Francis Harrison Pierpont

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Francis Harrison Pierpont
Portrait of Francis Pierpont
Governor of Virginia
In office 1865 – 1868
Preceded by	William "Extra Billy" Smith
Succeeded by	Henry H. Wells

Born	January 25, 1814 Morgantown (then in Virginia)
Died	March 24, 1899 Pittsburgh, PA
Political party	Republican
Spouse	Julia Augusta Robertson
Occupation	Lawyer
Religion	Methodist

Francis Harrison Pierpont (January 25, 1814 – March 24, 1899), called the "Father of West Virginia", was an American lawyer, politician, and governor of the union controlled parts of Virginia during the Civil War. After the war, he was the Governor of all of Virginia.

1 Early life
2 Political career
- 2.1 Civil war
- 2.2 Reconstruction
3 Other notable facts
4 References

[edit] Early life

Born near Morgantown (and kin to its founder Zackquill Morgan), Pierpont grew up in western Virginia, in what is today Marion County, West Virginia and was linked with the region's history for the rest of his life.^[1] He graduated from Allegheny College, and taught school in Virginia and Mississippi while also studying law. He was admitted to the bar in 1841, and became the local attorney for the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad in 1848. Prior to entering politics, he also helped found Fairmont Male and Female Seminary, the forerunner to Fairmont State University.^[1]

[edit] Political career

Francis Harrison Pierpont, NSHC statue

[edit] Civil war

An active supporter of Abraham Lincoln, Pierpont became more involved in politics as an outspoken opponent of Virginia's secession from the Union. When Virginia seceded and entered the war, delegates from the northern and northwestern counties of Virginia, who refused to join the Confederacy, met at the Wheeling Convention.^[1] These counties ultimately declared that their elected officials had abandoned their posts and established a separate government in Wheeling, with Pierpont as the provisional governor. This "Reorganized State of Virginia" drafted a new Virginia Constitution and sent representatives to the Union Congress.^[2]

Under Pierpont's leadership, the Wheeling government called for a popular vote on the question of the creation of a new separate state. Popular approval was overwhelming, and an application was subsequently made to Congress, who also approved the issue.^[3] The new state took the name West Virginia and was admitted into the Union in 1863. When Arthur I. Boreman was elected governor for West Virginia, Pierpont became governor of the "restored" state of Virginia, comprised of the remaining Northern Virginia counties occupied by Union troops.^[2] The capital of the restored state was established in Alexandria for the remainder of the Civil War. At the end of the war in 1865, President Andrew Johnson appointed Pierpont as the provisional governor of the reunited state of Virginia, and the capital was moved back to Richmond, Virginia.^[4]

[edit] Reconstruction

As the South became increasingly resistant to Reconstruction after the war, the United States Congress passed the Military Reconstruction Act of 1867. Through this Act, Virginia become the "First Military District" in 1868, and Pierpont was replaced by military governor John Schofield, who governed until a new constitution could be enacted. Pierpont became one of the key figures in the Virginia constitutional convention of 1867-1868, which resulted in the "Underwood Constitution" of 1870. After this, Pierpont left Virginia politics and returned to his law practice in West Virginia.^[4]

Pierpont subsequently served one term in the West Virginia legislature in 1870, but lost his seat when the Democrats took control of the state.^[1] His last public office was as collector of Internal Revenue under President James Garfield.^[2] After his retirement, he helped create the West Virginia Historical Society before dying in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on March 24, 1899.^[1]

[edit] Other notable facts

In 1910, the state of West Virginia donated a marble statue of Pierpont to the U.S. Capitol's National Statuary Hall Collection.^[2]
Pierpont Commons, the dining facility at Virginia Commonwealth University, is named after Governor Pierpont.

[edit] References

^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e Francis Harrison Pierpont. West Virginia Encyclopedia. Retrieved on March 8, 2007.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d Francis Harrison Pierpont. U.S. Architect of the Capitol. Retrieved on March 8, 2007.
^ West Virginia Statehood. West Virginia Division of Culture and History. Retrieved on March 8, 2007.
^ ^a ^b Morgan, Lynda (1992). Emancipation in Virginia's Tobacco Belt, 1850-1870. University of Georgia Press. ISBN 0-8203-1415-3.