Happy 173rd birthday, state of Iowa!

President James K. Polk

It's a little late to send a card, but there will be plenty of time tomorrow (Dec. 28, 2019) to wish the state of Iowa a felicitous 173rd birthday --- and many happy returns.

It was on that date back in 1846 that President James K. Polk signed the bill formally creating the 29th state in the Union.

At the time, Iowa Territory's population numbered roughly 75,000 and there had been increasing interest in statehood for some years. Whigs, however, generally were content to remain a territory. So long as the government was territorial rather than state, the federal government paid the bills. That would change with statehood.

Democrats, led by Polk, gained power during 1844 and the move toward statehood gained momentum. During 1845, Florida was admitted to the union as a slave state --- and that increased the pressure.

By this time, the gentlemen of the U.S. Senate had agreed that in order to maintain balance between slave states and free states in their legislative chamber, admission of a slave state had to be balanced by admission of a free state --- and Iowa was the most likely free contender, although not the only possibility.

If Iowa didn't move, there was no way of telling how long it would be for the next statehood opportunity to arise. So resolutions were passed, a state constitution was was developed and then approved by Congress, enabling legislation approved --- and finally, the signature.

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Lucas County existed during December of 1846 --- but only on paper. It had been created and named for Iowa territorial Gov. Robert Lucas by act of the final territorial legislature on Jan. 13, 1846. But its organization would not be ordered by the state Legislature until Jan. 14, 1849, and would not occur until the following September.

For the time being, the county was attached for administrative purposes to Monroe County along with all the rest of a county-wide strip of land that extended west to the Missouri River.

The lands of Lucas County had opened for permanent settlement on Oct. 11, 1845, when the Sauk and Meskwaki peoples' title to it expired, but there had been few takers.

John Ballard had made a claim during the spring of 1846 near the English-Pleasant Township line on  the east branch of English Creek some two miles east of what we know now as Bingham (or Pine Hill) Cemetery, north of Williamson. He had returned to Appanoose County to gather up his family and they moved to a cabin on that claim during September. The Ballards generally are recognized as Lucas County's first permanent settlers.

At about the same time the Ballards were moving a few miles northwest, a band of Mormon refugees from Nauvoo headed by Elder Freeman Nickerson was making its way across Iowa. They reached Chariton Point, just southeast of what now is Chariton, during November and were forced to stop for the winter, finding refuge along the Chariton River.

So the Ballards and these refugee Saints were, so far as we know, the only people actually living within Lucas County's boundaries when Iowa statehood became official although occasional hunting parties of native people continued to visit for some years and more settlers soon would arrive.

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The Ballards still live among us --- Lucas County's first family, if you will.

And Freeman Nickerson still is here, too --- he died during that long winter of 1846-47. His grave, generally thought to have been the first at what we now call Douglass Pioneer Cemetery, has been lost.

But during 2012, many of his multitudinous descendants returned to Chariton to dedicate a memorial to him in the Chariton Cemetery not far from the spot where his family found refuge during Iowa's year of statehood.