Tompkins, Patrick W.

Born: 1804 Kentucky

Died: 1853-05-08 San Francisco, California

Tompkins received a limited education in his native state. He studied law, earned admittance to the bar, and started a legal practice in Vicksburg, Mississippi. He served as judge of the circuit court. In 1846, Tompkins won election, as a Whig, to the U.S. House of Representatives, serving from 1847-1849, alongside Abraham Lincoln. He moved to California during the gold rush of 1849, where he died four years later.

Biographical Directory of the American Congress, 1774-1961 (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1961), 1721; Gravestone, Yerba Buena Cemetery (Defunct), San Francisco, CA.