40 Famous Iowans - Catherine Beecher

Catherine Beecher was a 19^th century author and educator born in Long Island, New York.  Beecher came from a very established family.  They both touted the strong values of women that Beecher herself would come to believe in when she was an adult.  She really pushed for women’s work in the home and strongly believed that women were to be moral role models for the young.  One of her books, "Treatise on Domestic Economy” was a best seller when it came out in 1841.  Its main purpose was to provide practical household advice that also symbolized the domestic virtues of life. 

Unlike many others of her time, Beecher was not looking for a radical change in women’s rights.  She fought for increased recognition, for all to see the true importance of the work women did do.  She founded several schools that were devoted to training women to become teachers.  Beecher also believed that women who were teaching others to live moral lives were the basis of a moral society.  So while her beliefs were not radical, they still helped prove that women were no weaker than men.  Catherine Beecher is a prime example of a woman who wanted change, but did not need to be overly aggressive to get it.

40 Famous Iowans - Modern Ioway Tribe

Today much of the Ioway Native American tribes are not in Iowa, as much as they are around it. The main locations of the tribes are in Kansas, Oklahoma and Nebraska. They are located along the Missouri River on a reservation that is approximately 2,100 acres. In Kansas, as of 1995, the population was 2,147. The tribe in Kansas and Nebraska is chartered under the Reorganization Act of 1934. Their first constitution was adopted on November 6, 1978. The body of tribes today that govern the Ioway is called the Executive Committee. All members within this committee hold 3-year terms, and then elections are undergone.

The tribe’s economy is mostly run by agriculture, cattle, grain processing and Tribal Bingo which later turned into a casino. The modern tribes do all that is possible to follow the lifestyles and customs of their ancestors. At Living History Farms, staff have worked closely with members of the Ioway tribe to create the 1700 Ioway Indian Farm. Visitors can experience how authentic crops were grown, where the tribe members would have lived, and typical “chores” an Ioway farmer would have done.

40 Famous Iowans - Sarah Huftalen

Born in Manchester, Iowa in 1865, Sarah Huftalen was born as a typical farm girl. Yet, the life she led would be called anything but typical for a Midwestern woman of her time. When she grew older she became a very accomplished school and college teacher. She married a man much older than herself and went on to care greatly for both her family and her life’s work.

What she is known best for however is her writing. Also, she wrote many essays, teacher’s guides and poetry. In total, she wrote over 3,500 pages about her life as a daughter, sister, mother, historian and public figure. She goes into great detail about her feelings, life through each of the stages and how her roles had intertwined, as well as he effects each role she lived had on her. In short, the diaries were an autobiography about her life in Iowa and show us the differences between women then and what struggles and triumphs they made it through during their lives.

40 Famous Iowans - George Schafer

The Schafer Drug Store, which can now be found at Living History Farms, is named after George Schafer. Schafer was the Iowa Pharmacy Association’s first President. The store was named after him in honor of all the service he provided to the IPA in the late 1800s. Also, Schafer played a key role in creating the Iowa Board of Pharmacy, which created the first real regulation of pharmacy practice in the state. Today his drug store at Living History Farms is a part of the living museum based on the pharmacy practices in 1875. It does a fascinating job at showing some of the evolution behind a pharmacy as time went on. Schafer’s drug store will show visitors for a long time to come what a pharmacist’s job was like in the late 1800s.

These early drugstores were very important to smaller towns for medicines, household chemicals and much more. Druggists during this time were depended on for their abilities to compound medicines for their patients. Several times patients would actually skip visiting their doctor and go straight to the town’s pharmacist. They not only prescribed the medicines, they created them appropriately in mass. An interesting fact about pharmacists (druggists) during this time was that they were less concerned about patenting their medicines and more into patenting what was holding it. Several bottles designs were patented so other druggists’ could not copy them.

40 Famous Iowans - Fannie Farmer

Fannie Farmer was a famous culinary expert from the mid 1800s through the early 1900s. Her cookbook entitled Boston Cooking-School Cookbook became very popular and widely used at the time. In this cookbook Farmer introduced readers to standardized measuring utensils such as measured spoons and cups. Although Fannie’s family was very devoted to getting education, her hopes of going to college were crushed when at age 16 she suffered a paralytic stroke. For the next several years she did not attend schooling and was dependant on her parents to care for her. It was during this time that she found her love for cooking.

Eventually Farmer turned her mother’s house into a boarding house that soon earned a reputation for the great meals it served. It wasn’t until age 30 that Farmer was able to attend school again, and she attended Boston Cooking School. Up until 1889, she learned about all aspects to cooking and soon mastered the art. After graduating, she took a spot on the school board up until 1902. Later in her life she again lost the ability to walk. In these later years of her life Farmer lectured, wrote and created recipes for everyone to enjoy. To this day, Fannie Farmer is known for her organization and good food. In 1915, Farmer died at age 57 in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

40 Famous Iowans - Isabella Beeton

Isabella Beeton, known by all as “Mrs. Beeton”, was a famous English writer known for writing Mrs. Beeton’s Book on Household Management. Beeton is one of the most famous culinary writers of all times. Born in London, England she was sent off to a school in Germany for two years where she became an accomplished pianist, before returning home. Her husband, Samuel Beeton, was a publisher of books and popular magazines.

From 1859-1861 Beeton wrote monthly in The Englishwoman’s Domestic Magazine. Then in 1861 her writings were made into a single volume, The Book of Household Management. The book includes over 1,000 pages along with over 900 popular recipes. This was the first cookbook to take the format of recipe with pictures that we still use in cookbooks today. The book’s only intent was to be a reliable source of good recipes, not a book with original recipes. The day after the birth of her fourth child in 1865, Beeton tragically died at age 28. In 1940, the Beeton’s home was destroyed by a German bombing raid. In 2006, BBC made a TV series called The Secret Life of Mrs. Beeton.

