Iowa Poet Edwin Ford Piper

Edwin Ford Piper joined the faculty at the University of Iowa in 1905 and stayed there for decades, writing and teaching until his death in 1939.

He wrote about the Midwest the way it really felt. Dirt roads. Wind. Work. And long days that didn’t care if you were tired.

 

Barbed Wire was published in 1917. The Land of the Aiouwas followed in 1922. Then came Paintrock Road in 1927.

 

People compared him to Robert Frost and Carl Sandburg. Maybe. But Piper had his own style. He favored simple words, sharp images, and no fake drama.

 

And here’s the wild part. He didn’t just write poems. He collected Americana—828 folk songs, work songs, ballads, and little rhymes people sang without thinking.

 

Edwin Ford Piper wasn’t just writing Iowa’s story. He was recording its voice.

Dance Troupe of Miss Elizabeth Werblosky

Miss Elizabeth Werblosky

Miss Elizabeth Werblosky brought her ballet troupe to the stage of the President Theater in Des Moines on June 1, 1930, for a full evening dance recital that aimed to show just how many directions the art form could go.

The program featured thirty-three numbers, each one designed to illustrate a different phase of dance. Werblosky shaped the show from top to bottom, conceiving all but five of the pieces herself.

One of the evening’s most striking moments came in “Death and the Maiden,” with Julius Goldensen appearing as Death, wearing a mask that gave the number its eerie edge. The mask was designed by Clara Jane Goddard of Drake University, adding a strong visual punch to a performance built around movement, mood, and storytelling. (colorized pictures from the Des Moines Register. May 25, 1930)

Dancers (from left to right) Dorothy Abramson, Margaret
Ann Chambers, and Jean Schneider

Council Oak In Riverside Park Sioux City

Council Oak in 1921

Council Oak, often described as the most famous tree in Iowa, was nominated for a Hall of Fame for trees in 1921 by Miss Susie Brown of Marion.

The 265-year-old tree tree in Sioux City’s Riverside Park is located a few hundred yards from the junction of the Missouri and the Big Sioux Rivers. The surrounding area includes summer cottages and the lodges of two area boat clubs.

Tradition holds that white settlers and Native Americans met under the tree to plan wars against other tribes and to plan proposed raids on settlements of encroaching white men.

The oak measures nearly four feet in diameter and rises nearly 100 feet high. The tree died out in the 1970s.

Jarvis Doughnut Shop Advertisement Davenport 1921

Nice 1921 advertisement for the Jarvis Donut Shop in Davenport, Iowa. Note they had tables for the ladies, or you could take home a bag.

Shop The Kahl Building

This advertisement encouraging people to shop the Kahl Building in downtown Davenport was published in the Davenport Democrat and Leader on September 25, 1921.

The Burzette Gang of Sioux City

Everett Burzette

Some criminals aren’t born in the dark. They’re trained there.

And Everett Burzette—sitting in a jail cell in Mason City, Iowa, accused of first-degree murder—was raised in the shadow of a name that carried fear like a headline.

Burzette.

A name tied to stolen automobiles, gun smoke, and a man who didn’t plan on surrendering. A name made infamous by Everett’s older brother—Red Burzette—who, as one account put it, “met his death with a belching revolver in his hand,” fighting the police in Sioux City.

That was the family legacy Everett inherited. Now it was his turn to face the rope.

His cousin, Melvin Burzette, was locked up on the same charge in the cell next to him. They were accused of murdering Morris G. Van Note, a well-to-do farmer, shot down in the yard of a rural school building near Mason City. He’d tried to stop them from stealing school property, and—bang . . . Van Note was dead.

An Unsual Golf Tournament at the Newton Country Club

(colorized image, from a black and white photo)

The Des Moines Register printed this picture of an unusal golf tournament at the Newton Country Club on August 28, 1927. The players (left to right) are: Harlan Bailey - Newton postmaster, and Harry Cross - a local attorney. Bailey played the course with his clubs, while Cross attacked the balloons with his bow and arrow. The final score was 5 up, in favor of Cross.