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VIRGINIA
REBIRTH OF THE OLD DOMINION
Virginia Biography
By Special Staff of Writers
Issued in Five Volumes
VOLUME III
ILLUSTRATED
THE LEWIS PUBLISHING COMPANY
CHICAGO AND NEW YORK
1929
VIRGINIA BEACH PU'^UC LIBRARY
0.3
VIRGINIA
BEACH PUBLIC LIBRARY SYSTEM - DUP
AiaaBO 0=16276
Copyright, 1929
The Lewis Publishing Company
HISTORY of VIRGINIA
Harry Flood Byrd was barely forty years old when elected
governor of Virginia, being one of the youngest in the long list
of executives of the state during one and a half centuries. As
governor he at once instituted a large number of constitutional
reforms, which were confirmed by popular vote in June, 1927.
Some account of these reforms is given in Volume II of the
present history of Virginia.
It is doubtful if any family of Colonial Virginians has been
more persistently productive of men talented for professional,
business and public life. Governor Byrd is the seventh genera-
tion from the first William Byrd of Westover, whose son, William
Byrd II, has been called the founder of Richmond.
Governor Byrd was born in Berkeley County, Virginia, June
10, 1887. His father, Richard Evelyn Byrd, was born in Texas,
August 13, 1860. His birth in Texas was due to the fact that
his father. Col. William Byrd, had moved to Texas a short time
before the outbreak of the war between the states, and became a
colonel in the Confederate army. After the war he returned
to Virginia and practiced law at Winchester. Richard Evelyn
Byrd, Sr., was reared at Winchester, attended the University of
Virginia and the University of Maryland, was admitted to the
bar in 1884, and for over forty years practiced law at Winchester
and Richmond. He was speaker of the House of Delegates from
1908 to 1914, served as United States district attorney of the
Western District of Virginia from 1914 to 1920, and for some
months following that was special assistant to the attorney gen-
eral of the United States. He also served as a member of the
State Tax Commission and as a member of the Educational Com-
mission of Virginia from 1908 to 1912, was a member of the
State Commission on Efficiency and Economy from 1916 to
1918, was chairman of the State Industrial Council of Safety
in 1917.
Richard Evelyn Byrd, Sr., married, September 15, 1886, Miss
Elinor Boiling Flood, daughter of Maj. Joel W. and Ella (Faulk-
ner) Flood. They had three sons, all of whom have become
prominent, Harry Flood, Richard Evelyn, Jr., and Capt. Thomas
Boiling Byrd. All the world knows of the great exploits of
Richard Evelyn Byrd, Jr., who by special act of Congress in
January, 1927, was promoted from lieutenant commander of the
United States Navy retired to the grade of commander on the
retired list, and was also presented with a medal of honor for
his achievement in making a successful flight across the North
Polar regions.
Governor Byrd was reared in Winchester, attended the Shen-
andoah Valley Academy, and chose a business rather than a pro-
fessional career. At the age of sixteen he was manager of the
Winchester Evening Star, subsequently was superintendent of
the Southern Bell Telephone & Telegraph Company, and in 1907,
at the age of twenty, started the Martinsburg Journal. He
turned from the newspaper business to become one of the out-
4 VIRGINIA
standing fruit growers and orchardists of the Shenandoah Val-
ley, acquiring by planting and purchase 1,500 acres containing
65,000 trees, one of the largest individually owned apple orchards
east of the Mississippi. He became president of the Winchester
Cold Storage Company and was identified with a number of
other business organizations at Winchester.
It was his qualifications as an unusually successful business
executive that gave him such a notable influence with the people
of Virginia in general. For a number of years he has been a
leader in politics in his section. In 1917 he was elected a mem-
ber of the State Senate and was reelected without opposition
in 1921. He was a leader in good roads legislation, becoming
chairman of the Senate Committee on roads. In 1922 he became
chairman of the State Democratic Central Committee, and in
that year for the first time in twenty years Virginia sent a solid
Democratic delegation to Congress.
Governor Byrd married, October 7, 1913, Miss Annie Douglas
Beverly, daughter of J. B. Beverly, of Winchester. Their chil-
dren are: H. F. Byrd, Jr., Beverly Byrd, Miss Westwood Byrd
and Richard Evelyn Byrd.
Edwin Anderson Alderman is a native of North Carolina,
and that state recognizes a lasting debt of gratitude to him for
his pioneer work as an educational statesman. From North
Carolina his work extended to other states, and since 1904 he has
been president of the University of Virginia and has long been
regarded as the strongest single constructive influence in the
educational progress of the entire South.
He was born at Wilmington, North Carolina, May 15, 1861,
son of James and Susan J. Alderman, and member of a family
that has been in North Caroline since Colonial times, one of his
forefathers having been a soldier of the Revolution. He at-
tended Bethel Military Academy of Virginia, in 1878 entered the
University of North Carolina, and graduated in 1882 with the
Bachelor of Philosophy degree and the Mangum Medal in
oratory. His first intention was to practice law, but a year of
teaching gave him a stronger interest in education. In 1885 he
became superintendent of the city schools of Goldsboro. In
1889 he and Charles Duncan Mclver took upon themselves the
heavy and unpopular responsibilities of leading a crusade
throughout Noi'th Carolina in behalf of educational reform, in-
volving primarily the fundamentals of popular education sup-
ported by general taxation. In 1892, when Doctor Mclver
founded and became president of the Normal and Industrial
College for Women at Greensboro, Mr. Alderman accepted the
chair of history, but in 1893 took the chair of education in the
University of North Carolina, and in 1896 was elected president
of that institution. In April, 1900, he became president of
Tulane University at New Orleans. In 1897 Armistead Gordon
had as a member of the Board of Visitors started an inquiry into
the expediency of creating the office of president for the Uni-
versity of Virginia, and after some years such an office was
created and Edwin A. Alderman was invited to become the first
incumbent. Doctor Alderman was installed as head of this old
and famous institution of learning in the South in 1904. Dur-
ing the past quarter of a century the university has been thor-
oughly reorganized, and without the loss of any of its splendid
traditions and atmosphere of quiet culture the various schools
and departments of the ijniversity proper have been so strength-
(tu^.JJ<KjM^<^ n ,^-^
VIRGINIA 5
ened and improved as to conform to the highest standards of
later day educational classification, and the opportunities of some
of the departments are not excelled by any university in the
country.
In his native state, at Tulane, at the University of Virginia,
over a period of forty years, the labors of Doctor Alderman have
been directed to the fulfillment of a great ideal, and the measure
of that fulfillment is the real basis of Doctor Alderman's great-
ness as an educational leader and builder. The definition of his
ideal of education he gave in an address many years ago in the
following words: "Humanism produce the man of culture, and
his peril was self-sufficiency and a conception of culture as orna-
ment. Applied science and the interior demands of commerce
have produced the man of efficiency, and his peril is personal
barrenness and instinctive greed. Our country needs the ideal-
ism of the one and the lordship over things of the other, and such
a blend will be the great citizen whose advent industrial democ-
racy has so long foreshadowed. The kind of work he shall do in
the world is immaterial. He shall be an upward striving man
who wants the truth and dares to utter it, who knows his own
need and the need of his age, who counts adaptability and tolera-
tion among his virtues, who insists on a little leisure for his
soul's sake, and who has a care, whether amid the warfare of
trade or in the quiet and still air of study, for the building of
things ever better and better about him."
Doctor Alderman has not neglected the manifold agencies
and organizations outside of his immediate sphere of duties in
order to give full expression to his influence and usefulness. He
is a member of the General Educational Board, the Board of
Trustees of the Woodrow Wilson Foundation, member of the
Board of Governors of the Institute of Economics, the Thomas
Jefferson Memorial Foundation, the Board of Advisors of the
Institute of Politics, member of the American Academy of Social
Sciences and a member of the American Academy of Arts and
Letters. His chief writings comprise A Brief History of North
Carolina, Life, of William Hooper, Life of J. L. M. Curry, Obliga-
tions and Opportitnities of Citizenship, Southern Idealism, The
Spirit of the South, Sectionalism and Nationality, The Groiving
Smith, Can Democracy be Organized? Causes of European War,
Some Tests of an Educated Man, Function and Needs of Schools
of Education in Universities and Colleges, Memorial Address on
Woodroiv Wilson, The Nation Exalts Jefferson. He was editor
in chief of the Library of Southern Literature.
The degree Doctor of Civil Law was conferred on him by
the University of the South in 1896, and that of Doctor of Laws
by Tulane, Johns Hopkins, Columbia, Yale, University of North
Carolina, Williams College, Harvard, University of Pennsylvania
and the College of William and Mary.
Doctor Alderman married, in 1886, Miss Emma Graves,
whose brother, Ralph Graves, was a professor in the University
of North Carolina. She died in 1896, and in 1904 he married
Bessie Green Hearn, of New Orleans. He has one son, Edwin
Anderson, Jr., born in 1905.
Carter Glass has given a consecutive service to the Nation
of such value as to make him one of the most distinguished men
at Washington. That service began more than a quarter of a
century ago when he went to Congress. He resigned his seat in
6 VIRGINIA
the House of Representatives to become secretary of the treas-
ury, and that cabinet post was relinquished to iDecome United
States senator from Virginia. Senator Glass' home community
is Lynchburg, where he was born January 4, 1858. His father.
Major Robert Henry Glass, was born in Amherst County, Vir-
ginia, in 1822, son of Thomas and Lavinia (Cauthorne) Glass.
Major Glass was one of the great newspaper men of Virginia, a
vigorous, fearless writer, possessed of physical and moral cour-
age to perform his duties as he saw them, but never intention-
ally or carelessly wounding the feelings of an honest man. He
was for many years editor and proprietor of the Daily Repiibli-
can at Lynchburg, and in his advanced years still kept in touch
with newspaper work in the editorial office of the Lynchburg
Advance. He died May 6, 1896. For many years he was also
postmaster of Lynchburg, and at the close of the Civil war was
offered reappointment by President Lincoln. For a portion of
the war he served with the rank of major on General Floyd's
staff. Major Glass married Elizabeth Augusta Christian,
daughter of Judge Samuel Christian and granddaughter of Capt.
Henry Christian, a Revolutionary officer. She was born in 1826
and died January 15, 1860, Carter Glass being one of her five
children.
Carter Glass was educated in public and private schools in
Lynchburg, and at the age of fourteen went to work in his fath-
er's printing office. He served in the mechanical department
of a printing office for eight years, that experience being the
foundation of his profession as a newspaper man. He was with
the Lynchburg Republican and also with the Petersburg Netvs
while his father was editor of that paper. For several years he
had some experience as clerk in the auditor's office of what is
now the Norfolk and Western Railway.
In 1880 he became local reporter on the staff of the Lynch-
burg News, was promoted to editor, and in 1888 acquired the
plant of the News, and has owned that influential morning news-
paper of Southwest Virginia for forty years. In 1895 he bought
the Lynchburg Virginian and the Evening Advance, merging
the Virginian with the News, and has continued the publication
of the Advance as an evening daily.
Carter Glass was one of the first Virginia newspaper men to
achieve some of the highest honors of leadership in the Demo-
cratic party of the state and nation. His first important politi-
cal service was in making the nominating speech for J. Hoge
Tyler for governor in 1897. In 1899 he was elected a member
of the State Senate, served as a member of the Virginia Con-
stitutional Convention of 1902-03, and wrote the suffrage article
in the new constitution. He resigned from the State Senate in
1902, when elected to the Fifty-seventh Congress as successor
to Peter J. Otey, deceased, and by reelections continued to repre-
sent this district through the Fifty-eighth and Sixty-fifth Con-
gresses. He resigned his seat in 1918 to accept the invitation of
President Wilson to become secretary of the treasury in the
Wilson cabinet. While in Congi-ess Mr. Glass had gained great
distinction by his service in connection with the passage of
the Fedei-al Reserve Act, and his close study of banking and
financial questions made him an authority on those subjects,
and this was the basis of his appointment to the cabinet. Mr.
Glass in February, 1920, resigned to accept the appointment of
VIRGINIA 7
United States senator for the unexpired term of Thomas S.
Martin. He was subsequently elected for the remainder of the
unexpired term, and in 1924 was elected for the full term expir-
ing in 1931.
Senator Glass married, in 1886, Aurelia Caldwell, of Lynch-
burg. He is the father of four children.
Harris Hart, state superintendent of public instruction at
Richmond, has held that office since 1918.
He was formerly a member of the State Board of Examiners
of Teachers, and has given nearly thirty years to the responsi-
bilities of teaching and school administration. Mr. Hart was
teacher and principal of the Roanoke High School from 1900
to 1909, and superintendent of Roanoke schools until he became
state superintendent. He is a graduate of Richmond College
and has been a graduate student at the University of Chicago
and Harvard University.
Mr. Hart was born in Richmond, Virginia, Februai-y 24,
1878, son of John and Sallie L. (Coleman) Hart, the father a
native of Louisa County and the mother of Spotsylvania County,
Virginia. The father served in an engineers corps in the Con-
federate army. He then became an educator and was president
of Richmond Female Institute and later of Albemarle Female
Institute and co-principal in several academies for boys. He
died in March, 1897, and the mother died in October, 1914.
Harris Hart was educated in Bowling Green Academy, Caro-
line County, Virginia, and in high school in Bowling Green,
Virginia. He married Miss Mayola Gillespie, of Tazewell, Vir-
ginia, in June, 1922. She is a daughter of A. P. and Mary (Hig-
ginbotham) Gillespie, natives of Virginia. The parents are de-
ceased. The father was a member of the State Constitutional
Convention in 1901. He was a very distinguished attorney and
resided at Tazewell, Virginia. He died in 1913 and the mother
died in 1914.
Mr. and Mrs. Hart have three children, namely: Olivia
Johnston, born in June, 1923 ; Helen Lewis, born in October,
1925 ; and Harris II, born in April, 1928.
From 1905 to 1909 Mr. Hart served as district school super-
visor in charge of Southwest Virginia. He is a director of the
Richmond Trust Company, a member of the Westmoreland Club,
Hermitage Club, Richmond Country Club and is a teacher of
the Young Men's Business Class in the Second Baptist Church
of Richmond. Politically he is a Democrat and is a member of
the Sons of Confederate Veterans.
LeRoy Hodges, managing director of the Virginia State
Chamber of Commerce, is both a scholar and a practical expert
in the field of economics and commercial administration.
He was born at Tarboro, North Carolina, July 12, 1888, son
of Eli Blucher and Rosa Hammond (Warringion) Hodges. Dur-
ing 1905-06, befoi'e he was eighteen years of age, he had ex-
perience in railroad and topographical surveying which took
him over the Southern and Southwestern states and Mexico.
During 1906-08 he was a student in the School of Commerce of
Washington and Lee University, and subsequently was a stu-
dent in the department of political economy at the University
of Chicago and in the Law School of Washington and Lee Uni-
8 VIRGINIA
versity. Mr. Hodges was a special agent of the United States
Immigration Commission, 1908-1910, was commercial geographer
of the United States Tariff Board, 1910-11, commissioner of
immigration for the Southern Commercial Congress in 1911,
field secretary of the National Citizen's League for Promotion
of a Sound Banking System in 1912. He served as secretary of
the Winston-Salem Board of Trade in 1912-13, and in 1913 was
chosen Virginia's representative on the American Commission
for the investigation in Europe of cooperative agricultural
finance and other subjects. He was also assistant to the United
States commission on rural credits. During 1915-16 he was
director of the Department of Municipal Efficiency and Admin-
istration in the Bureau of Applied Economics at Washington,
served as associate editor of the Petersburg Daily Index-Appeal,
and during 1916-17 as a member and secretary of the Virginia
Commission on Economy and Efficiency.
Mr. Hodges in 1917 was appointed a special field representa-
tive of the United States Food Administration, and was director
of the Petersburg Bureau of Governmental Research. He also
engaged in private practice as a consulting economist. Mr.
Hodges had charge of the preparation of the Virginia State
budget from 1918 to 1924, was president of the Virginia Prison
Board from 1920 to 1926, was a director of the National Budget
Committee, 1922-24, and the first director of the Budget of the
Commonwealth of Virginia, 1922-24. He has been managing
director of the Virginia State Chamber of Commerce since
February 1, 1924.
He served as secretary and personal military aide to the
governor of Virginia with the rank of colonel, February 1, 1918-
1922. He was commissioned major. Ordnance Department, Vir-
ginia National Guard, September 11, 1920, and assigned to duty
as state ordnance officer and on September 29, 1921, was com-
missioned major. Ordnance Officers' Reserve Corps, United
States Army.
Among the many responsible duties with which he has been
charged he acted as technical advisor to the Virginia Commis-
sion on Simplification of State Government, as chairman of the
Committee in Allocation of Prison Industries, and as a director
of the National Committee on Prisons and Prison Labor, and
national treasurer of the Lower Taxes — Less Legislation League.
Major Hodges is a Fhi Beta Kappa, a Democrat and an
Episcopalian. He is an officer of the Order of the Crown of
Italy, and an officer of the Order of the White Lion of Czecho-
slovakia ; and a member of the Country Club of Virginia and
Westmoreland Club at Richmond, the country clubs at Peters-
burg and Fredericksburg, and of the National Press Club of
Washington. He married, January 18, 1911, Almeria Orr Hill,
of Petersburg, Virginia. They had three children, LeRoy, Rosa
Batte, and Almeria Hill (deceased). In connection with his
work Major Hodges has prepared for the press a great many
bulletins and other articles, and some of the formal publications
which attest his scholarship and experience include: Agricul-
tural Credit Systeyns Abroad, published in 1913; Petersburg,
Virginia — Economic and Muni-cipal, published in 1917; Post-
war Ordnance, published in 1923. He was editor of The South's
Physical Recovery, published in 1911, and Agricultural Coopera^
tion and Rural Credit in Europe, published in 1913.
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VIRGINIA . 9
Francis Howe McGuire, who was called the father of the
Virginia Bar Association, achieved an eminence in his profession
that cannot be measured by the comparatively brief period of
yeai's allotted him by the destiny of life.
He was born in Mecklenburg County, Virginia, June 4, 1850,
and died October 30, 1894, at the age of forty-four. The name
McGuire brings up a host of distinguished associations in Vir-
ginia. The Virginia McGuires were descended from the Chiefs
of Fermanagh, one branch of which was established in County
Kerry, Ireland, in 1641. The founder of the Virginia family
was Edward McGuire, a native of County Fermanagh, who came
to this country in 1754, settling at Winchester in Frederick
County. Some of his descendants have gained great distinction
in the field of medicine and surgery, others in the law, and still
others in the educational field and in the clergy. One of the
ancestors of the late Francis Howe McGuire was Col. William
McGuire, of Winchester, who enlisted at the age of thirteen for
service in the War of the Revolution and became a lieutenant of
artillery. At the battle of Eutaw Springs he was permanently
disabled. After the war he studied law, and became the first
chief justice of the Territory of Mississippi, but because of ill
health left that territory and removed to land he owned on the
Ohio River near Wheeling, where he died November 20, 1820.
He was at one time paymaster at Harpers Ferry and was a
member of the Society of the Cincinnati. Col. William McGuire
married Mary Little, daughter of William Little. She died in
April, 1821. Colonel McGuire was a member of the Virginia
Legislature during 1796-1799. Part of his education was
acquired in William and Mary College. One of his grandsons
was the noted Richmond educator, John P. McGuire.
A son of Col. William McGuire was at one time mayor of
Winchester and county magistrate for many years. This
McGuire was the father of Rev. Francis H. McGuire and grand-
father of the Richmond attorney of the same name. Rev. Fran-
cis H. McGuire was born in Virginia, in 1809, was educated at
Kenyon College in Ohio and in the Episcopal Theological Semi-
nary of Virginia. He was ordained in the Episcopal Church in
1836, preached at Christs Church at Lancaster, Virginia, and
subsequently went to the Mecklenburg parish, where he re-
mained until a few years before his death on April 22, 1865.
Rev. Francis H. McGuire married Mary Willing Harrison, of
the distinguished Harrison family of Virginia.
Francis Howe McGuire was educated in private schools, in
Randolph-Macon College and the University of Virginia, enter-
ing the latter institution in 1871. He also taught school at
Huntsville, Alabama, and in Col. Thomas Carter's School in
King William County, Virginia. He completed his law studies
under John P. Minor at the University of Virginia, was ad-
mitted to the bar in 1874, and by his industry and good character
soon established the reputation his abilities so justly merited.
In 1878 he formed a partnership with Col. Tazewell Ellett, and
they were together for twelve years. Mr. McGuire was a stu-
dent of the law, and always regarded it as a profession rather
than a vocation. Even after he had made a reputation as a
lawyer he continued to take summer courses at the university.
He was. a charter member of the Richmond Bar Association, of
which he was at one time president, and was chairman of the
executive committee of the Virginia State Bar Association from
10 VIRGINIA
its inception until one year before his death. Another fact
that should be mentioned to his credit was his work in bringing
about the establishment of the Court of Law and Equity at
Richmond. A great part of his extensive law practice was in
chancery and common law cases. He was noted for his thor-
oughness, energy and tenacity. One of his best known cases
was that of Bosher versus the Harrisburg Land Company, and
in winning this case before the Supreme Court of Appeals the
decision of the court established a new principle of law in Vir-
ginia. Mr. McGuire was counsel for Colonel Spottswood in the
contested primary election case of Spottswood versus Smith.
He was always a loyal friend of the University of Virginia.
He was for a number of years a member of the Howitzer Bat-
tery at Richmond and at one time lieutenant in command. He
was a member of the committee on statistics of the Chamber of
Commerce, member of the Society of Alumni of the University
of Virginia, was director of the Male Orphan Asylum, and the
Board of Incorporators of the Protestant Episcopal Church
Home, a director of the Peterkin Memorial Association, treas-
urer of the church fund of the diocese, member of the Virginia
Historical Society, and was on the board of the Virginia State
Insurance Company. He was a member of the vestry of St.
James Episcopal Church and prominent in the Brotherhood of
St. James, which he founded.
Mr. McGuire married a daughter of Emile Otto Knolting,
who was Belgian consul at Richmond during the Civil war and
became president of the National Bank of Virginia. After his
death two brothers of Mrs. McGuire served successively as Bel-
gian consul. Mrs. McGuire is a member of the Richmond
Woman's Club. She has been deeply interested for a number
of years in mountain mission work, and she donated the cost of
a house at Schiflets Hollow, made as a memorial to Francis
Howe McGuire, though the title she chose for the building was
simply the Mission Home.
The only child of the late Francis Howe McGuire is Susie,
now Mrs. Tazewell Ellett, Jr. Mr. and Mrs. Ellett were mar-
ried December 14, 1917, and have three children, Helen McGuire,
Tazewell III and Josephine Scott. Mr. Ellett was formerly an
official of the Chesapeake & Ohio Railway and is now a member
of the State Highway Commission of Virginia. Mrs. Susie
Ellett is a member of the Richmond Woman's Club.
Andrew Jackson Montague is a lawyer and scholar whose
services have done much to enrich Virginia's distinctions abroad,
and he has earned notable dignities and positions in his own
state and nation.
He was born in Campbell County, Virginia, October 3, 1862,
son of Robert Latane and Gay (Eubank) Montague. Graduat-
ing from Richmond College in 1882, he took his law degree at
the University of Virginia in 1885, and so far as the cares and
responsibilities of public life would permit has practiced law
steadily since that year. Brown University and the University
of Pennsylvania have honored him with the degree Doctor of
Laws.
He was United States district attorney for the Western Dis-
trict of Virginia from 1894 to 1898, was attorney general of
Virginia, 1898-1902, and came to the office of governor in 1902,
serving four years and one month. When he retired from this
office in 1906 he accepted the position of dean of the Law School
VIRGINIA 11
of Richmond College. Governor Montague in 1909 resumed his
private law practice at Richmond, but in 1912 again accepted
an opportunity to serve his state when he was chosen from the
Third Virginia District a member of the Sixty-third Congress.
That district has continued his representation at Washington
and in 1928 he was elected a member of the Seventieth Congress.
He is now the senior member of the Virginia delegation.
Governor Montague was a United States delegate to the Pan-
American Conference at Rio de Janiero in 1906, to the Third
International Conference on Maritime Law at Brussels in 1909-
10, in 1917 was president of the American Society for the Judi-
cial Settlement of International Disputes, and from 1920 to 1924
was president of the American Peace Society. In 1910 he be-
came a trustee for the Carnegie Institution of Washington and
the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. William and
Mary College elected him a member of the Phi Beta Kappa fra-
ternity in 1908. Author, Life of John Marshall, Secretary of
State Tin American Secretary of State and Their Diplomacy),
Volume II.
Governor Montague married, December 11, 1889, Elizabeth
Lyne Hoskins.
Henry G. Shirley, chairman of the State Highway Commis-
sion of Virginia, has had a successful career as an engineer, in
railroad and general engineering as well as highway building.
He is a native of West Virginia, born at Locust Grove,
Shenandoah Valley, Jefferson County, son of Robert Vincent
and Julia (Baylor) Shirley. His maternal grandfather was
Col. R. W. Baylor, a Confederate officer of the Twelfth Virginia
Cavalry.
Henry G. Shirley was educated by a private governess, also
in public schools, preparing for college at the Charles Town
Male Academy and graduating with the degree Civil Engineer
from the Virginia Military Institute. Then followed several
years of practical experience, after which he submitted a thesis
and received a formal degi-ee of Civil Engineer. Since then
two institutions of learning have seen fit to recognize his service
and attainments, Maryland University and Hampden-Sidney
College having conferred upon him the honorary degree Doctor
of Science. For a time Mr. Shirley was commandant of Cadets
at Horner Military School in North Carolina. His professional
experience includes service in the engineering departments of
the District of Columbia, New York Central Railroad, West
Virginia Central Railroad and Baltimore &. Ohio systems. He
was formerly road engineer of Baltimore County and chief
engineer of the State Roads Commission of Maryland. During
the World war he was a member of the Highway Transport
Committee of the Council of National Defense and secretary of
the Federal Highway Council. He was then called to his work
as state highway commissioner of the Virginia Highway De-
partment.
Mr. Shirley is a member of the American Society of Civil
Engineers, is a past president and member of the Board of
Directors of the American Road Builders Association, and had
the honor of being elected the first president of the American
State Highway Officials Association. His home is in Richmond.
Mr. Shirley married Miss Alice Graham, member of one of the
most distinguished families of North Carolina, daughter of
Judge A. W. Graham, of Oxford. They have five children.
12 VIRGINIA
Robert Riddick Prentis, chief justice of the Supreme Court
of Appeals of Virginia, has a distinguished ancestry, and his
own career has been animated by the spirit of service which
seems inherent in the name and hneage.
Judge Prentis was born at University, in Albemarle County,
May 24, 1855, and is in the fifth generation from William Pren-
tis, who was born in Norfolk County, England, in 1701, and as
a young man came to America, settUng in York County, Vir-
ginia. He was a merchant of the firm Blair & Prentis at Wil-
liamsburg, where he died August 4, 1765. William Prentis
married Mary Brooke, who was born in 1710 and died April 9,
1768, daughter of John and Ann Brooke, of York County,
Virginia.
