The State Historical Society of Missouri
Famous Missouri Governors
Sterling Price (1809 – 1867)
[SHS 015723]
Sterling Price was a powerful politician, military leader, and tobacco planter from Keytesville, Missouri. He served in the Missouri House of Representatives from 1840 to 1844. He was a U.S. representative from 1845 to 1846, but resigned to participate in the Mexican War as a colonel and then a brigadier general of volunteers from Missouri. Price was elected governor of Missouri in 1852 and served in that office until 1857. Though he initially opposed Missouri’s secession, Price became a major general in the Confederate Army during the Civil War, directing battles in Missouri, Arkansas, and Mississippi.
