1837 – Welcome To Wisconsin Territory – Iowa District.

(L-0126) Proudly hanging in our office is this **1837 map of** **Iowa District – Wisconsin Territory**

Did you know that until July 4, 1838, when Iowa became its own separate U.S. Territory – we were “officially” recognized in Washington D.C. as Wisconsin Territory?

*Wisconsin Territory was created on April 20, 1836.*

Yup, it’s a fact. Between April 20, 1836 and July 4, 1838, Iowa (see map above) was part of Badger country! And on October 25, 1836, Governor Henry Dodge – overseeing this new U.S. Territory from his office in the capital city of Belmont, Wisconsin – called the first Wisconsin Territorial Legislature to order. It was during those sessions when it was decided that the new capital city of Wisconsin Territory would be located in Madison. But alas, since Mad City had no facilities for such gatherings, a temporary capital was named…

So, on November 6, 1837 to January 20, 1838, the second session of the Wisconsin Territorial Legislature met in Burlington! And, it’s at these meetings, when it was proposed that the Territorial lines be re-drawn and the Iowa District of Wisconsin Territory be formed into its own Territory (see maps below) – which did get approved by the U.S. Senate in April, 1838. Read more here.

On another post, we offer you, our readers, a collection of maps of Iowa – ranging from the 1700’s right up to the present. So, it’s with great interest when we, here at Our Iowa Heritage, come across a map such as the one we are presenting here on this post…

By the mid-1830’s, the Public Land Survey System was created by the United States government for the purpose of surveying, platting, and mapping newly-acquired land in the west. These surveyor maps were vitally important for an accurate distribution of land, and over a ten-year period (1837-1846) provided an accurate overview of this growing territory called Iowa. Our map below – from 1837 – is the one of the first Wisconsin Territory Survey Maps of Iowa – plotting out the six million acres of land that had been secured in the 1833 Black Hawk Purchase.

Actually, when Iowa was part of Michigan Territory (1834-1836), the area you see below was divided into two counties – Dubuque County on the north and Des Moines County on the south – with the county line running westward for about 40 miles beginning at the Mississippi River – just north of Davenport. On December 7, 1836 – just prior to this map being drawn up – the southernmost parts of Des Moines County were subdivided into six smaller counties. More on that later.

(L-0126) Approved by the **25th Congress of the United States** – during it’s **2nd Session** held in March 1837, here’s **Doc. 11. No. 2** – a Wisconsin Territory map included in the official bound volume – ***U.S. House of Representatives Congressional Public Survey Documents.***

So, let’s take a quick tour of the Iowa District of Wisconsin Territory as it appeared in the Spring of 1837 – one section at a time…

Welcome to Dubuque County – North! The least populated area of Iowa in 1837, the northern section of the county was known primarily for the vast lead deposits found in the hills surrounding the city of Dubuque. So, starting in the far north, we find the Wisconsin River – where Father Jacques Marquette and Louis Jolliet first laid eyes on Iowa in 1673. Read more here.

Coming on down the Mississippi River, south of Cassville, Wisconsin, we find the village of **Peru** – located about five miles north of the present city of Dubuque. Now a ghost town, Peru was founded in 1833, rivaled Dubuque as an up-n-coming city, having its own post office until 1843.

Of course, **Dubuque** is the **Key City of Iowa** – established in 1833 – immediately following the signing of the Black Hawk Purchase. In 1788, Julien Dubuque arrived here, building a trusting relationship with the Sac & Fox tribes. Over the next 23 years, this enterprising Frenchman mined vast deposits of lead from the hills surrounding Catfish Creek. After the Black Hawk Purchase of 1833, pioneers began settling here, making Dubuque a key city in the new American West. *Read more here*.

Still in Dubuque County, we now move south of the city of Dubuque, where we come to the big bend of the Mississippi River. In 1837, there really wasn’t much activity here until you arrived in the thriving community of Lyons.

Moving southward on the river from Dubuque…

**Bellevue** was laid out by John D. Bell in 1835, and is located on the bluffs overlooking the Big River, in what would be – in December 1837 – designated as **Jackson County**. At that point, Bellevue was named the county seat for three Iowa counties – **Jackson, Linn & Jones**. Bell built the first log cabin here and served as the city’s first postmaster, while another pioneer – Peter Dutell – built the first hotel in 1836 – calling it the Bellevue House. Read more here. In 1841, a contract was signed to begin mail service between Dubuque and Davenport, so a road for stagecoaches was built – forming a new town of Andrew – just west of Bellevue. Read more here.

**Lyons/New York** – Yup, on today’s maps of Iowa, we’d find Clinton, but in 1837, **Lyons** was the big city on the River, while the little town of **New York** was the name used for today’s Clinton. Pioneer Elijah Buell built the first log cabin here in 1835, and in 1837, established the town of Lyons, named after the French city of the same name. Buell partnered with John Baker in a successful ferry service across the Mississippi River, at a location called “the Narrows” – between Lyons and what would become the city of Fulton, Illinois. By the 1850’s, Lyons, and its little sister – **Clinton** – became the “Lumber Capital of the World.” Read more here.

Now, as we cross over the county line – from Dubuque County into Des Moines County, we come to one of the more populated areas of Iowa in 1837. As you can see from the map (below), the 30-mile strip of land between Ft. Armstrong & Rock Island in Illinois west to Bloomington (Muscatine) was a popular spot with riverboat landings – making this area a very attractive location for pioneers to buy land.

