Iowa History Timeline: Text Version
B.C.E. = Before Common Era
C.E. = Common Era
C.E. = Common Era
- 1900:
U.S. Event
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Where Have All the Buffalo Gone?
Only 40 wild buffalo are left in America. Only 100 years before, there were an estimated 30 million.
Find out about animals in Iowa. - 1900:
Iowa Event
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Iowa's Population: 2,231,853
- 1900:
Iowa Event
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Carrie Chapman Catt Elected President of National Woman Suffrage Association
Carrie Clinton Lane Chapman Catt was the most famous woman suffrage leader in history, holding her post as president of the National Woman Suffrage Association for 28 years. Born in Wisconsin, she grew up near Charles City, Iowa and graduated from Iowa State College. She taught school in Mason City. Her long service as President of the National Woman Suffrage Association was of record length, and after the 19th amendment was ratified, she founded the League of Women Voters.
Find out about Iowa innovators. - 1900:
Iowa Event
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Coal Mines in Iowa Increase
- 1900s-1960s:
Iowa Event
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Center Street in Des Moines
Des Moines's Center Street, was home to much of the city's black population. In the 1960s most of the buildings were torn down to make room for a freeway. The businesses were forced to relocate or close permanently. Residents had to find new homes.
Find out more about the Center Street neighborhood. - Early 1900s:
Iowa Event
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Iowans Design Car
Edward Mason of Des Moines hired brothers Fred and August Duensenberg to design a car. Soon the Mason Motor Car Company was producing and selling the brothers' design.
Find out more about automobile manufacturing in Iowa. - 1900:
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Iowans Manufacture Tractors
Charles W. Hart and Charles H. Parr, began to manufacture tractors in Charles City, Iowa.
Find out more about the industries in Iowa. - 1900:
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Iowa First in Oats
For the first time Iowa took first in national oat production.
Find out more about grist mills in Iowa. - 1900:
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The Capitol Improvement Commission Founded
The Capitol Improvement Commission was founded. Its job was to coordinate repairs, adorn and complete the Capitol building in Des Moines.
Find out more about art in Iowa. - 1900:
Iowa Event
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Buxton is Big
Buxton, Iowa, was the largest coal mining town west of the Mississippi River.
Find out more about Buxton. - 1901:
Iowa Event
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Fort Des Moines Established
Fort Des Moines, Iowa, was built in 1901 on 400 acres near Des Moines. It opened in 1903 with the arrival of the all-black 25th Infantry prisoner guard. It would become well known for training black officers during World War I.
Find out more about Fort Des Moines. - 1901:
Iowa Event
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Cummins Elected Governor
Albert Baird Cummins was known as a "progressive" governor and also as a national leader of the Progressive wing of the Republican party, when he became a U.S. senator.
Find out more about Iowa government. - 1901:
Iowa Event
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Jesse Field Shambaugh Starts 4-H Clubs
The clubs started by Jessie Field in the rural school she taught in Page County served as the prototype for the boys' and girls' 4-H clubs. Later, as superintendent of schools for Page County, she furthered the movement although she actually called these groups the 3-H clubs. The 4-H club emblem was designed in Clarion, Wright County, Iowa. Field chose the words represented by 4-H as Head, Heart, Hand, and Home, but home was later changed to Health.
Find out how 4-H has become part of the State Fair. - 1901:
U.S. Event
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The Army Nurse Corps Formed
The Army Nurse Corps was established by Congress. The group paved the way for women to serve in the military.
Find out about women in the military in Iowa. - 1902:
Iowa Event
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Extension Department Starts at Iowa State College
The Extension department at Iowa State College was extremely important in improving the lives of farm families in Iowa. Better farming methods, improved methods for farm women in food preservation, and many other skills were taught by the extension "agents" through their offices in each county.
Find out how the extension service promoted the science and technology of agriculture. - 1902:
Iowa Event
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Meredith Willson was Born
On May 18 Robert Meredith Willson was born in Mason City, Iowa. He would later become famous for his contribution to the world of music.
Find out more about Meredith Willson. - 1902:
Iowa Event
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Publishing in Iowa
Meredith Publishing Company opened in Iowa.
