Political Family

[J. J.]

Are you part of a "political family." 

Political Graveyard has an interesting family grouping of politicians that are distantly related to each other:  http://politicalgraveyard.com/families/index.html

I'm actually considered to be part of one of these families. 

[Middle-aged Europe]

LOL

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[Rooney]

I have recently accepted a new teaching job in Burlington, Iowa. The new house I am living in was built by Henry Dodge, the patriarch of the Dodge political family. Henry Dodge is celebrated as the "conqueror of Chief Blackhawk" due to his victory over the starving British Band of Sauk Indians at the Battle of Bad Axe in 1832. He had a strange career which involved serving as a delegate to the Missouri Constitutional Convention in 1820, sitting in the Michigan territorial legislature, serving as the governor of Wisconsin Territory (of which Burlington was the capital for many years) as well as territoral delegate to the U.S. Congress and one of the first U.S. Senators from Wisconsin in 1848.

Dodge is buried in Aspen Grove Cemetery which is where I go running now that I am in Burlington. He and his son-in-law James Clarke, who served as Mayor of Burlington and Governor of Iowa Territory, have a joint monument which outlines their achievements.  Below is a picture:

[FEMA Camp Administrator]

That sounds like a pretty awesome career, jumping all around the Mid-West, from Missouri to Michigan to Wisconsin and also being from Iowa.

[Redalgo]

My adoptive family is not tied into any of those listed. I cannot be sure about my biological family on account of not knowing its surname.

[Oldiesfreak1854]

No, although I believe I had a great uncle who was mayor of Onaway, Michigan.  My mother worked for the Dukakis campaign in 1988 and when she was paralyzed in a serious car accident during the campaign, Gov. Dukakis visited her in the hospital.  I also have an aunt who worked on some political campaigns and was student body president at the college she went to, so she worked with quite a few politicians in her time.  In fact, she was the first one to serve multiple terms.  There's a chance that I'm distatntly related to Mike Pence, too.  Most of the people in my family were never particularly interested in politics, though, and they aren't generally politically engaged.