Their son, Joseph Prentis, of Williamsburg, born January 24,
1754, was a member of the Virginia Convention which met in
December, 1775, was appointed a commissioner in admiralty
in 1776, was a member of the first House of Delegates in 1777
from Williamsburg, subsequently serving as a member from
York, and was speaker of the House in 1788. He was a member
of Governor Patrick Henry's Privy Council in 1779, and was
judge of the General Court from 1789 until his death June 18,
1809. He was also credited with an important share in the ne-
gotiations and propositions on the part of Virginia which led
to the convention for the drawing up of the Federal Constitution.
He married, December 16, 1778, Margaret Bowdoin, who was
born November 27, 1758, and died August 27, 1801. She was a
daughter of John Bowdoin and also a descendant of Sir George
Yeardley, colonial governor of Virginia.
Their son, Joseph Prentis, Jr., of Suffolk, was born at Wil-
liamsburg January 24, 1783, and died at Suffolk April 29, 1851.
He was a lawyer, was a member of the convention of 1829-30,
and for many years clerk of Nansemond County. He married,
January 10, 1810, Susan Caroline Riddick, who was born in
Nansemond County and died October 19, 1862, being a daughter
of Col. Robert Moore and Elizabeth Riddick, she being a daugh-
ter of Col. Willis and Mary (Foulke) Riddick.
Robert Riddick Prentis, Sr., representing the fourth genera-
tion of the family, was born at Suffolk April 11, 1818, and died
at Charlottesville November 23, 1871. He was educated for the
bar, but spent most of his life in the University community at
Charlottesville, serving as proctor of the University for some
years, as clerk of Albemarle County, and during the Civil war
as collector of internal revenue. He married Margaret Ann
Whitehead, who was born August 8, 1826, and died February 16,
1910, daughter of Elliott and Catherine Flynn Whitehead.
Judge Robert Riddick Prentis was sixteen years old when
his father died. He had attended the Oak Grove Academy at
Charlottesville, but after the death of his father had to make
his own way and also contribute to the support of his widowed
mother and younger children. In 1874 he graduated from the
Eastman Business College at Poughkeepsie, New York, and
after one session at the University of Virginia was given the
Bachelor of Laws degree in 1876. He at once engaged in prac-
tice at Charlottesville, remaining there until 1879, during that
year was at Norfolk, and in 1879 established his home and law
business at Suffolk. He served as mayor of Suffolk in 1883-85,
and gave his time to a growing law practice until 1895. During
the past thirty years his attention has been fully taken up by
judicial and other official duties. He was judge of the Virginia
.A.^^
VIRGINIA 13
Circuit Court in the Norfolk Circuit from 1895 until he resigned
in 1907 to become chairman of the State Corporation Commis-
sion. Judge Prentis left the chairmanship of the Corporation
Commission in 1916 to become associate justice of the Supreme
Court of Appeals. Since March 10, 1925, he has been president
or chief justice of the Supreme Court. His offices are at Rich-
mond and he still retains his residence at Suffolk.
Judge I rentis was a member of the Democratic State Com-
mittee from 1887 to 1892, was a presidential elector in 1892, a
member of the Virginia State Tax Commission in 1910, member
of the State Advisory Board on Taxation in 1916, and during
1915-16 was president of the National Association of Railway
Commissioners. He also served for some years as director of
the Lee Camp Soldiers Home, the state institution for disabled
Confederate veterans. He is a member of the Virginia State
and American Bar Associations, Virginia Historical Society,
Virginia Society of Colonial Wars, Sons of the Revolution. He
is a Phi Beta Kappa, member of the Episcopal Church, and is a
member of a number of clubs at Richmond, Norfolk and other
communities. In 1919 he became a member of the Virginia
War History Commission. He was given the LL. D. degree
from the College of William and Mary in 1925. He was chair-
man of the Judicial Section, American Bar Association, 1926 ;
chairman of the Commission on Revision and Amendment of
the Virginia Constitution, 1927; chairman of the Judicial Coun-
cil in Virginia in 1928.
Judge Prentis married, January 6, 1888, Mary Allen Darden.
She died in 1904.
John Archer Coke. It is well that this publication enter
a memoir to the late Capt. John Archer Coke, who was long one
of the leading members of the Virginia bar, who stood exponent
of the patrician regime of the fine old Southern school of culture
and refinement, and who was a representative of a Virginia
family whose name has been one of prominence and influence
in the history of the Old Dominion since the early Colonial
period. Captain Coke was long engaged in the practice of law
in the City of Richmond, and was here the senior member of
the representative law firm of Coke & Pickrell at the time of his
death, which occurred on the 27th of January, 1920.
In the historic old city of Williamsburg, Virginia, the birth
of Captain Coke occurred July 14, 1842, he having been a direct
descendant of John Coke, who was born in England, in 1704, of
patrician ancestry, and who thence came, from Derbyshire, to
America in the year 1724 to become a member of the original
English colony founded at Williamsburg, Virginia. Representa-
tives of the Coke family were patriot soldiers in the War of the
Revolution, as well as in subsequent wars in which the nation
was involved. Captain Coke of this memoir and his seven
brothers all volunteered for service in defence of the cause of
the Confederate States when the Civil war was precipitated on
a divided nation, and each of the brothers gained in this service
the rank of captain. One of the number was Capt. Octavious
Coke, who later served as secretary of state in North Carolina,
and another of the brothers was Capt. Richard Coke, who went
to Texas after the close of the war and who there had a long
and distinguished career in public life, he having served as gov-
ernor of Texas and having long represented the Lone Star State
14 VIRGINIA
in the United States Senate. Of this remarkable group of
brothers the subject of this memoir was the last survivor.
Capt. John A. Coke v^^as a student in historic old William and
Mary College at the inception of the Civil war, and he forth-
with subordinated all other interests to volunteer for service in
the Confederate army. In April, 1861, he initiated his service
as lieutenant in a battery of artillery that became a part of the
forces under the command of Gen. Robert E. Lee. In the reor-
ganization of his battery in 1862 he was made its captain, and
he continued in service in the Army of Northern Virginia until,
in 1864, he was assigned to special recruiting service at Rich-
mond, where he was thus stationed until the close of the war.
While in active field service he was slightly wounded in connec-
tion with the Dahlgreen raids about Richmond.
After the close of the war Captain Coke turned his atten-
tion to the study of law, and upon gaining admission to the bar
he engaged in the practice of his profession in the City of Rich-
mond in 1866. Here he continued in individual practice until
1883, when he formed a partnership with John Pickrell, under
the firm name of Coke & Pickrell. His firm gained precedence
as one of the strongest and most influential of the Virginia bar,
gave special attention to corporation law, and was retained as
counsel for the Life Insurance Company of Virginia, the Vir-
ginia-Carolina Chemical Company, the Imperial Tobacco Com-
pany and numerous other corporations of major importance.
Captain Coke continued as senior member of the firm of Coke
& Pickrell until his death, and as lawyer, citizen and man of
exalted integrity he ever commanded inviolable place in popular
confidence and esteem. In his bearing he exemplified the best
in the typifying of a Southern gentleman of the old school, as he
was courtly and dignified, affable and considerate, striking in
appearance by reason of his superior height, his patrician face
and commanding presence, and was known for his high intellec-
tual and professional attainments, as well as for his abiding
human sympathy and tolerance.
April 17, 1867, recorded the marriage of Captain Coke and
Miss Emma Overby, likewise a representative of an old and
distinguished Virginia family, she having been a daughter of
Robert Y. and Mary (Pool) Overby, both natives of Mecklenburg
County, Virginia. Mrs. Coke preceded her husband to the life
eternal, as her death occurred October 5, 1917, and of their chil-
dren one son and one daughter are living. The historic old
capital city of Richmond long claimed Captain and Mrs. Coke as
leaders in its social and cultural life, and here they shall long be
retained in gracious memory by those who came within the
sphere of their benignant influence.
John Archer Coke, Jr., is well upholding in his native city
of Richmond the high civic and professional honors of the
family name. He is one of the representative members of the
bar of Virginia's fair old capital city and is here attorney for
the Life Insurance Company of Virginia. Mr. Coke is a scion
of one of the old and distinguished families of Virginia, and
adequate data concerning the family history are given in the
preceding sketch, in the memoir dedicated to his father,
the late Capt. John Archer Coke.
John A. Coke, Jr., was born in Richmond on the 15th of
January, 1877, and after his course in Richmond College he
VIRGINIA 15
continued his studies in the historic old University of Virginia,
in the law department of which he was graduated as a member
of the class of 1898. After thus receiving his degree of Bach-
elor of Laws he became associated with his father's law firm,
that of Coke & Pickrell, of which he was made a constituent
member and with which he continued his alliance until the firm
was dissolved by the death of his father in 1920. Since that
year Mr. Coke has given much of his professional attention to
his service as counsel for the Life Insurance Company of Vir-
ginia, with headquarters in the company's fine building in
Richmond.
Mr. Coke has continued unreservedly in the ancestral polit-
ical faith, that of the Democratic party, and his pati'iotic ante-
cedents are shown in his afliliation with the Society of the Sons
of the American Revolution and also the Society of the Cincin-
nati, his eligibility for the latter being through his ancestor in
the maternal line, Capt. Robert Yancey of the First Continental
Dragoons. In the suburban district of Westhampton Mr. and
Mrs. Coke have their beautiful home, named "Trusley," after
the title of the Coke ancestral estate in England.
Mr. Coke wedded Miss Anne Elizabeth Harrison, representa-
tive of the historic old Virginia family of that name, and the two
children of this union are daughters — Elizabeth H. and Archer.
Simon H. Rosenthal, M. D. With the exception of a short
period of army service during the World war and the time spent
in taking post-graduate work, the entire career of Dr. Simon H.
Rosenthal has been passed at Lynchburg, where through indus-
try, close application and natural and acquired talent he has risen
to a recognized position among the leaders of his profession.
During recent years Doctor Rosenthal has found his greatest
field of usefulness in the special field of urology, a department in
which he has gained a widespread reputation and which he fol-
lows as a member of the staff's of all the Lynchburg hospitals.
Doctor Rosenthal was born at Lynchburg, December 16, 1890,
and is a son of M. and Rebecca (Tobac) Rosenthal. M. Rosen-
thal was born in Russian Poland and was a man of splendid edu-
cation, being a master of seven languages. This knowledge led
him to become an interpreter, which vocation he followed in Rus-
sia until 1880, in which year he immigrated to the United States,
feeling that here he could find better opportunities for the
achievement of success. He gathered together his somewhat
meager capital and stai'ted on his journey, but while on ship-
board fell in with bad companions and was robbed of all his
means. Thus he arrived at Danville, Virginia, in a strange
country, without means or friends, and the next eight years of
his life were ones of stern struggle. Eventually he became the
proprietor of a small furniture store, made possible by his work
as an interpreter. This was the first furniture store of Lynch-
burg and was built up to important proportions by Mr. Rosen-
thal, who conducted the business until his death in 1919. He was
a man of excellent ability, great industry and fine judgment and
won his own way to success and preferment. Of his five chil-
dren four are living: Louis E., who has conducted the furniture
business since the death of his father; Simon H., of this review;
Mrs. J. Klots, a resident of Staunton ; and Mrs. Maurice Klots,
also of Staunton. Mrs. Rosenthal was born in Russia, and she
and her husband were orthodox Jews. He was a member of the
16 VIRGINIA
Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the Knights of Pythias,
and in his political allegiance was a stalwart Democrat.
Simon H. Rosenthal attended the public schools of Lynch-
burg, including high school, and then entered Jefferson Medical
College, from which institution he was graduated as a member
of the class of 1913, receiving the degree Doctor of Medicine.
He then spent eighteen months as an interne in the Philadelphia
General Hospital, but at the end of that period returned to
Lynchburg, where he engaged in the general practice of his pro-
fesssion. He was called into the army in February, 1918, and as
a member of the Medical Corps served at the Base Hospital at
Camp Lee until receiving his honorable discharge in April, 1919.
He then returned to Lynchburg, but in 1920 went to New York,
where he did post-graduate work in urology at the New York
Post-Graduate College and Hospital. Upon his return to his
home city he became a specialist in urology and has practically
confined himself to this department ever since. In addition to a
large private practice Doctor Rosenthal is a member of the staffs
of all of the hospitals at Lynchburg, and is held in the highest
esteem by his fellow practitioners, who have realized his worth
and accorded him that respect due those who have achieved dis-
tinction in any line. He maintains well appointed and perfectly
equipped offices at 1112 Church Street, and is a member of
the Campbell County Medical Society, Virginia State Medical
Society, South Piedmont Medical Society and American Medical
Association. He is a Mason and a member of the Phi Delta
Epsilon fraternity, and holds membership in the Jewish Syna-
gogue. He has never been sufficiently interested in politics to
seek preferment at the hands of any party, but is a good citizen
of public spirit.
On June 5, 1920, Doctor Rosenthal was united in marriage
with Miss Bettye Greenberg, of Danville, Virginia, who was edu-
cated at the public schools of Danville and at Randolph-Macon
Institute at Danville, Virginia. To this union there have been
born two children : Macey Herschel, born in December, 1921 ;
and Ceevah Miriam, born in September, 1924.
Edgar L. Sutherland, M. D. The broad field of medical en-
deavor offers much to the conscientious man in the way of public
service, research, teaching, surgery, public health, general prac-
tice, or in following, perhaps, some particular path, and through
some combination of methods and manners which are individual
and distinctive, prove natural ability and careful training. The
physician of today must possess a wide range of general culture,
must be an observant clinician and well read neurologist. The
stamp of an original mind is never more to be observed than in
the case of the hard worked medical man whose soul has often
fainted within him when studying the mysteries of his calling.
Among the many skilled and distinguished medical men of Vir-
ginia, one who has gained special notice through his steady
nerve, patience, technical manual skill and the courage which are
distinctive of his profession is Dr. Edgar L. Sutherland, phy-
sician and surgeon of Lynchburg. He was born in Hillsville,
Virginia, December 5, 1875, a son of William Hamilton and
Rhoda J. (Cassell) Sutherland, he born in Rockingham, North
Carolina, and she in Wythe County, Virginia, and both are
deceased. They had five children, four of whom survive : Doc-
tor Sutherland, who is the eldest ; Alice, who married Robert M.
Black, cashier of the Hillsville Bank ; Walter, who is deceased ;
VIRGINIA 17
Mrs. C. E. Lundy, who resides in Raleigii, North Carolina, where
her husband is a realtor; and Mrs. J. C. Rutrouyh, who resides
in Willis, Virginia, where her husband is engaged in the practice
of medicine. The mother was a devout member of the Lutheran
Church, and active in church and charitable work. An active
Democrat, the father held the office of county clerk for forty-two
years, from 1865 until 1907, a record of faithful service not often
found. During the war between the states, which brought out
all of the valor and courage in human nature, he served as cap-
tain of a local company, and was wounded in the battle of
Gettysburg, but recovered, rejoined his regiment and was pres-
ent at the surrender at Appomattox when a great cause was
relinquished at the word of the immortal leader Gen. Robert E.
Lee. A few days prior to the surrender he had been elected
county clerk, so upon his return home from the army he had
definite work to do, and discharged his duties so admirably that
his fellow citizens kept him in office for the longest consecutive
period in the history of this part of Virginia, and he was still
in office when claimed by death. He was a son of John L.
Sutherland, a native of North Carolina, but for many years a
resident of Saint Joseph, Missouri, where he was first engaged
in the practice of law, and later served on the bench, in which
capacity he was rendering a valuable service when he died. The
maternal grandfather, J. F. Cassell, was a farmer of Carroll
County, Virginia.
Doctor Sutherland grew up in his native place, attended its
schools, and early decided upon a professional career. He there-
fore entered Roanoke College, where he was prepared for the
University of Virginia, and was graduated from the latter in
1898, with the degree of Doctor of Medicine, and the youngest
man in his class. While at college he was a member of the Phi
Delta Theta. For several years thereafter he was engaged in a
general practice in Pulaski County, Virginia, but then took post
graduate work in the New York Post-Graduate School and Hos-
pital, New York City, studying diseases of the eye, ear, nose and
throat. With this country's entry into the World war he offered
his services through enlistment, but was rejected, and he then
made himself useful by serving in the examining of the recruits
on the draft board in Pulaski County. After the close of the war
he was engaged with a partner in practice at Roanoke for a
short time, going from there to Charlottesville, and finally com-
ing to Lynchburg in May, 1927. While he was engaged in a
general practice he was also surgeon for the Norfolk & Western
Railroad, the Virginia Iron, Coal and Coke Company and the
Pulaski Iron Company. He belongs to the Virginia Society of
Opthalmology and Oto-laryngectomy, ths Campbell County Medi-
cal Society, the Virginia State Medical Society, the Southern
Medical Association and the American Medical Association. His
fraternal affiliations are those which he mantains with the
Masonic Order and the Elks. While a re-ident of Charlottesville
he belonged to the Kiwanis Club. He is a member of the Pres-
byterian Church.
In October, 1898, Doctor Sutherland married Miss Vera Rob-
inson, born in Fluvanna County. Virginia, and educated in the
W'oman's College, Richmond, Virginia. She is a consistent mem-
ber of the Presbyterian Church, and continues as active in its
good work as she has always been, and she is also prominent in
social life, so that she is a valuable addition to Lynchburg.
18 VIRGINIA
Charles W. Brook is one of the active business men of
Lynchburg, owner and active head of the Harris Carriage Com-
pany, manufacturers of bodies for automobiles.
Mr. Brook was born in Amherst County, Virginia, July 9,
1881, son of George H. and Mary Elizabeth (Jones) Brook and
grandson of William Nickolas Brook and Thomas Jones. William
Nickolas Brook brought his family from England and became
a farmer in Amherst County, Virginia. Thomas Jones was born
in Amherst County and was a great plantation owner before
the Civil war, using the labor of forty slaves. Two of his sons
were Confederate soldiers. George H. Brook was born in Eng-
land, while his wife was a natve of Amherst County. He was
for many years identified with merchandising. They were mem-
bers of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. They had six
children: William N., a jeweler in Georgia; Annie L., wife of
Edward M. Wright, superintendent of the Lynchburg Foundry
Company; Miss Ola, of Amherst; Mary and Dora, twins, the
former the wife of Charles E. Bell, manager of the R. C. Dunn
& Company of Lynchburg, while Dora is the wife of Norvell
N. Holt, a Lynchburg insurance man ; and Charles W.
Charles W. Brook was educated in a private school conducted
by an aunt, a very brilliant woman, well known in educational
circles. He also attended the Lynchburg High School, and for
fifteen years was identified with the tobacco business of that
city. On February 1, 1919, he acquired the plant and business
of the Harris Carriage Company and has greatly extended the
facilities and service of this organization in the manufacture of
bodies and tops for automobiles. He is a director of Lynchburg
Finance Company.
Mr. Brook married in June, 1920, Miss Emma Berford, a
native of Marshall, Texas, who was educated in that state and
in Tennessee and Virginia. Mr. and Mrs. Brook are members
of the Methodist Episcopal Church and he is a steward of the
Rivermont Church at Lynchburg. He is a member of the Lions
Club and a Democrat in politics.
Walter Frederick Whately is secretary and treasurer of
the Lynchburg Lumber Company. Mr. Whately has had a
widely extended experience in commercial affairs, and is one of
the prominent business men of Lynchburg, where he has lived
most of his life.
He was born in Campbell County, Virginia, in 1876, son of
W. E. and Rosa L. (Fore) Whately. His mother was born in
Campbell County, Virginia, where her father was a well-to-do
farmer. W. E. Whately was born in England, son of George
Frederick Whately, a prominent surgeon who spent all his life
in England. W. E. Whately on coming to America located in
Campbell County, Virginia, and engaged in farming. He was a
Democrat in politics, and served as vestryman of the Episcopal
Church. He and his wife had five children, four of whom are
living: Walter Frederick; Lena, wife of C. A. Tanner, of
Gladys, Virginia ; William E., connected with the C. & P. Tele-
phone Company at Roanoke; and C. F. Whately, a farmer in
Campbell County.
Walter F. Whately attended school in Lynchburg, graduating
from high school, and has made an intensive application of his
energies to business ever since leaving school. For several years
he was employed by a tobacco company, spent four or five years
with R. C. Scott & Company, flour millers, and for three years
'^
/'^ xJoLuiAA
—^-
VIRGINIA 19
was with the Alkali Works at Saltville, Virginia. Having thus
acquired a good general training in business, he became identi-
fied with the lumber industry with C. I. Johnson at Wingina in
Nelson County. He was located there for eleven years and since
then has made his headquarters at Lynchburg as secretary and
treasurer of the Lynchburg Lumber Company, one of the very
prosperous and successful organizations in the city.
Mr. Whately is a vestryman in Grace Memorial Episcopal
Church at Lynchburg. He is a past high priest of the Royal
Arch Chapter of Masonry and a member of the Lions Club. He
married, in 1907, Miss Bessie Rosen, a native of Buckingham
County, Virginia, daughter of Charles R. Rosen. They have two
children, Mable Elizabeth and Walter Roy. The daughter Mable
has completed a high school education.
James Taylor Ellyson, who was lieutenant governor of
Virginia from 1905 to 1917, was well worthy of all the official
distinctions conferred upon him, but the real value of his life
could not be measured by offices and titles. He was a man of
unusual breadth of interest and varied gifts, and his activities
and positions he held represented a steady force and influence
for uplift and advancement exerted over a long period of years
and characterized by a completeness of devotion and a fidelity
to high ideals unusual even in the great commonwealth of
Virginia.
James Taylor Ellyson was born at Richmond May 20, 1847,
and died in that city March 18, 1919, at the age of seventy-two.
He represented the seventh generation of the Ellyson family
in America, which was founded by Capt. and Dr. Robert Ellyson,
who first came to Maryland and afterwards to Virginia, where
in 1656-1672 he served as justice, high sheriff and burgess of
James City County. He was the father of Gerard Ellyson,
grandfather of Robert Ellyson, who lived in Henrico County.
William Ellyson, of Chesterfield County, was a son of Robert
Ellyson and was the father of Onan Ellyson, who married Mary
Huot, of French Canadian ancestry. They were the parents
of Henry Keeling Ellyson, who was born in Richmond in 1823
and died in 1890. Henry Keeling Ellyson married, in 1843,
Elizabeth Pinkney Barnes, and they reared four children: The-
odore Ellyson, who married Elizabeth Walker; James Taylor
Ellyson, who married Lora Effie Hotchkiss; William Ellyson,
who married Mary Morris John.son ; Miss Bettie, who died in
1922, the last of her family; and three, Luther Barnes, who was
born September 30, 1849, and died November 7, 1864; Nannie,
who was born December 6, 1857, and died February 28, 1864;
and Sally, who was born February 13, 1853, and died July 15,
1853.
James Taylor Ellyson was educated in Columbia College,
and in Richmond College, and graduated from the University of
Virginia in 1869. At the age of sixteen, in 1862, he became
a member of the Second Company of the Richmond Howitzers.
He surrendered with that company at Appomattox. Mr. Elly-
son had many years of successful activities as a business man
at Richmond, but the greater part of his time was devoted to
civic and religious service, and most of the positions he held
were without remuneration. He was a member of the Common
Council of Richmond from 1881 to 1887, being president of that
body in 1884, and in 1888 was elected mayor, serving three
terms. He was a member of the Virginia Senate in 1885-87,
20 VIRGINIA
and was lieutenant-governor three terms, a period of twelve
years. For more than a quarter of a century he was chairman
of the Democratic State Committee of Virginia, and was also
national committeeman of his party. He was for sixteen years
president of the Richmond School Board, for more than twenty
years represented the state as director of the Richmond, Fred-
ericksburg and Potomac Railroad, and was a member of the
Richmond Chamber of Commerce. He was lieutenant governor
when the Jamestown Exposition was held in 1907, and besides
being a member of the Board of Governors of the exposition he
acted as governor of history and education and social economy.
Governor Ellyson was a member of Lee Camp and Pickett
Camp of Confederate Veterans, member of the Richmond How-
itzer Association, member of the Jefferson Davis Monument
Association and president of the Confederate Memorial Associa-
tion which erected the Confederate Memorial Institute. This
remarkably beautiful building and institution, one of the finest
in the South, will always recall to those who know of its incep-
tion and progress the important services rendered by the late
Mr. Ellyson. He was also a life member of the Confederate
Memorial Literary Society, was a memer of the Virginia His-
torical Society, life members of the Association for the Preser-
vation of Virginia Antiquities, member of the National Geo-
graphic Society, and on the executive committee of the American
National Red Cross. He was affiliated with Richmond Lodge
No. 10, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, Washington Chapter
No. 9, Roj^al Arch Masons, Commandery of St. Andrew, Knights
of Malta No. 13, member of the Grand Council of the Royal
Arcanum, and Richmond Lodge, Independent Order of Odd
Fellows.
Governor Ellyson for over thirty years was a deacon of the
Second Baptist Church of Richmond, was a member of the
Board of Trustees of the Virginia Baptist Orphanage, in 1908
became president of the Board of Trustees of Richmond College,
served three terms as president of the Virginia Baptist General
Association, was vice president of the Southern Baptist Con-
vention in 1895, and for forty-six years corresponding secretary
of the Virginia Baptist Education Board. Perhaps no better
estimate of the qualities of his character can be found than the
following sentences taken from a memorial adopted by the dea-
cons of the Second Baptist Church : "A noble spirit has gone
from us, and we do well today not only to honor his memory but
to catch inspiration from his life. He was not given to thinking
too highly of himself. There was a modesty about him, almost
a shyness at times, which strangers or casual acquaintances
may have mistaken for coldness or indifference, but those who
knew him intimately need no assurance of the wealth of his
nature, the strength of his friendship or the genuineness of
his heart. The nobility and fineness of his spirit was exhibited
in many ways, but in no way more strikingly than in his attitude
toward those who were unfriendly to him. How freely he for-
gave them and how unwillingly he was to cherish in his heart
anything akin to hatred. He had a host of friends who loved
to come to him for counsel and who never came to him in vain.
&.(^ou
uM^c^dM^
VIRGINIA 21
He was generous and unselfish in his friendship and gave it to
all who wished it and who would be even half-way worthy of it."
James Taylor Ellyson married, December 2, 1869, Lora Effie
Hotchkiss, who survives him. She was descended from the New
England Hotchkiss family which .settled at an early date at New
Haven, Connecticut. Samuel Hotchkiss, of Essex, England, in
1642 married Elizabeth Cleverly, and died in 1663. His fourth
son, Joshua, Ensign, born in Ssptember, 1651, at New Haven,
married Hannah Tuttle in 1683, r.nd died in 1722; Deacon
Stephen, son of Ensign Joshua, married in 1704 Elizabeth
Sperry; his son, Gideon, married Anna Brockett. Their second
son, David, born in 1740, married Abigail Douglass in 1763.
Amraphael Hotchkiss, son of David and Abigail, married Appa-
lina Hotchkiss, and had a son. Stiles Hotchkiss, who married
Lydia Beecher in 1813. They were the parents of Nelson Hill
Hotchkiss, who married Harriet Russell in 1845, daughter of
Elmore and Betsy (Griggs) Russell, and these were the parents
of Mrs. Ellyson. Her ancestor, Gideon Hotchkiss, was a captain
in the Revolutionary war, and Stephen Hotchkiss was also a
captain. Captain Gideon was deputy to the Connecticut General
Court, member of the session from May to October, 1757, and
in 1777 at Danbury, Connecticut, led a company in repulsing
a British attack.
