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THE BRITISH IN IOWA

PART I: BRITISH EMIGRANTS IN IOWA

Chapter III
BRITISH ELEMENTS IN THE POPULATION OF IOWA

THE IRISH

Although every portion of the British Isles had contributed its quota of emigrants to the "Eden of American agriculture", Ireland surpassed the other parts of the United Kingdom owing chiefly to a succession of famines. Beginning with only 4885 in 1850, natives of the Emerald Isle in Iowa rapidly increased to 20,896 in 1856, to 28,072 in 1860, to 40,124 in 1870, and reached their highest total of 44,061 in 1880. Although these Irish immigrants were to be found in practically all the townships of all the counties of the State, they seem to have been attracted chiefly to the larger towns such as Dubuque, Clinton, Davenport, Burlington, Keokuk, Des Moines, Cedar Rapids, and Council Bluffs.

A list of the counties in which the Irish element attained its greatest numerical strength in 1880 may be taken to indicate the localities to which the Irish have been most partial in their choice of homes. These counties, together with the number of Irish-born residents, may be listed as follows: (36)

Later census enumerations do not alter the foregoing list appreciably, although in 1885 Greene County appeared with 560 Irish-born settlers, all the others having suffered decreases except Polk, Pottawattamie, and Woodbury where the growth of Des Moines, Council Bluffs, and Sioux City account for a considerable increase.

Since 1880 the sons and daughters of Old Erin resident in Iowa have shown a rapid falling off as evidenced by the following statistics: 42,524 in 1885, 33,006 in 1895, 22,578 in 1905, 14,299 in 1915, and 10,686 in 1920. Death has thinned the ranks of the Irish immigrants of half a century ago, and their places have not been filled by fresh recruits from the old home-land; but their children and grandchildren constitute a numerous progeny, Irish Catholic communities being found in most of the counties of the State to-day. (37)

THE WELSH

The Welsh contingent in Iowa's foreign-born population has always been relatively small. In 1880 only 3031 natives of Wales were reported as residents of the State, being grouped with the English in the census returns for counties. (38) In subsequent years they are separately reported in the records as follows 3436 in 1885, 3439 in 1895, 2621 in 1905, 2048 in 1915, and 1753 in 1920. Slight and almost negligible as their number was in comparison with the State's total population, the Welsh have somewhat clannishly flocked to certain counties as is shown in the following figures: (39)

Further investigation shows that in several of these counties Welshmen congregated in certain neighborhoods, as, for example, in Columbus City and Elm Grove townships in Louisa County where church services are still conducted in the mother tongue; Des Moines, Garfield, and Harrison townships and the towns of Beacon and Oskaloosa in Mahaska County; the towns of Cleveland and Lucas in Lucas County where John Llewellyn Lewis, president of the United Mine Workers of America, was born of Welsh parents in 1880; Hilton and Troy townships and Williamsburg in Iowa County; Forest City in Howard County; Union Township in Johnson County; Kirkville and Ottumwa in Wapello County; Lincoln Township with the village of Wales in Montgomery County; Des Moines in Polk County; Poweshiek Township in Jasper County. (40) Most of the Welsh in Iowa to-day are engaged as miners in the coal fields; but wherever they are, their eisteddfods or annual singing contests and their cymanfa or church conventions have survived the transplanting of these folk from their tiny fatherland. The Y Drych, newspaper published at Utica, New York, has many readers among the Welshmen of Iowa.

THE CANADIANS

Not inconsiderable has been the flow of British-Americans, chiefly Canadians, to the Iowa country. Census totals in every year except 1915 ranked them next to the English-born inhabitants of the Hawkeye State: 1756 in 1850, 6133 in 1856, 8313 in 1860, 17,907 in 1870, 19,451 in 1880, 19,087 in 1885, 17,882 in 1895, 14,306 in 1905, 10,980 in 1915, and 8929 in 1920. Being already Americanized, in the sense that their environment in Canada differed very little from that in the United States, they could easily adapt themselves to Iowa conditions: consequently these newcomers scattered to every nook and corner of the State. Taking the figures for 1880 and 1885 as a criterion and comparing them with more recent returns, Canadians have always been most numerous in the following counties: (41)

