Page:History of Iowa From the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the Twentieth Century Volume 1.djvu/356



Governor, $1,000; Auditor, $600; Secretary of State, $500; Treasurer, $400; Judges of the Supreme Court and District Courts, $1,000 each. For the purpose of defraying the expenses of the State government an act was passed authorizing the issue and sale of bonds to the amount of $55,000, bearing interest at ten per cent. and payable in ten years. Acts of general interest were passed as follows: to complete the change from Territorial to State government; to provide for election of United States Senators; to authorize general incorporations; to establish the new counties of Ringgold, Taylor, Page and Fremont; to provide a system of common schools, a general revenue law, for the election of a Superintendent of Public Instruction and the management of the school fund; to accept the grant of lands to improve the navigation of the Des Moines River; to create a Board of Public Works to carry on improvement. John Brown, Joseph D. Hoag and John Taylor were appointed commissioners to locate the permanent seat of government for the State near the geographical center, to lay off one section in lots, reserve a square of five acres for a Capitol building, sell two lots in each block, the proceeds to be held for the erection of a State House. An act was passed to provide for the navigation of the Skunk River and to remove obstructions below the forks in Keokuk County. Joint resolutions were passed asking for a grant of lands to improve the navigation of the Iowa and Cedar rivers and also to aid in the construction of a military road from Keokuk, via the Raccoon Forks of the Des Moines River to the Missouri River opposite the mouth of the Platte, to be a part of a national highway to Oregon Territory.

The State was divided into two Congressional districts. The first consisted of the counties of Lee, Van Buren, Jefferson, Wapello, Davis, Appanoose, Henry, Mahaska, Monroe, Marion, Jasper, Polk, Keokuk and all territory south of a line running from the northwest corner of Polk to the Missouri River. The remainder of the State