calsfoundation@cals.org
April 25, 2010
Thomas S. Drew, a native of Tennessee who moved to Arkansas in 1817, was the first governor elected by a plurality of the vote instead of a majority, the first reelected to a second term, and the first to resign. Elected in 1844, he was awarded a second four-year term in 1848 but resigned due to a dispute concerning his salary. He later moved to Texas, where he died and was buried in 1879. However, in 1923, his remains were exhumed and reburied in Pocahontas (Randolph County), his former home.