University of Virginia Library

FRANCIS H. PIERPONT.

Another example is now presented of an honorable and successful
career attendant upon probity and persistent purpose.

Francis H. Pierpont, third son of Francis and Catharine (Weaver)
Pierpont, was born January 25th, 1814, in Monongalia County, Virginia,
four miles east of Morgantown, on the farm settled by his grandfather,
John Pierpont, a native of New York, in 1770, then in West
Augusta County, who erected a dwelling and a block-house, also, for
protection against the Indians. In the last was opened the first land
office in that section of the State. John Pierpont married a daughter
of Colonel Z. Morgan, the proprietor of Morgantown, and who migrated
thither from Eastern Virginia. Joseph Weaver, the maternal
grandfather of the subject of this sketch, a native of Central Pennsylvania,
settled on a farm near Morgantown about 1785. In 1814
Francis Pierpont moved from the homestead to land purchased by him
in Harrison County, about two miles from the present Fairmont,
Marion County, West Virginia. In 1827 he made his residence in
Fairmont and conducted a tannery in connection with his farm. His
son, young Francis, assisted his father in his several occupations until
manhood. His educational opportunities were in the meanwhile
limited. In June, 1835, he entered Allegheny College, at Meadville,
Pa., from whence he was graduated with the degree of Bachelor of
Arts in September, 1839. He now taught school until 1841, when he
removed to the State of Mississippi, where he continued teaching, but
the following year he was recalled to Virginia by the failing health of
his father. Having studied law in the leisure intervals of his career as
a teacher, he was now admitted to the bar. From 1848 for a period of
eight years, he served as the local counsel of the Baltimore and Ohio
Railroad Company for the counties of Marion and Taylor. In 1853 he
engaged in mining and shipping coal by rail, and a little later in the
manufacture of fire bricks. In December, 1854, he married Julia A.,

daughter of Rev. Samuel Robinson, a Presbyterian minister of New
York. In religious faith Mr. Pierpont was himself a member of the
Methodist Episcopal Church, with which he connected himself at the
age of seventeen. Reared in a section in which there were but few slaves,
and deeply impressed in his youth by several instances of emancipation
of which he was cognizant, his prejudices against the institution of
slavery strengthened with his years. His observation of the plantation
system in Mississippi confirmed him as an uncompromising
opponent of slavery. He early took an interest in politics, and though
not an aspirant for office, he actively participated in the campaigns of
the Whig party, with which he affiliated from 1844 to 1860. In 1848
he was a Presidential elector on the Taylor ticket. In the momentous
Presidential campaign of 1860, Mr. Pierpont charged the Democratic
party with a predetermined design to dismember the Union, and asserted
that the split in the party at Baltimore was with the expectancy that it
would secure the election of a Republican President and precipitate
secession. Whilst the Ordinance of Secession, passed April 17th, 1861,
by the State Convention at Richmond, was ratified by the people of
Eastern Virginia, the vote in Western Virginia was largely against it.
In this dilemma, Mr. Pierpont conceived the idea of a "restored government,"
and at his instigation a Convention en masse was held at
Wheeling on the 11th of May, 1861, which was attended by the leading
men of Northwestern Virginia. After a session of two days spent in
fruitless discussion, Mr. Pierpont proposed a Convention to be held at
Wheeling on the 11th of June following, to be composed of delegates
favorable to the Union, from among those who might be elected on the
23d of May to the General Assembly, and of twice the number of citizen
delegates from each county as it was entitled to as representatives in the
General Assembly. He also proposed the appointment of a "Committee
of Safety," to consist of nine members, whose duty it would be to
supervise the election of delegates and to call the Convention. The
resolutions were adopted, and Mr. Pierpont was appointed on the
"Committee of Safety," which met the next day after the adjournment
of the Convention. To the committee Mr. Pierpont stated his
views regarding the relation of the seceded State to the Union, and
held that "its officers being in rebellion had abdicated the government
of the State," and that "the loyal citizens of the State were entitled to
the government of the State during such insurrection." He suggested
the passage by the ensuing Convention of an ordinance embodying this
enunciation, and that the body should make provision for the establishment
of a State government, fill its offices with "loyal" men, and
secure the occupancy of the Monongahela Valley by Federal troops.
He further suggested that upon the recognition of the State by the
Federal Government, it might be erected into a separate State. The
plan was favorably received and became the basis of future action. In

