Samuel Lightfoot Flournoy

Samuel Lightfoot Flournoy (November 25, 1846 – January 28, 1904) was an American lawyer and politician in the U.S. state of West Virginia. Flournoy served as a state senator representing the 12th District in the West Virginia Senate (1885–1890) and served three terms as mayor of Romney, West Virginia. Flournoy unsuccessfully ran as a candidate for the Democratic Party's West Virginia gubernatorial nomination in 1900. Prior to his law and political careers, Flournoy served in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War and as Principal of the Potomac Academy in Romney (1870).

Early life
Samuel Lightfoot Flournoy was born on November 25, 1846 in Chesterfield County, Virginia, 7 mi from Richmond, and was the son of Richard W. Flournoy and his wife, Sarah Parke. Flournoy was of English and French ancestry. He was a relative of Thomas Flournoy, United States Representative from Virginia. The majority of Flournoy's youth and early adulthood were spent in Richmond, where he received an education attending the city's public schools.

Military career
During the American Civil War in 1863, Flournoy enlisted as a private in the Confederate States Army at the age of 17. He served the entirety of his enlistment in Company A, Otey Battery, 13th Battalion Virginia Light Artillery in Richmond throughout the course of the war until its end in 1865.

Education and teaching career
Following the war, Flournoy entered Hampden–Sydney College in Hampden Sydney, Virginia to pursue an education in classical studies. He graduated with honors and a Bachelor of Arts from Hampden–Sydney College in 1868  and received the Speaker's Medal from the institution's Philanthropic Debating Society. While attending Hampden–Sydney College, Flournoy was a member of the Beta Theta Pi fraternity. Flournoy subsequently taught school for four years while concurrently studying law. He relocated to Romney, West Virginia around 1870 where he took charge as principal and taught at the Potomac Academy with "considerable success"  and continued his law studies. Flournoy was admitted to the bar in Romney in January 1873.

Law and political careers
Following his admission to the bar, Flournoy immediately began practicing law in Romney and "won merited distinction" in his field. He became a prominent leader in the community and was elected as a member of the Romney Literary Society. Flournoy served on the fourth Board of Regents of the West Virginia Schools for the Deaf and Blind from 1876 to 1880. He served three terms as mayor of Romney.

Flournoy was elected to represent the 12th District, consisting of Grant, Hampshire, Hardy, Mineral, and Pendleton counties, in the West Virginia Senate in 1885 and was re-elected to the seat in 1889. In the West Virginia state senatorial election on November 6, 1888, Flournoy defeated his Republican challenger S. G. Pownall with 5,578 votes to 4,028 votes for Pownall. In his first term in the West Virginia Senate, Flournoy served as chairman of the Judiciary Committee, and in his second term, Flournoy served as chairman of the Committee on Counties and Municipal Corporations. Throughout his two terms, Flournoy served on the committees of Privileges and Elections, Federal Relations, Immigration and Agriculture, and Public Printing. He resigned from his senate seat in 1890.

In 1890, during his second term in the West Virginia State Senate, Flournoy relocated from Romney to Charleston and continued practicing law there following his resignation from the senate. In Charleston, Flournoy founded the law firm Couch, Flournoy and Price with West Virginia state senator, George Edmund Price. The firm would later become Flournoy, Price, and Smith with the addition of Harrison Brooks Smith in 1894. In 1900, Flournoy ran as a candidate for the Democratic Party's West Virginia gubernatorial nomination. At the West Virginia Democratic State Convention held in Parkersburg on June 6, 1900, Flournoy competed for the party's nomination against Lewis N. Tavenner of Wood County, John H. Holt of Cabell County, and Virgil G. Lewis of Jackson County. Holt won the Democratic Party's nomination, but lost in the general election to Republican candidate, Albert B. White.

Flournoy was present at the first meeting of the West Virginia Bar Association held on the date of its organization on July 8, 1886, in Grafton. As a member, Flournoy was appointed to draft the association's constitution and by-laws and served on its executive committee. In addition to serving as a vice president of the association, Flournoy also represented the 12th Judicial Circuit on the association's Committee on Judicial Administration and Legal Reform and later served on the Committee of Admissions.

Business pursuits
On August 4, 1888, Flournoy purchased five shares priced at 100 USD each in order to invest in and provide capital stock for the incorporation of the Bank of Romney.

Religious activities
Flournoy was active in the Presbyterian Church in Hampshire County and served as a trustee for the Presbytery of Winchester, along with Henry Bell Gilkeson. In 1881, Flournoy and his fellow trustees were instrumental in securing from Amos L. and Allie G. Pugh a house and a large partially wooded land lot in Capon Bridge for use by the Presbytery as a centrally located manse in Hampshire County. Flournoy was elected as a deacon in the Presbyterian Church in 1879 and remained a trustee of the Presbytery of Winchester until 1891 when he relocated to Charleston.

Marriage and children
On April 10, 1875, in Hampshire County, West Virginia, Flournoy married Frances "Fannie" Ann White (born April 1843), daughter of John Baker White and Frances A. Streit. Frances White's brother, Robert White, served as West Virginia Attorney General from 1877 to 1881. Flournoy and his wife Frances had five children (four sons and one daughter):


 * R. Parke Flournoy (born December 29, 1875)
 * Harry L. Flournoy
 * Frances Z. Flournoy
 * Samuel L. Flournoy
 * Alexander White Flournoy

Flounoy died on January 28, 1904, in Charleston. He served on the Board of Trustees of Hampden–Sydney College from 1892 until his death.