Iowa in the Area

Review of: "Money at Interest: The Farm Mortgage on the Middle Border," by Allan G. Bogue

Kansas Governors

William Scully, an Irishman who was a member of the lesser landed gentry, put his life’s energy into the accumulation of high-quality, low-cost land. He carefully husbanded his inheritance, and in 1850 he traveled to the United States and purchased with personal savings more than 8,000 acres in central Illinois. In 1851 he acquired another 30,000 acres of swampy virgin land. He added to his holdings until, by the late nineteenth century, he had amassed almost 225,000 acres of fertile farm land in Illinois, Kansas, Missouri, and Nebraska, and had become an absentee, alien landlord to some 1,500 tenants. Meanwhile, Scully was involved in lawsuits and violent landlord-tenant confrontations over his Irish holdings, which exceeded 2,000 acres. In one skirmish with his tenants Scully was severely wounded and two of his party were killed. Public remonstrance against Scully’s actions brought his name into notoriety throughout Great Britain. To handle his huge estate in America, Scully employed agents who were strategically located near his land. He inaugurated formal leasing procedures, insisting on elaborate controls: cash rentals, one-year leases, tenant-owned improvements, and soil conservation measures—all unusual for the time. Agitation against his practices as an absentee landlord in the 1880s and 1890s was widely covered in newspapers of the times. Because Scully used crop liens and court action to protect his rights, he was widely denounced for his disregard for his tenants’ welfare. State legislation designed to limit acquisition and inheritance of land by aliens finally forced Scully to gain American citizenship in 1900, six years before his death. Homer Socolofsky’s biography of Scully, the product of more than thirty years of research, provides a narrative and analysis of Scully’s activities as an investor in both Ireland and the United States. It is based on numerous archival and newspaper sources never before analyzed in published works, including private business records of the Scully estate, as well as Socolofsky’s interviews with Scully tenants. Socolofsky traces the acquisitions that led to Scully’s vast wealth, stressing the landlord’s strong will and determination and his unique methods of management. He looks closely at the charges against Scully on both sides of the Atlantic and describes Scully’s court fights and other confrontations with his tenants. Finally, he follows the inheritance of Scully’s multi-million dollar estate from Scully’s death to the present. Scully’s colorful career provides a unique opportunity for studying the economics and politics of land use in this country during the nineteenth century. This volume moves beyond biography to encompass an important segment of the business and agricultural history of the American Midwest. Description Homer E.Socolofsky (1922–2005) was professor emeritus of history at Kansas State University and a leading authority on Kansas history. His many publications include Arthur Capper: Publisher, Politician, Philanthropist andKansas Governors. This Kansas Open Books title is funded by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Humanities Open Book Program.https://digitalcommons.pittstate.edu/kansas_open_books/1054/thumbnail.jp

Iowa in the Area

Review of: "Money at Interest: The Farm Mortgage on the Middle Border," by Allan G. Bogue

Landlord William Scully

This one-stop reference work is a governors’ hall of fame—a compendium of information about the 51 men who have held the chief executive post since the opening of the Kansas Territory in 1854. Using both primary and secondary sources, historian Homer Socolofsky sketches a concise biography of each governor and compares their roles in Kansas history. He also provides comparative election and demographic data, as well as suggestions for additional reading. Supplementing the text are 93 historic photographs, including each chief executive’s portrait and autograph. Twelve maps and tables depict and compare aspects of the governors’ lives, showing occupational background, birthplace, and residence. Kansas Governors brings together in a single volume a far more complete treatment of both territorial and state governors—as well as acting governors—than can be found in other biographical dictionaries. It will be a useful tool for Kansas history buffs, and an essential reference for school and public libraries. Description Homer E.Socolofsky (1922–2005) was professor emeritus of history at Kansas State University and a leading authority on Kansas history. His many publications include Arthur Capper: Publisher, Politician, Philanthropist and Landlord William Scully. Virgil W. Dean is an independent historian and consulting editor who was editor of the journal Kansas History: A Journal of the Central Plains for almost thirty years. A former historian for the Kansas State Historical Society, he is the author or editor of four books, including John Brown to Bob Dole: Movers and Shakers in Kansas History. With a New Foreword by Virgil W. Dean. This Kansas Open Books title is funded by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Humanities Open Book Program.https://digitalcommons.pittstate.edu/kansas_open_books/1055/thumbnail.jp

Review of \u3ci\u3eA Field Guide to American Windmills\u3c/i\u3e By T. Lindsay Baker

This guide, useful for identifying windmills but somewhat cumbersome for carrying in the field because it weighs more than four pounds, is the most complete general history of the American turbine-wheel windmill. Attractively published, A Field Guide to American Windmills will find a positive response from users of all kinds-those who want to know much about all kinds of windmills or those who want a small amount of specific information

Review of Populism: Its Rise and Fall.

