Late in the last century readers of books awoke to the fact that the
world-including, world-inviting prairies of the Mississippi Valley
were no longer inarticulate; that in this great "Heart of the World's
Heart," among the millions who have been drawn to these prairie
states, there are lives as rich--in all that really enriches--as those
immortalized in the literature of New England, or of the Pacific
slope. It was not to be expected that the westward-moving impulse to
create would cease on reaching the Mississippi River.
[1] Editor of the "Midland Monthly" and author of "Life of
James Harlan," "Iowa--Its History and Its Foremost
Citizens," "An Old Man's Idyl," etc.
In Iowa's pioneer days but little original matter found its way into
print except contributions to the rough and ready journalism of the
period. A few pioneer writers, possessed of the historiographer's
instinct, performed a rare service to the young commonwealth by
passing on to future generations their first-hand knowledge of the
prominent men and events of the first half of the century. Chief among
these are Theodore S. Parvin, William Salter, Alexander R. Fulton,
Samuel S. Howe and Charles Aldrich. The two last named published
several series of "The Annals of Iowa" which remain unfailing
reservoirs of information to later historians and students of Iowa
history. Iowa Masonry is specially indebted to Professor Parvin for
his invaluable contributions to the history of the order in Iowa. Dr.
Salter wrote the first notable Iowa biography, that of James W.
Grimes, published in 1876. Fulton's "Red Men of Iowa" is as valuable
as it is rare, for, though written as late as 1882, it is the first
exhaustive attempt to describe the tribes originally inhabiting Iowa.
The war period--1861-5--developed "Iowa in War Times," by S. H. M.
Byers, and "Iowa Colonels and Regiments," by A. A. Stuart, also many
valuable personal sketches and regimental histories.
Long before the close of the century, the name of Samuel Hawkins
Marshall Byers had grown familiar to the people of Iowa, because of
the popularity of his song entitled "Sherman's March to the Sea," and
because contemporary historians, attracted by its suggestive title,
adapted it as especially appropriate for the most dramatic event in
the history of the war for the Union.
Major Byers' most lasting contribution to literature is his poem "The
March to the Sea," epic in character and interspersed with lyrics of
the war. Reading this, one can hear the thrilling bugle call, and "see
once again the bivouacs in the wood."