Sanford Kirkpatrick

Sanford "Sant" Kirkpatrick (February 11, 1842 – February 13, 1932) was a revenue agent and a one-term Democratic U.S. representative from Iowa's 6th congressional district. He was the last Civil War veteran elected to represent Iowa in Congress. Elected in 1912 to a historically Republican district in a year in which Bull Moose Party and Republican Party supporters split the Republican vote, Kirkpatrick failed to win renomination two years later.

Born near London, Ohio, at age seven Kirkpatrick moved to Iowa in 1849 with his parents, who settled on a farm in Highland Township, Wapello County. He attended the common schools until 1858. During the Civil War, Kirkpatrick entered the Union Army as a private in the Second Regiment, Iowa Volunteer Infantry, and was promoted to first lieutenant. He finished a distant third, behind Republican and Democratic candidates.

From 1887 to 1913, he served as an agent of the Internal Revenue Service, primarily in North Carolina and adjoining states. In his first few years as a revenue agent, he was "rendered blind" by a gunshot, as stated in a special bill passed by the U.S. Congress in 1890 to increase his Civil War pension. Newspaper reports from 1912 stated that he carried in his body more than twenty bullets and parts of bullets from the guns of moonshiners. His supporters responded that while he worked in the South as a revenue agent he had returned to Iowa every year to vote, and emphasized his service in the Iowa Infantry in the Civil War.

When running for renomination in the Democratic primary two years later, Kirkpatrick was defeated by W.H. Hamilton. Kirkpatrick ran again for his former seat in 1916. This time he won the Democratic nomination, but lost in the general election to incumbent Republican C. William Ramseyer. In all, Kirkpatrick served in Congress from March 4, 1913 to March 3, 1915.

He moved to Greensboro, North Carolina, in 1916 and engaged in agricultural pursuits. He died in Greensboro on February 13, 1932, two days after his 90th birthday. He was interred in Forest Lawn Cemetery in Greensboro.