Governor Arthur Boreman Story Archives - West Virginia Public Broadcasting

July 24, 1823: West Virginia Governor Arthur Boreman Born in Pennsylvania

West Virginia Governor Arthur Boreman was born in Pennsylvania on July 24, 1823. When he was young, his family moved to Tyler County. And then, in 1845, Boreman relocated to Parkersburg, which would be his hometown for the rest of his life.

Boreman was elected to the state General Assembly in 1855 and served until Virginia seceded from the Union in 1861 at the start of the Civil War. In June, he was chosen president of the Second Wheeling Convention. Delegates to the convention established a Virginia state government loyal to the Union. This government would later approve West Virginia’s entrance into the Union.

In 1863, Boreman was elected unopposed to serve as West Virginia’s first governor. During much of his first two years, he was consumed with steering the new state through the Civil War. He also pushed for a public education system that would serve all children regardless of family income.

In 1869, he entered the U.S. Senate, where he fought to ratify the 15^th Amendment to the Constitution, giving blacks the right to vote. Arthur Boreman died in Parkersburg in 1896 at age 72.

February 27, 1869: D.T. Farnsworth Becomes Second Governor

On February 27, 1869, West Virginia’s first governor, Arthur Boreman, resigned as the state’s chief executive to take a seat in the U.S. Senate. Daniel D. T. Farnsworth, president of the senate, stepped in to fill Boreman’s role, becoming West Virginia’s second, and shortest-serving, governor—since Boreman resigned just before the end of his term.

Five days after Farnsworth became governor, the state’s newly elected governor, William Stevenson, replaced him.

Farnsworth, though, was much more than the answer to a trivia question. Before the Civil War, he was influential in business and politics in Buckhannon and Clarksburg.

After Virginia seceded from the Union, Farnsworth served in the Second Wheeling Convention and helped lay the groundwork for the state of West Virginia. A fiery Unionist, he once told Confederate soldiers in Philippi that he would prefer for them to shoot him than to remain silent about the Union cause.

After his unexceptional five days in the governor’s office, Farnsworth returned to the state senate, where he became an advocate of equal rights and labor and a thorn in the side of big railroad companies.

February 3, 1865: Governor Arthur Boreman Signs Legislative Act Banning Slavery in W.Va.

On February 3, 1865, West Virginia Governor Arthur Boreman signed a legislative act banning slavery in the state. A common misconception is that West Virginia entered the Union in 1863 as a free state.

However, in reality, it was the last slave state ever admitted to the Union. While most state founders wanted to allow slavery without restrictions, Congressional Republicans threatened to block West Virginia’s statehood efforts over the issue. A compromise, known as the Willey Amendment, provided for the gradual emancipation of most, but not all, slaves in the new state.

While slavery had existed in Western Virginia from the earliest days of settlement, it never prospered on a widespread basis. By 1860, Western Virginia was home to fewer than 20,000 slaves, compared to some half-a-million living in present-day Virginia. This disparity was due largely to Western Virginia’s rugged terrain, which produced small farms as opposed to the sprawling slave plantations of Virginia’s Tidewater region.

When West Virginia became a state, two-thirds of the slaves were concentrated in Jefferson, Berkeley, Kanawha, Hampshire, and Greenbrier counties. The new state was also home to nearly 3,000 free blacks.

July 24, 1823: West Virginia Governor Arthur Boreman Born in Pennsylvania This Week in West Virginia

In 1869, he entered the U.S. Senate, where he fought to ratify the 15^th Amendment to the Constitution, giving blacks the right to vote. Arthur Boreman died in Parkersburg in 1896 at age 72.