Allen T. Caperton

{{Infobox officeholder

|name = Allen T. Caperton

|image = Allen T. Caperton - Brady-Handy.jpg

|jr/sr = United States Senator

|state = West Virginia

|term_start = March 4, 1875

|term_end = July 26, 1876

|predecessor = Arthur Boreman

|successor = Samuel Price

|office1 = Confederate States Senator
from Virginia

|term_start1 = January 22, 1864

|term_end1 = May 10, 1865

|predecessor1 = William B. Preston

|successor1 = Constituency abolished

|office2 = Member of the Virginia House of Delegates from Monroe County

|term_start2 = December 7, 1857

|term_end2 = December 2, 1861

|predecessor2 = Alexander Clarke

|successor2 = Wilson Lively

|term_start3 = December 6, 1841

|term_end3 = December 5, 1842

|predecessor3 = Augustus A. Chapman

|successor3 = William Adair

|birthname = Allen Taylor Caperton

|birth_date = {{birth date|1810|11|21}}

|birth_place = Union, Virginia, U.S.
(now West Virginia)

|death_date = {{death date and age|1876|7|26|1810|11|21}}

|death_place = Washington, D.C., U.S.

|resting_place = Green Hill Cemetery
Union, West Virginia, U.S.

|party = Democratic

|alma_mater = University of Virginia
Yale University

|occupation = {{hlist|Politician|lawyer}}

|spouse = Harriet Echols

|children = 5

|father = Hugh Caperton

}}

Allen Taylor Caperton (November 21, 1810 – July 26, 1876) was an American politician who was a United States senator from the State of West Virginia in 1875–1876. He was a member of the Democratic Party. He had been in the Virginia House of Delegates and Virginia Senate before the American Civil War. During the Civil War, he was a Confederate States senator.

Early life

Allen Taylor Caperton was born on November 21, 1810, near Union, Monroe County, Virginia (now West Virginia), to Jane Erskine and Hugh Caperton.{{Cite web |url=https://bioguide.congress.gov/search/bio/C000130 |title=Caperton, Allen Taylor |work=Biographical Directory of the United States Congress |access-date=2024-11-23}} At the age of 14, he traveled by horseback to Huntsville, Alabama, to attend school.{{citation needed |date=November 2024}} He later graduated from the University of Virginia at Charlottesville, then graduated from Yale College in 1832. He studied law under Briscoe Baldwin in Staunton, Virginia, and was admitted to the bar.{{Cite news |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/richmond-dispatch-death-of-senator-caper/159586535/ |title=Death of Senator Caperton |date=1876-07-27 |newspaper=Richmond Dispatch |page=2 |via=Newspapers.com |access-date=2024-11-23}}{{Open access}}

Political career

Caperton practiced law. He was a member of the Virginia House of Delegates from 1841 to 1842. He was elected a member of the Virginia Senate in 1844 and sat until 1848. He was a member of the Virginia House of Delegates again from 1857 to 1861. In 1850, he was a delegate to the state constitutional convention. In 1861, he was a member of the Virginia Secession Convention.

During the Civil War, he was elected by the legislature of Virginia to be a member of the Confederate States Senate in which he sat until 1865. After the war, he was the first ex-Confederate elected to the United States Senate, entering office as a Democrat from West Virginia, from March 4, 1875, until his death.

Caperton was director of the James River and Kanawha Canal.{{Cite news |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-critic-and-record-death-of-senator-c/159586798/ |title=Death of Senator Caperton |date=1876-07-27 |newspaper=The Daiy Critic |page=1 |via=Newspapers.com |access-date=2024-11-23}}{{Open access}}

Personal life

File:Elmwood Mansion, also known as the Hugh Caperton House, a historic home in Union, West Virginia LCCN2015634352.tif

Caperton married Harriet Echols, sister of John Echols.{{Cite news |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-old-dominion-sun-death-of-mrs-braxt/159587387/ |title=Death of Mrs. Braxton |date=1904-10-21 |newspaper=The Old Dominion Sun |page=1 |via=Newspapers.com |access-date=2024-11-23}}{{Open access}} They had five children, Lin, Lizzie, Mrs. William A. Gordon, Mary and Allen T. Jr.{{Cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/historyofcityofw00wash/page/354/mode/2up |title=A History of the City of Washington: Its Men and Institutions |publisher=The Washington Post |editor-last=Slauson |editor-first=Allan B. |year=1903 |pages=355–356 |via=Archive.org |access-date=2024-11-22}}{{Open access}}{{Cite news |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/washington-chronicle-death-of-senator-ca/159587160/ |title=Death of Senator Caperton |date=1876-07-27 |newspaper=Washington Chroniccle |page=1 |via=Newspapers.com |access-date=2024-11-23}}{{Open access}} His daughter Lin married James French Patton and later married judge Edward Franklin Bingham.{{Cite news |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-daily-register-death-of-judge-patton/159588353/ |title=Death of Judge Patton |date=1882-03-31 |newspaper=The Daily Register |page=4 |via=Newspapers.com |access-date=2024-11-23}}{{Open access}}

Caperton died of heart disease at his room on I Street NW in Washington, D.C., on July 26, 1876. He was interred in Green Hill Cemetery in Union, West Virginia.

His residence near Union, "Elmwood," was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1976.{{NRISref|version=2010a|dateform=Mdy}}