State Web Site

Military Service: Army

War(s) Served:  War of 1812

DANIEL DUNKLIN was born in Greenville, South Carolina on January 14, 1790. His early education was attained in the common schools of his native state. He later studied law, and was admitted to the Missouri bar. During the War of 1812, he served in the Missouri territorial militia, fighting in several campaigns in Illinois and Missouri. After his military service, Dunklin worked in the farming and mining industries in Potosi, Missouri. He first entered politics in 1815, serving as sheriff of Washington County, a position he held for four years. He also served as a member of the Missouri House of Representatives from 1822 to 1823, and was the lieutenant governor of Missouri from 1828 to 1832. Dunklin next secured the Democratic gubernatorial nomination, and was elected governor on August 6, 1832. During his tenure, construction plans for a state penitentiary were approved; the public school system was advanced; the state debt was reduced; and nine new counties were formed. Dunklin resigned from office on September 30, 1836, to accept an appointment as U.S. surveyor general of Missouri and Illinois, a post he held for four years. In 1843 he secured an appointment as one of the commissioners who negotiated the Missouri and Arkansas boundary issue. Governor Daniel Dunklin passed away on August 25, 1844, and was buried in the Daniel Dunklin Grave State Historic Site in Herculaneum, Missouri.

Sources:

Messages and Proclamations of the Governors of the State of Missouri (Produced by the Missouri Historical Society)

Missouri State Archives (Jefferson City, MO)

The Political Graveyard

Sobel, Robert, and John Raimo, eds. Biographical Directory of the Governors of the United States, 1789-1978, Vol. 2, Westport, Conn.; Meckler Books, 1978. 4 vols.

Western Historical Manuscripts Collection (Columbia, MO)