READ MORE ABOUT THIS IOWA STORY HERE.
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.
Join us for Our Iowa Heritage blog posts.
Learn some historical facts about Iowa City, Johnson County, or Eastern Iowa.
Amaze your friends.
Before the railroad reached Iowa City in 1856, there was great hope that the Iowa River would support steamboat travel as a way to import and export goods. That hope was actually written into the City’s code as all bridge construction – which began in 1854 – could not “obstruct navigation.”
Excitement across Johnson County was at an all-time high when the first steamboat, the Ripple, under the command of Captain Dan Jones, made its way into Iowa City in the early summer of 1841.
“We need not speak of the astonishment caused by such unusual sounds – sounds which were for the first time heard on our peaceful river – nor of the many conjectures which were started as to the course from whence they proceeded. Our doubts were soon dispelled by the glorious reality, as the Steamer Ripple for the first time came dashing up the Iowa and landed at the ferry, which henceforth is only to be known by the more appropriate name of the Steam Boat Landing.” The Iowa City Standard
Yes, there was hope in Iowa City that, with the coming of the Ripple, many more steamers would be chugging up and down the Iowa River on a regular basis. But sadly, with the ebbs and flows of the river in Johnson County, it simply was too difficult – and risky – for larger boats to maintain a regular schedule. In Irving Weber’s 1980’s video presentation, he talks about a spot just south of town, a ford, when at certain times of the year, the water level would be so low, farmers and cattlemen could walk their herds across the riverbed.
Sadly, by the 1860’s, after the railroad came into town, this grand idea of Iowa City Riverboat Landing sank like a stone since the river just didn’t have the consistent depth needed to sustain this enterprise.
READ MORE ABOUT THIS IOWA STORY HERE
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.
Join us for Our Iowa Heritage blog posts.
Learn some historical facts about Iowa City, Johnson County, or Eastern Iowa.
Amaze your friends.
In 1843, there was a strong upswing of Iowans wanting to pursue statehood. On April 5th, the people of Iowa finally voted, by a majority of 2,400 voyes, to form a State Constitution, which was one of the primary steps the U.S. Senate required in order to proceed. In that written constitution, proposed boundaries must be spelled out, the election process of officers must be decided, and how the state will make laws must be addressed as well.
On January 23, 1844, Governor Chambers signed all the paperwork, sending it off to Washington D.C. for President John Tyler’s signature, which he approved on February 12th. When it was all said and done, the U.S. Congress decided that they would approve Iowa statehood only if Iowans would ratify an agreement that redrew the lines of the state on the north, south and west.
According to these boundaries fixed by Congress, Iowa was to extend from the Mississippi River on the east to a line drawn north and south along the meridian of seventeen degrees and thirty minutes longitude west from Washington, D. C. It was to be bounded on the south by Missouri, and on the north by a line about forty-five miles north of the present boundary – in today’s southern Minnesota. In truth, the state of Iowa would have looked completely different than it does today had this proposal gone through (see map above).
A majority of the good people of Iowa hated these proposed boundaries, yet there were some heavy-handed politicians at the time who wanted statehood at all costs. Fortunately, three young statesmen – Enoch W. Eastman, Theodore S. Parvin and Frederick D. Mills, realizing the irreparable mistake this dismemberment of Iowa would be, organized an opposition to the acceptance of the Constitution with the proposed boundary and at once took the field to work for its rejection. The contest was fierce and bitter but patriotism and good judgment prevailed.
After voting on the revised constitution and rejecting it, Iowa remained a U.S. territory until 1846, when finally, these serious boundary issues were better resolved to the agreement of all parties.
READ MORE ABOUT THIS IOWA STORY HERE
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.
Join us for Our Iowa Heritage blog posts.
Learn some historical facts about Iowa City, Johnson County, or Eastern Iowa.
Amaze your friends.