Iowa Towns Research Articles

Adult Costume in Iowa Towns, 1870–1880

The purpose of the research was to describe the outer clothing and hairstyles worn by men and women living in Iowa towns between 1870 and 1880. The clothing studied came from the collections of nineteen museums in Iowa, Iowa State University, and 6 private collectors. Data were also found in newspapers, magazines, photographs, tintypes, census figures, court records, city directories, and personal diaries. Surviving women's and men's clothing was described on charts prepared for this research. Photographs and line drawings of the clothes were also made. Clothing for both men and women was similar in style to fashions advertised in national magazines and newspapers of the 1870's. However, women's dresses had high necklines and full‐length sleeves, unlike some contemporary fashion illustrations. Men's suits were subdued in color and loose in fit, much like the suits advertised nationally. Cotton, wool, and silk fabrics appeared in extant garments. Surviving work clothing was limited to housedresses; patterns for a man's working blouse and overalls were illustrated in an 1876 periodical.

Background prevalence of microagglutination antibodies to Legionella pneumophila serogroups 1, 2, 3, and 4.

The background prevalence of microagglutination antibodies to Legionella pneumophila was determined by testing the sera of 517 individuals who lived or worked in a small Iowa town. In this population, the upper limit of normal microagglutination titer for serogroups 1, 3, and 4 was 1:16, and that for serogroup 2 was 1:8. The prevalence of microagglutination titers of greater than or equal to 1:32 against any serogroup of L. pneumophila was only 7.4% and did not vary significantly with age or sex.

Marital Satisfaction A s Perceived by Wives

This study was designed to determine the relative importance of specific sociological, economic, and psychological variables in explaining marital satisfaction. Data were collected from 163 two‐ parent families living in small towns in southwestern Iowa. Multivariate regression was used to analyze the data. The results of this study partially supported the general hypothesis that sociability and psychological factors would be more closely associated with marital satisfaction than would socioeconomic factors.The findings indicated that going places together as a family and marital decision making (jointly made by husbands and wives) regarding the best place for the family to live were positively related to marital satisfaction. On the other hand, borrowing and exchanging favors frequently with neighbors and frequency of money problems related to savings were negatively related to marital satisfaction.

Through the Eyes of Artists: Iowa Towns in the 19th Century

Through the Eyes of Artists: Iowa Towns in the 19th Century

Impact of Rail Abandonment upon Grain Elevator and Rural Community Performance Measures

Historically, businessmen located on rural branch rail lines have strongly opposed rail abandonment. They have argued that the loss of their branch rail lines would substantially increase their costs and make it more difficult-and perhaps impossible-for elevators and farmers to market their grain and to obtain production inputs. Community leaders maintain that the very existence of their towns will be threatened if their rail lines are abandoned. Congress also has been concerned with the impact of rail abandonment on rural communities. The Railroad Revitalization and Regulatory Reform Act of 1976 provides up to $360 million of financial assistance to states for transitional continuation of service on light density rail lines that are necessary to continued employment and community well-being throughout the United States. The available research on the impact of rail abandonment on rural businesses and towns is inconclusive. The studies addressing this question generally are of three types. One type attempts to project the potential impact of abandonment on communities and elevators that have rail service. Studies by Poth (1975a,b) and by Fink and Goode forecast large losses of income and/or employment from potential rail abandonment. A second set of studies measures changes in communities and counties before and after abandonment. Due measures employment and population in two Oregon counties before and after abandonment of a branch line. Allen measures population growth, transportation costs, and firm adjustments within ten communities before and after abandonment. Due and Allen conclude that the shortand long-run effects of abandonment were relatively small. A third set of studies compares the growth of firms and counties affected by abandonment with the growth of nearby firms and counties that continued to have rail service. Bunker and Hill measure the impact of rail abandonment on agricultural production and on associated grain-marketing and fertilizer-supply firms located on two abandoned rail lines by comparing the growth of the firms located on the abandoned lines with the growth of nearby firms. The chief impact was on fertilizer dealers. There was no clear indication that abandonment had any significant impact on employment. Sloss, Humphrey, and Krutter attempted to measure the overall effects of rail abandonment on the development of nine test counties that had lost a major portion of their rail mileage. These nine counties were compared with nine control counties that had either no abandonment or relatively little abandonment. They find no significant impacts attributable to abandonment using economic indicators such as changes in total bank deposits, changes in total value added by farm products, changes in number of employees in manufacturing, etc. Measures of total economic activity on a county basis, however, may be too aggregative to measure accurately the impact of rail abandonment on individual businesses and communities. Many communities already have lost their rail lines. Thus, it should be possible to measure statistically the effect of rail abandonment on performance measures of businesses and communities by comparing the change in performance measures over time of the businesses and communities that have lost their rail service with the change in these performance measures of similar businesses and communities located on branch rail lines. It should then be possible to determine if significant statistical differences occur in the change in performance measures of the two groups of businesses or communities. This note compares certain performance measures of cooperative elevators and incorporated towns in Iowa that lost their rail lines before 1974 with the performance measures of cooperative elevators located on all rail lines in Iowa and of incorporated towns served exclusively by seventy-one Iowa branch rail lines recently studied for possible upgrading or abandonment (Baumel, Miller, and Drinka 1976, 1977). These seventy-one branch lines, which generally serve rural areas in Iowa, are considered as potential candidates for abandonment.