Mrs. Ellyson is a member of the Colonial Dames of America
in the State of Virginia, the Commonwealth Chapter of the
Daughters of the American Revolution, Richmond Chapter of
the Daughters of the Confederacy, and vice regent of the
Confederate Memorial Literary Society, member of the Lady
Board of Managers of the Confederate Memorial Institute,
president of the Ladies Hollywood Memorial Association, and
a charter member of the Retreat for the Sick Hospital. She is
an honorary member of the Country Club of Yorktown, Virginia.
She was commissioned by Governor Harry F. Byrd a member
of the Cape Henry Memorial Commission. She was elected
president of the Association for the Preservation of Virginia
Antiquities January 4, 1911, after having seiwed seven years
as acting and associate president, and is still holding that office
(1929). She appointed and w-as a member of the committee in
charge of the arrangements for erecting and unveiling a bronze
tablet, June 30, 1928, on the wharf at Blackwall, England, mark-
ing the approximate point from which sailed on December 19,
1606, the three vessels under the command of Capt. Christopher
Newport, which landed May 13, 1607, at Jamestown and estab-
lished the first permanent colony in what is now the United
States, the Jamestown Colony of Virginia. Dr. Philip Alexander
Bruce in 1913-14 had received permission for the Association
for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities to place a monu-
ment to commemorate the sailing of these three ships. The war
stopped the effort to raise the fund for the purpose. The tablet
was proposed by Lord Richie, of Dundee, who was chairman of
the port authority.
Mrs. Ellyson has one daughter, Nannie Moore, who is the
wife of Frank Thomas Crump, a prominent chui-chman and
business man of Richmond, Virginia. Mr. and Mrs. Crump have
also one son, James Taylor Ellyson Crump, who has a position
in the bond department of the American Bank & Trust Company,
of Richmond, Virginia. He was the amateur golf champion of
Virginia in 1926.
22 VIRGINIA
Joseph Carter Smith. Although he is still numbered among
the younger members of the legal calling, the professional inti-
mates of Joseph C. Smith unhesitatingly place him among the
most able young general practitioners who have come to the bar
of Lynchburg in recent years, as he seems to be perfectly at
home in every department, whether civil or criminal, common
law or chancery, real estate or corporation law. Because of this
breadth and comprehensiveness of knowledge he has earned a
place as a splendid lawyer at an age when most young profes-
sional men are struggling for recognition and going through a
long, arduous and disheartening period of probation.
Mr. Smith was born near Galliopolis, Ohio, in August, 1900,
and is a son of A. J. and Myrtle (Carter) Smith, residents of
Ohio and natives of that state. The family is one of the old
and distinguished ones of the Buckeye State, having settled in
the Western Reserve during pioneer days, and most of its mem-
bers there have been agriculturists. The paternal grandfather
of Joseph C. Smith was Brice Smith, a tiller of the soil, who at
the call to arms during the war between the states enlisted in
the Union army and through his gallant service demonstrated
how fiercely civilians can fight. A. J. Smith received a public
school education and was reared in the midst of agricultural
surroundings, so that it was but natural he should adopt farming
as his life work. For a number of years he carried on his opera-
tions in his native state, but in 1907 came to Culpeper County,
Virginia, where he purchased a farm and resided thereon for
about twenty years. Mr. Smith then disposed of his property
and went back to Ohio, where he is now spending the evening
of life in comfortable retirement, free from the worries of busi-
ness activities. Mr. Smith is a Democrat in his political views
and one of the strong and influential men of his community,
where he has served capably in the office of justice of the peace,
as well as in other local capacities. He and his worthy wife are
faithful members of the Baptist Church, which both joined in
their youth. They are the parents of three children : Joseph C.
Smith, of this review; Mary Louise, the wife of Dr. B. E. Hunt,
a practicing physician of Logan, West Virginia; and Helen Car-
ter, who is the wife of Dr. R. S. VanMetre. The maternal grand-
father of Mr. Smith, Richard Carter, was also born in Ohio, and
served as a Union soldier during the war between the states.
Like the paternal grandfather, also, he was an agriculturist,
and a man who was held in high esteem in his community.
Joseph C. Smith was a child when his parents came to Vir-
ginia, and attended the public schools of Richmond and the
University of Richmond, and at the same time was employed
by the Western Electric Company in order to keep himself in
funds. In 1924 he completed his law studies and at once com-
menced the practice of his profession at Richmond. After two
years at the capital he removed to Lynchburg, where he has since
remained, having well appointed offices in the Law Building.
He has pressed his suits with ardor, ability and success in many
of the county courts and has been connected with much import-
ant litigation. For so young a man Mr. Smith has demonstrated
much hard-headed common sense and keen insight into human
nature, while his personal charm and magnetism have brought
him into close and immediate touch with juries, so that every
man on the panel feels that here is a man without mysticism
or obscurity. Thus he has won a way to success and to a place
in the esteem and respect of his fellow members of the Camp-
VIRGINIA 23
bell County Bar Association, the Virginia State Bar Association
and the American Bar Association. For a time after his arrival
Mr. Smith was engaged in practice with Alfred B. Perry, but
since the latter's death, October 19, 1927, has practiced alone.
Mr. Smith married Miss Gladys Millar Reams, daughter of
Mr. and Mrs. G. L. Reams, of Lynchburg. He belongs to the
Baptist Church and the Kappa Sigma and Delta Theta Phi
fraternities, and in his political views is a Democrat.
Greenwood H. Nowlin, Jr., of Lynchburg, is a prominent
coal operator of Southern West Virginia, and his talents have
been employed in the exploitation of the Pocahontas and other
smokeless coal areas of West Virginia for many years.
He was born at Lynchburg, August 30, 1878, son of G. H.
and Lelia (Pendleton) Nowlin, and grandson of Peyton Wade
Nowlin and James Shepherd Pendleton, the former a native of
Virginia, also the latter, born at Clifford in Amherst County.
James S. Pendleton was a doctor and farmer, having attended
the Virginia Military Institute about 1836, and afterwards
graduated from the Jefferson Medical College of Philadelphia.
Peyton Wade Nowlin lived near Brookneal, Virginia, and his
ancestors came to Virginia from County Carlow, Ireland. G. H.
Nowlin, Sr., was born in Osage County, Missouri, but spent most
of his life in Virginia and died in 1914. He was on detached
duty for the Confederate government during the Civil war, and
at the end of the war had only fifteen cents in money. He cut
wood and hauled it to town as a means of supporting himself
and getting a start, and for several years was in the leaf tobacco
business. He became associated with the coal industry on the
opening up of the Pocahontas fields in West Virginia, and became
one of the large operators. Through all the years he retained
some connection with the tobacco business and was a director
of the Lynchburg and Durham Railway Company. He was a
member of the vestry of St. Paul's Episcopal Church of Lynch-
burg, was a Mason and a Democrat. His wife died in 1899, and
of their five children four are living: Greenwood H., Jr.; R. P.
Nowlin, in the tobacco industry, Lynchburg, Virginia; R. A.
Nowlin, associated with the Crozer Land Association and the
Crozer Coal & Coke Company at Elkhorn, West Virginia; and
James Pendleton, in the coal business at Beckley, West Virginia.
Greenwood H. Nowlin, Jr., attended school at Lynchburg,
continuing his education in the Virginia Polytechnic Institute
and the University of Virginia, and took a special course in
steel analyses and metallography under Dr. Albert Saveur at
Boston in 1903. He was an assistant metallurgist for the United
States Steel Corporation, assigned to duty at the Illinois Steel
Works at Chicago, and later with the Tennessee' Coal, Iron &
Railway Company at Ensley, Alabama. He was taken ill at
Ensley, and after recuperating he engaged in the coal business,
becoming secretary of the Killarney Smokeless Company. He
is now president of that company and is also president of the
Lynchburg Coal & Coke Company, president of the Eureka Coal
& Coke Company, president of the Lynchburg Colliery Company.
The source of production of coal by all these organizations is in
West Virginia, and Lynchburg is the headquarters of the busi-
ness management and sales agencies.
Mr. Nowlin married, in 1917, Beulah Terrell, who was born
in Bedford County, Virginia, but has spent all her life in Lynch-
burg, attending public schools there. Her father, Charles H.
2— VOL. 3
24 VIRGINIA
Terrell, was a farmer in Bedford County. Mr. and Mrs. Nowlin
are members of St. Paul's Episcopal Church and he has been a
member of the church choir for over thirty years. He is a York
Rite Mason and Shriner, member of the B. P. 0. Elks, the Pied-
mont Club, and has membership in the American Institute of
Mining and Metallurgical Engineers, the American Chemical
Society, and not only enjoys prominence among the coal opera-
tors and executives of the industry, but also with the technical
and engineering side of the industry.
James A. Fix. Among the building contractors who have
contributed by their expert labors to the development, upbuild-
ing and architectural beauty of Lynchburg, none are more
worthy of mention than James A. Fix, head of the old estab-
lished firm of J. A. Fix & Sons. Stai-ting to learn the trade of
carpenter when a lad of but fifteen years, by industry, honest
workmanship and close application to his calling he has worked
his way to a leading position among the contractors of Campbell
County, where numerous commodious and attractive structures
of various kinds stand as monuments to his ability.
Mr. Fix was born at Staunton, Virginia, December 30, 1865,
and is a son of Joseph H. and Barbara (Snapp) Fix. His father,
a native of Pennsylvania, came to Virginia in his youth and
learned carpentry, a vocation which he followed until the out-
break of the war between the states, when he enlisted in the
Confederate army and saw active service until the close of hostil-
ities. He then returned to Staunton and continued to follow
his trade until his death, at which time he was also the owner
of a valuable farm. He was a man of integrity and one who
was held in high esteem in his community, was active in the
Methodist Church, and a Democrat in his political allegiance.
He married Barbara Snapp, also a native of Pennsylvania, and
a member of the Methodist Church, in the faith of which she
died. They were married in Virginia and became the parents
of eleven children, of whom nine are living.
The second in order of birth of his parents' children, James
A. Fix received only a common school education, as his assist-
ance was needed to help support the family, and when he was
only fifteen years of age he began to learn the carpenter trade
under the preceptorship of his father. While his schooling was
not extensive in his youth, in later years he has attained a good
practical education through reading, observation and constant
contact with his fellow men. For a number of years he worked
as a journeyman, but finally embarked in business on his own
account at Charlottesville and later at Staunton, and finally, in
1894, settled at Lynchburg, where he has since been known as
one of the city's leading contractors. His sons are now associates
in the firm of J. A. Fix & Sons, and this concern has erected
many of the substantial and attractive! residences, business
structures and public buildings of this and adjacent communi-
ties. Mr. Fix is a member of the Rivermont Presbyterian
Church, and as a fraternalist belongs to the Woodmen of the
World. He is a Democrat in politics, but has found little time to
devote to public affairs aside from those which affect the im-
mediate welfare of his community, when he can be relied upon
to support measures for the general progress and advancement
of Lynchburg.
In 1898 Mr. Fix married Miss Fannie Dooms, who was bom
and educated in Nelson County, Virginia, and is a daughter of
*Wm.f..
VIRGINIA
25
Henry Dooms, who was a life long farmer in that county. ; To
this union there were born six children : Henry S., who is
associated with his father in business; Gussie Elizabeth, who
resides at home; George W., who is associated with his father
in business ; Anna Belle, the wife of Dr. W. C. Adkinson, a prac-
ticing physician of Lynchburg; Gladys, the wife of Lloyd
Rickets, identified with a mercantile establishment at Lynch-
burg; and Mary Frances, attending a school at Farmville, where
she is preparing for a career as an educator. Mr. Fix's offices
are located in the Lynch Building.
Lawrence H. McWane. Among the former business men
of Lynchburg who have now completed their labors and passed
to the Great Beyond, one who left the impress of his personality
upon his community and generation was the late Lawrence H.
McWane. At the time of his death, in 1925, he was still a young
man, being but forty-two years of age, but already had accom-
plished much in the way of advancing himself in public con-
fidence and esteem and was the capable and energetic presi-
dent of the Lynchburg Foundry Company, one of the city's
principal manufacturing industries. Without any time for the
activities which bring men before the public as molders of
thought and opinion, he nevertheless was accounted a good and
public-spirited citizen who discharged his duties and responsi-
bilities in a commendable manner.
Mr. McWane was born at Wytheville, Wythe County, Vir-
ginia, in 1883, and received a public school education at Lynch-
burg. A complete report of the life of his father will be found
on another page of this work, included in the sketch of F. W.
McWane. After leaving public school Mr. McWane entered Mil-
ligan College, Tennessee, where he completed a full course, and
then enrolled as an employe of the McWane Pipe Works, at
Lynchburg, of which his father had been the founder. He was
content to begin his work in a humble capacity and to learn the
business thoroughly, with the result that at the time of his
father's demise he was ready to step into the elder man's place
as president at the time of his death and to hold this position
until his own demise. As before noted, Mr. McWane was a man
of energy and sound ability and one who was achieving an envi-
able success when called in death. He had won the respect and
esteem of his associates and of the employes of the plant, who
found him a man who was fair-minded and possessed of a sense
of justice. The bu-siness profited materially under his adminis-
tration of its affairs, and is still operated as the Lynchburg
Foundry Company.
In 1904 Mr. McWane was united in marriage with Miss Car-
rie Witt, daughter of J. F. and Dora (Hurst) Witt, natives of
Virginia, both of whom survive as residents of the southwest-
ern part of the state. For many years Mr. Witt was a mer-
chant at Pennington Gap, Virginia, but is now retired from
business affairs. To Mr. and Mrs. Witt there were born seven
children, Mrs. McWane, of this review, being the eldest. Mr.
and Mrs. Witt are active members of the Christian Church, and
Mr. Witt is a Democrat in his political allegiance.
To Mr. and Mrs. McWane there was born one daughter,
Maurine, who attended the public schools of Lynchburg and the
Holton-Arms School, Washington, D. C, and now resides with
her mother in their home on Lee Circle, Lynchburg. On April
7, 1928, she was united in marriage with Garnett Sowder, of
26 VIRGINIA
Radford, Virginia. Mrs. McWane and her daughter are mem-
bers of the Christian Church, to which Mr. McWane belonged.
He was appreciative of the society of his fellows and was a
member of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks and at
one time president of the local Lions Club. He was always in-
terested in civic affairs, to which he gave of his time, ability
and means.
Richard A. Carrington, the chief expression of whose com-
mercial energies has been a large and successful wholesale shoe
business at Lynchburg, is a member of the distinguished Car-
rington family of Virginia which has given men of leadership
in the professions, business and military affairs for generations.
He was born at Rustburg in Campbell County, Virginia,
August 17, 1869, son of Dr. George W. and Mary A. (Alex-
ander) Carrington, and his grandfather was Dr. Richard
Carrington, a Virginian, who for many years practiced medicine
at Richmond, where he owned a beautiful home, burned during
the Civil war. The maternal grandfather was John D. Alex-
ander, a native of Campbell County, who was clerk of courts in
that county for many years. One of the Alexander family was
the first clerk of courts in the county. Dr. George W. Carring-
ton was born at Richmond, was educated in the University of
Virginia, had hospital training in New York and practiced in
Richmond and Ashland, and in his later years lived at Rustburg.
He finally gave up his professional practice to serve as grand
secretary of the Grand Lodge of Masons of Virginia. He was a
Democrat in politics, had served as a surgeon in the Confederate
army during the Civil war, and was a vestryman of the Epis-
copal Church. He and his wife had five children, the three now
living being Richard A. ; Mary, wife of L. T. Stanard, connected
with the Chesapeake & Ohio Railway at Richmond ; and Louise,
wife of P. C. Hubard.
Richard A. Carrington was educated in common schools and
began work at an early age. He was first employed in a tobacco
factory, for five years was with the Virginia Nail and Iron
Company, and his first connections with the shoe business were
as a traveling salesman. He was on the road ten years and in
1905 became one of the organizers of the Lynchburg Shoe Com-
pany, Incorporated. He was president of this company for some
years, and the "active officers today are : R. A. Carrington, Jr.,
president, and E. L. Carrington, vice president, with Mr. Car-
rington still on the Board of Directors. This is one of the
large wholesale shoe houses of the Southeast, and maintains
a staff of twenty-six traveling salesmen covering territory in
West Virginia, Kentucky, Ohio, Virginia and all the other
Southern states.
Mr. Carrington began work at the age of sixteen and his
well directed energies brought him a competence at a compara-
tively early age. Among other property he owns the old estate
of the late John W. Daniel. Mr. Carrington attends St. Paul's
Episcopal Church at Lynchburg and is affiliated with the
Masonic fraternity and B. P. O. Elks.
He married, November 8, 1893, Miss Katherine Page Lang-
horne, a native of Lynchburg, daughter of Charles S. and Kath-
erine Page (Haller) Langhorne, the former of whom was in
the milling business. Mr. and Mrs. Carrington have two sons.
Edward Langhorne Carrington, the older, vice president of the
Lynchburg Shoe Company, was educated at Bellevue, Virginia,
VIRGINIA 27
and the Episcopal High School at Alexandria. He married
Nannie 0. Pettyjohn. Richard Alexander Carrington, Jr., was
educated in the Episcopal High School at Alexandria and the
University of Virginia. He married Miss Harold James, who
was born at Danville. Her father, Dr. Bruce James, is a pro-
fessor in the Virginia Military Institute. Richard A. Carring-
ton, Jr., and wife have one daughter, Kate Langhorne Car-
rington.
John Early Jackson. With the ever-expanding need for
electricity has come technical training for the various phases
of the industries thus created, and then men thus prepared are
able to assume vast responsibilities and to render valuable ser-
vice, not only to the companies employing them, but to their
communities as well. One of these thoroughly trained and
responsible men above referred to is John Early Jackson, man-
ager of the Appalacian Electric Power Company of Lynchburg,
whose ability is unquestioned and whose citizenship is pro-
ductive of great constructive results. Mr. Jackson was born
in Nashville, Tennessee, January 29, 1902, a son of Granbery
and Margaret (Early) Jackson, he born in Mount Pleasant
and she in Nashville, Tennessee, and they are still residing in
Nashville. Although a civil engineer the father is not now
practicing his profession but is engaged in the phosphate bus-
iness, in which he was a pioneer in his part of Tennessee. He
owns considerable phosphate land that is operated by different
big corporations. Vanderbilt University, Nashville, educated
him, and he is a worthy product of that great instittuion. Two
children wei'e bora to him and his wife, of whom Mr. Jackson of
this review is the elder, the other being Granbery, Junior, who
is studying architecture in the University of Pennsylvania. The
father is a Presbyterian and the mother a Methodist, and both
are devoted church workers. The Democratic party has his
staunch support. His father, paternal grandfather of John
Early Jackson, was a native of Virginia. The maternal grand-
father, John F. Early, was a son of Right Reverend John Early,
the Methodist Bishop so long a resident of Lynchburg.
Growing up in his native city, John Early Jackson attended
its public schools and Vanderbilt University, and later was a
student of Massachusetts Institute of Technology, from which
he was graduated in 1924. For a year thereafter he was in
the employ of the General Electric Company, Schenectady, New
York, and then, in 1925, he came to Lynchburg to become man-
ager of his present company, in which connection he is giving
unqualified satisfaction.
In June, 1926, Mr. Jackson married Miss Elinor Jones, who
was born in Saint Louis, Missouri, and was educated in Farm-
ington College and the Choate School, Brookline, Massachusetts.
Mr. and Mrs. Jackson have one daughter, Margaret Early Jack-
son. They are members of the different social organizations of
their neighborhood, and have a delightful home life. She is an
Episcopalian and he a Methodist. While in Vanderbilt Univer-
sity Mr. Jackson made Kappa Alpha, and he is a member of the
Lynchburg Rotary Club. All of his time is taken up with his
responsibilities as manager of his company so he has no other
business connections. Mrs. Jackson is a daughter of George R.
Jones, a native of Nashville, and a shoe merchant of that city.
At one time he had a shoe factory in Saint Louis, and it was
while living there that Mrs. Jackson was born. The Jones
28 VIRGINIA
family originated in Virginia, and it is claimed that Petersburg,
this state, was named in honor of Peter Jones, a pioneer of the
region, from whom Mrs. Jackson is directly descended.
Howell C. Featherston. In almost every case those who
have reached high position in public confidence and esteem and
who are accounted among the most influential in business and
professional lines are those whose lives have been devoted with-
out cessation to deep study ai^d close application. It is probable
that the law has been the main highway by which more men of
merit have advanced to prominence and position in this country
than any other road, and it is not unusual to find among the
leading citizens of a community a legal practitioner. To respond
to the call of the law, to devote every energy in this direction, to
broaden and deepen every possible channel of knowledge and to
finally enter upon his chosen career and find its rewards worth
while — such has been the happy experience of Howell C. Feath-
erston, one of the leading legalists practicing at the bar of
Lynchburg. Mr. Featherston has gained honor and prestige in
his profession through the application of honesty, energy, per-
severance, conscientiousness and self-reliance, and has kept
abreast of his calling in its advancement; but it is not alone as
a lawyer that he is known to the people of Lynchburg, for he
has a recognized standing as one who understands sound invest-
ments, and is the owner of large real estate holdings.
Howell C. Featherston was born in Campbell County, April
27, 1871, a son of John C. and Letitia Preston (Floyd) Feather-
ston, he born in Limestone County, Alabama, and she in Camp-
bell County, Virginia, and both are now deceased. The father
was a farmer for many years, and for a long period he served
as chief of the business bureau of the State Grange. Active in
politics, he was sent to represent Campbell County in the Vir-
ginia General Assembly, and he held minor local offices as well.
Two children were born to him and his wife, namely : N. F.
Featherston, who is connected with the United States Treasury
Depai'tment, Washington City and Mr. Featherston of this re-
view. Both of the parents were active workers, he as a Method-
ist and she as an Episcopalian. In fraternal affairs he was a
Mason and was advanced to the Chapter in his order. During the
war between the states he served as a first lieutenant and later as
captain, remaining in the service until peace was declared, al-
though he was shot through the body in the battle of Gettysburg.
After the close of the war he wrote a description of the battle of
the "Crater" at Petersburg which Senator Daniel declared was
the best ever written. Captain Featherston delivered it before a
meeting of the Grand Camp of Confederate Veterans at Peters-
burg, and later delivered it before a meeting of the Pottsville
Camp of the Grand Army of the Republic at the organization's
annual meeting in Pennsylvania, and among his audience were
veterans who had blown up the crater July 31, 1864, leaving a
hole 170 feet long, sixty feet wide and thirty feet deep, into
which the Union forces poured before they could be stopped,
and were engulfed and smothered. It was generally conceded
by both sides as being the most horrible of any of the engage-
ments of the war. A fine portrait of Captain Featherston hangs
in the Confederate Battle Abbey at Richmond, Virginia. The
paternal grandfather of Attorney Featherston was Maj. Howell
C. Featherston, a native of South Carolina, who moved to Ala-
bama, and there became an extensive cotton planter. The ma-
VIRGINIA 29
ternal grandfather was Nathaniel Wilson Floyd, born in Ken-
tucky, but a resident of Virginia for the greater part of his life,
and a very large cotton planter, not only of Virginia but of
Texas as well. His brother, Charles Floyd, was a sergeant on
the Lewis and Clark Expedition into what became the North-
west Territory.
Howell C. Featherston of this review first attended the schools
of Lynchburg, New London Academy, and finally the University
of Virginia, and was graduated from the latter in 1893, with the
degree Bachelor of Laws. Immediately thereafter he began the
practice of his profession in Lynchburg, and here he has since
remained, having built up a very large and valuable connection,
and handling a general line of cases. Like his father he is deeply
interested in politics, and served in the Lower House in 1908,
and in the Senate in 1912, and he is accepted as one of the leaders
of the Democratic party in his part of the state.
In 1909 Mr. Featherston married Miss Virginia Carroll Kelly,
who was born in Frankfort, Kentucky, a daughter of Rev. Gilby
C. Kelly, a minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South.
Mrs. Featherston was educated in Louisville, Kentucky, Nash-
ville, Tennessee, and Birmingham, Alabama, and in Randolph-
Macon College. Reverend Kelly is now retired and is residing
in Norfolk, Virginia, after a long and useful ministerial career.
Mr. and Mrs. Featherston have one child, Virginia Kelly Feather-
ston, who is attending school. Both Mr. Featherston and his
wife are Methodists, and he is a steward of the Court Street
Methodist Episcopal Church, South. Fraternally he is a Mason ;
and he belongs to the Piedmont Country Club, the Campbell
County Bar Association, the Virginia State Bar Association and
the American Bar Association. Mr. Featherston is a man who
has ever lived up to high ideals in his profession, and is now
reaping the rewards of his years of faithful service. Standing
high among his associates, he earnestly strives to prove worthy
of his responsibilities, and the success which attends him proves
that his skill is unquestioned and the confidence he inspires well
merited. Broad in his sympathies, he has always given liberally
to aid worthy charities, and his support can be depended upon
in the furtherance of measures he believes will work for the
advancement of the majority.
Martin L. Brown. Printing, the art of producing impres-
sions from characters or figures on paper or any other sub-
stance, is of comparatively modern origin, only about four and
a quarter centuries having passed since the first book was issued
from the press, yet there is to be found proof that the principles
on which it was ultimately developed existed among the ancient
Assyrian nations. Printing from movable types was practiced
in China as early as the twelfth or thirteenth century, as there
are Korean books printed from movable clay or wooden types
in 1317. The great discovery was that of forming every letter
or character of the alphabet separately, and the credit of in-
venting this simple yet marvelous art is contested by the Dutch
and Germans. Among the men of Virginia who have made the
art of printing their life work, and who have won success and
position in this line of endeavor, one of the best known is
Martin L. Brown, who in 1909 founded at Lynchburg the pres-
ent firm of Brown-Morrison Company, printers and engravers.
Mr. Brown was born on a fami in Amherst County, Vir-
ginia, August 13, 1877, and is a son of Martin L. and Flora
30 VIRGINIA
(Higginbotham) Brown, natives of Amherst County, both of
whom are now deceased. Mr. Brown traces his ancestry on
the paternal side directly to another Martin L. Brown, who was
a soldier of the Continental forces during the winning of
American independence. The paternal grandfather of Mr.
Brown was Joseph M. Brown, a pioneer of Amherst County,
who passed his life there in agricultural pursuits. Martin L.
Brown, the elder, father of Martin L. of this review, grew up
in a tobacco country and as a young man engaged in business
as a tobacconist, which vocation he followed for some years.
During the war between the states he enlisted in the Confed-
erate army, with which he served until the close of the strug-
gle. During his service he contracted consumption, but man-
aged to keep the dreaded disease at bay for many years. On
leaving Amherst County he took up his residence at Lynchburg,
where he engaged in the grocery business, and this home con-
tinued to be his place of residence until his death in 1893. He
and his wife were the parents of ten children, of whom seven
are living: James R., a traveling salesman of Benefield, West
Virginia ; William T., a woodworker of Washington, D. C. ;
Martin L., of this review; Mrs. J. W. Coleman, of Lynchburg;
Miss Lottie K., secretary to the pastor of the First Baptist
Church of Lynchburg; Walter W., who is engaged in business
with his brother, Martin L. ; and Mrs. James T. Spracher, the
vdfe of a department store proprietor of Bluefield, Virginia.