40 Famous Iowans - John B. Newhall

John Newhall came to Iowa from Massachusetts to travel Iowa during its earliest days of settlement. During his career, he published two books describing all of Iowa in general to settlers coming to the area. The books described terrain, weather, prices of different products and much more. They went into great detail as to talk about each county in particular and what made it unique. It talked about rivers, lakes, prairies and timbers.

The first book was entitled, “Sketches of Iowa, or the Emigrant’s Guide” and was published in 1841. The second was called, “The Emigrant’s Guide and State Directory” which was published in 1846. Newhall’s works did much to help bring more settlers into not just Iowa, but the Midwest in general. He also traveled the country lecturing about what to expect when getting to Iowa and preparing to settle. John Newhall gave settlers who were new to the area a great advantage. Without his insight, many may have not chosen to make Iowa their home.

40 Famous Iowans - Thomas Terrill

Thomas Terrill was born in Virginia in 1850. When Terrill was three years old, the family moved to Cedar County, Iowa where they started their own farm. By the time Thomas was eleven, he and his siblings were orphans as both his parents had died by this time. Thomas went to live with the Blaylock family and moved with them down to Keokuk, Iowa. By age twenty-one, Thomas started writing the diaries he is so well known for. Thomas Terrill had no formal education. The diaries span from 1871-1912. As was the case with so many other diarists of this time, Terrill wrote most about his day-to-day activities on the farm.

Although most of the diaries recovered by Terrill had to do with farming, later in his life he began traveling and several accounts of these times can be found as well. The diaries are an interesting read for those who desire more information on what farming was like every day during this time period. Today many of Terrill’s diaries can be found in Iowa colleges and museums.

40 Famous Iowans - Kitturah Penton Belknap

Kitturah Belknap was one of the very first pioneer settlers in Iowa. She came among the groups of the first settlers as a “trail woman” who kept pushing further west into the uncharted land. Several trail women settled in Iowa, but only a handful went further west, including Belknap. She did eventually finish her journey with the others in Oregon. These trail women challenged the stereotype of women being weak and insecure.

Belknap’s diaries give us so much insight on what the days were like for everybody out on the trail. She wrote about every detail about each day on the trail such as people passed, weather and terrain and even when they came across a nice family who offered a place to stay the night. Kitturah Belknap’s diaries give us as much information about the hardships faced everyday by the travelers. Belknap was a jack-of-all-trades on the trails. She helped with everything from navigating to cooking, even to helping the men save fellow travelers who had been taken during ambushes. She was a highly regarded woman in her group, and is highly regarded today as well.

40 Famous Iowans - Norman Borlaug

The “father” of the Green Revolution is said to have saved at least one billion people worldwide with his advances agricultural research. Norman Borlaug is one of the few men ever to win the Nobel Peace Prize, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the Congressional Medal of Honor as well as a medal in India. Borlaug won his Nobel Peace Prize in 1970. When he was informed of this by his wife he thought for some time that it was all a big hoax. His work with producing stronger variations of wheat more than doubled wheat production in Mexico, Pakistan, India, Asia and Africa, saving people from starvation. Norman Borlaug however did not just work on food production to help fight starvation. His other fight was that against deforestation, called the “Borlaug Hypothesis”. The hypothesis states, increasing the productivity of agriculture on the best farmland can help control deforestation by reducing the demand for new farmland.

Borlaug grew up around Cresco, Iowa where he was very active in high school sports. If it weren’t for his father telling him to get his education, he very well may have never left the family farm. His college career was done through a Minnesota two-year college then eventually Minnesota University. He did research for the United States Army after Pearl Harbor and created wartime products they were in need of. He researched and produced disease-resistant and dwarfed wheat to help the production flourish worldwide. In 1986 he created the World Food Prize as a way to distinguish people who helped sustain and advance food production in the world. Later in his life, he became a very distinguished professor in Texas. Borlaug’s achievements in his life saved the lives of so many others.

40 Famous Iowans - Henry A. Wallace

Henry A. Wallace led a very busy and politically impressive life. Wallace graduated from the Iowa State College (Iowa State University) in Ames. Wallace’s father was Henry C. Wallace, the famous editor in Des Moines. Henry A. Wallace himself did some editorial work for Wallace’s Farmer from 1910-1924. He did some studies on corn a little later in his life and published several agriculture articles on the subject. Wallace started a small seed company which today is Pioneer Hi-Bred. It was acquired by DuPont back in 1990 for around ten billion dollars.

He spent much of his life exploring different religious beliefs. His beliefs even took him to working closely with the Russian, Nicholas Roerich. Eventually Wallace decided on Episcopalianism. In 1933, he became Secretary of Agriculture to Franklin Roosevelt’s cabinet; he served this position until 1940. November of 1940, Wallace was elected as Vice President, on the ticket with Franklin Roosevelt. At this position, Wallace was in charge of a couple different boards that proved to be very important to the United States Army as they entered World War 2. Other milestones in his career were the Secretary of Commerce in 1945, and he ran for President in 1948 as a part of the Progressive Party. After his years as a Politician he went back to the life of a farmer. During these years he made several advances in agricultural science. In 1965, Wallace died of Lou Gehrig’s disease, but his agricultural and political accomplishments will long be remembered.

40 Famous Iowans - William G. Murray

The founder of Living History Farms was born in 1903 in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. In 1924 he received his B.A. in economics from Coe College, his M.A. from Harvard University in 1925 and his PhD in 1932 from Minnesota University in agricultural economics. For a brief period of time in the mid 1920s Murray served as a graduate assistant in the agricultural economics department at Iowa State. For a brief period after this he served as the Assistant Agricultural Economist with the United States Department of Agriculture then returned to Iowa State as an assistant professor.

