If you didn’t already know it, Google Book Search now includes some titles about Des Moines and Iowa in its online library. Google Book Search, formerly known for a short while as Google Print, is an online tool that searches the full text of books that Google scans, OCRs, and stores in its digital database. Google has an ongoing project where it is scanning approximately 3,000 books a day to add to its library database.

Some books can only be previewed online, others can be read in full. Here’s an excerpt of one book that I found, Beginnings, by a gentleman named Tacitus Hussey.

SOCIAL LIFE OF EARLY DES MOINES – THE NOTABLE HOUSE WARMING
Nearly a quarter of a century after the Redman had taken an unwilling departure from the territory of Iowa, the mansion known as “Terrace Hill,” now occupied by F. M. Hubbell, was built by B. F. Allen at a cost of nearly $250,000.00. ‘While the holiday joys of 1868 were in progress, or earlier, there were rumors that on the fifteenth, an anniversary of the marriage of B. F. Allen and Miss Arethusa West, January 29, 1854, the “Crystal Wedding” would be celebrated at this new and beautiful home, then completed. This information was confided to a few friends; but the news was so good and was such a fruitful topic of conversation that it was not long before the entire village of 7,000 souls was well informed of -the coming event, the date of which was fixed for January 29, 1869; and the female portion of the population were soon busy in overhauling their wardrobes.

You can read this full book at: http://books.google.com/books?id=Z4IUAAAAYAAJ 

I’ve embedded a couple of books here in this post that I also found online that you may like.

Covering Iowa

Postcard History Series – Des Moines

 

By MulderDSMcloseAuthor: MulderDSM Name: Larry Bradshaw
Email: admin@livingdowntowndesmoines.com
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