In April of 1850, the Board of Christ Episcopal Church, meeting in Old Zion Church in Burlington, Iowa, wrote to New York City asking for continuing support of their pastor John Batchelder. One of the signers of this rare postal letter in our collection was Judge David Rorer.

David Rorer was a lawyer, judge, politician, author and anti-slavery advocate from Burlington who played a prominent role in the early history of both the city and in Iowa history. Rorer is also credited, along with newspaper editor James Edwards, with bestowing the nickname of “Hawkeye” upon all Iowans.

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In 1673, Father Jacques Marquette and Louis Jolliet embarked – in two canoes – on an expedition to explore the Mississippi River. Marquette was especially useful during the voyage, as he knew several Native American languages, thus he was able to gather valuable information from local tribes as they made their way through the wilderness.

BTW: the word Mississippi comes from the Algonquian language and means Father of Waters.

Once they reached the Big Daddy – June 17, 1673 – these two explorers traveled south all the way to the mouth of the Arkansas River. On that trip, Marquette and Joliet became two of the first Europeans to ever set foot on the eastern shores of the beautiful land we now call Iowa.

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Click here to learn more… Did you know? 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 every Monday – Wednesday – Friday.