In 1958 and 1966 Murray ran unsuccessfully for Governor of Iowa. The Farms takes visitors on a tour of 300 years of history of farming. But he was passionate about giving back to Iowa and had a dream of creating a museum where visitors didn’t just look at static items under glass, but were able to participate in a “living history” museum. In 1970, he founded Living History Farms. The Farms recreated 300 years of agricultural history. A 1700 Ioway Indian Farm, an 1875 faming town, and a 1900 horse-powered farm. Each farm has authentically- grown crops and historic varieties of livestock. Although Dr. Murray died 1991, his dream lives on today at Living History Farms.

40 Famous Iowans - Chief Mahaska (White Cloud)

The Ioway chief was born in the late 1700s along the Des Moines River in southeast Iowa. He became chief at a young age due to the murder of his father by an enemy tribe during an ambush. Mahaska proved himself however during a retaliatory attack on the Dakota tribe, killing its chief. The chief and another member of the tribe were arrested for the murder of two French-speaking traders. Although the two were convicted, they later managed to escape from prison. It is said that many questions regarding legitimacy of the jurisdiction was in question, but ignored. During his time as leader, in the early 1800s, the leader position became harder to handle as the tribe dealt with diseases and almost constant war with other tribes. In 1819, Sauk and Meskwaki warriors ambushed the main Ioway village killing close to a third of its population. Another huge problem Mahaska and his tribe faced were settlers moving into the Ioway tribe’s land. Soon after this Missouri was annexed as a state, taking away millions of acres from the Ioway. Mahaska realized it would be impossible to fight everyone off, so he began working on a peaceful coexistence with the new neighbors.

Later in his life, he moved down to the area of Agency, Missouri where he began a lifestyle like that of the Anglo-American. From this point on, Mahaska was against any kind of physical violence. Every time fights broke out he did all he could to seek peaceful resolutions. Even when Mahaska’s own son was killed, he found “revenge” in assisting in the arrests of the eight who were involved in the plot around Omaha. However, in 1833, one of the men convicted of the murder escaped prison, tracked down Mahaska and murdered the beloved Ioway chief.

40 Famous Iowans - Governor Robert Ray

Robert Ray served as Iowa’s 38^th Governor from 1969-1983. From Drake University he received both his B.A. in 1952 and his Law Degree in 1955. It was during Ray’s time in office that the Iowa Constitution was changed, giving governors four-year terms instead of two. From 1975-1976 Ray served as the chair of the National Governors Association. Other associations he was the chairman of included: Republican Governors Association, Midwestern Governors Association, and the Education Commission of the State and was the president of the Council of State Governments. The executive orders he promoted ranged from civil rights, energy conservation, paperwork reduction as well as several other important issues. Ray also had the pleasure of being Iowa’s first Governor to call the Terrace Hill Mansion, home.

He also put a lot of time and effort into the United Nations Conference starting in 1979. He received the Iowa Award in 2005, which is the highest civilian honor that can be attained. In 1975, Ray set up ways for fleeing Vietnamese to take refuge in the United States and eventually obtain citizenship. Ray enacted the first laws in the nation protecting Native American burial grounds in 1976. Later, in 1982, Ray was the first recipient of the Cristine Wilson Medal for Equality and Justice. Robert Ray was an extremely popular Governor who still to this day has an active role in public affairs for Iowa.

40 Famous Iowans - B.F. Allen

Benjamin Franklin Allen (people called him Frank), moved to Iowa in 1851, soon after Iowa became a state. Allen was on his way to becoming Iowa’s first millionaire from good investments in the banks. The pioneer banker and real estate agent soon became an Iowan tycoon in the two industries. Allen built the Terrace Hill mansion as his family home in 1866. He built the famous mansion as a tribute to his great wealth. The infamous Black Friday of 1873 and the panic that followed proved terrible for the young tycoon and he lost everything. After this personal tragedy, Allen was forced to sell his home to his lawyer, Frederick Hubbell in 1884. Hubbell’s family lived in the mansion for a short period before they donated it to the state.

Allen’s mansion today is a National Historic Landmark, as well as the home of the state’s Governor. Today B.F. Allen is buried in Woodland Cemetery in Des Moines. Although Benjamin Allen later in life made some financial mistakes, he still can be recognized as Iowa’s first millionaire. Also, without his masterful work in architecture we wouldn’t have the unique mansion we have today.

40 Famous Iowans - Henry C. Wallace

The eldest son of “Uncle” Henry Wallace, Henry C. Wallace was from Rock Island, Illinois. As he was growing up the family moved to Winterset, Iowa so his father could go after his journalism endeavors. Henry became his father’s apprentice during this time. In 1885 he entered what is now Iowa State University and met his future wife. He quit school and moved to Orient, Iowa with his new wife. However, in 1892 he decided to move back to Ames and finished school with a degree as a Professor of Dairy Science.

The following year Henry teamed up with his brother John and a professor they knew by the name Professor Curtiss to publish Farm and Dairy, which is now known as Wallace’s Farm. As an interesting note, the Wallace family actually became very close with the great African American scientist, George Washington Carver. Carver and Wallace had little expeditions around Ames. Later, Wallace gave credit to Carver for his interest in botany. When his father died in 1919, Henry C. Wallace took over as the editor of Wallace’s Farm.

Another huge accomplishment made by Wallace was his leadership in the formation of several Des Moines groups such as: 4-H, YMCA and The Red Cross. In 1921 he was appointed Secretary of Agriculture under President Harding. During this time Wallace did all he could to help struggling farmers after the First World War. After his death in 1924, another of his books were published, Our Debt and Duty to the Farmer.

40 Famous Iowans - George Washington Carver

George Washington Carver was one of the greatest scientists of the 20^th century. The effects of his inventions can still be felt today. In 1864, Carver was born into slavery Diamond Grove, Missouri. He was very sick and frail throughout much of his childhood. At one point he and his mother were kidnapped by a band of raiders and found days later by a neighbor who traded him back to his own in return for a race horse. Carver’s life was full of milestones and achievements.

