The Biographical Dictionary of America/Baxter, Elisha

​BAXTER, Elisha, governor of Arkansas, was born in Rutherford county, N.C., Sept. 1, 1827. After receiving a common-school education he removed to Batesville, Ark., and in 1853 became mayor of that town. He was a state legislator in 1854 and in 1858; a colonel in the Federal army in 1863, commanding the 4th Arkansas mounted infantry, and a judge of the third district court of Arkansas from 1868 to 1872. He was elected a United States senator in 1867, but was not permitted to take his seat, Arkansas not having been re-admitted into the Union. In 1872 he was declared the successful candidate for governor of the state and entered upon the duties of his office when his opponent, Joseph Brooks, contested the election, and applied in turn to the United States circuit court, the state legislature and the state supreme court for redress, and being unsuccessful, brought suit in the circuit court of the state in 1874, and obtained a judgment in the absence of Governor Baxter's counsel. Brooks then undertook to forcibly take possession of the office. An armed encounter between the adherents of the the claimants took place, and blood was shed before the United States troops arrived on the scene and put an end to the disturbance. After a legal opinion from Attorney-General Williams, the Baxter government was recognized by President Grant. Although he had been elected for four years he relinquished his office when, at the end of his second year, a change in the state constitution reduced the term of the governor's tenure of office from four years to two years. He died at Batesville, Ark., June 2, 1899.