Gilman Folsom, Esq. – Iowa City – Iowa Territory.
Born April 7, 1818 in New Hampshire, Folsom caught the “go-west-young-man-go west” bug and moved to Iowa City in 1841. Gilman came here to practice law, and according to all the records we’ve found, Folsom did just that. But, much like it is today, starting a new business from scratch was no easy deal, and from our letter from his father, it sounds as though Gilman had some pretty lean years here in the Hawkeye State, before he finally got himself established.
While early letters, like the one above, seem to indicate that Gilman was having a rough go of it in his first few years in Iowa City, eventually he became a very well-known and very well-respected man here, practicing law and serving in the Iowa House of Representatives (elected in 1850 and 1852).
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