Poplar Bluff First Missouri State Bank

Poplar Bluff First Missouri State Bank

Poplar Bluff First Missouri State Bank

John Tyler born in 1790 was raised to be an Virginia aristocrat. One of eight children of John and Mary Tyler he was born into a family of wealth and power. His father John Tyler, Sr. owned a plantation of over one thousand acres worked by dozens of slaves. John, Sr. would be elected Governor of Virginia in 1808.

Early Life and Career

John's mother died when he was seven years old. At twelve he started attending the preparatory school associated with the College of William and Mary from which he would receive his college degree in 1807. He studied law under the guidance of his father and was admitted to the Virginia bar in 1809. As his father had just become Governor, John accompanied him from their home in Charles City County to live in the state capital in Richmond about thirty-five miles away.

Tyler entered the law practice of Edmund Randolph, the young nation's first attorney general. In 1811 he became a member of the Virginia legislature where he led a censure against delegates who had supported the creation of the Bank of the United States which he considered a dangerous broadening of Federal power.