Samuel J. Kirkwood

Samuel Jordan Kirkwood (* December 20, 1813 in Harford County, Maryland; † 1 September 1894 in Iowa City, Iowa) was a politician in the United States. He was the 5th and 9th Governor of Iowa, Senator and Minister of the Interior of the United States.

Life

Kirkwood was educated at Washington and came in 1835 to Mansfield, Ohio. He then studied law, was admitted to the bar in 1843 and two years later, prosecutor of the county. In 1850 he was sent as a delegate to the meeting, which brought the Constitution of Ohio concluded, moved in 1855 Coralville, Iowa, and was elected as a Republican in the state Senate the following year. Now Kirk Woods began to grow political influence, and he was elected by his party for governor of Iowa.

When he retired from office in 1865, President Abraham Lincoln appointed him ambassador to Denmark. Kirkwood, however, of public life was tired and refused to continue in Iowa his lawyer practice. In 1866 he was elected to the Senate of the United States as a substitute for James Harlan. In 1875 he again received the post of governor of Iowa, and in 1876 he was appointed to the Senate, in which he was sitting when in 1880 President James A. Garfield appointed him Minister of the Interior, which he remained until 1885.