First election-1838

PARVIN, LUCAS, ENGLE, CHAPMAN, RORER, WALLACE

Posted By: Anne Hermann (email)
Date: 4/15/2008 at 06:58:58

Glimpses of Early Iowa or Recollections of Territorial Times
T. S. Parvin
February 10, 1892

First Election – 1838

During the summers, in company with Governor Lucas, I traveled from Keokuk to Dubuque, stopping some days at each of the landings, as the villages were called at that time. The first election of members of the Territorial Legislature came off during one of these trips, when, seeing a crowd upon the river’s bank at what is now Sabula, we inquired of the captain of the Brazil what was the occasion of the gathering. He said “It was the voting precinct and would we like to vote,” whereupon he ran the steamer to the shore, let us off, and as the election was held under the proclamation of the Governor, in the absence of all territorial law or any law save that of Congress, our request to vote was readily granted, and then and there I cast my maiden vote, which was for Peter Hill Engle, one of the four candidates for Congress, the successful candidate being William Williams Chapman, of Burlington, who still lives, an octogenarian, in Portland, Oregon.

His other competitors were David Rorer, of Burlington, who became one of the most prominent of Iowa lawyers, the author of a number of law books of standard value, and who erected the first brick house in the territory of Iowa, and laid with his own hand the first brick. In later years when, by the growth of the city, the lot was demanded for the erection of a large and fine block, the house was torn down, he watching the process until they came to the last brick which he himself removed and used as a paper weight upon his desk until his decease.

He was short of stature, had come to Iowa from Arkansas where he had grown up under the influence of the peculiar society of that frontier State and age, and while a very companionable and genial man, because of the strife in which he became involved during this canvass, became engaged in a personal encounter, which from its results, for many years marred his usefulness, but which he outlived, and was known and respected as an honored and honorable citizen.

The remaining competitor was Benj. F. Wallace, a young lawyer of Mt. Pleasant, who became the first Secretary of the Council of the Territory. His brother, a somewhat pompous man with a high appreciation of his own abilities, was Speaker of the first house, and after became prominent not only in the affairs of Iowa, but of the Territories of the west, having been appointed Governor and later became Territorial delegate from two of the Territories, Washington and Idaho, in the Rocky Mountain region.

Mr. Engle, who was the ablest of all the candidates, had been Speaker of the Wisconsin House of Representatives before the separation of Iowa, and after his defeat removed to St. Louis, where he rose to great distinction at the bar and became Judge of one of its leading Courts. All of these men, and also all of the editors and those connected with their press, save one, are dead.