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Published: 2015-07-14

Total Pages: 346

ISBN-13: 9781331381457

Excerpt from The Telegraph-Herald's Abridged History of the State of Iowa: From the Time of Its Discovery A. D., 1673 by Father Marquette, to 1905 When, as now, shelves groan under the weight of massive volumes of history necessity seems to emphasize more strongly than ever the virtue that lies in brevity. In preparing this history the author has sought to be brief, eliminating so much of the events of the past as in his judgment is not necessary to an understanding of the peoples who have preceded us or the stirring dramas in which we find them the principal figures. He has sought to follow in the simplest language and the fewest possible words the thread of history where first it takes on tangible form, through the loom of the years and into the completed fabric of the present. There has been retained enough of the romance of events to impart enchantment to the story, for without sentiment history is incomplete and a virtue of man forgotten. The prosaic land of Iowa has been the scene of much that is romantic. The wanderings of Jacques Marquette through the enchanted valley of the Mississippi, the nomadic life of the border tribes of Indians, the bloody battles between the hostile tribes and the awful massacres that drenched the soil with red, the transformation of the trackless forests and plains into rich-bearing farm lands, make of history a veritable fairy story entertaining and instructive none the less to children than to those older in years and wisdom. The territorial development, the creation of Iowa as a State, offers little that is romantic; the author has fashioned a framework out of the successive events that if it shall be accepted as concise and faithful will serve the end designed. If the author shall have produced in these pages even a little of the spirit of discovery, of eternal struggle, of unflagging industry, of the ideals and the ambitions which have made Iowa, his attempt will not have been in vain. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.