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A NEW HISTORY
OF IOWA
A NEW HISTORY
OF IOWA
JEFF BREMER
Published by the University Press of Kansas (Lawrence, Kansas 66045), which was
organized by the Kansas Board of Regents and is operated and funded by Emporia State
University, Fort Hays State University, Kansas State University, Pittsburg State University,
Classif ication: LCC F621 .B76 2023 (print) | LCC F621 (ebook) | DDC
977.7—dc23/eng/20221221
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
The paper used in the print publication is acid free and meets the minimum requirements of
the American National Standard for Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials
Z39.48–1992.
For Yana
beloved
wife
and
Greg
Olson
Scoutmast
er
Contents
Introduction
Acknowledgments
Notes
Bibliographic Essay
Index
Introduction
Iowa has always been known for farming, growing corn, soybeans, and
other crops on some of the richest soil in the world. The state is more
agricultural, less urban, and less diverse than the rest of the United States.
think of Iowa, they think about farms and small towns. It is still a rural
state. Thirty-six percent of residents live outside urban areas of twenty-f ive
“farm producers” and most residents live in towns and cities. In terms of
racial diversity, at the start of the twenty-f irst century almost 94 percent of
its population was white. As late as 2020 Iowa was the whitest state in the
Midwest—a huge region stretching from Michigan and Ohio to Kansas and
North Dakota—and one of the whitest states in the nation. At the same time,
Quakers, Jews, and Muslims living among Catholics and Protestants and
near communal groups like the Amish. Until the 1940s, Iowa’s economy
the largest sector, more than sixty years after this occurred in Illinois.
(Together, these two sectors accounted for 38 percent of the state’s gross
1
domestic product in 2018.)
The historian Jon Gjerde called Iowa “the most Midwestern state.” The
Midwest is the nation’s agricultural heartland, as well as the region with the
percent of the nation’s corn and soybeans and almost half of the wheat; it
also produced most of the hogs. Just as farming made the Midwest, so too it
made Iowa: in the 1970s, for example, 98 percent of the state was under
cultivation. The land helped make the region different from New England,
the South, or the West. Vast tracts of fertile soil provided opportunities for
the area. They created a mostly egalitarian society, though racial or religious
and churches, with some places like Iowa creating a f irst-class public
population and sits in the middle of a huge country. Such places can be
Frank I. Herriott asked, “Is Iowa’s History Worth While?” It didn’t have
had to study someplace else. But Herriott argued that all residents “declare
with vehemence that Iowa is a magnif icent State,” criticizing a writer from
the Atlantic who had described its “dullness and mediocrity.” More than a
century later, in 2010, the New York Times had only one reporter assigned
to cover all of Iowa, Missouri, Nebraska, Kansas, and the Dakotas, who
wrote about violent weather and other eccentric stories, providing local
3
color for distant, mostly urban audiences.
This book tells a new Iowa story, a vibrant, diverse one that refutes the
idea that the state is dull or mediocre or that anyone should question its
importance. Iowa was never a homogenous place. It has always been more
complex than typically perceived, its story an untidy and messy one, full of
economy has often tested the fortitude of farmers. Few women enjoyed
equal opportunities until the late twentieth century. This narrative chronicles
how people, both ordinary and well-known, have built the state. While this
Iowa:
The f irst comprehensive history of the state, Dorothy Schwieder’s
had been left out of previous histories, from African Americans to women.
great wealth or great poverty. It was a place of small towns and small-town
were not known for “showiness, glitz, or hype,” she noted. Her observations
remain generally true long into the twenty-f irst century. Iowa has one of the
highest high school graduation rates in the country and one of the lowest for
dropouts. Economic mobility was also higher in Iowa in the late twentieth
and early twenty-f irst centuries than most states. It has one of the highest
rates of marriage and one of the lowest of divorce. The state has one of the
comparison to other states. At the same time, there are stark disparities in
The high school dropout rate for African Americans is higher than white
students and many more Black families live in poverty than white families,
Midwest, was more egalitarian than the rest of the country. Economic
pluralism fostered the creation of a dense civic society. A high literacy rate
values and customs. While sometimes intolerant, this was more often a
culture helps def ine Iowa, even if this old order has been eroded in the past
celebrate their schools and basketball teams, even as the modern world
such as the Sauk leader Black Hawk, suffragist Carrie Chapman Catt, and
adds new voices, such as those of runaway enslaved men who joined Iowa’s
Sixtieth Colored Regiment in the Civil War, young female pearl button
factory workers, Mexican railroad workers who migrated to the state in the
and the struggles for equal justice by minority groups. It emphasizes the
story of Iowa’s women, from farm wives and suffragists to World War II
army off icers. It does not glorify the state, as that would distort reality and
ignore those who have been left out of Iowa’s story. Intolerance and
injustice, as well as courage and humanity, are part of this history. There is
much to celebrate in the history of Iowa, but our failures are as important to
6
understand as our successes.
the optimistic post–Cold War 1990s. This book addresses these topics while
adds new ones to the state’s story. For example, Schwieder admitted that
“little scholarly work has been done on topics in Iowa history since the
1930s” and that her chapters on the period after the Great Depression were
less developed than the others. A New History of Iowa f ills in such gaps and
provides an updated story for Iowa’s changing population. In 2021 the state
nonwhite. Indeed, by the early 2020s, more than 130 languages were spoken
in Iowa’s public schools and more than one-quarter of Iowa K-12 students
7
were nonwhite.