**Ft. Armstrong & Davenport.** Located on Rock Island, near the present-day Quad Cities of Illinois and Iowa, **Ft. Armstrong** (1816) was five miles from Saukenuk – the large Sac and Fox village on the Rock River in Illinois. Read more here. In 1832, the Black Hawk War officially came to an end with the treaty – signed at Fort Armstrong – that opened up (1833) six million acres of prime Iowa farmland to white settlers. Antoine Le Claire founded **Davenport** in 1836, naming it for his friend, Colonel George Davenport, who was stationed at Fort Armstrong during the Black Hawk War.

**Rockingham** was laid out in 1836 in section 8 of Rockingham Township, about four miles below the business section of Davenport. It was a rival of Davenport for several years, contested for the county seat of **Scott County**, and had a post office from 1844-1847.

Interestingly, the city of **Iowa** – which never was actually incorporated – was shown on maps beginning in 1836 when **Lieutenant Albert M. Lea** suggested that a community named Iowa should be built on the shores of the Mississippi – where Pine Creek empties into the Great River. Being centrally located – halfway between Dubuque and Ft. Madison, Lea envisioned Iowa as the future capital city of Iowa District – a dream that was partially fulfilled when Iowa City was birthed in Johnson County in 1839. Read more here.

*Platted in 1837, **Salem** is the pioneer name of the unincorporated Muscatine County town of **Fairport**, with the name – Salem – disappearing by 1840.*

**Muscatine County** was created on December 7, 1836, and the city of **Bloomington** was platted that same year as well. First called **Newburg**, within a year it changed to Bloomington, which remained until the U.S. postal system stepped in – insisting the name be changed once more because of confusion with two larger cities back East – Bloomington, Indiana and Bloomington, Illinois. So, in 1849, the good citizens of Bloomington, Iowa voted that their community be renamed after their county – **Muscatine**. Read more here.

In the southern-most end of Wisconsin Territory, we find the most populated region of Iowa since this area was closest to the important transportation center of the New West – St. Louis. On December 7, 1836, five new counties – Henry, Lee, Louisa, Muscatine, and Van Buren – were formed, while Des Moines County (established in 1834) was reduced to its present size.

Like its sister-city Dubuque to the north, **Burlington** was established in **1833** on the western shores of the Mississippi River – land first belonging to the Meskwaki (Sauk and Fox) tribes, who called it Shoquoquon (Shok-ko-kon), meaning **Flint Hills**. When it was chosen as the temporary capital of Wisconsin Territory in 1837, Burlington suddenly became a key city in the entire region – a role it kept until Iowa’s capital was moved to Iowa City in 1841. Read more here.

The first community west of Burlington is **Boston**, and, quite honestly, it presents a historical question we’ve not solved at the time of this post. Neither today’s **Des Moines County** or **Henry County** indicate a town by this name, but its location appears to be near the present Henry County community of Lowell (1838) – which is located on the Skunk River in Baltimore Township.

Just south of Boston, in the newly-established **Lee County** (1836), pioneer farmers began settling in **West Point** – a small community that still exists today. West Point’s name was chosen by officers of the garrison at nearby Fort Des Moines (1834-1837).

The city of **Fort Madison** – located in the southeastern corner of Iowa – was established in 1835 around the site of the historic Fort Madison (1808–1813), which was the first permanent U.S. military fortification on the Upper Mississippi.

Moving up north and west into the newly-established **Henry County** (1836), we find the vibrant community of **Salem**. Settled by Quakers in 1835, Salem became an important stop on the Underground Railroad in the years leading up to the Civil War. Read more here.

Finally, we head as far west into Iowa as one can go in 1837 – to the city of **Washington**. In December 1837, **Keokuk County** was established just west of here, and in January 1838, **Slaughter County** (Washington) was created – in honor of William B. Slaughter, the secretary of Wisconsin Territory. The city of Washington was given the county seat at that time, and in 1839, the county was renamed as well, honoring our first U.S. President – George Washington.

Let’s make one last stop on our tour of 1837 Wisconsin Territory. You’ll notice on the two maps below that the original Black Hawk Purchase of 1833 – when displayed (on the right) with county lines – included parts (or all) of 19 different Iowa counties (see list below)…

And, if we take a closer look at our 1837 survey map (below), we’ll find that – to the west – along the Iowa River, there is a nice piece of land that is centrally-located (north to south) that is far enough west so it could – potentially – become the home of a centrally-located capital city for a forward-looking, western expansion U.S. Territory or State – like Iowa.

That land – made up of 614 square miles – 399,000 acres – was named Johnson County on December 21, 1837. And, as you can see from the 1838 map below, the little town of Napoleon was sitting on the Iowa River – right in the middle of this newly-formed county – just waiting to find its destiny in the history of Iowa. Read more here.

**Napoleon** was the first white settlement in **Johnson County** – settled in 1836 and incorporated in 1837. Under the leadership of the entrepreneur/fur-trader – **John Gilbert** – a diverse group of pioneers met in Gilbert’s trading house in **January 1838 for Johnson County’s first business meeting**. There, it was decided to send two representatives to Burlington with a declaration addressed to the Wisconsin Territorial Legislature. In that paperwork, it was requested that Napoleon – the county seat of Johnson County – receive funding for roads and U.S. mail service – which happened once Iowa became its own separate Territory in January 1838. Read more here.

*Here’s a rare postmark from **Burlington – Wisconsin Territory from February 1838**. Read more here.*

As we address in other posts, this 1837 map of Wisconsin Territory – Iowa District – didn’t stay current very long! As a matter of fact, later that same year – in December – the Wisconsin Territorial Legislature designated 13 new counties (see list of 11 above plus Keokuk and Benton Counties), added Slaughter/Washington County in January 1838, and later that month, approved the formation of Iowa Territory – which was then approved by the U.S. Congress, with President Martin Van Buren signing off on the idea on July 4, 1838. Read more here.