Henry M. Mathews

Henry Mason Mathews was the 7th Attorney General and 5th Governor of West Virginia. He was the first exConfederate elected to a governorship in the United States, and his election has been regarded as beginning of the era of the Bourbon Democrat.

Henry Mason Mathews was born on March 29, 1834 in Frankford, Greenbrier County to Eliza and Mason Mathews. His father was a member of the Virginia House of Delegates and his family had been politically prominent in colonial Virginia. His patrilineal ancestry was Welsh and AngloIrish. He was educated at the Lewisburg Academy and the University of Virginia, receiving the degrees of A.B. in 1855 and A.M. in 1856 and joining the fraternal organization Beta Theta Pi.He entered Lexington Law School and studied under John W. Brockenbrough, graduating in 1857 with a degree of B.L.. He was admitted to the Bar in 1857 and opened a law office in Lewisburg with his brother, Alexander F. Mathews.Soon afterward he accepted the professorship of Language and Literature at Alleghany College, Blue Sulphur Springs, retaining the privilege to practicing law in the courts.

Source: Wikipedia