The parents of the foregoing children were honorable God-
fearing people and active members of the Baptist Church. He
was a Mason fraternally and a Democrat in his political views,
and for some years served in the capacity of justice of the
peace. The maternal grandfather of Martin L. Brown was
James A. Higginbotham, a pioneer farmer and sheriff of Am-
herst County, where he, his father and his grandfather all were
born. This was one of the old and honored families of the Old
Dominion, and its members were highly respected and esteemed
people of high character.
Martin L. Brown received only a public school education,
following which he applied himself, when only a youth, to the
mastery of the printer's art, in which he has been engaged
throughout a long, active, varied and ultimately successful
career. For an extended period he was employed by others in
various places, and for three years he was the manager of a
printing business at Canton, China, but eventually returned to
the city of his youth and in 1909 founded the present business
of Brown-Morrison Company, which has been developed into
one of the best in the state. The large, modern plant, located
at 718 Main Street, in the heart of the business district, is
equipped with the latest improved machinery of every char-
acter, so that the company is capable of turning out all kinds
of work in printing, engraving and lithographing. Approxi-
mately fifty-five skilled printers are given employment in the
various departments of this concern, in the operation of which
the skilled, guiding hand of Mr. Brown can everywhere be seen.
He bears an excellent reputation in business circles as a man of
integrity and a master of his trade, and also has the respect,
esteem and loyalty of his employes. While he is a very busy
man with extensive interests, Mr. Brown has been active in
civic and other afl:airs. He is a member of the College Hill
Baptist Church, in which he has held numerous offices, and has
been a member of the Board of Directors of the local Young
LA^A^'^i' Ijla^9^.^. 4^4,^A%
VIRGINIA 31
Men's Christian Association. He ie a Scottish Rite Mason and
divan of the Mystic Shrine, and also belongs to the Benevolent
and Protective Order of Elks.
On May 24, 1900, Mr. Brown married Miss Annie Yoder,
who was born at Lynchburg, a daughter of Jacob E. Yoder,
who came to Lynchburg with the Freedman's Bureau following
the close of the war between the states. Her father married
Anna Frances Whittaker, who came to Lynchburg with the
North Baptist Missionary Society, and was a descendant of
Roger Williams, the founder of the State of Rhode Island, and
nobly distinguished as the first asserter in modern Christen-
dom of the sanctity and perfect freedom of conscience. To Mr.
and Mrs. Brown there were born five children: Wayland Y., of
Hopewell, Virginia, who is identified with the silk company
there and is the father of one daughter, Corinne Wayland, born
in 1923; Calvin C, who is superintendent of his father's print-
ing plant and a young man of much ability; Mary E., a student
at Randolph-Macon Woman's College ; Martin L., who is attend-
ing high school at Lynchburg; and Annie Yoder, a pupil in the
public school.
William D. Mount, M. E. One of the outstanding figures
of Lynchburg, William D. Mount, with offices in the Peoples
Bank Building, has steadily advanced in his profession of
engineering until today he is one of the leading consulting
engineers of Virginia, and a man who has been connected with
some of the most important construction operations not only
of private corporations, but of the Government. He was born
at Groton, Tompkins County, New York, July 13, 1867, a son
of William and Lucretia (Giles) Mount, both of whom were
natives of New York State, and are now deceased. He was a
carpenter by trade, but became a school teacher and served as
local magistrate. Two children were born to him and his wife,
Mr. Mount of this review and his younger brother, Joseph
Mount, of Tonawanda, New York, where he is superintendent
of a pulp mill. The father belonged to the Congregational
Church. In politics a Prohibitionist and Republican, he lived
up to his convictions, and being a well educated man, could
always give cogent reasons for his actions. During the war
between the states he served as captain of Company F, One
Hundred and Ninth New York Volunteer Infantry. His father,
William D. Mount, was born in New Jersey, but moved to New
York at the time of his marriage, settled in a wilderness, and
became a tanner, and later was made a magistrate. The mater-
nal grandfather was James Giles, a native of New York, who
pioneered into its sparsely settled regions and became a very
successful farmer. He was a contemporary and personal friend
of Ezra Cornell, whose donations of $750,000 made possible the
founding of Cornell University at Ithaca, New York, named in
his honor.
William D. Mount attended public schools and Sibley College,
Cornell University, and was graduated from the latter with the
degree of Mechanical Engineer in 1890. From 1890 to 1894
he was a member of the faculty of Brown University, for three
years being an instructor in physics and for one year, assistant
professor of mechanical engineering.
In July, 1894. Mr. Mount began work as an electrical engineer
for the Mathieson Alkali Works, Saltville, Virginia. During
1895 and 1896 he was in charge of the development work of
32 VIRGINIA
the Castner Process for electrolytic production of caustic soda
and bleaching powder, which work afterward developed into
the Castner Electrolytic Alkali Company, Niagara Falls, New
York. In August, 1898, he was made general superintendent
of the Mathieson Company, in entire charge of all operations
as well as all engineering work. Later he was made general
manager and a director of the company, which positions were
held until November, 1918, since which date he has been in
business for himself as consulting mechanical and electrical
engineer, giving special attention to development of continuous
gas fired vertical lime kilns, continuous causticizing and lime
recovery ; filtration problems and chemical plant design. During
the period of his connection with the Mathieson Company very
extensive changes and improvements in the plant and processes
were planned and carried through under his supervision. He
also had charge of the commercialization of the Bucher Process
for the fixation of nitrogen, which process was taken over by
the Government, and he served in a consulting capacity during
the construction of Government Chemical Plant Number 4.
Since 1897 Mr. Mount has been a full member of the Amer-
ican Society of Mechanical Engineers, and he is also a member
of the American Chemical Society and an honorary member
of the Alpha Chapter of Sigma Xi. In addition he is a member
of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers and the Tech-
nical Association of the Pulp & Paper Industry.
The following is a list of foreign patents which have been
issued in the name of William D. Mount: Cmiadian Patents —
Methods and Apparatus for Handling Foaming and Frothing
Liquids, Pat. No. 246859, February 17, 1925 ; Causticizing Units,
Pat. No. 249783, May 19, 1925; Continuous Filters, Pat. No.
257166, January 12, 1926. French Patents — Improvement in
Kilns, Pat. No. 602729, dated August 28, 1925; Continuous
Filters, Pat. No. 610898, dated August 28, 1925; Causticizing
Unit, Pat. No. 608190, dated September 15, 1925; Process and
Apparatus for Wood Pulp Production, Pat. No. 607726, dated
October 15, 1925. Norway Patents — Causticizing Unit, Pat. No.
43059, dated September 2, 1925; Continuous Filters, Pat. No.
43784, September 11, 1925. Siveden Patents — Causticizing
Units, Pat. No. 62972, dated August 22, 1925. Belgian Patents
—Continuous Filters, Pat. No. 328924, dated August 29, 1925;
Causticizing Units, Pat. No. 328686, dated August 29, 1925;
Kilns, Pat. No. 328652, dated August 29, 1925; Process and
Apparatus for Wood Pulp Production, Pat. No. 329414, dated
October 17, 1925. Finland Parents— Causticizing Units, Pat.
No. 11287, dated September 2, 1926; Continuous Filters, Pat.
No. 11454, dated September 7, 1925; Method and Apparatus
for Handling Foaming and Frothing Liquids, Pat. No. 11526,
dated September 3, 1925; Process and Apparatus for Wood
Pulp Production, Pat. No. 11527, dated November 3, 1925.
English Patents — Continuous Filters, Pat. No. 265679, dated
August 12, 1925: Causticizing Units, Pat. No. 265669, dated
August 12, 1925; Kilns, Pat. No. 265654, dated August 12, 1926;
Process and Apparatus for Wood Pulp Production, Pat. No.
269256, dated August 12, 1925. United States — Flakers, No.
1340732. Patented May 18, 1920; Filters, No. 1348036, Patented
.July 27, 1920; Power-Ti-ansmission Devices, No. 1392348, Pat-
ented October 4, 1921 ; Storage Devices, No. 1526171, Patented
February 10, 1925: Filters (Washers), No. 1558038, Patented
October 20, 1925; Methods and Apparatus for Handling Foam-
ing and Frothing Liquids, No. 1560286, November 3, 1925.
VIRGINIA
33
Philip W. Payne. Those who daily see the thousands of
automobiles which crowd every street and highway, passing and
repassing in countless numbers, find it hard to reconcile them-
selves to the fact that in point of years this is still really an
infant industry, the extent of whose growth in the future cannot
be even approximated. Yet the fact remains that the automobile
still is to be considered as only in its first growth of maturity.
In 1902, which is but a quarter of a century ago, one of the most
authentic encyclopedias gave the following somewhat quaint
description : "Automobiles, a term under which are comprised
horseless carriages, motor vans, motor omnibus, and all other
motor traction vehicles adapted for use on ordinary roads un-
provided with rails." The same work is authority for the fact
that in the summer of 1898 there were not thirty automobiles in
use in the United States, but by August, 1899, at least eighty
companies had been organized for the manufacture of motor
cars. By 1926, according to the number of cars registered,
there were 19,237,171 passenger cars and 2,784,222 trucks in use
in this country.
One of the men who had the vision to note the great oppor-
tunities which the future held out in this business was Philip
W. Payne, who first became identified with the industry in 1910,
and since 1919 has been the head of the Phil Payne Motor Com-
pany of Lynchburg, dealers in Nash and Marmon automobiles.
Mr. Payne was born at Lynchburg, October 27, 1889, and is a
son of Elias and Belle Stuart (Walker) Payne. His paternal
grandfather, Philip W. Payne, was born in Campbell County,
Vii'ginia, and at the outbreak of the war between the states
enlisted in the Confederate army, with which he served until the
close of hostilities. He then located at Lynchburg, where for
many years he was engaged in the dry goods business, and where
he was known as a substantial business man of high character
and personal probity.
Elias Payne was born at Lynchburg, where he secured a
public school education, and was in the coal, lumber, wood and
general supplies business in association with the firm of Adams
& Brothers & Company, being with that concern at the time of
his death in 1916. He was an active member of the Westminster
Presbyterian Church, was affiliated with the Masonic Order, and
his political convictions made him a Democrat. He married Miss
Belle Stuart Walker, who was born at Richmond, and died in
1919 at Lynchburg, and they became the parents of thirteen
children, of whom three survive : Isabelle, the wife of J. R.
Wheeler, a druggist of Lynchburg ; H. A., who is connected with
the Southern Railway at Lynchburg; and Philip W., of this
review. The maternal grandfather of Philip W. Payne was
Lindsey Walker, a native of Richmond, who was a noted civil
engineer of his day and assisted in the building of the Chesa-
peake & Ohio Railroad from Richmond to Lynchburg.
The public schools of Lynchburg furnished Philip W. Payne
with his educational training, and following his high school
training he secured a position as clerk and bookkeeper in a
retail shoe store. From this position he advanced to that of
bookkeeper for an insurance company, but in 1910 resigned his
position to enter the employ of the Apperson-Lee Motor Com-
pany. Mr. Payne knew immediately that he had found the
business for which he was best equipped, and set about learning
its every detail. In the meantime he conserved his financial
resources, and in 1919 found himself in a position to establish
34 VIRGINIA
an automobile agency under the style of the Payne and Dillon
Company, at first handling the Chandler car. Later he took
over the Nash and Marmon agencies, for which he is the auth-
orized agent in six counties surrounding Lynchburg. He has
built up a large and successful enterprise and maintains a com-
modious and modern salesroom and service and filling station at
815 Fifth Street, where he also handles all kinds of automo-
bile parts and accessories. The firm is now known as the Phil
Payne Motor Company.
Mr. Payne is unmarried. He is a Scottish Rite Mason and
Shriner, and belongs to the Benevolent and Protective Order of
Elks, the United Commercial Travelers and the Travelers Pro-
tective Association. As a citizen he has always been public
spirited and a supporter of the causes of education, religion and
higher morality.
Edgar Patton Miller, president of the First National Bank
of Lynchburg, was born in that city December 12, 1861, son of
John M. and Mary E. (Norvell) Miller. His great-grandfather
was a teacher at Richmond, and the grandfather, Samuel T.
Miller, who was born at Richmond November 22, 1789, gave
practically his entire life to educational work, and for many
years conducted a noted boys school at Cedar Forest on the
Staunton River. He died at Lynchburg March 30, 1870. By
his marriage to Frances Fitzpatrick he was the father of eight
sons and six daughters, all of whom were educated and in one
way or another continued the educational tradition and interest
of the family.
John M. Miller, one of the sons, was born October 5, 1827,
left school at the age of sixteen to take up a commercial career,
soon located at Lynchburg, and was teller and subsequently
cashier of the Exchange Bank of Virginia before and during the
Civil war. When the First National Bank of Lynchburg was
organized in 1865 he was offered but declined the office of cashier.
Subsequently he became associated with James Franklin in the
private banking firm of Miller & Franklin, and was active in this
banking house until his death on January 25, 1881. After his
death the interests of the firm were taken over by the newly
organized National Exchange Bank, which subsequently became
the Lynchburg National Bank.
John M. Miller was for many years a prominent official in
St. Paul's Episcopal Church of Lynchburg. His wife, Mary E.
Norvell, was a daughter of Lorenzo and Lucy (Harrison) Nor-
vell, and her maternal grandfather located at Lynchburg about
1785 and was a member of the first town council when Lynch-
burg was incorporated in 1805.
Edgar Patton Miller was educated in private schools, in
Doctor Abbott's Bellevue School in Bedford County, and in 1878
became a junior clerk in the banking firm of Miller and Franklin.
After his father's death he continued with the National Ex-
change Bank as junior clerk, and later was made teller. In
September, 1890, he became the first cashier of the Lynchburg
Trust & Savings Bank, and in June, 1895, became cashier of the
First National Bank of Lynchburg, an institution with which he
has been identified for over thirty years. Mr. Miller has been
continuously in the banking business at Lynchburg for just half
a century. He has been president of the First National Bank
since December 2, 1909. He is a former president of the Virginia
State Bankers Association, and was one of the organizers of
VIRGINIA
35
the Cooperative Building and Loan Association and one of the
founders of the Lynchburg Chamber of Commerce. He attends
the Episcopal Church and has served as a trustee of the Lynch-
burg Orphan Asylum, and has also been on the City Council.
He married, October 15, 1903, Eleanor Selden Lucke. They
had three daughters: Eleanor Selden and Lucy Harrison, and
Norvell Harrison, who died at the age of two years.
James W. Walters, a specialist in eye, ear, nose and throat,
is a native of Virginia and since establishing himself at Lynch-
burg has gained a reputation that has extended all over Cen-
tral Virginia as a man of acknowledged skill and resourceful-
ness.
Doctor Walters was born in Madison County, Virginia, in
1880, son of John P. and Anna J. (Walker) Walters, and a
grandson of Isaac H. Walters and Col. James W. Walker, all
residents of Madison County. His maternal grandfather was a
colonel of militia before the Civil war. Isaac H. Walters spent
his life as a farmer. John P. Walters, who died in 1895, was
educated in the University of Virginia, was a civil engineer by
profession, but devoted most of his active years to farming in
Madison County. His widow died June 19, 1928, at Orange.
Both were active members of the Methodist Episcopal Church,
South, and John P. Walters was a Confederate soldier. There
were four children and the three now living are Dr. James W.,
Annie E., wife of E. B. Grimes, of Orange, and Charles, a resi-
dent of Orange, who is interested in the lumber business at
Charlottesville.
Dr. James W. Walters was educated in the public schools of
Madison County, in the Woodbury Forest School, Randolph-
Macon College at Ashland, and in 1901 entered the Medical
College of Virginia at Richmond, graduating in 1905. He was
a member of the Pi Mu medical fraternity at Richmond. Doc-
tor Walters distinguished himself for his scholarship and all
round ability, and after taking his medical degree he spent
eighteen months as an interne in the Memorial Hospital at
Richmond, and for three years was on the adjunct teaching
staff of Cornell University of New York, and was resident
phj'sician at the New York Eye and Ear Infirmary in New
York City. With this exceptional training and experience he
located at Lynchburg in 1911, and has since limited his work
to eye, ear, nose and throat. He is a member of the Lynchburg
and Campbell County and South Piedmont Medical Societies,
the Medical Society of Virginia, and the American Medical As-
sociation. Doctor Walters is a Methodist, a Scottish Rite
Mason and Shriner, and member of the Kiwanis Club. He was
a captain in the Medical Corps during the Woi'ld war.
He married, in 1914, Miss Kate E. Edmunds, of Lynchburg,
who was educated in Randolph-Macon Woman's College. He
is a member of the Episcopal Church. They have one daugh-
ter, Harriett Prescott Walters, born in 1919.
Benjamin Allen Ruffin was born in Richmond, Virginia,
May 9, 1879. He is a son of George Edwin and Ada Cora
(Harden) RufRn and a grandson of George Edmund Ruffin, a
relative of Judge Thomas Ruffin of North Carolina.
Mr. Ruffin was educated in the public schools of Chesterfield
County, Virginia, the Chester Academy and Randolph-Macon
College. His business career begun in Richmond as an insurance
36 VIRGINIA
agent. After twenty-five years in business in Richmond and
New York City Mr. Ruffin is today president and principal
owner of B. A. Ruffin & Company, general insurance agents, is
a partner of Charles M. Robinson, architects, and vice president
of W. C. Hill Printing Company.
From 1914 to 1918 Mr. Ruffin served on the Insurance Com-
mittee of the American Bankers Association and is the author
of various copyright insurance policies and bonds adopted and
used by member banks of the association. He is a past grand
chancellor of the order of Knights of Pythias and at this writ-
ing is president of Lions Interaational.
He is also lecturer for the Greater Men's Bible Class of Monu-
ment M. E. Church at Richmond. In these various activities he
is widely known as a speaker and author.
Charles S. Adams, president of the Adams Brothers-Paynes
Company of Lynchburg, is with the lumber organization of which
his father was one of the founders, and has had a very successful
experience of nearly thirty years in the lumber business in
Virginia.
Mr. Adams was born at Lynchburg, Virginia, November 28,
1873, son of Richard H. T. and Susan (Scott) Adams. His
grandfather, Isaac Adams, was a farm owner in Appomattox
County, Virginia. The maternal grandfather, Charles Scott,
was a railroad contractor of Lynchburg and also owned a large
farm in Bedford County. Richard H. T. Adams grew up on a
farm, and as a young man was in the grocery business at Rich-
mond until the war broke out. He then joined the Home Guard
at Lynchburg and served throughout the war under the com-
mand of Gen. A. P. Hill. He rose to the rank of captain. After
the war he removed to Lynchburg, where he joined an older
brother, I. H. Adams, who had started a coal, lumber and build-
ing supply business. Still another brother, W. D. Adams, came
into the partnership and finally J. G. Payne entered the business.
In 1898 the Adams Brothers-Paynes Company was incorpo-
rated, and that name has been retained for thirty years. It is
one of the oldest incorporated lumber firms in Southwest Vir-
ginia. The original officers of the corporation were: I. H.
Adams, president; C. I. Johnson, vice president; J. G. Payne,
secretary and treasurer. The officers of the company today are :
Charles S. Adams, president ; J. C. Dabney, vice president ; J. G.
Payne, secretary and treasurer. Richard H. T. Adams contin-
ued active in this organization until his death in 1901, but for
some years had also given much of his attention to the export
tobacco trade. His widow is still living in Lynchburg. Both
were active members of the Court Street Methodist Episcopal
Church and Richard H. T. Adams was a Mason and a Democrat
in politics. There were nine children, eight of whom are living :
Mrs. H. H. Harris ; R. H. T. Adams, Junior, a Lynchburg attor-
ney ; Charles S. ; Jack Adams, connected with the George W.
Helme Snuff Company ; James D. Adams, secretary-treasurer of
Harris Woodson Company ; Susan Scott Adams, who lives with
her mother; Mrs. D. D. Hull, of Roanoke; and H. C. Adams,
proprietor of the White Star Laundry.
Charles S. Adams attended school at Lynchburg and was a
boy of seventeen when he first became an employe of the Adams
Brothers-Paynes Company in 1890. However, in 1896 he left
the firm to become associated with his father in the tobacco busi-
VIRGINIA
87
ness. In 1903 he returned to the himber business and for a quar-
ter of a century has had a prominent part in its growth and
development as one of the largest wholesale lumber and building
supply firms of the state. Mr. Adams is also a director in the
Peoples National Bank of Lynchburg.
He married, in 1905, Miss Lottie Griifiin, who was born in
Bedford County and was educated in the Girls' Seminary at
Bedford. Her father, Samuel Griffin, was a lawyer at Bedford
and Roanoke. Mr. and Mrs. Adams have three children. Char-
lotte Russell is a graduate of the Cathedral School for girls at
Washington. Nancy Scott Adams is a student in the Gardner
School at New York. Charles S. Adams, Junior, was born in
1914 and is attending the Lynchburg High School. The family
are members of the Saint Johns Episcopal Church. Mr. Adams
is a York Rite Mason and Shriner, member of the B. P. 0. Elks,
the Piedmont Club, the Oak Wood Country Club and is a charter
member of the Rotary Club.
Robert S. Burruss. The successful man in any line is the
one who first determines his natural abilities and the occupation
in which they will have free play, and then operates so as to
provide something for which there is a demand, or goes about
creating such a demand. In spite of all of the inventions of
substitutes, and the discoveries of other substances to take the
place, lumber remains the basic need for countless industries,
and its production is of vast importance, especially in those
sections adjacent to the timberlands. Virginia still has large
stores of timber upon which, even in strict compliance with con-
servation laws and principles, its operators in the industry may
still draw, and so has its sister state of North Carolina, and one
of the men who is doing a very large business in manufacturing
lumber and wholesaling it is Robert S. Burruss, of Lynchburg,
one of the city's substantial business men.
Robert S. Burruss was born in Campbell County, Virginia,
August 6, 1884, a son of James M. and Ida F. Pringle Burruss,
the latter of whom, a native of Halifax County, Virginia, is
still living on the home farm, but the former, born in Campbell
County, died in September, 1904. He was a farmer and lum-
berrnan. The parents had six children, two of whom survive,
Mr. Burruss of this review, and W. H. Burruss, the two being
in partnership in their lumber business. W. H. Burruss was
also born in Campbell County. He married Miss Helen Currell,
and they have three children : Sarah, Helen and William H.,
Junior. The parents belonged from youth up to the Methodist
Episcopal Church, South, in which he was a leader, and she
continues to be active in it. He was a Mason and a Democrat,
and zealous in behalf of fraternity and party. His father was
Thomas Burruss, a native of Virginia, and with five brothers
served in the Confederate army. The paternal great-grand-
father was an Englishman who settled in Virginia at an early
day. The maternal grandfather, Richard Pringle, was a native
of Halifax County, Virginia, and a physician, and he, too, was
a veteran of the Confederate army.
Robert S. Burruss attended public school until he was sixteen
years old, at which time he began working in his father's lum-
ber business, remaining with him until his death. In 1905 he
and his brother came to Lynchburg and established themselves
in the lumber business here, and have built up very wide con-
nections, having mills in Virginia and North Carolina, and
38 VIRGINIA
selling their product at wholesale. Theirs is one of the largest
concerns of its kind in this part of the state.
In 1913 Mr. Burruss married Miss Ada Moorman, who was
bom in Campbell County, Virginia, and here educated. Mr. and
Mrs. Burruss have one child, Robert S., Junior, a schoolboy.
Mrs. Burruss belongs to the Methodist Episcopal Church, South.
As a York Rite and Shriner Mason, an Odd Fellow and Elk,
and as a member of the Hoo Hoos, Mr. Burruss lives up to high
ideals, and he has served the last named order as vice president
since moving to Lynchburg. It is his honest belief that what
he has accomplished any industrious young man can do, espe-
cially when so many advantages are now offered that never
came his way. He is never satisfied to rest upon what he has
done, but is ever working for something just beyond, and as
he has great ability he never fails to grasp firmly what he
undertakes. Having worked his way up from the bottom of his
business, he knows what to expect of his men, how to make due
allowance for them, and is greatly respected by them and by his
whole community, in his neighborhood and in his fraternities.
James Morrison, M. D. Medical science has so progressed
that advances are made in it almost hourly. Specializing ob-
servations on disease have worked marvelous changes in meth-
ods of treatment; tireless theoretic experiments have proven
the truth of contentions, and only after results have been dem-
onstrated beyond any reasonable doubt are discoveries given
to the public. In the work of tTie past quarter of the century
are to be noticed such practical advances as the development
of bacteriology, the partially successful effort to wipe out tuber-
culosis, bubonic plague, cholera, diphtheria, typhoid, spinal
meningitis and similar maladies. This marvelous progress has
not come naturally, but is the outcome of the tireless, aggres-
sive and self-sacrificing work of the men who have devoted
themselves to the profession of medicine. One of the men
whose name is connected with some excellent work in his large
practice at Lynchburg is Dr. James Morrison, a physician who
has risen through his own efforts to a high position. Having
the misfortune to lose his parents while still small, he was early
thrown upon his own resources, and must be regarded as self-
made in the highest conception of the term.
Doctor Morrison was born in Lexington, Rockbridge County,
Virginia, November 2, 1871, a son of Dr. Robert Hall and Mar-
garet (White) Morrison, the former of whom was born in
Rockbridge County and the latter in Lexington. The father
was a physician, educated in the University of Virginia and
Jefferson Medical College, and when he had received his degree
he engaged in the practice of his profession in Lexington. With
the outbreak of war between the states he ofi'ered his services
to the Confederacy, and served under Gen. Fitzhugh Lee. He
and his wife had three children born to them, but Doctor Mor-
rison is the only survivor. Both were active members of the
Presbyterian Church and very fine people, and their son in-
herits many of their admirable characteristics.
From childhood he resolved upon a medical career. Doctor
Morrison struggled to secure the necessary education, first along
academic lines, and later in medicine, studying the latter in the
medical department of the University of Virginia, from which
he was graduated in 1898, with the degree of Doctor of Medi-
cine. Later he took work in the New York Polyclinic, and had
VIRGINIA
39
an interneship in New York City. After several years devoted
to a countiy practice he did post-graduate work in diseases of
the eye, ear, nose and throat, and in 1901 came to Lynchburg,
where he has since been specializing in this branch of the
domain of medicine.
In 1901 Doctor Morrison married Miss Elizabeth McCulloch,
a daughter of Fred McCulloch, he born in Fort Wayne, Indiana,
a son of Hugh McCulloch, who served in the cabinet under
President Lincoln. Doctor and Mrs. Morrison have had two
children born to them: Fred McCulloch, who is studying medi-
cine in the University of Virginia, and a prominent member of
Phi Kappa Psi, and Margaret Carolyn. Robert Dabney is an
adopted son, is also attending the University of Virginia. Mrs.
Morrison is an Episcopalian, and he is a Presbyterian. His
fraternal aliiliations are with the Masonic Order and the Elks.
He belongs to the Oakwood Country Club, the Campbell County
Medical Society, the Virginia State Medical Society, the South-
ern Medical Association, the American Medical Association, the
State Eye, Ear, Nose and Throat Association, and he is a Fellow
of the American College of Surgeons. His entire time is de-
voted to his practice so that he has no business connections, but
he is interested in the progress and continued prosperity of
Lynchburg and its vicinity, and willing to give liberally of his
means to forward and maintain these conditions.