From 1925-1927 alone he received three patents. It was his time spent on the farms during his slavery where Carver fell in love with plants. He made it his life mission after being a slave to finding uses for nature and its plants, specifically southern agriculture. What he is probably best known for were his techniques in crop-rotation and nutrient conservation in soil. Also, his over 300 uses for the peanut and several others using soybeans. Everything from cooking items to soaps to ink was made from peanuts. There were also several inventions made from sweet potatoes and pecans as well. His hundreds of inventions did the south so much good that it revolutionized their economy, taking off some of their deep needs for cotton.

Due to his skin color, Carver was rejected by several schools and couldn’t start schooling until age 12 in southwest Missouri. When ready for college Carver was again rejected by Highland University due to his race. In 1890 he was accepted by Simpson College in Indianola, Iowa. As his interests in the field grew however he transferred to what is now Iowa State University. He was so successful there that in 1894 after graduating he was offered a teaching position, the first for the school. He worked in the greenhouses as an agriculture and botany professor. Many of the hundreds of uses from sweet potatoes were utilized as well. Although Carver received patents for some of his products he never patented any of them. He wanted his work to be available for everyone to use, for the good of mankind. Carver’s work helped everyone, even up until today and he received equality and respect from all. In 1990 he was inducted into the National Inventor’s Hall of Fame.

40 Famous Iowans - ‘Uncle’ Henry Wallace

Henry Wallace, called Uncle Henry by many, was a man who loved to preach about rural Iowa. His congregation was made up of friends, loved ones and other families in his area. Wallace grew up in Pennsylvania and went to seminary in Ohio, then was ordained a Presbyterian clergyman. Through the 1860s he traveled to Iowa in the Davenport area and did his preaching. Soon after he borrowed some money and bought a piece of land in Iowa, this is how he found his ability to sell land at a profit.

In 1877 he had to retire from ministry due to struggles with tuberculosis. In 1879 he started writing in the Winterset Chronicle on agricultural topics. In 1885, working out of Winterset, Wallace started writing for the Des Moines-based newspaper The Homestead. In 1985 Wallace resigned due to editorial differences. Wallace’s writings encouraged new farm practices, getting women and children more into the work as well. In 1908 President Theodore Roosevelt appointed him on the Country Life Commission. Both Henry’s son and grandson eventually became secretaries of agriculture under the Roosevelt and Harding administrations. Uncle Henry Wallace died from a stroke as he sat in a front pew waiting for a morning session to begin of a ministry convention in Des Moines. Many people loved and adored Henry Wallace, his writings and his preaching.

40 Famous Iowans - Annie Wittenmyer

Born in Sandy Springs, Ohio Annie Wittenmyer was born into a family that focused on education. For this reason, despite being a girl, she was allowed her schooling. Early in her life, Wittenmyer was interested in poetry and by age 12 had published her first poem. When she was 20, she married William Wittenmyer and the couple moved to Keokuk, Iowa in 1853. As she grew up with a family dedicated to education, Wittenmyer’s life early on had the same focus. The same year she started the first tuition-free school. The school also provided clothes and food for those who were needier.

Once the Civil War started she changed her focus to relief work. She became the secretary of the Soldiers’ Aid Society and visited troop encampments where she organized local aid systems to help better collect hospital supplies that were always needed. When it came to the Union army, Wittenmyer did more than anyone else to aid the soldiers. The poor conditions of the camps upset her and she made it her new mission to do something about it. She urged her fellow Iowan women to send food to the wounded soldiers. As the problem became better recognized, Wittenmyer was put in charge of all hospital kitchens for the Union army. When the war ended, she worked day and night to find homes for orphaned children as a result of the war. Today she has orphanages all around the state. In 1862 she was appointed to the Iowa State Sanitary Commission, a first for a woman. At age 72, in 1900, Wittenmyer died in Pennsylvania. Annie Wittenmyer was one of the most important women to the Union army during the Civil War.

40 Famous Iowans - Annie Savery

Annie Savery came to the U.S. as a young girl from her home in London. She was a self-educated woman who taught herself to read and write in both English and Spanish. She was called sharp-witted and brilliant by her peers. In 1853 she married a man by the name James Savery who was a businessman in New York. The following year the couple came to call Des Moines home, at this time Des Moines’ population was around 1,500 people. Soon after moving in, James bought a small log hotel in Des Moines, which Annie spent much of her time helping to manage. This small hotel became so successful it allowed James the money to get into the real estate business and buy a few more hotels in the area, becoming known as the Savery Hotels. From this business the family obtained a worth of around $250,000 ($3.5million today).

Savery’s biggest contributions came in the 1860s when she got involved with the Iowa Woman’s Suffrage Association. In 1870 she helped found the state suffrage association and established Iowa’s first women’s suffrage society in Polk County. At this same time she served on the executive board for the National Woman’s Suffrage Association. While she served; the association was under huge pressure due to their new ideas about woman’s freedoms. During this time when several other suffrage members kept quiet, Savery spoke her mind and didn’t back down. Annie Savery was a clear thinker and hard worker for what she believed was right and fair when it came to the rights women should have.

40 Famous Iowans - Amelia Bloomer

Born in Homer, New York in 1818 Amelia Bloomer played a very significant role when it came to women’s rights and temperance issues. Although she only had a couple of years of formal schooling herself, she became a teacher and was known for her intelligence among her friends and co-workers. In 1840, she married a prominent lawyer Dexter Bloomer. He was very supportive of her interests in temperance and social issues. He encouraged her to write in his newspaper the Seneca Falls County Courier. Eventually, though, she started her own publication in 1849 called The Lily.

