Virtual Walking Tour of Bellefonte, Pennsylvania
The Talleyrand Park Citizens Committee
Bellefonte Historical & Cultural Association

Bellefonte, Home of Governors

BHCA Home | Virtual Tour Home | Center Town Map

WILLIAM BIGLER (1813-1880) Governor of Pennsylvania, January 20, 1852, to January 16, 1855.  Democrat.  Resided in Bellefonte from 1831 to 1833 while learning the printer's trade at the Centre Democrat.  Headed "Andrew Jackson Fourth of July Celebration" in Bellefonte on July 4, 1832.  State Senator, 1941; U.S. Senator from Pennsylvania, 1855-1861; secured the Democratic presidential nomination for General George B. McClellan, 1864.

JOHN BIGLER (1805-1856) Governor of California, 1852 to 1856.  Democrat.  Resided in Bellefonte from 1828 to 1834 while associated with the Centre Democrat.  Named by General Philip Benner as editor of the paper in 1830.  Became owner and publisher on November 19, 1831.  Sold the paper January 10, 1834.  Member of the Bellefonte Borough Council, 1830-31; chairman of Borough Council committee to rebuild the Bellefonte Waterworks, 1831.

ROBERT J WALKER (1801-1869) Territorial Governor of Kansas, 1857.  Democrat.  Lived in Bellefonte from 1806 to 1814.  Father was president judge of this judicial district.  First lived in home which was located across from the Court House on East High Street.  Subsequently lived in what was later the Linn Home on N. Allegheny Street. Educated at the Bellefonte Academy.  U.S. Senator from Mississippi, 1836-45; Secretary of the Treasury under President Polk, 1845-49.

WILLIAM F PACKER (1807-1870) Governor of Pennsylvania, January 19, 1858 to January 15, 1861.  Democrat.  Lived in Bellefonte from 1820 to 1825 while learning the printer's trade at the "Bellefonte Patriot."  Canal Commissioner of Pennsylvania, 1839; State Auditor General, 1845-1845; Speaker, State House of Representatives, 1848-49; State Senator, 1849.

ANDREW GREGG CURTIN (1815-1894) Governor of Pennsylvania, January 15, 1861 to January 15, 1867.  Republican.  The great "Civil War Governor."  Lifetime resident of Bellefonte.  Member, Bellefonte Borough School Board and Centre County Bar, Secretary of the Commonwealth, 1855-58.  U.S. Minister to Russia, 1869-72; served in the U.S. House of Representatives as a Democrat from 1881 to 1887.

JAMES A BEAVER (1837-1914) Governor of Pennsylvania, January 18, 1887, to January 20, 1891.  Republican.  Resided in Bellefonte from before the Civil War until his death in 1914.  Member, Centre County Bar, 1859; Bellefonte Fencibles, 1860; Colonel 148th Pennsylvania Regiment, Civil War; Brigadier General, 1864; wounded four times; Burgess of Bellefonte, 1865; member of Bellefonte Borough Council; President of the Penn State Board of Trustees, 1873-1914.

DANIEL H HASTINGS  (1849-1903) Governor of Pennsylvania, January 15, 1895, to January 17, 1899.  Republican.  Lived in Bellefonte from 1867 to his death in 1903.  Principal of the Bellefonte High School and Superintendent of Bellefonte Borough Schools, 1867-75.  Editor, "Bellefonte Republican"; member, Centre County Bar, 1875; Burgess of Bellefonte, 1879; member, Bellefonte Borough School Board; member, Penn State Board of Trustees.

This memorial to the Bellefonte Governors, erected in 1995 by the Bellefonte Jaycees, is in Talleyrand Park, just off West High Street.