This story is divided into three parts, each consisting of f ive chapters.
The f irst section reviews Iowa history from initial settlement, about thirteen
thousand years ago, until the Civil War. Part two covers the state’s history
from the Civil War to the 1920s, with topical chapters on subjects such as
urban life and industry, as well as religion and education. The last section of
the book summarizes Iowa’s history from the Great Depression until the end
of 2020. Each chapter can be read independently, but readers will be best
comprehensive history. Many topics are not covered in detail. Most chapters
could easily be turned into a book and some paragraphs are summaries of
entire books. See the footnotes and the bibliographic essay for further
information.
Our history is always with us, though its story may be indistinct and its
historian Jill Lepore. To understand it is to honor the living and the dead;
8
learning from it venerates future generations.
Native people lived in Iowa for thousands of years before Europeans f irst
set foot in the territory. The state is named for the Ioway tribe, who had
lived in the area since the 1600s. Later, the French forced the Sauk and
party, with Louis Jolliet and Jacques Marquette, entered southeast Iowa.
They were the f irst Europeans known to have reached the state. More than
one hundred years later, Julien Dubuque began mining lead near the town
that would be named for him. In 1803, the United States bought the
Louisiana Territory from France; the next year the American government
forced the Sauk and Meskwaki to cede lands east of the Mississippi River.
The Lewis and Clark expedition traveled along Iowa’s western border in
1804. Fort Madison was the f irst American military structure in Iowa and
Illinois to the Mississippi River and the United States government decided
f inally to remove the Sauk and Meskwaki. Black Hawk, a Sauk leader,
fought a short and bloody war that led to his defeat and the end of almost all
before the Black Hawk War. Giant ice sheets developed as the climate grew
colder and wetter 2.5 million years ago. More snow accumulated on land
than melted each year, creating vast f ields of ice. Enormous glaciers
During the last glacial maximum, about 21,000 to 16,500 years ago, Iowa’s
climate was arctic, like Alaska’s today. The last of these great glacial
advances—a great tongue of ice stretching across the center of Iowa from
about twelve thousand years ago. “Each advance of massive ice sheets
scraped the land’s surface, levelling hills and f illing valleys,” wrote
ecologist Cornelia F. Mutel. Iowa benef ited from glaciation, which blessed
it with immense amounts of soil and gravel that were pushed south. Water
and wind spread pulverized rock across the state, becoming the basis for
1
Iowa’s fertile soils.
Iowa’s prairies, forests, and wetlands have developed since the last
glaciers. The state’s north-central region, which was most recently covered
by ice, is generally flat, with poor drainage. Before European and American
the total state, almost nine million acres. Here there were meadows,
marshes, and forested floodplains, with many lakes. It was a haven for
waterfowl. The southern half of Iowa, last impacted by glaciers f ive hundred
thousand years ago, has had time for erosion to create drainage networks.
This region has hills and valleys. The northwest and northeast sections of
the state, which escaped the most recent glaciation, have a gently rolling
landscape. Iowa’s northeast corner and the Loess Hills in western Iowa have
Iowa has rock outcroppings and deeply incised streams. The Loess Hills are
made up of powdery soil left over by glaciers and deposited by wind. By the
most common in the eastern third and the south-central part of the state,
especially along waterways. Northwest Iowa was the driest part of the state,
receiving about twenty-f ive inches of rain a year, while eastern Iowa
Iowa overall was drier than the eastern half, its waters draining toward the
Missouri River. Most precipitation fell in the spring and summer. Rainfall in
these seasons was often the result of warmer air from the tropics colliding
with air masses moving east from the Pacif ic and south from the Arctic.
2
Thunderstorms were often the result.
The prairies that make up most of Iowa are part of a vast grassland that
extends from southern Texas to Canada. Historically, the most fertile soils in
in Russia, Ukraine, and Argentina are now the most important grain-
producing areas on the planet. Prairies in Canada and the United States had
grasses spread out across the plains,” wrote naturalist Candace Savage, once
the last glaciers retreated and the climate became warmer and drier. Grasses
conserve water and are adapted to the more arid regions in the center of
North America. Most of their mass is below ground, with deep roots to suck
up water. They cope with drought well. Over the years, the decomposition
of prairie grasses and roots enriched the topsoil, leaving dark and nutrient
rich material that is some of the most productive agricultural land in the
world. Even the soil in forest areas was excellent, improved by leaf litter,
moss, and other plant debris. Iowa and Illinois lead the country in the
amount of prime farmland, both places “blessed with such fertile soils and
Iowa is part of the tall-grass-prairie region, known for the Indian grass and
big bluestem that once dominated the state. Big bluestem was the most
abundant tall grass and could grow ten to twelve feet high, so tall that a
3
human could get lost in it.
with the largest numbers in the northwest. A herd of f ive thousand was
reported in 1820. The territory had large numbers of elk, deer, bear, otter,
and wolves. Vast flocks of passenger pigeons sometimes visited the state,
which lay at the western edge of their range. One huge flock of an estimated
six hundred million birds passed Dubuque about 1870. “Rich soil, abundant
water, and a favorable climate produced extensive tall grass prairies, rich
wetlands, and lush forests that once covered Iowa—habitats which in turn
supported a surprising variety of plants and animals,” wrote ecologist James
wetlands to black bears that preferred the forests of the eastern part of the
4
state.
