Iowa History

Roosevelt Welcomes Iowan to Rough Riders

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“War is a deplorable alternative and we must enter upon it only after the most earnest consideration,” a speaker at Darwin Merritt’s memorial service in Red Oak in 1898 declared. He said newspapermen and congressmen would not do the actual fighting in wartime. “The men who fight the war will be the men who enlist at the sound of the fife and the taps of the drum, and take in their hands the muskets.”

Iowa History, a weekly column, appears at IowaWatch on Saturdays. Cheryl Mullenbach is the author of non-fiction books for young people. Her work has been recognized by International Literacy Association, American Library Association, National Council for Social Studies, and FDR Presidential Library and Museum.

Iowa History

Former Iowa Governor Grabs Headlines With His Horse In Washington

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When former Iowa governor Leslie Shaw was chosen by President Theodore Roosevelt as his secretary of the treasury in 1902, Iowans were prepared to see his name in the national headlines. He grabbed headlines, but not always because of his actions as the treasury department head.