Dubuque Iowa
Iowans got in touch with their Irish roots at the Carnegie-Stout Public Library in Dubuque. ClanDonnell was there on August 4th, 2014, in the library auditorium.
Here’s a mini history lesson. France once controlled large chunks of North America and established many settlements in what is now Canada and the United States. My hometown of Detroit (d’troit, or the strait, in French) was one of them.
But France lost the Seven Years War in 1763. (It’s usually called the Seven Years War in most of Europe and English-speaking Canada; the French and Indian War in the United States; the War of the Conquest in French-speaking Canada; and even other names in India, Sweden, Prussia and Austria. Whatever was at issue was big enough to fight a war over, and those involved couldn’t even agree on a name for the war. The war actually lasted nine years, but the name “Nine Years War” was already taken.)
With the loss, the British took over Canada and almost everything else in North America east of the Mississippi River. The Spanish fought on the losing side, and lost Florida in the process. But somehow it was able to take over Louisiana – then virtually everything west of the Mississippi and east of the Rocky Mountains.
What’s a Frenchman from Quebec to do, when nothing in North America is French anymore?
Move to Iowa, of course.
Julien Dubuque was born in Quebec while the fighting was still on. At the age of 26, he moved to Iowa (which wasn’t even Iowa at the time). The local Meshwaki tribe allowed him to stay and mine for lead, and Julien married a Meshwaki woman (or at least evidence suggests that he did). The Spanish later gave him a land grant.
It wasn’t too long before a settlement grew in the area. The settlers weren’t at war with anyone at the time, so they at least could agree upon a name for the settlement. They named it Dubuque.
The image at the top of the page is courtesy of the Penny Postcards website of USGenWeb Project. The site has a plethora of other vintage postal cards.
Julien’s image is a 1907 rendering.
KWWL on line and NBC affiliate WGEM each ran a nice feature on the Dubuque library gig. And so did Dubuque’s 365ink, DBQ Kids Guide, and Access Dubuque.