April 29, 1890 – Iowa City’s famous cattle-breeder – Thomas Wales – writes to N.P. Pinney of Mechanicsville, Vermont, and includes a Certificate of Registry for a prize cow named Allene Netherlands.

You might be surprised to learn that during the 1880’s, Iowa City became the home to the nation’s top Holstein cattle breeder. Thomas Beale Wales III came to Iowa City from Boston in 1880 and was considered one of the top dairy-stock breeders in the United States and the inventor of the first recording system for tracking animal pedigree. From 1881 to 1891, Iowa City was considered “the center of the largest and best fine stock district in the world.”

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April 28, 1992 – Frederick M. Irish’s home – Rose Hill – located at 1415 E. Davenport Street – is saved from the wrecking ball, being listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Frederick M. Irish arrived in Johnson County in 1838, built a log cabin on timbered land located just north and east of Iowa City in 1839. That first log cabin became the host for Johnson County business meetings until 1842. In the meantime, Irish purchased an additional thirty acres of land adjacent to his cabin and began calling his, now, slightly-enlarged log cabin and the surrounding grounds – Rose Hill.

In 1849, Irish decided to build a much larger red-brick home just south and east of his log cabin, calling it the new Rose Hill once the Irish family moved in around 1850. Many historians believe Rose Hill – located at today’s 1415 E. Davenport – was part of the Underground Railroad during the Civil War era, since the Irish family sided with the many anti-slavery abolitionists living in Iowa City at the time.

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This Day In History is an Our Iowa Heritage blog series that offers you a little bit of Iowa trivia from a large selection of stories on our website. Subscribe to this FREE blog and you’ll get a new email from us daily. Click to learn more.

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This Day In History is an Our Iowa Heritage blog series that offers you a little bit of Iowa trivia from a large selection of stories on our website. Subscribe to this FREE blog and you’ll get a new email from us daily. Click to learn more.

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