Our Iowa Heritage: An Introduction. We might suggest you start here! Here’s how & why I got started collecting stamps, coins, and other Iowa memorabilia.
The Louisiana Purchase 1803-1806. In 1803, President Thomas Jefferson made a purchase that changed the American story. Iowa was a small part of that big expanse of land west of the Mississippi River.
Dubuque & The West 1788-1838. Julien Dubuque set up camp on the Big River, making friendships with the Native Americans he found there. His lead mines led to big changes for this territory known as Iowa.
Zebulon Pike & His Dam’d Rascals. In August of 1805, Lieutenant Zeb Pike and his band of twenty men – his Dam’d Rascals – left St. Louis to explore the Upper Mississippi Valley. Along the way, he made peace with those Native Americans he met, charting out for future settlers, the rivers on which many Iowa, Illinois, and Wisconsin cities will be built.
Ohio’s Robert Lucas – Life Before Iowa. Long before Robert Lucas came west (1838) to become Iowa’s first governor, he was a military officer in the War of 1812 who served two terms as Ohio’s governor (1832-1836). In 1816, Lucas married Friendly Sumner, settled in the new Ohio County named for the war hero – Zebulon Pike, and built the beautiful & stately Friendly Grove – a home that closely resembles Plum Grove – the Lucas’ home in Iowa City.
George F. Boller & Elizabeth Zook. My ggg grandparents kick off Our Boller Family Story – Elizabeth from Pennsylvania and George from the Rhine River Valley of Germany marry (1820) in Mifflin County, Pennsylvania, moving to Wayne County, Ohio, where my gg grandfather, Jacob B. Boller, was born in 1825.
Our Iowa Heritage 