Page:History of Iowa From the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the Twentieth Century Volume 1.djvu/256



Henry Dodge, an officer of the regular army, was appointed Governor; John S. Homer, Secretary; Charles Dunn, Chief Justice; David Irwin and William C. Frazier, Associate Justices. Dubuque and Des Moines counties made up the judicial district over which David Irwin presided.

Governor Dodge ordered a census to be taken of the new Territory in September, 1836, and it was found that the two counties in the Black Hawk Purchase, Dubuque and Des Moines, had a population of 10,531, which entitled them to six members of the Council and thirteen members of the House of Representatives in the Territorial Legislature. At the election held on the first Monday in October of that year, Des Moines County elected to the Council, Jeremiah Smith, Joseph B. Teas and Arthur B. Ingham. In the House of Representatives were Isaac Leffler, Thomas Blair, John Box, George W. Teas, David R. Chance, Warren L. Jenkins and John Reynolds. The county of Dubuque sent to the Council, Thomas McCraney, John Foley and Thomas McKnight; to the House of Representatives, Loring Wheeler, Hardin Nowlin, Hosea T. Camp, Peter H. Engle and Patrick Quigley.

The first session of this Territorial Legislature convened on the 25th of October, 1836, at Belmont, which had been designated by the Governor as the temporary Capital of the newly organized Territory. Peter H. Engle, of Dubuque, was elected Speaker of the House, and Henry T. Baird, of Brown County, was chosen President of the Council.

An act was passed by this Legislature authorizing the establishment at Dubuque of the “Miners' Bank.” The charter required that the bank should have a capital stock of $200,000 dollars, to be divided into shares of one hundred dollars each. Ezekiel Lockwood, Francis Gehon, John Kirk, William Myers, L. W. Langworthy, Robert D. Sherman, William W. Carrill, Simeon Clark and E. M. Bissell were named in the charter as the first directors,