Background
Hepburn was born in Wellsville, Columbiana County, Ohio and raised from the age of seven in Iowa City, Iowa. His schooling was confined to a few months in an Iowa City academy. The great-grandson of Revolutionary War officer, printer, and congressman Matthew Lyon, and the great-great-grandson of Thomas Chittenden, the first Governor of Vermont, he was first engaged as an apprentice printer, before studying law. He became prosecuting attorney of Marshall County in 1856 as well as serving as district attorney for the eleventh judicial district from 1856 to 1861. He was also the clerk to the Iowa House of Representatives.
In May 1860, Hepburn was one of two delegates representing counties in the eleventh judicial district at the 1860 Republican National Convention, where Abraham Lincoln was nominated. The following March, when serving a brief term as a lobbyist for those counties in Washington D.C., Hepburn attended Lincoln's presidential inauguration.
Read more about this topic: William Peters Hepburn
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