Tracing your political roots

Iowa's 30th General Assembly. John D. Shaffer is on the lower right.

I learned this week if you have an ancestor who served in the Iowa Legislature you're quite lucky.

My great-great-great grandfather, John D. Shaffer, served in the Iowa House of Representatives from 1904 to 1909, representing Fayette County. I have a rather large collection of articles from contemporary Fayette County newspapers discussing "Representative Shaffer" and his affiliations and works in the House. I also have copies of ballots, election reports, and great editorials and other endorsements.

John D. Shaffer's official House portrait,
Iowa 32nd General Assembly, 1907

For a long time I've wondered about pictures detailing his political tenure. As anyone who reads this blog knows I'm obsessed with family photos (it's why this blog came to be two years ago). I've sent a lot of time and some money digging up family relics. J.D. Shaffer's image eluded me for a long time. About 2009 I got my first glimpse of him courtesy of my great aunt, who had one of those photo sketches you see in old history books. Last summer on my trip to Clermont I found his portrait for the first time and when I visited cousins in Ely in December and in more cousins in Volga last month I secured an amazing array of photos featuring the patriarch.

And yet, I wanted more...

Knowing what I do about politicians (and that's not much) I know they like to get good press. They like to be noticed. They like to have their good works documented for posterity. They like to appear official and important. Knowing that J.D. served three terms in the Iowa House I thought there had to be photos somewhere. Even though it was the turn of the last century, there had to be photos of committees or caucuses or even just formal portraits. I started where anyone would start: I Googled it.

One of the first items to pop up was a short bio on J.D. as part of the Iowa Legislature Archives. They have profiles on all the state's legislators going back until the state became a state in the 1840s. They also had two photos: one the sketch I already had and another I hadn't seen before. Of course, they were black and white and low resolution web copies, so I emailed the webmaster and waited.

I didn't have to wait long!

The next day Craig at the Legislative Information Office emailed with larger versions of both photos and connected me with someone at the State Historical Society of Iowa. The archives house a vast array of photos and documents related to our legislators and within the same day an archivist emailed me back saying they had two formal photos and a photo of the entire legislative body. They charged $20 each for high-resolution scanned copies of the photos, but considering the cost of gas and the scarcity of the records I was glad to fork over $60 for the three images.

I also learned the State of Iowa has extensive online records about the legislature, including records of committees and appointments as well as laws and votes. You might think "Of course they'd have records of laws. They're laws." But these online records can tell you the legislators who shepherded the bills through the chamber, who wrote them, who voted for and against them. It can give you a detailed glimpse of your ancestor's political role in shaping the state.

I don't know yet what J.D. accomplished during his tenure. I've read contemporary newspaper accounts of various farm bills and actions to regulate the beef industry. I look forward to digging into this free online archive and learning more.