by Benjamin F. Gue
CHAPTER I
The Republican Convention of 1865 - Declares for Negro Suffrage
- The Union Anti-Negro Suffrage Party - The Democratic State
Convention - A Warm Canvass - Republican Ticket Elected - The State
Bank and Branches Retire from Business - The Eleventh General Assembly
- The Swamp Land Indemnity Funds Embezzled - Legislative
Investigation.
Amendments Proposed to the Constitution - Kirkwood and Harlan
Chosen United States Senators - Geological Survey of the State -
Soldiers' Orphans' Home - The Policy of President Johnson Alienates
the Republican Party - Republican State Convention of 1866 - A
Conservative Republican Convention and Ticket - Democratic State
Convention Indorses the Conservative Ticket - Result of the Election.
CHAPTER II
Financial Situation in 1867 - Republican and Democratic
Conventions of the Same Year - Result of the Elections - The
Grasshopper Scourge - The Twelfth General Assembly - Ratification of
Amendments to the Constitution - The Impeachment of President Johnson
- Senator James W. Grimes on Impeachment.
Political Conventions of 1868 - Result of the Elections -
Legislative Control of Railroad Charges - Opening of the State
Agricultural College - Railroad Building in Iowa and the Land Grants -
Convention to Promote a Water Route from the Lakes to the Mississippi
- Political Conventions of 1869 - Republican Ticket Elected - The
Thirteenth General Assembly - Wright and Howell Chosen United States
Senators - Important Acts of Legislation - Crocker County Created and
the Act Declared Void by the Supreme Court.
CHAPTER III
Political Conventions of 1870 - Result of the Elections - Great
Reunion of Iowa Soldiers - 20,000 Veterans Assembled at Des Moines -
The "Cardiff Giant" Deception - Opinions of Eminent
Scientists - A Financial Bonanza - The Authors of the Fraud - The
Great Block of Fort Dodge Gypsum - How the Deception was Discovered
and Exposed - Final Confession of Hull, the Inventor of the Scheme -
The Great Gypsum Quarries of Fort Dodge - Facts from the Census of
1870.
CHAPTER IV
Political Conventions of 1871 - The Republicans Successful - The
Fourteenth General Assembly - The Senatorial Contest - William B.
Allison Nominated Over Senator Harlan - Cyrus C. Carpenter Inaugurated
Governor - Revision of the Laws - Political Conventions of 1872 -
Republican Candidates Elected - The Second Grasshopper Scourge -
Liberal aid to the Sufferers - The Presidential Campaign of 1872 -
Reelection of General Grant - Defalcation of the State Treasurer - A
Legislative Investigation - The Patrons of Husbandry - Their Influence
in Legislation - Political Conventions of 1873 - An Anti-Monopoly
Party Organized - The Republicans Successful in the Election -
Material Progress.
CHAPTER V
The Fifteenth General Assembly - Contest Over Election of
Speaker - Investigation of the Agricultural College - Its Management
Vindicated - A Bill Passed Regulating Railroad Charges - The
Burlington Railway Resists the Enforcement of the Law - Judge Dillon
of the U. S. Circuit Court Sustains the Law - A Decision of Vast
Importance - Political Conventions of 1875 - Kirkwood Again Nominated
for Governor - The Republican Candidates Elected - Governor Kirkwood
Chosen United States Senator - Temperance State Convention - Reunion
of the Army of the Tennessee at Des Moines - Distinguished Generals in
Attendance - General Grant's Famous Speech - Misrepresentation and
Controversy Finally Settled - Political Conventions of 1876 - Result
of the Presidential Election in Doubt - George W. McCrary of Iowa
Frames a Bill which Settles the Controversy.
CHAPTER VI
George W. McCrary in the Cabinet - Financial Condition of Iowa -
An Important Decision of the Supreme Court - The Political Conventions
of 1877 - The Southern Policy of President Hayes - John H. Gear
Elected Governor - A Terrible Railroad Disaster - The Seventeenth
General Assembly - Repeal of the "Granger Railroad Law" -
Interesting Statistics - Political Conventions of 1878 - Election of
the Republican Candidates - Conventions and Platforms of 1879 -
Governor Gear Re-elected - The Eighteenth General Assembly - National
Conventions of 1880.
CHAPTER VII
Fencing Prairie Farms - The Invention of Barbed Wire - Formation
of the First "Trust" - A Monopoly to Control the Manufacture
and Sale of Wire Fencing - Farmers of Iowa Organize to Resist the
Monopoly - A Free Factory Established - A Legal and Commercial
Conflict - The State Aids the Farmers - Their Final Victory - The
Farmers' Alliance - Kirkwood in the Cabinet - Assassination of
President Garfield - Political Conventions of 1881 - The First Woman
Nominated for a State Office - Buren R. Sherman Elected Governor - An
Important Decision - Heroic Deed of Kate Shelly - The Nineteenth
General Assembly - Election of United States Senators - Free Passes
for Public Officials - Prohibition Amendment to the Constitution
Adopted - Declared Void by the Supreme Court.
CHAPTER VIII
The Great Tornado of 1882 - Destruction of Life and Property in
its Track - Scenes in the City of Grinnell - Iowa College in Ruins -
Seventy Persons Killed and Hundreds Wounded - Political Conventions of
1882 - A Rehearing of the Validity of the Constitutional Amendment -
Former Decision Affirmed - Conventions and Elections of 1883 - Serious
Damage to Orchards - The Twentieth General Assembly Meets in the New
State House - The Dedication - Amendments to the Prohibitory Liquor
Laws - Elections of 1884 - Removal of the Auditor of State.