SOUTH VIEW OF THE CAPITOL, RICHMOND, VIRGINIA,

Where the Confederate Congress held its sessions.

the Convention held at Wheeling on the 11th of June, forty counties
of the mountain region were represented. It met in the Custom
House; and each delegate, as his credentials were read, took an oath to
the National Constitution and its Government. The Convention was
organized by the appointment of Arthur I. Boreman, of Wood County,
as permanent President, and G. L. Cranmer, Secretary.

The Convention went earnestly to work. A committee was appointed
to draw up a Bill of Rights, and on the following day it reported
through its chairman, John S. Carlile. All allegiance to the Southern
Confederacy was denied in that report, and it recommended a declaration
that the functions of all officers in the State of Virginia who adhered
to it were suspended, and the offices vacated. Resolutions were
adopted declaring the intention of the "people of Virginia" never to
submit to the Ordinance of Secession, but to maintain the rights of
the Commonwealth in the Union. On the third day of the session,
June 13th, an ordinance was reported for vacating all the offices in the
State held by State officers acting in hostility to the General Government,
and also providing for a Provisional Government by the election
of officers for a period of six months. A Declaration of Independence
of the old government was adopted on the 17th, which was signed by
all the members present, fifty-six in number, and on the 19th the ordinance
for the establishment of a Provisional Government was adopted.
On the 20th there was a unanimous vote in favor of the ultimate separation
of Western Virginia from Eastern Virginia. On that day the
new or "restored Government" was organized. Francis H. Pierpont,
of Marion County, was chosen Provisional Governor, with Daniel
Polsley, of Mason County, as Lieutenant-Governor, and an Executive
Council of five members. Governor Pierpont was prompt and energetic.
His first official act, the next day after his accession, was to notify the
President of the United States that the existing insurrection in Virginia
was too formidable to be suppressed by any means at the Governor's
command, and to ask the aid of the General Government. It was
promised, and thus the action of the Convention was sanctioned by the
Government. Governor Pierpont was authorized to raise volunteer regiments
and officer them for the United States service. He speedily organized
twelve regiments of militia. He procured a greater and lesser
seal of State.

Money was needed. There was no treasury, and Governor Pierpont
borrowed on the pledge of his own private means $10,000 for the public
service. He also secured by military seizure $28,000 which had
been transmitted from Richmond to Weston, Lewis County, to pay for
work on the lunatic asylum there; and collected from the United
States Government $50,000, the share of the State of Virginia in the
proceeds of the sale of public lands appropriated by Congress in 1836.
A legislature was elected, met on the 1st of July and immediately

