Iowa History, a weekly column, appears at IowaWatch on Saturdays.
Cheryl Mullenbach is a former history teacher, newspaper editor, and public television project manager. She is the author of four
I’m not going around trying to get kissed. I haven’t done anything brave. No one but a darned fool would have gone on that Merrimac trip.” Stuart, Iowa, native Osborn Warren Deignan was being modest when he claimed he hadn’t done anything brave. Most Americans in 1898 disagreed with the Spanish-Amer
In February 1910 a small group of individuals in Iowa City formed the Iowa City Automobile Club which allowed them the opportunity to enjoy the sights around the eastern part of the state. Their “rubber neck wagon jaunts” took them to various small communities where the sight of automobiles was not
Doctors from Eddyville and Ottumwa rushed to the scene of a train wreck near Eddyville in August 1885 when news of injuries reached the two towns. The circus train consisted of several cars loaded with wagons containing tents and seats that could accommodate 8,000 audience members, as well as animal
It was both a “horrible and wonderful spectacle.” That’s how Roger Lewis, a Manchester, Iowa native, described the view from his billet near the town of Monthairon, France, where he was stationed with the 110th Ammunition Train during World War I in 1919. They were situated in the Meuse River valley
“Just wait, I’ll explain everything,” Joseph Gadbury pleaded as Deputy Sheriff Anthony Row of Britt prepared to transport the fugitive from Winnipeg, Canada, back to Iowa. “I thought the check was good.”
The Great Depression for Kids: Hardship and Hope in 1930s America, by Cheryl Mullenbach, has made the list of Notable Social Studies Trade Books for Young People 2016.
The Iowa Stories series produced by Cheryl Mullenbach and published on IowaWatch on Saturdays has ended. You can keep up with Mullenbach's latest efforts on her website, www.cherylmullenbachink.com.
Davenport native Mary Jane Walsh was 18 years old in 1934 and knew what she wanted. She was born to perform, and she wasn't content to finish college as her family wanted her to do.
A new book on Iowa history was released in the fall of 1931, and it was "no drab account of records and dates" according to some who had seen it. The author, Edith Rule, had spent the summer at the University of Iowa completing research "amid the exhaustive" documents of the state's beginnings and c
It was known as the oldest girls’ camp in Iowa and one of the oldest in the United States. Camp Hantesa was established by the Des Moines chapter of the Camp Fire Girls in 1919.
Ruth McCollough was paid to work her charms on snakes in a traveling carnival show. It’s not known how successful she was at her job. But there’s no doubt she worked her charms on Charles McCormick who came under her spell in the summer of 1914.