Richard E. White, of Bedford, is a banker, president of the
Citizens National Bank, one of the strongest financial institu-
tions in that section of the state. Its otTicers and directors in-
clude some of the outstanding citizens of Bedford County. The
Citizens National Bank has capital and surplus of $200,000, and
it is one of the banks whose steady growth has brought its re-
sources above a million dollars. At the close of business in 1927
the resources stood at the figure of over one million six hun-
dred thousand dollars.
Mr. White was born on a farm in Bedford County, March 10.
1870, son of Henry Milton and Louise (Majors) White and
grandson of Jacob S. White. The White family for several
generations have been identified with farming and planting in
Bedford County. His maternal grandfather, Howard Majors,
was also a Bedford County farmer. Henry Milton White was
reared on a farm and at the age of twenty-two engaged in mer-
chandising at Big Island, and died at the comparatively early
age of thirty-one. His widow, who was educated at Hollins
College, died in 1897, having married a Mr. Smith. By the first
marriage there were two children, Richard E. and Samuel, the
latter of whom died at the age of eight years. The three chil-
dren from the second marriage were : Robei't Fullerton Smith,
with the National Stock Yards at Saint Louis; Duncan Smith,
an architect at Saint Louis; and Harry Pritchard Smith, also
with the National Stock Yards at Saint Louis. Henry Milton
Vvhite was a member of the Masonic fraternity.
Richard E. White received his early education in country
schools and the New London Academy, and had his first business
training in a store at Bedford. From there he went with the
Lynchburg Trust & Savings Bank, and was with that institution
nine years, gaining a tnorough knowledge of banking. He
started as bookkeeper and was assistant cashier when he left.
Returning to Bedford, he was made cashier of the Citizens Na-
tional Bank in 1914, and has been president of the institution
40 VIRGINIA
since 1921. He has concentrated his business energies fully on
the bank and personally deserves a large amount of credit for
its steady growth and prosperity.
Mr. White married, in 1898, Magnolia Pendleton Wright,
who was born in Nelson County, Virginia, daughter of William
H. Wright, who moved to Bedford County about 1888 and lived
the rest of his life on the Colonel Davis farm. Mrs. White was
educated at Bedford and in the Belmont Seminary there. They
have two children, Marion Louise and Isabelle, the former a
student in Hollins College. Mr. and Mrs. White are active
members of the Methodist Episcopal Church at Bedford. He
has been on the Board of Stewards of the church for twenty-
seven years, chairman of the financial committee, and for seven-
teen years has taught a Bible class of young men. He is affili-
ated with the Masonic fraternity.
E. Craige Pelouze, manager of Pelouze Printers Supply
Company, is a prominent citizen of Richmond, and a member of
a family of famous typefounders, of whom the best known, per-
haps, was the late Henry L. Pelouze, father of E. Craige Pelouze,
and he was a son of Edward Pelouze, the first of the name to
engage in typefounding. Edward Pelouze was born in West
Windsor, Connecticut, March 22, 1799, of French parents. His
father, who was an officer in the French army, was imprisoned
at the time of the French Revolution, but made his escape and
came to America.
In 1801 Edward Pelouze was taken by his parents. Dr.
Edmond Pelouze and Sarah de'Jean Pelouze, to Charlestown,
New Hampshire, where the Pelouze home remains to this day
in an excellent state of preservation. In 1794 Doctor Pelouze
was employed in a French printing office in Philadelphia as
translator. During the interruption of his practice in medicine
Edward was reared and educated in Charlestown.
From boyhood he exhibited a taste for mechanics, and in
1818, leaving his old home, went to Boston, Massachusetts, seek-
ing an opportunity to develop that taste. There he entered the
only type foundry in the city, that had just been opened by
Bedlington & Ewer, and in it he soon proved his ability. One
of his associates was Michael Dalton, and these two formed a
warm friendship. Mr. Dalton married the sister of Mr. Pelouze.
The latter learned typemaking in all of its branches, as was the
custom in those days, but became especially skillful in mold-
making and matrix fitting. He also learned punch-cutting, and
was one of the few cutters at that time.
Not long after he came to Boston Mr. Pelouze married Har-
riet Maria Thompson, of New York, and he continued to make
that city his home until 1829, when he went to New York City
and was employed in White's foundry as punch-cutter and
matrix fitter, but did not remain there long, for in June, 1830,
he embarked in his own business, corner of Fulton and Nassau
streets. While there his three sons, Edward, William and Henry,
took their first lessons in typefounding, each starting as a
breaker boy, and working up through the various branches as
they grew older.
In 1849, like so many others, he decided to go to California
on the quest for gold, and therefore sold his business, but did
not succeed, as he had expected, so returned to New York in 1850
and took a position in the foundry of James Conner, with whom
t
VIRGINIA . 41
he continued for about three years, going then to Boston once
more, and with John K. Rogers and David Watson purchased
the Boston Typefoundry, operating it under the name of John K.
Rogers & Company. His health failing, in 1864 he sold his
interests in Boston and went to Camden, New Jersey, where he
continued to reside at the home of a daughter until his death,
June 4, 1876.
The life of Edward Pelouze was too active to allow him to
remain idle, and much of his time in his later years was spent
with his brother Lewis in Philadelphia, where he continued to
assist by his advice and experience in the foundry of the latter.
During the many years he was connected with typefounding he
made numerous inventions and added largely to the improve-
ments of the tools of his trade. He was the inventor of a type-
casting machine which was used for some time, until superseded
by the more perfect one of David Bruce, Jr., which was so long
in use, and continues as the only practical machine for hand
casting. He is also given credit for the invention of the electro-
typed matrix, which permitted a rapid duplication of type faces.
As a moldmaker he had no superior in his day, and but few
equals. While not ranking high as a punch-cutter, he produced
several faces which were used extensively. Belonging to a period
in typefounding when rapid changes were taking place, he had
an oppoi'tunity of observing and aiding in the wonderful ad-
vances. He was contemporary with Bruce, White, Conner,
Hager, Smith and Cortelyou, and shared with them the honors
of typefounding.
While Edward Pelouze was making a name for himself in
New York City in connection with the typefounding industry,
his younger brother, Lewis Pelouze, was gaining a strong foot-
hold in Philadelphia. He was born in North Charlestown, New
Hampshire, March 25, 1808, and he too learned typefounding,
passing through all the different branches and became proficient
in all to a degree seldom attained by the workmen of today. For
fifteen years he was with Binny & Ronaldson, later the Ronald-
son Type Foundry, and then, in 1841, he established himself in
business as a typefounder, corner of Third and Chestnut streets,
Philadelphia, and there he continued actively in business until
his death, March 5, 1876, the original sign bearing the name
"Lewis Pelouze" being a landmark to the printing fraternity of
that city long after he was no more. He soon built up a lucra-
tive business, having among his life long patrons such news-
papers as the Public Ledger, the Philadelphia North American,
the Baltimore Sun and the Washington Evening Star. His
foundry was among the first to introduce typecasting machines,
and at one time the Lewis Pelouze Type Foundry gave every
indication of becoming one of the leading concerns of the coun-
try. Ill health and the preference of the two sons for other
pursuits, the elder entering West Point Military Academy, and
afterwards achieving success as an officer in the Regular Army,
caused his foundi->' to fall behind in the race, although he con-
tinued to retain the good will and patronage of his friends and
early customers as long as he lived.
After the death of Louis Pelouze the business descended to
relatives, and was conducted under the old name until 1892,
when it was sold to the American Type Founders Company, and
by them closed out. Thus passed out of existence one of the
landmarks of Philadelphia, and a business which had been hon-
42 VIRGINIA
orably conducted and enjoyed the patronage and good will of
so many.
Henry L. Pelouze, son of Edward Pelouze and nephew of
Lewis, was born at the time that his father was carrying on the
business of typefounding in New York City and his uncle was
engaged in the same business in Philadelphia, and he grew up
in the business and mastered all of its branches under his
father's supervision. When he was eighteen years old he became
foreman of his uncle's foundry in Philadelphia, then one of the
leading foundries of the country. In 1854 he made a trip to
Chicago, where he was convinced there was an opening for a
typefoundry, and he received so much encouragement from
printers and publishers that he decided to locate there, and
returned to Philadelphia to complete his arrangements. His
wife, Eliza Jane Tuthill, was so opposed to the idea of leaving
her friends and old associations for what was then the "far
West" that he was forced to abandon the project. Soon there-
after he as offered an opportunity to locate in New York City,
and he and S. R. Walker founded the firm of Walker & Pelouze,
and their foundry was located corner of Fulton and Dutch
streets, then in the heart of the printing district. The new firm
secured the business of the New York Tribune, and among the
warm personal friends of Mr. Pelouze at that time was Thomas
Rocker, so long foreman of that newspaper, and Robert Bonner,
a compositor on the same paper, and they greatly aided the
new firm.
In 1859, in order to enlarge the business, a branch was
opened in Richmond, Virginia, by Mr. Pelouze, Mr. Walker re-
maining in charge of the New York business. Before his plans
were completed, however, war was declared, and Mr. Pelouze
was not able to get through the lines until 1862, when, receiving
permission, he returned to New York to learn that because of
the illness of his partner the business had become demoralized,
and a fresh start had to be made. While he was in Richmond
he was imprisoned for some time in Libby Prison as a Northern
sympathizer, but later, through the intercession of the pro-
prietors of the Richmond Whig and influence of Gen. Harry
Pelouze, adjutant under General Grant, he was paroled and
engaged in typefounding, as the whole Confederacy was suffer-
ing for type. Many were the straits he experienced to get the
raw material. It was impossible to secure antimony and tin,
so the principal ingredients of his type-metal were lead and
what little old type could be secured. One dress of the Richmond
Dispatch lasted just six weeks as it was almost entirely of lead.
At the close of the Civil war Mr. Pelouze returned to Rich-
mond and found his machinery in working order. With the
assistance of his cousin, Charles E. Pelouze, and his nephew,
H. L. Hartshorn, he began to rebuild his fortunes under the
style of H. L. Pelouze & Company. In spite of adverse circum-
stances the firm prospered fairly well and in 1869 the idea was
conceived of starting a branch at Washington to be near the
Governmental printing office, and this was placed under the
charge of the nephew, H. L. Hartshorn. The venture was suc-
cessful until 1875, when the nephew retired from the firm to go
to Philadephia, and he was succeeded by Frank Pelouze, and the
style was changed to H. L. Pelouze & Son.
The new firm purchased the old Baltimore Type Foundry in
1879, thus establishing a chain that embraced Baltimore, Rich-
VIRGINIA 43
mond and Washing-ton, the head of the firm giving the most of
his attention to the Richmond house, while Washington and
Baltimore branches were managed by the son. The Baltimore
branch was sold to Charles J. Gary about 1883, and the firm
concentrated on the Richmond and Washington branches. In
1895 Henry L. Pelouze made over his interests to his youngest
son, E. Graige Pelouze, who reorganized under the name of the
Pelouze Paper and Type Company.
In the meanwhile Mr. Pelouze had become interested in
politics, and was nominated for Congress from the Richmond
district in the campaign which elected Garfield to the Presi-
dency. The situation in Virginia was very much mixed up, and
in the interests of harmony he was induced to withdraw in favor
of John S. Wise, the representative of what is known as the
Mahone wing. Later he was asked to accept the position of
postmaster at Richmond, but again declined in the interest of
harmony in his party. Dropping politics, he gave more of his
time to social and other duties, and served for two terms as
worshipful master of Lodge Francais, A. F. and A. M. He
also served Richmond Gommandery as its eminent commander,
and was a member of the Ancient Ai-abic Order Nobles of the
Mystic Shrine.
It was the ambition of Henry L. Pelouze to see opened at
Richmond a successful hotel, and this idea became so absorbing
that after he had disposed of his business he purchased the Law
Building and began to remodel it for a hotel. This occupied his
time and energies until the time of his death. During the winter
of 1895-96 he was attacked with Bright's disease, and this
malady increased until August 11, 1896, when death relieved
his sufferings.
Henry J. Pelouze was a very active man, one of untiring
energy, but of a nervous temperament, but, while at times his
manner was brusque, those who knew him admired him for his
many excellent qualties of mind and heart. He was well known
to the old school of typefounders— Dalton, Bruce, James, Wil-
liam Connor, Hager, MacKellar, grandfather of Joseph Her-
gesheimer, the writer, and in fact all of those engaged in the
industry during the last half of the nineteenth century. That
he was popular in the city of his adoption is shown by his
election and appointment for several years to the City Council
of Richmond, where he ever labored for the development and
impro\ement of its material aff'airs. He also served as director
in several state institutions in Virginia, giving his time and
talents to their cause. While always an avowed LTnion man,
he was none the less popular with his neighbors, who were almost
unanimous in their allegiance to the cause of the Confederacy,
and numbered many of them among his most intimate friends.
E. Graige Pelouze attended Glaverack College, New York,
from which he was graduated in 1887. He had grown up in
the typefounding business, as had his father before him, and
has always been identified with it. As above stated, in 1895,
his father made over the business to him, and he reorganized
as the Pelouze Paper and Type Company, continuing to operate
it until it was absorbed by the American Typefounders Com-
pany, he continuing as manager of the Richmond branch until
February, 1928, when he severed his connections to establish
the Pelouze Printers Supply Company, in the same building his
father started the type founders business in 1859.
44 VIRGINIA
Although he has never cared to enter politics, E. Craige
Pelouze has always been active in civic affairs, and he accom-
plished especially effective work, covering a period of four years,
in bringing about the construction of the Washington-Richmond
Highway, which was completed in June, 1927. Among other
interesting events of his career may be mentioned that he was
the owner and driver of the first automobile in Virginia.
For many years Mr. Pelouze has been prominent in Masonry,
and belongs to Joppa Lodge No. 40, A. F. and A. M. ; Washington
Chapter No. 9, R. A. M. ; Richmond Commandery No. 2, K. T. ;
and Ancient Arabic Order Nobles of the Mystic Shrine. He was
the originator of Samis Grotto of the Mystic Order Veiled
Prophets of the Enchanted Realm in Richmond, and is a past
grand monarch of this order in the United States and Canada.
At the annual convention of the order in Cleveland, Ohio, in
June, 1927, he was instrumental in having Richmond designated
as the place for the annual gathering in 1928.
Mr. Pelouze married Miss Nannie J. Tillyer, of Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania, a descendant of one of the prominent American
families of Colonial and Revolutionary history through inter-
marriage of the Rapaley family, of French origin, and Hogeland
family of Holland, who were among the original settlers of New
Amsterdam, New York City. Mrs. Pelouze is active in the
affairs of the local chapters of both the Daughters of the Ameri-
can Revolution and the Colonial Dames. Mr. and Mrs. Pelouze
have two children : Henry L., who is a graduate of the Virginia
Polytechnic Institute ; and Lucile Tillyer Pelouze.
Howell A. Robinson is a prominent Lynchburg citizen and
business man. He has lived in that locality practically all his
life, started his career without financial resources, and has been
instrumental in giving widespread distribution to one of the
most important of Virginia's agricultural products, the peanut.
Mr. Robinson is head of H. A. Robinson & Company, Incorpo-
rated, manufacturers and distributors of peanut products.
He was born at Lynchburg, July 19, 1857, son of James A.
and Mary V. (Love) Robinson, his father a native of Lynch-
burg, while his mother was born in Bedford County, Virginia.
His grandfather, Howell Robinson, was born in Bedford County,
and when he died in 1855 was the first person buried in the
Spring Hill Cemetery at Lynchburg and was accorded the
honors of a military funeral. The maternal grandfather,
Charles Love, was born at Lynchburg and through his life was
connected with the tobacco business. James A. Robinson was
also a tobacconist. He was in the provost marshal's office dur-
ing the Civil war. He began voting as a Whig and later became
a Democrat, and both he and his wife were active members of
the Baptist Church. Of their seven children Howell A. is the
only one now living.
Howell A. Robinson had his educational advantages in
Lynchburg and Petersburg, and he came to manhood about the
close of the reconstruction era. On leaving school he clerked
in a tobacco house, and it was in 1895 that he engaged in the
peanut business. The firm of H. A. Robinson & Company, In-
corporated, has developed an extensive business in the roasting
of peanuts, the making and packing of peanut butter and other
peanut products. These products are widely distributed under
the brand Robinson Crusoe Salted Peanuts and Glove Kid Pea-
nut Butter. The output is sold chiefly through brokers and job-
VIRGINIA 45
bers over twelve states of the Union, and the firm also keeps sev-
eral traveling representatives on the road.
Mr. Robinson married, in 1883, Miss Nanie Gresham, who
was born in Chesterfield County, Virginia, and was reared and
educated at Richmond. Her father, Edwin A. Gresham, was
born in King and Queen County, was a lumberman, and in his
later years lived at Washington and was in the insurance busi-
ness. Mr. and Mrs. Robinson had a family of four sons and one
daughter : James Edward, who was educated at Lynchburg and
is now a traveling representative for his father's firm; Mary,
wife of S. B. Fishel, of Lynchburg; Charles Eaton, who at-
tended school at Lynchburg and the University of Virginia, is
associated with his father's business; William G. and Joseph
A., both of whom are in business with their father. The mother
of these children died in May, 1925. Mr. Robinson is a member
of the First Baptist Church, is a Scottish Rite Mason, a past
grand of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and for a num-
ber of years was treasurer and director of the Odd Fellows
Home at Lynchburg.
Jesse L. Davidson, co-publisher of the Bedford Bulletin, has
been interested in the publishing and printing business since
early manhood and has also been an important citizen in the
aff'airs of his home locality.
He was born at Bedford, August 22, 1876, son of Arch V.
and Amanda F. (Sublett) Davidson, both natives of Charlotte
County, and grandson of Allen Davidson and Benjamin F. Sub-
lett, also of Charlotte County, farmers of that locality. Arch V.
Davidson followed the trade of blacksmith at Bedford for a
great many years, and died in 1903, at the age of seventy-nine.
His widow is now ninety-one years of age, living at Bedford.
Both were active members of the Baptist Church and Arch
Davidson was a Confederate soldier in the Civil war. Of his
seven children four are living.
Jesse L. Davidson, who has never married, was educated in
public schools and as a boy learned the printing trade. That
trade has given him his chief occupation and his main business
for over thirty years, and he has made the Bulletin a very
strong and influential newspaper. Mr. Davidson sei^ved some
time as president of the Rotary Club, is active in Democratic
politics and is supervisor of game wardens in the Lynchburg
District. He holds stock in several banks and has employed his
personal influences as well as the power of his newspaper to
promote better schools and other organizations connected with
community welfare.
Dice Robins Anderson since April, 1920, has been president
of Randolph-Macon Woman's College at Lynchburg. As an in-
stitution for the higher education of young women Randolph-
Macon has had a splendid history, and fortunately its modern
equipment, facilities and personnel enable it to take advantage
of its traditions. According to the exacting standards of pres-
ent day classification it ranks as one of the leading colleges for
women in the United States.
Dice Robins Anderson is a native Virginian, born at Char-
lottesville April 18, 1880, son of Rev. James Madison and Mar-
garet Olivia (Robins) Anderson. His father was born in
Amelia County, Virginia, in 1837, received part of his educa-
tion in Randolph-Macon College, then located at Boydton, Vir-
46 VIRGINIA
ginia, was ordained in the Methodist ministry at the age of
nineteen, and labored in the Virginia Conference until his death
in 1906. He was chaplain of a Virginia regiment during the
Civil war. Among other pastorates he was located at Norfolk
in the Cumberland Street Church, at Hertford, North Carolina,
Blackstone, Virginia, and for four years each was presiding
elder of the Danville and Charlottesville districts. His second
wife, Margaret Olivia Robins, was born in Accomac County in
1842, of a family that has lived on the eastern shore of Virginia
for many generations. They had two sons. Dice R. and Joseph
E., the latter a Methodist minister and business man.
Dice Robins Anderson was educated in the Hoge Military
Academy, subsequently known as the Blackstone Military Acad-
emy, took his A. B. degree at Randolph-Macon College for Men,
at Ashland, in 1900, his Master of Arts degree there in 1901, and
the Doctor of Philosophy degree at the University of Chicago in
1912. William and Mary College in 1924 bestowed upon him
the Doctor of Laws degree. His early service as an educator
was spent with a number of institutions. He was professor of
mathematics at the Central Female College of Lexington, Mis-
souri, in 1901-02, instructor in history at Randolph-Macon
Academy at Bedford City, Virginia, in 1902-03, principal of the
Chesapeake Academy at Irvington, Virginia, from 1903 to 1906,
and president of the Willie Halsell College at Vinita. Oklahoma,
in 1906-07. During 1907-08 he was fellow in history at the
Universitv of Chicago, and instructor in history there in
1908-09.
Doctor Anderson in 1909 took the chair of history and polit-
ical science at Richmond College, and for ten years was a resi-
dent of the capital city. During 1919-20 he was professor of
economics and political science, and director of the School of
Business Administration. From 1915 to 1920, in addition to
his work at the college, he was executive secretary of the Rich-
mond Civic Association. In December, 1919, he was elected
president of Randolph-Macon Woman's College and took up his
administrative duties there in April of the following year. He
was a lecturer at the Richmond School of Social Economy in
1917, at the Virginia Mechanics Institute in 1919, was president
of the Department of Colleges of the Virginia Educational Con-
ference in 1922-23, president of the Virginia Association of Col-
leges in 1923, was editor of the Richmond College Historical
Papei's for 1915, 1916 and 1917, and has prepared and delivered
and also published many articles on historical and political sub-
jects. He is author of William Branch Giles: A Study in the
Politics of Virginia and the Nation. 1790-1815, published in
1914, and Edmund Randolph, second Secretary of State, is
in the Secretaries of State Series.
Doctor Anderson is a Phi Beta Kappa, also a Tau Kappa
Alpha and Phi Kappa Sigma, member of the American Histor-
ical Association, and has been a member of the Virginia Annual
Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, for a
number of sessions, He was a member of the General Confer-
ence of the church at Hot Springs, Arkansas, and was recently
elected Lay Leader for the Virginia Conference of the Method-
ist Church, South. He is a Democrat.
Doctor Anderson married, June 24, 1903, Miss Ada James
Ash, who was born at Somerset, Perry County, Ohio, daughter
of James Ash. She graduated from high school at Kansas City,
Missouri, also attended Vassar College, and is a graduate in
M
^^^^^^^^^^.t^^^ >ir-c/
VIRGINIA 47
music from Oberlin College, continuing her musical studies in
Saint Louis and Chicago. Mr. and Mrs. Anderson have two
children, Dice R., Jr., and William Dodd. The older son gradu-
ated from Randolph-Macon College at Ashland in 1925.
Thomas Jefferson Hughes, M. D. Success in life along
any path of endeavor demands honesty, energy, proper prepara-
tion, conscientiousness and self-reliance. Genius may also be
present, but for permanency, practical qualities and the homely
virtues are necessary. To the undoubted possession of these
may we, in part, attribute the success that has crowned the
efforts of Dr. Thomas Jefferson Hughes, who has figured promi-
nently in the medical profession of Roanoke for a number of
years, and has maintained throughout his entire career a high
standard of professional ethics and scientific principles.
Doctor Hughes was born in Smyth County, Virginia, Novem-
ber 27, 1876. He was the second son of William Hector Hughes,
who was the fifth son of Jesse Hughes. Jesse Hughes was in
the fourth generation of descent from Robert Hughes, who im-
migrated to Virginia from Toffe, near Cardiff in Wales, Eng-
land, and who was a direct descendant of the King of Gwent,
Prince of Cardigan. The Hughes family belonged to the Welsh
nobility and had their coat-of-arms and motto. Robert Hughes
on coming to Virginia settled in Powhatan and Cumberland
counties, reared a large family, members of which intermarried
with the well known Colonial families of Randolph, Jefferson,
Woodson and Flemings.
Through his father's mother Doctor Hughes is descended
from William Randolph of Yorkshire, England, who settled at
Turkey Island on the James River in Virginia, and afterwards
acquired Curies Neck just across the river. William Randolph
married Mary Isham, of Gloucester County, and one of their
children was Isham Randolph, who settled at Dungeness, a splen-
did estate on the Upper James River in what is now Goochland
County. His eldest daughter, Jane, married Peter Jefferson,
from which union sprang the immortal Thomas Jefferson, third
President of the United States. A sister of Mrs. Peter Jefferson
was Dorothes Randolph, who married Col. John Woodson. Col.
John Woodson was a son of Dr. John Woodson, who came over
with Sir George Yeardly. Mary Royal, daughter of Col. John
and Dorothes (Randolph) Woodson, married Thomas Cheadle,
of Cheadletown, England. Their son, John Cheadle, married
Judith Clarke, of Albemarle County, Virginia, and their daugh-
ter, Mary Woodson Cheadle, became the wife of Jesse Hughes.
They were the grandparents of Dr. Thomas Jefferson Hughes.
Thus Doctor Hughes is descended from families whose names
and deeds have gone into the making of history across the seas
and have been foremost in the upbuilding of and making famous
the Old Dominion of Virginia.
William Hector Hughes, father of Doctor Hughes, was born
in Prince Edward County, Virginia, and married Mary Davis,
who was born in Smyth County. For years William H. Hughes
was secretai-y of what is now the Norfolk & Western Railroad
Company, holding that office for the fourteen years immediately
preceding the war period of the '60s. He entered the army, but
was sent back to the railroad, where the authorities felt he was
more urgently needed. Four sons were born to his %\'ife and
himself: Jesse Martin Hughes, who lives near Washington City,
48 VIRGINIA
being connected with the Farm Loan Bank there; Doctor
Hughes; William Hector, Jr., a farmer in Smyth County; and
Dr. Robert E. Hughes, who practices medicine at North Holston,
Smyth County. Both parents were active members of the Metho-
dist Episcopal Church, South. His father was a York Rite
Mason, being a past master of the lodge.
The early educational training of Doctor Hughes was secured
in the public schools of his native county, and he later entered
Sharron College, Bland County, Virginia, and he took his pro-
fessional work in the Virginia College of Medicine, Richmond,
and was graduated therefrom in 1898, with the degree Doctor of
Medicine. Later he did post-graduate work in the New York
Polyclinic. After ten years practice in Smyth County he spent
eighteen months in Europe studying surgery. Upon his return
home he began the practice of his profession at Roanoke, in
1910, and since then has remained in this city. For some years
he was a general practitioner, but is now specializing in surgery,
in which he is a recognized expert, and he is serving as president
of Shenandoah Hospital.
In 1910 Doctor Hughes married Florence Preston Starritt,
born in Albemarle County, Virginia, and educated in Roanoke.
Doctor and Mrs. Hughes have one child, Thomas J., Jr., who
was born December 12, 1911, and is a student of the Augusta
Military Academy. Doctor Hughes belongs to the Presbyterian
Church, and for several years was deacon of the West End
Church of that denomination. He is a York Rite and Shriner
Mason, being a past master of the Blue Lodge ; and belongs to
the Knights of Pythias, the Benevolent and Protective Order of
Elks and the University Club. Dr. Hughes is a Democrat. In
addition to his practice he has other interests and is president
of the Graham- White Sander Corporation, and a director of the
American National Bank, the Shenandoah Life Insurance Com-
pany and (General Finance Corporation. Although he began
life with very little he has now an extensive and lucrative con-
nection and is justly numbered among the leading professional
men of his city, which is distinguished for high rank in the
medical profession. The spirit of progress which has been the
dominant factor of the first quarter of the new century has
been manifest in no connection more strongly than in the science
of medicine. Investigation and research have brought forth
many scientific facts and established principles, and Doctor
Hughes has kept pace with the advance. His professional serv-
ice has ever been discharged with a keen sense of conscientious
obligation and his skill has brought him to a prominent position.
