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Permanent LinkSenator Edwin G. Moon View All Years
EDWIN G. MOON, United States District Attorney and former state senator, died in Ottumwa, January 22, 1939. Born in Melrose, Iowa, November 12, 1870, he was the son of Charles P. and Mira G. Moon, who came to Lee County from New York state in about 1850. After receiving his elementary education in the Lee County schools, he attended S. C. Howe’s Academy in Mt. Pleasant; following his graduation he remained for a time as an instructor in the school. His higher education was received in the State University of Iowa, from which he was graduated in 1897. His professional training was obtained in the Kent College of Law, Chicago, which he completed in 1899. Settling immediately afterwards in Ottumwa, Iowa, to practice law, he was soon elected to two terms as police judge, 1901-05. A lifelong democrat, in 1906 he was a successful candidate for the state senate from the seventeenth district. Most prominent among his measures sponsored during his four years in the Iowa senate was the Moon Law, which restricted the number of saloons in any town or community to not more· than one for every one thousand inhabitants. In 1910 he made an unsuccessful contest to secure the democratic nomination for Governor of Iowa, losing to Claude R. Porter. By the quirks of fate and politics, he later served as an assistant United States Attorney under Mr. Porter from 1914-18. In the last year he was appointed to the position of United States Attorney, from which he resigned in 1922. For a brief month he served a second time in that capacity upon the death of his successor, in 1924. In June, 1934, he served as United States District Attorney when he was appointed to that position by the President. He was serving in that capacity when he died.
A member of the Wapello County, the Iowa State, and the American Bar Associations, he was a member of the Episcopalian Church, serving as Chancellor of the Iowa Diocese of that church.