elected John S. Carlile and Waitman T. Willie to represent the "restored
Government" in the Senate of the United States as successors of
Messrs Hunter and Mason, from Virginia, who had resigned. Representatives
were also elected by the people, and both were admitted to
seats in Congress, which met in extra session on the 4th of July. The
Convention re-assembled on the 20th of August and passed an ordinance
for the erection of a new State, in which slavery was prohibited, to be
called Kanawha. This ordinance was ratified by the people on the 24th
of October following. At a subsequent session of the Convention, on
the 27th of November, the name was changed to West Virginia, and a
State Constitution framed, which was ratified by the people on the 3d of
May, 1862, when, also, Governor Pierpont was elected Governor to fill the
remaining portion of the term of Governor Letcher. The Legislature, at a
called session, also approved of the division of the State and the establishment
of a new Commonwealth. Governor Pierpont was tireless in his
official duties. His daily office duties for several of the earlier months
of his administration, it is stated, occupied from thirteen to sixteen
hours. The State Auditor refusing at this period to issue warrants for
an appropriation of $50,000 made by the Legislature for the public service,
Governor Pierpont, by an arrangement with the bank, disbursed
this sum in recruiting by personal check. West Virginia was admitted
as a State into the Union on the 20th of June, 1863, by an Act of
Congress, approved by the President, on the 31st of December, 1862.
Governor Pierpont, who had been elected in the month of May Governor
for the term of three years, commencing January 1, 1864, now removed
the seat of Government to Alexandria, Virginia. Upon the issuing by
President Lincoln of his proclamation emancipating the slaves, Governor
Pierpont apprehending a conflict between State and Federal authority
regarding the freedmen, recommended to the Legislature, which assembled
in December, to call a Convention to pass an ordinance of
general emancipation, and accordingly, on the 22d of February, 1864,
an ordinance was passed in Convention abolishing slavery in the State
forever. Another ordinance also made it the duty of the Governor to
nominate all the judges of the State for confirmation by the Legislature.
Governor Pierpont about this time conducted quite a spicy correspondence
with General B. F. Butler, (sometimes designated as "Beast,")
whose lawless acts he complained of to President Lincoln, and urged his
removal. The President is said to have expressed himself as being satisfied
of the truth of the complaints, and said to Governor Pierpont that
he would remove Butler if the Governor would tell him how to silence
the press, which Butler seemed to control, and through its medium appeared
to the Northern populace as the embodiment of all that was potent
in subduing the "rebellion." On the 25th of May, 1865, Governor
Pierpont removed his seat of Government to Richmond, the capital of
the late Confederate Government. He was immediately waited upon
by citizens from all portions of the State, and generally took counsel
with them in their misfortune.

In response to his inquiries he learned that but few in any county, and in
some none, could vote or hold office because of the disqualification imposed
by the Alexandria constitution for participancy in the rebellion.
He at once sent his Adjutant-General personally to all the counties
that had elected delegates to the Alexandria Legislature, summoning
the members to Richmond whose legal term expired on the 1st of
July. They attended in June and met in the gubernatorial reception
room. The Governor explained to them that without the removal of
the disfranchisement he could not reconstruct the State, as there was
nobody to vote; that they had the power to remove the disability, and
that if they would agree to do so, he would call them in extra session
at once. They assented. The extra session was called, the disability
to vote was removed, and a resolution was passed giving the next
legislature conventional authority to remove the disqualification to hold
office. He also found, upon his arrival in Richmond, the United States
Marshals busy libelling the property of the late Confederates for confiscation.
A few days afterward President Johnson issued a proclamation
confiscating the estates of certain classes unless pardoned. It was stipulated
that all petitions should be recommended by the Governor. He
soon perceived that the President was temporizing, and was led to apprehend
that the "pardon mill" was a farce at least, if no worse. He
accordingly determined to recommend all petitions offered him. He
next protested to the Attorney-General against the further iniquity of
libelling property which it was never designed to confiscate, and which
only entailed grievous expense on the owners. His protest was effective.
He next interposed for the suppression of the class of pardon-broker
harpies, who obstructed the due course of the Executive clemency
as provided. He refused to recommend any petition which
would pass into the hands of a broker, and thus disarmed these rapacious
thieves. He next interposed for the relief of citizens who were
under civil indictment for offences which were within the province of
military authority, and recommended leniency and conciliation to the
courts. With a contingent fund supplied by the Alexandria Legislature,
he rehabilitated the Western Lunatic Asylum and the Institution
for the Deaf, Dumb and Blind, at Staunton, which was destitute of suplies
and necessary equipments. He also appointed, upon the recommendation
of those duly interested, efficient regents for the University of
Virginia and the Virginia Military Institute, without reference to party
affiliation. Governor Pierpont continued in office beyond the period of
his term, which expired January 1, 1868, and held until April 16, 1868,
when he was succeeded by General Henry H. Wells, appointed Provisional

Governor by General John M. Schofield, commanding the Military
Department of Virginia. Governor Pierpont then retired to
private life. He was subsequently elected Clerk of Marion County
Court, and now resides in Fairmont.