Allen Taylor Caperton

Background

Allen Caperton, son of Hugh Caperton and Jane Erskine, was born near Union, Monroe County, West Virginia (now West Virginia) on November 21, 1810.

Education

Allen Taylor Caperton graduated from the University of Virginia at Charlottesville, then he graduated from Yale College (now Yale University) in 1832.

Career

Allen Taylor Caperton began a law practice in Staunton in 1833 but soon abandoned it for politics and business. Caperton served as a Whig in the Virginia House of Delegates in 1841-1842 and again from 1857 to 1859. From 1844 to 1848 and in 1859-1860, he represented Monroe County in the state Senate.

He also was a director of the James River and Kanawha Canal Company and became a well-to-do financier. As a delegate to the Virginia constitutional convention of 1850, he sided with the western counties and argued for a white basis of voter representation. The members of the Virginia state legislature elected him to the Confederate Senate in late 1861, where he served throughout the war.

Caperton at first went back to private life; when his restrictions ended, he entered political life. As a Democratic United States senator from West Virginia in 1875-1876, he served on the Railroad and Claims Committees, and he helped to bring the coal and timber wealth of West Virginia to the knowledge of investors.

Achievements

• Allen Taylor Caperton is known as the first ex-Confederate elected to the United States Senate.
  
  His residence near Union, West Virginia, "Elmwood," was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1976.

Politics

An opponent of the Davis administration in both Senates, Caperton served on the Accounts, Conference, Engrossment and Enrollment, Foreign Relations, and Judiciary Committees.

While no secessionist, he nevertheless voted for secession at the state convention because he believed that it would bring peace.

Connections

Allen Taylor Caperton married to Harriet Echols Caperton. From this marriage, four children were born: Mary Caperton, Harriette Echols Caperton, Malinda A. Caperton, Ella Caperton.

Father:

Hugh Elmwood Caperton

Mother:

Jane Erskine Caperton

Daughter:

Mary Caperton Braxton

Daughter:

Malinda A. Caperton Patton

Daughter:

Ella Caperton

References

• Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1774-2005
  2006