Initially, she was primarily writing about temperance and social issues but this developed into a passion for women’s rights, as well. Amelia’s writings caught the attention of national suffrage leaders such as Susan B. Anthony who urged her to do more with her work. Many saw her articles as inflammatory and out of place, but at the same time, circulation was growing. Her interests led her to join several different temperance and women’s rights groups. In 1848, she took part in the famous Seneca Falls Convention.

In 1855, Bloomer and her husband moved to Council Bluffs, Iowa. Amelia also became known for a new dress style. She believed that women should be allowed to wear less restrictive clothing. The “Bloomers” dress style was a loose fitting pair of trousers gathered at the ankles to be worn with either a skirt or dress. This fashion piece became fairly popular. Eventually, Amelia made her way up to joining to Iowa State Suffrage Association, becoming the head of the association from 1871-1873. Her passion for social issues, temperance and women’s rights is a very important part of Iowa history.

40 Famous Iowans - Martin and Ellen Flynn

Martin and Ellen Flynn were penniless Irish immigrants who made Des Moines their home. He began his life in Iowa by carrying water to railroad construction crews. By his thirtieth birthday, he had become a wealthy entrepreneur. In 1867, Martin Flynn purchased 600 acres of farmland to the northwest of Des Moines. In 1870, Martin and Ellen built their dream home, a 14-room Italianate country home, which had several amenities that most houses of the time did not. The house still stands to this day atop Walnut Hill and is the centerpiece of Living History Farms.

Martin Flynn, who started out in Iowa so humbly carrying water to railroad workers, would end up making his fortune from that same industry. At this time, thousands of Irish men and women were migrating here and finding jobs with the railroad. Due to his talents however, Martin became one of the most sought after contractors. Flynn eventually owned 1700 acres of farmland, one of the largest farms in the Midwest. On this farm, he raised some of the finest shorthorn cattle in the country. Flynn was a catalyst in setting up other businesses in Iowa as well. These included the Flynn Dairy and Peoples Savings Bank (now Bankers Trust).

Ellen Flynn made her home a well-known social gathering place. Martin and Ellen raised a large family and many of their children went on to have successful careers of their own. In 1916, the Flynn farm was sold to the state of Iowa as a prison farm. This purpose caused extensive damage to the home. Once the organization Living History Farms was established, the home went through major renovation. Thanks to the dream of the Flynn’s, we all today can enjoy the hands-on history lesson that is called Living History Farms.

40 Famous Iowans - Richard and James Clarkson

Newspaper content in early Iowa was much different than we read today. The news consisted of local events primarily; rarely did they read about events in other states, much less other countries. In 1855, the Clarkson family moved to Grundy County, Iowa. In 1870, Mr. Clarkson and his two sons, James and Richard, purchased the Iowa State Register (now the Des Moines Register). The elder Clarkson was the agricultural editor until his death in 1890. Both sons, Richard and James, learned the printing and newspaper business from their father.

James was an editor for the family newspaper. In addition, he has become known as the greatest editorial writer in Iowa. He was also the Des Moines postmaster for several years. James received offers from four U.S. Presidents to join their cabinets and for reasons unknown, turned them all down.

His brother, Richard was the business manager of the Iowa State Register and later became the sole owner and editor as well. In 1902, he became the pension agent for Iowa and Nebraska and sold the paper. For just over thirty years, the Iowa State Register was totally owned and operated by one Iowa family, the Clarksons.

40 Famous Iowans - Alexander Clark, Sr.

Alexander Clark, Sr. was one of the most prominent community leaders of Muscatine, Iowa. He was born, however, in Pennsylvania. His father was a slave who was eventually given his freedom by his owner. Early on, Clark, Sr. traveled the country doing miscellaneous jobs along the way such as a barber, bartender, and firewood salesman. In 1842, he landed in Muscatine, Iowa where he continued with the occupation of being a barber. He was actually very successful with this at age sixteen. At the same time, Clark began investing in real estate and accumulated a small fortune.

After Clark was married, he and his wife came to be very well-known in Iowa. When they tried to have their 12 year old daughter Susan admitted to public school in Muscatine, she was denied. The Muscatine School Board thought that Susan was unfit to attend their all white school. In 1868, Clark, Sr. filed a lawsuit to the Iowa Supreme Court. He spoke on behalf of his daughter. The court found in the Clark’s favor and Susan was allowed to attend the school. This court case, it could be noted, took place almost 100 years before the notorious Brown v Board of Education case in Kansas. He had to go through the same dilemma with his son when he was denied entry into the University of Iowa. His son, Alexander Clark, Jr., did, however, become the first African American to graduate from the University. Clark, Sr. himself became only the second African American to graduate from the University of Iowa at the age of 58 years old. He became a non-traditional college student to set an example for other young African American men. The father and son went on to practice together in Iowa and Illinois.

This case goes to show that even then African Americans who spoke their voice to government could be heard despite all the other injustices to the people at this time. Clark also became a very well-known member of the Republican Party. He died in Liberia in 1891 while serving as the U.S. Minister to Liberia. He had been appointed by President Harrison. This is thought to have been the highest appointment of an African American by a U.S. President to that point in history.

40 Famous Iowans - Washington Freeman Peck

From fairly early on, Washington Peck knew what he wanted to study and make his life’s work, medicine. Growing up in Galen, New York, Peck started studying the science of medicine at age eighteen. Washington Peck attended Bellevue Medical College of New York. This was the first school in the country to blend clinical and didactic teachings. During his time at Bellevue College, he spent two years as House Surgeon in Bellevue Hospital. In 1863, he graduated with highest honors. Soon after graduating he joined the military as a surgeon for the next eighteen months. His work in the service won him official commendation for the work he did at Lincoln General Hospital.

