History of Iowa From the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the Twentieth Century/4/Leslie M. Shaw
LESLIE M. SHAW, sixteenth Governor of Iowa, was born in Morristown, Vermont, November 2, 1848, was reared on a farm and attended the Academy of Morrisville. He came to Iowa in 1869 and entered Cornell College at Mount Vernon, from which he graduated in 1874. Mr. Shaw was dependent upon his own exertions for the means to defray his expenses while attending the Iowa College of Law. These he met by work in the harvest field, teaching and selling nursery stock. In 1876 he located at Denison in Crawford County and began the practice of law. He was a hard worker and soon won a prominent position at the bar. Mr. Shaw began the accumulation of a library and in time possessed one of the best collections of law books in the State. He was a liberal contributor to the establishment of the Academy and Normal School at Denison, engaged in banking and became president of a bank at Denison and also at Manilla. In the presidential campaign of 1896, Mr. Shaw for the first time took an active part in politics and in the discussion of the money issue he made able arguments for the gold standard which attracted attention and gave him a State-wide reputation as an effective public speaker. In 1897 he was nominated by the Republican State Convention for Governor and after a spirited canvass was elected by a majority of over 11,000. Two years later he was reëlected by a majority of more than 44,000. In 1898 he was president of the Sound Money Convention at Indianapolis, where his speech was considered an able defense of the gold standard. Upon the expiration of his second term in January, 1902, Governor Shaw was appointed by President Roosevelt Secretary of the Treasury.