31 Facts About Preston Leslie

Preston Hopkins Leslie was the 26th Governor of Kentucky from 1871 to 1875, and territorial governor of Montana from 1887 to 1889.

Preston Leslie ascended to the office of governor by three different means.

Preston Leslie helped quell violence perpetrated by the Ku Klux Klan in many areas of the state.

Preston Leslie continued to practice law well into his eighties, and was being considered for a district court judgeship in Montana when he fell ill with pneumonia and died on February 7,1907, at the age of 87.

Preston Leslie was born in Clinton County, Kentucky, on March 8,1819.

Preston Leslie was the second son of Vachel H and Sarah Hopkins Leslie.

Preston Leslie was educated in the public schools, then studied law under Judge Rice Maxey.

Preston Leslie worked with his father on the family farm until 1835, and supported himself by doing odd jobs including driving a stagecoach, running a ferry, and being store clerk.

Preston Leslie was admitted to the bar on October 10,1840, and served as the deputy clerk of the Clinton County courts.

Preston Leslie became county attorney of Monroe County in 1842.

On November 11,1841, Preston Leslie married Louisa Black; they had seven children.

Preston Leslie married the widowed Mary Maupin Kuykendall on November 17,1859, fathering three more children.

Preston Leslie began his political career by being elected as a Whig to the Kentucky House of Representatives in 1844.

Preston Leslie was defeated for a seat in the state Senate in 1846 by a single vote.

Preston Leslie continued serving in the House until 1850, when he won election to the Senate representing Monroe and Barren counties.

Preston Leslie declined nominations for a seats in the United States Congress and on the Kentucky Court of Appeals, preferring instead to work on his farm.

Preston Leslie's feelings were mixed on the issues central to the Civil War.

Preston Leslie kept a low political profile and refused military service for either side.

Preston Leslie returned to the state Senate from 1867 to 1871, serving as president of that body from 1869 to 1871.

Meanwhile, Preston Leslie began moving closer to the "New Departure" wing of his party during the course of the campaign.

Ultimately, Preston Leslie's supporters deemed him "sober, conservative, and safe", and this perception enabled him to defeat Harlan by a considerable margin in the first election in which blacks were allowed to vote.

Preston Leslie laid out an aggressive legislative agenda in his inaugural address to the General Assembly on September 5,1871, but legislators were more concerned with passing the Southern Railroad bill that would create a connection between the railroads of Cincinnati, Ohio, and those of the Southern United States.

Preston Leslie was faced with the issue of post-war violence by the Ku Klux Klan.

Preston Leslie commissioned a new geological survey, appointing native Kentuckian Nathaniel Southgate Shaler to head the work.

Devout Baptists and teetotalers, Governor and Mrs Preston Leslie did not serve alcohol in the governor's mansion and were given a silver service set at the expiration of his term by the Good Templars of Kentucky for their charity to the needy.

Preston Leslie failed in a re-election bid in 1886 by four votes.

In 1887, President Grover Cleveland appointed Preston Leslie to be the Territorial Governor of Montana.

Preston Leslie soon ran afoul of the local press, who labeled him the "Coldwater Governor" for his stands in favor of temperance.

Preston Leslie urged the territorial legislature to enact fiscal reforms and improve facilities for the insane and the incarcerated, but he was no match for the political machinery in Montana Territory.

Montana governor Joseph Toole was circulating a petition to have Preston Leslie named a district court judge when Preston Leslie fell ill with pneumonia.

Preston Leslie died February 7,1907, and was buried at Forestvale Cemetery in Helena.