Richard D. Gholson

Richard D. Gholson

Richard Dickerson Gholson (born January 31, 1804 in Caldwell , Garrard County , Kentucky , † August 23, 1862 in Troy , Tennessee ) was an American politician and from 1859 to 1861 the third governor of the Washington Territory .

Early years

Richard Gholson grew up in Kentucky. There he studied law and there he also practiced as a lawyer. During the Mexican-American War he was a captain in a volunteer military unit in the US Army.

Political career

Between 1851 and 1855 he was a member of the Kentucky Senate . He was also involved in drafting a new constitution for this state. In the presidential election of 1856 Gholson was a supporter of James Buchanan , for whom he campaigned in Kentucky. In 1859, Buchanan reciprocated by appointing Gholson as governor of the Washington Territory . Gholson held this office until March 4, 1861. That was the day Abraham Lincoln was sworn in as US President . In his resignation, he made it clear that he did not want to work under the new president for a day. After Oregon was admitted as a state into the Union in 1859, the eastern parts of the Oregon Territory , including southern Idaho, parts of Wyoming west of the continental divide (then the Nebraska Territory ), and a small part of what is now Ravalli County in Montana became Washington -Territory attached.

Another résumé

After his resignation, he first returned to Kentucky. When the Civil War broke out, he moved to Tennessee because he felt safer there. The existing source also indicates that he was a slave owner, which explains his harsh attitude towards President Lincoln and the Republicans . Richard Gholson was killed in an accident on August 23, 1862. He and his wife Mary, who died in 1883, had eleven children.

Web links

• The governors of Washington state