George Franklin Drew (August 6, 1827 – September 26, 1900) was the 12th Governor of the

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Early life and career

George Franklin Drew was born on August 6, 1827 in

Alton, New Hampshire Alton is a town in Belknap County, New Hampshire, United States. The population was 5,894 at the 2020 census, up from 5,250 at the 2010 census. It is home to Alton Bay State Forest and Mount Major State Forest. The primary settlement in town, ...

. Drew had a grammar school level education and quit going to school when he was 12 because of his family's financial problems and ended up working on the family farm. Drew moved to Lowell, Massachusetts in 1841 to become an apprentice. He moved to the South in 1847 where he opened a machine shop in

Columbus, Georgia Columbus is a consolidated city-county located on the west-central border of the U.S. state of Georgia. Columbus lies on the Chattahoochee River directly across from Phenix City, Alabama. It is the county seat of Muscogee County, with which it ...

. During the American Civil War, Drew was loyal to the Union despite living in the Confederacy. After the Civil War ended, he moved to

Ellaville, Florida Ellaville, Florida is a ghost town in Florida located in the Suwannee River State Park in Suwannee County, Florida, United States. Ellaville was located at the merging place of the Suwannee River and Withlacoochee River. History Ellaville was ...

in 1865 where he opened the largest sawmill in Florida. Drew was a supporter of Ulysses S. Grant's presidential run in 1868. During Reconstruction in Florida, he became the chairman of the Madison County's commissioners in 1870. Drew would unsuccessfully run for the

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in 1872.

Governorship

In 1876 he would be elected as the Governor of Florida and during his campaign he drew support from African Americans, and Whig/ Unionist Party elements in the state. Drew became the Governor of Florida on January 2, 1877. As governor he would try to eliminate the state's budget deficit from the state's previous administration. In his 1877 program he sent to the state legislature, he would follow the economic trajectory of Bourbon Democrats. To eliminate the deficit he proposed cutting expenditures and did not have much hope for immediate tax credits. He would end up closing the state prison at Chattahoochee to save money and ended up establish

convict leasing Convict leasing was a system of forced penal labor which was practiced historically in the Southern United States, the laborers being mainly African-American men; it was ended during the 20th century. (Convict labor in general continues; f ...

instead. With regards to education, Drew said it would be “cheaper to build schoolhouses and maintain schools than to build poorhouses and jails and support paupers and criminals.” He believed that the state had a responsibility to support the education of African Americans. Minor improvements were done to public school system at the elementary level with rural education being encouraged and textbooks being standardized; Drew's support did not extent to public high schools which he advocated eliminating. During Drew's administration he decided to abandon the Florida Agriculture College which was set to open in Eau Gallie. Drew opted to not seek a second term in 1880.

Later life and death

He left office on January 4, 1881, returning to the lumber business. Later in life, he would settle in

Jacksonville Jacksonville is a city located on the Atlantic coast of northeast Florida, the most populous city proper in the state and is the List of United States cities by area, largest city by area in the contiguous United States as of 2020. It is the co ...

serving as the president of the city's trade board. Drew died on September 26, 1900, in Jacksonville.

References

External links

Official Governor's portrait and biography from the State of FloridaLast Letter of Governor George Franklin Drew
From the State Library & Archives of Florida. * Democratic Party governors of Florida 1827 births 1900 deaths People from Alton, New Hampshire 19th-century American politicians {{Florida-politician-stub