John J. Hamilton was Editor of the Des Moines Daily News, as well as the first Assistant Librarian for the University of Iowa (1873 - 1878). His "Sociological Survey of Rowanty Township, Dinwiddie County, Virginia, August to November, 1878, Negro Population" is a 200+ page document with information gathered and written out (longhand) by Hamilton as part of a research project for his master's degree (from the University of Iowa), but never really used. In his study, which he conducted by walking around the entire township and visiting every family he met, Hamilton "...proceeded to take down the family history of every negro family in the township from 'Nat's Fray', Nat Turner's slave insurrection in the early '30's in the neighboring county of Southampton, in which fifty six white men, women and children lost their lives, till that lovely fall of 1878. I called it a 'sociological survey' and, not knowing precisely, flatter myself that it was one of the earliest bits of field work ever taken even on its small scale. It covered the complexion -- degrees of gingercake color, they usually called it -- state of health, habits as to liquor and tobacco, party and church affiliations, amounts of land, livestock and poultry owned, whether or not incumbered, and other information volunteered in their quaint lingo, 'gwines' and all in some cases. Names were carefully noted, not always correct, as on the first page, "Yates" Smith later turned out to be E. H. Smith, the old aristocratic father of 'the boy congressman' John Ambler Smith, already superseded by the Republican congressman Joseph Jorgenson..." (Hamilton to Miss Clara Hinton, 3 Dec., 1937).