Samuel Lightfoot Flournoy (politician)

Honorable
Samuel Lightfoot Flournoy
Member of the West Virginia Senate
from the 12th district
In office
1885–1890
Serving with George Edmund Price
Preceded byJoseph Van Meter
Succeeded byHenry Bell Gilkeson
Personal details
Born(1846-11-25)November 25, 1846
Chesterfield County, Virginia, United States
DiedJanuary 28, 1904(1904-01-28) (aged 57)
Orlando, Florida, United States
Political partyDemocratic Party
SpouseFrances "Fannie" Ann Armstrong White
RelationsRichard W. Flournoy (father)
Sarah Parke Poindexter Flournoy (mother)
John Baker White (father-in-law)
Christian Streit White (brother-in-law)
Robert White (brother-in-law)
John Baker White (nephew)
Robert White (nephew)
ChildrenRichard Parke Flournoy
Harry Lightfoot Flournoy
Frances T. Flournoy Preston
Robert Baker Flournoy
Samuel Lightfoot Flournoy
Alexander White Flournoy
Residence(s)Romney, West Virginia
Charleston, West Virginia
Alma materHampden–Sydney College (B.A.)
Professionlawyer, politician, businessperson
Military service
Allegiance Confederate States of America
Branch/service Confederate States Army
Years of service1863–1865 (CSA)
Rankprivate
UnitCompany A, Otey Battery
Virginia 13th Battalion Virginia Light Artillery
Battles/warsAmerican Civil War

Samuel Lightfoot Flournoy (November 25, 1846 – January 28, 1904) was an American lawyer, politician, and businessperson in the U.S. state of West Virginia. Flournoy served as a state senator representing the 12th Senatorial 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 West Virginia Democratic Party gubernatorial nomination in 1900.

Flournoy was born in 1846 in Chesterfield County, Virginia. In 1863, during the American Civil War, he enlisted as a private in the Confederate States Army and served until the war's end in 1865. After graduating from Hampden–Sydney College in 1868, Flournoy taught school for four years while studying law. In 1870 he relocated to Romney, West Virginia, where he served as principal of the Potomac Academy. He was admitted to the bar in 1873, and afterward served on the Board of Regents for the West Virginia Schools for the Deaf and Blind (1876–1880). During his second term in the West Virginia Senate, Flournoy relocated to Charleston to practice law. He also engaged in several business ventures and was an incorporator of the Bank of Romney, the Tug and Guyandotte Railroad Company, the Bradford Building Company, the White Oak Mining Company, and the West Construction Company. Flournoy served on the Board of Trustees of Hampden–Sydney College from 1892 until his death in 1904.

Through his marriage to Frances "Fannie" Ann Armstrong White, Flournoy was a brother-in-law of West Virginia Attorney General Robert White and West Virginia Fish Commission President Christian Streit White, and the son-in-law of Hampshire County Clerk of Court John Baker White. Through his father, Flournoy was a relative of Thomas Flournoy, United States Representative from Virginia. Flournoy was the father of prominent Charleston lawyer Samuel Lightfoot Flournoy.