William Alfred Peffer, from Kansas, the first Peoples Party United States Senator, wrote this analysis of Populism for the Chicago Tribune in 1899 where it was published as a series and forgotten. Almost a century later its republication establishes it as an anti-fusion insider\u27s view of what happened to the Populist Party. Editor Peter Argersinger is the author of Populism and Politics: William Alfred Peffer and the Peoples Party and a professor of history at University of Maryland, Baltimore County

Benjamin Harrison And The American West

In a speech in Pocatello, Idaho, in 1891, President Benjamin Harrison expressed his admiration for the pioneers of the American West: My sympathy and interest have always gone out to those who, leaving the settled and populous parts of our country, have pushed the frontiers of civilization farther and farther to the westward until they have met the Pacific Ocean and the setting sun. Pioneers have always been enterprising people. If they had not been they would have remained at home; they endured great hardships and perils in opening these great mines . . . and in bringing into subjection these wild plains and making them blossom like gardens.1 Harrison had always been fascinated by the West. To a college chum he spoke of settling in either San Francisco or Chicago, and in 1854 he chose Indianapolis as his home town. By the time he had served six years as a U.S. senator and was nominated for president in 1888, he was described as a westerner. His only son, Russell, lived in territorial Montana for several years. President Harrison\u27s stance on the issue of Chinese immigration gives further evidence of his close contact with western attitudes. Harrison had widespread support for the Republican nomination for president at Chicago in 1888. He had served in the Senate from 1881 to 1887, and most western senators in the convention gave him their vote. Harrison received much of the support that would have gone to James O. Blaine, had he been candidate. Blaine took himself out of the race and Stephen Benton Elkins, a financier from New York City and West Virginia with important connections in New Mexico, helped engineer Harrison\u27s nomination on the eighth ballot. By that time, the votes of delegates from the West, as well as from certain populous eastern states, pushed his total above the majority mark. Westerners regarded Harrison as a candidate from their area who would understand the special problems of the West. Many of the domestic issues facing the Harrison administration (1889-1893) were of immediate concern to western interests: statehood for western territories, appointments to public office, national policy for natural resources, the monetary issue of silver, and the role of the federal government in local affairs. Tariff policy, a dominant issue elsewhere in the country, was relatively less vital to most of the American West at this time. NEW STATES IN THE WEST In his inaugural address President Harrison said, It is a subject of congratulations that there is a near prospect of the admission into the Union of the Dakotas and Montana and W ashington Territories. This act of justice has been unreasonably delayed. 2 So the time was ripe for new states; none had been admitted since Colorado in 1876. Most territorial residents saw statehood as an opportunity for greater self-government, and the 1888 election of a Republican majority in both houses of Congress raised their hopes for such a change. Over the course of nine days in November 1889, four new states were admitted-North and South Dakota, Montana, and W ashington. Eight months later, in early July 1980, Idaho and Wyoming were given statehood. The population of Dakota Territory had long been sufficient for statehood. While in the Senate, Harrison had sponsored a Dakota statehood bill that passed early in 1886. A Democratic-controlled House committee considered the possibility of New Mexico as a state to match Dakota, but ultimately refused to submit the Harrison bill. Dominant groups in Dakota Territory favored admission as two states, and their goal was obtainable when Harrison was elected. At the end of the Cleveland administration, the lame-duck Congress of 1888-89 passed the enabling legislation, knowing that their action provided an immediate political liability to the Democratic party.

Landlord William Scully

Landlord William Scully presents a full picture of the investment and landmanagement activities of one of the most important figures in American agricultural history. An Irishman who first came to the United States in 1850, Scully eventually built up holdings amounting to almost a quarter million acres of the richest prairie and farm lands in Illinois, Nebraska, Kansas, and Missouri. The vast land empire, which was worked by some fifteen hundred tenant farmers, earned for Scully the reputation of being America’s greatest landlord—this despite the fact that he remained an alien until the last decade of his life

Landlord William Scully

Homer E.Socolofsky (1922–2005) was professor emeritus of history at Kansas State University and a leading authority on Kansas history. His many publications include Arthur Capper: Publisher, Politician, Philanthropist andKansas Governors.This Kansas Open Books title is funded by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Humanities Open Book Program.William Scully, an Irishman who was a member of the lesser landed gentry, put his life’s energy into the accumulation of high-quality, low-cost land. He carefully husbanded his inheritance, and in 1850 he traveled to the United States and purchased with personal savings more than 8,000 acres in central Illinois. In 1851 he acquired another 30,000 acres of swampy virgin land. He added to his holdings until, by the late nineteenth century, he had amassed almost 225,000 acres of fertile farm land in Illinois, Kansas, Missouri, and Nebraska, and had become an absentee, alien landlord to some 1,500 tenants. Meanwhile, Scully was involved in lawsuits and violent landlord-tenant confrontations over his Irish holdings, which exceeded 2,000 acres. In one skirmish with his tenants Scully was severely wounded and two of his party were killed. Public remonstrance against Scully’s actions brought his name into notoriety throughout Great Britain. To handle his huge estate in America, Scully employed agents who were strategically located near his land. He inaugurated formal leasing procedures, insisting on elaborate controls: cash rentals, one-year leases, tenant-owned improvements, and soil conservation measures—all unusual for the time. Agitation against his practices as an absentee landlord in the 1880s and 1890s was widely covered in newspapers of the times. Because Scully used crop liens and court action to protect his rights, he was widely denounced for his disregard for his tenants’ welfare. State legislation designed to limit acquisition and inheritance of land by aliens finally forced Scully to gain American citizenship in 1900, six years before his death. Homer Socolofsky’s biography of Scully, the product of more than thirty years of research, provides a narrative and analysis of Scully’s activities as an investor in both Ireland and the United States. It is based on numerous archival and newspaper sources never before analyzed in published works, including private business records of the Scully estate, as well as Socolofsky’s interviews with Scully tenants. Socolofsky traces the acquisitions that led to Scully’s vast wealth, stressing the landlord’s strong will and determination and his unique methods of management. He looks closely at the charges against Scully on both sides of the Atlantic and describes Scully’s court fights and other confrontations with his tenants. Finally, he follows the inheritance of Scully’s multi-million dollar estate from Scully’s death to the present. Scully’s colorful career provides a unique opportunity for studying the economics and politics of land use in this country during the nineteenth century. This volume moves beyond biography to encompass an important segment of the business and agricultural history of the American Midwest