William S. Pilcher

Who was William S. Pilcher?

William Stanton Pilcher was the eleventh mayor of Louisville, Kentucky, serving from 1857 to 1858.

Pilcher was born in Stafford County, Virginia to a wealthy manufacturing family. He came to Louisville in 1833 to study law.

Pilcher unsuccessfully ran for lieutenant governor in 1844 as a Jacksonian Democrat, but was elected mayor of Louisville on the Know Nothing party on April 4, 1857 in a landslide. However, by May 13, 1858 he was too ill to continue his duties, and he died later that year, becoming the first mayor of Louisville to die in office.