In 1864, he was relocated to Davenport, Iowa where he gained substantial recognition for his special attention to surgery. In 1867, Peck was made President of the Iowa State Medical Society. Just two years later, in 1869, Peck went in front of the trustees of the University with the idea of adding a medical department to the school. To his surprise, the board liked the idea and helped Peck through the preliminary steps to start the medical department. When the department was established Peck was named Dean and Professor of Surgery. The medical department struggled for years due to financial problems and rivalry from other hospitals. Thanks to Peck’s vision and hard work, a premier educational institution and hospital would eventually flourish in Iowa.

40 Famous Iowans - Mary Potts

Mary Potts of Ottumwa, Iowa came up with her idea of the “sad” irons with detachable handles. They were called “sad” because they were heavy irons. Her creation was then patented in 1871. This was unheard of at the time because women’s rights still had not taken off and women could not even vote yet. So, to have a female inventor was really quite unusual. The invention was simply a detachable handle for pressing irons. Several irons could be kept on the stove to heat. The handle could attach to one and be used until the iron cooled and then the handle could be easily switched with to another hot iron. Potts claimed that her irons were insulated with a filler material that was a non-conductor of heat to keep the irons hot for longer periods of time.

She exhibited her invention at the 1876 Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia. If it isn’t incredible enough that she received a patent at this time, there’s more. She also received patents for several variations to the original “sad” iron. Potts’ product was widely manufactured and sold in both the U.S. and Europe. Today, her invention is well-known by antique collectors. This “sad” iron changed forever a very laborious and lengthy household chore of ironing.

40 Famous Iowans - Judith Foster

Judith Foster was born in Massachusetts in 1840. Foster was an American lecturer. She lectured on a wide variety of topics and published a book in 1882 entitled Constitutional Amendment Manual. She also wrote several pamphlets concerning temperance as well. In 1869, she moved to Clinton, Iowa with her son and husband. She studied law and in 1872, was admitted to the State Bar.

Foster was officially the first woman to practice law in Iowa. While initially she practiced on her own, later in her career, she formed a partnership with her husband. She also became one of the first women to practice in Iowa’s Supreme Court. She later focused on another strong interest which was temperance work. She became the superintendent for the Legislative Department of the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union. During this period, she became a rigorous supporter and advocate for better women’s suffrage in politics. In 1907, she was appointed as a special agent of the Federal Department of Justice.

40 Famous Iowans - Arabella Babs Mansfield

Arabella Babs Mansfield was the first woman allowed to take the bar examination on June 9, 1868 in Chicago, Illinois. She passed with high scores, making her the first female lawyer in the United States.

Born in Burlington, Iowa in 1846, Mansfield was raised in Mt. Pleasant, Iowa. In 1862, she attended college in her hometown at Iowa Weslyean College. Graduating as valedictorian after only three years, she taught for a while at Simpson College in Indianola, Iowa, before moving back to Mt. Pleasant where she married John Mansfield. John was a professor at Iowa Wesleyan and he encouraged his wife to study law. She was very close to her brother, Washington, himself an attorney, and she studied in his law office in preparation for the exam. Prior to Mansfield taking the bar, the state of Iowa had a law in place to allow only white males over the age of twenty-one to take the exam. As a result of Mansfield passing this exam, in 1869, Iowa became the first state to admit women to the practice of law. However, after being sworn in, Mansfield did not actually practice law. Instead, she focused on teaching and activist work.

Her teaching continued at Iowa Wesleyan and DePauw University in Indiana. Here, in 1893, she became a Dean of the School of Art. Another true passion was her work with the National Woman Suffrage Association. She worked closely with Susan B. Anthony on several issues. In 1980, Mansfield was inducted into Iowa’s Women’s Hall of Fame. There is a statue in Mansfield’s honor on the campus of Iowa Weslyean College.

40 Famous Iowans - Robert Reid

It was in the mid-1800s when Robert Reid, the creator of Reid’s Yellow Dent corn, found his new type of corn. Once the seed was created, it quickly became the most popular field corn seed. Reid was from Illinois, but his creation of this variety of corn helped the entire Midwest, including Iowa, where his discovery was made by accident.

When an older version of dent corn called “Gordon Hopkins” was mixed with the native “Little Yellow” corn, the new corn mutation was created. In the 19^th century, Yellow Dent corn was considered one of the most productive open pollinated varieties corn. From 1870 through 1900, Reid’s sons helped refine and improve the corn. In 1893, the corn won for Best Agricultural Product at the World’s Fair. At that it, time produced 35 to 45 bushels of corn per acre.

Today, the Yellow Dent corn can be found in small stores that save their own seeds or it can be ordered. Reid’s Yellow Dent has also been used for developing hybrid seed corn. Reid’s discovery has continued to allow producers in the Corn Belt to have access to a strong, successful seed. Therefore, it can be said that Reid’s creation helped feed many people and helped bring to life other new types of seed corn as time has passed.

40 Famous Iowans - Joseph Dain

Joseph Dain owned Dain Manufacturing, producing “Dain” tractors, hay handling equipment, and other farming equipment. Dain’s company was originally founded in Missouri, but eventually moved to Ottumwa, Iowa in 1909. Dain Manufacturing Limited was bought out by John Deere in 1911. Dain was the first to produce a tractor that was All Wheel Drive. This was a huge progressive step for farmers and is still used today. Only 100 Dain tractors were produced starting in 1918, while John Deere had been working on prototypes since 1912.

Not long after, John Deere put a halt to the production of Dain tractors for a different, cheaper version called the Waterloo Boy. These tractors were produced until 1924. In 1923, John Deere’s Model D tractor was being mass produced, making the Waterloo Boy model obsolete.

Joseph Dain was a true driving force behind the production and design of tractors. When Dain died, people started to question whether John Deere as a company would survive. They made it through their hardships by producing at least 100 of the All Wheel Drive tractors that Dain has designed. The other big event that saved John Deere was World War I. Deere began producing war equipment instead of farming equipment in 1917.

