Topics Related to Governors
Governor, 1808-10; U.S. Senator; Congressman. "Hope," his home, stands 4 miles northwest.
Governor, 1879-1885; Minister to Brazil; U.S. Senator; was born in a house which stood here.
On December 19, 1929, Governor O. Max Gardner sponsored a “Live at Home” dinner. The purpose of the special meal, the signature event of Live at Home Week, was to “emphasize North Carolina products and industries.”
On December 10, 1825, former North Carolina Governor William Miller died in Key West, Florida.
Born around 1783 in Warren County, Miller worked as a private lawyer, the state’s attorney general and a member of the General Assembly before first being elected governor in 1814. He went on to serve three terms in the post, and was the first to occupy the newly completed Governor’s Palace at the south end of Raleigh’s Fayetteville Street.
On November 7, 1954, attorney, teacher, congressman and North Carolina Governor William B. Umstead died of heart failure.
Born on a Durham County farm in 1895, Umstead served as a lieutenant in the 81st “Wildcat” Division during World War I before being elected to Congress. During his three terms in the House of Representatives and a single term in the Senate, Umstead focused mostly on rural issues, including soil conservation and rural electrification.
On November 4, 1782, John Branch, governor of North Carolina, was born in Halifax.
During the period Branch was raised in Halifax, the town was center of North Carolina’s political life. In fact, another prominent politician of the era, John Eaton, was born just a few years after Branch in the same area. Both men would go on to serve in Andrew Jackson’s cabinet and as governors of Florida.
On October 31, 1754, Arthur Dobbs, the newly minted governor of North Carolina, arrived in the colony. He had previously been a very successful politician in Ireland. For the first few years of his tenure Dobbs was a successful governor. By 1764, with factionalism rampant, Dobbs asked for and received a leave of absence.
On June 25, 1781, Thomas Burke was chosen by the General Assembly to serve as North Carolina’s third governor under the constitution of 1776. At the time of Burke’s appointment, the state was ravaged by war and on the brink of anarchy. Government on both the state and county levels had almost completely broken down.
On June 13, 1929, Governor Robert W. Scott was born in Alamance County to family active in the state’s political and social life.
After attending school at Duke and N.C. State, Scott returned home to manage his family’s dairy farm. He served in the Army’s Counter Intelligence Corps in Asia before being elected the state’s lieutenant governor in 1964.