{{Short description|American politician (1810–1876)}} {{Use mdy dates|date=June 2016}} {{Infobox officeholder |name = Allen T. Caperton |image = Allen T. Caperton - Brady-Handy.jpg |caption = Caperton, 1865–1986 |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<br>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 |birth_name = Allen Taylor Caperton |birth_date = {{birth date|1810|11|21}} |birth_place = Union, Virginia, U.S.<br>(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<br />Union, West Virginia, U.S. |party = Democratic |alma_mater = University of Virginia<br>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.<ref name="bio">{{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}}</ref> 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.<ref name="bio"/><ref name="obit">{{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}}</ref>
==Political career== Caperton practiced law.<ref name="bio"/> He was a member of the Virginia House of Delegates from 1841 to 1842 and later served in the Virginia Senate from 1844 to 1848. A Whig, he was one of the Virginia delegates to the 1848 Whig National Convention.<ref>{{cite book |author1=United States Congress |title=Memorial Addresses on the Life of Allen T. Caperton [...] |date=1877 |publisher=none |location=Washington, D.C. |page=6 |url=https://www.google.com/books/edition/Memorial_Addresses_on_the_Life_and_Chara/ua9-_1biy1wC}}</ref> 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.<ref name="bio"/>
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.<ref name="bio"/> 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.<ref name="bio"/>
Caperton was director of the James River and Kanawha Canal.<ref name="obit2">{{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 Daily Critic |page=1 |via=Newspapers.com |access-date=2024-11-23}}{{Open access}}</ref>
==Personal life== thumb|left|Elmwood Mansion Caperton married Harriet Echols, sister of John Echols.<ref name="daughter">{{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}}</ref> They had five children, Lin, Lizzie, Mrs. William A. Gordon, Mary and Allen T. Jr.<ref name="obit"/><ref name="daughter"/><ref name="bingham">{{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}}</ref><ref>{{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}}</ref> His daughter Lin married James French Patton and later married judge Edward Franklin Bingham.<ref name="bingham"/><ref>{{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}}</ref>
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.<ref name="bio"/><ref name="obit2"/>
His residence near Union, "Elmwood," was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1976.<ref name="nris">{{NRISref|version=2010a|dateform=Mdy}}</ref>
==See also== *List of members of the United States Congress who died in office (1790–1899)
==References== {{reflist}} {{CongBio|C000130}} Retrieved on March 23, 2009
==External links== {{commons category}} * {{Internet Archive author |sname=Allen T. Caperton}} * {{fg|7619539}}
{{s-start}} {{s-par|cs-sen}} {{s-bef|before=William Preston}} {{s-ttl|title=Confederate States Senator (Class 2) from Virginia|years=1864–1865|alongside=Robert Hunter}} {{s-non|reason=Constituency abolished}} |- {{s-par|us-sen}} {{U.S. Senator box | before=Arthur Boreman | state=West Virginia | class=1 | years=March 4, 1875 – July 26, 1876 | alongside=Henry Davis | after=Samuel Price}} {{s-end}}
{{C.S. Senators}} {{USSenWV}} {{Portal bar|American Civil War|Biography|Politics|Virginia}} {{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Caperton, Allen T.}} Category:1810 births Category:1876 deaths Category:Democratic Party members of the Virginia House of Delegates Category:Democratic Party Virginia state senators Category:Confederate States of America senators Category:Democratic Party United States senators from West Virginia Category:People from Union, West Virginia Category:People of Virginia in the American Civil War Category:People of West Virginia in the American Civil War Category:Virginia lawyers Category:West Virginia Democrats Category:Virginia Secession Delegates of 1861 Allen T. Category:Yale College alumni Category:University of Virginia alumni Category:West Virginia lawyers Category:19th-century West Virginia politicians Category:19th-century American lawyers Category:19th-century United States senators Category:19th-century members of the Virginia General Assembly
{{Virginia-politician-stub}} {{WestVirginia-politician-stub}}