Thomas S. Drew
This article needs additional citations for verification. (September 2019) |
Thomas Stevenson Drew | |
---|---|
Samuel Adams | |
Succeeded by | Richard C. Byrd |
Personal details | |
Born | Wilson County, Tennessee | August 25, 1802
Died | January 1879 (aged 76) Lipan, Texas |
Political party | Democratic |
Thomas Stevenson Drew (August 25, 1802 – January 1879) was the
Biography
He was born in Wilson County, Tennessee. Drew moved with his family to Louisiana and then, in 1818, to Arkansas. He worked as a traveling salesman and school teacher. Drew first settled in Clark County and was appointed Clark County Clerk in 1823. In 1827 he moved to Pocahontas, Arkansas, and married Cinderella Bettis, daughter of the prosperous founder of that town, Ransom Bettis. His father-in-law gave the newlyweds 800 acres (3.2 km2) of bottom land in Cherokee Bay, where the town of Biggers lies in what is now Randolph County (then Lawrence County.) The Drews prospered, and their plantation included 20 African-American slaves.
In 1832, Drew was elected County Judge of Lawrence County. In 1835, Drew and Bettis convinced the Arkansas Territorial Legislature to create Randolph County out of Lawrence County. In 1836, Drew and Bettis held an infamous free bar-b-que complete with free liquor for the entire county in Pocahontas (then known as Bettis Bluff). The grateful attendees the next day chose Pocahontas as the county seat in an upset election over the more populated community of Columbia. That same year, Drew gave the county land in downtown Pocahontas where a courthouse was constructed.
In 1836 he was chosen as a delegate to the Arkansas Constitutional Convention. He was elected Governor in 1844 as a Democrat, supported by the
Drew was reelected in 1848. In 1849 he dispatched a
Drew was originally buried in the Old Baptist Cemetery in Lipan, but his body was removed in 1923 by Arkansas officials and moved to the Masonic Cemetery in Pocahontas, where he rests today along with Bettis, Cinderella, and several of the Drew children.
Drew County, Arkansas was named for him.
References
- ^ 1860 Arkansas Census
External links
- Encyclopedia of Arkansas History & Culture entry: Thomas Stevenson Drew