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Jesse Wasson
Black Hawk County
Original proprietor and founder of La Porte City, is of Quaker descent, and was born on the and 22nd day of October 1821, at Richmond, Indiana. He well improved the limited educational advantages which were afforded him, that of the primitive "Hoosier Common School," which was much inferior to the present excellent public schools of Iowa. When twelve years of age he removed with his parents to La Porte, Indiana which was then a new town having been laid out only one year previous. Here he went to work with his father, who was a blacksmith, and made such proficiency that before he was fifteen he made a full hand. After entering the shop he only attended school two terms, but continued his studies during what leisure time he could obtain. At nineteen he commenced reading law, which he continued for about one year, ,but owing to the continued opposition of his mother he then abandoned the idea of entering that profession and commence the study of medicine which he continued by himself until he was twenty-two, when he attended one course of lectures at Indiana Medical College, after which he returned to work and study for the next eight months, attending a second course the following year. During the Spring and Summer of 1846, he commenced practice at Milton, and in the Fall and Winter of the same year attended his third and last course graduating in February, 1847. For a number of years the Doctor was engaged in selling goods, and in carrying on various improvements and enterprises calculated to advance the welfare and prosperity of his new town, in addition to his medical practice. Dr. Wasson was for three years, 1867, 1868, 1869, a member of the Board of Supervisors, and in the Fall of 1869 was elected to the Lower House of the Iowa General Assembly, in which body he served for two years, rendering a valuable service. He has filled the office of justice of the peace for a number of years, and was Mayor of La Porte City having been elected in March, 0875. Politically, Dr. W. was originally a Whig. Joining the Republican party at its inception, he assisted to organize it in Iowa, and acted with it until the Spring of 1872, when he liberalized, and has since supported the opposition under the various names which is has received in this state.
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