county system of superintendents is at the disadvantage of being made a political matter, and the popularly elected superintendents serve for only the brief term of two years. With one exception, Iowa pays the lowest average monthly salary to both male and female teachers of any State west of the Mississippi. Before 1900 the State provision for normal training was inadequate, and but a comparatively small per cent. of the teachers received special training. In 1900 a law was passed establishing a new State normal college, to be situated at Cedar Falls. In 1900 the female teachers numbered 22,839, and the males 5855. The State board of examiners issues, upon examination, life and five-year licenses valid throughout the State, and the county superintendents issue certificates for different grades, each good for one or two years in the county in which it is issued.
High schools are maintained in nearly all the cities, towns, and villages, and in a few counties there are township high schools, but the high school courses are characterized by great lack of uniformity, there being no localized or well-established standard to which they must conform. In 1900 the total wages received by teachers and superintendents amounted to $5,417,603, and the total cost of education to the State was $7,978,060, or $15.37 for each child enrolled. The total school fund in 1899 was $4,724,804. The State maintains a university (q.v.) at Iowa City, and a State agricultural college at Ames. There are also a large number of denominational institutions: namely, Upper Iowa University at Fayette (Methodist Episcopal); Tabor College at Tabor (Congregational); German College at Mount Pleasant (Methodist Episcopal); Iowa Wesleyan University at Mount Pleasant (Methodist Episcopal); Cornell College at Mount Vernon (Methodist Episcopal); Central University of Iowa at Pella (Baptist); Amity College at College Springs (non-sectarian); Des Moines College at Des Moines (Baptist); Iowa College at Grinnell (Congregationalist); Penn College at Oskaloosa (Friends); Simpson College at Indianola (Methodist); Norwegian Lutheran College at Decorah (Lutheran); Drake University at Des Moines (Church of Christ); Morningside College at Sioux City (Methodist Episcopal); Coe College at Cedar Rapids (Presbyterian); Parsons College at Fairfield (Presbyterian).
History. The aboriginal inhabitants of the State were the Indian tribes of Iowa (q.v.) and Illinois (q.v.), who in the course of time were driven from their homes by the Sacs and Foxes. Marquette and Joliet, in 1673, and Hennepin, in 1680, touched on the borders of the State. In 1788 Julien Dubuque, a Frenchman from Canada, obtained from the Indians the grant of a large tract of land, including the site of the city now bearing his name, and the rich mineral country surrounding it. He built a fort there, carried on the mining of lead, and traded with the Indians, but on his death, in 1810, the settlement was abandoned. In 1803 the region passed to the United States as a part of the Louisiana cession, and Indian titles to the land were extinguished by treaties in the years 1804, 1832, and subsequently. It formed, in turn, a part of the Territories of Louisiana (organized in 1804), Missouri, Michigan, and Wisconsin. On June 12, 1838, it was organized as the Iowa Territory. In 1832 a number of emigrants settled on the site of Fort Madison, which had been erected by the United States Government in 1808 and abandoned five years later. About the same time a settlement was made in the neighborhood of Burlington, and in 1833 Dubuque was founded. Six years later the Government was removed to Iowa City, and in 1844 a State constitution was framed and admission to the Union sought for. After some delay, caused by the action of Congress in restricting greatly the boundaries of the new State, and after the rejection of two constitutions, the State was admitted on December 28, 1846. Immigration into the State was rapid, and continued in spite of a bloody massacre of whites by Sioux Indians at Spirit Lake in March, 1857. In the same year the original Constitution of 1846 was revised and Des Moines was made the capital. In the Civil War, Iowa, whose fundamental law prohibited slavery, took a zealous part. The two most important questions of public moment since 1870 have been railway legislation and prohibition. The development of the State was greatly accelerated by the building of railroads, of which there were, in 1900, nearly 10,000 miles, but with the rise of powerful railway corporations, there ensued a continuous conflict between the Legislature and the companies in regard to the taxation of railway property and the regulation of rates. In 1872 an act taxing railway property was passed, and in 1873 a powerful agitation stirred up by the Patrons of Husbandry (see Grange) against the extortionate rates imposed by the companies led to the creation of a board of railroad commissioners for the purpose of determining a maximum rate and preventing discrimination. Radical action on the part of the commissioners caused repeated appeals to the courts, and though many concessions were wrung from the companies, the advantage in general remained with them. A Prohibition amendment adopted in 1882 was promptly declared unconstitutional by the courts. A new law went into effect in 1884, and for some years proved fairly adequate. A very large part of the population, however, was opposed to sumptuary legislation, and in 1890, under the protection of the interstate commerce laws, a successful attempt was made to evade the anti-liquor regulations by the importation of alcoholic products from other States. In 1894 the courts declared the prohibitory laws unconstitutional. From 1846 to 1854 the State was Democratic both in National and State politics. Since 1854 its vote in national elections has always been cast for the Republican candidate. The State government, as a whole, has always been in the hands of the Republicans, and only in 1889 and 1891, years of stormy railway and liquor legislation, was a Democratic Governor elected.
The Governors of Iowa since its organization as a Territory have been as follows:
| TERRITORIAL | ||
| Robert Lucas | 1838-41 | |
| John Chambers | 1841-46 | |
| James Clark | 1846 | |
| STATE | ||
| Ansel Briggs | Democrat | 1846-50 |
| Stephen Hempstead | “ | 1850-54 |
| James Wilson Grimes, Whig and Free-Soil Democrat | ||
| 1854-58 | ||
| Ralph P. Lowe | Republican | 1858-60 |
| Samuel J. Kirkwood | “ | 1860-64 |
| William M. Stone | “ | 1864-68 |
| Samuel Merrill | “ | 1868-72 |