Find out more about the communications industry in Iowa. - 1902:
Iowa Event
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The 1902 Factory Act
Congress passed this act which prohibited children under the age of 16 from cleaning machines in motion, but allowed most kids to continue to work if they signed a paper saying the employers were not responsible for injuries.
Find out more about child labor in Iowa. - 1903:
U.S. Event
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Ice Cream Cone Invented
- 1903:
Iowa Event
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Bix Beiderbecke Born
Leon "Bix" Beiderbecke was born in Davenport. He became a talented jazz performer in the 1920s.
Find out more about Bix Beiderbecke. - 1903:
U.S. Event
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Women Workers Unionize
The Women's Trade Union League was formed by laundry, garment and telephone workers. They worked for the 8-hour day, minimum wage and an end to child labor.
Find out about labor unions in Iowa. - 1903:
U.S. Event
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First Flight
- 1905:
Iowa Event
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First Iowan Killed in Auto Accident
F. A. Harriman became the first Iowan to die in an automobile accident two miles south of Hampton on U.S. 65. The first automobile accident casualty was just a forecast of things to come. By the second decade of the 20th century one of the major movements in Iowa was to surface the roads for the new vehicles, the automobile, to travel on in all weather. Automobiles broke the physical isolation of the farms and small towns, and were also the leading cause of the decline of businesses in small towns, after people could drive to larger towns for shopping.
Find out more about highway safety in Iowa. - 1905:
U.S. Event
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Einstein Published Theory
- 1905:
Iowa Event
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Niagra Movement
George H. Woodson, an attorney from Buxton, Iowa, co-founded the Niagra Movement. The association later became the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).
Find out more about Buxton. - 1906:
Iowa Event
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Monroe County Produces Coal
Monroe County was the largest coal producer in Iowa. It produced 1,183,143 tons of coal in 1906.
Find out more about Buxton. - 1906:
U.S. Event
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TB is the "White Plague"
In the late 19th and early 20th centuries tuberculosis (TB) killed one out of seven Americans.
Find out more about tuberculosis. - 1906:
Iowa Event
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Women Work at Cigar Factory
The Bradley Bros. Cigar Factory in Dubuque started to employ women to roll cigars. The women worked more than 50 hours a week and were paid about $3 a week.
Find out more about working women in Iowa. - 1906:
Iowa Event
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Jay
Jay "Ding" Darling was employed with the Des Moines Register and Leader newspaper as a cartoonist. His cartoons drew attention to conservation problems.
Find out more about - 1907:
Iowa Event
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Woman Improves Incubator
Rebecca Johnson of Maxwell, Iowa, first invented her chicken incubator in the late 1880s, but added an alarm to it in 1907. She later added a thermostat so the temperature adjusted automatically.
Find out more about the improvements to the incubator. - 1907:
Iowa Event
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Maytag Begins in Iowa
The Maytag Company in Newton, Iowa, started manufacturing washing machines.
Find out more about the industries in Iowa. - 1907:
Iowa Event
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Iowa's TB Treatment Facility
Oakdale, a sanatorium for treatment of TB, was built on 280 acres near Iowa City.
Find out more about tuberculosis. - 1908:
U.S. Event
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Model T Ford Produced
- 1908:
Iowa Event
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Iowa Congressional Record Holder Dies
William Boyd Allison died, after serving almost 44 years in United States Congress as both representative and senator. Allison holds the record for length of service by an Iowan in Congress. His last election was also the first time senators were elected by popular vote, instead of by the state legislature.
Find out more about Iowa government. - 1908:
Iowa Event
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Garst Becomes Governor
- 1909:
Iowa Event
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College Changes Name
The name of the college in Cedar Falls was changed to Iowa State Teachers College.
Find out more about higher education in Iowa. - 1909:
U.S. Event
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National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) Formed
W.E.B. Du Bois and others formed the NAACP to end segregation and racial discrimination.
Find out about African-Americans in Iowa. - 1909:
Iowa Event
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University of Iowa's Art Department Established
Charles Atherton Cumming, an Iowa native, was invited to establish the art department at the University of Iowa.
Find out more about art in Iowa. - 1909:
Iowa Event
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NAACP
The Niagra Movement, co-founded by a Buxton, Iowa, native, became known as the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).
Find out more about Buxton.
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