40 Famous Iowans - Elizabeth Koren

Elizabeth Koren was the wife of a Lutheran minister who traveled to Northeast Iowa from Norway in the 1850s. Elizabeth’s husband was the first Norwegian Lutheran minister west of the Mississippi River. He was also responsible for purchasing the land where today Luther College is located in Decorah, Iowa. During the family’s travels Koren made a journal dated from 1853 to 1855. The diary talks about everyday life and how lonely and hard was for families who relocated from other countries. Her husband was a very busy man, considered to be a patriarch to the area. The diary also recounted what it was like for four adults and two children to live in a one-room log house throughout the winter.

Elizabeth Koren’s husband, Ulrik Vilhelm Koren was largely responsible the settlement of Norwegians in America. In addition to his ministry, Ulrik was an author and a theologian. Today, Decorah, Iowa is the home of Vesterheim Museum. This museum is dedicated the Norwegians who traveled to America sharing their cultures and traditions. The Koren home is included among its historical structures, as well. While Ulrik Koren is well-known for bringing the Norwegian heritage to this part of the country, we can also learn much from his wife Elizabeth who was brave enough to move her entire family to a new world and culture.

40 Famous Iowans - A.W. Livingston

Alexander Livingston, originally from Reynoldsburg, Ohio, was a pioneer in the seeding industry. He began his farming career in 1844 when he leased some farmland. In 1852, he was able to purchase his own farm. He moved to Des Moines, Iowa and started a seed company in 1880. It wasn’t until 1898, however, that his company came to be known as Livingston Seed Company.

Livingston and his company created over 30 different varieties of tomato. He planned and worked to improve the shape, texture, flavor, as well as many other characteristics about the fruit. His first release was in 1870 and was called the Paragon. It is claimed that this tomato is the first perfectly uniform and smooth tomato on the market. In the 1930s, their industry began to change. Livingston’s company was struggling to survive and moved into field seeds. In doing this, they decided to drop tomatoes from their line. Even so, A. W. Livingston’s legacy is the tomato.

40 Famous Iowans - Carrie Chapman Catt

Raised in Iowa, Carrie Chapman Catt had a strong interest in teaching. After only briefly studying law, she was appointed the principal of a high school one year after graduating from Iowa State College, as it was called until 1945. Two years later, she was the Superintendant of Schools for Mason City.

In 1885, after she and her husband moved to California, he died. While in California she worked for a short time as a newspaper reporter. She soon returned to Iowa and joined the Iowa Woman Suffrage Association as a lecturer. In 1890, she became a delegate for the National Woman Suffrage Association. Due to Catt’s diligence and organization she quickly gained additional responsibilities within the association. In 1895, she became the Head of Field Organizing. Her co-workers soon recognized what a great asset Catt was. She was even being noticed and trusted by Susan B. Anthony, a prominent American civil rights leader. In 1900, it was decided that Carrie Chapman Catt would take over as President after Anthony retired. However, four years later Catt was forced to resign her Presidency to take care of her ailing second husband, who later died in 1905.

From 1904 to 1923, she created the International Woman Suffrage Association and, along with that, in 1915 was re-elected to be President of the NWSA once again. One of her biggest accomplishments in a stellar career was assisting in the passage of the 19^th Amendment in 1920 which provided women the right to vote. Catt was one of the most admired and dedicated people in the history of women’s suffrage.

40 Famous Iowans - George G. Wright

George Wright was born in Indiana in 1820, but was a leader in the legal area for the state of Iowa. He was a lawyer, Supreme Court justice, law professor, and a United States Senator for the Republican party of Iowa. Throughout his childhood he attended private school to get his education and graduated from Indiana University in 1839.

During the years of 1847 and 1848, he was the prosecuting attorney for Van Buren County. He was also a member of the Iowa Senate for two years. He eventually became a justice on the Supreme Court until 1860 when he took a break for a few months, but returned for the next ten years until September of 1870. Seven of those years, he was the Court’s Head Justice. In 1865, Wright moved to Des Moines. Along with Justice C.C. Cole, Wright established the first law school west of the Mississippi River and it was called the University of Iowa College of Law. From 1865-1871, Wright served as a professor at the school.

In the 1870s, he was elected to a six-year term in the United States Senate. Following the years he served in the Senate, Wright returned to his practice in Des Moines and entered the banking industry, eventually becoming the President of Polk County Savings Bank. In 1887 and 1888, he was named President of the American Bar Association. Wright did a lot of governmental work for the state of Iowa and also for the United States as a whole.

40 Famous Iowans - Nacheninga, Chief No Heart of Fear

Nacheninga was a distinguished leader of the Ioway tribe in the early 1800s. Chief No Heart of Fear was a delegate to Washington, D.C. His goal was to negotiate treaty agreements with the United States Government. One common way Nacheninga would assist in these negotiations was his hand-drawn map of where the Ioway tribes had moved and were living. He used this map to support his argument that the Ioway tribes had been living in the area long before other tribes and the Europeans. Today, the map is still used by 1700 farm interpreters to provide information to museum visitors.

When it was necessary, Nacheninga was a hard, ruthless warrior, fighting in several tribal wars. At age fifteen he joined a war party that was led by his brother White Cloud. Chief No Heart of Fear was a vicious fighter both on the battlefield and in his negotiations with the government. This toughness and willingness to fight earned him respect from both his fellow tribe members and others outside his tribe. This visionary leader contributed greatly to the sovereignty of the Ioway tribes. Without his help, the Ioway people would have possibly left the area all together as others began to settle there.

Nacheninga was involved in negotiating treaties throughout the mid-1800s. These signings show us that the ruthless fighter and negotiator looked at all means of peace besides war and battle. Although seen by some as only a ruthless leader, it is fair to say Nacheninga was a man of peace, as well.

