Richard Dickerson Gholson (31 January 1804-23 August 1862) was the Democratic Governor of the Washington Territory from 5 March 1859 to 4 March 1861, succeeding Fayette McMullen and preceding William H. Wallace.
Biography[]
Richard Dickerson Gholson was born in Garrard County, Kentucky in 1804, and he settled in Lovelaceville before serving in the US Army during the Mexican-American War. After the war, he settled at Round Rock in Texas, and he ranched before returning to his wife in Kentucky and serving in the state senate from 1851 to 1855. An ardent supporter and campaigned for President James Buchanan, he served as Buchanan's governor of the Washington Territory from 1859 to 1861, and he returned to Kentucky on the eve of the American Civil War. He, his family, and their slaves moved to Tennessee during the war, and Gholson died in a wagon accident at Troy, Tennessee in 1862.