Francis Wilkinson Pickens
U. S. House of Representatives, South Carolina, 1834-1843
U. S. Minister to Russia, 1858-1860
Governor, South Carolina, 1860-1862
Born: April 7, 1805, on a plantation on the Toogoodoo River, St. Pauls Parish, Colleton District, South Carolina.
Died: January 25, 1869, Edgefield, Edgefield County, South Carolina.
- Completed preparatory studies.
- Attended Franklin College, Athens, Georgia.
- South Carolina College (now the Universit of South Carolina), Columbia, South Carolina, graduate.
- Studied law, was admitted to the bar, commenced law practice in Edgefield District, South Carolina, 1829.
- Engaged in planting.
- Member of the South Carolina State House of Representatives, 1832-1834.
- Elected from South Carolina as a Nullifier Democrat to the Twenty-third U. S. Congress to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of George McDuffie.
- Re-elected from South Carolina to the Twenty-fourth and to the three succeeding U. S. Congresses, serving from December 8, 1834 - March 3, 1843.
- Member of the South Carolina State Senate, 1844-1846.
- Member of the Nashville Southern Convention, 1850.
- Delegate to the Democratic National Convention, Cincinnati, Ohio, 1856.
- U. S. Minister to Russia, 1858-1860.
- Governor of South Carolina, 1860-1862.
Buried: Edgefield Cemetery, Edgefield, South Carolina.
(Source: U.S. Congress. House. Biographical Directory Of The American Congress 1774-1949, 85th Cong., 2nd sess., H. Doc. 607 (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1950), pp. 759-2057.)