Representative Aylett Rains Cotton

Aylett Rains Cotton (November 29, 1826 – October 30, 1912) was an American politician, lawyer, judge, educator, and miner active in Iowa and Northern California. Born in Austintown, Trumbull County, Ohio, he attended local public schools in his youth and pursued further studies at Cottage Hill Academy in Ellsworth, Ohio, in 1842 and 1843. As a young man he taught school and, in 1844, moved with his father to DeWitt, Iowa, then part of a rapidly developing frontier region. Seeking additional education, he attended Allegheny College in Meadville, Pennsylvania, in 1845, and soon afterward taught at Union Academy in Fayette County, Tennessee, from 1845 to 1847, combining teaching with his own intellectual advancement.

In 1847 Cotton returned to Iowa, where he began the study of law. He was admitted to the bar in 1848 and commenced practice in the state, marking the beginning of a long legal and public career. Drawn by the opportunities of the California Gold Rush, he moved to California in 1849 and engaged in mining on the Feather River in the Sacramento Valley. This period as a miner in Northern California added a distinctive chapter to his professional life before he returned to the Midwest. In 1851 he settled in Lyons, Iowa, where his legal and civic reputation grew rapidly.

Cotton’s public service in Iowa began soon after his arrival in Lyons. In 1851 he was elected county judge of Clinton County, Iowa, serving until 1853. He then became prosecuting attorney of Clinton County in 1854. His prominence in local affairs increased when he was elected mayor of Lyons, serving from 1855 to 1857. In 1857 he participated in shaping the state’s fundamental law as a member of the Iowa constitutional convention, reflecting his growing influence in Republican and state political circles. Throughout these years he continued his legal practice while maintaining an active role in community and governmental affairs.

After the Civil War era, Cotton advanced to higher state office. He was elected to the Iowa House of Representatives, serving from 1868 to 1871. During his final term in the state legislature he was chosen Speaker of the House, a position that underscored his leadership within the Republican Party and his colleagues’ confidence in his legislative abilities. His family was also politically active; his younger brother, Wickliffe Cotton, served in the Iowa General Assembly, further entrenching the Cotton name in the state’s political history.

In 1870 Cotton was elected as a Republican to represent Iowa’s 2nd congressional district in the United States House of Representatives. He took his seat in the Forty-second Congress on March 4, 1871, and, after narrowly defeating Democrat William E. Leffingwell, was re-elected to the Forty-third Congress, serving a second term. His service in Congress, from March 4, 1871, to March 3, 1875, occurred during a significant period in American history, in the aftermath of the Civil War and during Reconstruction, when he contributed to the legislative process and represented the interests of his Iowa constituents. Although his official congressional biography later stated that he declined to run for a third term in 1874, contemporary newspaper accounts indicate that he actively sought renomination at the Republican district convention in DeWitt, Iowa, on September 1, 1874, but was unsuccessful, losing to John Q. Tufts on the thirtieth ballot.

Following his congressional service, Cotton returned to private life in Iowa for several years before once again heading west. In 1883 he moved back to California and commenced the practice of law in San Francisco, continuing his legal career in the rapidly growing urban and commercial center of Northern California. There he remained professionally active well into his later years, drawing on decades of experience as an attorney, judge, legislator, and former member of Congress.

Aylett Rains Cotton married Hattie Walker, and they made their home in the communities where his public and professional duties took them, particularly in Iowa and later in California. He died in San Francisco on October 30, 1912. His remains were interred in Woodlawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Colma, California, closing a life that spanned the early settlement of Iowa, the California Gold Rush, the Civil War and Reconstruction eras, and the transformation of the American West.