6:00 p.m. eastern on the civil war. you're watching american history tv. this weekend american history tv is joining our spectrum cable partners showcasing the history of laramie, wyoming. to watch more, visit c-span.org /cities tour. we continue now with our look at the history of laramie. >> we are in that mansion that edward iversen built and it is now the home of that laramie plains museum, and it has been restored because for about 10 years it was vacant and people broken and vandalized the building and it has been a very long and fruitful effort to make it into this wonderful museum that we have here that highlights not only the ivinson family but issues from the past in wyoming as well.

so edward was actually of all down in thewas born caribbean. he lived there for seven years. his father move they to manage a sugarcane plantation and he wound up in new york city in about 1852. while he was there, he met a young woman. she was 16 and he was 23, and they ran away to get married and they, like a lot of young folks, moved west to make their fame and fortune and wound up in laramie, wyoming. the family had been living in tennessee, and he decided to move the family to california. way he he got -- the thought he would get to california, he had a dry goods store and he sold all of it and got freight cars and put his stuff in them. as the union pacific was built across the right planes, he followed right along and had a rolling store.

winter of 1867, he learns that the union pacific railroad is going to have a facility and what would be coming -- become laramie. incame over for the railroad 1860 eight and built a log building in downtown laramie and started selling things to people awaiting the arrival of the and as i said earlier, they ran the store for three years. then he starts a banking career. let me say this as well. he was an astute merchant, and made a lot ofe money. he was criticize for the way he made the money, with high interest rates and foreclosed mortgages at the drop of a hat. the good news is, when he turned 80, he decided to give his money

away and almost all of it came back here to our town. the year after his wife died, now back in 1916, he gave $50,000 cash and city lots to the county which paid for the construction of our first hospital. he also gave a bunch of property to the church to fund an orphanage. he built our will door one more, he gave away a million and a half dollars in cash to friends and family members. he structured his will that upon his death, his estate would go into a trust fund used to build home trailfor this that is still in use today. when he died, there was money in his estate, so eight to $10 million's today, and it built a 28 rooms for single ladies.

there was no charge for room or bud dashboard, and because he built the hospital, the ladies got free medical care. it is still there and it is still gorgeous. despite being criticized early for his lifestyle, it all came back to us here and we are still experiencing the benefits from his life as a merchant and a banker. we are proud of the fact that he decided at the age of 80 to do what was right for our community. if it was not for the railroad, they may probably would not be here. thisailway act gave all of land in the west to the union pacific including the mile where we are right now. the first thing is we opened the front door and we have a little thing i like to do. we have the doorknob to the original front door, which is a beautiful doorknob. it is interesting because it

came to us in a box in the mail maybe five years ago with a note from a guy who said i was a student at the university of wyoming and i stole this from the mansion. that is a good icebreaker for the people coming in and then i take them into the foyer. really the first important stop is into jane's drawing room where the intention was she could do entertainment for her lady friends. then we go into the smoking room and i draw the contrast between the nice bright light drawing room and the darker smoking room . the dining room is nice because there we have some nice artifacts belonging to the ivinsons. right now we have oyster plates they had made on one of their trips they've made to europe. we have this beautiful stemware that they had made for them. we have a punch bowl that was

given to his son-in-law in san diego. formal changed from the rooms of the first floor into the working part, and it is easy to draw the contrast. we have all of this dutiful hardwood in the formal rooms, and there we have pine and linoleum on the floor. we go upstairs into the bedrooms, which are quite large, not unusual for a house of this size in the 1890's. then into the master bathroom where we have this really cool cost $334 in 1892, so maybe $8,000 today. that is really interesting. it is a walk-in shower. it is built out of brass that is nickel plated good it's got a showerhead up above and on

either side. it's got all of these little tubes. it looks like a cage when you look at it, but the tubes have tiny holes in them. you don't even have to turn around to take a shower. i had a person come to the other day that said kind of like going into a cotton wash. we are in what we call the library. we are pretty sure that the bookcases in here were put in the boarding school because the girls use this as a study hall. to point out that we just have one piece of furniture in the house that belonged to edward, and it is this table out of one of the buildings he owned in town. there are several examples of what we learned from visitors because we get some amazing people that come through and talk about the elegant woodwork. there's all of this different type of hardwood that edward had installed here that really is .mazing 1892 pocket doors

i had a guy come through three years ago who is just closed up his woodworking business in montana, and he said i could build one of those pocket doors for you or about $7,000. those are the kinds of things that are fun to learn. his whole life is a fascinating story. plantation anda he winds up in new york with no money. we know he didn't have any because he recently received a letter from his father that said we are no you are without a position. he winds up in little old laramie, wyoming, at the time 800 people in 1870. he amasses this fortune and builds this building. i think it is fair to say he was a critical part of the evolution of laramie from 1868 all the way through 1928 when he passed away.

for both jane and edward, what i want people to walk away from after they see this house that cost a lot of money to build, that maybe the money was at least early on made from the people of laramie in not the best way, when they leave they understand what they did for our community, whether it was the early actions with the school and the church and the suffrage act or especially his philanthropy that resulted in all of these great things for our community. that's what i would like for them to walk away from because you can see fancy homes, and this is an and elegant home, but it's important that people moneytand that making his off the community, that money came back to us for that what i really hope they walk away with.

announcer: our tour staff recently traveled to laramie to learn about its rich history. to watch more video and other stops on the tour, visit c-span.org/cities tour. you are watching american history tv. a weekend every weekend on c-span3. american history tv is looking back 40 years to november 1979 when iranian students seized the u.s. embassy and took 66 americans hostage. next, former a u.s. foreign service officer john limbert talks about his time as a hostage in iran, including a memorable visit from an iranian clergyman. this interview is from the association for studies and training oral history collection. >> i am john limbert. i was in the foreign service for