Robert Lucas, 1st governor of the Iowa Territory, was born April 1, 1781 in Shepherdstown, West Virginia, the son of William and Susannah (Barnes) Lucas. He was educated in mathematics and surveying by private tutor. Around 1800 Robert Lucas settled…
John Chambers, second Territorial Governor of Iowa, was born October 6, 1780, in Somerset County, New Jersey. His father, Colonel Rowland Chambers, was a colonel in the War for American Independence. At the close of the war he removed to Mason…
James Clark (July 5, 1812 July 28, 1850) was the third Governor of Iowa Territory from November 18, 1845 until December 3, 1846, being appointed to the office, as a Democrat, by President James Polk. Born in Greensburg, Pennsylvania, Clarke was…
Ansel Briggs was the first Iowa Governor. He was born in Vermont on February 3, 1806. His education was attained in the common schools of Vermont and at the Norwich Academy in Connecticut. After moving to Ohio and then Iowa, Briggs established…
Stephen Hempstead, Iowa's second governor, was born in New London, Connecticut. on October 1, 1812, the eighth son of Joseph and Celinda (Hutchinson) Hempstead. When he was 13, his father, who was in the boot and shoe business, was for some months…
James W. Grimes, 3rd Iowa Governor was born October 20, 1816 in Deering, New Hampshire. He attended Dartmouth College, but left in 1835 without graduating. He went west and settled in Burlington, Iowa. Equipped with a critical mind, a retentive…
Ralph Phillips Lowe, fourth governor of Iowa, was born on November 27, 1805 in Warren County, Ohio, the fifth son of Jacob Derrick Lowe and Maria (Perlee) Lowe. As he grew up, he had to work hard on the family farm, which was also a stagecoach stop…
Samuel J. Kirkwood, Governor of Iowa 1876-1877, was forn in Harford County, Maryland on December 20, 1813. He attended country schools and the academy of John McLeod in Washington, D.C. He clerked in a drug store and taught school. He moved to…
William M. Stone, sixth Governor of Iowa, was born in Jefferson County, New York, but moved with his parents, Truman and Lavinia (North) Stone, to Coshocton County, Ohio, when he was six years old. Stone had little formal education. After working in…
Samuel Merrill, Iowa's seventh governor, was born on August 7, 1822 in Turner, Maine. He was the son of a New England farmer, Abel Merrill, and his wife, Abigail. After receiving a limited education in the local country schools, he taught briefly in…