Iowa voter. [volume] (Knoxville, Iowa) 1867-1874, 1869-12-23
lows I'm the Olden Time.

Ioyym I'm the Oldcn Time.
We were presented, the other day,
with a MAP Of the State OF Iowa, by
l.. Matzinger-ls5O." 1t shows what
Iowa was seventeen years ago. Com
pairing itswith the map Of Iowa now,
we see what difference there is be-
tween the Iowa Of the olden time
and the Iowa of the present day.
There were then only thirty-nine
Counties organized in the State.
Half of the State was wilderness.
inhabited by the Winnebago, Sac
and Fox and Pottawattamie Indians.
West Of Winneshiek and Fayettc
Counties, and extending in south
westerly direction, Is the "NeutraI
Grounds of the W!nnebagos." West
OF Boone and Dallas is the late 'Sac
and Fox" country. West Of Madison
and Clarke, as far as the Missouri, il
the Pottawattamie country, embrac-
Union, Adair, Adams, Cass, Mont
gomery, Mills and Pottawattamie.
A few people then inhabited the
southern tier Of Counties west OF
Davis, but there was not town west
Of the then hamlet Of Garden Grove
in the County of Decatur.
Even some of the now considerable
townsand cities Of the Mississippi riv
erwere then unknown. Lansing, the
new fiourishing river town Of Ala
makee County, is not down on the
map. McGregor, a city already, and
soon to be a great one, was an "un-
discovered country" to Mr.. l.. Matz-
niger. Sabula, Jackson County, is
unknown to this old map also, now a
place OF great trade and prospects.
We see here no signs Of Clinton, now
a beautiful and enterprising city,
which supports n fine semi-weekly
journal, the biggest saw-mill in the
country, and a steam fbre-engine, and
other metropolitan Institutions.
On the river, and even in some of
the organized Counties of the interi-
or, there are no towns. There is no
sign ola yillagein Blackhawk, where
are the fierce rival cities Of Cedar
Falls and Waterloo, each magnifi-
cent place to everybody except the
inhabitants Of the other. There is
no town west Of Vinton in that part
OF the State. MarshalIt0wn, now
the busiest place in Central Iowa,
except Des Moines, is not on the
map. So with all the other places
in that neck Of the woods, which one
invariably thinks of, when having
bls Mind gjafss On .! that part Of the State.
Eidora or Fort Dodge. Even Cedar
Rapids il not in existence in 1850,
according to Mr.. Matzinger.
In short, the Iowa Of 1850, COM
pared with the Iowa of 1869, is but
small potatoes. There were less than
2OO, 900 souls in the State. At this
time there cannot be less than one
million.
But we have still an older map OF
the same kind, namely Newhall's
map Of Iowa, published In 1871. The
then Territory Of Iowa extended
from Missouri to the British Posses
sions, embracing much more than
the territory now included In the
State Of Iowa and Minnesota. New
ertheless there are but lS organized
Counties Clayton, Dubuque, jack
son, Clinton, Scott, Muscatine, Loui-
sia, Des Moines, Lee, Van Buren,,
Henry, Jefferson, Washington,
johnson, Cedar, Linn, Jones and
Delaware. Parts of Buchanan and
Fayette are marked out, but they are
set down without population. The
population OF the organized Counties
Is 1923, all told. Van Buren, is the
most populous Of any. 1t has G, lie
inhabitants. Lee comes next, with
G,O96; then Des Moines, with 6,540;
then Henry with 1874; Dubuque
with 3,OJG; Jefferson with $3.50; Scott
with 2,l5S; Louisa with 1915; and SC
on to Delaware, which in l84l con.
tanned Al souls. .liu
In towns, Burlington and Dubuque
were ahead. They contained pop.
ulation Of /, 200 each. III those days,
Bloomington was the name Of the
town which stands where IL now the
city OF Muscatine. Bloomington
then had population of $50. Iowa
City had $50, Fort Madison GOO, Dav.
export 5I3, Rockingham then wanted
the County seat Of. Scott County. II
had a population. Of $50 souIs--nearly
$50 more than 1t now has, we sup.
pose. Davenport has quite shaded
all growth out Of Rockingham.
In this old map, Iowaville, in the
north western corner Of Van Buren,
TL,,,rfs, q thu fort hor,,nOat villa re