John Joseph Seerley

Who was John Joseph Seerley?

John Joseph Seerley was a one-term Democratic U.S. Representative from Iowa's 1st congressional district in southeastern Iowa.

Born on a farm near Toulon, Illinois, Seerley moved to Iowa in 1854 with his parents, who settled on a farm in Keokuk County.

He attended the common schools, and graduated from the University of Iowa at Iowa City in 1875.

While serving as principal of Iowa City High School in 1876, he enrolled in the University of Iowa College of Law, graduating in 1877.

He was admitted to the bar in 1877 and commenced practice in Burlington, Iowa.

He served as City solicitor of Burlington from 1885 to 1890.

In 1888, he won the Democratic nomination to challenge incumbent Republican Representative John H. Gear, who was seeking re-election to a second term representing Iowa's 1st district. This would be the first of three consecutive races between the two. Gear won the 1888 general election. Two years later, however, Seerley unseated Gear as part of the 1890 democratic landslide, becoming one of six Democratic U.S. House members from Iowa in the Fifty-second Congress. In 1892, however, Gear again ran against Seerley.