Thomas Stevenson Drew
| Thomas Stevenson Drew | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| 3rd Governor of Arkansas | |
|
In office November 5, 1844 – January 10, 1849 |
|
| Preceded by | Samuel Adams |
| Succeeded by |
Richard C. Byrd as Acting Governor |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
August 25, 1802 Wilson County, Tennessee |
| Died |
(aged 76) Lipan, Texas |
| Political party | Democratic |
| Spouse(s) | Cinderella Bettis |
| Relations |
Brother Richard Maxwell Drew |
Brother Richard Maxwell Drew
Nephew Richard Cleveland Drew
Thomas Stevenson Drew (August 25, 1802 – January 1879) was the third elected governor of the U.S. state of Arkansas.
Drew was born in Wilson County, Tennessee, and moved with his family to north Louisiana and then to southern Arkansas in 1818. He worked as a traveling salesman and schoolteacher. Drew settled in Clark County in southern Arkansas.
In 1823, Drew was appointed Clark County Clerk. In 1827, he moved to Pocohontas, Arkansas, where he 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 bottomland in Cherokee Bay near the town of Biggers in what is now Randolph County, then Lawrence County. The Drews prospered, having a plantation and twenty African American slaves.
In 1832, Drew was elected judge of Lawrence County. In 1835, Drew and Bettis convinced the Arkansas Territorial Legislature to create Randolph County from Lawrence County. In 1836, Drew and Bettis held an infamous free barbecue complete with free liquor for the entire county in Pocahontas (then known as Bettis Bluff). The next day, the grateful attendees 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, Drew was chosen as a delegate to the Arkansas Constitutional Convention. He was elected Governor in 1844 as a Democrat, having secured the backing of the Conway-Sevier faction that had ruled Arkansas since territorial days. His administration concentrated on the state's financial solvency and attempted to correct the state's bad credit as well as disunity within Democratic ranks. Under Drew, Arkansas became the first southern state to declare Thanksgiving Day as a state holiday. At his wife's urging, Drew secured passage of legislation protecting a woman's property which she brought into a marriage as her own separate entity, distinct from the husband's holdings.
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Wikipedia