Editing Iowa Territory (section)

==History==
[[File:Iowa territorial seal.jpg|thumb|Seal of the Territory of Iowa]]

Most of the area in the territory was originally part of the [[Louisiana Purchase]] and was a part of the [[Missouri Territory]]. When [[Missouri]] became a state in 1821, this area (along with [[the Dakotas]]) effectively became [[Territories of the United States#Formerly unorganized territories|unorganized territory]]. The area was closed to white settlers until the 1830s, after the [[Black Hawk War]] ended. It was attached to the [[Michigan Territory]] on June 28, 1834. At an extra session of the Sixth Legislative Assembly of Michigan held in September, 1834, the Iowa District was divided into two counties by running a line due west from the lower end of [[Rock Island Arsenal|Rock Island]] in the [[Mississippi River]]. The territory north of this line (which started just south of the present-day [[Davenport, Iowa|Davenport]]) was named Dubuque County, and all south of it was Des Moines County. When [[Michigan]] became a state in 1836 the area became the [[Iowa District]] of western [[Wisconsin Territory]]—the region west of the [[Mississippi River]].

The original boundaries of the territory, as established in 1838, included [[Minnesota]] and parts of [[the Dakotas]], covering about {{convert|194000|sqmi|km2}} of land.

[[Burlington, Iowa|Burlington]] was the provisional capital; [[Iowa City, Iowa|Iowa City]] was designated as the official territorial capital in 1841.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://iagenweb.org/history/soi/soi31.htm|title=HOW IOWA BECAME A TERRITORY|website=iagenweb.org}}</ref> [[Fort Snelling]] was located on the western side of the Mississippi placing it within the Territory until statehood. 

When Iowa became a state on December 28, 1846, no provision was made for official organization of the remainder of the territory.<ref>{{cite book |title=2013 - 2014 Minnesota Legislative Manual (Blue Book) |year=2013 |publisher=Office of the Minnesota Secretary of State |location=Saint Paul, MN |page=50 |chapter=Chapter 2 — Founding Documents |chapter-url=http://www.sos.state.mn.us/2013_MN_legislative_manual/chapters/chapter_2-charters_laws_and_founding_documents.pdf |url=http://www.sos.state.mn.us/index.aspx?page=1744 |access-date=August 19, 2014 |format=PDF |archive-date=July 26, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140726140213/http://www.sos.state.mn.us/index.aspx?page=1744 |url-status=dead }}</ref> [[Morgan L. Martin]], the Wisconsin territorial delegate to congress, pushed through a bill to organize a territory of Minnesota which would encompass this land. While the bill passed in the house, it did not pass the senate. In the following session a bill by [[Stephen A. Douglas]] was introduced in the senate but also did not pass. The situation was resolved when [[Minnesota Territory]] was organized on March 3, 1849, the day before the close of congress.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Shortridge |first=Wilson P. |date=August 1919 |title=Henry Hastings Sibley and the Minnesota Frontier |url=https://archive.org/details/jstor-20160312 |journal=Minnesota History Bulletin |volume=3 |issue=3 |pages=115–125 |access-date=August 19, 2014 }}</ref>

In the [[1840 United States census]], [[List of counties in Iowa|18 counties in the Iowa Territory]] reported the following population counts:<ref>{{cite report|editor-last=Forstall|editor-first=Richard L.|title=Population of the States and Counties of the United States: 1790–1990|pages=55–57|publisher=[[United States Census Bureau]]|url=https://www2.census.gov/library/publications/decennial/1990/population-of-states-and-counties-us-1790-1990/population-of-states-and-counties-of-the-united-states-1790-1990.pdf|access-date=May 18, 2020}}</ref>
{| class=wikitable
! Rank
! County
! Population
|-
|1
|[[Van Buren County, Iowa|Van Buren]]
|6,146
|-
|2
|[[Lee County, Iowa|Lee]]
|6,093
|-
|3
|[[Des Moines County, Iowa|Des Moines]]
|5,577
|-
|4
|[[Henry County, Iowa|Henry]]
|3,772
|-
|5
|[[Dubuque County, Iowa|Dubuque]]
|3,059
|-
|6
|[[Jefferson County, Iowa|Jefferson]]
|2,773
|-
|7
|[[Muscatine County, Iowa|Muscatine]]
|1,942
|-
|8
|[[Louisa County, Iowa|Louisa]]
|1,927
|-
|9
|[[Washington County, Iowa|Washington]]
|1,594
|-
|10
|[[Johnson County, Iowa|Johnson]]
|1,491
|-
|11
|[[Jackson County, Iowa|Jackson]]
|1,411
|-
|12
|[[Linn County, Iowa|Linn]]
|1,373
|-
|13
|[[Cedar County, Iowa|Cedar]]
|1,253
|-
|14
|[[Scott County, Iowa|Scott]]
|1,240
|-
|15
|[[Clayton County, Iowa|Clayton]]
|1,101
|-
|16
|[[Clinton County, Iowa|Clinton]]
|821
|-
|17
|[[Jones County, Iowa|Jones]]
|471
|-
|18
|[[Delaware County, Iowa|Delaware]]
|168
|-
|
|[[Unincorporated area|Unincorporated]]
|900
|-
|
|Iowa Territory
|43,112
|-
|}