Hepburn, William

Hepburn, William (Peters)

(1833–1916) U.S. representative; born in Wellsville, Ohio. A lawyer in Marshalltown, Iowa (1855–61) and Republican party activist, he joined the Union Army in 1861, becoming a lieutenant colonel. After the war, he returned to his law practice in Iowa and was elected to Congress (1881–87) where he championed military pensions. Reelected (1893–1909) he set a rate law for the railroads, and cosponsored the Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906.