The Story of Iowa Collections

The Story of Iowa

The Story of Iowa is a history of the state of Iowa up through the 1920s, written especially for children.

In the year 1788 a young Frenchman, by the name of Julien Dubuque, came down from Canada in search of adventure. He stopped at Prairie du Chien, * in Wisconsin, just above the mouth of the Wisconsin river, and started a trading post across the Mississippi, where the beautiful little city of McGregor now stands. The Foxes who carne to trade with him had lead ore which they had dug from the ground in a region about sixty miles to the southward. Young Dubuque was interested in this. He saw a chance to win great riches, and made a bargain … Read more

Other Early Settlers

Shortly after Dubuque built his cabin, a friend by the name of Basil Gaillard, whom he had met at Prairie du Chien, came to be his neighbor. He obtained a tract* of 5,760 acres in what is now Clayton County, in and around the prosperous city of McGregor, and here he lived for many years among the wild scenes of this practically unknown country. He traded with the Indians and made frequent trips to St. Louis, much the same as did his friend Dubuque. No doubt the two men often exchanged visits, and had many interesting adventures together. But no … Read more

Iowa Pioneers

When the tide of immigration finally set in toward Iowa, the state was peopled as if by magic. The papers of 1854 were filled with long accounts of the vast crowds which filed in from the east and south. “The roads were thronged with teams, and the groves and woodlands and prairies were alive with figures, and white with tents and canvas-topped wagons. Ferries over the Mississippi were busy day and night conveying the pioneers from Illinois to Iowa. Oskaloosa reports that at least a thousand persons pass through every week, bound westward. Three hundred buildings go up in a … Read more

Iowa Counties named for Indian Chiefs

Many Iowa counties bear names which stand as monuments to Indian chiefs, both good and bad: Black Hawk County recalls the memory of the great warrior leader of the Sacs and Foxes. While he opposed the sale of lands to the whites, and was the chief spirit in the struggle known as the Black Hawk War, he was honest in his motives, and may be considered a good Indian. “He never drank liquor, and tried to prevent the whites from supplying it to other Indians. He had only one wife, and dearly loved his family. He was not cruel, and … Read more

Iowa As A State

Iowa became a state December 28, 1846. She was the twenty-ninth state to enter the Union, and the fourth state carved from the Louisiana Purchase. Ansel Briggs was the first governor. The capitol building was then located at Iowa City, but in obedience to the feeling that the seat of government should be nearer the center of the state, it was changed to Des Moines in 1857. Iowa came into the Union as a free state. But slavery was a burning issue for years before the Civil War. Many of the settlers came from the South. A few of these … Read more

Indian Troubles in Iowa

Perhaps you know something about the great tract of land which the United States bought from France, in 1803, at the cost of a little less than two and one-half cents per acre. It was called the Louisiana Purchase, and was larger in area than the whole of the United States had been before. If you will draw a heavy line down the Rocky Mountains, on any United States map, till you come to the northern boundary of Texas, follow it across to the Mississippi, thence up the river to the Canadian border and back across to the mountains, you … Read more

French Missionary

America had been discovered almost two hundred years before a white man set foot in Iowa. In June, 1673, Father Marquette, a French Missionary, and a Canadian trader by the name of Joliet, with five companions whose names are not now known, sailed down the “Great Father of Waters, ” as the Indians called the Mississippi. On the right bank of the stream, not far from the mouth of the Des Moines River, they saw many human footprints leading out to a well-beaten path, which led away across the prairie. Charmed with the beautiful region thereabout, Marquette and Joliet went … Read more