He is intelligently interested in all that pertains to modern
progress and improvement, not only along professional but ma-
terial and moral lines, and he always finds time to study great
public questions and is ever ready to lend his influence for the
betterment of humanity.
David A. Christian, M. D., descended from some of the first
families to settle in Appomattox County, is a highly educated
physician and surgeon, a man of leadership in his profession and
has also been a positive factor in the good citizenship of his
locality.
Doctor Christian was born in Appomattox County, May 20,
1880, son of David A. and Mary A. (Thornhill) Christian. His
mother was a daughter of Albert T. Thornhill, a native of Appo-
VIRGINIA 49
mattox County, son of Thomas G. Thornhill, who secured a deed
to attractive land in that county from King George of England.
Doctor Christian is a grandson of William Diuguid Christian, a
pioneer physician, who graduated in medicine from the Univer-
sity of Pennsylvania and practiced his profession in Appomattox
County from 1832 until his death in 1880. Doctor Christian's
father continued the tradition of the family for important serv-
ice in the office of judge of the County Court for fifteen years.
He graduated in law from the University of Virginia and since
1906 has been a resident of Richmond, where for a number of
years he was a clerk in the department of public instruction.
He is now eighty-two years of age. For two years he was a
Confederate soldier, joining the army at the age of fifteen, and
was in the Signal Corps. He has been a life long Baptist.
Dr. David A. Christian was the oldest in a family of eight
children, six of whom are living. He was educated at the South
Side Academy at Chase City, and while getting his higher edu-
cation and preparing himself for a professional career he did
farm work, for two years was a mail carrier and was also census
enumerator. Doctor Christian graduated from the Richmond
Medical College in May, 1908, and has given twenty years of
service in his profession in his home county. He is a member
of the Medical Society of Virginia and since 1909 has been physi-
cian to the Woodmen of the World. He is on the medical staff
of the Southside Community Hospital at Farmville, Virginia.
During the World war he was a member of Medical Advisory
Board No. 36. He was a delegate to the conference on higher
education at Richmond in February, 1927, this conference hav-
ing been called by Governor Byrd. Doctor Christian is a mem-
ber of the Baptist Church and the Masonic fraternity.
He married, in 1916, Miss Bessie S. Stratton, who was bom
in Appomattox County, and taught school there two years be-
fore her marriage. Her father, Chesley Stratton, is a farmer
in the Stonewall Community. Doctor and Mrs. Christian have
six children : Agnes Virginia, bom in 1918, Bessie, born in 1920,
Mildred, born in 1922, David A. Ill, born in 1924, Catherine
Thornhill, born in 1926, and Chesley Stratton Christian, born in
1928.
William Lyle Ould, physician and surgeon, now established
in his professional work at Appomattox, was a brilliant student
when in school and college, and graduated with a diploma and
other qualifications for the practice of medicine when he was
only nineteen and one-half years old.
Doctor Ould was born in Bedford Springs, Campbell County,
Virginia, November 3, 1874, son of William and Ellen (O'Drain)
Ould. His father was a native of Halifax County, was a lawyer
with an extensive practice in that and adjoining counties and
held the oflice of commonwealth attorney. He was veiy active
in politics. He served as a captain of militia before the war and
during the war between the states, but most of his time was
given up to recruiting duty. He was a member of the Presby-
terian Church. By his first marriage he had three children, and
Ellen O'Drain was his second wife. She was born in Canada
and now lives at Lynchburg, being the mother of three children.
One son. Eugene, now deceased, served several terms in the
Legislature.
Dr. William Lyle Ould was educated in the New London
Academy and in the University of Virginia attended four ses-
V^GINIA BEACH PUBLIC LIBRARY
50 VIRGINIA
sions of medical lectures, 1891-93. On March 13, 1894, he
graduated M. D. from the University of Louisville. Doctor Ould
practiced for over thirty years at Concord in Campbell County.
In 1925 he removed to Appomattox, where he has found impor-
tant responsibilities of a professional nature. He is also inter-
ested in local real estate, in a hardware store, and has been
prominent in Masonry, being a past district deputy and now
conducts a class in lodge work at Appomattox. He is a Royal
Arch Mason and a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church.
Doctor Ould married in 1895 Florence Ballou, granddaugh-
ter of General Ballou, of a prominent family of Halifax County,
where she was reared and educated. Doctor and Mrs. Ould
have three children. The son William Carroll is a salesman at
Roanoke and the second son, L. Herman, is in the automobile
business at Appomattox.
The daughter, Ruth Ould, has had a distinguished career as
a scholar and teacher and is the wife of Robert W. Manton, who
is head of the department of music in the University at New
Hampshire. Mrs. Manton graduated from Randolph-Macon
Woman's College at Lynchburg, obtaining an A. M. degree, also
studied at Columbia University, where she received her B. A.
degree, and in other institutions, including Yale, and for some
time held the chair of English at the University of New Hamp-
shire, being the youngest woman head of a department in any
university in the country. She was the assistant in the Depart-
ment of Corrective Work. She has always been interested in
athletics, and has spent much time in encouraging physical
training and athletic work among women in different schools.
Robert W. Manton, her husband, served with the United States
Marine Corps during the World war. He is a graduate of Har-
vard University, and while overseas with the Fifth Regiment of
the Marines and after the armistice he continued his musical
studies in Paris. He was a volunteer, and was at the front
when the armistice was signed and was one of the first Ameri'-
cans to land in France. He has held the chair of music at the
University of New Hampshire since June, 1903. Mr. and Mrs.
Manton have one son, Robert W., Junior, born October 15, 1927.
Edv/ard C. Glass. Some superintendents of schools, old in
their ways, combat the application of modern standards to
escape disturbance by new conditions. They do not wish to
bear the responsibility, and so they retard progress in their
systems and have no place as leadei's any longer. However,
"When one is found who is both able and willing to take up every-
thing calculated to advance his schools, then additional power
should be accorded him. To such a man all the phases of admin-
istration should be left, for he understands the needs of the
pupils and how to meet them. Sucn a man in addition to being
a good educator would be one who would not bend to the pressure
of political or other vicious influences, whether exerted by
school boards or others. The superintendent, with the coopera-
tion of the teachers, should develop an educational policy to fit
the local conditions, which would include the curriculum, text-
books, promotions, salaries and similar matters. The develop-
ing of policies with the cooperation of the teachers is necessary
because the joint wisdom of all is better than the wisdom of one
individual or of one working with a hand-picked group of
friends. No one is an educational automaton and no one super-
intendent without the cooperation of the teaching force can
VIRGINIA 51
accomplish what should be accomplished in the system. The
policy of cooperation is for growth. One of the very able
men who fully measures up to the above standards, and who is
securing in a marked degree the cooperation of all with whom
he is associated, is Edward C. Glass, superintendent of the
schools of Lynchburg.
Superintendent Glass was born in Lynchburg, September 7,
1852, and he has the distinction of being the oldest, in point of
service, of the school superintendents in the United States. He
is a son of Robert Henry and Betta Augusta (Christian) Glass,
she born in Appomattox, Virginia, and he in Amherst County,
Virginia. A very prominent citizen of Lynchburg, Robert
Henry Glass left his impress upon the history of his own times.
For many years he was editor of the Lynchburg Republican, and
served as postmaster of the city from 1852 until the outbreak of
the war between the states, and throughout that great conflict
he remained in office in spite of the difficulty in getting the mails
through the lines. A strong Democrat and a sesessionist, he
served for six months on the staff of .John B. Floyd, and partici-
pated in the battle of Winchester. For years he took a leading
part in the work of the Court Street Methodist Church, South.
Of the twelve children born to him and his wife nine are now
living, and of them all Superintendent Glass is the third in order
of birth. The paternal grandfather of Superintendent Glass
was Thomas Glass, a native of Virginia. The family was estab-
lished in Virginia at a very early day, in the beginning of the
seventeenth century, by John Glass.
Superintendent Glass remembers distinctly the troubled
period immediately preceding the outbreak of war, although
then but a mere child. His father was a spirited defender of
State's Rights, and bitterly opposed to the newly organized Re-
publican party, fighting it by the spoken and written word.
Because of a trenchant editorial voicing a bitter denunciation,
true in every contention, of the dishonesty of certain office hold-
ers of the new political faith, he was shot and lost an eye in the
affray. After the close of the war his friends nominated him
for Congress, desiring to have him represent their district in
the National Assembly, but his name was withdrawn.
During his boyhood Superintendent Glass attended a private
school, and later took his high school work at Norwood, Nelson
Ccuntj', Virginia. He began his educational work in Lynch-
burg April 5, 1871, the first day the public-school system began
to function in Lynchburg. For the succeeding five years he
continued teaching, for one of those years being principal of the
grammar school, and on January 9, 1879, he was appointed
superintendent of schools, and has continued to hold that position
ever since with distinguished capability.
On November 4, 1879, Superintendent Glass married Miss
Susie G. Carter, who was born in Appomattox County, Virginia,
and educated in the preparatory seminary of Lynchburg, being
a member of its first graduating class. Ten children were born
of this marriage, seven of whom are living: E. C, Junior, who
is in the Lynchburg street car service; Mary C, who married
W. P. Tyree, a tobacconist of Lynchburg; Robert, who was edu-
cated in Lynchburg and at Washington and Lee University,
where he obtained his A. B. degree and who is now the editor of
the Liinchbwg Morning News; Nannie G., who married Edward
Mayfield, and is now a widow residing in Lynchburg; Henry B.,
who is an attorney, but has been in the in:,uran;e bucinass at
52 VIRGINIA
Lynchburg since his return from the World war, in which he
served overseas, was gassed, and had conferred upon him for
valor the Distinguished Service Medal; EKzabeth C, who was
graduated from Randolph-Macon College, is a teacher of Latin
in the Lynchburg High School; Susie Sanford, who was gradu-
ated from the Lynchburg High School and the Washington Nor-
mal Training School, married Richard Henry Lee, an Episcopal
clergyman, now stationed near Norfolk, Virginia. The children
have all done well, and are a great credit to their parents, who
have reared them with loving watchfulness. All the children
and their parents belong to the Court Street Methodist Church,
South, which he has served as steward. In addition to his long
and valued service to Lynchburg Superintendent Glass was for
sixteen years the conductor of the Virginia Summer School of
Methods, was a member of the first board of William and Mary
College, and of the first State Board of Education. He is a mem-
ber of the present state board of education from Lynchburg. A
close student, he has not only perfected himself in the classics,
but kept abreast of modern thought and progress, and has inaug-
urated many innovations and carried them out most successfully
in the Lynchburg schools. During his entire term of service as
superintendent of the Lynchburg schools he has been a member
of the National Education Association.
George Johnson Tompkins, physician and surgeon, was one
of the first members of his profession at Lynchburg to limit his
practice to a special field. In eye, ear, nose and throat he is
not only one of the oldest in point of service in that city but one
of the doctors of generally recognized ability and standing in
Central Virginia.
Doctor Tompkins was born in Lexington, Virginia, March
27, 1873, son of J. Fulton and Sallie D. (Pendleton) Tompkins.
His grandfather, Edmund Giles Tompkins, was a commission
merchant at Richmond and one of the founders of Saint James
Episcopal Church in that city, where he died. He married a
sister of the mother of Senator Thomas Staples, who after his
death moved to Lexington. Both are buried in the Hollywood
Cemetery at Richmond. Doctor Tompkin's maternal grand-
father was Dr. Micajah Pendleton, a physician who practiced at
Buchanan, Virginia, and was a splendid type of the old time
country doctor, riding horseback over a great extensive country
in his own and adjacent counties. He had been educated for his
profession in the University of New York. Doctor Pendleton
married Louisa Jane Davis, a native of Amherst County, Vir-
ginia and a member of the old family of that name there.
J. Fulton Tompkins, father of Doctor Tompkins, was born in
Albemarle County, Virginia, attended common schools, and as
a young man entered the employ of Percell Ladd & Company, a
drug house at Richmond. He left that city in 1851 and moved
to Buchanan, where he was in the drug business. For a short
period he was engaged in the drug business at Columbus, Mis-
sissippi. Then returning to Buchanan he reentered the drug
business. Later he moved to Lexington, Virginia, and engaged
in business until the outbreak of the war, when he volunteered
with the Richbridge Artillery and fought in several battles, in-
cluding the first battle of Manassas. At the close of the war he
returned to Lexington and in 1867 married Sallie D. Pendleton,
widow of George W. Johnson. For many years he lived at
Lexington, where he served as apothecary to the Virginia Mill-
VIRGINIA 53
tary Institute. He became a member of the Grace Memorial
(Episcopal) Church at Lexin^on. He finally located on a farm
near Natural Bridge, Virginia, where he lived out his life. He
was a member of the Episcopal Church there, which he helped
build, and served as vestryman and warden. He was a member
of the Masonic fraternity and for a number of years held the of-
fice of justice of the peace in Rockbridge County. He was the
father of four children : Dr. E. Pendleton Tompkins, of Lexing-
ton; Sallie Louise, wife of W. M. McNutt, of Rockbridge County;
Dr. George Johnson, and Bertie Lee.
George Johnson Tompkins attended public and private
schools, the Fishburne Military Academy and was graduated
from the Medical College of Virginia in 1894. He had hospital
experience at Washington, D. C, and for several years was en-
gaged in general practice at Roanoke. He spent some time in
New York City in eye, ear, nose and throat work, and after this
special preparation located at Lynchburg in 1899. Doctor
Tompkins is a member of the staff of all three hospitals at
Lynchburg and has charge of the eye, ear, nose and throat clinic
for the city. He is a member of the Virginia State Society of
Oto-Laryngology and Ophthalmology, is a member of the South
Piedmont Medical Society, the Medical Society of Virginia, the
Lynchburg and Campbell County Medical Society, and Ameri-
can Medical Associations.
Doctor Tompkins married in December, 1904, Miss Elizabeth
Haskins Dillard, who was born at Lynchburg, daughter of James
P. and Ellen N. (Woodroof) Dillard. They have a family of
five children : Ella Pendleton, wife of John M. Robeson, Jr., who
with her husband is a student in the University of Virginia ;
Miss Margaret Louise, attending the Woman's College at Farm-
ville ; Elizabeth Dillard, wife of William J. Paxton, a commer-
cial artist at Roanoke ; Sallie Dudley, member of the class of
1928 in Lynchburg High School ; and George Johnson Junior,
bom October 6, 1922.
Doctor Tompkins has given many years of faithful service
to the Episcopal Church in Lynchburg, having served as vestry-
man and warden in Saint Paul's Church and in 1928 helped re-
organize and build the new Grace Memorial Church, of which he
is vestryman and Vv^arden. He is a member of the Masonic fra-
ternity.
Wade Hill Adams, vice president and general manager of
the Southern Biscuit Company, although comparatively a new-
comer in Richmond, has been signally honored in this city by
various civic, business and social organizations. He is president
of the Sphinx Club, a member of the Rotary Club, active in the
affairs of the Chamber of Commerce and a director thereof, a
member of the Country Club of Virginia and the Commonwealth
Club, and he is a thirty-second degree Mason and a Shriner. He
is a communicant of the Presbyterian Church.
Born in Mooresville, Iredell County, North Carolina, Novem-
ber 2, 1876, he is a son of James Pinckney and Julia (Proctor)
Adams, the latter being a daughter of Richard and Elizabeth
(King) Proctor, of Lincoln County, North Carolina. His
branch of the Adams family originated in South Carolina, and
its members were among the very prominent people of its earlier
history.
In spite of the fact that he had to work his way through
Trinity College, now Duke University, Durham, North Caro-
54 VIRGINIA
lina, Wade Hill Adams had the highest standing in his class
when he was graduated with the degree of A. B. in 1899. In
the following year he took his A. M. degree. Having in view a
scholastic career, it was his ambition that he might return to
Trinity College in the department of English. He attended the
Graduate School of English at Harvard University in 1901-02.
With the completion of his education, however, he decided to
enter a business career instead of taking up educational work.
In 1902 Mr. Adams entered the service of the American
Tobacco Company in New York. There he gained experience
in the various departments of this great corporation, becoming
acquainted with accounting, financing, production, marketing
and sales methods ; in fact every activity of a modern industrial
corporation. After being with the American Tobacco Company
for about eight years he became affiliated with the Durham Du-
plex Razor Company, whose plant is at Jersey City, New Jersey.
He started in with that company as secretary and later became
vice president in charge of sales and advertising. While with
the Durham Duplex Razor Company he went to Paris, France,
where he established and put in operation the Paris plant of
this company, and remained in France for a year. At the be-
ginning of 1918 he was commissioned captain in the United
States Army and assigned to the Ordnance Department, Wash-
ington, D. C., where he remained until after the Armistice.
In 1925 Mr. Adams came to Richmond and took over the
active management, as vice president, of the Southern Biscuit
Company. It is needless to say that with his wide and varied
experience with two great industrial concerns Mr. Adams at
once inaugurated modern methods in every department of the
local plant and began to build up an organization of note. In
1927 he began the preliminary work for the erection of a
$500,000 plant on Terminal Place in the West End of Richmond.
In addition to a completely modern building, the plant has the
latest types of ovens and baking equipment.
The new building conforms to the classic style of architec-
ture, and is somewhat patterned after Battle Abbey in its facade.
This type of architecture was more expensive, but the Board of
Directors and stockholders preferred to invest a little more
money in order to erect a plant that would serve as a monu-
ment to the industry of the company which originated in Rich-
mond, and whose stock is owned by local people. At the same
time it was their intention to produce an artistic building for
Richmond and depart somewhat from the old-time conception
of an industrial plant.
Seven stories in height, this building is constructed of white
concrete; is 100 x 140 feet, thus giving a iioor space of 100,000
square feet. The same architects, Francisco and Jacobus, who
built many of the plants for the American Tobacco Company
and those for many other tobacco and bread-baking corpora-
tions throughout the country, designed the new building for the
Richmond people.
This plant is not only a beautiful example of industrial archi-
tecture, but it is also the exemplification of labor-saving devices
and modern conceptions of efficiency. All flour, sugar and other
VIRGINIA 55
raw materials used in the work of the company are conveyed to
the top floor by elevators, and from there are distributed
through gravity conveyers to the shipping floor, thus saving
much operating cost. All of the manufacturing equipment is
motor-driven, and the greater part of the baking is done
with gas.
Refrigerating and humidifying plants, designed by the most
up-to-date engineers in the country, have been installed at a
cost of about $30,000.
The company was established in 1899 in Richmond, and was
from the start a successful venture, but as its volume increased
those in charge saw that a large expansion was necessary, and
therefore looked about to find the man best fitted for the work
of carrying on these improvements, and in Mr. Adams found
the ideal man. Since the completion of the new building there
has been a large increase in the output as compared to the
previous year. The company manufactures more than a hun-
dred varieties of soda crackers, saltines, oyster crackers, cookies,
plain and fancy cakes. Sales in Richmond have increased more
than 600 per cent under Mr. Adams' management, and in outside
territory more than 300 per cent.
In the erection of this handsome building the company has
shown to the world its faith in the South, and followed out the
suggestions made along this line by the state and city Chambers
of Commerce. Associated with Mr. Adams in this work are
B. M. Gwathmey, president; W. E. Albus, treasurer; Harry L.
Stone, secretary; and Ernest G. Gustafson, superintendent of
the plant.
Mr. Adams married Miss Jane Douglass Cockrell, a daughter
of the late Judge Joseph E. Crockrell, an eminent lawyer and
jurist, and one of the most distinguished citizens of Dallas,
whose death April 7, 1927, removed one of the leading men of
Texas, who at the time of his death was president of the Board
of Trustees of the Southern Methodist University, and president
of the Dallas National Bank. Mr. and Mrs. Adams have four
children, namely: Wade Hill Adams, Jr., who was born July
24, 1911 ; Joseph Cockrell Adams, who was born January 23,
1915 ; Mary Jane Adams, who was born July 6, 1919 ; and Julia
Proctor Adams, who was born June 19, 1925.
Wade Hill Adams is a man who carries great responsibilities
and is deeply engrossed in business, but not so much so that he
cannot find time for civic betterment work. He is a great cap-
tain of industry, all who know him readily admit this, and many
men earn their living because of his enterprise, ability and com-
mand of resources. Whatever success he has accomplished is
largely due to himself, and one of his most marked character-
istics is his bravery of belief in himself. He adheres in action
to whatever his reason brings forth. Under the strain of great
business operations he has never faltered in confronting risks.
His whole business life has been a campaign of pluck, per-
severance and principle. To extol his benevolence, his sympathy
for the suffering of others, his never-sleeping generosity, his
hand ever open to patriotic causes and to charity, is but to
repeat a well-known tale. That the people of Richmond know
all this, and appreciate the man and his character, is shown by
the local honors which have been bestowed upon him from the
beginning of his residence here. His genial manner, magnetic
56 VIRGINIA
personality and dynamic force make him a leader, and those
following him in different lines of work know that they will
reach the goal of their endeavor, for he has never learned the
meaning of failure.
Duncan Drysdale, Lynchburg attorney, is a native of Scot-
land, though his father was a naturalized American citizen.
He was born at Stiiiing, Scotland, January 13, 1861, son of
Alexander and Janet (Smart) Drysdale, both natives of Scot-
land. His father came to the United States when a young man,
and while here took out naturalization papers. He went back
to Scotland to visit, married while there and never carried out
his intentions of returning to America. He was a member of
the Presbyterian Church, and of his ten children Duncan was
the oldest. The Drysdale family were originally members of
the Douglas family or clan. The tradition is that members of
the family became engaged in a feud with their neighbors, the
Johnstones, over water rights and after a number on both sides
had been killed this branch of the Douglas clan left the country,
moving many miles distant, and in their new home took the
name of a Parish known as Drysdale in their old locality.
Duncan Drysdale was reared and educated in Scotland, at-
tending common schools there. In 1899 he came to Virginia,
locating at Norfolk, and for three years was in the confection-
ery business there. While in business he studied law, took his
law degree at Richmond College in 1903 and began practice at
Rustburg. In 1906 he located at Lynchburg, and has had a
very large practice in that city and section of the state.
Mr. Drysdale married in June, 1918, Margaret Pollock, who
was born in Scotland. Her family came to the United States in
1915 and two of her brothers were soldiers in the World war,
John Pollock going with the One Hundred Sixteenth Regiment
from Lvnchburg while George Pollock enlisted from Philadel-
phia. Mr. and Mrs. Drysdale have two children : Jean, now in
school, and Douglas, born in 1925. They are members of the
Unitarian Church at Lynchburg and Mr. Drysdale is chairman
of the Church Board.
He is affiliated with the Masonic fraternity, is a member of
the City, Virginia and American Bar Associations and has been
admitted to practice before the United States Supreme Court.
He handles a general law practice, and at one time probably no
other Lynchburg attorney had so large a practice in the crim-
inal branch of the law.
Hon. Waller J. Henson, former judge of the Circuit Court,
and one of the ablest lawyers practicing at the bar of Roanoke,
has been general counsel for the Shenandoah Life Insurance
Company since 1914, and is a recognized authority in all matters
pertaining to corporation law. He exemplified at the bar before
his elevation to the bench a quiet exactness, a profound knowl-
edge of the law. and a clear, impartial judgment, which char-
acteristics are invaluable to both a lawyer and judge. When
he retired from the bench he came to Roanoke, and here he has
found the environment for which his abilities fit him, and is
here accorded an appreciation to which he is justly entitled.
Judge Henson was born in Buckingham, Virginia, November
18, 1864, a son of John Waller and Martha A. (Chambers)
Henson, both natives of Virginia, the latter born in Bucking-
ham. The former was a clergyman of the Baptist faith, having
VIRGINIA 57
been prepared for his work in Richmond College, but his life
was terminated by death in 1873, when he was only thirty-five
years old. She survived him many years, passing away in 1920.
Of the four children born to them, three are now living, and of
them all Judge Henson was the first born. The father served
all through the war between the states, and, being captured,
was confined in a Federal prison. He was a zealous Ma.son,
and lived up to the highest ideals of church and fraternity. The
Henson family was founded in Virginia by John Henson, an
extensive planter, and a member of the Legislature. When the
capitol building collapsed he was in it, and only saved his life
by his quickness in clutching a window sill, to which he held
until rescued. The maternal grandfather, William A. Chambers,
was a native of Virginia.
Judge Henson attended private schools, in which he was
prepared for high school, and he took his high school work in
the night sessions in Lynchburg, and at the same time worked
as telegrapher and train dispatcher. From 1883 to 1888 he
continued in that work, and also studied law. In July, 1888,
he resigned his position, took a course in the summer school of
the University of Virginia, took the state bar examinations, and
was admitted to the bar in September, 1888. He began his
practice in Giles County, Virginia, and became so prominent
and generally esteemed as an able lawyer that February 1, 1904,
he was elected Circuit Court judge, and so served until 1909.
With the expiration of his term of office he came to Roanoke,
where he has since been engaged in private practice, as already
noted. All his life he has been very active in Democratic politics,
and served as commonwealth attorney in Giles County, but has
not been willing to accept nomination since coming to Roanoke.
The Baptist Church holds his membership. He is a York Rite
and Shriner Mason, and takes great interest in his fraternal
work.
On July 4, 1887, Judge Henson married Cornelia Dulaney,
who was born in Giles County, Virginia. They have had three
children born to their marriage : William E., who was edu-
cated in Washington and Lee University, and is an attorney
engaged in the practice of law with his father ; Mary E., who
is a resident of Washington, District of Columbia; and Poin-
dexter S., who was educated in the Universitv of Virginia, and
died February 28, 1928.
William S. MeGGINSON. There is no work which makes
such incessant demand upon the sympathies of those engaged in
it than as of caring for the children orphaned and left to the
mercy of an unkind world. Parents sheltering their own loved
ones, tenderly watching over them with brooding thoughtfulness,
seldom spare the time to reflect that there are little ones lacking
the actual necessities of life, to say nothing of the attention to
their needs from a moral and spiritual standpoint. Fortunately
there are those whose minds and hearts are open to the appeals
of these unfortunates and some noble chai'acters who are devot-
ing themselves, their lives and their talents to substituting for
the parents many of these children have never known. Of a
verity such work is divine in its scope and effects.
One of the men whose broad sympathies and Christian char-
acter, as well as his ministerial training, fit him for work among
the orphans. Rev. William S. Megginson is now rendering a won-
derful service as superintendent of the Presbyterian Orphans'
58 VIRGINIA
Home at Lynchburg, one of the splendidly managed institutions
of the Presbyterian Church in Virginia.
William S. Megginson was born in Greenville, Tennessee,
July 30, 1869, a son of John Thomas and Sarah Emily (Smith)
Megginson, natives of Virginia and Tennessee, respectfully, both
of whom are now deceased. A college man, John Thomas Meg-
ginson took up engineering, and followed that profession for
many years, but, retiring, spent the remainder of his life in the
enjoyment of the comforts his former activities had provided.
