Nathaniel Pope

Nathaniel Pope ( born January 5, 1784 in Louisville, Kentucky; † January 22, 1850 in St. Louis, Missouri) was an American lawyer and politician. In the years 1817 and 1818, he represented the Illinois Territory as a delegate in the House of Representatives of the United States; later he became a federal judge.

Early years

Nathaniel Pope came from an illustrious family of politicians. He was the younger brother of U.S. Senator John Pope (1770-1845) and a cousin of Ninian Edwards (1775-1833), who was also a U.S. Senator and Governor of Illinois. Nathaniel Pope's son John (1822-1892) was Civil War general in the army of the Union; his nephew Daniel Pope Cook (1794-1827) was a congressman for Illinois.

Pope attended Transylvania University in Lexington. After a subsequent study of law and qualifying as a lawyer, he began 1804 in Ste. Genevieve to work in this profession. Soon after, he moved to Springfield in the Illinois territory. Between 1809 and 1816 he was the managing official of the local territorial government.

In the congressional elections of 1816 Pope was as a delegate of its territory to the U.S. Congress in Washington DC chosen, where he became the successor of Benjamin Stephenson on March 4, 1817. This office he held until 30 November 1818, when the territory was dissolved. At this time, the new state of Illinois was founded. During his time as a convention delegate Pope was involved in defining the northern boundary of the new state. He was instrumental in that, inter alia, the area of ​​the later city of Chicago came to Illinois.

Between 30 November 1818 and the March 3, 1819 Pope worked as a registrar (register ) worked at the land registry office in Edwardsville. Since 1819 until his death he was a federal judge at the Federal District Court for Illinois. In 1824 he ran unsuccessfully for the U.S. Senate. Nathaniel Pope died on 22 January 1850 in St. Louis.