Shepherd Leffler

Shepherd Leffler

Shepherd Leffler (born April 24, 1811 in Washington County , Pennsylvania , † September 7, 1879 in Burlington , Iowa ) was an American politician . Between 1846 and 1851 he represented the state of Iowa in the US House of Representatives .

Career

Shepherd Leffler was the younger brother of Isaac Leffler (1788-1866), who sat in the US House of Representatives for the state of Virginia in the 1820s . The younger Leffler was born in 1811 on his grandfather's plantation in Pennsylvania, not far from the border between what is now West Virginia and the city of Wheeling . He attended private schools and the Washington Academy . After a subsequent law degree at Jefferson College in Canonsburg and his admission as a lawyer in 1833, he began to practice in Wheeling and then from 1835 in Burlington in what was then Michigan territory in his new profession. In 1838, his new hometown fell to the newly created Iowa Territory .

Leffler became a member of the Democratic Party . Between 1839 and 1841 he was a member of the Territorial House of Representatives. In the years 1841 to 1843 and 1845 he was a member of the government council of the territory. In 1844 and 1846 he took part in the Iowa Constituent Assemblies; in 1844 he was president of that congregation. After the founding of the state of Iowa, Leffler was elected to the US House of Representatives in the first congressional elections in 1846, which were held nationwide. After two re-elections in the now created second constituency of Iowa, he could remain in Congress between December 29, 1846 and March 3, 1851 . During this time, the Mexican-American War ended and the United States expanded considerably. From 1849 to 1851 Leffler was chairman of the committee that dealt with disability pensions.

After the end of his time in the House of Representatives, Leffler worked again as a lawyer and also began to get involved in agriculture. In 1856 he applied unsuccessfully to return to the US House of Representatives. For the next 19 years, he returned to his job and farming before running for governor of Iowa in 1875 . But he was defeated by Samuel J. Kirkwood . Shepherd Leffler died in September 1879 on his Flint Hills estate near Burlington.

Web links

• Shepherd Leffler in the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress (English)

• Shepherd Leffler in the database of Find a Grave (English)