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.