Territory of Iowa was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from July 4, 1838, until December 28, 1846, when the southeastern portion of the territory was admitted to the Union as the State of Iowa. The remainder of the territory would have no organized territorial government until the Minnesota Territory was organized on March 3, 1849. [1 ] History [edit ]
Most of the area comprising the territory was originally part of the
Louisiana Purchase and was a part of the Missouri Territory. When Missouri became a state in 1821, this area (along with the Dakotas) effectively became unorganized territory. The area was closed to white settlers until the 1830s, after the Black Hawk War ended. It was attached to the Michigan Territory on June 28, 1834. At an extra session of the Sixth Legislative Assembly of Michigan held in September, 1834, the Iowa District was divided into two counties by running a line due west from the lower end of Rock Island in the Mississippi River. The territory north of this line (which started just south of the present-day Davenport) was named Dubuque County, and all south of it was Demoine County. When Michigan became a state in 1836 the area became the Iowa District of western Wisconsin Territory—the region west of the Mississippi River.
The original boundaries of the territory, as established in 1838, included
Minnesota and parts of the Dakotas, covering about 194,000 square miles (500,000 km 2) of land. Burlington was the stop-gap capital; Iowa City was designated as the official territorial capital in 1841. [2 ] Governance [edit ] Governors of Iowa Territory [edit ] Secretaries of Iowa Territory [edit ] William B. Conway, appointed 1838; died in office, November 1839. James Clarke, appointed 1839. O.H.W. Stull, appointed 1841. Samuel J. Burr, appointed 1843. Jesse Williams, appointed 1845. Congressional delegates [edit ] See also [edit ] References [edit ] ^ "Chapter Two Founding Documents" (PDF). Legislative Manual Compiled for the Legislature of 2011-2012. Saint Paul, Minnesota: Office of the Minnesota Secretary of State. 2011. p. 46 . Retrieved 21 October 2013. "The movement to create a territorial government followed the formation of the states of Iowa and Wisconsin, when expanses of land were left without a formal government." ^ http://iagenweb.org/history/soi/soi31.htm External links [edit ]