Page:History of Iowa From the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the Twentieth Century Volume 1.djvu/275



appoint all minor judicial officers, sheriffs and militia officers. He was authorized to divide the Territory into judicial districts and select the place for meeting of the first Legislative Assembly.

President Van Buren first selected Brigadier-General Henry Atkinson for Governor of Iowa Territory, because of his intimate acquaintance with Indian affairs in the Mississippi Valley. But General Atkinson preferred to retain his position as commander of the western division of the army and declined the office.

The President then made the following appointments for officers of the new Territory; Robert Lucas, Governor; William B. Conway, Secretary; Francis Gehon, Marshal; Cyrus S. Jacobs, United States Attorney; Charles Mason, Chief Justice; Joseph Williams and Thomas S. Wilson, Associate Judges; A. C. Dodge, Register; and J. P. Van Antwerp, Receiver of the United States Land Office at Burlington; B. R. Peterkin, Register, and Thomas McKnight, Receiver of the Land Office at Dubuque. Cyrus S. Jacobs, who had been elected to the Territorial Legislature, was killed in a political affray soon after his appointment as United States Attorney and the vacancy filled by the appointment of Isaac Van Allen, of New York. Mr. Van Allen died soon after his appointment and was succeeded by Charles Weston.

Governor Lucas received his commission on the 17th of July, 1838, and, on the 25th departed for the distant Territory by way of the Ohio River. Stopping at Cincinnati to purchase a library, for the Territory for which Congress had appropriated $5,000, he made the acquaintance of a young college graduate, Theodore S. Parvin. The Governor was favorably impressed with the young man and tendered him the position of private secretary which Mr. Parvin accepted. They reached Burlington on the 13th of August, the Governor having selected that city for the capital of the new Territory.

When he arrived he was surprised to learn that William