William C.C. Claiborne 1775-1817

William Charles Cole Claiborne served as territorial governor and as the first elected governor of Louisiana. Claiborne was born near Richmond, Virginia, in 1775, and attended the Richmond Academy and the College of William and Mary. At age fifteen Claiborne went to New York to work as a clerk for a congressman, there he met Thomas Jefferson, who urged him to become an attorney. He worked for the Clerk of the U.S. House of Representatives while studying law and in 1794 he moved to Tennessee, to 

open a law practice. While in Tennessee, he helped write the first state constitution and was appointed justice of the state supreme court. In 1797 he resigned from the Tennessee supreme court to run for the U.S. House of Representatives. Claiborne was a Democratic Republican and cast his vote for Jefferson in the presidential election. Jefferson rewarded Claiborne with the appointment to be governor of the then Mississippi Territory. In 1804, he appointed. Claiborne to be Territorial Governor of Louisiana. After the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, Claiborne functioned as governor until he was officially appointed governor of the Territory of Orleans in 1804. His responsibility included all of modern Louisiana, except the "Florida Parishes," brought in during 1810. In 1812, he was elected the first Governor of the State of Louisiana over Jacques Villere by a popular vote of 3,707 to 1,947. His campaign was helped by his compassionate reception of refugees from St. Dorningue in 1809 and his Creole wife, though the Creoles and Cajuns had already appreciated Claiborne's requirement that all state business be conducted in both French and English. After his years as governor, Claiborne was elected to the U.S. Senate, but passed. away before taking the seat.