FLETCHER S. STOCKDALE was born in Russellville, Kentucky. After studying law in Kentucky, he moved to Indianola, Texas at the age of nineteen. Involved with the railroad industry, he promoted the development of a refrigerator car for shipping beef from Texas. He served in the Texas Senate from 1857 to 1861, after which he was a member of the committee that drafted the Ordinance of Secession from the Union. He became Lieutenant Governor in 1863 and assumed the office of governor for a brief time when Pendleton Murrah fled the Capitol after the collapse of the Confederacy. Stockdale went on to serve as president of the San Antonio and Mexican Gulf Railroad and remained active in politics, serving briefly again in the Texas State Senate and as a delegate to the Democratic National Conventions of 1872, 1876, and 1880. He was also a member of the Texas Constitutional Convention in 1875 and a member of the Platform and Resolution Committee of the Texas State Democratic Conventions of 1882 and 1888. He died in Cuero, Texas and was buried in his home state of Kentucky.