December 15, 1797 – French-Canadian Antoine Le Claire is born in present-day St. Joseph, Michigan, then in the Northwest Territory. Le Claire homesteaded in – what is today – Scott County (Davenport) in 1833, and was personally involved in many of the day-to-day events that shaped Iowa’s earliest history.

While Albert Lea (above right) did a bang-up job in helping Americans become familiar with this new word – IOWA, could it be that Antoine Le Claire (above left) – the half-breed pioneer who spoke English, French, Spanish, and a dozen Native American dialects – was the first one in 1833 to actually use this Sauk word in describing our beautiful land?

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