HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION

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Iowa was the sixteenth Commonwealth to be admitted into the Union on an equal footing with the original thirteen States. The date of admission was December twenty-eighth, one thousand eight hundred and fortysix

- seventy years after the Declaration of Independence. As a part of the Province of Louisiana, the Iowa country was acquired by the United States in 1803. Thus the purchase of Louisiana may be regarded as a

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starting point in the history of Iowa. In 1804 the Iowa country was included in the District of Louisiana. In 1805 the District of Louisiana was organized as the Territory of Louisiana. Then in 1812 the Territory of Louisiana was reorganized as the Ter ritory of Missouri. That part of the Territory of Missouri now embraced within the limits of the State of Missouri was admitted into the Union in 1821. Thereupon the Iowa country was left without a local constitutional status until 1834, when it was attached to and made a part of the Territory of Michigan. In 1836 it became a part

of the newly organized Territory of Wisconsin. Two years later (1838) the independent Territory of Iowa was established on the fourth day of July.

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The Iowa country was explored by Marquette in 1673, by Lewis and Clark in 1804, by Zebulon M. Pike in 1805, and by Albert M. Lea in 1835: Marquette visited the valley of the Iowa River; the Lewis and Clark expedition; passed along western Iowa; Pike explored the west bank of the Mississippi; and Albert M. Lea explored eastern Iowaltze

In 1836 Albert M. Lea published a book entitled Notes on

Wisconsin Territory with a Map. On the map and in the text he referred to the country west of the Mississippi as the "Iowa District". Iowa, he tells us, was a name suggested to him by the Ioway River. Thus the name "Iowa" descended from

Ioway River through the Iowa District" and the "Territory of Iowa" to the State of Iowa".

The permanent settlement of Iowa dates from the early thirties, the Indian title to a portion of the country having been first extinguished in June, 1833. A series of treaties made within a

period of ten years secured from