Wives' Perceptions of Marital Decision Making

The objective of this study was to determine the relative importance of socioeconomic and demographic, value and goal orientation, perception, sociability, and satisfaction variables in explaining marital decision making as perceived by wives. The sample con sisted of 163 nuclear families living in small towns in southwestern Iowa. Multivariate regression was used to analyze the data. The results of this study partially supported the general hypothesis that sociability and psychological factors would be more closely asso ciated with marital decision making than socioeconomic factors.The findings indicated that marital satisfaction, going places together as a family, and the family income were positively related to joint decision making. On the other hand, the wife's employment outside the home, seeing and visiting with friends from work, the wife's perception of income adequacy, not being able to meet large bills, and the wife's inclina tion toward authority versus equality in regard to education were negatively related to joint decision making.

Association between Population Density and The Market Areas of Towns

AbstractThis paper examines the relationship between population density and town spacing in four kinds of environment. These are: (1) linear curves of demand, transport and production costs and an even population distribution; (2) nonlinear transport cost curves over space; (3) variable population density within hinterlands; and (4) variation of transport costs with population density.Previously, it has been shown that the criterion of free entry does not uniquely determine town spacing. The implications of four stronger criteria are therefore examined in this paper. These location criteria are: (a) the number of towns is maximized; (b) the number of towns in minimized, subject to all consumers' being served; (c) the towns are all owned by one profit‐maximizing monopolist; and (d) the average of some consumer utility function is maximized. In cases (a), (c), and (d) spacing decreases with density; in (b) spacing is an increasing function of density. Actual data are presented on the spacing of towns in Iowa and shopping centers in Chicago which indicate that spacing and population density are not associated. These results are consistent with the notion that entry is free but are not consistent with the stronger constraints employed in this paper.

Q-Study of Attitudes toward Rock Festival in Iowa Town

Q-Study of Attitudes toward Rock Festival in Iowa Town

Differential Depression Effects on Families of Laborers, Farmers, and the Business Class: A Survey of an Iowa Town

These data collected in 1935 and 1936 indicate that depression conditions affected laborers, farmers, and the business class very differently at several points. Laborers suffered severe losses in food. Both laborers and business families spent much less than previously for clothing, but only the laborers had their activities appreciably curtailed from lack of clothing. All classes reduced their expenditures for recreation, but laborers and farmers found new activities in community recreation, while business families took little part in community recreation but developed to some extent new uses of leisure at home. More laborers reported development of conflict in the home than of co-operation; increase of co-operation, on the other hand, was noted by 37 per cent of the business families and increase of conflict by only 7 per cent; few farmers reported change. Each class wanted money to pay debts more than for any other purpose. Hope for the future expressed by each class emphasized above everything else education for the children. Nearly half of the farmers but a much smaller percentage of laborers and businessmen wished for return to business conditions of the late twenties. Hope for a new social order of some sort was more often expressed by laborers and businessmen than was a desire to return to previous conditions. Three farm families and three families of laborers, but no business family, admitted loss of hope for the future.

School Finance in Iowa

During the past year a study has been made of the condition of school finance in Iowa. It is the purpose of this article to show two things; first, how the amount of money going to school purposes in Iowa cities and towns compares with the amounts which these same cities and towns are spending on other items, such as light, water, streets, etc. ; second, how the school money is spent by the school authorities after it comes into their hands.

Outbreak of Gastro-Enteritis and Typhoid Fever Due to Drinking Water on Excursion Steamer: A Report of an Investigation of an Outbreak of Gastro-Enteritis and Typhoid Fever at Clinton, Iowa, and Other Towns along the Mississippi River among Excursionists Who Had Been on a River Steamer July 29 and 30

Outbreak of Gastro-Enteritis and Typhoid Fever Due to Drinking Water on Excursion Steamer: A Report of an Investigation of an Outbreak of Gastro-Enteritis and Typhoid Fever at Clinton, Iowa, and Other Towns along the Mississippi River among Excursionists Who Had Been on a River Steamer July 29 and 30

The Blotting Out of An Iowa Town

The Blotting Out of An Iowa Town

Regulation of Trade and Morals By Iowa Town Councils Prior to 1858

Regulation of Trade and Morals By Iowa Town Councils Prior to 1858