Over the past two hundred years, Iowa’s landscape has been transformed,
as agriculture replaced the vast prairies, wetlands were drained for farming,
and forests were chopped down. By the end of the nineteenth century,
species in the state. These included buffalo, elk, wild turkey, white-tailed
deer, beaver, wolves, passenger pigeons, and black bears. Some of these
species have been reintroduced to the state, such as bison, turkey, and the
white-tailed deer. Beaver came back into Iowa from the northwest. Still, it is
very unlikely that bear and wolves will permanently reside in the state
again, due to the lack of any large habitats for them. A small herd of bison
and elk live at the Neal Smith National Wildlife Refuge, but they will
probably never again roam freely in the state. On the other hand, while
predicted that white-tailed deer, wild turkey, and the Canada goose
5
recovered so well that they are now sometimes considered to be a nuisance.
When the f irst people reached Iowa about thirteen thousand years ago,
they found a cold world that was recovering from an ice age. These
thousand humans lived in Iowa about the time of f irst settlement. As the
and vegetation were like that which would be found later in the nineteenth
slopes, and uplands,” wrote Lynn M. Alex. Groups of people hunted large
and small mammals, including bison. They also ate waterfowl, caught f ish,
consumed freshwater mollusks, and gathered wild plants and nuts. Over
where there were reliable and abundant resources. They also began to grow
6
their own food.
A new cultural tradition arose in the eastern United States after about
1000 bce , identif ied as the Woodland Tradition. The name refers to the
and plains. They were best known for burial mounds found in Iowa and
other states. Individuals were often interred with offerings such as shell
beads, carved stone pipes, tools, or food in ceramic pots. Burial mounds, as
well as pottery, link Woodland communities from Iowa with those elsewhere
among settlements in eastern North America. Trade reached from the Rocky
Mountains to the Gulf of Mexico and the Great Lakes. Mounds in Iowa
sometimes contained obsidian from the Rocky Mountains or shells from the
Atlantic and Gulf coasts. The famous eff igy mounds in northeast Iowa were
7
a custom of people who lived between 400 and 1200 ce.
native to Mexico and Central America, where it had been cultivated for
more than f ive thousand years. Over thousands of years Native farmers
developed new strains. They selected seeds from plants that performed best
farther north, developing new strains that tolerated shorter growing seasons
types. In the eastern woodlands of the United States this botanical work
would have been completed by women. The Northern Flint was one of these
types of corn. This variety, along with the Southern Dent, are the foundation
for modern varieties of hybrid corn. “Euro-American farmers did not make
Calloway. Squash was one of the f irst domesticated plants in Mexico and
South America, its cultivation moving north along with corn. Though not as
grown crop, had lots of protein. They also returned nitrogen to the soil,
which corn depleted. Together these three staples, often called the “three
sisters” of Native American agriculture, provided a healthy diet and did not
8
exhaust the soil.
food. They utilized more tools, such as rakes and hoes for gardening and
knives and scrapers made of stone that were used to process animal meat.
large burial mounds. A later cultural tradition in Iowa, the Oneota, was
named after a geological formation along the Upper Iowa River. A distinct
culture, it existed from about 900 ce to 1500 ce and was found in nearby
North America. Even before white settlement forced them west, European
settlements or in more densely settled areas were most at risk. Warfare with
the English or French also hurt many tribes. Some battled each other for
hunting territory so they could take part in the lucrative fur trade. This
blankets or pots. But Indian peoples then became more reliant on trade than
neighbors. Tribes in the Northeast moved toward the Great Lakes, pushed
colonization and expansion forced the Sauk and Meskwaki into Iowa.
10
Meanwhile, disease, especially smallpox, weakened the Ioway.
The f irst recorded contact between Europeans and Native people in Iowa
occurred on June 25, 1673. A French exploration party, led by Louis Joliet
Miami and Kickapoo village on the way to the headwaters of the Wisconsin
River, which took them to the Mississippi River. They then descended the
Mississippi, looking on the forested bluffs of Iowa on June 17. They saw
deer, elk, and herds of buffalo as they floated south, but no humans. On
language. The Illinois fed them a meal of corn meal, f ish, and buffalo. The
Frenchmen went hunting and f ishing with their hosts. Six hundred tribal
members escorted them back to their canoes. The French returned home
11
after descending the Mississippi almost to the Arkansas River.
Other Europeans visited Iowa and the Upper Mississippi River in the late
claimed the entire Mississippi River Valley for France and named it
fur trader, built two forts in the mid-1680s, one at the mouth of the
found Native lead mines along the Mississippi and explored northeast Iowa,
f inding prairies and plenty of buffalo and other animals. Perrot also visited
Ioway villages in 1685, probably along the Upper Iowa River. The Ioway
Green Bay, Wisconsin. They carried buffalo hides, possibly for trade. A
12
French priest preached to them.
The Ioway are the tribe that gave the state its name. The Algonquian-
speaking Illinois, Sauk, and Meskwaki called the Ioway “Ayuxba,” which is
became the word we know today, Ioway. They are descendants of the Oneota
people, as were many others who lived near the Missouri and Mississippi
Rivers. From the late 1600s until the mid-1700s they lived along the
Missouri River, before moving to southeast Iowa. They were one of the
reported that they were as influential as the Sioux in the early eighteenth
century. The word Sioux was a French corruption of an Ojibwe word that
meant snake or enemy. The Sioux did not choose the name, but they became
widely known by it. The Dakota is a general term for the eastern Sioux in
Minnesota; for their part, the western Sioux that moved onto the Great
Plains included the Lakota. Both divisions of the Sioux would be a constant
13
threat to the Ioway. They were also one of many tribes that visited Iowa.