CHAPTER IX
Political Conventions of 1885 - The Twenty-first General
Assembly - Attempts to Impeach Auditor Brown - He is Found Not Guilty
- Reinstated in Office - Conventions and Elections of 1886 -
Assassination of Reverend George C. Haddock - Interesting Statistics -
The Drive Well Conflict - Important Decisions - The Twenty-second
General Assembly - Governor Larrabee's Powerful Argument for
Legislative Control of Railroads - The Legislature Responds with a
Comprehensive Law - Political Conventions and Elections of 1888 - The
Campaign of 1889 - Horace Boies, Democrat, Elected Governor.
CHAPTER X
The Twenty-third General Assembly - Contest for Speaker - The
Last Message of Governor Larrabee - The Political Conventions of 1890
- The Republicans Elect State Officers - The Democrats Elect a
Majority of Representatives in Congress - Convention and Election of
1891 - The Democrats Secure all of the State Officers and Half of the
Senators - The Twenty-fourth General Assembly - The Campaign of 1892 -
The Democrats Elect the President - The Republicans Carry Iowa for
President and State Officers - The Columbian Exposition of 1893 - The
Tornado of 1893 - The Town of Pomeroy Destroyed - Incidents of the
Calamity - Generous Aid for the Sufferers.
CHAPTER XI
Political Conventions of 1893 - Frank D. Jackson Elected
Governor - Expenditures for State Institutions - The Drought of 1894 -
Financial Distress - The "Commonweal Armies" - Political
Conventions and Elections of 1894 - The Twenty-fifth General Assembly
- Saloons Legalized - Dedication of the Spirit Lake Monument -
Political Conventions and Election of 1895 - General F. M. Drake
Elected Governor - The Twenty-sixth General Assembly -
Trans-Mississippi Exposition at Omaha - The Semi-Centennial of Iowa
Statehood - Terrible Railroad Collision at Logan.
CHAPTER XII
Two Iowa Candidates for President - The political Conventions
for 1896 - Results of the Elections - Extra Session of the Legislature
- The Code - James Wilson in the Cabinet - Conventions and Elections
of 1897 - Leslie M. Shaw chosen Governor - The Twenty-seventh General
Assembly - A State Board of Control - War with Spain - Legislature
Appropriates $500,000 for War purposes - Three Iowa Regiments Called
For - One Regiment Sent to the Philippine Islands - Progress of the
War - Conventions and Elections of 1898 - Cold Winter of 1898-99 -
Great Destruction of Fruit Trees, Vines and Forests - Conventions and
Elections of 1899 - Twenty-eight General Assembly - Political
Conventions and Election of 1900 - Dedication of the Floyd Monument -
Political Conventions and Election of 1901 - Albert B. Cummins Chosen
Governor - Twenty-ninth General Assembly - Jonathan P. Dolliver United
States Senator .
CHAPTER XIII
Des Moines River Land Grant of 1846 - Decisions as to its Extent
- Opinion of the Secretary of the Treasury in 1849 - Opinion of
Secretary Ewing in 1850 - Opinion of the Attorney-General in 1851 -
Lands Conveyed to the Des Moines Navigation and Railroad Company -
Opinion of the Attorney-General in 1856 - Failure of the Navigation
Company to Prosecute the Work - Unearned Land Granted to the Keokuk,
Des Moines and Minnesota Railroad Company - Another Opinion from an
Attorney-General in 1859 - First Decision of the Supreme Court of the
United States in 1859 - Settlement on the River Lands - Valid Titles
Promised to Settlers - Act of Congress of 1861 - Decision of the
Secretary of the Interior in 1862 - Another Decision of the Supreme
Court Reversing its Former Opinion.
CHAPTER XIV
The Walcott Decision as Understood by the Secretary of the
Interior - The Herbert Battin Case - Settlers Authorized to Take Pre-emptions
and Homesteads on River Lands - The Welles-Riley Case Before the
Courts - United States Patent Set Aside - Settlers Driven from Their
Homes by United States Marshals - The "Settlers Union"
Organized - Action of Congress in the Premises - A State Commission
Appointed - Action of the National Commission - The Orr Indemnity Bill
Passes the House - Defeated in the Senate - The Crilly Patent Ignored
- Further Action by Congress and the President - Another Supreme Court
Decision Against the Settlers - Indemnity Finally Granted by Congress.
CHAPTER XV
Progress of Women in the Nineteenth Century - Early Work and
Workers - Equal Rights Convention - Women in the Anti-Slavery Times -
Legislation Relating to Suffrage - First Women Office Holders - Laws
Relating to Property Rights of Women - Recent Workers in the Suffrage
Cause - Women's Clubs - Their Influence - State Federation of Women's
Clubs.
CHAPTER XVI
Brief Sketch of Early Education in Iowa - Statistics Showing the
Development of the Public School System - Free Text Books and
Compulsory Education - Denominational Colleges - The State University
- State College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts - Experimental
Station - State Normal School - The Penitentiaries - Four Hospitals
for Insane - School for the Deaf - Institution for Feeble-Minded
Children - Industrial Schools for Boys and Girls - Soldiers' Orphans'
Home - State Board of Control - State Historical Society - Historical
Department - Grand Army of the Republic - State Agricultural Society -
State Horticultural Society - Pioneer Lawmakers Association -
Statistics from the Census.
EARLY HISTORY OF IOWA COUNTIES.
DIRECTORY OF PUBLIC OFFICIALS.
