calsfoundation@cals.org
June 13, 2011
In 1854, Calvin Comins Bliss and his new wife, Caroline, moved from the East Coast to Phillips County. By the outbreak of the Civil War, the couple was living in Batesville (Independence County). A staunch Unionist, Bliss enlisted in a local Federal unit. Chosen as a delegate to the 1864 Constitutional Convention, he was elected the states first lieutenant governor. A lifelong supporter of equal rights for African Americans, he died in 1891 and is buried in Little Rock (Pulaski County).