Iowa City’s Humble Beginnings.

*Click here for a complete timeline on Iowa’s “territorial” history (1803-1838).*

On Independence Day-1838, Iowa was officially separated from Wisconsin Territory, decided by an Act of Congress that had been passed earlier that summer – June 12 – in Washington D.C. On that day, July 4, 1838 – the new governor of Iowa Territory, Robert Lucas, announced that Burlington would remain as the “temporary” capital of Iowa, but only until such time when a more centrally-located capital city could be determined. Throughout the region, there was a buzz about the future, and the thought that there would be a new territorial capital brought up a spirit of competition that, sadly, nearly tore the Territory apart just as it was beginning. Read more about this controversy here.

*Click here to read more about this first white settlement in Johnson County.*

On that same July 4th in 1838, sixty miles northwest of Burlington, in newly-formed Johnson County, a group of pioneers, under the leadership of businessman John Gilbert, held a festive Independence Day celebration on the banks of the Iowa River in their small community known as Napoleon.

In July of 1838, things were really looking up for the good people of Napoleon. In June, the Territorial Legislature in Burlington named John Gilbert’s little city as the “official” county seat for Johnson County, and because Gilbert and his small band of fellow townspeople had diligently pressed for continued recognition – see the story of Johnson County’s first board meeting – Johnson County was also about to be granted a U.S. Post Office – with service to Bloomington (Muscatine), and a new Territorial road that would connect citizens with Oquawka, Illinois – another major port on the Mississippi River. Read more about John Gilbert’s push to make Napoleon an important political player.

It’s at this big July 4, 1838 Independence Day party in Napoleon where Chief Poweshiek, the kind-hearted Meskwaki chief, gave a farewell speech. Knowing full well that he and his tribe were going to be expelled from Johnson County, forced westward by the ever-increasing expansion of white settlements, Poweshiek spoke these powerful words…

I want to live where men are free! Soon I will go to a new home. You will plant corn where my dead sleep, our town, the paths we have made, the flowers we have loved will soon be yours. I have moved many times, I have seen the white man put his foot in the track of the Indian and make the earth into fields and gardens. I know I must go far away and you will be so glad when I am gone. You will soon forget the lodge fires, and the meat of the Indian has ever been free to the stranger.

*This unfinished mural by **Mildred Pelzer** – **Roused Bear 1838** – depicts the earliest days of Iowa City.* *Read more here.*

Sadly, within a year of this speech, Poweshiek’s words would find fulfillment: the Meskwaki tribe will be relocated into central Iowa, John Gilbert – the mastermind of Napoleon, and its first postmaster – will suffer a premature death (March 1839), and his little community of Napoleon will soon meet its demise, as an alternative location just two miles north of his trading post will be chosen for future expansion – a new city named Iowa City.

This transition away from Napoleon actually started on January 21, 1839, when Territorial Governor Robert Lucas issued the following decree:

The original bill (above top) – making Johnson County the new location of Iowa’s Territorial capital – was first introduced and approved on **January 1, 1839** by Iowa’s First Territorial Legislative Assembly meeting in the Methodist Episcopal Church (Old Zion) in Burlington – the Territorial capital. On **January 15, 1839**, Colonel Thomas Cox, a member of the Assembly representing Jackson County, made a motion to add the words – “to be called Iowa City” – to the original bill. This motion passed in a very close vote (13-to-12) and on **January 21, 1839**, the proclamation – in two acts – was made into a law. Read more details here.

*Watercolors of early Johnson County by Jo Myers-Walker. See more here.*

By early spring 1839, three commissioners – Chauncey Swan, John Ronalds and Robert Ralston – were chosen and soon they were preparing themselves to gather in Johnson County with the assignment to choose an appropriate location for this newly- planned City of Iowa – as it was sometimes called.

Iowa historian Benjamin Shambaugh, in his 1893 book on Iowa City history, offers this overview of these earliest days in Johnson County (above).

