Preceded by Peter G. Van Winkle Name Arthur Boreman Resigned March 4, 1875 Religion Methodist Succeeded by Allen T. Caperton | Profession Politician Political party Republican Party Republican Party | |
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Preceded by Francis Harrison Pierpont
as Governor of the Restored Government of Virginia Born July 24, 1823
Waynesburg, Pennsylvania ( 1823-07-24 ) Role Former United States Senator Died April 19, 1896, Parkersburg, West Virginia, United States Spouse Laurane Tanner Bullock Boreman (m. 1864–1896) | ||
Previous office Senator (WV) 1869–1875 | ||
Arthur Inghram Boreman (July 24, 1823 – April 19, 1896) was an American lawyer and politician who helped found the U.S. state of West Virginia, and who served as its the first Governor, a United States Senator and a circuit judge.
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Early and family life
Boreman was born in Waynesburg, Pennsylvania, the third son of merchant Kenner Seaton Boreman (1790 - 1850) and his wife Sarah Inghram Boreman (1791 - 1870). When Arthur was four, his family relocated to Middlebourne, Tyler County, which was then part of Virginia.
On November 30, 1864, he married Laurane Tanner Bullock, widow of a Union soldier. Their surviving daughters were Maud O. Boreman Cotton (1866 - 1954) and Laurane Boreman Hays (1867 - 1959).
Career
Arthur Boreman read law with an elder brother and was admitted to the Virginia bar in 1845. The following year he moved to Parkersburg. Wood County voters elected Boreman as one of their representatives in the Virginia House of Delegates. Re-elected several times, he served in that part-time position from 1855 until 1861. Although not an abolitionist, but rather a Unionist, Boreman tried unsuccessfully to prevent Virginia's secession from the Union in April 1861.
In May 1861, Wood County voters elected him to the Second Wheeling Convention, and fellow delegates elected him as the convention's President. That convention established the Restored Government of Virginia, which the following year led to establishment of a separate State of West Virginia. His elder brother William I. Boreman (1816-1892) represented Doddridge and Tyler Counties in that convention, and his youngest brother Jacob S. Boreman (1831-1913) served in the Union Army.
In 1863, West Virginia voters elected Arthur Boreman as the new state's first governor. He served from 1863 to 1869, winning re-election in 1864 and 1866 (although Virginia's constitutions had forbidden such successive terms). During his third term, Boreman won election to the U.S. Senator to replace Peter G. Van Winkle, and he served from 1869 to 1875. When Democratsregained power in West Virginia, Boreman returned to his law practice.
In 1888, he was elected a circuit judge and took the bench the following year. He continued to serve until his death seven years later.
Death and legacy
Boreman died in Parkersburg in 1896 and is buried there, as would be his widow and daughters. His brother Jacob Smith Boremon became a Justice of the Utah territory Supreme Court and his nephew Herbert Stephenson Boreman (1897-1982) served as a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. Boreman, West Virginia is named for the family.
Boreman Hall, a dormitory on the campus of West Virginia University, is named after him. In addition, Arthur I. Boreman Elementary School is named in his honor in the Tyler County town of Middlebourne, and formerly two elementary schools in the Kanawha County town of Cross Lanes and the outlying Parkersburg area in Wood County were named in his honor.