Thomas Elliott Bramlette was born in present-day Clinton County on January 3, 1817. Admitted to the bar in 1837, Bramlette engaged in a successful legal and political career. In the 1840s, he was elected to the Kentucky House of Representatives and served as commonwealth attorney for Cumberland County. In 1856, he was elected to the bench of the 6th Circuit Judicial District. At the outbreak of the Civil War, Bramlette became colonel of the 3rd Kentucky Infantry (USA). In 1863, after rising to the rank of major general, he resigned after being elected as governor of Kentucky. As governor, Bramlette and Lincoln often quarreled over federal actions in the state. Particularly, Bramlette complained to the president about emancipation policy, military interference in elections, and the suspension of the writ of habeas corpus. As the war came to a close and Reconstruction began, Bramlette opposed constitutional amendments giving rights to blacks and also criticized the presence of the Freedmen’s Bureau in Kentucky. In 1867, when his term as governor ended, he practiced law in Louisville, where he died on January 12, 1875.

Lowell H. Harrison, “Thomas Elliott Bramlette,” in The Kentucky Encyclopedia, ed. John E. Kleber (Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1992), 112-113.