Knoxville, Iowa

Knoxville is a city in Marion County, Iowa, United States. The population was 7,313 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Marion County. Knoxville is home of the National Sprint Car Hall of Fame & Museum located next to the famous dirt track known as Knoxville Raceway.

History

The site for the future county seat of Marion County was selected because it was within a mile of the geographic center of the county, reasonably level and near a good source of timber. The first town lots were sold in 1845, and the town was named after Knoxville, a small town in Iowa which was created in 1845 to be the county seat for Marion County.

In early 1853, the citizens of Marion County created a committee to attract railroad development to the county and to Knoxville, with members promising to buy shares in any railroad that reached town. The first contender was the Muscatine, Oskaloosa & Council Bluffs, proposing an east-west line that would pass through Knoxville. By 1875, when this line reached Knoxville, it was the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad. The second railroad to reach Knoxville was the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific, which completed a line from Oskaloosa in 1876.

Iowa

Iowa (ⁱ/ˈaɪ.əwə/) is a U.S. state in the Midwestern United States, bordered by the Mississippi River on the east and the Missouri River and the Big Sioux River on the west, by Wisconsin and Illinois to the east, Missouri to the south, Nebraska and South Dakota to the west, and Minnesota to the north.

In colonial times, Iowa was a part of French Louisiana and Spanish Louisiana; its state flag is patterned after the flag of France. After the Louisiana Purchase, settlers laid the foundation for an agriculture-based economy in the heart of the Corn Belt.

In the latter half of the 20th century, Iowa's agricultural economy made the transition to a diversified economy of advanced manufacturing, processing, financial services, information technology, biotechnology, and green energy production. Iowa is the 26th most extensive in land area and the 30th most populous of the 50 United States. Its capital and largest city is Des Moines. Iowa has been listed as one of the safest states in which to live. Its nickname is the Hawkeye State.

Iowa people

The Iowa (also spelled Ioway), also known as the Báxoǰe, are a Native American Siouan people. Today they are enrolled in either of two federally recognized tribes, the Iowa Tribe of Oklahoma and the Iowa Tribe of Kansas and Nebraska.

With the Missouria and the Otoe, the Ioway are the Chiwere-speaking peoples, claiming the Ho-Chunks as their "grandfathers." Their estimated population of 1,100 (in 1760) dropped to 800 (in 1804), a decrease caused mainly by smallpox, to which they had no natural immunity.

In 1837, the Iowa were moved from Iowa to reservations in Brown County, Kansas, and Richardson County, Nebraska. Bands of Iowa moved to Indian Territory in the late 19th century and settled south of Perkins, Oklahoma, becoming the Iowa Tribe of Oklahoma.

Name

Their name has been said to come from ayuhwa ("asleep"). Early European explorers often adopted the names of tribes from the ethnonyms which other tribes gave them, not understanding that these differed from what the peoples called themselves. Thus, ayuhwa is not an Ioway word. The word Ioway comes from Dakotan ayuxbe via French aiouez. Their autonym (their name for themselves) is Báxoje, pronounced [b̥aꜜxodʒɛ] (alternate spellings: pahotcha, pahucha,), which translates to "grey snow". Báxoje has been incorrectly translated as "dusted faces" or "dusty nose", since the Ioway words use different consonants.

Iowa (steamboat)

The Steamboat Iowa was revered as one of the largest and fastest boats on the Mississippi in the mid 19th century; it is incorporated into the official Seal of Iowa. Built in 1838, the Iowa was the first vessel named for the newly formed Territory of Iowa. It weighed 112 tons, could pull 10 keelboats, and it set the speed record from Galena, Illinois to St. Louis in 1843, making the trip in 44 hours, a record that held until 1849. The Iowa was hired by Mormon supporters of Joseph Smith, Jr. as part of a plan to rescue him from jail in June 1843; the excursion was cancelled after Smith was murdered in jail. The Iowa sunk after a collision with the steamboat Declaration on Oct. 1, 1847 while traveling from New Orleans to St. Louis. This liability for this collision was ultimately decided by the U.S. Supreme Court case John Walsh v. Patrick Rogers (54 U.S. 283- 1852). However, the Iowa was apparently rebuilt, or a new steamboat was later rechristened Iowa, since similar side-wheeler appeared twice in Barber and Howe's 1865 Loyal West in the Time of Rebellion, and there is reference to the Iowa being used as a troop transport during the Civil War.