Tilghman Tucker

Tilghman Mayfield Tucker (February 5, 1802–April 30, 1859) was Governor of Mississippi from 1842 to 1844. He was a Democrat.

Tucker was born in North Carolina and lived in Alabama for a time before moving to Mississippi. He left his career of blacksmithing and studied law under Judge Daniel W. Wright in Hamilton, Mississippi. After his admission to the bar, Tucker opened a law office in Columbus, Mississippi.

Tucker was elected in 1831 to the Mississippi House of Representatives as a Democrat and was the first representative from Lowndes County. He served until 1836 when he was elected state senator.

By 1841, the aftermath of the Panic of 1833 had caused a division among Mississippi Democrats. The issue was whether the state would honor the bonds of the Planters Bank and Union Bank, both of which had failed in the panic. Some Democrats stated that they would support the Whig candidate David Shattuck who wanted the redemption of the bonds. Though Tucker was at first reluctant to accept the Democratic nomination in a hopeless race, he accepted and won with a narrow victory.

During Tucker's two-year term (1842-1844), the Democratic Party remained divided over the bond issue. Also, Tucker's political opponents accused him of not acting fast enough in matter of state treasurer Richard S. Graves, who had embezzled $44,000 of state funding and fled to Canada.

Tucker did not run for re-election, but he did win one term in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1845 to 1847. He then retired from public life and moved to his Louisiana plantation home named Cottonwood. While visiting his father in Manion County, Alabama, Tucker died on April 3, 1859.

Much of the information in this article comes from this website:http://mshistory.k12.ms.us/features/feature47/governors/10_tilghman_tucker.htm