Cedar Rapids, Clinton, Council Bluffs, Davenport, Des Moines, Dubuque, Le Mars, Fort Dodge, and Sioux City were the principal British-American centers as late as 1895; and by the year 1915 the relative distribution in the counties above named had not appreciably changed. (42) It is interesting to note in this connection that as cheap Iowa lands were invaded by British subjects from the region north of the Great Lakes, so in more recent years Canada's agricultural provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan were largely occupied by thousands of young farmers from the Hawkeye State. Indeed, to that exodus was chiefly ascribed the decline of Iowa's population during the first decade of the twentieth century; and if the facts were fully known, they would probably show that Canada has more than made good earlier losses to Iowa.

THE SCOTCH

Although the stream of Irish immigration began to diminish in volume after 1880, the high-water mark of Scotch immigration to Iowa was not reached until five years later as shown by the following figures: 712 in 1850, 2169 in 1856, 2895 in 1860, 5248 in 1870, 6885 in 1880, and 7993 in 1885. Where the natives of Scotland settled in Iowa can be quite accurately determined from the census returns for the most typical years. Like the Irish they spread to all the ninety-nine counties, but consciously or unconsciously they favored a few as will be seen by the figures in the table. (43)

Despite the fact that old Scotch settlers have been passing away in the past three decades, the comparative ranking of the counties was about the same in 1915, although Monroe and Woodbury counties had received considerable accessions. Always rather thinly distributed over the State, the canny Scots have nevertheless gathered to a certain extent in such towns and cities as Boonesboro, Moingona, and Angus, Traer, Des Moines, Davenport, Council Bluffs, Dubuque, What Cheer, and Sioux City. (44) What Cheer owes its name to the exclamation of a Scotchman when he discovered coal in the neighborhood. Like their Welsh countrymen, many have worked as colliers in Iowa mines.

THE ENGLISH

Although the number of English-born people reported in Iowa in any census year never equalled or exceeded that of the Irish until 1915 when both elements totaled 15,741 and 14,299 respectively, the English must not be thought to have made a poor showing as immigrants. On the contrary, they and their descendants constitute a respectable portion of the State's population at the present time. The crest of the English wave struck Iowa five years later than did that of the Irish, as may be gathered from the following returns: 3785 in 1850, 8942 in 1856, 11,522 in 1860, 16,660 in 1870, 22,519 in 1880, and 25,974 in 1885.

These immigrants like other Britishers settled most thickly in certain portions of the State, but this result was not necessarily due to conscious selection on their part. In 1895 Des Moines, Dubuque, Sioux City, Council Bluffs, Davenport, Clinton, What Cheer, Cedar Rapids, Burlington, Ottumwa, Mystic, Oskaloosa, and Le Mars led in, the number of English-born inhabitants, thus helping to explain the totals for counties in earlier and later census years as well. In 1915 the English-born residents of Iowa were dwelling in much the same places as before, except that several coalmining communities had come to be prominent centers since 1890. Statistics for about one-fourth of the counties of Iowa for the census years of 1880, 1885, 1895, and 1915 show that in most localities there has been a marked decrease in the number of English-born residents in Iowa. The figures are as follows: (45)

DECREASE OF THE BRITISH ELEMENT

Judging from State and Federal census totals, natives of Canada and Ireland practically ceased emigrating to Iowa by the year 1880; natives of Scotland and England by the year 1885; and Welshmen by the year 1895. Since then their numbers have gradually decreased: death has taken its toll among the oldest of them and newcomers from across the sea have not arrived in sufficient force to keep the British element constant in the population of the State. How rapidly the pure Scotch and English strains have vanished is clear from the records which show that the number in 1920 was only about half that in 1885:

TOTAL BRITISH-BORN CONTRIBUTION TO IOWA

How many Britishers have at different times found homes in. Iowa, not even the census figures can adequately reveal. Some of them came and died in the State before the census enumerators could record their presence; some resided in the State a few years and moved on without being counted in the census years. A rough estimate of the British contribution to Iowa for the past eighty years may be based on the combined totals of the years 1885 and 1915 which probably represent two generations of foreign-born Irish, Canadians, Welsh, Scotch, and English: approximately 150,000 emigrants from the British Isles and British possessions have helped to swell the population of the State at various times.

