Samuel J. Kirkwood

Samuel J. Kirkwood

Infobox US Cabinet official
name=Samuel Jordan Kirkwood


image_width=200px
order=14th
title=United States Secretary of the Interior
term_start=March 8, 1881
term_end=April 17, 1882
predecessor=Carl Schurz
successor=Henry Moore Teller
birth_date=birth date|1813|12|20|mf=y
birth_place=Harford County, Maryland, U.S.
death_date=death date and age|1894|9|1|1813|12|20
death_place=Iowa City, Iowa, U.S.
party=Republican
spouse=Jane Clark
profession=Politician, Miller, Lawyer, Clerk, Teacher
religion=

Samuel Jordan Kirkwood (December 20, 1813ndash September 1, 1894), was an American politician best known as Iowa's Civil War governor; he also served in the U.S. Senate and as U.S. Secretary of the Interior.

Early life and career

Samuel J. Kirkwood was born in 1813 in Harford County, Maryland. At age 17, he began teaching school and had as one of his pupils his cousin Daniel Kirkwood, who later achieved prominence as a mathematician and astronomer. [ [http://books.google.com/books?id=5PLAiyNmIxgC&printsec=titlepage&source=gbs_summary_r&cad=0#PPA8,M1 Clark, Dan Elbert, "Samuel Jordan Kirkwood", Iowa City, Iowa: Iowa State Historical Society, 1917, p. 8.] ] Samuel spent part of his youth in Washington, D.C., ["Id.", pp 7-9 ] then joined his father in moving to Ohio in 1835. ["Id.", p. 12.] There he became a well-known anti-slavery Republican. He was elected to several state offices and worked closely with Thomas Bartley, the future Governor of Ohio, in the 1840s.In 1855 Kirkwood moved to Iowa, living northwest of Iowa City, and became involved with the Clark family, also from Ohio, in a milling venture, and then with the Clark and Lucas families in land speculation. Kirkwood married Jane Clark, the sister of Ezekiel Clark, and thus became the brother-in-law of Edward Lucas, son of Robert Lucas.Although Kirkwood intended to leave politics behind him in Ohio, he took an interest in the newly-founded Republican Party. Summoned from his mill at Coralville and still coated in flour dust, Kirkwood gave a rousing speech at the founding meeting of the Iowa Republican Party in February 1856. Many people credited Kirkwood’s speech and subsequent work with the success of the Republican Party in Iowa; that year he was elected to the Iowa Senate serving from 1856 to 1859.

Governorship: the Coppock Incident and the Civil War

In 1859 Kirkwood was nominated for governor and defeated Augustus C. Dodge after a bitter campaign which focused on the slave issue. In 1860, Kirkwood’s first year in office, the John Brown raid on Harpers Ferry further polarized the nation over slavery, and Kirkwood was clearly on the side of the militant abolitionists. When Barclay Coppock, a youth from Springdale, Iowa who was part of Brown’s raid, fled to Iowa Kirkwood refused to accept extradition papers for him from Virginia, and allowed Coppock to escape. During the Civil War Kirkwood gained national attention for his extraordinary efforts to secure soldiers and supplies from Iowa for the Union Army. A strong supporter of President Abraham Lincoln's policies during the American Civil War, he was active in raising and equipping dozens of regiments of infantry, as well as cavalry and artillery, for the Union Army. In 1862, he attended the Loyal War Governors' Conference in Altoona, Pennsylvania, which ultimately gave Lincoln support for his Emancipation Proclamation [genral histories of Kirkwood's rise are included in Lathrop (1893)and Clark (1917)] .

enate and Secretary of the Interior

After he left office in 1864, Kirkwood moved to a new brick house on Wyoming Road in Iowa City (now Kirkwood Ave.) and practiced law. About this time Kirkwood sold his share of the mill, part of it to his brother, William, and part to Valentine Miller. In 1865-1867 he served the remainder of James Harlan’s term in the U.S. Senate, and severed in the Seante again from 1877 to 1881 [Aurner 1912:415; Parish 1921] . Between his separate terms as a Senator, he was again the Governor of Iowa from 1876 to 1877. He resigned as Governor in 1877 to begin his second term as U.S. Senator. In 1881, Kirkwood resigned his Senate seat to become Secretary of the Interior under President James Garfield. He served as Interior Secretary until 1882. He unsuccessfully ran for Congress in 1886.Kirkwood died in 1894 in Iowa City, Iowa, and is buried in Oakland Cemetery.

Memorials

Kirkwood Community College in Cedar Rapids, Iowa is named for the former Iowa Governor and Senator. Along with pioneer Iowa politician James Harlan, Kirkwood's sculptured likeness is maintained among the two coveted statues apportioned to each state on display under the rotunda in Statuary Hall in the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C. Kirkwood Avenue in Iowa City, where he lived for much of his political career, is named for him, as is the Kirkwood Hotel in Des Moines. Kirkwood Elementary is located in Coralville, Iowa, where Kirkwood ran his mill. A small, neglected, monument stands near the Morningside entrance to Iowa City High School. Kirkwood Street in Davenport, Iowa is the route of the internationally known foot race, the Bix 7.

References

Bibliography

*Aurner, Charles R. (1912)"Leading Events in Johnson County, Iowa, History." Western Historical, Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
*Parish, John C. (1921) The Miller of Coralville. In "Yearbook of the Old Settlers Association: 1920–1921", pp. 6–18. Johnson County Old Settlers Association, Iowa City, Iowa.
*Dan E. Clark (1917) "Samuel Jordan Kirkwood", Iowa City
*Henry W. Lathrop (1893), "The Life and Times of Samuel J. Kirkwood, Iowa's War Governor", Chicago

External links

* [http://iagenweb.org/history/historicalrecords/apr1888.htm] Essay on attitude of Iowans and Governor Kirkwood to the US Civil War draft, by N.H. Brainerd, military secretary to Governor Kirkwood.


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