During the war between the states he raised a company and
served under the command of Gen. John Mosby. Owing to the
hardships he suffered in the war his health was never very good
thereafter, and this in part led to his retirement. His death
occurred in 1897, but his wife survived him until 1921, she pass-
ing away at the age of eighty-one years. There were three chil-
dren : Rev. William Megginson, who was the first born ; Edward
T., who lives in Northern Georgia; and Henry E., who is a mer-
chant of El Paso, Texas. The parents were both members of the
Presbyterian Church, and very active in all of its work. The
paternal grandfather, William Cabell Megginson, married Miss
Amanda Bocock, of Buckingham County, Virginia, and through
her Rev. Mr. Megginson is connected with another very promi-
nent family of Virginia, in addition to the Cabell family. The
maternal grandfather, Jordan Smith, was a cattle raiser of East
Tennessee, and owned a large plantation, well-stocked with cattle
and horses, and he was also an extensive slave owner. During
the war between the states he suffered heavy losses in addition to
that incurred by the freeing of the negroes.
Rev. Mr. Megginson first attended several excellent private
schools, but at the same time had to work, as his father was ill,
and he was the eldest child. Later he secured a secretaryship
with the Atlanta, Georgia, Young Men's Christian Association,
and while discharging its duties he secured further educational
training. Subsequently, he attended the Louisville, Kentucky,
Seminary, and was licensed to preach in 1897, and continued his
ministerial work until 1900, when he took post-graduate work in
the same seminary, paying his own way through at the time he
was studying. In the meanwhile, in 1897, he had gone to San
Antonio, Texas, as pastor of Utica Presbyterian Church, re-
turning to Kentucky to carry on his further studies, and when
that course was completed he went to Elizabethtown, Kentucky,
and was engaged there in ministerial work for three and one-
half years, and when he left it was to spend four years in the
General Sunday School work of the Presbyterian Church. From
that work he accepted a call to the church in Biloxi, Mississippi,
for six years, and at the expiration of that period he went to
Richmond as Dean of the Assembly Training School, which he
organized, and placed the institution upon a solid basis. In
that work he displayed executive ability of such a high order
that he was transferred to the Presbyterian Orphanage.
The Presbyterian Orphanage of Lynchburg has 165 children,
and conducts a school in connection with it that employs nine
teachers and carries the pupils from the first grade through the
high school work. The moving spirit in the Home, in work and
play is Superintendent Megginson, and that he encourages whole-
some activities and sports may be gleaned from the following
excerpt from the Bulletin of the Presbyterian Orphans' Home :
"Our Football Team: Our team is still the 'Shoeless Won-
ders,' although four of the original team left us during the sum-
VIRGINIA 59
mer and some lighter boys had to be substituted. They hold the
title for three reasons : First, because they play barefooted, sec-
ond, because they really are the most agile, smoothest piece of
machinery about here, and third, because so far this year they
have maintained the record of the last two years, having not al-
lowed an opposing team to score."
In 1895 Reverend Megginson married Miss Amanda Leonard
Allen, born in Louisville, Kentucky, and there educated a daugh-
ter of David H. and Mary (Waters) Allen, and a direct descend-
ant of Barthomew Dupuy. Mr. Allen was a manufacturer and
merchant, but is now deceased. There are no children in the
Megginson family, and therefore Reverend and Mrs. Megginson
lavish upon their little charges the tender parental affection and
care they would have given their own had they been sent into
their home. He is a Knight Templar Mason and belongs to the
Kiwanis Club, and both are members of the Pi-esbyterian Church.
Reverend Megginson is admirably fitted for his present labor of
love, for he has known poverty and hardships and has been given
a wide and broadening experience since he entered the ministry.
The children are devoted to him and his wife, and they are mak-
ing splendid progress in their school work.
Thomas Burton Snead of Richmond, descends from a very
old family in England, and is a lineal descendant of Robert
Sneade, one of the pioneer settlers of Virginia, who settled in
Elizabeth City County in 1654. The name Snead is very ancient
in England and signifies the handle of a scythe. It has taken
many forms, such as Sned, Sneyd, Sneed, but the most usual
form in modern times is Snead, as adopted by this family. Wil-
liam Snead, great-grandfather of the subject of this sketch,
served in the Revolutionary war as a non-commissioned officer,
having volunteered for service at the age of eighteen, and his
grandfather, whose name was also William, served in the Con-
federate army throughout the entire period of the Civil war.
William Snead II, who was born in 1811 in Nelson County,
afterwards moved to Albemarle County, and there married
Sarah Elizabeth Clark. They were the parents of Chapman
Price Snead, born July 25, 1850, in Albemarle, died October 7,
1907. His wife, Frances Elizabeth (Hutchinson) Snead, was
a daughter of Warner Winston and Mary Ella (Harris) Hutchin-
son. Chapman Price Snead was a farmer in King William
County, and in political alliance a Republican.
Thomas Burton Snead, a son of Chapman Price Snead, was
born March 10. 1878, at Etna Mills, King William County, Vir-
ginia, and received his early education under the direction of
private tutors in his father's home. He later attended the
College of William and Mary, and was a student there in 1895-98.
In the fall of 1900 he entered the law department of the Uni-
versity of Virginia, from which he received the degree Bachelor
of Laws in the class of 1902. He was immediately admitted to
the bar and begun the practice of law at Richmond. On January
16, 1905, he was appointed referee in bankruptcy by the District
Court of the United States, Eastern District of Virginia, for the
district composed of the City of Richmond and the counties of
Henrico, Chesterfield, Powhatan and Goochland, which position
he has held continuously since.
In his position as referee in bankruptcy during the past
twenty-three years Mr. Snead has rendered decisions in hun-
60 VIRGINIA
dreds of cases, some of them involving nice questions of law and
important interests. Considering these facts his record as
referee in bankruptcy has been quite unusual. Only fourteen
of his many decisions have reached the Circuit Court of Appeals
for review, and in only three of these was he reversed. Only two
of the cases decided by him have reached the Supreme Court
of the United States for review and in both of these his decisions
were sustained. Though he attends to the bankruptcy business
for a population of some 300,000, Mr. Snead also practices law,
and one-third of his professional work consists of his private
practice.
Of modest and retiring nature, Mr. Snead has never sought
to mingle in the conduct of public affairs, and devotes most of
his spare time to his family and home. He is a friend of educa-
tion, and is ever ready to lend his time, influence and support
to those higher social movements which are calculated to develop
the best in man and promote the progress and welfare of the
community. He is a Republican in politics and a communicant
of the Episcopal Church. He served his enlistment as a member
of Company C, Richmond Blues, one of the finest and oldest mil-
itary organizations in the United States. He is a member of the
Richmond Bar Association, the Virginia State Bar Association,
the American Bar Association, the Commonwealth Club, Uni-
versity Club, Country Club of Virginia and Sons of the American
Revolution.
Mr. Snead has been twice married. His first wife, whom he
married April 19, 1911, was Miss Mary Cooke Branch, the only
daughter of Col. James Ransom and Lilian (Hubball) Branch,
and a lineal descendant of Christian Branch of "Arrowhattocks"
and "Kingsland," who came from England in 1620. She died
December 31, 1921. On April 18, 1927, he married Miss Mary
Ragan Macgill Bertrand, daughter of Frederick Olia and Minnie
(Drewry) Bertrand, a granddaughter of Dr. Samuel Davies
Drewry, and a lineal descendant of the great Presbyterian divine,
Samuel Davies, first president of Princeton University.
Col. William Richard Phelps is principal of the Randolph-
Macon Academy of Bedford, a boys' preparatory school, one of
the fine institutions comprised in what is known as the Randolph-
Macon System, including several academies for boys and girls
and culminating in the Randolph-Macon College for men at
Ashland and Randolph-Macon Woman's College at Lynchburg.
Colonel Phelps is a cultured Virginia gentleman, and has
a thorough understanding of the spirit and traditions of the
educational institutions with which he has been identified. He
was born at Keyton Plantation, in Bedford County, August 2,
1886, and is a descendant of the Key family which founded
Keyton Plantation. His people have been in Bedford County
since early Colonial times. One of his ancestors, John Phelps,
Sr., was a member of the House of Burgesses and served as
lieutenant-colonel of militia in Bedford County. His son, John
Phelps, Jr., was the father of Thomas Phelps and grandfather
of Thomas J. Phelps, who married Malinda Perkins Key. These
latter were the grandparents of Colonel Phelps. The father of
Colonel Phelps was Thomas Key Phelps, who was born Septem-
ber 21, 1847, and married Sarah Elizabeth Moulton, who was
bom in Bedford County May 8, 1849, and died in 1914. Her
father. Dr. Benjamin H. Moulton, practiced medicine for many
VIRGINIA 61
years at Davis Mills and served as a member of the Virginia
Senate. Thomas Key Phelps was one of the cadets called out
from the Virginia Military Institute to take part in the battle
of New Market. His father, Thomas J. Phelps, was also a
soldier of the Confederacy.
William Richard Phelps was one of a large family of eleven
children. These children were educated at home under instruc-
tors employed by their father, and later the older sons and
daughters took charge of the instruction of the younger mem-
bers of the household. Education has been an essential tradi-
tion of the Phelps family.
Colonel Phelps completed the four-year course at Randolph-
Macon College at Ashland in three years, graduating second
honor man of his class in 1908. Since graduating he has been
connected with the Randolph-Macon System, for the first three
years as instructor of mathematics in the academy at Bedford,
seven years as assistant principal of Randolph-Macon Institute
at Danville, and in 1918 returned to the academy at Bedford
as associate principal, and since June, 1922, as principal. Colonel
Phelps has the degree Master of Arts, given him by Columbia
University of New York, where he spent four summers in resi-
dence as a graduate student. He is a member of the Virginia
Association of Preparatory Schools and in 1925 was made its
president. He is also a member of the Virginia Commission of
Southern Association of Schools and Colleges.
Colonel Phelps was chairman of the Red Cross Chapter at
Danville and member of the Legal Advisory Board during the
World war. He has been a steward in the Methodist Episcopal
Church, South, is a member of the Sons of Confederate Veterans,
the Phi Delta Theta college fraternity, and Pi Gamma Mu social
fraternity. He married, August 9, 1911, Miss Mildred May
Davis of Dinwiddie County, Virginia. She is a graduate of the
State Teachers College of Farmville and taught school several
years before her marriage. Their children are: Rosa King,
William Richard, Jr., and Moulton Davis.
Gordon B. Pace, president of the Pace Construction Com-
pany, Incorporated, is connected through the operations of his
corporation with some of the most extensive construction
projects, bridge building, the installation of sewers, waterworks
and similar important contracts, in this part of the country, and
has built up a reputation that is second to none for carrying
out the spirit as well as the letter of his agreements. He was
born in Roanoke, July 18, 1895, a son of Sidney B. and Carrie
(Backus) Pace, natives of Virginia and West Virginia, re-
spectively. Coming to Roanoke when it was still a village,
Sidney B. Pace began operating in real estate, in which line he
has been engaged all his life, and subsequently he was engaged
in organizing the Mountain Trust Bank, was its first president,
and is now its vice president. Four children have been born
to him and his wife: Gordon B., who is the eldest; Lloyd, who
is in the real estate business with his father; Madeline, who
married C. R. Wentworth, of Roanoke, engineer with the Vir-
ginia Bridge & Iron Company; and Dorothy, who married
Everett Richardson, a manufacturer of the State of Massachu-
setts. Mr. Pace is a member of the Baptist Church, and his
wife of the Presbyterian Church, and both are active in church
work. He is a Mason, a Shriner and an Elk, and is active in
62 VIRGINIA
the Rotary Club. In political faith he is a Democrat. The
paternal grandfather, Sidney W. Pace, also a native of Virginia,
served in the Confederate army during the war between the
states. The maternal grandfather was a native of Pennsyl-
vania, but was living in Virginia at the time of his death, and
was connected with the Norfolk & Western Railroad.
Growing to manhood in Roanoke, Gordon B. Pace was given
the advantage of attending its excellent schools and a military
institute, and was graduated from the latter in 1915, after
which he took two years in the University of Virginia, but his
studies were interrupted in 1917 by this country's entry into
the World war, and he entered the service and was trained in
Camp Lee, Virginia ; Camp Taylor, Kentucky, and Camp Lewis,
Washington, near Tacoma. He served as first lieutenant of the
Thirty-eighth Field Artillery. In January, 1919, he was honor-
ably discharged, and returned to Roanoke. Here he organized
the Pace Construction Company, of which he is president, and
his father vice president. The company is incorporated and is
a close corporation. In addition to private contracts, the com-
pany is doing a large amount of work for the Norfolk & Western
Railroad, the Virginia Highway Commission and the Tennessee
Highway -Commission, and has numerous contracts for cities,
towns, counties and private industrial works.
On June 18, 1918, Mr. Pace married Miss Louise Vaughan,
who was born in Roanoke, where she attended school, later
going to National Park Seminary, Forest Glen, Maryland. She
is a daughter of L. H. Vaughan, retired railroad contractor and
capitalist. Mr. and Mrs. Pace have one son, Gordon Vaughan
Pace. Mrs. Pace belongs to the Christian Church, while Mr.
Pace belongs to the Presbyterian Church. While in college he
made Delta Tau Delta, and he belongs to the Shenandoah Club
and the Roanoke Country Club, but aside from these has but
little contact with anything but his business affairs, to which
he is devoting himself with wholehearted absorption.
William Thomas McNamara, Junior. Within the memory
of those now only middle aged has come what amounts to a revo-
lution in household furnishings and methods of housekeeping.
So many and varied are the inventions to make easy the life of
the homemaker, and assist her in solving the many times bewil-
dering problems of securing adequate assistance in her house-
hold tasks, that those who learned to keep house in the days
when servants were plentiful and could be secured for a mere
pittance feel that an era of great ease has dawned, and many
whose means would justify their living in complete idleness have
resumed, of their own fi'ee will, the conduct of their homes to
enjoy the many comforts and conveniences now on the market.
Perhaps none of them afford such comfort, and at the same time
gratify the inherent love of the beautiful, as the floor coverings
now manufactured and distributed that require no dusty sweep-
ing, but can be easily cleaned with a damp mop, and in this way
the problem that could formerly only be solved by hours of back-
breaking labor has practically disappeared. Another feature
that attracts many v/omen is the fact that they can secure com-
fortable sleeping accommodations, at a reasonable price, without
extra floor space, and consequent additional rent. While the
manufacturers of these different aids to the housekeeper, to say
nothing of the inventors of them, deserve great credit, those who
distribute them play an important part in the business life of
VIRGINIA 6S
every community and render a much appreciated service to its
people. One of these men, alert and progressive, is William T.
McNamara, Jr., president of the American Beauty Mattress
Company of Lynchburg.
William T. McNamara, Jr., was born in Lynchburg, February
3, 1874, a son of W. T. and Johanna (Martin) McNamara, both
of whom were born in Ireland, from whence they came to the
United States in childhood. For years the father was a con-
tracting plumber and steamfitter, and had charge of the steam-
fitting on the Nortolk & Western Railroad from Lynchburg to
Bristol. During the early days of its existence he was a captain
of the Lynchbuig Fire Department, and he also owned and con-
ducted a heater and range establishment. He put in the city
water works at Dublin, Virginia, and had other important con-
tracts, and evinced a strong interest in public afi'airs. After
other contractors had declared it impossible to fix the water
works in the Blue Ridge Springs Hotel he took the contract and
carried it out in a very satisfactory manner. In spite of all he
accomplished he was only twenty-nine years old when he died in
1877, and his prosperity was the result of his own, unaided
efforts, for he began lite with absolutely nothing. A zealous
Catholic, he was very active in the church and various Catholic
societies. He and his wife had two children : William T. and
Alice J., the latter being the wife of Thomas F. Driscoll, of
Chicago, who has charge of all of the advertising for Armour &
Company all over the United States. At the time of her mar-
riage to Mr. McNamara, Mrs. McNamara was the widow of
James Byrne, to whom she had borne three children, one of
whom survives, Mary T. Byrne, a Sister of Charity in Washing-
ton City. The paternal grandfather was William McNamara, a
native of Ireland, who settled in Lynchburg upon coming to this
country, and became an officer of the Lynchburg Gas Company.
The maternal grandfather was also a native of Ireland, and set-
tled in Richmond, Virginia.
Vv^illiam T. McNamara was educated in the parochial schools
of Lynchburg, in Rock Hill College, Maryland, and Eastman's
Business College, Poughkeepsie, New York. From 1893 to 1900
he was engaged in work as a bookkeeper in Roanoke, Virginia,
but in the latter year he returned to Lynchburg and tor a short
time continued work as a bookkeeper, but in 1901 became secre-
tary and treasurer of the Lynchburg Lounge Company, manu-
facturers of lounges, couches and parlor furniture. After about
eight years' connection with this company he left it, in 1909, to
engage with the National Manufacturing Company, manufac-
turers of mattresses, which he served as president and general
manager until 1911, when the plant was destroyed by fire. The
following year he organized the National Mattress Company,
which was operated under that name until the spring of 1926,
when it was reorganized as the American Beauty Mattress Com-
pany, of which Mr. McNamara has since continued president.
The company employs one regular mattress man and two com-
mission men, and covers Virginia, parts of North Carolina and
West Virginia, and sells mattresses to the trade in other places.
The principal brand is the American Beauty, a very fine mattress
made from the best material. The business has been greatly
increased, and the sales in 1927 were greatly in excess of those
of previous years. The company manufacture mattresses,
pillows and awnings, and distributes the Simmons beds and
springs, and Gold Seal Congoleum and Linoleum.
64 VIRGINIA
In 1901 Mr. McNamara married Miss Norah Regina Wholey,
who was born in Staunton, Virginia, where she attended the
Mary Baldwin School. She is a daughter of William Wholey,
who for the last twenty years of his life lived retired. During
the war between the states he had the honor to serve as Ordi-
nance Sergeant under Gen. "Stonewall" Jackson. Mrs. Mc-
Namara is active in the United Daughters of the Confederacy,
Old Dominion Chapter of Lynchburg, having served as secretary
and treasurer, and organized its Junior Chapter. She is an
active member of the Carrie Harper Club of Lynchburg and is
an active member of the Travelers' Aid Society. Four sons
have been born to Mr. and Mrs. McNamara, namely: William
Francis, who was educated in the Virginia Military Institute, is
in his father's office and is a reserve officer in the United States
army; Maurice, who was also educated in the Virginia Military
Institute, is in the employ of the Chesapeake Telephone Company
as office manager and assistant to the company manager at
Lynchburg; Charles Edwin, who is a medical student in the
Georgetown University, Washington City; and Richard, who is
attending the high school at Lynchburg. The family all belong
to the Holy Cross Catholic Church, and Mr. McNamara is a mem-
ber of the Knights of Columbus, and is a life member of the
Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. While he devotes
himself to his business he is deeply interested in civic affairs, and
has always been an active participant in them. He served as
secretary of the Lynchburg Woodrow Wilson Club.
Thomas X. Parsons. One of the brilliant young attorneys
practicing at the bar of Roanoke, Thomas X. Parsons has
attained to an enviable prestige through his undoubted talents,
both natural and acquired, and he is regarded as one of the
most desirable of the city's citizens. He was born in Inde-
pendence, Virginia, September 3, 1896, a son of John M. and
Mary Belle (Bryant) Parsons, both of whom were born in Vir-
ginia, he at Potato Creek and she at Fox. Her death occurred
in 1907, but he survives and is living in Independence, where
he is engaged in the practice of the law, and he is representing
his district in the Virginia State Senate. A strong Republican,
at present he is the only Republican from his part of the state
in the Senate. Several years ago he served as commonwealth
attorney of Grayson County, and at one time he was his party's
candidate for Congress. Although defeated, his opponent won
by only sixty-two votes, so personally popular is he. Of the
five children born to the parents, Thomas X. Parsons is the
second in order of birth.
Growing up in Independence, Thomas X. Parsons attended
the Virginia Military Institute, from which he was graduated in
1915, and took his law training in Washington and Lee Uni-
versity, from which he was graduated in 1921. After leaving
the university he taught law for one year as associate professor
of law. Coming to Roanoke in 1923, he formed a partnership
with Judge Clifton A. Woodrum and John W. McCauley, and
they enjoy a large patronage and are connected on one side or
the other with much of the important jurisprudence of this
section. Mr. Parsons is unmarried. Like his father, he is an
ardent Republican, and was appointed in 1927 assistant district
attorney, in which office he is making an admirable record. At
the university he made Phi Delta Phi, the honorary law fra-
ternity, and Phi Kappa Psi. He is a Blue Lodge Mason, and
I O . -A-l.rw;e«.,j^^lAJu(V«X*>-3
VIRGINIA 65
he is a member of the Shenandoah Club, the University Club,
the Country Club, the Roanoke German Club, and the Lions
Club. During the World war he served as captain of infantry
and was stationed at Fort Myer until his honorable discharge
September 8, 1919.
B. Morgan Shepherd. The evolution of a newspaper is a
difficult problem, for in addition to the physical property there
is that something which is of much greater value, the vital spark
of the personality of those who have established and developed
it. This, of course, applies in some degree to other great enter-
prises. It may be said of a bank or railway or shop, but con-
ducting a newspaper is more than management, it is an entirely
different thing in essence from the providing of public transport,
the handling of moneys or the sale of merchandise.
When this country was ninety years younger than it is today
The Southern Planter, the oldest agricultural paper in the United
States, came into being. It was founded in 1840 by Charles
Tyler Botts, and has been published regularly during the many
years which have passed. At the evacuation of Richmond pub-
lication was immediately resumed, and not an issue was missed.
It is the recognized authority on agriculture throughout the
South, and a most helpful journal in bringing about efficient
organization for farmers, constructive legislation for the agri-
cultural interests. B. Morgan Shepherd, mayor of Ashland,
and one of the outstanding figures in this part of Virginia, is
the secretary of the company and managing editor.
The birth of Mayor Shepherd occurred at Berryville, Clarke
County, Virginia, in 1878, and he is a son of J. H. and Martha
Elizabeth (Morgan) Shepherd, and grandson of Champe Shep-
herd, the latter of whom was one of the prominent old-time
citizens of Clarke County. The maternal grandfather of Mayor
Shepherd was Col. Benjamin Morgan, belonged to the historic
Morgan family of Virginia, whose valorous leadership in the
American Revolution gives all bearing the name a distinguished
place in the history of the Old Dominion.
Mayor Shepherd was educated inthe public schools of Berry-
ville and by private tutors. When only sixteen years old he
began working for himself, and came to Richmond, the mecca
for so many ambitious youths of Virginia, and became connected
as an employe with The Southern Planter. From then on he
has continued with this famous publication, and gradually
bought stock in it until he acquired a substantial interest in the
business. For many years he has been vice president of the
pubhshing company issuing the paper and executive manager
of it. His home is at Ashland, the historic town of Hanover
County, a few miles noi'th of Richmond. For a number of years
he has served as mayor of Ashland and as judge of the Juvenile
Court of Hanover County, striving to express in his newspaper
and his life a courageous condemnation of what he believes to
be wrong, and an encouragement of what is proper and right,
and to get others to join and sympathize in his work, so that
the tide will gather volume till the whole of public opinion is
affected. It is his contention that there is as much good in
men's heai-ts as there is evil, but selfishness so controls the
majority that it is difficult to awaken public condemnation and
arouse a better spirit and an ambition toward nobler aims.
Experience has taught him that these things cannot be accom-
66 VIRGINIA
plished by standing remote, but only by active personal labor.
For twenty-two years he has been secretary of the Virginia State
Farmers Institute, and needless to say he is vitally interested
in everything pertaining to the agricultural situation.
Mr. Shepherd is the oldest active worker in agriculture in
the state in point of service. He was president of various farm
organizations and a director in a number of others, and is a
member of practically all farm organizations in the state.
John Brockenbrough Newton, president of the Virginia
Iron, Coal & Coke Company of Roanoke, bears the name of his
father, who was a bishop of the Episcopal Church in Virginia,
and represents the ninth generation of the family which has
given many distinguished men to Virginia's annals.
Mr. Newton was born in Westmoreland County, Virginia,
son of Rt. Rev. John Brockenbrough and Roberta Page (Wil-
liamson) Newton, grandson of Willoughby Newton, who was in
the seventh generation of descent from Thomas Newton, a resi-
dent of Yorkshire, England. Capt. John Newton, son of Thomas,
came to Virginia about 1666, establishing his home in Westmore-
land County, where the Newtons have lived for nearly three
centuries. The Newtons intermarried with some of the other
distinguished families of old Virginia.
Willoughby Newton, grandfather of the Roanoke business
man, was born in 1802 and died in 1875. He owned the "Linden"
estate in Westmoreland County. He was a member of Congress
and at one time president of the Virginia State Agricultural
Society. His wife, whom he married in 1829, was Mary Steven-
son Brockenbrough, whose father, Judge William Brocken-
brough, was a judge of the Virginia Court of Appeals.
Bishop John Brockenbrough Newton was born February 7,
1840. Before the war he had graduated from the Virginia Medi-
cal College and served with the rank of major and surgeon in the
Confederate army. Later he attended the Episcopal Theological
Seminary, was ordained in 1871, served several prominent
churches in Norfolk and Richmond, and on May 16, 1894, was
consecrated Bishop Coadjutor of the Diocese of Virginia. He
had filled that office about three years before his death, which
occurred in 1897. His wife, Roberta Page Williamson, was a
daughter of Joseph A. and Mary Mann (Page) Williamson, her
mother being a daughter of Robert Page, who served with the
rank of captain in the Revolutionary army and was a member
of the First Congress. Among other noted names in her an-
cestry was that of Col. William Byrd, founder of Richmond.
John Brockenbrough Newton, Jr., was one of a large family
of eleven children. He was educated in the Norfolk Male Acad-
emy, the Episcopal High School at Alexandria, and had the
training of a civil engineer. As a civil engineer he became inter-
ested in railroading, particularly construction of lines for the
development and proper utilization of the rich mineral resources
of the West, and finally became identified with and active head of
that great group of financial and industrial interests comprised
under the corporate title of Virginia Iron, Coal & Coke Company.
He was vice president and general manager until 1907, and since
that date has been president of the corporation. Since 1914 his
home and the home offices of the company have been at Roanoke.
This company controls and directs operations covering half a
VIRGINIA 67
dozen states, including the ownership of great tracts of mineral
lands, coal mines, iron mines, furnaces and factories.
Mr. Newton has served as senior warden of St. John's Epis-
copal Church at Roanoke. He is a member of the Shenandoah
and Country Clubs. He married, in 1890, Laura Neal, a native
of Marion, North Carolina, daughter of J. G. and Rowena Neal.
They have a son, John Brockenbrough Newton III, who on
April 29, 1915, married Dorothy Ball Judkins, of Virginia, she
being a direct descendant of Mary Ball, mother of George Wash-
ington.
Garnett Owen Lee. Among the far-sighted business men
who have taken advantage of the opportunities offered by the
wonderful growth and development of the automobile indu.stry
is Garnett 0. Lee, who conducts the agency for Ford automo-
biles at Lynchburg. He has been identified with his present
business since 1910, and it now bears the name of the Apperson-
Lee Motor Company, of which he is president, and which is one
of the most successful concerns of its kind in the city. During
his career he has won a reputation for business ability and
judgment, as well as for public-spirited cooperation in all move-
ments pertaining to the welfare and progress of the city.
