By DMPL Team
On the northwest corner of Second and Walnut was the site of Joseph Hierb’s Saloon. Hierb and his brother started the first brewery in Des Moines in 1855, which later became known as City Brewery,…

By Thomas W. Rowat
A history of the Rowat Cut Stone Company should begin many years back. In fact, in 1850 a boy was born into a large family in Kilmarnock, Scotland. This boy started to learn to be a stonecutter at the…

By John Zeller
Iowans, has voting got you down? C’mon, cheer up and practice gratitude to the Aussies who 162 years ago invented something that forever changed how we vote in America: the Australian Secret…

By DMPL Team
Major Hoyt Sherman was born in Ohio in 1827, the youngest of 11 children. His father was an Ohio Supreme Court judge, his brother John became the U.S. Secretary of Treasury and Secretary of State, and…

By DMPL Team
On January 4, 1904 the Capitol Building caught fire. According to an article in the Des Moines Register and Leader the House Legislative Chamber and adjacent rooms were gutted by the fire. The cause…

By DMPL Team
In 1870 the Iowa Board of Immigration published "Iowa: The Home for Immigrants..." This 96-page guide was printed in English, German, Norwegian, Swedish, and Dutch and included statistics and other…

By DMPL Team
In 1846, soon after the establishment of the state of Iowa, it was decided that it needed to be moved from Iowa City to a more central location. It took 9 years of rivalries for the legislature, with…

By Zeller, John
James C. Savery was Des Moines' first great hotel man. Arriving in 1857, Mr. Savery purchased the Marvin House on 3rd Street and renamed it the Everett House which became the terminus of the stage…

By DMPL Team
Many people in the Des Moines area associate the Jewett name with Gilcrest Jewett Lumber, but George Jewett, a founding partner, had many other interests. In 1872, he helped found the Iowa Loan &…