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Ansel Briggs

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State Representative
Democrat
Farmer
Jackson
5
12/05/1842 - 12/03/1843
10

Born February 3, 1806, in Shoreham, Addison, Vermont. He moved to Cambridge, Ohio with his parents, where he married Nancy M. Dunlap on November 11, 1830. The couple moved to Iowa in 1839, settling in Jackson County, where he established a stagecoach business. He served the people of Jackson County in the House of Representatives of the Iowa Territory beginning in 1842, as deputy treasurer in 1843, and as sheriff in 1844. He was elected governor of the newly-admitted to the Union state of Iowa in 1846, serving until 1850. His wife, Nancy Dunlap, died December 30, 1847. He then married Nancy Carpenter on October 27, 1849. Upon the expiration of his term as governor, he Briggs returned to Jackson County, though he briefly lived in Montana from 1863 to 1865. He moved to Council Bluffs, Iowa in 1870, and later helped found the town of Florence, Nebraska. He died May 5, 1881 in Omaha.