IOWA
95
IOWA
the College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts, at
Ames, and the Normal School at Cedar Falls. There
are in the state 276 private denominational and
higher educational institutions. The Juvenile Court
Law has lieen for several years in force in Iowa.
Under the provisions of the law, offending children
under the age of sLxteen years are no longer treated as
criminals, nor confined in jails. They, as well as
neglected children, are treated as wards of the state
and, imder the supervision of probationary officers,
are kept in their own or other homes, or sent to the
State Industrial Schools. Many girls are sent to the
Houses of the Good Shepherd.
Catholic Education. — Tlirough the unremitting zeal of the present Archbishop of Dubuque and his prede- cessors in office, and their labours among the clergy and people, the cause of Catholic rehgious education has so advanced that parochial schools exist in all the parishes of considerable size in the state, and are taught chiefly by religious orders. In the year 1909, there are in the state 36,942 pupils attending the parochial schools. These schools are supplemented by 36 academies and high schools in which 5812 students are taught; and to complete the system are two diocesan colleges: St. Joseph's College, at Du- buque, with 2S0 students, and St. Ambrose College, at Davenport, with 167 students. At Dubuque, the metropolitan city of the archdiocese, where the en- rolled number of pupils attending the public schools is 4084, the number attending the parochial schools is 3000. The city is surrounded by a cordon of Catholic institutions, educational and charitable, and has be- come widely known as a centre of Catholic education.
History. — The first white men who saw Iowa were the French Jesuit Father Marquette and Louis Joliet, who on the 17th day of June, 1673, coming down the mouth of the Wisconsin River, discovered the Missis- sippi and faced the picturesque bluffs of the Iowa shore. The first landing on Iowa territory recorded by Father Marquette in his journal was near Mont- rose, in Lee County, where he had a peaceful and memorable meeting with the natives. One himdred and fifteen years passed away from the time of Father Marquette's discovery until the first white settlement was made within the limits of the state. In 1788 Julien Dubuque, a French Canadian trader, obtained from the Indians a grant of land, in which to mine for lead; it extended seven leagues along the west bank of the Mississippi and was three leagues in width, in- cluding the territory on which now stands the city of Dubuque. This grant was afterwards confirmed by Baron de Carondelet, the Spanish governor of the province of Louisiana, and the strip of land became known as the Mines of Spain. Here Dubuque, with ten other Canadians, and aided by the Indians, operated the mines until his death in 1810, when the whites were driven out. Dubuque was buried on the top of an isolated bluff just below the present limits of the city of Dubuque, and a large cross marked his grave for many years. This became a well-known land- mark to river men on the upper Mississippi, and is mentioned in books of travel. In 1832, in the terri- tory east of the Mississippi, occurred the war with the Indians known as the Black Hawk War. This re- sulted in a treaty, made in the same year, by which the Indians relinquished that part of Iowa known as the Black Hawk Purchase, containing six million acres of land, lying immediately west of the Missis- sippi River, about ninety miles in width, and north of the Missouri State line. Although this was not the first concession of territory in Iowa by the Indians, it was the first which opened any portion of the land for settlement by the whites. Settlements were made in 1833 at Dubuque and at other points near the Missis- sippi River. Within ten years the title to practically all of the state was secured by treaties with the In- dians. Attracted by glowing accounts of the richness
of the soil, immigrants came pouring in from the New
England states. New York, Illinois, Ohio, Kentucky,
North Carolina, Missouri, and other states.
In 1834 that part of the Louisiana Purchase now included in the State of Iowa was made a part of the Territory of Michigan, in 1836 it was attached to, and made a part of, the new Territory of Wisconsin, and in 1838 was established separately as the Territory of Iowa. On 28 December, 1846, it was admitted to the Union as the twenty-ninth State, being the fourth state created out of the Louisiana Purchase. In 1854 the first railroad was built from Davenport west, and raOroad-building then extended rapidly. In the same year was passed a law prohibiting the sale of intoxicating liquors which, with some changes, is still on the statute books. In 1857 the state adopted a revised Constitution which, with a few amendments, is still the law. The progress of the state was checked by the Civil War, at the close of which, however, immigration recommenced, and population and wealth increased. Although the population in 1860 was less than 700,000, the state furnished, during the Civil War, 75,519 volunteers.
The Church in Iowa. — The first Mass celebrated within the limits of Iowa was said in the year 1S33, by the Rev. C. P. Fitzmorris, of Galena, Illinois, in the home of Patrick Quigley in the city of Dubuque, and the first Catholic church in the state was built at Dubuque by the celebrated Dominican missionary, Samuel Mazzuchelli, in 1836. On 10 December, 1837, the Very Rev. Mathias Loras, Vicar-General of the Diocese of Mobile, Alabama, was consecrated first Bishop of Dubuque. Bishop Loras was a native of Lyons, France, and was a worthy comrade of Bl. Jean- Baptiste Vianney, the celebrated Cure of Ars. Going to France for priests and financial aid. Bishop Loras arrived in Dubuque with two priests and four deacons on the 19th day of April, 1839. His diocese included all the territory between the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers, from the northern limit of the State of Mis- souri to the British Possessions. In his diocese he found but three churches and one priest. Father Maz- zuchelli. The indefatigable labours of Bishop Loras in personally attending to the spiritual wants of the scattered settlers in his vast territory, in building churches and procuring funds, and in inducing immi- gration from the Eastern States and from Europe, have secured him a high rank among the pioneer missionaries and church-bviilders of this country. In 1843, he brought from Philadelphia the Sisters of Charity of the Blessed \"irgin Mary, who established their mother-house near Dubuque and have become widely known as successful teachers. In 1849 he gave a horne to the Trappist monks from Moinit Mellcray, Ireland, who founded the Abbey of New Melleray, still in existence, twelve miles from Dubuque. When he died (19 February, 1858) there were within the limits of the State of Iowa, 48 priests, 60 churches, and a Catholic population of 54,000. In 1850 the territory north of the State of Iowa had been formed into the Diocese of St. Patil. He was succeeded by his coad- jutor, the Rt. Rev. Clement Smyth, who had been Prior of New Melleray Abbey. _ Bishop Smyth was a man of great scholarly attainments and was the founder of the school for young men which still flour- ishes in the .Abbey of Mount Melleray, Ireland. His uniform courtesy and gentleness won all hearts, and he was noted for his ardent patriotism during the strenuous days of the Civil War. During his short episcopacy he cemented and greatly extended the work of Bishop Loras and died 23 September, 1865, lamented bv priests and people.
On 30 September, 1866, in St. Raphael's Cathe- dral, Dubuque, the Rev. John Hennessy, pastor of St. Joseph's church, St. Joseph, Missouri, was con- secrated Bishop of Dubuque. Bishop Hennessy was renowned as a pulpit orator, and was a man of rare
