Kentucky. Governor (1804-1808 : Greenup)

Christopher Greenup, Kentucky's third governor, served from 1804 to 1808. Greenup was a Jeffersonian Republican.

Born about 1750 in Virginia, Christopher Greenup attained the rank of colonel in the Virginia militia during the American Revolution. After the war, he moved to the Kentucky district of Virginia and began to practice law. He rapidly made the transition into politics as clerk of the Virginia court for the district of Kentucky from 1785 until Kentucky became a state in 1792. He served as a member of the United States Congress from 1792 to 1797. Upon returning to Frankfort, he served in the Kentucky House of Representatives, as a member from Mercer County. From 1799 to 1802, he was clerk of the Kentucky Senate, at which time he accepted an appointment as a circuit court judge. In the gubernatorial race of 1800, he ran against James Garrard, but was defeated. He was elected to the governorship without opposition in 1804.

During Greenup's term of office, the governor and the General Assembly worked together in relative harmony to promote his ideas of expanding production and trade markets along the Mississippi River. He also addressed the need for separate housing for the mentally ill in the penitentiary, for stricter judicial and militia administration, and for tightening revenue laws in order to improve the impoverished state of the treasury. Also, during his administration the state of Kentucky subscribed shares to two corporations, the Bank of Kentucky and the Ohio Canal Company.

The most noteworthy national events during his term were the activities of Aaron Burr along the Ohio River in Kentucky and the impressment of American sailors into the service of warring European nations.

Following his gubernatorial term, Greenup pursued a business career and a minor political career as a presidential elector in 1809 and a Franklin County justice of the peace in 1812. He died April 27th, 1818, and was buried in Frankfort.