Representative Ezekiel E. Cooley View All Years
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Ezekiel E. Cooley
Winneshiek County
Born in Victory, Cayuga County, New York, January 12, 1827. He was brought up there till the age of thirteen, when he removed to St. Lawrence County, and there received an academic education. At the age of seventeen he commenced teaching school, which he followed as an occupation about five years, then removing in 1847 to Cynthiana, Kentucky, where he taught and read law with Judge Trimble of that place, and was admitted to the bar in 1849. Returning to Ogdensburg, New York, he read law another year with Honorable A. B. James, now one of the Justices of the Supreme Court of New York, and on the 2d of September 1850, was admitted to practice in the New York courts, and commenced his professional career in the town of Hermon, St. Lawrence County. Soon after removing to Ogdensburg, he practiced there till October, 1854. At the last named date, he removed to Decorah, Iowa where he continued the practice of his profession, with the exception of one year spent in the army. In the Spring of 1855 he was elected Prosecuting Attorney of Winneshiek County. On the incorporation of the Town of Decorah he was elected President of the Council, having been efficient in the matter of securing the town incorporation and the management of the business connected therewith. In 1857 he was elected a member of the first legislature under the new state constitution, and served with marked ability in the house. In 1861 he was appointed Postmaster at Decorah, and held the office till he resigned in 1863. In September, 1864 President Lincoln appointed him Commissary of Subsistence in the cavalry department with the rank of captain. In October, 1865, he was brevetted major by Andrew Johnson for gallant and meritorious services, and in November following was honorably discharged. In civil life he has been engaged in all enterprises for the promotion of the interests of his city and county. In 1868 and 1870, he was warmly supported by the Republicans of his county for the nomination to Congress, but the other counties of the district carried the majority for his competitor, who was duly elected. Mr. Cooley has been Counsel for the Board of Supervisors. He has also held the office of City Attorney. Few men in this section of Iowa have achieved more eminent success in the legal profession, or made for themselves a better public and private record than the subject of this brief sketch. He was married at Dubuque, in 1856, to Miss Jane M. Rhodes, then of that city, and has two sons.
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