Grinnell, was an omnipresent man. When he went anywhere he told about it. The newspapers knew of it and all about what he was going to do. This publicity was valuable to the town. The southern part of the county had no such herald.

In 1894 we first asked representatives of the older residents to write the histories of their families. We have a very good collection of histories of the early families written largely by the women. This material is preserved in the public library at Grinnell.

Our first newspaper was not established when the county was thrown open to the whites, but some years afterwards. Within a few years several of the best writers among the pioneers have died. We can not get very satisfactory reports from some of the first families.

The Poweshiek County Historical Society has had four meetings since its organization. Such men as Professor Macy, who came to the county fifty-one years ago, are among our members; and such men as Dr. J. Irving Manatt, of Brown University, and Mr. Freeman S. Conaway, and Mr. A. A. Reams, former residents of this county, have furnished most valuable contributions to our collection. Among our earliest settlers it is difficult to find many contributors. Some do not remember material events, and they often fail to get the dates correctly. The first

newspaper was published in our county in 1857 - fourteen years after the settlement was made. Of the preceding period there is no record, except in official publications. Of the early volumes of this first newspaper we can find only now and then a number. The second paper was established in 1868. Our greatest anxiety is to get papers for this early period.

At the meetings of the Society there is usually an attendance of from twenty-five to forty persons. At one time we made an agreement with a publisher to issue a history of the county; but after all arrangements were made and a writer secured, the publisher thought our county was too small.

I am greatly interested in this State and local historical work. I am interested in the men who have given to Iowa character and a broad civilization. They are the men who have laid the foundations of our civilization. It is sometimes said that the pioneers were uncivilized. Some were, and some were not; and some of both classes survive even east of the Mississippi! once took a list of twelve of those in our county who pay the largest taxes, and I found that every one except a woman began with nothing except their hands. One is now worth two hundred and fifty thousand dollars. This is very encouraging

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to the poor boy, and to those who fear that a man whose coat is out at the elbows is near savagery.

It would be of the highest interest and greatest value to gather the history of each county of our State. When we gather together the annals of the heroes and heroines of local history we shall possess something of real value.

In our historical meetings we talk of politics, religion, or anything we please. We say just what we think. Slavery did not exist in our county as an institution. Our people were known as Abolitionists; and yet there was a slave in Poweshiek County in 1855. A family brought him from Maryland to be freed. It is the purpose of the Poweshiek County Historical Society to collect and preserve local history whether it is luminous or shadowy.

We have discovered the revised constitution of a "Claim Association" which was drawn up three years after the organization of the county. Such original documents are objects of special search.

Dr. FRANK E. HORACK: The Davenport Historical Society will report through one of its charter members, Mrs. Maria Purdy Peck, of Davenport.

Mrs. MARIA PURDY PECK:- The Davenport Historical Society was organized at a meeting

held at the public library in Davenport, on the evening of June 4, 1906. The germinating incident was the publication, on October 22, 1905, of a special edition of the Davenport Democrat in celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of the establishment of that newspaper. This edition had little to say about these later days, but dealt almost wholly with the past, presenting considerable original historical matter and many communications reaching back to matters half a century and more in the past. The interest of the community was intense; and numerous citizens, with this instance of high values in the unworked mine of historical treasures before them, began to talk seriously of the importance of organizing for the preservation of this historical material which grows more precious as time rolls on and carries it farther from our reach.

On the evening of May 22, 1906, a meeting of an even dozen ladies and gentlemen of Davenport was held at the residence of Mr. B. F. Tillinghast, editor of the Davenport Democrat, and the organization of such a society was discussed. The outcome was (1) the determination to proceed to call a public meeting of all persons interested and (2) the appointment of a committee which was charged with the preparation of a constitution.

The public meeting which was called by this committee on June 4, 1906, was attended by about thirty-five men and women-some of whom were pioneers, some children of early settlers, and some quite new comers, but all were interested in the local history of Davenport and Iowa. Mr. C. E. Harrison was called to the chair. A draft of a constitution (largely modeled after that of the Chicago Historical Society) was submitted by Hon. C. M. Waterman, chairman of the committee, read section by section, and adopted with occasional amendments. The organization was completed by the election of the following officers: President, Professor H. E. Downer; First Vice President, Hon. C. M. Waterman; Second Vice President, Hon. C. A. Ficke; Secretary, J. E. Calkins; Treasurer, Professor A. F. Ewers; Executive Committee, Mrs. J. J. Richardson, Miss Elizabeth D. Putnam, J. E. Hardman, Dr. C. H. Preston, C. E. Harrison, Mrs. Maria Purdy Peck, Dr. August Richter, and B. F. Tillinghast. The preparation of the by-laws of the Society was referred to the Executive Committee.

On the evening of November 4, 1906, a public meeting was held in the public library and addressed by Professor B. F. Shambaugh, of the State University of Iowa. Professor Sham

baugh was invited to talk informally upon the