Time Machine: Plum Grove

Robert Lucas had already served two terms as governor of Ohio in 1838 when President Martin Van Buren appointed him to be the first governor of the Iowa territory.

Lucas received notice of his appointment, dated June 12, 10 days after it was sent by the secretary of state. He set out on July 25, stopping in Cincinnati to buy books with money Congress had appropriated for the territorial library, and arrived in Burlington, the Iowa territory's seat of government, on Aug. 13. His family joined him later.

A descendant of William Penn, Lucas was born in 1781 in Virginia. After moving to Ohio, he started his public service career in Scioto County, serving as its surveyor in 1803. He married Elizabeth Brown in 1810, but she died in 1812, leaving him with an infant daughter. Friendly A. Sumner married Lucas in 1816 and they made their home in Piketon, Ohio. They had seven children: four sons and three daughters.

Elected governor of Ohio in 1832 and 1834, Lucas presided over a boundary dispute between Ohio and Michigan, an experience he would repeat as Iowa governor when Iowa and Missouri clashed over boundary issues.

Lucas oversaw the first election of a territorial legislature in September 1838 and its first meeting in Burlington on Nov. 1 of that year.

According to the 1883 book, 'The History of Johnson County, Iowa”: 'The first session of the Iowa Territorial Legislature was a stormy and exciting one. By the organic law, the Governor was clothed with almost unlimited veto power. Governor Lucas seemed disposed to make free use of it, and the independent Hawkeyes could not quietly submit to arbitrary and absolute rule, and the result was an unpleasant controversy between the Executive and Legislative departments.”

Along with Lucas' governorship, Congress allotted $20,000 for public buildings. Looking for a central location in the Black Hawk Purchase, the only territory not in Indian possession, Lucas appointed Chauncey Swan, John Ronalds and Robert Ralston as commissioners to select a site for Iowa's permanent seat of government within the newly-formed Johnson County.

Once the site was selected, the commissioners plotted 640 acres for a new town to be called Iowa City. They began to sell lots and choose where public buildings would stand. An elevation overlooking the Iowa River was perfect for building the territory's capitol. The cornerstone was laid on July 4, 1840.

When President Van Buren's administration gave way to President William Henry Harrison's, John Chambers replaced Lucas as territorial governor. On April 20, 1841, Gov. Lucas issued a proclamation that the capital of Iowa was Iowa City. That was one of his last acts as governor. He was replaced by Gov. Chambers on May 13, 1841. Even though construction on the capitol building was not finished in the required three years, the Legislative Assembly met in an alternative location so that Iowa City would legally be the capital of Iowa.

The Lucases built a new home of red brick fired in local kilns in 1844 near a grove of plum trees just outside Iowa City's limits and named it Plum Grove. The house was remarkably similar to 'Friendly Grove,” the home they owned in Ohio. While there, he tended his farm, cared for his family and was elected to the first state constitutional convention.

In 'The History of Johnson County,” Lucas was described as 'tall, being six feet in stature, active and wiry. His complexion presented that combination of colors rarely blended - black hair, a fair skin and blue eyes. His aquiline nose was long and thin. Though stern in camp and council, in private life he was exceedingly gentle, pleasant and kind, the companion of children and friend of boys, though his daughters contend that he loved his girls the best, while all agree that he was the beat of play-fellows. It is therefore necessary to add that he was an indulgent father as well as an affectionate husband. All men who knew him, even those who differed from him on questions of public policy, accord to him native ability of high order, incorruptible honesty of purpose, and unswerving patriotism.”

Lucas died on Feb. 7, 1853, at the age of 71. He was buried in Oakland Cemetery in Iowa City. Friendly lived on in the house until 1866, when she sold it to Walter and Louisa Hoyt. She died in 1873 at age 78.

After Walter died in 1869, Louisa and their four children continued to live at Plum Grove. She sold it to the Switzer family in 1883.

Jacob Switzer was a civil war veteran and a banker in Iowa City. By the time he lived at Plum Grove, porches had been added to the house along with an addition. After he died in 1914, his family turned Plum Grove into a boarding house.

Morgan Davis bought the house in 1923 as a rental property. He sold it to farm hand William Hughes in 1925. The Hugheses had little money, supporting themselves by taking in boarders and selling produce from Winnie Hughes' garden.

When the Hughes family moved, the house stood empty and fell into disrepair. A group of citizens convinced the state legislature to buy the property in 1943. The restoration of Plum Grove to its original appearance began with the removal of the additions and the porches.

When the work was complete, the home was presented to the state via Gov. Robert Blue by Conservation Commission Chairman Frank Mattes on Nov. 2, 1946, and opened to the public. Gov. Lucas' portrait hung above the living room fireplace then, flanked by candlesticks that belonged to his family.

Plum Grove, at 1030 Carroll St. in Iowa City, is open to the public from 1 to 5 p.m. Wednesdays through Sundays, from Memorial Day to Labor Day, and Saturdays and Sundays from Labor Day through mid-October. Group tours are also available.