1848.. 1849. 1850. 1851.. 1852. 1853.. 1854. 1855. 1856. 1857. 1858. 1859. 1860 1861.. 1862. 1863. 1864. 1865. 1866. 1867.. 1868. 1869. 1870.. 2. May 4. |Apr. 23. Apr. 16. Apr. 18. |Apr. 21. 5. May 1. May 5. LAND VALUES BY TOWNSHIPS. June 6, 1867, the following equalization of land per acre was made: Graham township's av. assessed value per acre, $6.661⁄2 add 5 per cent. Big Grove 6.29%1⁄2 add 5 per cent. Union Fremont 5.19 as it is. Quinces. June 10, 1875: The board then proceeded to the equalization of the assessment of the several townships as required by section 832, Code of 1873, and it was ordered that the assessment be equalized as follows: Big Grove township, add 10 per cent making average per acre $9.05; Cedar township, remain as returned, making average per acre $9.55; Clear Creek township, add 10 per cent, making average per acre $9.95; Fremont township, remain as returned, making average per acre $10.13; Graham township, add 8 per cent, making average per acre $11.20; Hardin township, add 10 per cent, making average per acre $8.80; Jefferson township, add 10 per cent, making average per acre $7.95; Liberty township, add 10 per cent, making average per acre $9.35; Lincoln township, add 15 per cent. making average per acre $11.12; Lucas township, remain as returned, making average per acre $20.45; Madison township, add 12 per cent, making average per acre $9.85; Monroe township, remain as returned, making average per acre $8.98; New port township, remain as returned, making average per acre p8.30; Oxford township, deduct 4 per cent, making average per acre $9.80; Penn township, add 4 per cent, making average per acre $10.55; Pleasant Valley township, add per cent, making average per acre $10.08; Scott township, add 7 per cent, making average per acre $11.56; Sharon township, remain as returned, making average per acre $11.20; Union township, add 25 per cent, making average per acre $9.93; Washington township, add 5 per cent, making average per acre $10.30; Coralville, corporate, add 20 per cent; Iowa City, corporate, remain as returned. THE BIRD QUESTION. Those farmers or horticulturists who care to study the question of what kinds of birds are beneficial and what kinds are crop stealers, will find a very valuable report on a long series of careful experiments by Miss M. J. Crossman, while a student in the State Agricultural College at Ames. Her report is published in the Transactions of the State Horticultural Society for 1881, Vol. 16, pp. 264 to 276. It is the most thorough work of the sort that has yet been done in Iowa, up to September 1, 1882, and is especially valuable to orchardists and small fruit growers, as well as to farmers generally. BEE-KEEPING IN JOHNSON COUNTY. From an article on his experience with bees, written by Rev. Oscar Clute, of Iowa City, for the Western Stock Journal and Farmer, of December, 1881, we quote a few passages which specially show what kinds of bloom occur in this region which serve for bee pasture, and their several seasons of blooming; and it also gives some figures of financial results in bee-farming: "8. This year' winter lingered long in the spring.' Great snow-banks were on my lawn until April 10. April 15 the bees, which for more than five months had been in the cellar, were set out. April 17 they began to bring in pollen. At a single bound the weather passed from winter to summer. The last half of April and all of May the weather was warm and clear. There was hardly a day on which the bees could not fly. The spring bloom was profuse. Willows, elms, cotton woods, boxelders, cherries, apples, raspberries opened in rapid succession and gave sufficient honey and pollen to keep up brood-rearing and to allow a little to be stored. Honey from raspberries had ceased but a short time before the earliest white clover was open. Soon the fields were covered with its starry carpet of green and white, but it yielded honey only moderately. At no time during the season did it yield so largely as is sometimes reported. Linn gave an abundance of bloom and it seemed to yield honey, but several rainy and windy days kept the bees in the hives, and washed the honey from the bloom. It yielded but a moderate surplus. White clover continued to yield in small quantities after linn was gone, the season seeming to be prolonged by copious rains. After the middle of July the weather became dry, but the ground was so saturated that the clover continued to bloom for some time. The dry weather was severe and long-continued. Very little rain fell for six weeks. I had expected that there would be scarcely any fall bloom, and no fall honey worth mentioning. But the reverse was the case. We had a heavy flood in the Iowa river about July 12. The water swept everything before it. The bottom lands were cleaned of all crops and weeds. Then heartsease grew up in great profusion. There were many acres of it. It began to yield soon after white clover ceased. The flow from it was not very copious, but it was steady' Frosts held off for full a month longer than usual, and during this added month the days were mostly clear and warm. "9. From the thirty colonies I increased to one hundred and forty. I took two thousand and five hundred pounds of honey, nearly all extracted. The honey is selling at 15 cents a pound. The crop is worth $375. The bees are worth $8 a colony, making the one hundred and ten colonies of increase worth $880; total, $1,255. My expenses for hives, frames, foundation, paint, labor and sundries were $305, giving a net gain of $950. My bees in the spring were worth $10 a colony or $300 for thirty colonies. The gain has therefore been 316 per cent." CHAPTER VI.