SERRANUS C. HASTINGS

Serranus Hastings was born in Jefferson County, New York, on the 22d of
November, 1814. He was liberally educated and at the age of twenty became
Principal of Norwich Academy. In 1834 he removed to Lawrenceburg, Indiana,
where he studied law and was admitted to the bar. In the presidential
campaign of 1836 he was employed as editor of the Indiana Signal, supporting
Martin Van Buren for President. In 1837 he removed to the "Black Hawk
Purchase," locating at Bloomington where he opened a law office. When Iowa
was organized as a Territory Mr. Hastings was elected a member of the House
of the First Legislative Assembly, serving two terms. In 1840 he was elected
to the Council where he served in the Third, Fourth, Seventh and Eighth
Legislative Assemblies and was President of the Council of 1845. He
excerised wide influence in framing the laws of the Territory and was one of
the compilers of the "Blue Book" of Iowa laws, being associated in that work
with James W. Grimes. He was commander of three companies of militia, with
the rank of major in the Missouri boundary conflict. In 1846, when Iowa
became a State, Mr. Hastings was nominated by the Democrats for
Representative in Congress for the State at large and elected over G. C. R.
Mitchell the Whig candidate. In 1848 he was appointed Chief Justice of the
Supreme Court of Iowa. In 1849 he removed to California where he served as
Attorney-General and later as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of that
State. He died in San Francisco, February 18, 1893.


Debbie Clough Gerischer
Iowa Gen Web, Assistant CC, Scott County