Irvin S. Pepper

Who was Irvin S. Pepper?

Irvin St. Clair Pepper was a Democratic U.S. Representative from Iowa's 2nd congressional district.

Pepper was born on a farm in Davis County, Iowa. Pepper attended the public schools. He was graduated from Southern Iowa Normal School at Bloomfield in 1897. He served as principal of the Atalissa, Iowa High School and of the Washington School at Muscatine, Iowa.

He relocated to Washington, D.C. to serve as secretary for Democratic Congressman Martin J. Wade of Iowa's 2nd congressional district from 1903 to 1905. He graduated from the George Washington University Law School, in Washington, in 1905. He was admitted to the bar the same year and returned to Muscatine to commenced practice. He served as prosecuting attorney of Muscatine County from 1906 to 1910.

In 1910, Pepper ran as a Democrat for an open seat in the U.S. House to represent Iowa's 2nd congressional district. He won the Democratic nomination, then defeated Republican Charles Grilk in the general election. He was then re-elected two years later with "little opposition."

On December 22, 1913, part way through his second term, Pepper died following an operation for infection of the gall bladder. He was recovering in Clinton County, Iowa, from typhoid fever, which had left him in a weakened state.