BIOGRAPHY: Wasson, Jesse
From the A.T. Andreas Illustrated Historical Atlas of the State of Iowa, 1875

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	Honorable JESSE WASSON, M. D., who was the original proprietor and founder of 
La Porte City, is of Quaker descent, and was born on the 22nd day of October, 1821 at 
Richmond, Indiana, in which beautiful village his youth was mostly passed.  He well 
improved the limited educational advantages which were afforded him, that of the 
primitive "Hoosier Common School,"	which was much inferior to the present excellent 
public schools of Iowa.
	When twelve years of age he removed with his parents to La Porte, Indiana, 
which was then a new town, having been laid out only one year previous.  Here he went 
to work with his father, who was a blacksmith, and made such proficiency that before he 
was fifteen he made a full hand.  After entering the shop he only attended school two 
terms, but continued his studies during what leisure time he could obtain, keeping his 
book constantly with him and committing to memory many a difficult lesson while 
blowing the fire or moulding the pliable iron.  He adopted the plan, when he was 
eighteen, of working ten hours and studying four, by which division of time he was 
enabled, though under circumstances which would have discouraged a youth 
possessing less energy and perseverance, to acquire a very good knowledge of the 
common English branches and made considerable proficiency in the higher 
mathematics and classics.
	At nineteen he commenced reading law, which he continued for about one 
year, but owing to the continued opposition of his mother he then abandoned the idea 
of entering that profession, and commenced the study of medicine, which he continued 
by himself until he was twenty-two, when he attended one course of lectures four months 
at Indiana Medical College, after which he returned to work and study for the next eight 
months, attending a second course the following year.  During the Spring and Summer of 
1846 he commenced practice at Milton, and in the Fall and Winter of the same year 
attended his third and last course, graduating in February, 1847.  That same Spring he 
removed to New Buffalo, Michigan, where he began in earnest the practice of his life 
profession.  After remaining some three years, he returned to La Porte, Indiana, where he 
continued the practice of medicine until June or July, 1853, when he came to Iowa, 
locating first at Vinton, where he engaged in real estate business in addition to his 
medical practice, and remained some two years.  In March, 1855, he erected a store 
and dwelling on the present site of La Porte City, and in the following June laid out the 
original town plot, as it now exists, on land he had entered the previous year.  Through his 
labors and influence, the first state road in Black Hawk County was surveyed and 
established in the Spring of 1855, running from Vinton to Cedar Falls.
	For a number of years the Doctor was engaged in selling goods, and in carrying 
on various improvements and enterprises calculated to advance the welfare and 
prosperity of his new town, in addition to his medical practice.  Among other things, he 
erected a steam sawmill in 1856.  At the breaking out of the war in the Spring of 1861, he 
took an active interest in, and did much to, encourage enlistments.  He was chosen 
Captain of a company raised in that part of the county, but owing to his Quaker 
education, he did not feel that he could accept.   He was, however, September 1, 1862, 
appointed and commissioned Assistant Surgeon of the 23d Regiment Iowa Infantry 
Volunteers.  After serving nine months he resigned and returned home, where he 
remained a few months, when he received the appointment and was commissioned 
Surgeon of the 9th Iowa Cavalry, with which regiment he remained until March, 1865, 
when, on account of poor health, he resigned and came home.
	Dr. Wasson was for three years, 1867, 1868, 1869, a member of the Board of 
Supervisors, and in the Fall of 1869 was elected to the Lower House of the Iowa General 
Assembly, in which body he served for two years, rendering valuable service.  He has 
filled the office of justice of the peace for a number of years, and is at the present time 
Mayor of La Porte City, having been elected in March, 1875.
	Politically, Dr. W. was originally a Whig.  Joining the Republican party at its 
inception, he assisted to organize it in Iowa, and acted with it until the Spring of 1872, 
when he liberalized and has since supported the opposition under the various names 
which it has received in this state.
	In November, 1870, he established the La Porte City Progress, a neat seven 
column paper, which in 1872 he enlarged to an eight column sheet.  The Progress is a 
live, wide awake paper, well managed and edited, and has been under his direct 
control since its first inception.