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War(s) Served:  Mexican War

HANCOCK LEE JACKSON was born in Madison County, Kentucky on May 12, 1796. His education was attained in the public schools of his native state. During the Mexican War, he served as a captain and fought in campaigns in Taos and Moreau Valley. He moved to Missouri in 1821 and entered politics in 1829 as the sheriff of Randolph County, a position he held two terms. He also served as a delegate to the 1845 Missouri Constitutional Convention, was a member of the Missouri State Senate from 1851 to 1855, and served as the lieutenant governor of Missouri from 1857 to 1861. On February 27, 1857 Governor Trusten Polk resigned from office, and Jackson, who was the lieutenant governor at the time, assumed the duties of the governorship. During his tenure, legislative divorces were nullified, a special gubernatorial election was held in August 1857, and Jackson resumed his duties as lieutenant governor. In 1860, after an unsuccessful bid for governor, he secured an appointment to serve as the U.S. marshal of the Western District of Missouri, a post he held until he resigned with the election of Abraham Lincoln as President. Governor Hancock Lee Jackson moved to Oregon in 1865, where he passed away on March 19, 1876, and was buried in the Pioneer Cemetery in Salem.

Sources:

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

Missouri Secretary of State

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.