Introduction
Trusten Polk (May 29, 1811 – April 16, 1876) served as the 12th Governor of Missouri in 1857 and U.S. Senator from 1857 to 1862.
Biography
Polk was born in Bridgeville, Delaware. A Democrat, he was elected Governor of Missouri in 1856 and served from January 5, 1857, until February 27 when he resigned to become a U.S. Senator. Hancock Lee Jackson succeeded him as governor until the election of Robert Marcellus Stewart.
Polk was expelled from the U.S. Senate January 10, 1862, for his support of the South in the American Civil War. He was appointed as a colonel in the Confederate States Army, and later served as a judge in the military courts of the Department of Mississippi in 1864 and 1865.
After the war, Polk was a lawyer in St. Louis, Missouri. He is buried there in Bellefontaine Cemetery.