Page:History of Iowa From the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the Twentieth Century Volume 3.djvu/353

 was tendered the members by Governor Larrabee, assisted by Governors Gear and Sherman, Lieutenant-Governor Hull and Speaker Head and other State officers and members of the Twenty-first General Assembly. Four years later the early lawmakers again assembled at Des Moines and organized a permanent society known as “The Pioneer Lawmakers’ Association of Iowa.” The objects of the organization were to coöperate with all persons and societies engaged in the collection and preservation of the early history of Iowa and biography of its public men of that period. All State officials, including Federal officers, from Iowa and members of all lawmaking bodies who served twenty-five years or more previous to any biennial meeting of the Association became eligible to membership. The General Assembly recognizing the semi-official character of the Association and the value of the work in which it was engaged, provided by law for the publication of the official proceedings and historical contributions and addresses of its sessions. The published proceedings of the several sessions of the Association now make more than nine hundred pages of valuable contributions to Iowa history. The regular sessions are held biennially at Des Moines on the second Wednesday in February during the regular sessions of the General Assembly.

The first enumeration of the population of the region embraced in Iowa, was made under an act of Congress creating the Territory of Wisconsin in 1836. A similar census was taken in 1838 by authority of Congress when Iowa was organized into a Territory; and both of these enumerations were confined to counting of the people. In 1840 the sixth Federal census was taken and was the first in which inquiries were made as to the productions of the country. This gives us the first official report of a few of the principal agricultural products of the new Territory.