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Republicans took over state politics in the s and quickly instigated several changes. They moved the state capital from Iowa City to Des Moines, they established the University of Iowa and they wrote a new state constitution. From the late s until well into the twentieth century, Iowans remained strongly Republican. Dolliver of Ft.
These men served their state and their nation with distinction. Another political issue facing Iowans in the s was the issue of women's suffrage. From the s on, Iowa contained a large number of women, and some men, who strongly supported the measure and who worked endlessly for its adoption. In keeping with the general reform mood of the latter s and s, the issue first received serious consideration when both houses of the General Assembly passed a women's suffrage amendment in Two years later, however, when the legislature had to consider the amendment again before it could be submitted to the general electorate, interest had waned, opposition had developed, and the amendment was defeated.
For the next 47 years, Iowa women worked continually to secure passage of a women's suffrage amendment to Iowa's state constitution. During that time, the issue was considered in almost every session of the state legislature, but an amendment was offered having passed both houses of the state legislature in two consecutive sessions to the general electorate only once, in In that election, voters defeated the amendment by about 10, votes.
The arguments against women's suffrage ranged from the charge that women were not interested in the vote to the charge that women's suffrage would bring the downfall of the family and would cause delinquency in children. Regarding the defeat of the state referendum on the female vote, Iowa-born Carrie Chapman Catt, a leader for the women's suffrage cause, argued that the liquor interests in the state should accept responsibility as they had worked hard to defeat the measure.
During the long campaign to secure the vote, however, the women themselves were not always in agreement as to the best approach to secure a victory. Catt herself led the final victorious assault in and in Washington with her "winning plan. Finally, in , after both houses of the United States Congress passed the measure and it had been approved by the proper number of states, woman's suffrage became a reality for American women everywhere.
Iowa: Home for Immigrants While Iowans were debating the issues of women's suffrage in the post Civil War period, the state itself was attracting many more people. Following the Civil War, Iowa's population continued to grow dramatically, from , people in to 1,, in Moreover, the ethnic composition of Iowa's population also changed substantially. Before the Civil War, Iowa had attracted some foreign-born settlers, but the number remained small. After the Civil War, the number of immigrants increased.
In , the state encouraged immigration by printing a page booklet entitled Iowa : The Home of Immigrants. The publication gave physical, social, educational, and political descriptions of Iowa. The legislature instructed that the booklet be published in English, German, Dutch, Swedish, and Danish. Iowans were not alone in their efforts to attract more northern and western Europeans. Throughout the nation, Americans regarded these new comers as "good stock" and welcomed them enthusiastically.
Most immigrants from these countries came in family units. Germans constituted the largest group, settling in every county within the state. The great majority became farmers, but many also became craftsmen and shopkeepers. Moreover, many German-Americans edited newspapers, taught school, and headed banking establishments.
In Iowa, Germans exhibited the greatest diversity in occupations, religion, and geographical settlement. The Marx Goettsch family of Davenport serves well as an example of German immigrants. At the time of his emigration in , Goettsch was 24 years old, married and the father of a young son.
During a two-year term in the German Army, Goettsch had learned the trade of shoemaking. Goettsch and his family chose to settle in Davenport, among Germans from the Schleswig-Holstein area. By working hard as a shoemaker, Goettsch managed not only to purchase a building for his home and shop, but also to purchased five additional town lots. Later, Goettsch had homes built on the lots which he rented out. He had then become both a small business man and a landlord. During the next 25 years, Goettsch and his wife, Anna, raised six children and enjoyed considerable prosperity.
For Marx and Anna, life in America, surrounded by fellow German-Americans, did not differ greatly from life in the old country.
For their children, however, life was quite different. The lives of the Goettsch children - or the second generation - best illustrate the social and economic opportunities available to immigrants in the United States. If the family had remained in Germany, probably all five sons would have followed their father's occupation of shoemaker.
In the United States, all five pursued higher education. Two sons received Ph. With the third generation, education was also a crucial factor. Of seven grandchildren, all became professionals. Moreover, five of the seven were female. As the Goettsch experience indicates, opportunities abounded for immigrants settling in Iowa in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The newcomers and their children could take up land, go into business, or pursue higher education. For most immigrants, these areas offered a better, more prosperous life than their parents had known in the old country.
Iowa also attracted many other people from Europe, including Swedes, Norwegians, Danes, Hollanders, and many emigrants from the British Isles as shown by the following table. After , people also emigrated from southern and eastern Europe. In many instances, immigrant groups were identified with particular occupations.
The Scandinavians, including Norwegians, who settled in Winneshiek and Story Counties; Swedes, who settled in Boone County; and Danes, who settled in southwestern Iowa; were largely associated with farming.
Many Swedes also became coal miners. The Hollanders made two major settlements in Iowa, the first in Marion County, and the second in northwest Iowa. Proportionately far more southern and eastern immigrants, particularly Italians and Croatians, went into coal mining than did western and northern Europeans.
Arriving in Iowa with little money and few skills, these groups gravitated toward work that required little or no training and provided them with immediate employment. In Iowa around the turn of the century, that work happened to be coal mining. Coal Miners Italian emigration differed from earlier emigration in that it tended to be male dominated.
Typically, the Italian male emigrated with financial support of family or friends. Once in Iowa, he worked in the mines to pay back his sponsors; then he began to save to bring his wife and family from Italy.
For two generations, Italian males worked in coal mines scattered throughout central and southern Iowa. Beginning around , however, the Iowa coal industry began to decline. By the mids only a few underground mines remained in the state. When a second child died, she confided in her diary:. Foreign-born in Iowa, , , and Country. Life in a coal camp differed greatly from life in more settled Iowa communities. Most residents described the camps as bleak and dismal. The typical coal camp contained a company store, a tavern and pool hall, a miners' union hall, and an elementary school.
Only rarely did coal camps contain churches or high schools. Coal camp residents had few social or economic opportunities. Most sons followed their fathers into the mines, and daughters tended to marry miners and continued to live in the camps. The majority of blacks who migrated to Iowa during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries also worked as coal miners.
Before the Civil War, Iowa had only a small black population, but in the s that number increased considerably. Unfortunately, many of the early blacks were hired as strike breakers by Iowa coal operators. In later decades, however, coal companies hired blacks as regular miners.
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