Daniel Duane Tompkins Farnsworth was born on Staten Island, New York, and moved to Buckhannon, Upshur County, at the age of two. He was raised on a farm and later worked as a tailor, merchant, banker, railroad director, and as one of the first Upshur County justices of the peace. In 1861, Farnsworth became a member of the second Wheeling Convention, proposing the first statehood resolution. He served in the Reorganized Government of Virginia and West Virginia state senates between 1862 and 1870, and helped revise the state code in 1868.
When Arthur I. Boreman resigned as governor on February 26, 1869, to join the United States Senate, Farnsworth, as state senate president, assumed the duties of governor to complete Boreman's unexpired term. He served only a matter of days until March 4, 1869, when William Stevenson, victor in the gubernatorial election the previous year, was inaugurated. Farnsworth returned to the Senate, completing his term in 1870.
During the 1870s, Farnsworth was a leader in the state's Greenback party and attended the 1872 constitutional convention. He died in Buckhannon in 1892.
Inaugural Address
Newspaper Articles On Farnsworth Taking Office
Governor D. D. T. Farnsworth Letter, 27 February
1869
Finding Aid for the Farnsworth Family Collection