Thomas Metcalfe (20 March 1780 – 28 August 1855) was a member of the US House of Representatives (DR-KY 4) from 4 March 1819 to 3 March 1823 (succeeding Joseph Desha and preceding Robert P. Letcher) and from KY 2 from 4 March 1823 to 3 March 1828 (succeeding Samuel H. Woodson and preceding John Chambers), Governor of Kentucky from 26 August 1828 to 4 September 1832 (succeeding Desha and preceding John Breathitt), and a US Senator from 23 June 1848 to 3 March 1849 (succeeding John J. Crittenden and preceding Henry Clay).
Biography[]
Thomas Metcalfe was born in Fauquier County, Virginia in 1780, and the family moved to Kentucky in 1784. At the age of 16, Metcalfe became a stonemason, and he helped to construct the Green County courthouse, the oldest courthouse in the state. He served four terms in the State House and commanded a company in defense of Fort Meigs during the War of 1812. In 1819, he was elected to the US House of Representatives, serving until 1828; he then served as Governor from 1828 to 1832. He devoted his governorship to public works, and, after President Andrew Jackson vetoed a plan to build a turnpike from Maysville to Lexington, Metcalfe paid for it with state funds. From 1848 to 1849, he finished John J. Crittenden's unexpired term in the US Senate, and he retired. He died in 1855.