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
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
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
“Whatever you hear that is bad about the division hospital—do not discount it,” Evelyn Belden of Sioux City warned. She had recently returned from a month’s visit to the US Army’s Camp Thomas at Chickamauga, Georgia, in the fall of 1898.
“Every eye is turned upon her, every voice is hushed, and everyone leans forward so they may catch her every word.” It was a beekeepers’ national convention held in the mid-1870s, and the person who was about to speak was an Iowan. Her name was Ellen S. Tupper. She was known as the Bee Queen of Iowa
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.”
Clinton, Iowa, in the 1870s was home to plenty of “rough freedom-loving frontiersmen” who worked in the numerous lumber rafting and milling establishments that lined the riverfront. It was a relatively new city with a population of a little over 6,000 and businesses of all kinds were booming.
Each year, the Pulitzer Prize [http://www.pulitzer.org/page/frequently-asked-questions] administration gives out 21 awards for American journalism, literature, drama and music. Prizes are offered in 14 journalistic categories, including public service reporting, investigative reporting, feature writ
An estimated 17 different Native American tribes have lived in Iowa, according to Iowa’s Official Register, a 2011 document by the State Library of Iowa. How familiar are you with the history surrounding the tribes that lived in Iowa?
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
