Pure Nostalgia: Memories of Early Iowa

By Carl Hamilton

Book Overview

No Synopsis Available.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0813809754
• ISBN13: 9780813809755
• Release Date: May 1979
• Publisher: Iowa State Press
• Length: 212 Pages
• Weight: 1.30 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Stories of struggles, success, setbacks and what life was like in Iowa

As a lifelong Iowan, I am of course interested in the history of the state. However, that is not a prerequisite for enjoying this book. There are eight short, autobiographical stories in this collection and they describe the lives of eight people with quite different experiences. The stories are: *) "Lovingly Submitted" by Asenath Hampton Gable- Gable lived in Ohio until her mother died when she was a teenager. Gable and her brother then traveled to Iowa to join her father on a farm in Iowa, where she spent the rest of her life. *) "Des Moines was Young and Gay" by T. I. Stoner - Stoner grew up in Iowa and when his mother died, he largely had to fend for himself. Exhibiting enormous energy and drive, Stoner was able to engage in several business practices and became a business leader. *) "Memories Never Forgotten" by C. V. Findlay - Findlay's father moved from Illinois to homestead on the Iowa prairie and he grew up to be a schoolteacher and became prominent in Iowa politics. *) "I Beat it Out to the Black Hills" by Bruce Siberts - Siberts was an Iowa boy who trekked out west when he was in his early twenties. The story explains his adventures in a largely lawless reason capturing wild horses and cattle of unknown ownership and dealing with the other adventurers of the time. *) "Country Editor" by Ira Nichols - Nichols was the feisty and uncompromising editor of a newspaper who was sued for libel eight times. This is his story of trying to dominate the news business in the city of Iowa Falls. *) "From Steam to Diesel" by Albert P. Butts - Butts was a longtime railroad man and this is the story of the growth and value of the railroad at a time when there were few roads and the trains largely ran on time. *) "Love, Mother" by Imogene Hamilton - this is the story of the worst blizzard in Iowa history in 1936 and how those in it managed to cope. *) "Unseen Battles" by Dr. Sylvester W. Barnett - Barnett was a medical doctor who practiced for 50 years. This story contains some of the highlights, as he had to be able to handle all types of medical problems. While there are Indians, outlaws and other colorful characters described in these stories, they are mostly about the events of the author's daily lives. Their joys, struggles, successes and failures were all typical of life on the Iowa prairie as it was changed from endless grasslands into productive farm country.

Some great accounts

This is a collection of eight accounts by participants in Iowa life. They are of uneven quality, but some are great reading. I especially liked the excerpts from letters written in 1936 by a mother to her daughter, which related the horrendous challenge which living thru that fabulous winter in Iowa was. There is also a good to read account by a railroadman telling of his work from 1911 to 1956--I thought his upbeat attitude to his hard work made a great account. Some of the accounts were a bit hard to believe, and one suspects some of the accounts are a bit embellished, but maybe not.