*This mural by **Mildred Pelzer** – **Locating the Capitol 1839** – depicts the earliest days of Iowa City.* *Read more here.*

On May 1, 1839, two of those commissioners – Chauncey Swan and John Ronalds – met in John Gilbert’s trading house in Napoleon to “officially” begin the search. Gilbert had died earlier that spring, but his trading post was still the primary meeting place for pioneers living in Johnson County. It’s estimated that less than 500 white settlers lived in the county at this time, but when Gilbert and his friend, Pleasant Harris, did their sales pitch to Territorial legislators in Burlington back in January of 1838, he told a little “white” lie (excuse the pun), saying the population of Johnson County was “about 1,500” – with Gilbert conveniently failing to mention that 97% of that number came from the three Meskwaki tribes living here in 1838! More details here.

Above is a photo of Chauncey Swan and Jo Myers-Walker’s watercolor of John Gilbert’s Trading Post in Napoleon. Click here to read more about the importance of these early trading posts in Johnson County.

As the story goes, it was the Johnson County pioneer – Frederick M. Irish – who had escorted commissioner Chauncey Swan from his home in Dubuque to John Gilbert’s Trading Post. But apparently, when Swan and Irish arrived, the other two assigned commissioners – Ronalds & Ralston – were not to be found. So, this is where another Johnson County pioneer stepped in…

The Midnight Ride of Philip Clark – one of the most exciting parts of the early Iowa City story. Click here to read all the details.

*Click here to read about Remembrance Park – a new effort to recognize the importance of these earliest days in Johnson County history.*

*Here’s the oath that Chauncey Swan and John Ronalds took that late night of May 1, 1839 in John Gilbert’s trading post in Napoleon*. *Read more about Swan, often called the Father of Iowa City, here.*

*This view of the Iowa River might just be the way it looked on May 4, 1839.*

The next day, May 2, 1839, the search began, ending two days later on a rolling hillside overlooking the Iowa River, just about two miles north of Napoleon. One writer states that the commissioners described the wooded site as “shaped like an amphitheater.”

On May 4, 1839, a small ceremony was held in that “amphitheater” with a surveyor’s stake or wooden slab being driven into the ground. Historian Benjamin Shambaugh states it this way…

As best we know, this “post or slab” that Swan and Ronalds drove into the ground on May 4, 1839 has been lost – possibly even removed when construction of the capitol building began later that same year. Historian Bertha Shambaugh sketched what she imagined it might have looked like (above).

Word spread quickly that the site for a new capital city had been chosen. Below, in a special 100th Anniversary Edition of The Iowa City Press-Citizen – July 1, 1939 – the following stories were told…

Read about the construction of the Capitol Building in Iowa City here…

Interestingly enough, on this important day when Chauncey Swan drove that stake into the ground in Johnson County, he was fulfilling a vision offered three years earlier by Lieutenant Albert M. Lea in his ground-breaking book, Notes on the Wisconsin Territory Particularly with Reference to The Iowa District or Black Hawk Purchase. Written in 1836 (pp 37-38), Lea found himself discussing the formation of a new capital city called by the name – Iowa.

*Lt. Albert Lea’s map of the Iowa District included the proposed city of Iowa on the Mississippi River – 1836.*

As a matter of fact, on his 1836 map, which was part of his book, Lea plotted this new City of Iowa on the Mississippi River – located at the mouth of Pine Creek, about ten miles north of Bloomington (Muscatine). Yet, even as he wrote these words calling for a new capital city for the District of Iowa, he also projected that long-term, because of population growth, this new City of Iowa will need to be located further west, in the Iowa River valley – exactly where Iowa City is located today! In the book, The Old Stone Capitol Remembers (1939), Iowa historian, Benjamin Shambugh, explains it well…

Click here to read more about Lt. Albert Lea and the ‘prophetic’ words he wrote about the Iowa River valley in 1836.

