Governor Daniel Duane Tompkins Farnsworth

DANIEL DUANE TOMPKINS FARNSWORTH was born in Staten Island, New York. He moved to Buckhannon, Virginia (now West Virginia) at an early age, learning the trade of tailoring. In 1861 he was elected a member of the Virginia General Assembly, but instead joined the First Wheeling Convention that led to the formation of West Virginia from the northern and western areas of Virginia. At the Second Wheeling Convention, he chaired the committee that presented the new state ordinance, which he is credited with authoring. He then became a member of the first session of West Virginia’s House of Delegates and a member of the State Senate for seven years. As president of the Senate, he assumed the office of governor upon the resignation of Arthur Boreman. He held the office only briefly, until the inauguration of William E. Stevenson. Farnsworth went on to serve as a member of the West Virginia Constitutional Convention of 1872. He died and was buried in Buckhannon, West Virginia.