The Ioway built their villages in wooded valleys near rivers. Waterways
provided transportation and trade, while the valleys had fertile soil and good
hunting. They lived in different types of lodges, with the largest thirty to
forty feet long, twenty feet wide, and fourteen feet high. These were made
of walnut or elm bark laid on a wooden frame. Other lodges had round roofs
and were covered with mats made of cattail plants. The Ioway stored corn,
squash, beans, and dried meat in pits. Women cooked meat and vegetables
in clay pots and families ate from wooden bowls with spoons carved from
wood or bison horns. They began to use metal bowls and pots, as well as
14
metal tools and cloth, after contact with Europeans.
Ioway life, especially farming and hunting, revolved around the rhythms
of the seasons. Fields were close to villages. Women and older children
planted corn, beans, squash, and pumpkins. Each family might tend to three
to f ive acres, as it took about an acre of vegetables to supply one person for
a year. Fields were cleared in late winter and early spring using f ire and
tools made from buffalo jaws. They planted corn, beans, and squash
together. Women and children harvested gardens after the summer buffalo
hunt. A second buffalo hunt took place in the fall and winter. French
explorer Nicolas Perrot wrote that the Ioway were skilled buffalo hunters
even while pursuing the large animals on foot. It would not be until about
1720 that they acquired horses, having been introduced to them by Plains
tribes. Tribal members shared buffalo meat and used buffalo bones, horns,
and hides to make clothing, tools, and shelter. During hunts they used
15
buffalo-hide tipis.
Disease and the threat of attack forced the tribe to migrate east, away
from the Missouri River. In 1764 they lived near where the city of Omaha,
struck them, cutting their population in half. Decades later, an Iowa leader
remembered that the powerful tribe had been “reduced to nothing, a mere
handful of that Nation that was once masters of the land.” They left the
Sioux, who had acquired European weapons and were pushing other tribes
out of the area. The Ioway migrated southeast. They were “relatively small,
Green. The tribe built a village on the Lower Des Moines River, called
Iowaville, where they lived from about 1765 to 1820. This location placed
them between Spanish-controlled Louisiana and Canada, which England
had taken from France. This maximized their access to trade and autonomy
from European influence. Iowaville was also away from the more numerous
Sauk and Meskwaki who lived on the Mississippi River. The Ioway were
“exchanged, used, repaired, recycled and modif ied objects following their
16
own cultural lights.”
They took part in the fur trade with the British and the French in the late
1700s and early 1800s. American influence west of the Mississippi was
limited until after the War of 1812, but the English government saw the fur
trade as a buffer against American expansion. The English set up at least six
trading posts along the Lower Des Moines River in the late eighteenth
century, shipping deer, beaver, otter, and bear skins to Canada. In exchange
they provided high-quality goods and weapons to tribes, far superior to the
anything the Native Americans might receive from the Americans. French
traders from St. Louis also visited the tribe, sometimes marrying Ioway
women. Kin ties improved chances at success in the fur trade. The Ioway
took advantage of the rivalry between Spain and England, stealing horses
from the Spanish and flaunting ties with the British. Archaeological surveys
showed that the village had brass and iron tools, stone pipes, gun parts,
Euro-American ceramics, glass beads, and copper. The Ioway repaired their
own weapons and manufactured lead shot on site but continued to use the
17
bow and arrow to hunt squirrels and smaller game.
The Ioway farmed, gathered wild plants, and hunted to feed themselves.
Iowaville stood near the Des Moines River, with plenty of fertile land. The
village was located west of the Mississippi, about a day or two of travel
away from the river. They continued to cultivate corn, beans, and squash,
but archaeological surveys also showed that they grew tobacco. Women and
Finally, although the village was occupied from spring to fall for
18
agricultural purposes, many inhabitants left for hunting during the winter.
The tribe faced many diff iculties in the early 1800s. Hunting became
hunting territories led to conflict with the Sauk and Meskwaki. In 1807, the
tribes began to raid each other. The Ioway also had to travel farther west to
search for buffalo, which put them into conflict with the Osage, Omaha, and
other tribes. The Omaha launched an attack in the summer of 1814; the
second smallpox epidemic in the early nineteenth century killed from one-
afterward. The Sioux were a constant threat to their north. A lack of hunting
19
territory reduced food and fur supplies.
escape the instability of Iowa. The lack of game became so bad that Ioway
leader White Cloud, also known as Mahaska, complained that the Sauk and
Meskwaki “eat everything.” Mahaska led the Ioway in the early 1800s,
who wanted all Indians removed. They relocated again to the northwestern
adequately feed themselves. In 1830 they gave up more land. Six years later,
the Ioway left for Nebraska. They “were prisoners on a small reservation,
corrupt Indian agents,” wrote historian Lance Foster. In less than two
decades they had been uprooted at least three times. A petition to President
Moines River and to the “bones of their fathers,” was ignored. The Ioway
nation was forced across the Missouri River into Nebraska even as the
20
United States was planning to create a new state named after them.
