IowaWatch (https://www.iowawatch.org/tag/washington/)
I was a kid from small-town Iowa when I first laid eyes on the United States Capitol. It was 1962. My family squeezed into our Dodge and drove to our nation’s capital for the vacation of a lifetime. It was all about history. We walked through the White House.
A News21 analysis of Federal Emergency Management Agency data shows those smaller disasters accounted for more than 60 percent of all federally declared disasters between 2003 and 2018 but received at least $57.3 billion less in public assistance from FEMA.
“I have experienced the first real trial of my life. After a few days of suffering our little Hannah died of lung fever so we are left with one baby,” Keturah Belknap wrote in her diary in November 1843 of the death of her first child. But it would not be the last time she would endure similar pain. Three of her five children would die before reaching adulthood. Iowa History, a weekly column, appears at IowaWatch on Saturdays.
“He represents the backbone of genuine men of Iowa; we are people who raise corn that makes hogs. I’m surprised the senator doesn’t go to Washington with overalls and cowhide boots,” Burton Sweet, a Republican congressman from Iowa, said about his colleague Republican Senator Smith Brookhart in 1923. 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.