propriate has been given to the District itself." Thus Iowa was first named by Albert M. Lea, who took the name from the Iowa River. The name Iowa seemed to meet with general favor and was soon universally adopted.
The Territory of Wisconsin. — It was on the fourth day of July, 1836, that the original Territory of Wisconsin, of which the Iowa District was a part, was organized under an act of Congress. (See Map II.) So rapid was the growth of population in the Iowa District that the capital of Wisconsin Territory, which had originally been located at Belmont on the east side of the Mississippi in 1836, was moved to the town of Burlington on the west side of the river within a year.
The Territory of Iowa. — No sooner had the Territory of Wisconsin been organized than a movement was started to establish a separate territory west of the Mississippi. In his Notes on the Wisconsin Territory, Albert M. Lea said: "Though this District may be considered, for a time, as forming a part of the Wisconsin Territory, yet the intelligent reader will have little difficulty in foreseeing that a separate government will soon be required for Iowa." On June 12, 1838, President Van Buren gave his approval to an act to divide the original Territory of Wisconsin and to establish the territorial government of Iowa. (See Map III.) The political existence of Iowa as a separate and distinct government began on the fourth day of July, 1838. Eight years afterwards, on December 28, 1846, Iowa was admitted into the Union with the present State boundaries. (See Map IV.)
