Shepherd LEFFLER, Congress, IA (1811-1879)

LEFFLER, Shepherd, (brother of Isaac Leffler), a Representative from Iowa; born on his grandfather’s plantation, “Sylvia’s Plain,” Washington County, Pa., near Wheeling, Va. (now West Virginia), April 24, 1811; attended private schools and was graduated from Washington College, Washington, Pa., and from the law department of Jefferson College, Canonsburg, Pa., in 1833; was admitted to the bar and commenced practice in Wheeling; moved to Burlington, Iowa (then a part of Michigan Territory), in 1835; member of the Territorial house of representatives in 1839 and 1841; served in the Territorial council 1841-1843 and in 1845; member of the constitutional conventions in 1844 and 1846; permanent president during the first convention; upon the admission of Iowa as a State into the Union was elected as a Democrat to the Twenty-ninth Congress in 1846; reelected to the Thirtieth and Thirty-first Congresses and served from December 28, 1846, to March 3, 1851; chairman, Committee on Invalid Pensions (Thirty-first Congress); engaged in the practice of his profession and in agricultural pursuits in Burlington; unsuccessful candidate for election in 1856 to the Thirty-fifth Congress; unsuccessful Democratic candidate for Governor of Iowa in 1875; died at his home, “Flint Hills,” near Burlington, Des Moines County, Iowa, September 7, 1879; interment in Aspen Grove Cemetery.

Source: Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1771-Present