights until such ​time as they shall be permitted to provide protection for themselves; as well as from the uniform practice and policy of the government in relation to other Territories.
“The Territory of Indiana, including the present States of Indiana, Illinois and Michigan, and also much of the eastern portion of the Territory of Wisconsin, was placed under one separate territorial government in the year 1800, at a time when the population amounted to only five thousand six hundred and forty, or thereabouts. The territory of Arkansas was erected into a distinct Territory in 1820 with a population of about fourteen thousand. The Territory of Illinois was established in 1809, being formed by dividing the Indiana Territory. The exact population of Illinois Territory at the time of her separation from Indiana is not known to your memorialists, but her population in 1812 amounted to but eleven thousand five hundred whites, and a few blacks, in all less than twelve thousand inhabitants. The Territory of Michigan was formed in 1805 by again dividing the Indiana Territory, of which until then she composed a part. The population of Michigan in 1810, five years after her organization, was only four thousand seven hundred and sixty; and in 1820, fifteen years after the Territory was established, it was only about nine thousand. Michigan thus existed as a separate Territory for fifteen years with a population less than half as great as that of western Wisconsin now. Each of the above named Territories, now grown into populous and prosperous States, were organized into separate Territories with much less population than that of western Wisconsin, at a time too when the nation was burdened with a debt of many millions.
“Your memorialists therefore pray for the organization of a separate territorial government over that part of Wisconsin Territory lying west of the Mississippi River.”
This was the first organized effort of the citizens of what was then called western Wisconsin to secure the establishment of a separate government and territory. The memorial was sent to General George W. Jones, the delegate in Congress from Wisconsin, who at once began to work for the establishment of Iowa Territory, although he lived on the east side of the Mississippi River and would remain a citizen of Wisconsin.
The assembling of the Wisconsin Legislature at Burlington at this time, was the first meeting of a legislative body within the limits of the future State of Iowa. As the members of the Council were elected for four years, and of the House for two years, this was the second session ​of the First Territorial Legislative Assembly, which, had first convened at Belmont.
Early in the session an act was passed dividing Dubuque County and organizing from its territory the counties of Clayton, Jackson, Clinton, Scott, Johnson, Linn, Benton, Jones and Delaware. The counties of Dubuque, Delaware, Jackson, Jones, Linn, Clinton, Cedar and Scott, as constituted at this session, embraced the same areas of territory and boundaries as now. Clayton County as then organized included a portion of Allamakee and only a part of the present county of Clayton. The county-seat, Prairie La Porte, was afterward named Guttenberg.
Fayette County as first established extended westward to the limits of the Territory and north to the British Possessions, embracing in its vast area most of what afterward made twenty-eight counties of northern Iowa, and all of Minnesota west of the Mississippi River (excepting a small tract in the southeast corner) and all of the Dakotas east of the Missouri and White Earth River. It covered an area of nearly 140,000 square miles, being nearly three times the size of the State of Iowa. Buchanan extended west to the Missouri River, embracing territory which has since been divided into ten Iowa counties. Benton embraced all of the territory in that range west of Linn County, to the western boundary of the State, including in its limits nine future counties. Keokuk embraced all of that range west of Johnson County to the Missouri River, taking in territory afterward contained in nine counties, but embracing only the northern tier of townhips in Keokuk County as now bounded.
Johnson County as organized at this time included in its limits three of the northern townships in the present county of Washington. The Legislature at this session provided a board of commissioners, consisting of three electors in each county to transact its ordinary business. It abolished all laws authorizing imprisonment for debt, also authorized a census to be taken of the inhabitants ​of the Territory. Later in the session an act was passed denning the boundaries of the counties of Lee, Van Buren, Des Moines, Henry, Louisa, Muscatine and Slaughter and locating their county-seats. All of these counties had been established at the first session of the Legislature, excepting Slaughter, but as the government survey of the public lands had not been completed at the time, the act designated the boundaries to correspond with the recent survey. A resolution was passed at this session providing for an investigation of the Miners’ Bank of Dubuque, the report to be made at an extra session to be held in June following. At the extra session held at Burlington, beginning June 11, 1838, an act was passed providing that all territory lying west of Van Buren County and east of the Missouri River, not embraced in any other county, should be attached to Van Buren.
In the fall of 1837 the United States negotiated another treaty with the Sac, Fox and Sioux Indians by which 1,250,000 acres of land lying west of, adjoining the Black Hawk Purchase of 1832, was ceded to the Government and opened to settlement. This tract consisted of a strip of land about twenty-five miles in width, lying immediately west of the Black Hawk Purchase. The Sacs and Foxes also ceded to the United States all of their interest in the country south of the boundary line established between them and the Sioux, August 19, 1825, and between the Mississippi and Missouri rivers. This was rather an indefinite claim to lands on the Missouri slope. The lands opened to settlement west of the Mississippi were now attracting a large immigration and the people of that portion of Wisconsin Territory were working earnestly for a division and establishment of a new Territory on the west side of the river.