JAMES HOGE TYLER was born in Blenheim, Caroline County, Virginia. His mother died when he was born, and he was raised in Pulaski County by his maternal grandparents, rejoining his father in Caroline County when his grandfather died. After serving in the Confederate Army, he returned to ‘Pulaski County as a farmer. He served in the Virginia State Senate from 1877 to 1879, after which he was elected Lieutenant Governor, serving from 1890 to 1894. Although defeated for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination in 1893, he was elected governor four years later. During his administration, troops were mobilized for the Spanish-American War and a state corporation commission was created. After his term ended, Tyler returned to the pursuit of agricultural and business activities. He later served as president of the Virginia State Farmers’ Institute and the Southwest Virginia Livestock Association and was a trustee of Virginia’s Union Theological Seminary, a delegate to the Pan-Presbyterian Alliance Convention in Glasgow, Scotland, in 1896, and a member of the boards of Hampden-Sydney College and the Synodical Orphans Home.