Family Members Who Served in the Iowa Legislature:Son: Benjamin R. Vale: GAs 22 - 25
Jacob Garretson Vale
Van Buren County
Born in the western part of York County, Pa., July 7, 1821. The family is of English origin. He was but two months old at the time of his father's death, and he made his home with his maternal grandfather until the death of that gentleman, when Jacob was a lad of nine years. He then lived with his mother's brother, Daniel Garretson, until nineteen years of age. With his brother he immigrated, to Jefferson County, Ohio, and after attending school for a few terms was engaged as a teacher in the district schools. He then spent a year in the Mt. Pleasant boarding school, under the management of the Society of Friends, and during the succeeding twelve years followed teaching, and perfected his previous imperfect knowledge of the higher scientific branches. For eight years of this time he served as Principal of the Smithfield public schools, and also studied law under Edwin M. Stanton, Secretary of War under President Lincoln. He was admitted to the bar in 1844, in Jefferson County, Ohio, and in 1847 was a candidate for the State Legislature in a Democratic county in Ohio, where he was beaten by twenty-one votes. The same year Mr. Vale was united in marriage with Miss Anne Rex. They came to Iowa in 1850, after which Mr. Vale continued to practice until 1860, at which time he devoted himself to the care of his farm. He first located in Lee County, where, in 1853, he was a candidate on an independent ticket for the Legislature but was beaten. In 1856, he came to Van Buren County, and in the fall of 1861 was solicited by representatives of both parties to become a candidate for the State Senate, and was elected by a fair majority, being the only independent Senator in the Thirteenth General Assembly. Politically he is a stanch Republican, and religiously is a faithful Presbyterian.
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