While the Ioway unwillingly gave their name to the state, the Sauk and
Meskwaki, sometimes called the Sac and Fox, are usually better known
today in the historical narrative of Iowa. The two tribes became allies in
1730s and moved west toward Iowa. The Meskwaki had fled the Great
Lakes region after the French and their Native allies tried to destroy them in
a campaign that historian Colin G. Calloway called genocide. The tribe had
opposed the French and their powerful Indian allies and demanded the
women, and children survived. They found refuge with the Sauk, who were
closely related through kinship, around Green Bay, Wisconsin. The French
demanded the surrender of the surviving Meskwaki, but the Sauk refused.
The two tribes settled together along the Mississippi River. In the following
people.” Their origin story recounts that the f irst humans were made of red
earth or clay. But the tribe is often called the Fox. This occurred because a
Meskwaki gave the name of their clan, which was then applied to the whole
tribe. For their part, the Sauk were known by their allies as the Osakiwuk,
meaning “People of the Outlet,” as they had lived at the mouth of a river
when the Meskwaki met them. The two tribes lived in eastern Iowa and
western Illinois for almost one hundred years. In 1804 they controlled an
area from the middle of Illinois to western Iowa and from southern
22
Wisconsin to northern Missouri.
and European peoples in the 1700s and early 1800s. The “region became
not a static world. Everyone competed for territory. The French and English
fought each other in North America and Europe for many decades. Then the
Americans battled the English. The Illinois fought the Meskwaki, Sauk, and
Sioux for three years in the early 1750s before a peace treaty ended the
violence. In the late eighteenth century, the Ioway, Sauk, and Meskwaki
drove Osage, Missouri, and Kansas hunters from Iowa. The Sioux in eastern
Minnesota were still sparring with the Meskwaki in 1820, with one of their
The Sauk settled where the Rock and Mississippi Rivers met in western
Illinois by the 1760s. It was called Saukenuk. A majority of the tribe lived
there. Other villages were located farther south on the Mississippi River.
Hagan. The rivers abounded with f ish and wide meadows provided good
forage for horses. Catf ish that weighed more than one hundred pounds
could be caught in the Mississippi River. Hundreds of acres of corn and
vegetables grew on the fertile land; springs of fresh water gushed from
berries, from plums and raspberries to crab apples. In the winter the Sauk
left for buffalo hunts, returning in the spring to their lodges. Women worked
in the f ields, while the men met with traders to sell the year’s fur and
deerskin harvest, as well as tallow, maple sugar, and beeswax. They gained
warrior Black Hawk, who was born at Saukenuk in 1767, remembered, “We
always had plenty—our children never cried with hunger, nor our people
were never in want.” Europeans and Americans who saw the area spoke of
24
its beauty and the riches of the landscape.
The Sauk flourished at Saukenuk and probably had more than one
hundred lodges by 1817. That year the American Indian agent at Rock
Island, Thomas Forsyth, wrote, “I have seen many Indian Villages, but I
never saw such a large one or such a populous one.” Each lodge was 50 or
60 feet long and as many as f ifty to sixty people could live in one.
Saukenuk had a large public square with a council house for ceremonies
and community gatherings. Forsyth estimated that the Sauk had more than
in 1824. Polygamy was common in both tribes, with Sauk men sometimes
marrying women from the same family. They adopted war captives and
married members of other tribes, too. The Sauk were a major military
It was an idyllic time, where the tribe was large and powerful. But they lived
in a desirable place, with rival tribes such as the Sioux to their west and
The Meskwaki also lived along the Mississippi River. Some lived near
the Dubuque lead mines, while others lived near Saukenuk. These villages
were usually located in Iowa on the western side of the Mississippi. The
Meskwaki were not as numerous as the Sauk, with about sixteen hundred
villages surrounded by corn f ields and gardens. Here they stayed from April
to October, interrupted by a brief summer hunt. After the corn harvest, they
“dispersed in small family groups for the long winter hunt,” wrote Michael
D. Green. Deer hunting halted once winter became severe. Families lived in
wikiups made of small poles bent into a dome and covered with cattail
mats. They usually lived near the headwaters of the Iowa and Des Moines
Rivers, hunting bears, and trapping beaver, raccoon, and muskrat. Hunting
parties traveled as far west as the Arkansas River. The Meskwaki returned to
their villages in the spring, leading seasonal lives very much like their
26
allies.
Julien Dubuque convinced the Meskwaki to let him mine for lead near
the town that would be named for him. Dubuque was born in 1762 in
him the sole privilege to mine the area f ive years later; they also used him
for help in marketing the mineral. Dubuque received a huge land grant from
Spain, to whom the French had given Louisiana. The Spanish granted him a
tract of land twenty-one miles long and nine miles wide. He called the area
Dubuque married a local woman, likely Meskwaki, and was adopted into
the tribe. He brought French laborers to run the mines, built a trading house,
a sawmill, a smelting furnace, and grew corn. Native women labored in the
27
mines.
But his unusual position as an early Iowa business tycoon did not last.
