Researched and Written by
Dr. Fred Stamler

The State Constitution of 1847 made no provision for education in professional fields, as there was little public sentiment for State support in these areas. The first attempt to establish a "medical branch" of the University of Iowa became public in December of 1848 during a meeting of area physicians of Iowa City. At that time, Dr. J.M. Vaughn and Mr. Stephen Whicher, representing the group, appeared before the University Board of Trustees and obtained approval of their plan to establish a Medical Department of the University in Iowa City.

Approval of this "medical branch" was conditional upon the promoters constructing a medical building within two years. This building was to cost at least $1000, and no university funds were to be given for the support of the medical department. No building was erected, and in 1849 the same group of physicians shifted their support to a newly established medical college in Davenport, which bore the imposing title of College of Physicians and Surgeons of the Upper Mississippi.

The Davenport college was the successor to the Rock Island Medical College, a branch of the Madison Medical College. This College had begun operations in Rock Island in 1848, with a faculty of eight, and graduated its first class of 21 on February 20, 1849. The school moved across the river to Davenport in 1849, and assumed the title of College of Physicians and Surgeons of the Upper Mississippi. The move was motivated by the desire to become affiliated with the State University of Iowa, and the inducement of better physical facilities in Davenport. A course of 16 weeks of instruction was given, with eight graduates in February, 1850, and an additional seven in June, 1850.

In February, 1850, the Trustees of the State University approved the request that the Davenport college be recognized as the Medical Department of the State University of Iowa, official notification being given on March 18, 1850. This action was officially confirmed by the Iowa Legislature in the winter of 1850-51. In the meantime, the Davenport group had made another move, this time to Keokuk, and so the College of Physicians and Surgeons, now of Keokuk, became the official Medical Department of the State University of Iowa. In spite of internal dissension and external pressures, this institution persisted and remained as an official branch of the State University of Iowa until 1870.

Keokuk continued to be an important center of medical education in Iowa for several additional decades until the school closed and transferred its records and assets to Drake University in 1908.