As we said earlier, the name “Iowa City” first appears in the January 21, 1839 proclamation (law) approved by the First Territorial Legislative Assembly meeting in Burlington. Interestingly, in his May 17, 1839 entry in the official diary of Theodore S. Parvin (below left), we find that Parvin sketched out a map of the city in his journal, labeling it… “a map of the City of Iowa.” Parvin, who served as secretary to Governor Robert Lucas, had been sent out from Bloomington (Muscatine) with the Judge Joseph Williams, Territorial Judge (below right) to oversee the first District Court proceedings in Johnson County held on May 13th. Read more here.

Click here to read more about the trail that Parvin & Williams took to arrive in Iowa City.

Later that same year, the Dubuque entrepreneur, John Plumbe, Jr. published his book about Iowa and in it, his map included the “City of Iowa” (see below).

**1839 – John Plumbe’s book, “Sketches of Iowa and Wisconsin”** provides us with the one of the earliest overviews of Iowa Territory. In the back of his book, Plumbe included a large fold-out map which indicates the new **“City of Iowa”** as it had now been established as the new Iowa Territorial capital city! Click here to read more about John Plumbe, Jr.

Apparently, over the first few months of the city’s existence, the two names – City of Iowa and Iowa City – were used interchangeably.

Once the location of the new city had been determined, the next step was to have the land surveyed and platted. On June 27, 1839, the first assignment was given to surveyors Thomas Cox and John Frierson. Following up on their work was Leander (L.) Judson – who drew up the plat work. More on that story later.

*The survey team drew up several “first” maps of Iowa City. See them here.*

In that special July 1, 1939 edition of The Iowa City Press-Citizen, the story of Judson’s map is told in more detail…

Here’s how another historian reported on what happened in Iowa City in the months following that infamous day when that surveyor’s stake was driven into the ground – May 4, 1839…

On May 7 (1839) the other two commissioners chose (Chauncey) Swan (as) Acting Commissioner of Public Buildings. The Acting Commissioner would be the most directly involved of the commissioners in overseeing the surveying and platting of Iowa City, the selling of city lots, and the hiring of an architect and building contractor for the capitol. He would also give the legislature progress reports. In the summer of 1839 Swan moved with his family to Iowa City and immediately took up his responsibilities. The commissioners had procured surveyors to lay out the capitol, and that summer Swan oversaw the surveys, (finalized) the spot for Capitol Square, and arranged for maps to be made and distributed in preparation for the sale of lots, the receipts going toward the capitol’s construction. Swan coordinated the land sales, which began in August 1839, collected payments, and kept track of receipts.

Click here to read about the sale of the first lots in Iowa City.

Click here to read about Johnson County’s earliest log cabins.

*(P-0263)* This is what Iowa City most likely looked like around 1839.

On July 4, 1839, another big Independence Day celebration was held. This time, the party wasn’t in Napoleon, but on that beautiful hilltop overlooking the Iowa River. Benjamin Shambaugh continues…

*“That was Iowa City in July, 1839 — a map, a paper plat, recorded in the office of I. P. Hamilton, the recorder of Johnson County.”* ***Benjamin Shambaugh***

The 21-year-old Ohio-born pioneer, Cyrus Sanders, was present at this July 4, 1839 celebration, writing these beautiful words in his journal (above). Click here to read more from Sander’s 1839 journal.

Under U.S. law, when a new Territory was established in the west, that territorial government was allowed to choose a full section of land – one square mile or 640 acres – to establish its capital. As we mentioned earlier, in May 1839 – Chauncey Swan and his companions staked out an uncharted piece of wilderness located on the Iowa River – legally called Section 10 – Township 79 North, Range 6 – West 5th Principal Meridian in Johnson County – Iowa Territory. By July 4, 1839, that piece of land – one square mile – had been drawn out by Leander (L.) Judson on the map you see below.

