Representative Shepherd Leffler

Shepherd Leffler (April 24, 1811 – September 7, 1879) was an American lawyer, territorial legislator, and Democratic politician who became one of the two original U.S. Representatives to represent Iowa when the state was first admitted to the Union. Elected as a Democrat in 1846, he initially served as an at-large representative and then went on to represent Iowa’s 2nd congressional district in the U.S. House of Representatives for additional terms during a formative period in the state’s and the nation’s history.

Leffler was born on his grandfather’s plantation, “Sylvia’s Plain,” in Washington County, Pennsylvania, near Wheeling, Virginia (now West Virginia). He was part of a politically active family; his brother, Isaac Leffler, later served as a Congressman from Virginia. Shepherd Leffler attended private schools and pursued higher education at Washington College in Washington, Pennsylvania. He then studied law at the law department of Jefferson College in Canonsburg, Pennsylvania (institutions that later merged to form Washington & Jefferson College), completing his legal studies in 1833. That same year he was admitted to the bar and commenced the practice of law in Wheeling.

In 1835, Leffler moved west to what is now Burlington, Iowa. At the time of his arrival, Burlington was part of Michigan Territory; it became part of Wisconsin Territory the following year, and then, in 1838, the initial capital of the newly created Iowa Territory. Leffler quickly became involved in territorial affairs and public life. He served as a member of the Iowa Territory’s House of Representatives in 1839 and 1841. He then advanced to the upper chamber of the territorial legislature, serving on the Territorial Council from 1841 to 1843 and again in 1845, helping to shape the legal and political framework of the developing territory.

As Iowa moved toward statehood, Leffler played a prominent role in its constitutional development. He served as the permanent president of the Iowa constitutional convention in 1844, presiding over deliberations that produced an early draft of a state constitution. He was also a member of the second constitutional convention in 1846, which produced the constitution under which Iowa was admitted to the Union. When Iowa was formally admitted as a state on December 28, 1846, Leffler was elected as a Democrat to serve as one of two at-large U.S. Representatives for the remainder of the Twenty-ninth Congress, holding office for the final two months of that term.

At the same time, Leffler had been elected to represent Iowa’s newly created 2nd congressional district in the Thirtieth Congress, serving from 1847 to early 1849. In the 1848 election he defeated Whig candidate Timothy Davis—who would later become a Republican—and secured a seat in the Thirty-first Congress. During that Congress he served as chairman of the Committee on Invalid Pensions, overseeing legislation related to the claims of disabled veterans and their dependents. In all, Shepherd Leffler’s service in Congress extended from December 28, 1846, to March 3, 1851. As a member of the Democratic Party representing Iowa, he contributed to the legislative process during three terms in office, participating in national debates and representing the interests of his frontier constituents at a time of territorial expansion and sectional tension.

After his final term in Congress ended in 1851, Leffler returned to Burlington, where he resumed the practice of law and engaged in farming at his residence. He remained active in public affairs and the Democratic Party. In 1856 he attempted to regain a seat in Congress, again running as a Democrat in a presidential election year that saw fellow Democrat James Buchanan elected to the White House. Iowa voters, however, moved sharply toward the emerging Republican Party and elected Leffler’s old rival, Timothy Davis, reversing the outcome of their 1848 contest. Nearly two decades later, Leffler sought statewide office as the Democratic candidate for Governor of Iowa in 1875, but he was unsuccessful, losing to Republican Samuel J. Kirkwood, another prominent Iowa pioneer and former governor.

Shepherd Leffler spent his later years at his home, “Flint Hills,” near Burlington. He died there on September 7, 1879. He was interred in Aspen Grove Cemetery in Burlington, Iowa, closing a career that had spanned the territorial era, statehood, and the early decades of Iowa’s participation in national political life.