In conclusion it is interesting to observe how this British contribution has compared with other foreign-born elements in the Iowa museum of human stocks and races. It is a mistake to assume that because the Germans and the Scandinavians have loomed large in the bulk of European immigrants in Iowa during the past thirty years they have always preponderated. It is worth noting that all census returns on nativity from 1850 to 1880 show that the combined total of Irish, Canadians, Welsh, Scotch, and English exceeded that of any other nationality. Since then, however, German-born immigrants have easily ranked first in number. Moreover, it was not until 1905 that Swedes and Norwegians stood next to the Germans, Irish-born and English-born inhabitants ranking fourth and fifth. Even in the year 1915 the entire British-born element did not compare unfavorably with the North Europeans as evidenced in the following figures: (46)

The clannishness so characteristic of German, Scandinavian., Dutch, and Bohemian settlements in Iowa has not been duplicated by the British born to any noticeable extent: the latter have always been more thinly diffused throughout the State, (47) perhaps because the language difficulty never seriously differentiated them from their English-speaking American neighbors. The problem of adjustment and adaptation to the New World quite naturally possessed no terrors for those who had no linguistic handicap to overcome, whereas in the case of all other foreigners the same difficulty very much retarded the process of Americanization. Whether Teutonic peoples have been on the whole a more welcome addition to the body politic of Iowa than the British, students of ethnology will have no easy task to prove. How ever that may be, the industrious and self-respecting descendants of all foreign-born immigrants who sought and found a livelihood within the borders of the State have no reason to lament their lineage. On the contrary, their foreign ancestry should spur them on to create in Iowa, with its wonderful natural resources, a State and a society superior to any that their trans-Atlantic forefathers knew; for after all the real wealth of every State is its people.

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36 Historical and Comparative Census of Iowa, 1836-1880, pp. 168, 170; Census of Iowa, 1885, pp. 19, 24, 26, 45, 47, 63, 65, 68.

37 Annual reports of the four Roman Catholic dioceses of Iowa can be found in The Official Catholic Directory.

38 United States Census, 1880, pp. 494, 506-508.

39 Census of Iowa, 1885, pp. 164-166, 1895, pp. 305-307, 1905, pp. 517-520, 1915, pp. 465-467.

40 Census of Iowa, 1885, pp. 1-82, 1895, pp. 331-333.

41 United States Census, 1880,- pp. 506-508; Census of Iowa, 1885, pp. 164-166.

42 Census of Iowa, 1895, pp. 331-333, 1915, pp. 462-464.,

43 United States Census, 1880, pp. 506-508; Census of Iowa, 1885, pp. 164-166.
     In 1895 Appanoose County had 374 Scotch and in 1915, 233, while Monroe and Woodbury counties had 232 and 205, respectively, in 1915. Census of Iowa, 1915, pp. 465-467.

44 Census of Iowa, 1885, pp. 1-82, 1895, pp. 330-333.

45 United States Census, 1880, pp. 494, 506-508 (the figures include the Welsh) ; Census of Iowa, 1885, pp. 164-166, 1895, pp. 304-307, 1915, pp. 462-464.

46 Census o f Iowa, 1915, p. LV. The native-born. Dutch, Russians, Bohemians, and Italians numbered 12,638, 9896, 9500, and 6261, respectively.

47 The counties most frequently included in the census lists of different years were the ones with the most populous cities in Iowa : Dubuque, Scott, Polk, Pottawattamie, Linn, and Woodbury. Counties ranking next were Monroe, Clinton, Johnson, Wapello, Delaware, Black Hawk, Fayette, Greene, and Jasper. In several of these the Britishers were largely employed in coal mines.

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