A FACT A DAY ABOUT IOWA CITY

CAPTAIN BRADLEY MAHANA
Iowa City Press-Citizen
12 July 1941

Among the “Boys in Blue,” who first proffered their services to Uncle Sam, when the guns of Ft. Sumter were heard, like the milder shots of the Concord day, “around the world,” was an Iowa City patriot, whose military experiences began many miles to the east. This was Captain Bradley Mahana, a native of Pennsylvania, and a pioneer of Iowa City. He was born 135 years ago (1806) in Hopwood, PA not far from the suggestively-named Indian Creek and Indian Head. He was married in Waynesburg, PA when he was 21 in 1827, and 28 years later he and his wife Catharine Seals, emigrated to the new west, and settled in Iowa City, in 1855.

At the close of that year that saw him settle in the old capital, he beheld the driving of the last spike in the Rock Island Railway Company’s new line to this city. That was done, just before midnight boomed from St. Mary’s church tower, on New Year’s Eve.

The family of the Pennsylvania-Iowa soldier was a large one, nearly a dozen boys and girls being born to the couple. Two sons, James S. and Bradley B*. were Iowa City merchants 60 odd years ago. Another, John O. was president of the Western Mutual Aid Association, and Iowa insurance company, and was also a merchant. William D. served the government and the C.R.I. and P. as an express messenger, making his home in Davenport. Frank was a painter. A daughter, Sada V. married M. R. Luse, Pennsylvanian, who settled here in 1858, and operated a pioneer auction and commission business.

Captain Bradley Mahana** asked Governor Samuel Kirkwood to take his Washington Guards of Iowa City, in answer to President Abraham Lincoln’s first call. His Excellency accepted the Iowa City warrior’s own services, and was pleased to see Captain Mahana enter Company B of the First Iowa Few, if any soldiers here, “beat him to the flag.” His son-in-law, Lieut. M. R. Luse, was the first lieutenant in Captain Bradley’s company.

The first Iowa saw action at Wilson’s Creek where Gen. Nathaniel Lyon, commanding, and nine others met death, and 50 were injured, in the Iowa unit. Lieut. Luse was in the Sully expedition to the Yellowstone. He commanded Fort Le Crombie, 36 men serving with him, and Captain Mahana commanded Fort Pierre, with 65 men. Both served at Fort Randall, in the old “Dakota Territory.”

Captain Mahana had won a captaincy in Pennsylvania, too, as Governor D. R. Porter of the Keystone state named him so, in the Washington Blues, which was attached to the Highland Brigade of Pennsylvania. Governors W. F. Johnson and Wm. Bigelow subsequently re-commissioned him captain. He was also, for 14 years, brigade inspector in Pennsylvania.

During the Civil War, he came back to Iowa City, raised another company, and was made its captain. He then served in the 14^th and 41^st regiments and in the 7^th Iowa Cavalry.

J.E.R.

Note from Bob Hibbs, Iowa City Historian:
As for J.E.R., that would be noted long-time city editor Jacob Reizenstein, who often signed his stuff with just his initials and who everyone called Jake. He shows in the 1904 (working for the Iowa State Press) and 1922 (by then the P-C) city directories as Jake E. Reizenstein. He shows in the 1892 directory as Jacob when he was working for the Iowa City Republican, and that is his correct name. He was still a Press-Citizen columnist during retirement until his death.

Saturday, May 19, 2007

Iowa City Press-Citizen

Collecting stories of newspaperman Jacob Reizenstein
by Lolly Parker Eggers

Those of us who write local history stand on the shoulders of the many historians and newspaper reporters who have captured Iowa City history in the past. One of my favorites was both a historian and a reporter: Jacob Reizenstein (1869-1961).

Jake, as he was known to Iowa Citians of his day, or J.E.R. as he often signed his work, spent nearly 80 years observing, researching and reporting Iowa City history. He started as a newspaper carrier who hung around the offices of the Republican until they finally gave him reporting jobs. From the late 1890s until his death in 1961 he served as a reporter, editor, Associated Press representative, special correspondent for some 50 newspapers in all parts of the country, and finally as a Press-Citizen contributing editor for more than 20 years.

In that last role he provided two columns a day for the paper's editorial page: "Twenty Years Ago Today in Iowa City" and "A Fact a Day about Iowa City." Versed in the details of Iowa City history, both his columns and his reporting are valuable to those researching local events.

I was introduced to Reizenstein in 1951 when I worked briefly for the Press-Citizen, but I first became acutely aware of his reporting skills and unique writing style when I began to search Iowa City newspapers for the history of the founding of the Iowa City Public Library as a first step in writing the 100-year history of the library to mark its centennial in 1997.

While all three newspapers of the day -- the Republican, the Iowa City Daily Press, and the Iowa Citizen -- gave some information about the many meetings, committees and public gatherings that led up to the founding of the Iowa City Library Association in 1896, it was Reizenstein in the Republican who provided the most details and interesting quotes. In addition, J.E.R. joined some of the committees, urged the library's founding through editorial support, contributed money to the association before local tax support had been approved, and, indeed, was issued the library's fifth card when it opened for business on January 21, 1897. His personal interest and his careful, sometimes provocative reporting provided much of the support needed to spread the idea of a public library to the general reader and beyond the core of activists already committed.

His detailed reporting of library activities continued through the library's early years in rented spaces, during the vote to give the library tax support (commenting on its 81 percent approval, he wrote: "Only a few mistaken voters opposed it"), and became very important again when library trustees worked to get a grant from Andrew Carnegie to build Iowa City's first library building. Through the years he profiled librarians, supported budget requests, and in his will left his 5,000-volume book collection to the library as well as a share of his small estate.

Long a fan of Reizenstein, Irving Weber picked J.E.R. as the subject of his last column. It appeared Jan. 14, 1997, in the Press-Citizen -- published just eight weeks before Weber's death on March 16, 1997. In it he tells just a few of the many Reizenstein stories he and others who knew Jake liked to share.

Someone needs to collect those stories, search the record and provide Iowa Citians with the complete life of Jacob Everett Reizenstein, a unique Iowa City journalist and historian.

Lolly Parker Eggers is the author of "Iowa City's Irving Weber" and "A Century of Stories: The History of the Iowa City Public Library 1896-1997."