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Much information regarding early Iowa may be gleaned from the journ als of soldiers stationed on the fron tier. Sometimes these annals record the dull day-by-day events at a fort, sometimes they tell of encounters with Indians, while a march across the prairies is frequently chronicled. An account of the journey of a force of dragoons through Iowa in 1835, written by Lieutenant Albert Miller Lea, gave Iowa its name. Leaving Fort Des Moines on the Mississippi River, under the com mand of Lieutenant Colonel Stephen Watts Kearney, the dragoons follow ed the watershed between the Des Moines and Skunk rivers. From the present site of Oskaloosa, northward they rode for days over prairies on which the ripe, wild strawberries were so abundant that as the horses pass ed they left a trail of red for miles. Turkeys, grouse, ducks, and prair ie chickens, took precipitate flight, be fore this unwelcomed invasion. Deer were plentiful, while bear or buffalo sometimes came within range. Once Lea threw four rattlesnakes out of his tent. On the return trip Lea, with two companions, left the main attachment at the Raccoon Forks and descended the Des Moines River in a cotton wood canoe, sounding shoals, estim ating distances, and occasionally landing to examine the soil and rocks along the course. The story of the march is told by William J. Petersen in the August, 1931, issue of “The Palimpsest,” the monthly publication of The State Historical Society of Towa. The following year Lea published “Notes on Wisconsin Territory” in which he referred to the section through which he traveled at the “Towa District.” Stealing a store out of a rural school house in Woodbury county is the latest piece of audacity exhibited by night prowlers. Sheriff John A. Davenport is trying to get a clue. The stove weighed 800 pounds and must have been loaded into a truck. The ‘thieves broke into the building through a coal shed window and then opened the front door of the school house from the inside and removed the stove.
Newspaper Details
Arlington News
Arlington, Iowa, US
Thu, Nov 05, 1931
Page 1
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