Kentucky. Governor (1796-1804 : Garrard)

James Garrard was Kentucky's second governor and the only governor to succeed himself. He served from 1796 to 1804, and was a Jeffersonian Republican.

Garrard was born in Stafford County, Virginia on January 14, 1749. After holding several local offices, he was elected to the Virginia House of Delegates in 1779. He joined the Stafford County regiment of the Virginia Militia and served during the American Revolution, rising to the rank of colonel in 1781. In 1783, he moved west to what is now Bourbon County, Kentucky where he surveyed land; ran a grist mill; made whiskey; farmed; and, practicing as a Baptist minister, founded several Baptist churches in central Kentucky. Still holding his office as a Virginia legislator, he was influential in establishing Bourbon County from Fayette County in 1785 and served as surveyor, magistrate, and colonel of the militia. Garrard served in five Kentucky statehood conventions and helped to write the first constitution in 1792.

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