Shepherd Leffler
Shepherd Leffler (* April 24, 1811 in Washington County, Pennsylvania, † September 7, 1879 in Burlington, Iowa ) was an American politician. Between 1846 and 1851 he represented the state of Iowa in the U.S. House of Representatives.
Career
Shepherd Leffler was the younger brother of Isaac Leffler (1788-1866), who was seated in the 1820s for the State of Virginia in the U.S. House of Representatives. The younger Leffler was on the plantation of his grandfather in Pennsylvania, near the border of present-day West Virginia and the city of Wheeling, born 1811. He attended private schools and the Washington Academy. After a subsequent law degree at Jefferson College in Canonsburg and in 1833 made his admission to the bar he began in Wheeling and then from 1835 in Burlington at the former Michigan Territory to practice in his new profession. 1838 was his new hometown to the newly created Iowa Territory.
Leffler was a member of the Democratic Party. Between 1839 and 1841 he was a member of the Territorial House of Representatives. In the years 1841 to 1843 and 1845 he was a member of the Governing Council of the territory. 1844 and 1846 he took part in the Constituent Assemblies of Iowa; in 1844 he was President of this Assembly. After the founding of the State of Iowa Leffler, was elected at the first congressional elections in 1846 that were held all across the state in the U.S. House of Representatives. After two elections in the meantime created the second electoral district of Iowa he could remain between 29 December 1846 and 3 March 1851 Congress. In this time, the end of the Mexican - American War and the resulting considerable territorial expansion of the United States fell. From 1849 to 1851 Leffler was chairman of the committee that dealt with disability pensions.
After the end of his time in the House of Representatives Leffler again worked as a lawyer and also began to engage in farming. In 1856, he competed unsuccessfully for a return to the U.S. House of Representatives. In the following 19 years, he went back to his profession and agriculture, before he was a candidate in 1875 for the office of the Governor of Iowa. But He defeated Samuel J. Kirkwood. Shepherd Leffler died in September 1879 at his estate " Flint Hills " near Burlington.