March 26, 1913 – Iowa newspapers announce the death of Joshua M. Shaffer – the brave abolitionist who helped set the pace for radical change across Iowa, and was also the key leader who helped pull together Iowa’s very first State Fair!
Did you know that in the late 1850’s, Republicans were the “awakened” party, with thousands of young voters joining “Wide-Awake” chapters in nearly every county of every Northern “Free” state? It’s this awakened generation that played a huge part in electing a relatively-unknown senator from Illinois, named Abraham Lincoln, to be the 16th President of the U.S. Here in Iowa, brave abolitionists like Dr. J.M. Shaffer of Fairfield helped set the pace for such radical change, and by the way – Dr. Shaffer was also the key leader that helped pull together Iowa’s very first State Fair!
Read more about this Iowa story here…
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.
Join us for Our Iowa Heritage blog posts.
Learn some historical facts about Iowa City, Johnson County, or Eastern Iowa.
Amaze your friends. Click to learn more.
Pingback: March 25, 1841. | Our Iowa Heritage