U.S. Data Repository http://www.us-data.org/ -- USGenNet Inc. -- Please read the U.S. Data Repository Copyright Statement on the following page: --------------------------------------------------------------------- Pierpont, Francis Harrison (1814-1899) --------------------------------------------------------------------- Source: Third Biennial Report of the Department of Archives and History of the State of West Virginia Author: Virgil A. Lewis, M. A., State Historian and Archivist Charleston, The News-Mail Company, 1911 Appendix II, Pages 255-256 and Page 270 Biographical Sketch of Francis Harrison Pierpont Francis Harrison Pierpont, the Governor of Virginia under the Restored Government, and whose statue in marble, presented by the State of West Virginia to the Nation and which stands in the Hall of Fame in the National Capitol, was born, January 25, 1814, about five miles east of Morgantown, in Monongalia county, West Virginia. He was the third son of Francis and Catherine (Weaver) Pierpont; the former born April 6, 1784, died March 4, 1849; the latter born February 27, 1792, died March 29, 1839. Both are buried at Fairmont, Marion county, West Virginia. A small log cabin, about twenty feet square, standing in the midst of the wilderness, was the infant home of Francis H., the subject of this notice. There he first breathed the liberty laden air of the mountains; and in the autumn of 1814, when but nine months of age, his parents removed to Harrison county, settling about three miles southwest of the site of the present town of Fairmont, where the family resided until 1827, when its place of abode was again changed, this time to "Middletown," now Fairmont in Marion county, where Francis H. Pierpont ever after resided. What work he did prior to his thirteenth year, was on the farm. There, after he was of school age, he went about two and one-half miles to a log school-house for four terms, of three months each, in the winter time. From his thirteenth to his twenty-first year, he worked in his father's tan-yard; then started on foot to seek an education at Allegheny College, Meadville, Pennsylvania. Here he remained four and one-half college years, and was graduated in the class of 1839, having visited his home but three times in vacation, traveling, as he first started, on foot most of the distance. After leaving college he taught school for three years in Virginia and Mississippi. While thus engaged he studied law, and on his return home to Fairmont in 1842, he was, that year, admitted to the bar. In political opinion he was a Whig; and, as an amateur politician, though never a candidate for any office, he frequently addressed the people on political subjects. He was placed by his party on the electoral ticket for Harrison in 1848. His district contained ten counties, every one of which he canvassed, making speeches in all, everywhere taking decided ground against slavery. The young lawyer now began to make headway as such, in the little town of Fairmont as it was sixty years ago. His practice improved, and being blest with that most important of all adjuncts to professional success--good health--he soon received recognition as a leading lawyer in the region in which he lived. Busy, professional years were now upon him and continued until the dark days of 1861. The world knows the history of that period. A Convention sitting at Richmond, adopted an Ordinance of Secession for Virginia, April 17, 1861, and submitted it to the people for ratification or rejection, at an election to be held on the 23d of May, ensuing. A majority of the people in the eastern portion of the State favored this Ordinance; but by far the greater number in the western part were opposed to it. Then, many public meetings were held but the first call for united action on the part of the people of Northwestern Virginia went out from a Convention at Clarksburg—the birth-place of Stonewall Jackson. This was on April 21, 1861. Page 270 FRANCIS HARRISON PIERPONT BORN January 25, 1814, in Monongalia County, Virginia (now Marion County, West Virginia). A graduate of Allegheny College, Meadville, Pennsylvania, in 1839; a teacher for some years; a successful lawyer and business man, engaged in mining coal and manufacturing fire- brick. Anti-slavery Whig in politics; elector in 1848. A leading member of the Methodist Protestant Church. Elected Provisional Governor of Virginia on the 20th day of June, 1861, by the Wheeling Convention. Elected Governor of Virginia on the fourth Thursday of May, 1862, by the people, to fill out the unexpired term of John Letcher, who was declared to have vacated his office by having joined the Confederacy. On the fourth Thursday of May, 1863, he was elected for the full term of four years, beginning January 1, 1864, and removed the seat of government from Wheeling to Alexandria before the State of West Virginia began its legal existence, on June 20, 1863. On the 25th day of May, 1865, he removed the seat of government to Richmond, and served till the end of his term, January 1, 1868, and held over till the 16th day of April, 1868, when Major General Schofleld, in command of the First Military District (Virginia), appointed Henry K. Wells Provisional Governor. In 1868 Governor Pierpont returned to his home at Fairmont, West Virginia. He was elected to the House of Delegates in 1869, and later was appointed Collector of Internal Revenue for West Virginia by President Garfield. He never was Governor of West Virginia. He died at Pittsburg, at the home of his daughter, March 24, 1899, was buried at Fairmont, West Virginia. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Additional Information: --------------------------------------------------------------------- Death Register, Marion County WV, 1899 Page 54 F. H. Pierpoint died 25-Mar-1899 in Pittsburgh, Pa. Age 85 years. Widower. Buried in Woodlawn Cemetery --------------------------------------------------------------------- 1880 Census, Marion County WV ED:86, Page No. 33 Fairmont Ind. School Dist Lines 2-7, Dwelling 300, Family 301 PIERPOINT, Francis H (head) 66, Lawyer, Va-Va-Va ", Julia A (wife) 52, Keeping house, NY-NY-NY ", Samuel (son) Tanner, Va-Va-NY ", Nannie (dau) 22, At-home, Va-Va-NY ", Frank W (son) 19, Student, Va-Va-NY MURDOCK, Hattie (Servant) 27, Va-Va-Va ---------------------------------------------------------------------