Dubuque was wealthy and influential, and the merchants in St. Louis loved
mines along the Upper Mississippi River he did not prosper. When
Dubuque died in 1810 at the age of forty-f ive, he was bankrupt. He had
been ill for years, possibly from lead poisoning, syphilis, or tuberculosis.
the Great Lakes region, visited a Meskwaki village near Dubuque. There
were large f ields of corn and dozens of buildings, with a large council
house. Schoolcraft reported that miners used hoes, shovels, and pickaxes to
dig into hillsides. Miners, mostly women, dug horizontal shafts forty feet
long. They then carried ore in baskets to the riverbanks. Traders on an island
in the middle of the Mississippi River purchased and smelted the ore. The
29
Meskwaki received credit to buy goods in return.
thousands of pounds of the ore each year. Increased lead production meant
more money for weapons, tools, clothing, and other goods. It also
diversif ied Indian economies and made them less vulnerable to traders and
market prices. Native and mixed-race women linked European men like
about native culture and economics, and facilitated their participation in the
Several other tribes lived in Iowa or hunted in the area. These included
the Ho-chunk, who were forced to leave their ancestral home in Wisconsin
and relocate to northern Iowa in the early 1840s. They lived in an area
called the Neutral Ground, a strip of land formerly controlled by the Sioux,
Sauk, and Meskwaki. About two thousand lived in northeast Iowa until
groups after the US government resettled them in South Dakota. One part of
the tribe returned to Wisconsin and the others moved to Nebraska. The
Omaha, Ponca, Pawnee, and Otoe also hunted in western Iowa, sometimes
Iowa, after removal from Michigan and before being forced into Kansas in
31
the 1840s.
Minnesota around 1700. Some groups expanded west, pursuing beaver for
the fur trade and bison for subsistence. The Lakota and Yankton pushed onto
the Plains, while the Dakota remained behind. The Dakota homeland
corn, hunting bison, deer, and elk, f ishing, and gathering berries. They were
the last tribe to relinquish their Iowa lands in 1851. The Sioux displaced the
Omaha, Ioway, Missouri, and other tribes on the plains once they acquired
guns and horses. Smallpox epidemics along the Missouri River also reduced
hunted in northwest Iowa. Though they did not occupy the state, they were a
powerful force that weakened the Ioway and threatened the Sauk and
32
Meskwaki for many decades.
In the f irst years of the nineteenth century, the United States asserted its
Mississippi River in 1805. Most signif icantly, the United States government
negotiated a treaty that required Native tribes to give up land east of the
33
Mississippi River. This laid the foundation for the Black Hawk War.
millions of acres of land in 1804. Sauk hunters killed four Americans who
had trespassed on their hunting grounds and the American army, led by
governor invited Sauk chiefs to St. Louis, who thought they were
demanded the tribes cede millions of acres. He chose old and pliable chiefs
to negotiate with, supplying them with alcohol and gifts to encourage their
assent. The Indian leaders were not authorized to sell any land. But Harrison
The Sauk and Meskwaki gave up their claims east of the Mississippi River,
Saukenuk and other towns in western Illinois until the land was sold to
American settlers. The two tribes earned about $60,000 a year from the fur
trade. It was extremely unlikely they would have willingly sold so much
land for the pittance offered by the United States. “All of our country, east
of the Mississippi,” Black Hawk recalled, “was ceded to the United States
for one thousand dollars a year!” He argued that the treaty, signed by four
34
drunk men, “has been the origin of all of our diff iculties.”
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OUR SERMON.
In adopting this heading for a series of articles, which will be
continued as occasion offers, we are very far from intending to
startle our readers with a rush of theological disquisition. In proof of
our sincerity, and as an earnest of the gist of our discourses, we
have chosen as a standing text, or motto, the golden rule of “peace
and goodwill to all men;” but while we leave intact the functions of
the divine, it is our business, as we conceive it to be our duty, to
sermonize on the morals of trade, the social relations of every-day
life, and even the proprieties which enhance every species of
domestic enjoyment.
A right understanding of the relative duties of master and man, or
of employer and the employed, yields to no subject in importance;
peculiar incidents, induced by a rapidly increasing population, the
tendency of commercial wealth to accumulate in masses, and its
employment under the familiar term “capital,” through the agency of
individuals, in the construction of great works, constitutes, however,
an era in the Building trade to which former periods bear no very
strict analogy. In offering our humble opinions upon actuating causes
and their effects, be the subject what it may, we will never lose sight
of our text; we shall make use neither of angry words nor
denunciations; peace is too lovely to our minds, and charity too
imperative to be abandoned; we would dispel the darker and sterner
passions, giving every brother full credit for good intentions, and
assign occasional deviations from the path of right rather to
misfortune than intention. Whatever the class of men addressed or
dealt with, this, we are convinced, is the best and only true policy. It
may be very well for any one to talk of their anger being aroused, or
their indignation excited, and so on, and under such pleas to vent
abuse, imprecate a thousand vengeances, and the like, but, depend
upon it, fear is less to be relied on than love; we would win a child to
our love, not deter it by frowns and coercion;—we would have a
thousand friends rather than a single enemy.
Who has not heard of the tale of the traveller, upon whom the sun
and wind essayed their power? These elements, as the fable puts it,
were at issue as to which was superior, and agreed to rest the
decision upon the effect they should produce upon the first wayfarer.
Well, first the wind fell to work, and blew with all his might, to compel
the subject of their experiment to throw off his cloak, but the more
vehemently the man was assailed, the closer he wrapped the
garment about him; in turn the sun made trial of his power, and
genial warmth soon accomplished what the bluster of the ruder
element had made more and more difficult. So in human policy the
kindly glow excited by generous sentiments and actions will succeed
where threats, force, and even punishments have failed. The human
heart has no such obduracies but that charity will overcome them.
