Iowa
To an unmarried person not the head of a family and to non-resident there is exempt from execution their own ordinary wearing apparel and trunks necessary to contain the same. If the debtor is a resident of this State, and is the head of a family, he may hold exempt from execution the following property: Wearing apparel of himself and family kept for actual use and suitable for their condition, and the trunks to contain the same; one musket, or rifle, and shot-gun; all private libraries, family Bibles, portraits, pictures, musical instruments, and paintings, not kept for sale; a pew in church; a lot in burying ground, not to exceed one acre; two cows and two calves; fifty sheep and the wool therefrom, and the materials manufactured from such wool; six stands of bees, five hogs, and all pigs under six months; poultry to the value of fifty dollars; the necessary food for all animals exempt from execution for six months: one bedstead and the necessary bedding for every two in the family; all cloth manufactured by the defendant not exceeding one hundred yards; household and kitchen furniture not exceeding two hundred dollars in value; all spinning-wheels and looms, one sewing-machine, and other instruments of domestic labor kept for actual use; the necessary provisions and fuel for the use of the family for six months; the proper tools, instruments, or books of the debtor, if a farmer, mechanic, surveyor, clergyman, lawyer, physician, teacher, or professor; the horse, or team consisting of not more than two horses or mules, or two yoke of cattle, and the wagon with the proper harness tackle, by the use of which the debtor, if a physician, public officer, farmer, teamster, or other laborer, habitually earns his living, otherwise one horse; and to the debtor, if a printer, there is also exempt a printing press and the type, furniture, and material necessary for the use of such printing press and a newspaper office connected therewith, not to exceed in value twelve hundred dollars. But if the debtor being the head of family, has started to leave the State, he will have exempt only the ordinary wearing apparel of himself and family, and seventy-five dollars’ worth of property in addition, to be selected by himself. But no exemptions shall extend to property against an execution issued for the purchase-money thereof. The earnings of a debtor, if a resident, and head of a family, for his personal services at any time within ninety days next preceding the levy, are also exempt. If a debtor is a seamstress, one sewing-machine shall be exempt from execution and attachment.
The homestead of every head of a family is exempt from judicial sale. It may be sold on execution for debts contracted prior to the purchase of such homestead; or for those created by written contract, expressly stipulating that it is liable therefor. If within a city or town plat it must not exceed one-half acre in extent, and if without, it must not embrace in the aggregate more than forty acres; and in each case embraces all the buildings and improvements thereon without limitation as to value. Upon the death of either husband or wife, the survivor may continue to possess and occupy the whole homestead. If there is no survivor and no will, the homestead descends to the issue of either husband or wife, and is to be held exempt from any antecedent debts of their parents or their own. Money received as a pension from the United States is exempt, whether pensioner is a head of a family or not, and a homestead purchased with such pension money is exempt from all debts whether contracted prior or subsequent to such purchase. The avails of all policies of insurance on the life of any individual payable to his surviving widow shall be exempt from liabilities for all debts of such beneficiary contracted prior to the death of the assured, the total exemption for any one person not exceeding five thousand dollars.