Samuel B. Pryor Explained

Samuel B. Pryor
Order:1st
Office:Mayor of Dallas
Term Start:1856
Term End:1857
Predecessor:Office established
Successor:John McClannahan Crockett
Birth Date:12 August 1816
Birth Place:Lawrenceville, Brunswick, Virginia
Restingplace:Pioneer Cemetery, Dallas, Texas
Education:Hampden Sydney College
Nationality:American
Spouse:Anna Mariah Powell
Children:Ashton G. Pryor, E. R. Pryor, Charles R. Pryor, Pocahontas Pryor, Samuel B. Pryor, William L. Pryor
Occupation:Physician

Samuel B. Pryor (1816 - 1866) was the first mayor of Dallas, Texas.

After Dallas was granted a town charter on February 2, 1856 by the Texas legislature, Pryor became the first mayor of Dallas. He led a town government which had six aldermen, a treasurer-recorder, and a constable.[1] He was the first mayor of Dallas, Texas from 1856 to 1857.[2]

Born in Brunswick County, Virginia to Philip Pryor and Susan C. Wilkes,[3] his Pryor lineage is traceable through a line of affluent colonial Virginians. His father was counted as a head of household on the 1810 and 1820 Census[4] Presumably his father died before 1830 when his mother was then counted as head of household. Samuel Pryor would have been in his early teens at the time of his father's death.

Pryor was in the first graduating class of cadets from the Virginia Military Institute in 1839-1840.[5] He attended Hampden–Sydney College,[6] graduating in 1844. During the American Civil War, he served in the Confederate States Army.[2]

Samuel B. Pryor lived a life of public service. He was a physician.[7] Before serving as mayor, he served as the Court Clerk in Dallas County during 1848-1849.[8]

Notes and References

  1. . Retrieved on August 6, 2009.
  2. Web site: Index to Politicians: Pryor . The Political Graveyard . 6 August 2009.
  3. Web site: Wood. Vanessa. Affluent Pryor Families in Virginia. tennesseepryors.com. 23 June 2012.
  4. Web site: Pryors on Virginia Public Records. TnPryors.com. 23 June 2012. dead. https://web.archive.org/web/20130204203814/http://www.tnpryors.com/states_census/va_a-d.html. 4 February 2013.
  5. Book: Register Of The Officers And Cadets Of The Virginia Military Institute At Lexington, Virginia. 1840.
  6. Web site: Lemmons. Nova. Dr. Samuel B. Pryor Early Prominent Dallas County Resident. The Dallas Journal. 22 June 2012.
  7. Web site: Pryors on Texas Records. TNPryors.com. 23 June 2012. dead. https://web.archive.org/web/20130603235048/http://www.tnpryors.com/states_census/tx_a-d.htm. 3 June 2013.
  8. Web site: Genealogical Records, Resources & Activities for Dallas, Dallas County and North Texas. Dallas Genealogical Society. 23 June 2012.