Francis H. Pierpont was a lawyer, early coal industrialist, governor of the Restored government of Virginia during the Civil War, governor of Virginia during the first years of Reconstruction, and a state senator representing Marion County, West Virginia. Pierpont was an antislavery member of the Whig Party and delegate to the First and Second Wheeling Conventions in 1861, during which Unionist politicians in western Virginia resisted the state's vote to secede by establishing the Restored government of Virginia. The second convention unanimously elected him governor. Although never actually governor of West Virginia, he is still remembered as one of the state's founding fathers. Francis Harrison Pierpont was born in Monongalia County, Virginia (now West Virginia), in 1814. He spent his youth in Fairmont, Virginia, and attended Allegheny College in Meadville, Pennsylvania. After a brief stint as a teacher, Pierpont began his legal career in trans-Allegheny Virginia representing such influential clients as the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. Pierpont, along with partner James Otis Watson, became one of Virginia's earliest coal operators. Pierpont's political career began in 1840 when he made speeches across western Virginia in support of Whig presidential nominees William Henry Harrison of Ohio and fellow Virginian John Tyler. During the secession crisis of 1860 and 1861, Pierpont delivered pro-Union, anti-slavery addresses to large crowds across northwestern Virginia. After meeting since February 1861, the Convention in Richmond voted to secede from the union in April 1861. This prompted the still-Unionist western delegates of the state to organize the First Wheeling Convention from May 13–15, 1861. During the meeting, Pierpont promoted the reorganization of the state government and following the passage of the Virginia Ordinance of Secession by statewide referendum on May 23 Pierpont was elected to attend the Second Wheeling Convention from June 11–25, 1861. On June 20, he was unanimously elected governor of the Restored government of Virginia.
The city of Wheeling initially served as the headquarters of the Restored government of Virginia, but after the formation of West Virginia on June 20, 1863, and Pierpont's reelection as governor that December (governor, that is, of the Restored government and not of West Virginia), the reorganized state government relocated to Alexandria. Pierpont dedicated his energies to raising troops and funds for the Union war effort, coordinating with President Abraham Lincoln's administration, combating Confederate sympathizers, and working to return Virginia to the Union. Pierpont promoted the creation of "free schools," the extension of constitutional rights to freedmen, and in 1864 the convening of a state constitutional convention aimed at abolishing slavery. After the conclusion of the Civil War, the Alexandria government moved to Richmond, where Pierpont began the process of reconstructing Virginia. Pierpont and his civilian administration oversaw local and state elections, promoted the rights of freedmen, and worked to rebuild the state's economy. Due to his conciliatory policies toward ex-Confederates, Pierpont was criticized by Radical Republicans. In March 1867, the United States Congress, as part of its new Reconstruction policy, placed Virginia under the military command of General John M. Schofield. Despite his protestations, Pierpont was removed from office on April 4, 1868. After his ouster, Pierpont quietly returned to Fairmont, where his support for the statehood movement earned him election by Marion County voters to the West Virginia state senate in 1869. Due to the increasing Democratic control of the state government, he was not reelected in 1870 and subsequently retired from politics. Pierpont spent the final years of his life as a founder and member of the West Virginia Historical Society. He died in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on March 24, 1899.
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