Representative William Benton Culbertson View All Years

William Benton Culbertson

Des Moines County

One of the most prominent criminal lawyers of Iowa, and a pioneer of Jefferson County of 1839, was born in Wood County, Ohio, Oct. 23, 1835, and is a son of Hon. John W. and Elizabeth A. (Eagle) Culbertson. He was reared among the Indians until four years of age, when, in December, 1839, he came with his parents to Iowa. His education was begun in the public schools; later, when he had earned the means with which to pay expenses, he became a student of the celebrated Howe's Academy, at Mt. Pleasant, where he pursued an academic course; he subsequently entered Yale College, graduating from the law department of that institution in the class of '58. His practice in Jefferson County was continued until 1882, when he decided to seek a broader field of operation, and came to Burlington, where he soon won a prominent place in the Des Moines County bar. He is a Democrat in politics, and was twice chosen a member of the Iowa Assembly, the Twentieth and Twenty-first, representing the First District during the years 1884 and 1886. He received the Democratic nomination for Congress for the First District in 1880. He is thoroughly Democratic in practice as well as in theory. In February, 1866, the marriage of Mr. Culbertson and Miss S. E. Day was celebrated. She is a daughter of Timothy Day, Esq., and was born in Van Buren County, Iowa, in 1844.

House District 2