Alexander Monroe Dockery (February 11, 1845 – December 26, 1926) was an American physician and politician who served as the 30th governor of Missouri from 1901 to 1905. A Democrat, he was a member of the United States House of Representatives, representing the 3rd district from 1883 to 1899. Early life Alexander Dockery, only child of Willis E. and Sarah Ellen Dockery, was born near Gallatin, Daviess County, Missouri. His father was a Methodist minister and one of the early settlers to the county. The young Dockery attended the local public schools and then studied for a brief time at Macon Academy in (Macon, Missouri) before attending the St. Louis Medical College (now Washington University School of Medicine), graduating on March 2, 1865. Dockery established a medical practice in Linneus, Missouri and attended post-graduate lectures at Bellevue College (New York City) and Jefferson Medical College (Philadelphia) during the winter of 1865–1866. He returned to his practice in Linneus for a time before moving to Chillicothe, Missouri. While in practice in Chillicothe, he met and married Mary Elizabeth Bird in 1869. Dockery served as county physician for Livingston County, Missouri, from 1870 to 1874. He also made his first tentative step into politics by serving as president of the Chillicothe board of education from 1871 to 1873. In 1872 Dockery began a ten-year period as a member of the Board of Curators of the University of Missouri. In March 1874 Dr. Dockery ended his medical practice and returned to his native Gallatin to start a career in banking. He had originally intended to establish a bank in Milan, Missouri, but a Chillicothe friend and business associate, Thomas Yates, urged him to go into partnership with him in Gallatin instead. Dr. Dockery served as cashier and treasurer of the Farmers Exchange Bank, developing money management skills that would later prove useful in his political career both in the U.S. House of Representatives and as Missouri governor. Politics Alexander Dockery was a member of the Gallatin City Council beginning in 1878, and served as town mayor from 1881 to 1883. Pursuing a more active role in Democratic politics, Dockery was chairman of the congressional committee of his district In 1882 this led to him running for U.S. Congress. In November of that year he defeated incumbent Representative Joseph H. Burrows (Greenback Party) and Republican James H. Thomas with 52.9 percent of the vote