Ohio Governor Gravesites: #34 Richard M. Bishop

Richard M. Bishop

Born: November 4, 1812
Died: March 2 1893
Political Party: Democrat
Term of Office: January 14, 1878 - January 12, 1880
Buried: Spring Grove Cemetery Cincinnati, Ohio
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    Richard M. Bishop was born in Kentucky in 1812. He started working in a store as a clerk when he was 17 and eventually became a part owner of the store. He and his brother also worked together sending pork down the Mississippi River to the south.

   In 1948, Bishop moved to Cincinnati and founded a wholesale grocery business named Bishop, Wells and Company. Bishops business was very successful and he was able to partner with his 3 sons it was called the business R.M. Bishop and Company. Bishop also served on boards of directors for Colleges and a bank while running his businesses.

    In 1857, Bishop entered politics by being elected to Cincinnati City Council. In 1859, he was elected Mayor of Cincinnati. After his term was up, in spite of encouragement from Democrats and Republicans alike to run for reelection, Bishop retired from politics to focus on his business.

    In 1873, Bishop was chosen as a delegate to the Ohio Constitutional Convention. Bishop's political career was revitalized after making a notable presence at the Convention and he was chosen as the Democratic parties candidate for Governor of Ohio in 1877. His administration has been described as "satisfactory". But no real significant legislature happened during his term, and the Democratic party did not re nominate him for a second term. After his single 2 year term in office, Bishop retired from politics for good and ran his business. He died in Florida in 1893.

In September 2011 I made a day trip of going down to see some sites in the Cincinnati area. I wasn't being very aggressive with finding the Governors of Ohio yet. So when we stopped at Spring Grove Cemetery, we only saw 3 of the 9 Governors buried there before we had to leave. Now that I have officially set out to see them all, it was bugging me that there were still 6 of them down there that I should of already seen. I even had some maps printed out in September that gave very specific locations for the 6 Governor gravesites. So I just needed to get down there and I knew that they could be found in little time. I planned a little day trip of mostly gravehunting in northern Kentucky, with the plan of stopping at Spring Grove again on the way back home. It all came together at the last minute in late February 2012. Once my wife got off of work on February 25, we started to head down to our hotel near Lexington. The next day we started in Lexington and saw the child hood home of Mary Todd Lincoln. Then we went to Lexington Cemetery and found the gravesites of Henry Clay, Vice President John C. Brekinridge, Robert S. Todd (Abraham Lincolns father in law), and actor James Varney ( the the Ernest movies). We then stopped in Frankfort at Frankfort Cemetery where we saw the gravesites of Daniel Boone and Vice President Richard M. Johnson. It was then to Louisville and re visiting the grave of President Zachary Taylor. After lunch in Louisville we started heading home with one last stop on the way - Spring Grove.

   Governor Bishop was the first of 6 Governors that we visited that day.