**Leander (L.) Judson’s 1839 proposed city map of Iowa City.** This first map of Iowa City – situated in Township 79 North, Range 6 West of the 5th Meridian – was signed and approved. View this 1839 map in comparison to later maps such as 1854, 1868, 1892, and more.

The Original Town Plat of Iowa City, as it was laid out by Leander (L.) Judson, was one square mile (640 acres) of land – with 100 surveyed blocks, 31 out lot blocks, two public squares, three market squares, two public parks and reserves for churches and a school. At the center of the city was “Capitol Square” – the equivalent of four city blocks located on a high overlooking a promenade that bordered along the east bank of the Iowa River.

Each of the 100 city blocks measured approximately 2.35 acres each (320 ft x 320 ft) – with each block sectioned into eight lots measuring 80 x 140 feet. A square-block municipal park was sited north of Iowa Avenue between Dubuque and Linn Streets. Reserves were also set aside for churches and a school facing the park along Iowa Avenue (Block 66), Jefferson Street (Block 67) and Dubuque Street (Block 60). Three market squares were situated along a north-south diagonal line extending from the intersection of Burlington and Gilbert Streets to the intersection of Johnson and Fairchild Streets. The church reserves were eventually granted to four denominations and still serve three churches some 175 years later.

With six exceptions, the twenty-four streets of Iowa City – which run either east and west (12) or north and south (12) – were designated to be 80 feet wide. The exceptions were Iowa Avenue (120 feet wide) and Washington, Jefferson, Capitol, and Madison (100 feet wide). The 12 north/south streets from west to east are named – Front, Madison, Capitol, Clinton, Dubuque, Linn, Gilbert, Van Buren, Johnson, Dodge, Lucas, and Governor. The 12 east/west streets from north to south were named – Brown, Ronalds, Church, Fairchild, Davenport, Bloomington, Market, Jefferson, Iowa (Avenue), Washington, College, and Burlington.

Click here to read more about the original layout of Iowa City and its street names.

Read about the first four hotel/taverns that were established in the early Iowa City days.

After the surveying was completed and the map drawn up, the good people of Iowa City – in the summer of 1839 – placed a large limestone marker at the very southeastern corner of the city – today’s 331 Summit Street (see red X) – the key starting point for the 1839 survey.

Today, that 1839 Limestone Marker is the oldest remaining structure in Johnson County!

Click here to read more about this Johnson County remembrance marker and many others.

Issued to commemorate the 100^th anniversary of the establishment of the Iowa Territory, the United States Postal Service issued this stamp (below) in 1938, which features the Old Stone Capitol in Iowa City.

*(S-0041)* *Read more about the 1938 Iowa Territorial Celebration.*

(C-0020) This cover is very rare indeed. While Des Moines was picked as the First Day of Issue City for the Iowa Territorial Centennial Stamp issued on August 24, 1938, Iowa City really had more significance in Iowa Territorial history. Fortunately, a wise and historically-aware stamp collector got this cover postmarked in Iowa City on that same day!

On July 1, 1976, The Iowa City Press-Citizen published a special 76-page Bicentennial edition. In that edition there were articles and pictures related to stories found on this page.

Read more here:
Page D3
Page I6

Meet Iowa City’s Mayors – 1853 To Today. After fourteen years as an independent community with no ties to Territorial or State government, in 1853, the people of Iowa City voted to officially become an incorporated city. With that decision, came city government and our first city mayor and city council. Forty years after Irving Weber’s ‘Mayors of Iowa City’ articles are printed, OIH publishes an updated 7-page overview of Iowa City’s Mayors – 1853 to 2025.
Click here for the Introduction page
Volume I: Mayors #1 through #12 – 1853-1869
Volume II: Mayors #13 through #24 – 1869-1887
Volume III: Mayors #25 through #36 – 1887-1925
Volume IV: Mayors #37 through #48 – 1925-1961
Volume V: Mayors #49 through #60 – 1961-1982
Volume VI: Mayors #61 through #73 – 1982-Present