Francis Harrison Pierpont

Francis Harrison Pierpont
Portrait of Francis Pierpont
Governor of Virginia Disputed until 1865
In office 1861–1868
Lieutenant Governor	Daniel Polsley (1861–1863) Leopold C. P. Cowper (1863–1868)
Preceded by	John Letcher as the undisputed Governor
Succeeded by	Henry H. Wells as "Provisional Governor"
Personal details
Born	(1814-01-25)January 25, 1814 Morgantown (then in Virginia)
Died	March 24, 1899(1899-03-24) (aged 85) Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Political party	Republican
Spouse(s)	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 during the early years of Reconstruction. In recognition of his significance to its state history, in 1910 the state of West Virginia donated a marble statue of Pierpont as its second contribution to the U.S. Capitol's National Statuary Hall Collection.

He was the third son of Francis Peirpoint and was born at the Peirpoint "Plantation" in the "Forks of Cheat" on the Morgantown-Ices Ferry Road, Monongalia County. His middle name, "Harrison," was added later by the boy's father in honor of his commanding officer, General William Henry Harrison.

Pierpont, the original family name, was altered to Peirpoint in the land office at Richmond, Virginia in issuing patents for land deeded to his grandfather, John Pierpont (1742-1796) who grew up in Fairfax County, Virginia and attended the Fairfax Friends Meeting, but left to enlist in the Revolutionary Army, then after it ended moved west to Morgantown, West Virginia. Virginia lawyers advised the family that in order to hold their grandfather's land they must spell their last name as recorded in the patent. Thus Francis used the name "Peirpoint" throughout all of his life. Francis Harrison also utilized Peirpoint throughout most of his adult life, including during his terms as the Civil War and Reconstruction Governor of Virginia. In 1880, when President Garfield appointed him Collector of Internal Revenue, Peirpoint sent his name to the U.S. Senate as Francis H. Pierpont. Pierpont writes that "He consented to the change of his name because it was right."

While Frank was a boy, his family moved their leatherworking business to what is today Marion County, West Virginia. He was a great-grandson of Morgantown's founder Zackquill Morgan. Frank Pierpont was educated in a one-room schoolhouse and by his own reading. Pierpont became linked with the region's history for the rest of his life. After walking to Pennsylvania, he enrolled in and graduated from Allegheny College. Later, he taught school in Harrison County. Then he traveled and became an abolitionist after seeing slavery's abuses in Mississippi.