M - R - Rural Life in Iowa: An Iowa Women's Archives Resource Guide

Collections

MAHASKA COUNTY FARM BUREAU WOMEN’S COMMITTEE. History, 1971-1998. 2 linear inches. Begun in the 1920s as part of the Iowa State University Cooperative Extension, this committee splintered from the extension service in 1955 and became the largest political and corporate organization representing farmer interests in Iowa.

MARTINEZ, ADELLA. Papers, 1921-2006. 2.5 linear inches. A former resident of Cook's Point, Davenport, whose parents emigrated from Mexico to the United States in the early 1900s.

MARTINEZ, MARIA CANO. Papers, 1976-2017. 2.5 linear inches. Maria Cano came to Iowa from Guanajuato, Mexico, with her parents in 1928. She established a Spanish language interpreter program at the University of Iowa Hospitals in 1975.

MARTINSON, KATE. (1858-1941). Papers, 1872-1944 (bulk 1872-1917). 1 linear inch. Yearly journal entries by this northern Iowa woman chronicle her marriage, childrearing, management of the family farm, divorce, and remarriage.

MASTER FARM HOMEMAKERS GUILD. Records, photogrpahs and video, 1992-1999. 1 linear inch. Statewdie honorific association that produced the video, “Celebrating Farm Homemaking,” and the exhibit, “Bridging the Generations, the Lives and Contributions of Rural Iowa Women.”

McHENRY, MARY. (1834-1912). Diary, 1864 (photocopied transcript). This early settler and acting county recorder in Denison, Iowa kept a journal of a trip she made to her alma mater, Rockford Female Seminary, in Illinois to visit her husband who was on leave during the Civil War.

McNEILL, AMELIA. (1890-1973). Papers, 1929-1971. 2.5 linear inches. Farmwoman who helped organize the Interstate Conference of Farm Women, promoted expansion education, and served as secretary of Monona Co. Rural Electrification Association for more than 20 years.

MEADE, MAGDALEN. (1913-). Papers, 1891-1992, 7 linear inches. An Iowa farm woman and political organizer who kept detailed records of life on a farm and helped with Roxanne Conlin’s gubernatorial campaign in 1982.

MERICLE, PHOEBE KELLUM. (1820-1893). Obituary, 1893. 1 item. Early settler in Webster County, Iowa.

MESSENGER, RUTH PERKINS (1899-2000). Memoir, 2000. Reflections of family life in rural Iowa include World War I and the flu epidemic of 1918.

MILLER, ELLEN MOWRER. (1848-1922). Papers, 1856-1994. 8 linear inches. Correspondence of 19th century Iowa woman includes letters from brother in medical school and Civil War and from sister who raised a family and maintained a farm.

DOROTHY MISBACH. Papers, 1920s-1990s. Farm family from Johnson County whose children specialized in teaching the blind and disabled. Emelia Misbach kept a diary from 1922 to 1960.

MITCHELL, RUBY CRUMLEY. (1880-?). Diaries, 1904, 1930-1966. 5 linear inches. Daily diaries of this Rhodes, Iowa , native.

MONTANGE, JULIA. Sheet music for Farm Bureau song, “Let Us Farmers Stand United for our Rights,” written by Julia Montange of Woodbury County, Iowa, in 1926. Sheet music, “We Won’t Have to Sell the Farm,” lyrics by Al Bryan, 1933.

MORE, FLORINDA WAKEFIELD. (1839-1890). Papers, 1853-1891. 1.5 linear inches. Letters to Florinda More from friends and family in New England and Iowa and from her husband, the itinerant minister Thomas More.

MUJERES LATINAS ORAL HISTORY PROJECT. Collection, 2003-2017. 2.5 linear feet. The collection consists of 120 oral history interviews recorded on audiocassette tapes, along with transcriptions and associated materials such as biographical information, newspaper clippings, and photographs. The narrators reflect on childhood, education, and work as well as family and cultural traditions. The interviews span the twentieth century, encompassing topics such migration to Iowa, life in Iowa’s Mexican settlements, the contributions of Mexican Americans to World War II, the rights of agricultural laborers in Iowa and California, and the formation of Iowa’s first councils of the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC).

MUNOZ, SISTER IRENE. Papers, 1973-2006. .25 linear inches. Mexican American activist and nurse who advocated for the rights of migrant workers and Latino families in Iowa. Sister Irene Muñoz advocated for a child labor law that would restrict children under the age of fourteen from working in the fields. Together with her sister, Sister Molly Muñoz, Sister Irene worked closely with Juan Cadena, director of the Muscatine Migrant Committee, to provide medical care for agricultural laborers in Iowa. A grant from the Department of Health and Human Services helped Sister Irene and her colleagues establish mobile dental and health clinics and bilingual education programs.

MUSCATINE MIGRANT COMMITTEE. Records, 1962-2005. 5 linear feet. Migrant agency that advocated for agricultural laborers employed temporarily on eastern Iowa farms. Established in 1958 to assist the approximately 1,000 agricultural laborers and their families who worked seasonally in the fields around Muscatine. Most of the migrant workers were U.S. citizens from Texas who cultivated tomatoes, cucumbers, and melons on local farms during the summer months and returned to Texas at the end of the growing season. During the late 1960s, the Committee increasingly turned its attention to the root causes of poverty. Bilingual nurses and activist nuns, Sister Irene Munoz and Sister Molly Munoz, provided healthcare to migrant workers, documented living conditions in many Iowa migrant camps and worked to pass and enforce protective legislation for Iowa migrant workers and their children.

