Deranged, lunatic, crazy as a loon: Those were words used to describe Mark Gray in April 1879 after he unsuccessfully tried to murder, Edwin Booth, the brother of John Wilkes Booth who had assassinated President Abraham Lincoln in 1865.
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
“There is a handsome bronze tablet in the Army and Navy building in Washington, memorializing the mules and horses who died in the war; but nowhere is there found a record of the women who died,” declared Helen C. Courtney, a member of the Women’s Overseas Service League. The organization led an eff
“Eugene Ely Fatally Injured in Airship Accident.” In July 1910 newspaper headlines announced the death of the Iowa native. However, it turned out the reports were greatly exaggerated.
Iowa’s Governor Leslie M. Shaw delivered his annual message to the legislature and the citizens of the state in January 1900. He had a number of items on his mind, and he wasn’t shy about making his ideas known. The text of his speech was splashed in newspapers throughout the state.
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
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
