Background
Dolliver was born in 1858 near Kingwood in Preston County, a Virginia county that would refuse to join the Confederacy and would instead remain in the Union as part of the new state of West Virginia. He attended the public schools and was graduated from the West Virginia University at Morgantown in 1876. After studying law, Dolliver was admitted to the bar in 1878, and commenced practice in Fort Dodge, Iowa. He served as city solicitor of Fort Dodge from 1880 to 1887.
In 1884, as a twenty-seven year old, Dolliver received national attention for his skills as an orator, when campaigning around the nation on behalf of the Republican presidential candidate James G. Blaine. A famous political quotation is attributed to Dolliver. Referring to his adopted state's traditional allegiance with the Republican Party, Dolliver (son of a Methodist minister) said, "Iowa will go Democratic when Hell goes Methodist."
Read more about this topic: Jonathan P. Dolliver
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