David Rorer (May 12, 1806 – July 7, 1884) was a lawyer, judge, sometime politician, author and anti-slavery advocate fromBurlington, Iowa, who played a prominent role in the early history of Burlington and in Iowa legal history, and is credited with bestowing the nickname of "Hawkeyes" upon Iowans.
Rorer was born May 12, 1806, son of Abraham Rorer and Nancy (Cook) Rorer, on their farm inPittsylvania County,Virginia. He attended the local schools, and eventuallyread law under local attorneys Nathaniel H. Claiborne and Henry Calaway for two years. In 1826 he was admitted to the bar and moved toLittle Rock,Arkansas Territory, where he took up practice. He owned theferry in Little Rock. A 1908 history states, "he kept a good house of entertainment" on the city's north side, and entertainedTerritorial GovernorJohn Pope. By thecensus of 1830, he owned seven slaves, which marked him among the elite of the region. In 1831, he was electedcounty judge ofPulaski County.[1]
According to an account by his daughter Delia, "Still under 30 years of age, he was rapidly making a name for himself in the South, but he found himself entirely out of sympathy with the people over the slavery issue." After a discussion around 1835 with an unnamed member ofCongress in which the Congressman predicted the South would break away from the union, Rorer and his wife Martha elected to "throw in with the free North and the Union," Delia wrote. Rorer freed his slaves and offered to take them with his family beyond the reach of slavery. Only one came with the family: the children's nurse, called "Nin". The family and Nin left Little Rock forSt. Louis, Missouri, intending to settle inRock Island, Illinois. But during their time in St. Louis, Rorer became friends withJean-Pierre Chouteau, a prominent merchant and Indian trader, who recommended a settlement called Shoqoquon, also known as Flint Hills, in the newly-openedBlack Hawk Purchase (part ofWisconsin Territory).
The Rorers arrived in Flint Hills in 1836 on the steamboatOlive Branch. On the voyage, Rorer metJackson Kemper,Episcopal Missionary Bishop of the Northwest, and eventually convinced the bishop to establish a mission in the area.[2]
The family and Nin first occupied a two-room log cabin, but within months Rorer had commissioned a brick house, the first to be built in what became the state of Iowa.[3]
On July 4, 1838, part of theIowa District of Wisconsin Territory was split off to formIowa Territory. Rorer (newly widowed) ran forTerritorial Delegate to the26th United States Congress. He eventually came in fourth out of nine candidates, with 605 votes (13.53% of the total), to fellow DemocratsWilliam W. Chapman's 1,490 (33.32%) andPeter H. Engle 1,454 (32.51%) andWhig Benjamin F. Wallace's 913 (20.42%).[4] During the campaign, Rorer condemned "a damned Pennsylvania faction" within the Democratic Party, which was taken as a slam against Engle and his fellow Pennsylvania native, local journalist (co-founder ofThe Gazette, nowThe Hawk Eye) and politicianCyrus S. Jacobs. On October 31, 1838 (ten days after the election), Jacobs and Rorer ran into each other on a Burlington street. When Rorer refused to apologize for his remarks, Jacobs pulled a gun, then struck Rorer with his cane; Rorer drew his own pistol and fired, killing Jacobs (who had won election to the territorial legislature in the same election which Rorer lost). It was ruled that Rorer had acted inself-defense, but he vowed, "I will never again campaign for election."[5][6][7]
In March of 1827 in Little Rock he married Martha Martin, a Georgia-born widow (whose husband had owned the aforementioned ferry and inn on the north side of the city),[8] with whom he had two sons and two daughters. Martha died in 1838, and in 1839 Rorer married Delia M. Viele ofScott County, Iowa, with whom he had three daughters.[9]