Arkansas Governor. Moving from Tennessee to Louisiana in childhood and then to Arkansas as a teenager, he worked in his early adulthood as a school teacher and an itinerant salesman. His political career began with his appointment as Clerk of Clark County in 1823, followed within a few months by his becoming Justice of the Peace. When he married 1827, his father-in-law gave the couple eight hundred acres of land, which Drew spent the next several years developing successfully. He continued his involvement in politics, even while he was farming and speculating in the railroad industry. He was a delegate to Arkansas's Constitutional Convention in 1836 and was elected Governor in 1844. Arkansas's first governor to be elected by a plurality, Drew had run as a Democrat, having been selected by party leaders to help unite factions. He received forty-seven percent of the vote in a close three-way race. Four years later, running with no opposition, Drew was reelected with 15,962 out of 16,455 votes. Near the beginning of his second term, however, personal financial problems led him to resign. He died in poverty while living with his daughter in Lipan, Texas, where he was originally buried in the Old Baptist Cemetery. In 1923 an act of the General Assembly of Arkansas created a committee to go to Texas and exhume Drew's remains, bringing them to be buried in Pocahontas, Arkansas.
Arkansas Governor. Moving from Tennessee to Louisiana in childhood and then to Arkansas as a teenager, he worked in his early adulthood as a school teacher and an itinerant salesman. His political career began with his appointment as Clerk of Clark County in 1823, followed within a few months by his becoming Justice of the Peace. When he married 1827, his father-in-law gave the couple eight hundred acres of land, which Drew spent the next several years developing successfully. He continued his involvement in politics, even while he was farming and speculating in the railroad industry. He was a delegate to Arkansas's Constitutional Convention in 1836 and was elected Governor in 1844. Arkansas's first governor to be elected by a plurality, Drew had run as a Democrat, having been selected by party leaders to help unite factions. He received forty-seven percent of the vote in a close three-way race. Four years later, running with no opposition, Drew was reelected with 15,962 out of 16,455 votes. Near the beginning of his second term, however, personal financial problems led him to resign. He died in poverty while living with his daughter in Lipan, Texas, where he was originally buried in the Old Baptist Cemetery. In 1923 an act of the General Assembly of Arkansas created a committee to go to Texas and exhume Drew's remains, bringing them to be buried in Pocahontas, Arkansas.
Bio by: NatalieMaynor
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