NEIGHBORHOOD SOCIAL CLUB (DELAWARE COUNTY). Records, 1931-1999, 5 linear inches. A social club formed in 1915 near Manchester , Iowa so woman could unite and discuss aspects of rural, farm and family life.

NELSON, JACQUELINE. Papers and website, 1999 and 2001. 1 linear inch. Co-owner of Greencastle airfield in Johnson County who wrote, “Greencastle Airport and How It Came Into Being” for the airport website.

NEWCOMER, BESS PAULINE SHORT. (1893-1990). Papers, 1936-1978, 1 linear inch. Appanoose County farmwoman, columnist, and Farm Bureau officer.

NISSEN FAMILY. Papers, 1936-1996. 10 linear inches. Photocopied scrapbooks of Walnut, Iowa , clubwoman Wilma Parker Nissen (1898-1957) and biographical sketches of her daughters.

NORTH MADISON HAPPY PALS 4-H CLUB. Scrapbooks, 1952-1979. 1.25 linear feet (7 volumes). Local 4-H chapter.

NYE, MIRIAM BAKER (1918- ). Papers, 1938-1997 and undated. 5 linear inches. Moville, Iowa , farm wife and columnist for the Sioux City Farm Journal Weekly from 1953 to 1981.

O’BRIEN COUNTY FARM BUREAU WOMEN. Records, 1989-1996, 1 linear inch. Organization to promote the interests of farmwomen.

O’BRIEN, DENISE. (1949- ). Papers, 1964-2007. 15.2 linear feet. Organic farmer and political activist who helped organize the first Iowa meeting of the Farm Unity Coalition and served as president of National Family Farm Coalition.

OLSON, MELBA GARDEMANN. (1909-2000). Papers, 1916-1993, 5 linear inches. Farm girl, teacher, and newspaper editor from Benton County. Played forward on Newhall’s 1927 Girls’ high school basketball championship team.

OMEGA TOWNSHIP WOMEN’S CLUB (O’BRIEN COUNTY). Records, 1976-1991, 2 linear inches. Farm Bureau women’s club organized in 1976.

PETERSEN, PAULINE C. (1884-1988). Journals [photocopies], 1907-1910. 2 linear inches. Elkhorn, Iowa student and rural schoolteacher.

PETERSON-DANA, ERICKA. Papers, 2000, 2 linear inches. Organic farmer and activist in Poweshiek County, Iowa .

PHILLIPS AND TARBELL FAMILIES. Papers, 1998-1999. 1 linear inch. Five generations of central Iowa women who won thousands of blue ribbons and culinary awards at local and state fairs.

“PICKING UP THE PIECES.” Records, 1962-1983, 0.25 linear inches. A women’s history project at the Spencer, Iowa Public Library.

PIEPER, DORA ANN WALKER. Papers, 1978-1990s. 1 linear inch. Rural woman raised in a small northeastern Iowa town in the early nineteenth century.

PIERCE-STUART FAMILY. Papers, 1927-1989. 7.5 linear inches. Diaries documenting day-to-day household activities and community events in Harlan, Iowa from 1927 to 1947. The family ran a dry goods store in Harlan and the daughters moved to Omaha in the 1930s.

PLACE, DOROTHY SPROUT. (1921-). Memoir, 1993. 1 linear inch. Reminiscence of Dorothy’s life as a farmwoman and young mother during World War II.

A POLITICAL DIALOGUE: IOWA’S WOMEN LEGISLATORS. Oral history transcripts, 1988-1993. 1.7 linear feet. Interviews with women who served in the Iowa General Assembly conducted by Suzanne O’Dea Schenken between 1988 and 1992.

POLLOCK, CORA BELLE (1906-1998). Elementary school teacher from Rolfe, Iowa who later worked as a lab technician in Fort Dodge, Iowa.

PRAIRIE VIEW CLUB (HARDIN COUNTY). Records, 1932-1995, 5 linear inches. Rural women’s club dating from the early twentieth century.

PUTTMANN, SALLY. (1936-). Papers and oral history, 1994-1998. 2 linear inches. Farmer, speaker, and first woman on the Iowa Farm Bureau Federation Board of Directors.

RIFE, GLADYS TALCOTT. (1914-2000). Papers, 1920-2002. 1.25 linear feet. Mt.Vernon, Iowa high school teacher who later owned and directed The Depot Museum in Fayette County , Iowa .

RONK, LILLIAN. Papers, 1966-2000. 2.5 linear inches. West Central Iowa farmwoman known locally as “the flower lady."

ROWAN-COPPOCK FAMILY. Papers, 1903-2019 (bulk 1903-1925). 3.5 linear feet. Correspondence from various members of a southeast Iowa family, several of whom lived at various points on a farm in Ainsworth, Iowa; also includes recent family publications of the transcribed letters.

RUTLEDGE, ALMIRA SAFELY. (1869-1950). Diaries, 1885-1950. 1 linear foot. Early, Iowa, wife and mother.

RUMBLE, MARIE. (1894-1974). Papers, 1890-2002. A divorced woman who left Iowa to homestead in Wyoming in 1917.

RYAN-BUSCH, JANETTE. Papers, 1980s-1990s. 1 linear foot. Organic farmer, and member of the committee to create state regulations for organic certification.