-PART 1. Newspapers and Libraries-History of the "Iowa City Republican"-History of the "State Press"-Other Newspapers, etc.-History of the Masonic Library-Of the State University Library--Of the State Historical Society's Library--State Librarians, Prof. Parvin and Mrs. North. THE IOWA CITY REPUBLICAN. The Iowa Standard was started October 23, 1840, at Bloomington, [now Muscatine] by Wm. Crum and W. D. Bailey, as an organ of the whig party. Twenty-seven numbers of the paper were published at Bloomington, or till Thursday, April 29, 1841. This number contained the announcement of the death of President Harrison, and had all its column rules turned bottom upwards, making sorrowful black lines, indicative of the nation's deep, sad mourning. Mr. Crum had now become the sole proprietor, and had decided to move to Iowa City, and cast his fortunes with the rising young capital city of the newest territory. Accordingly the next number of the paper is called The Iowa City Standard, and is dated Iowa City, I. T., Thursday, June 10, 1841. The press and types were hauled up from Muscatine by Ebenezer M. Adams, with his ox team, and the first printing office was located on Clinton street, in a building owned by Charles H. Berryhill. In December, 1842, the paper was enlarged to six columns, assuming the motto, "Principles and Men," in opposition to the democratic creed of "Principles, not Men." In August, 1842, Mr. A. P. Wood, a journeyman in the office, became associated in the editorial management of the paper. In June, 1843, it again suspended for a few weeks, owing, Mr. Crum told his patrons, to the "great difficulty experienced in collecting means for its maintenance." In the presidential campaign of 1844, the Standard supported Clay and Freylinghuysen, the editor graciously acknowledging on November 20, that he was "candidly of the opinion” that Henry Clay was beaten. On December 26, 1844, Mr. Crum sold out his interest to Wood. Of the original proprietors, we lose sight of Mr. W. D. Bailey immediately upon his disposing of his interest. Mr. William Crum resided in Iowa City until his death. About 1854, the late Hon. Rush Clark became temporarily the editor, although he was not yet twenty years of age. Mr. A. P. Wood, after managing the paper alone for a short time, associated with him Mr. W. Penn Clarke. The two continued to conduct the Standard until June 17, 1856, when it passed into the hands of Mr. Silas Foster. Col. Wood is now a resident of Dubuque, and is the author of the war history of Iowa, Mr. W. Penn Clarke now resides in in the earlier pages of this volume. Washington, D. C. Mr. Foster, soon after taking charge of the paper, secured the services of the late General Easten Morris in an editorial capacity. The year 1848, the time of the Taylor campaign, found the Standard, financially speaking, in a precarious condition, and sometime during the summer of that year, between April and July, the Standard was transferred to an entirely new management, and after another short suspension, appeared under the editorial charge of S. M. Ballard, with the new caption of The Republican. From Mr. Ballard's charge it passed to the management of Mr. H. W. Lathrop, then to Mr. John Teesdale. Mr. Lathrop, we believe retaining editorial management. In 1856, on June the 6th, The Republican first appeared in a daily edition, under the locaeditorship of C. W. Hobart, Esq., and was kept up about one year. On March 10, 1858, The Republican passed into the hands of Messrs. Jerome & Duncan. Mr. Teesdale removed to Des Moines and became editor of the State Register. Mr. Lathrop retired to his farm near Iowa City, where he still resides an honored authority on almost all agricultural topics. On December 9, 1863, Messrs. Jerome & Duncan disposed of The Republican to Mr. N. H. Brainerd. In December, 1864, Mr. Brainerd associated with him Mr. Breitigan, who remained in part proprietorship until May 4, 1865, when the senior partner assumed exclusive control. In 1870, Mr. Brainerd disposed of a half interest in the paper to J. H. C. Wilson, Esq. The firm continued to conduct The Republican until October, 1874, running a daily for a short time during the campaign of 1872. During this period of its existence it was troubled by serious "domestic infelicities," of such importance that it seemed for a time that the days of the paper were numbered; this result was averted, however, by the purchase, in the month above mentioned, of Mr. Brainerd's interest by Capt. Sam. D. Pryce, Mr. Brainerd retiring to private life, after a semi-public experience of eleven years, and a longer proprietorship of The Republican than any one previous. It next passed into the hands of Wilson, Rogers & Shields. The Republican printing office, for some years, occupied rooms on Clinton street, in the block adjoining the St. James hotel-the same rooms where this book of history was written. On the 15th day of September, 1879, the office was purchased by a joint stock company, and removed to its present eligible and commodious quarters on the corner of Washington and Dubuque streets. The new ownership was styled "The Republican Publishing Company," and consisted of Capt. S. D. Pryce, president; C. D. Close, W. R. Shields, S. J. Kirkwood, T. C. Carson, D. W. C. Clapp, W. A. Fry, W. H. Hubbard, J. E. Stuart, H. H. Seeley, W. J. Haddock. J. C. Cochran, J. C. Shrader, E. G. Fracker, J. C. Stouffer, E. Whitaker, S. E. Woodstock, J. E. Stewart, J. A. Stevenson, J. H. Whetstone, J. H. C. Wilson, J. W. Durham, |