The Honorable Peter H. Engle | |
|---|---|
| Judge of the Court of Common Pleas forSt. Louis County | |
| In office February 5, 1841 – February 7, 1844 | |
| Appointed by | Thomas Reynolds |
| 1st Speaker of the Legislative Assembly of theWisconsin Territory | |
| In office October 25, 1836 – November 6, 1837 | |
| Preceded by | Position established |
| Succeeded by | Isaac Leffler |
| Representative to the Legislative Assembly of theWisconsin Territory fromDubuque County | |
| In office October 25, 1836 – November 26, 1838 | |
| Preceded by | Position established |
| Succeeded by | Position abolished |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Peter Hill Engle (1808-01-10)January 10, 1808 |
| Died | February 7, 1844(1844-02-07) (aged 36) |
| Resting place | Bellefontaine Cemetery St. Louis, Missouri |
| Political party | Democratic |
| Military service | |
| Allegiance |  United States |
| Branch/service | Wisconsin TerritorialMilitia |
| Years of service | 1836–1838 |
| Rank | Colonel |
Peter Hill Engle (January 10, 1808 – February 7, 1844) was anAmerican lawyer,[1] judge, andIowa pioneer. He served as the firstSpeaker of the Legislative Assembly of theWisconsin Territory after it was established, when it still contained the territory of the future states of Iowa andMinnesota. He later served as a judge of theSt. Louis County, Missouri, Court of Common Pleas from 1841 until his death.
Engle was born inChester,Delaware County, Pennsylvania, in 1808. He moved toDubuque in 1836 and was one of the first lawyers in the county. This region was then part of theMichigan Territory, but was just beginning to transition to the newly designatedWisconsin Territory. An election was held to establish a territorial legislature and select a congressional delegate. In all, theIowa District, that is, the portion of the Wisconsin Territory west of theMississippi River, sent twelve delegates. Engle, although he had only been in the county for five months, was elected as one ofDubuque County's five representatives to the first Legislative Assembly.[2]
At the assembly, held inBelmont, then part ofIowa County, in the fall of 1836, Engle was elected as the Speaker for the 1st session of the legislature.[3] He was also appointedColonel of the territorial militia by GovernorHenry Dodge.[2] As a member of the Assembly, he was part of a commission which made the selection and purchase of the collection for the first library of the Wisconsin Territory, funded by a $5,000 appropriation from Congress. After the separation of Iowa from Wisconsin, the library, located in Iowa, became the property of the Iowa Territory.[4]
Engle's Dubuque delegation had been elected on a platform of pursuing a capitol near Dubuque, on the western bank of the Mississippi River, and attempting to forestall a division of the territory. They were unsuccessful on both priorities, as the Des Moines delegation broke with them and secured a temporary capitol atBurlington, then inDes Moines County. After the failure of their initial platform, Hill was one of the delegates, to the 1837 Burlington Convention which laid out recommendations for a newIowa Territory composed of the western half of theWisconsin Territory. In June 1838, the Iowa Territory was officially established by Congress as a separate entity from the Wisconsin Territory.
Just days after separation, Engle announced he would run fordelegate to the26th United States Congress on behalf of the new territory, to succeed his friendGeorge Wallace Jones, who had been elected the representative of the Wisconsin Territory for the previous congress. Engle was aided by allies of Jones in the local press, which accused his main Democratic rival,William W. Chapman, of being unsupportive of the Democratic agenda inWashington, D.C. Letters between Jones and Wisconsin territorial governor Henry Dodge also demonstrate their personal dislike for Chapman.[5]
There would ultimately be nine candidates in the race, but, in addition to Engle and Chapman, only two others campaigned seriously for the role—fellow-DemocratDavid Rorer and Whig candidate Benjamin F. Wallace. Engle had the strong support of the northern counties as he made an issue of the southern representatives' betrayal of Dubuque in the Wisconsin Assembly.[5]
He was seen as a strong favorite to win the election that summer, but his campaign was derailed by an incident in August, when he nearly drowned in theWapsipinicon River.[2] His life was saved by a passing American Indian, but he was sick from the incident and unable to campaign for the final weeks before the election, held on September 10, 1838. A rumor spread that he had died from the incident and he ultimately fell 36 votes short of Chapman.[6][7]
Shortly after the election, Engle left the Iowa Territory forMissouri, settling inSt. Louis. In July 1839, he is seen as one of the co-signers on a letter of support for Missouri's Democratic U.S. SenatorThomas Hart Benton.[8] Again, in Missouri, Engle became involved in public affairs, and, in 1841, he was appointed Judge of Common Pleas for St. Louis County by GovernorThomas Reynolds.[9] In 1843, he along with other "northern" Democrats supportive of Benton and former PresidentMartin Van Buren started a partisan newspaper, the St. LouisStandard to advocate their politics.[10]
Judge Engle died in St. Louis, February 7, 1844, at age 36, after an illness of several months. He was interred atBellefontaine Cemetery in St. Louis.[11]
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| General Election, September 10, 1838 | |||||
| Democratic | William W. Chapman | 1,490 | 33.32% | ||
| Democratic | Peter H. Engle | 1,454 | 32.51% | ||
| Whig | Benjamin F. Wallace | 913 | 20.42% | ||
| Democratic | David Rorer | 605 | 13.53% | ||
| Independent | Lawrence Taliaferro | 3 | 0.07% | ||
| Whig | William H. Wallace | 3 | 0.07% | ||
| Whig | Isaac Leffler | 2 | 0.04% | ||
| Independent | H. Craighton | 1 | 0.02% | ||
| Independent | John Foley | 1 | 0.02% | ||
| Total votes | 4,472 | 100.0% | |||
| Democraticwin (new seat) | |||||