The State of Iowa turned 170 years old this week! Let’s have a look back at what was going on in Davenport at the time.
From the Davenport “Town” Council Proceedings for December 8th 1846:
The big issues: amending the corporation charter to add Ferry privileges, roaming hogs, a fence for the City Cemetery, and a few people still owing money for road taxes.
Selected stories from the Davenport Weekly Gazette, Thursday December 31, 1846:
It had been a pleasantly mild winter up to that point.
Prices for produce and provisions seemed reasonable.
Wagon traffic to Iowa and further west had increased considerably. One correspondent in Peoria theorized it was due, in part, to the results of the most recent elections.
As-Shaw-E-Qua (Singing Bird), widow of the distinguished war chief Black Hawk, died in the Sauk camp, on the Kansas River, on the 29th of August last, aged 85 years. (Notice they called Black Hawk a “war” not a “tribal” chief.)
There was a bribery scandal in the Iowa House of Representatives…
Huldah Sloper, wife of Samuel Sloper of Centerville, Scott County, died of Typhus Fever on December 17th, 1846, at the age of 57. She was the mother of 17 children and grandmother of 38, most of who lived in Scott County. The family has a road named after them.
Estate notices were posted for Lucius Moss, Robert Carleton, and Joseph Conway.
Genealogists know that it’s rare to find an obituary for a woman during this period. Deaths were not recorded in the state of Iowa until 1880; burial records, church death registers, and probates were the only proofs available.
Happy birthday, Iowa!
(posted by Cristina)
