Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1907-01-02
IOWA 5 GOTH birthday
In 1916, : December 28th, Act
Admitting Iowa into Union
Of States, Was Signed
JAMES POLK THEN PRESIDENT
All the Early History Connected With
Development of State Occurred On
What is Now Campus of State Uni
versity, Iowa city-story of the
Surveying Of the City.
Special to Times-Republican.

surveying VI Sb0 StSys
Special to Times-Republican.
Iowa City, Jan. 2.-Sixty years ago
on the 2Sth day of December, 1876,
President James K. Polk signed the act
admitting the state Of Iowa into the
union of states, carving the present
state out of the northwest territory.
The national congress had already
but wrangle over boundaries had
prevented an early completion of the
plans for admission. The new state,
with it's headquarters in Iowa City,
began business in the first capitol
building which has since been demol-
ished. Shortly after the second Iowa
capitol was erected and still stands,
being used as the Office of administra-
ton Of the state university of Iowa, and
the home Of the college of law.
The anniversary of the event is of
particular interest here on account of
the fact that all of the early history
connected with the development Of the
state occurred on what is now the cam
torial history of Iowa was written while
the territorial capitol was in Burlillg-
ton. Among the interesting stories
connected with the location of the state
capitol at this point none is more exeit-
ing than the one with reference to the
surveying and plating of the city.
The parties who were interested in
the location of the original government
here were Of the opinion that the act
which located the capitol at this point
made 1t necessary to have the city
surveyed and the capitol building locat-
ed by certain date. Little attention
was paid to the matter until the cay
in question was close at hand, when the
leading business men Of the city, after
debating the matter for some time, sent
for surveyor from Davenport, the
nearest point where one was located.
No further attention was paid to The
matter until the very day in question
when 1t was realized that the city had
not been surveyed and the capitol To-
Gated.
About noon Of that day one of the
young bloods Of the city started on
horseback for Muscatine, thirty miles
distant, to bring back sur
veyor to do the necessary work.
From that time on there was lit
tie work done in the pioneer city. The
entire forenoon and evening was spent
in specializing on the return Of the
messenger with the surveyor. AS the
clocks gradually neared midnight they
were promptly turned back by the set
tiers and no one really knows the sx-
act time when the surveyor arrived IN
the city and performed his work. BY
the clocks it was not yet midnight, tho
rumor has it that the dawn was al
ready breaking when the last stake,
fixing the location Of the building, was
driven.
Until the state capitol was removed
to Des Moines, both houses of The
state legislature met in the old caoi-
toll building. The delegates to the leg
islature were not always weighed
down with realization of their re-
sponsibilities. An amusing story Of an
early representative from Dubuque
county ia preserved in the historical
material Of the time. After the legis-
lature had been in session for eight
weeks one Of his constituents made the
long, hard trip across the country
from Dubuque to Iowa City. Putting
up at the most prominent hotel in The
city, which by the way is now used as
a boarding school for girls, he in
quired as to the whereabouts Of the
representative from Dubuque. No one
about the place knew anything Of
him.
The authorities at the state capitol
were equally ignorant concerning him.
tho they had a record that he appear
ed on the opening day of the session.
The cheap hotels, the boarding houses
and the business men, knew nothing
of him. Finally a hostler in a livery
stable declared that a man who an
swered the representative description
was living in a shanty down the river.
The traveller from Dubuque started on
hunt for the missing man which re-
suited in his discovery in a dug out
two miles south Of Iowa City, on the
banks of the Iowa river. For the pre-
ceding eight weeks he had been en-.
gagged in hunting, trapping and fish,
ing, coming to Iowa City but rarely
and wholly oblivious Of the reason for
his being in the state capitol.
Among the early debates which oc-
Cured in the stale capitol here, none
is more interesting than the one con-
corning the employment of chaplain.
1t was argued for two days or more,
at cos. of several hundred dollars
per day. to the state, that to hire
chaplain for the legislature would be
a useless expenditure Of money, but
one was finally employed. Iowa City,
and the old residences which still ex-
list here. TEEN with the stories of the