It is a part of our present purpose to refer to practical benevolence
of this nature, and it will be found in an extract from the Leeds
Mercury, given in another part of our paper, on the subject of the
treatment of workpeople, by Sir John Guest, at Merthyr Tydvil, and
the Messrs. Marshall, of Leeds. These, thank God, and for the
honour of our country, are not solitary instances. These gentlemen
stand not alone in the practice of that soundest principle of Christian
political economy which instructs the rich to dispense of their
abundance for the benefit of their poorer brethren. We have Master
Builders in every department, proprietors of large works and
establishments, whose names we could hold up to the admiration of
their craft and country, but we will not do this violence to their
unobtrusive merit, neither will we invite invidious comparisons by
such selections; we would rather hold up these Christian duties for
common emulation, and call upon all to “go and do likewise.”
We open, then, our exhortations to Masters, because we know
that the first impulse of benignant power must originate with them;
kindness from them may be likened to the sun in its influence, and
most surely will it be returned with usurious interest “into their basket
and their store.”
Who ever saw the good father of a family putting firm faith in virtue
and honour, and regulating his household by their dictates, failing to
raise up virtuous, amiable, and honourable citizens? or, to put the
case stronger, who ever knew the man that acted upon opposite
principles succeed in sowing any thing but vice and discord? Depend
upon it, then, the same principles and rules apply in business, from
the overseer of the smallest undertaking to the governor of a nation.
Fatherly solicitude for those under our care, or for whom we bear
any responsibility, is as solemn and sacred a duty as the fulfilment of
contracts or engagements; nay, it is the first of duties between man
and man.
On the other hand, as to the workman,—fidelity—and more, the
same generous kindness towards his master is required, as that he
would receive; in fact, “to do unto others us you would be done by,”
is the great and universal secret of social happiness.
It is with this view of relative duties that we deem it of as much
importance to engage ourselves in giving good counsel to our craft,
as in enlightening them on principles of science pertaining to their
several callings; for of what avail will it be to a man to possess all the
knowledge of his art, if his heart be corrupt, or continue under vicious
influences? Away with, as dross, all the ability of the engineer,
architect, master builder, or workman, if the man be not endowed
with moral excellence. What are beautiful designs, imposing
structures, mechanical skill, or ingenious artifice in workmanship,
without a mind and heart in harmony with the superior inspirations
which virtue alone bestows? This, this indeed must come first as the
base of the pyramid. In any other case the pyramid may be there,
but it topples, leans, or lies on its side; the same inherent beauty
may exist, but its position and action are superadded elements of
deformity. Oh, how beautiful the human mind when lit up and guided
by the impulses of virtue! how terrible and loathsome when passion
and gaunt sensuality have their sway!
Guard, my beloved countrymen, against avarice, envy, malice;
avoid contentions; be moderate in the desire of gain; repine not at
another’s success in life, or the distinctions he may attain to; cast all
rancorous suggestions far from your heart; contend not in any unholy
spirit of craving competition; “live, and let live,” is a maxim which we
conjure you at all times to observe.
In times of commercial depression, aggravate not your own or
another’s suffering; these, like seasons of sickness and malady,
must and will have their recurrences, and they will recur more
frequently, and press more grievously, where brotherly love and
charity, the great preventative and remedy of human ills, are
neglected. Let none imagine it his privilege to be exempt from these
obligations; let us not, because we see a neighbour unmindful of his
duties in any of the multifarious walks of life, think ourselves justified
in departing from our superior policy; neither must we judge and
condemn; inflict, if you will, pains and penalties on yourself, but you
have no right to do so on another.
Pardon us, good brothers of our building fraternity, and you who
do us the favour to lend an ear to our counsellings, if we thus seek to
engage your attention, and offer our well-meant importunings.
Should your approving suffrages incite a continuance of our
vocation, it will be our ambition to discuss the relative duties of the
stations you respectively fill—master, apprentice, or workman; father,
brother, son, or husband; neighbour or friend; and to do as we have
now done, namely, try to improve each and all, and in doing so,
promote, in some degree, the cause of human happiness.
TREATMENT OF WORK-PEOPLE BY
THEIR EMPLOYERS.
In an article under this head it was mentioned that the
parliamentary inquiry into the payment of wages in goods had
shewn, that there are persons extensively engaged in manufactures
of various kinds, who feel that the employment of bodies of
workpeople involves a degree of responsibility to care for their
general well-being, and who act on that conviction in a manner
highly creditable to themselves, and conducive to the excellent
object they have in view. These employers are of opinion that to
regard as a machine a man whose skill or industry assists them to
maintain their own families in respectability, is altogether unchristian,
and that by viewing workpeople in such a light, they would deprive
themselves of some of the finest opportunities of usefulness, and of
cementing the bonds of society.
Of course, as the intention in moving for a committee of the House
of Commons was to expose grievances, it was not likely that any
examples of conduct distinguished for its humanity would be found in
the pages of the report. As we remarked, however, when formerly
writing on the subject, illustrations of this kind might be obtained by
any one from our own neighbourhood. We had only last week the
pleasure of visiting an extensive range of school buildings just
erected on the best principles, in connection with Messrs. Marshall’s
mill at Holbeck. In that suite of rooms there are between 300 and
400 children under daily instruction, independent of about 160 boys,
who work half-time at the factory, and are at school either in the
morning or afternoon of every day; the same gentlemen have also
instituted girls’ and infant schools (which are situated elsewhere),
and a night school, attended by young men and women from the
mill, whose improvement in conduct as well as attainments, in
consequence of this arrangement, is spoken of as highly gratifying.
