September 6, 2009

Powell Clayton was the first Republican elected as governor of Arkansas. Serving during Reconstruction, he was been referred to as “the most hated governor of Arkansas.” Clayton left the office of governor to serve as one of Arkansas’s U.S. senators in 1871. Far from his adopted state, he still exerted considerable power within state Republican politics. When he died in 1914, he was buried in Arlington National Cemetery, becoming the only Arkansas governor whose remains do not rest in the state. He is shown here in his official gubernatorial portrait.