40 Famous Iowans - Lyman Dillon

In the 1830s, when paved roads became more and more of a necessity, Lyman Dillon was hired to start the job. At the time, some members of Congress were reluctant to pass a bill to allow roadway improvements. However, supporters won over the opposition when they referred to the roadways as “military roads” in their proposals. Improved conditions would aid soldiers in transporting their supplies across the state. R.C. Tilghman, the town mayor, surveyed the terrain and hired Dillon to plow a furrow along the designated route. This 86-mile trek would run from Dubuque to Iowa City.

In the fall of 1839, Dillon began the project and was paid $3 an hour. He used a team of 10 oxen to plow and had two horses pulling a supply wagon. Although in the end, the military never actually used to the road, it was very important in expanded eastern Iowa. The road was also an important piece of progress for several towns along its route.

Dillon later attended college in Utica, New York. He also had other jobs which included agriculture, water power and the railroad system. Dillon worked hard to move the progress and development of eastern Iowa forward.

40 Famous Iowans - Maxi’diwiac Waheenee (Buffalo Bird Woman)

Buffalo Bird Woman was from the Hidasta Native American tribe in the late 19^th century and early 20^th century. There are several different accounts of the skills she practiced such as food preparation, weaving, and gardening, for which she is best known. All of her gardening techniques were published in a book known today as, “Buffalo Bird Woman’s Garden”. These Hidasta farming methods were very close to those of the Ioway Indians. The book written by Bird Woman is used by museums today as a primary source of insight to how tribes farmed at the time.

Along with the book, Buffalo Bird Woman generously shared her knowledge with others who came to her with farming and gardening questions. For the Hidasta tribe, having a garden next to their earth-made home was one of the tasks completed when settling in. Gardens grew bigger as years passed and more food was needed. At the start of each growing season in April, sunflowers were planted, then later harvested and eaten. Many long hours of hard work were put into a family’s garden.

Buffalo Bird Woman and the Hidasta Native American tribe show us today what popular gardening and farming techniques were common in this time. “Buffalo Bird Woman’s Garden” explains that gardening was an important key to a tribe’s survival.

40 Famous Iowans - George Catlin

George Catlin’s interest in Native American customs was sparked at a young age. Born and raised in Pennsylvania, he was told stories of the Native Americans on the western frontier by his mother. This ignited an interest which turned into a lifelong career. After a Native American delegation stopped in Philadelphia, Catlin started studying and following what he called the “vanishing race”. Catlin spent his time traveling the west documenting Native Americans and their customs throughout the 1830s. Also during these years, he traveled Europe spending time with Native Americans who remained relatively untouched by European civilization.

From these experiences, Catlin created numerous paintings and published several books. His artwork provides a look into the life of the Native Americans including how they dressed and many of their customs. One of Catlin’s best-known writings was “Adventures of the Ojibbeway and Ioway Indians”.

After his travels, Catlin created a traveling museum where he gave public lectures about his various paintings and shared stories from his own experiences with the tribes. One of his ultimate dreams was to have the U.S. government buy his paintings so his life’s work would be preserved. Today, hundreds of his paintings are on display in museums around the country, including several hundred in the American Museum of Natural History in New York City.

Without George Catlin’s insightful paintings, people today would know much less about Native American dress and customs. This vivid artwork of Native American families and their customs, offers us a great history lesson of the time.

40 Famous Iowans - Benjamin Gue

Gue emigrated to Iowa from Green County, New York when he was 24 years of age. Known for many things, Gue was a well-known newspaper and magazine editor in Fort Dodge and Des Moines, Iowa. In Fort Dodge, Gue was the editor and publisher for Iowa Northwest newspaper for nine years. While in Des Moines, he was the editor and publisher for The Homestead newspaper. Later, he wrote a four-volume series of the history of Iowa from the beginning of the state’s settlement and served as Iowa’s Lieutenant Governor from 1866-1868. He was a farmer, as well as a famous lecturer, and a supporter of the Iowa Agriculture College, later named Iowa State University.

Gue invested much time and energy with the Iowa Agriculture College by signing bills, actively supporting and serving as the college’s President of the Board of Trustees for a period of time. Gue devoted much of his attention to gathering material to create a vivid history of Iowa.

Benjamin Gue was considered one of the most prominent men of the state government. He was one of Iowa’s best and brightest journalists and also proved himself to have great executive ability. Thanks to the writings that Benjamin Gue published of different periods in Iowa’s past, we have a vast resource of historical documentation.

40 Famous Iowans - Marie Dorion

Marie Dorion was the Ioway Indians’ version of Sacajawea. Being the only woman on the expedition from St. Louis to the Oregon Territory, Dorion gained recognition for her courage and endurance during the trip. Her purpose on the trip was to assist a group of American explorers in their exploration. During the expedition, the group experienced much adversity such as starvation, weather and ambush. Dorion brought her family along for the 11-month expedition, including two children, making the hardships for her even more brutal.

In Eastern Oregon, the group was ambushed, losing several members of the party. The ambush, along with starvation and errors in judgment, killed a quarter of the exploration team before reaching their planned destination. However, Dorion and her two children were able to complete the entire journey unscathed. After making it to Astoria, Oregon, she joined another group headed out on a beaver trapping expedition. Coincidentally, again her expedition was attacked, this time killing the entire group except for herself and her two children.

Once the journey ended, Dorion settled with her family in Willamette Valley, Oregon. She remained here until she passed away in 1850. After her death Marie Dorion’s neighbors spoke of her as a very admirable woman.

40 Famous Iowans

Over the next few months, we're undertaking a special project in honor of our 40th Anniversary. Interspersed with our regular entries, we'll focus on 40 Famous Iowans. From the "Sacajawea" of the Ioway Tribe to a man who helped found Iowa State University, we will honor the strength and spirit of these Iowans. With their adventures, discoveries, writings, documents, and more, Living History Farms is able to showcase the great history of Iowa.