David Jerome

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David Howell Jerome (November 17, 1829 – April 23, 1896) was a governor of the state of Michigan.

He was born in Detroit, Michigan to Horace and Elizabeth Rose (Hart) Jerome. He was the last of nine children (four by his first wife, five by his second) born to his father, who died on March 30, 1831. Soon after, Jerome's mother returned, with her children, to her native New York, near Syracuse. In 1834, they returned to Michigan, to a farm in St. Clair County. As a boy he did farm work and excelled in school, where he was allowed to remain until the age of sixteen. Jerome then worked for a time hauling and rafting logs.

On June 15, 1859, Jerome married Lucy Peck. He enthusiastically helped raise a Civil War regiment in 1862 and was an active Union supporter throughout his subsequent state Senate service.

Jerome, a Republican, was a merchant by profession. He was a member of the Michigan Senate from 1863 to 1868, an alternate delegate to the 1868 Republican National Convention, and a member of the Michigan state constitutional commission in 1873.

Jerome served as Governor of Michigan from January 1, 1881 to January 1, 1883; he was defeated when he ran for re-election in 1882. An Episcopalian, he died in Saginaw, Michigan.