In the several schools every thing seems to be done to promote the
comfort of the young, and to cultivate habits of cleanliness and
decorum, as well as to impart an excellent plain education.[2] Plans
for affording the means of recreation to the adult workpeople have
also been devised in connection with these buildings; and all
manifests that a sincere interest is felt by the members of the firm in
the welfare of every class in their employ.
The principal example of attention to the interests of workpeople
which came under the notice of the parliamentary committee, was
that of Sir John Guest and Co., at their iron and coal works, Dowlais.
These works, which were established from thirty to forty years since,
“in an isolated place on the top of a hill,” in Glamorganshire, have
now a town around them (Merthyr Tydvil), and nearly 5,000 persons
are employed by this firm alone. In the first instance, great difficulty
was experienced by the workpeople in procuring the means of
lodging, but in the course of time this was removed by the erection of
a large number of cottages at the expense of the company, and by
the people being encouraged to build dwellings for themselves. The
cottages belonging to the firm are stated to be low-rented,
convenient, well built, well drained, and the taking of them is quite
optional with the workpeople; while the granting of loans to steady
men to build cottages for themselves has been pursued to a
considerable extent, and has been found to attach them to the place,
to keep them from the ale-house, and to produce and confirm in
them a feeling of independence.
The amount of each individual’s wages at this extensive
establishment is settled every Friday evening, and the whole of the
hands are paid on the morning of Saturday; shewing that a large
number of workpeople is no barrier to the early payment of wages if
employers are determined to adopt that highly beneficial practice.
Nearly twenty-four years ago, Sir John Guest and his partners
recognised the responsibility which attached to them as employers
by erecting large schools, near the works at Dowlais, chiefly for the
education of the children of their workmen, but (like Messrs.
Marshall) not confined to them. There are at present about 220 girls
and 250 boys under instruction, the children being admitted at the
age of six, and usually remaining until thirteen years old. The
teachers are well paid, and the whole expenses of the schools are
defrayed by the workpeople and employers together, in the following
manner:—Twopence in the pound is stopped every week “for the
doctor” from the wages of every one in the works, of which 1½d. is
appropriated to provide medical attendance for the families of the
workmen, and the remainder goes towards the support of the
schools. Each child is also expected to pay one penny a week, and
whatever is wanting to make up the amount incurred in maintaining
the educational establishments is contributed by the company. In
connection with the schools, it is worthy of notice that Mr. Evans, the
manager at Dowlais (from whose evidence our facts are drawn),
expressed before the committee a strong conviction, as the result
both of his own observation for above twenty years, and of the
statements of colliers themselves, that for a collier to put his child to
work in the pits very young is decidedly bad economy; instead of
gaining, the family loses by it in the long run, while the unfortunate
victim of error or cupidity becomes decrepit and unfit for work when
individuals of the same age are in possession of mature strength.
Very few of the children taught in the schools at Dowlais become
colliers, the greater number being qualified for employment as
carpenters, smiths, and, in some instances, even book-keepers. “We
derive very great advantage,” says Mr. Evans, “from having children
in the works who have been educated there; they are of great use to
us.” Here, then, is a proof to masters who have not yet exerted
themselves for the elevation of the families dependent on them, but
are disposed to do so, that such a course is not only beneficial to
others, but brings a reward to every one who adopts it. The medical
attendants on the workpeople at Dowlais consist of three regular
surgeons and a dispenser, whose services are remunerated chiefly
by the money stopped from the wages. In 1827 a fund for the relief
of the sick and aged was formed, one penny in the pound being
stopped every week to furnish the necessary supply for the wants of
those who are thus unable to provide for themselves; this fund is at
the disposal of a committee, elected yearly by all the contributors.
From the peculiar circumstances of the district, when the works of
Sir John Guest and Co. were established, and for many years after,
it was desirable and even needful that the firm should afford their
workpeople the means of obtaining the necessaries of life by
maintaining a shop on the premises. In 1823, however, they closed
it, but once again opened it at the request of the men in 1828. On the
act against truck shops being passed in 1831, the workmen were
called together and desired to state whether they wished the store
belonging to the firm still to be continued. The votes were taken by
ballot, and thirteen only were given for the discontinuance; but as
there was not perfect unanimity, the company thought it best that the
shop should be finally closed at that time; and the increase of
population having had the usual effect of attracting private
individuals to supply the wants of the community, the only result of
this step was to shut up an establishment where the labouring
classes were always sure of buying good articles at a moderate
price. The accommodation being no longer necessary, we think the
company’s decision was a wise one.
It is gratifying to find that no loss whatever has been entailed on
Sir John Guest and Co. by all the beneficial regulations adopted by
them on behalf of their workpeople. On the contrary, “by the
education of the people,” Mr. Evans states, “we have gained more
than we have spent upon them.” And this gentleman expressed
himself as feeling certain that if a similar system were extended over
the manufacturing and mining districts of the whole country, it would
prove the cheapest and most effectual mode of benefiting both the
working classes and employers, and consequently society at large.
Of course, the details of the system at Dowlais, or at any other
establishment of which an account is before the public, are not
essential to its being adopted with advantage in other parts of the
country, though the success which has attended those plans gives
them a title to careful consideration; the thing to be desired is, that
each employer should ask himself how far he can adopt the
principle, and then carry into operation the dictates of his own
judgment and conscience.—Leeds Mercury.