Erected into a Territory chase Reports of the surveyors Garden of the West - Constitution formed - Provisions of the constitution-Refuses the terms of admission as a state A new constitution Admission as a state Length and breadth of the state-Population - Number of dwellings and families Number of counties Amount of unimproved lands Excess of måle population Source of emigration - Most populous counties — Land speculations Advantageous geographical position General appearance of the state - Agricultural condition and resources Coal-fields Limestone - Cedar Valley Soil Minerals -Commerce Shipping ports - Capital of Iowa Iowa City - Railroads — Advantage to settlers - Public institutions. IOWA had attracted the attention of emigrants about the same time with Wisconsin. The region of country to the west of the Mississippi was easily accessible; for the settlers from the south could ascend that river; those from the east could float down the Ohio. Settlements, however, in that direction, had met with a sudden and terrible check, upon the breaking out of the Black Hawk war, in 1829, which for three years had laid waste all the north-western portions of Illinois. But at the close of that period, Black Hawk, utterly routed, driven from Wisconsin Territory, had retired to the distant border of Missouri, and there, upon the head-waters of the Iowa River, he had made overtures for a cessation of hostilities. In September, 1832, a treaty of peace had been concluded between the discomfited savages and the United States, by which it was provided that the Indians should relinquish nearly all the lands from the Mississippi westward, for fifty miles, between the Des Moines River on the south and the Yellow River on the north. That cession comprised not less than one-third part of the present State of Iowa, and became known, subsequently, as the "Black Hawk Purchase." By the treaty, it was stipulated that the Indians should retire from the ceded lands as early as the month of June of the next year. The first settlement in the Black Hawk Purchase was made in the fall of 1832, at Fort Madison, on the Mississippi, just above the mouth of the Des Moines River, by Zachariah Hawkins and Benjamin Jennings. Three years afterward, the town was regularly laid out, and the lots exposed for sale. From that time, Fort Madison continued to grow rapidly; and in 1838, the beautiful grounds contained a thriving village of nearly six hundred inhabitants. The next year after Fort Madison, another settlement was begun at Burlington, seventy-nine miles below Rock Island, by Morton M. M'Carver and Sampson S. White, while the land was still in the occupancy of the Indians. At the same time, two stores were opened there by Dr. W. R. Ross and Jeremiah Smith, each "well supplied with western merchandise." In less than four years, Burlington had become the seat of government for the Territory of Wisconsin, of which Iowa was then a district; and three years later, it contained a population of fourteen hundred persons. Also, in 1833, the city of Dubuque, situated on the Mississippi, four hundred and twenty-five miles above St. Louis, received its first Anglo-American inhabitants; and so rapid was its growth, that, in seven years afterward, it had become a rich commercial town, of about fifteen hundred persons. Dubuque received its name in FIRST SETTLEMENTS. 237 honor of Julien Dubuque, the early proprietor of the "Mines of Spain," upon the Upper Mississippi. A Canadian by birth, Dubuque had visited the lead region in 1786. Exploring its mineral resources, he had succeeded in obtaining from the Indians a grant of a tract of land, comprising about one hundred and forty thousand acres, upon the west bank of the river. Dubuque had acquired great wealth from his mining operations. He died in 1810. His monument may be seen, about one mile below the city, on a high bluff. In 1835, the town of Salem was settled by Aaron Street, a member of the Society of Friends. It was upon the extreme frontier of the Black Hawk Purchase, and constituted the first Quaker settlement in Iowa. Five years afterward, the colony in the vicinity of Salem numbered one thousand persons, many of them aged patriarchs, surrounded by their descendants to the third and fourth generations. Many other settlements of less note had also been springing up along the Mississippi. At the time of the organization of the Territory of Wisconsin, in 1836, the region of country west of the Mississippi was included within it, under the name of the District of Iowa, comprising but two counties - the county of Dubuque and the county of Des Moines-which together contained ten thousand five hundred and thirtyone inhabitants. In a little while, the District of Iowa had become noted throughout the West for its extraordinary beauty and fertility, and the great advantages which it afforded to agricultural enterprise. The first Black Hawk Purchase was speedily overrun by emigrants, who were advancing upon the Indian country beyond. A new treaty, in 1837, had to be negotiated with the Sacs and Foxes, by which they consented to the further extension of the western boundary, so as to include the principal sources of the Iowa River, opening a magnificent region to the progress of settlements. Emigration continued to augment the population. Land-offices were established at Dubuque and Burlington. The surveyors reported "the lands" to consist of "a beautiful, fertile, healthy, undulating region, interspersed with groves and prairies, abounding in springs of pure water, with numerous streams flowing through a soil abounding with limestone of divers varieties, and other kind of rock, and some coal." Before the close of 1838, the counties of Dubuque and Des Moines had been broken up into sixteen counties, having in the aggregate a population of more than twenty thousand souls, widely distributed throughout those portions of the district to which the Indian title had been extinguished. In the meantime, on the fourth of July of that year, Iowa, having been erected into a territory, had become separated from Wisconsin. The first governor of the territory of Iowa was Robert Lucas, formerly governor of Ohio. James Clark was appointed secretary. Augustus C. Dodge was elected by the people to represent them in Congress. The territory, as first organized, comprised "all that region of country north of Missouri, which lies west of the Mississippi River, and of a line drawn due north from the source of the Mississippi to the northern limit of the United States." The first general assembly of the Territory of Iowa, with a strong conviction of the certainty of the growth of the future state, proceeded to make provision for the seat of government, and ordained that it should spring up in the wilderness. "On the first day of May, 1839, the beautiful spot which is now occupied by the city of Iowa, was within the Indian hunting-grounds, from which the tribes had not then retired, and within twenty miles of the |