Lives & Times Schedule

A series of programs highlighting Iowa's people and history will take place at the IGS Library on the second Thursday of each month at 7:00 P.M.

All programs are FREE and open to the public; no registration is required. Freewill donations are appreciated. Enjoy learning more about Iowa's unique heritage, then afterwards visit with the presenters and explore the library's superb resources.

June 10 - Lincoln Highway

1929 Lincoln Highway, Tama, Iowa.      Iowa DOT Historical Archives Photo.

Featured guests: Joyce Ausberger and Robert Owens. The Lincoln Highway was the first major route to span the United States from coast to coast, beginning in New York City and terminating in San Francisco, a distance of 3389 miles.

Today, Iowans traveling U.S. Highway 30 are closely following the Lincoln Highway route, and almost 85 percent of the original highway in Iowa is still drivable. Learn about this trans-continental highway's history and heritage from the 1930's to the present and the role Iowans played in its development.

July 8 - Lost in Siberia - The Rest of the Story

Siberia, early 1900's.

Featured guest: John Groh. This presentation details two branches of the Groh Family that were separated for over seventy years and then reunited through the power of the internet. One branch came to America in the early 1900's; the other branch remained in Russia and were deported to Siberia by Stalin just prior to World War II.

The Groh family was among the first settlers in the village of Grimm, Russia, along the Volga River region in 1767 - just four years after the invitation to settle the area by Czarina Catherine the Great. The family stayed in Grimm as farmers until six Groh siblings gathered up their families and immigrated to the U.S. between 1906 and 1912, first settling in the Maywood area ( a suburb of Chicago) and later moving west to the Mason City, Iowa, area where they worked the sugar beet cycle. Over the next decades some stayed in Iowa, some returned to Chicago, but no one knew what happened to those left behind in Russia.

Please join us for John Groh's recount of his family's global journey, how the descendants reconnected, and the resulting reunion seventy years later.

John Groh is retired after a long career with Drake University. With his wife, Sue, he lives in Johnston, Iowa. They are life members of the American Historical Society of Germans from Russia and charter members of the Wild Rose Chapter of Iowa.

August 12 - Elijah's Story

Featured guest: Aiddy Phomvisay. In 1979 Aiddy Phomvisay emigrated from Laos with his family. He grew up in Alta, Iowa, and received Bachelor's and Master's degrees from Iowa State University. He is currently an Associate Principal at Valley High School in West Des Moines. Aiddy's family includes wife Mindy, a music educator, six-year-old daughter Emma and eight-year-old son Elijah.