Ansel Briggs - Life Before Politics

Life Before Politics

Life before Iowa

Ansel Briggs was born on February 3. 1806 to father Benjamin and mother Electa in the town of Shoreham, Vermont. Briggs's education started in the common schools of Vermont and continued at the Norwich Academy in Connecticut.

While still a young man Briggs moved with his parents to Cambridge, Ohio. Briggs lived there for the next six years, starting a stagecoach business and married twice. His first marriage to Frances Carpenter was brief and then he married Nancy M. Dunlap who eventually had eight children, six that died in infancy. It was here that Briggs first ran, as a Whig party candidate, unsuccessfully for the office of County Auditor for the Guernsey County, Ohio.

Life in Iowa

After hearing of all the opportunities, Briggs and wife Nancy moved in 1839 to what was called Andrew Jackson County in the Territory of Iowa which was shortened to Jackson County soon after. Once settled he resumed his stagecoach business, starting by driving the coaches himself much of the time. The opportunities to expand in the new territory were immense. He soon secured contracts with the Post office Department transporting mail between Dubuque and the cities of Davenport and Iowa City, this led to more routes, expanding his business. Briggs moved to Andrew, Iowa in 1843 purchasing many of the empty lots in the town. He was considered a good citizen making many town improvements, building roads and commercial buildings.

His stone house, on N Johnson St. in Andrew, is still inhabited to this day. His family used to have a home and mill near Brush Creek north of Andrew at a place known as Bluff Mills, which is a popular public fishing area now, even though the house and mill are now gone.