Three Governors of the State of Arkansas

Of the three governors, the two least remembered have the odder stories. William Read Miller was born on a farm near Batesville in 1823, read law here in 1844 and became county clerk in 1848. He held the state auditor's office on and off from 1854 into 1887, was elected governor in 1876 and is described as Arkansas's first native-born governor. Thomas Drew resigned in 1849 amid low pay and financial losses, left for Texas and died at Lipan in 1879. Arkansas moved his body in 1923 to the Masonic Cemetery in Pocahontas.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Old Independence Regional Museum — 2.0 mi
  A Batesville museum in a 1936 WPA sandstone National Guard armory, telling the story of the twelve counties that once formed Independence County, with a research wing for local records.
• Jacksonport State Park — 20 mi
  A steamboat port at the confluence of the White and Black rivers whose 1872 Second Empire courthouse, raised two feet to clear the floods, stands as the park museum.
• Greers Ferry Dam and Lake — 28 mi
  The Corps of Engineers dam on the Little Red River that President Kennedy dedicated on October 3, 1963, with a visitor center, a trout hatchery below the dam and a lake of 340 miles of shoreline.

More markers nearby

• Batesville During The Civil War — 2.0 mi
• Arkansas College — 2.1 mi
• Governor Elisha Baxter — 2.3 mi
• Independence County First Court House — 2.5 mi