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EDITED BY John C. Parish
Associate Editor of the State Historical Society of Iowa
| Volume II |
April 1921 |
No. 4 |
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Copyright 1921 by the State Historical Society of Iowa
(Transcribed by Gayle Harper)
Comment by the Editor
AN IOWAN IN CALIFORNIA
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The fragment of reminiscence which we have printed in the
foregoing pages came to us in a recent letter from Mr. John P.
Irish, now living in Oakland, California. Other items from his
letter will be of interest. "I built on my ranch in the
mountains here a log cabin", he writes, "and dedicated it to
the memory of the Iowa pioneers, and it was the summer home of
my family for 20 years". He speaks of "the time when we
slaughtered our pork in December, took it on bob sleds and
sold it at Ogilvie's packing house in Muscatine for $1.00 per
hundred and brought back the money to pay taxes and letter
postage, which was then 25 cents". And he adds: " I am in my
79th year and hope to visit my birthplace again before I go to
join the hardy souls of the frontier".
We join him in
the hope. For many years John P. Irish was a prominent figure
in the political history of Iowa. He was a son of Captain
Frederick M. Irish who is mentioned in the article in this
number on the steamboat Ripple. In 1864, when he was but
twenty-one years of age, he became editor of the State Press
at Iowa City (the successor of the Iowa Capitol-Reporter), and
for nearly twenty years his paper was a power in Iowa
politics. From 1869 to 1875 he was a member of the General
Assembly of Iowa; he was largely influential in the
establishment of the College of Law and the College of
Medicine at the State University of Iowa, and next to John A.
Kasson was probably the greatest influence in the movement to
construct the present State House at Des Moines—a project
which was fought bitterly in the General Assembly and
throughout the State by men who drew pathetic word-pictures of
the "barefooted women and children" who would be still further
crushed to earth if the extravagant new capitol were built.
He was nominated for Congress in 1868 and for Governor of the
State in 1877, but the Democratic party was unsuccessful in
both campaigns.
In 1882 he removed to California where
he has edited several newspapers, held civil office, farmed,
and been nominated for Congress. He has acted as counsel
before several arbitration courts in cases involving
international law, and has maintained an unusual interest and
influence in political affairs. At the present time he is
engaged in an active controversy in opposition to the
anti-Japanese attitude of United States Senator Phelan and
other prominent Californians.
Iowa began early to contribute men to the up-building of the
West. In 1849 Serranus C. Hastings—who had served a number of
years in the Iowa Territorial legislature, had been one of
Iowa's first Congressmen and had held the position of Chief
Justice of the Supreme Court of the State—went out with the
gold hunters to California. He served as Chief Justice of the
Supreme Court of California, was elected Attorney-General of
the State, and for many years carried on a very successful law
practice William W. Chapman' the first Delegate to Congress
from the Territory of Iowa, and delegate to the Constitutional
Convention of 1844, traveled across the plains by ox team in
1847 to Oregon. In 1848 he worked in the gold mines in
California, but returned to Oregon where he was elected to the
legislature, edited the first newspaper in the State, and
served as Surveyor-General.
Nor has the East lacked inspiration from Iowa. Witness those
two remarkable jurists, John F. Dillon and Samuel Freeman
Miller. Both of them studied and practiced medicine—Miller for
ten years—before they began the study of law. Dillon, after
serving as Judge of the Supreme Court of Iowa and Judge of the
United States Circuit Court, removed to New York City to
become a member of the faculty of the Columbia University Law
School and general counsel for the
Union Pacific Railroad.
For a third of a century he was one of the leading members of
the New York bar, and one of the most eminent of American law
authors. Samuel Freeman Miller after ten years of medical
practice in Kentucky and twelve years of law practice in Iowa
spent the rest of his life—twenty-eight years—on the Supreme
Bench of the United States.
Iowans have gone east, west, north, and south. Herbert Hoover,
born in Iowa, goes to California and from there becomes an
international figure. George E. Roberts becomes an influence
in financial affairs in Chicago, Washington, and New York.
Frank 0. Lowden reaches high position in Illinois. Horace
Boies, the only Democratic Governor of Iowa in two
generations, is living, at the age of ninety-three, in
California.
There are Iowa colonies everywhere—from
Seattle to Florida, in London, in China, and in the
Philippines. Thousands of Iowans gather in a picnic
celebration at Los Angeles each year to talk of the land
between the rivers, and at the other end of the continent the
Iowa Club of New York City has frequent dinners. We send
greetings to the members of all colonies for they are Iowans
still; and whenever they can come home for a visit to the
prairies of their youth, the State will welcome them.
J. C. P.
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