Samuel B. Pryor

{{short description|American politician}}

{{Infobox officeholder

|honorific-prefix =

|name = Samuel B. Pryor

|image = Samuel-b-pryor.jpg

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|order = 1st

|office = Mayor of Dallas

|term_start = 1856

|term_end = 1857

|deputy =

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|succeeding =

|predecessor = Office established

|successor = John McClannahan Crockett

|birth_date = {{birth date|1816|08|12}}

|birth_place = Lawrenceville, Brunswick, Virginia

|death_date = {{Death date and age |mf=yes |1866 |10 |18 |1816|08|12}}

|death_place =

|restingplace = Pioneer Park Cemetery, Dallas, Texas

|restingplacecoordinates =

|education = Hampden Sydney College

|nationality = American

|spouse = Anna Mariah Powell

|partner =

|relations =

|children = Ashton G. Pryor, E. R. Pryor, Charles R. Pryor, Pocahontas Pryor, Samuel B. Pryor, William L. Pryor

|residence =

|alma_mater =

|occupation = Physician

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Samuel B. Pryor (1816–1866) was the first mayor of Dallas, Texas.

After Dallas was granted a town charter on February 2, 1856 by the Texas legislature, Pryor became the first mayor of Dallas. He led a town government which had six aldermen, a treasurer-recorder, and a constable.{{Handbook of Texas|id=hdd01|name=Dallas, Texas}}. Retrieved on August 6, 2009. He was the first mayor of Dallas, Texas from 1856 to 1857.{{cite web |title=Index to Politicians: Pryor |url=http://politicalgraveyard.com/bio/pryor.html |publisher=The Political Graveyard |accessdate=6 August 2009}}

Born in Brunswick County, Virginia to Philip Pryor and Susan C. Wilkes,{{cite web|last=Wood|first=Vanessa|title=Affluent Pryor Families in Virginia|url=http://tennesseepryors.com/virginia-pryors/affluent-pryor-families-in-virginia/|publisher=tennesseepryors.com|accessdate=23 June 2012}} his Pryor lineage is traceable through a line of affluent colonial Virginians. His father was counted as a head of household on the 1810 and 1820 Census{{cite web|title=Pryors on Virginia Public Records|url=http://www.tnpryors.com/states_census/va_a-d.html|publisher=TnPryors.com|accessdate=23 June 2012|url-status=dead|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20130204203814/http://www.tnpryors.com/states_census/va_a-d.html|archivedate=4 February 2013}} Presumably his father died before 1830 when his mother was then counted as head of household. Samuel Pryor would have been in his early teens at the time of his father's death.

Pryor was in the first graduating class of cadets from the Virginia Military Institute in 1839-1840.{{cite book|title=Register Of The Officers And Cadets Of The Virginia Military Institute At Lexington, Virginia|year=1840|url=https://archive.org/stream/virginiamilitary1840virg/virginiamilitary1840virg_djvu.txt}} He attended Hampden–Sydney College,{{cite web|last=Lemmons|first=Nova|title=Dr. Samuel B. Pryor Early Prominent Dallas County Resident|url=http://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth186861/m1/5/|publisher=The Dallas Journal|accessdate=22 June 2012}} graduating in 1844. During the American Civil War, he served in the Confederate States Army.

Samuel B. Pryor lived a life of public service. He was a physician.{{cite web|title=Pryors on Texas Records|url=http://www.tnpryors.com/states_census/tx_a-d.htm|publisher=TNPryors.com|accessdate=23 June 2012|url-status=dead|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20130603235048/http://www.tnpryors.com/states_census/tx_a-d.htm|archivedate=3 June 2013}} Before serving as mayor, he served as the Court Clerk in Dallas County during 1848-1849.{{cite web|title=Genealogical Records, Resources & Activities for Dallas, Dallas County and North Texas|url=http://www.dallasgenealogy.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=172&Itemid=110|publisher=Dallas Genealogical Society|accessdate=23 June 2012}}