Representative Washington Galland View All Years

WASHINGTON GALLAND was born at “Lower Yellow Banks,” near the present city of Oquawka, Ill., July 20, 1827; he died at Fort Madison, Iowa, April 22, 1915. His father, Dr. Isaac Galland, a year or two later established an Indian trading post at Ah-wi-pe-tuk, now in Lee county, Iowa, and removed. his family to that point. Washington attended the first school in Iowa, which was taught by Berryman Jennings, and, subsequently, other schools of the locality, and in St. Louis, Mo., and Akron and Chillicothe, Ohio. He studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1856. He enlisted in Company A, Third Missouri Mounted Volunteers, and served two years in the Mexican war. At the outbreak of the Civil war he raised and organized Company H, Sixth Iowa Volunteer Infantry, and was mustered in as captain. He participated in the battles of Corinth and Shiloh and was held prisoner for seven months. On account of ill-health he resigned on June 20, 1862, and returned to Montrose, Iowa. In 1863 he was elected representative from Lee county in the Tenth General Assembly. For a few years he practiced law in Lee county, but, being possessed of a wandering spirit, he spent two years in Texas and afterward four years in California. In 1878 he was in Washington, D. C., and later entered the lecture field and toured the eastern states. He returned to Iowa to spend the last years of his life. He was a man of literary taste and considerable ability as a humorist and poet. His residence in Iowa was probably longer than that of any other man.