Mr. Lee was born March 14, 1881, at Lynchburg, and is a
son of James I. and Nannie B. (Anthony) Lee, natives of Vir-
ginia, who are both deceased. This branch of the Lee family
traces its ancestry back to France, whence the original American
ancestor came to Colonial Virginia long prior to the war of the
Revolution. The Town of Leesville, in Campbell County, was
named in honor of the great-gi-andfather of Mr. Lee, and there
was born his grandfather, John Lee. James I. Lee, father of
Garnett 0., was for many years a wholesale grocer at Lynch-
burg, where he was the owner of a prosperous business and the
possessor of a splendid reputation for business integrity and
straightforward dealing. He and his worthy wife were mem-
bers of the Methodist Church, in the work of which both were
active, and Mr. Lee was also a leading public figure, serving for
many years as a member of the City Council of Lynchburg, to
which he was elected on the Democratic ticket. Fraternally
he was a Mason. During the war between the states he enlisted
in the Confederate army under Gen. J. E. B. Stuart, and saw
four years of service as a member of Company F, Second Regi-
ment, Virginia Volunteer Infantry, during which time he sus-
tained three wounds. At the close of the struggle he returned
to Lynchburg to resume his business activities, in which he con-
tinued until the close of his life. He and his wife became the
parents of four children : James I., Jr., who is identified with
the Southern Railway of Washington, D. C. ; Garnett 0., of this
review; Alice Anthony, the wife of Mr. Van Swearingen, who
is connected with the Republic Rubber Company of Boston,
Massachusetts; and Mary Gill, the wife of Alfred Farrar, of
Saint Louis, connected with the International Shoe Company
of Saint Louis, of which he is one of the three principal owners,
and a man who has been very successful in his business career.
Garnett 0. Lee acquired his education in the public schools
of Lynchburg, and after graduating from high school his first
work was with the Oglesby DeWitt Company, a wholesale dry
goods concern, with which he remained for five years. When
he started he was first employed in the house, but later was
68 VIRGINIA
advanced to traveling salesman and thus gained much valuable
experience and a wide acquaintance. Later he went to Boston,
where he was associated with the Interstate Chemical Com-
pany for one year, at the end of which time the plant of the
company was destroyed by fire and Mr. Lee returned to Lynch-
burg, where he acquired a position as teller in the American
National Bank. Mr. Lee remained in this bank until 1910,
when he saw an opportunity to embark in the automobile busi-
ness as representative of the Palmer-Singer car. Four years
later he took over the agency for the Hudson and Haines cars,
but at the end of four years' time disposed of his holdings and
took over the Ford, which he has handled ever since as presi-
dent of the Apperson-Lee Motor Company, P. D. Winston being
vice president. This company does a large and profitable busi-
ness and maintains a salesroom, oflSce and service station at 516
Main Street, Lynchburg, as well as branches at Rustburg,
Amherst and Farmville. Mr. Lee is widely and favorably known
in business circles and has numerous friends.
In 1910 Mr. Lee was united in marriage with Miss Jessie
Apperson, who was born at Little Rock, Arkansas, and edu-
cated at Mary Baldwin's School at Staunton. Four children
have been born to this union : Jacqueline Apperson, born in
1912; Geraldine Anthony, born in 1914; Garnett Owen, Jr., born
in 1916; and Richard Adams, born in 1918. Mr. and Mrs. Lee
are consistent members of St. John's Episcopal Church, and
Mrs. Lee has been particularly active in religious and charitable
work. Mr. Lee is an ardent fisherman and hunter, and possesses
many trophies of these sports. His hobby is research work and
investigation along the lines of agricultural activities, and he
is a close student of the problems of the soil.
Blair J. Fishburn in his individual career has been closely
identified with the rise of a most important city of Southwest
Virginia, Roanoke. He was born at what was known in local
geography as the village of Big Lick, the site of which long since
has been taken into the City of Roanoke, and he was a boy during
the '80s when Roanoke acquired its first city charter.
The Fishburns have been a family of pioneers in Virginia
and many of the names have reached positions of distinction and
success. His father, Reuben Harvey Fishburn, was born in
Franklin County, Virginia, February 27, 1835, son of Samuel
Washington and Frances (Tyree) Tinsley Fishburn. As a youth
he learned the business of farming and tanning. He volunteered
at the outbreak of the Civil war, joining Company A, Thirty-
seventh Battalion, Virginia Cavalry, participated in some of the
early campaigns in Southwestern Virginia and West Virginia,
and then fought up and down the Valley of Virginia until the end
of the war. Afterwards he became a merchant, and in 1873
moved to the village of Big Lick, where he and his brothers, Tip-
ton T. and John Robert Fishburn, engaged in tobacco manufac-
ture. They gave early Roanoke one of its largest commercial
and industrial establishments. Reuben Fishburn retired from
business in 1905. He married, April 27, 1873, Emma Virginia
Phillips, daughter of Joshua and Sallie (Hughes) Phillips, of
Campbell County, Virginia. Of their five children the only son
is Blair J.
Blair J. Fishburn was educated in public schools at Roanoke,
in Randolph-Macon Academy at Front Royal, and also had the
VIRGINIA 69
benefit of travel and study abroad in Europe and the Holy Land.
For several years he was associated with R. H. Fishburn & Com-
pany, manufacturers of smoking tobacco, who sold out their
business in 1905, but the business which has absorbed most of
his energies has been the S. P. Hite Company, manufacturers of
drugs and flavoring extracts. He acquired a financial interest
in this in 1905, and is now its president and manager. Mr.
Fishburn is a director of the First National Exchange Bank of
Roanoke, Virginia Bridge & Iron Company, Roanoke Securities
Corporation and Shenandoah Life Insurance Company, and,
like his late father, his financial connections would comprise
almost a directory of the leading commercial and industrial
affairs of Roanoke.
He has been none the less helpful and public-spirited in his
citizenship. He was a member of the City Council of Roanoke
from 1907 until 1918, his last term closing at the time Roanoke
adopted a new city charter, providing for a city manager. In
1922 he was elected one of the five councilmen of the city, and
was president of the council and mayor of the city from then
until September 1, 1926. He is now president of the Play-
grounds and Recreation Association of Roanoke, so that the city
is not without his wise participation in its continued growth and
development.
He is a steward of the Greene Memorial Methodist Episcopal
Church, of which both his parents were members. He is a
thirty-second degree Scottish Rite Mason, member of Kazim
Temple of the Mystic Shrine, belongs to the Knights of Pythias,
B. P. 0. Elks, Rotarj' Club and for many years was a prominent
official in the United Commercial Travelers. He is a member
of the Roanoke Gun Club, Shenandoah Club, Roanoke Country
Club, United States, State of Virginia and City of Roanoke
Chambers of Commerce.
Hon. Joseph Crockett Shaffer, United States District at-
torney, with headquarters in Roanoke, is one of the ablest law-
yers in this part of the Old Dominion, and a man whose knowl-
edge of the law and brilliant attainments are recognized by the
profession and public as well. He possesses a vigorous mind that
seems never to need rest or to become dull. His memory is
phenomenal. He knows not dimly or hazily, but with substantial
accuracy, the law and how to interpret it. In his office he is
utterly indiff'erent to the applause of the multitude, the blandish-
ment of power, as well as the bitterness of those who take offense
at his conduct, and with these characteristics he is invaluable
to the Government, and at the same time he is safeguarding the
rights of the citizens by refraining from the arbitrary exercise
of the powers invested in him. He was born in Wythe County,
Virginia, January 19, 1880, a son of Joseph B. and Elizabeth
(Crockett) Shaffer, both of whom were also born in Wythe
County. She is deceased, but he is living, and, after a lifetime
of farming, is residing in Wytheville. There were two children
born to the parents: Edith, who married J. P. Hert, of Wythe-
ville, employed by a West Virginia coal company ; and Attorney
Shaffer. Both parents early united with the Presbyterian
Church, and they reared their children in that faith, to which
she adhered until her death, and to which he still subscribes.
Fraternally he belongs to the Independent Order of Odd Fellows.
A strong Republican, he has held several county offices, and has
4— VOL. 3
70 VIRGINIA
always been interested in party affairs. The paternal grand-
father of Attorney Shaffer was Joseph Shaffer, born in Virginia,
but the great-grandfather was a Pennsylvanian, and came to
Virginia many years ago, and here he lived and died, as did the
grandfather. The maternal grandfather was Montgomery
Crockett, a native of Wythe County, Virginia, and a member of
one of the very old families of Virginia. In fact on both sides
of the house Attorney Shaffer comes of fine old Virginian stock,
of which he may well be proud.
After the usual preliminary schooling Joseph Crockett Shaf-
fer entered the University of Virginia, and was graduated there-
from in 1904 with the degree of Bachelor of Laws, and he
entered at once upon the practice of his profession in Wytheville,
where he remained until he was appointed United States district
attorney January 13, 1924, and took charge of his office with
characteristic energj^ and efficiency. Prior to his appointment
he had already demonstrated his fitness for the office he now
holds by serving for four years as commonwealth attorney of
Wytheville, and he was also attorney for the prohibition admin-
istrator for a short period, so that his appointment caused no
surprise. Since he cast his first vote he has been a Republican,
and he is active in his party.
On May 15, 1912, Attorney Shaffer married Miss Ada Hon-
aker, born in Bland County, Virginia, and educated in Sullivan s
College, Bristol, Virginia. Five children have been born to
them, namely: Joseph C, Junior, John Scott, Mary Elizabeth,
Edwin Gray and Edwina Gay, the last two being twins. The
three elder children are attending school in Roanoke. Mr.
Shaffer is a Presbyterian, while Mrs. Shaffer is a Methodist,
and both are active in church work. Fraternally he has been
advanced in the Scottish Rite in Masonry, and he also belongs
to the Mystic Shrine. It would be difficult to find a man more
generally representative of the best ideals of his learned pro-
fession and of good citizenship than he, and further advance-
ment is looked for him by his many friends.
Isaac Eldridge Huff, physician and surgeon at Roanoke,
graduated from the University of Maryland in 1892, and for
many years has been recognized as a man of real distinction in
his profession, with a wide scope of service for his talents.
He was born in Floyd County, Virginia, May 26, 1866, and
his people have lived in that section of Virginia for several gen-
erations. His parents, Isaac and Adeline (Kitterman) Huff,
were born in Floyd County. His father was a Confederate
soldier, a farmer, and died in November, 1895.
Doctor Huff finished his medical education in what was then
known as the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Baltimore,
now the Medical Department of the University of Maryland.
He was an interne in Mercy Hospital of Baltimore, and for
twelve years practiced in Floyd, his home county. His home has
been at Roanoke since 1904. Doctor Huff has offices in the
Shenandoah Life Building, and for a number of years has been
president of the Shenandoah Hospital. He has conducted a
general practice, and has a high reputation as an obstetrician.
He has been president of the Roanoke Academy of Medicine, an
active member of the Medical Society of Virginia, the South-
west Virginia Medical Society, Southern and American Medical
Associations. He became a member of the Roanoke Board of
VIRGINIA 71
Health upon its organization. Doctor Huff has been active in
the First Baptist Church of Roanoke, serving as a deacon of
the church and a teacher in the Sunday School. He is a mem-
ber of the University Club and Kiwanis Club.
He married at Roanoke Miss Flora Mclvor Francis, daughter
of Capt. W. H. and Eliza A. (Shelor) Francis, of Floyd County.
Her father commanded a company in the Confederate army. Of
the three children of Doctor and Mrs. Huff, William Banks is an
A. B. graduate of Roanoke College, took his medical degree in
1922 at the University of Maryland, was connected with the
Walter Reed Hospital at Washington during the World war, and
began practice with his father. The daughter, Doris, graduated
with the A. B. degree from Hollins College, and married D. R.
Hunt. Francis Eldridge, the second son, was educated in Rich-
mond College and Washington and Lee University, and took up
a business career.
Charles G. Lindsey. Among the men who have worked
their way to prominence and affluence solely through the medium
of their own efforts, one of the foremost at Roanoke is Charles
G. Lindsey, president of Lindsey, Robinson & Company, whole-
sale distributors ; president of the Victory Specialty Company ;
president of Maddox & Jennings Bakery and a stockholder or
director in various other enterprises. The business qualities
that are essential for the management of so vast and intricate
operations are obvious. To breadth and comprehensiveness of
mind, quickness to perceive opportunities and readiness to grasp
them, energy and push, there must be added a capacity for or-
ganization, as well as an attention to detail, that every part of
the complicated machinery move harmoniously. The difference
between profit and loss in a great industry often turns on nice
calculations of cost of production and small economies. He who
neglects little things often fails in great ones. In all these
qualities Mr. Lindsey excels. Under his quiet but efficient con-
trol the diversified operations move with the regularity and
power of one of his great machines, he himself being the balance
wheel that controls and steadies the action of all the parts.
Mr. Lindsey was born in Carroll County, Virginia, February
6, 1879, and is a son of Charles Wesley and Margaret Louise
(Quesenberry) Lindsey, and a grandson of Henry K. Lindsey,
also a native of that county, where he passed his entire career in
agricultural pursuits. Charles Wesley Lindsey was born in
Carroll County, Virginia, and during his young manhood taught
school in the rural districts. Later he turned his attention to
farming, which he followed for many years, but at present is
engaged in general merchandising in Pulaski County, this state.
He married Margaret Louise Quesenberry, daughter of Crockett
Quesenberry, who was born in Pulaski County, where he spent
his entire life in farming with the exception of the duration of
the war between the states, in which, as a soldier of the Confed-
eracy, he saw much hard fighting, and suffered both wounds and
capture. Mrs. Lindsey was reared in the faith of the Method-
ist Church, in the work of which she always has been active.
She and her husband have had eight children, of whom seven
survive, Charles G. being the fifth in order of birth.
Charles G. Lindsey received his education in Carroll County,
where he taught school for two years, and then came to Roanoke,
a poor but ambitious youth, to seek his fortune. He subse-
quently became cashier of the Virginia Iron and Coal Company
72 VIRGINIA
at Crosier Furnace, Roanoke, and remained with that concern
for four years, resigning to accept a position as a traveling sales-
man for a flour milling concern. During the next four years he
traveled through Virginia, West Virginia, North Carolina and
South Carolina, learning every detail of the business, and in
1911 returned to Roanoke to join the firm of Davis, Robinson &
Company. Later Mr. Davis sold his interest and the firm became
Lindsey, Robinson & Company, under which style it was incor-
porated in July, 1918. This has grown to large proportions and
Mr. Lindsey is now president and manager, George C. Huff, vice
president, J. E. Robinson, secretary, and J. M. McGee, treas-
urer. This concern makes certain kinds of feeds, including
poultry feed and meal, and does a general jobbing business in
flour and groceries. In addition to a large force at the head-
quarters, 365 Salem Avenue, Roanoke, the concern keeps six
traveling salesmen on the road, covering Virginia, West Vir-
ginia and North Carolina. Mr. Lindsey naturally centers his
interests in this enterprise, but also has other important con-
nections. He is president of the Victory Specialty Company,
manufacturers and distributors of candies, cigars, cigarettes and
tobacco ; and president of the Maddox & Jennings Bakery, Inc.,
and is importantly interested in the Roanoke Ice and Cold Stor-
age Company and in the Griggs Packing Company. He has
been very active in civic affairs, and is an enthusiastic member
of the Chamber of Commerce and the Booster Club. He is a
Democrat in his political views, but not a seeker for public
office, and is a consistent member of the First Presbyterian
Church, in which he is an elder. He likewise belongs to the
Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, the Lions Club, the
Country Club and the Shenandoah Club, in all of which he is
very popular and has numerous warm friends.
In 1909 Mr. Lindsey was united in marriage with Miss Annie
Snyder Huff, who was born at Roanoke, daughter of George C.
Huff and Blanche Vinyard Huff, now residents of Washington
County, Virginia. To this union there have been born two chil-
dren: Blanche Vinyard, born in 1912, who is in third year of
high school; and Charles Grattan, Jr., born in 1916, who is
attending public school. Mr. Lindsey had been previously mar-
ried, in 1904, to Miss Lula Belle Smith, of Pulaski County, Vir-
ginia, who died in 1905 without issue.
Robert L. McGuire. For a number of years Robert L. Mc-
Guire has been engaged in the real estate business in Richmond,
and it is partially due to his efforts that Bellevue Court, Sum-
merfield, Wildwood, Westover Gardens and other choice resi-
dential developments have been successfully carried on, both in
Virginia and other Southern States. In his operations he has
developed into a financier with extensive interests in the states
of Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Missouri, South Dakota and Ten-
nessee. He is now president of the National Finance & Mort-
gage Corporation, the National Holdings Corporation and the
National Securities Corporation.
Robert L. McGuire was born in Winchester, Virginia, May
12, 1895, a son of Saint George and Anna Marie (von Boehm)
McGuire, and a member of the historic McGuire family of Vir-
ginia, of which Dr. Hunter McGuire, distinguished surgeon of
the Confederacy, was a notable example, and a direct descendant
of the Lord McGuire, Baron of Enniskillen, of Ireland and
I
VIRGINIA 73
France. Saint George McGuire had a distinguished diplomatic
career, ending with the inauguration of Woodrow Wilson to the
presidency in 1913. He was sent on various diplomatic missions
of importance to Germany, South America and Asia, and died
of yellow fever at the age of forty years, while en route to
Sumatra from China. His wife was born in Saxony, Germany,
a daughter of Robert von Boehm, of an Austrian family, who
had a distinguished record in the German army, and was deco-
rated by the former Kaiser ; and was a near relative of General
von Boehm, who commanded a German division in the World
war.
When still a child Robert L. McGuire accompanied his father
to South America, where he studied under private tutors, and
he continued his studies in the same manner in Europe and
Asia, completing his quite extensive education with a legal course
in the University of Leipsic, and still later had one year's work
at LaSalle University. He was later a junior member of a
German expedition into the interior of Brazil and subsequently
was present at one of the earlier revolts in Nicaragua, Central
America.
In August, 1917, Mr. McGuire enlisted for the World war in
the field artillery, was commissioned a lieutenant, and went over-
seas, and because of linguistic ability and knowledge of the
peoples was placed on duty with the Headquarters Staff in
France. After the close of the war and his honorable discharge
Mr. McGuire returned to civilian life and began handling real
estate, as above indicated, in Richmond, becoming treasurer of
the Northside Development Corporation and later vice president
of Your Home Building Corporation. He then became president
of the Westover Gardens Corporation and in July, 1927, he
organized the National Finance & Mortgage Corporation, of
which he is president. This latter corporation has a unique
method to finance mortgages and developments for Richmond
real estate men. This service provides the opportunity for pub-
lic participation through authorizing the issuance of six and one-
quarter per cent ten-year accumulative installment certificates
for the investment of savings ; and also used as sinking fund by
other corporations, that wish to protect their stockholders from
loss. The funds thus received will, in turn, be used for the
purchase of superior mortgages and other negotiable paper.
Mr. McGuire married the Marchioness Wilmina Eleanora de
Bonneville, of Bonneville, France, a daughter of the Marquis
Arthur A. de Bonneville, of the French army, and a descendant
of Cecelia de Treauneaux, who was lady-in-waiting to the
Empress Josephine. Colonel de Bonneville, an engineer officer,
representing the French army, came to America during the
World war and assisted in establishing army camps, in which
he was an instructor. '
Through his financial company Mr. McGuire is not only aid-
ing others in their development work, but he is going ahead with
some enterprises of his own which promise to be more than
usually successful. He has lately established a corporation for
the purpose of taking over a large tract of land in the State of
Tennessee and will form the Town of Bonneville, an industrial
and residential enterprise. While not a native son of Richmond,
he is a Virginian, and as such bears a deep love in his heart for
the beautiful Southern city of such historic memories, and it is
a source of great pride to him that he has been able to accom-
74 VIRGINIA
plish so much for it, and plans to greatly increase his benefac-
tions in the next few years. He has contributed articles to trade
papers on phases of financing and promotions, and is author of
an extensive work on salesmanship.
Rev. William Arthur Pearman as a clergyman of the
Episcopal Church began his service in his native state of Ohio,
afterwards was in Missouri, and on coming to Virginia first
located at Richmond. He is now pastor of the church at Bed-
ford City.
He was born on a farm in Noble County, Indiana, in 1868,
son of Benjamin F. and Adaline (Wittmer) Pearman, and a
grandson of William Pearman and John Wittmer. William
Pearman was a pioneer farmer of Indiana. John Wittmer was
born in Pennsylvania, became a miller by trade, and he walked
all the way from Niagara Falls, New York, to Northern Indi-
ana, looking for, and where he finally found, a site for a mill.
Benjamin F. Pearman was born in Virginia and spent his active
life as a farmer in Indiana. He was a Methodist, a Democrat
and a member of the Masonic fraternity. His wife, Adaline
Wittmer, was born at Niagara Falls, New York. They had a
family of seven children and those now living are: Mrs. Mary
A. Bowser, of Elkhart, Indiana; Levi W., of Nappanee, Indiana;
Chloe, widow of W. B. Jacoby, living in California; Martha J.,
wife of H. S. Funk, of California; and William Arthur.
William Arthur Pearman was reared on a farm, attended
Indiana public schools and finished his literary education in the
old Lutheran College, Wittenberg College, at Springfield, Ohio,
graduating Bachelor of Arts in 1896. He completed his course
in the theological seminary in preparation for the Episcopal
ministry in 1899. His first church was at Mechanicsburg, Ohio,
where he remained four years. Going to Missouri he was rector
of a church at Clinton two years and at Warrenburg two years.
Rev. Mr. Pearman was assistant pastor of St. Paul's Church at
Richmond, Virginia, for two years. He was at Covington, Vir-
ginia, four years, and on October 1, 1918, came to Bedford. The
church at Bedford was established in 1847, and when Mr. Pear-
man began his work in the parish the congregation was still
worshipping in a very small building. He has succeeded in
erecting a handsome new church edifice costing approximately
$100,000, one that is an honor to the town and the parish. This
church was opened for worship June, 1924. St. John's Church
has over two hundred communicants.
Rev. Mr. Pearman married in 1900, Edith Keller Schindler,
a native of Springfield, Ohio, where she was educated in the
public schools. Her father, Charles Schindler, was an under-
taker. Mr. and Mrs. Pearman had five children : Carl Schind-
ler, born in 1902, now with a motor truck company at San Fran-
cisco; Benjamin Vincent, a graduate of high school and of the
University of the South at Sewanee, Tennessee, in 1926, now
with the American Pigment Corporation, of Bedford, Virginia;
Robert William, a chemist with the Frazer Paint Company, of
Detroit, Michigan ; Frederick Keller, a student in Washington
and Lee University ; and Edith Adaline, attending the Junior
high school at Bedford. Rev. Mr. Pearman is a Royal Arch
Mason, member of the Phi Gamma Delta, and all his sons are
members of the same fraternity in college. He also belongs to
the B. P. 0. Elks.
^>crAy)ay /v^'H^aA/C
VIRGINIA 75
John Wright, an Englishman by birth, identified himself
with Richmond a few years after the close of the Civil war,
and for a quarter of a century was a prominent tobacco manu-
facturer, becoming one of the very successful men in an age
when that industry was largely under individual ownership and
control.
Mr. Wright was born in Lancashire, England, November 19,
1833, son of Thomas Anthony and Catherine Elizabeth (Knight)
Wright, both of whom represented the substantial landed gentry
of England. His father was a gentleman farmer.
John Wright, one of eight children, was educated by private
tutors in his father's home. When he came to America he
traveled on a sailing vessel and for a number of years made
his home in New York City. On coming to Richmond in 1875
Mr. Wright bought a country home in Henrico County. He
established his tobacco factory near Nineteenth and Franklin
streets, and for twenty-seven years he gave his close personal
supervision to his growing business there. He retired to his
farm in 1902, and lived quietly there until his death in 1907.
Mr. Wright was a member of the Tobacco Association and was
counted one of the most enterprising and public spirited citizens
of his time. He and all his family were members of the Epis-
copal Church.
His first wife was Miss Annie Helpin, who died shortly after
they came to Richmond, leaving no children. On November 17,
1893, Mr. Wright married Margaret Snell. Mrs. Wright, whose
home is now at 1715 Grove Avenue in Richmond, is a member
of the United Daughters of the Confederacy and Daughters of
the American Revolution, and has taken an active part in the
guilds and societies of the Episcopal Church. Her grandparents
were James and Millicent (Archer ) Snell. Her father, James
Archer Snell, was born in Henrico County in 1818, was educated
by private tutors, and as a young man entered merchandising,
which he continued for over twenty years, and then retired.
He served three years in a Virginia regiment with the Con-
federate army. His business was located at Seventeenth and
Main streets, at that time Richmond being a comparatively small
city. James Archer Snell married Nancy Bibb Rison, of Amelia
County, and they had a family of eight children : James Archer,
Sallie Booker Snell, Millicent Jane, John Reighley, William
Booker, Nannie Irvin, Mrs. Margaret Ella Wright and Coakley.
To the marriage of Mr. John Wright and Margaret E. Snell
were born three children. The son Thomas Arthur, a distin-
guished scholar, was educated in the McGuire's School for Boys
at Richmond, took his Bachelor of Science degree at William
and Mary College, his Doctor's degree at Harvard University,
and for twelve years was principal of the Baker School in Rich-
mond, and for the past ten years has been a member of the
faculty of Dartmouth College at Hanover, New Hampshire. He
is author of a book on Principles of Vocational Guidance.
Thomas Arthur Wright married Minnie Rowe, of Hampton, Vir-
ginia, and has two children, named Mary Morris and Margaret
Elizabeth. John Halpin Wright, the second son of Mrs. Wright,
graduated from William and Mary College and has since made
a great success in the real estate business, being one of the lead-
ing realtors of Washington, D. C. He is a member of the Real
Estate Board of Washington and belongs to several college and
other fraternities and civic organizations. John Halpin Wright
76 VIRGINIA
married Dorothy Jones, of Washington, and their chree children
are Margaret Madison, John Halpin, Jr., and Dorothy Knowles.
Nancy Bibb Wright, the only daughter, was educated in Mrs.
Morris' School at Richmond, and takes an active part in Sundav
School work in the Episcopal Church. She is now the wife of
Louis C. Adair, of Richmond, Mr. Adair being a brother pf
Cornelia Adair, president of the Virginia Teachers Association
and one of the outstanding educational leaders in the state. Mr.
and Mrs. Adair have three children, Nancy Bibb, Cornelia Stor-
ris and Catherine.
John Nottingham Upshur, M. D., by his own life of ser-
vice in the medical profession upheld the standards of a very
distinguished Virginia family name.
Doctor Upshur was born at Norfolk, Virginia, February 14,
1848, and died at Richmond, December 10, 1924. He was a
nephew of Abel Parker Upshur, who served as Secretary of
the Navy under President Tyler, and then succeeded Daniel
Webster as Secretary of State.
Doctor Upshur was a son of Doctor George Littleton Upshur
and a grandson of Colonel Littleton and Anne (Parker) Upshur.
Doctor George Littleton Upshur practiced medicine at Norfolk,
and fell a victim to one of the yellow fever epidemics that over-
spread that city. Doctor George Littleton Upshur was a brother
of the late John Henry Upshur, who became a rear admiral of
the United States Navy and served with Commodore Perry in
the expedition that opened Japan to commerce. He was on the
Union side during the Civil war and had many important com-
mands after the war, retiring after forty-four years of service.
Doctor John Nottingham Upshur was educated at Norfolk,
attended the University of Virginia and gi'aduated from the
Medical College of Virginia in 1869. For more than half a cen-
tury he pursued his professional routine with a skill and devo-
tion that earned the admiration of thousands who Were included
at one time or other in his private practice, and he also reached
eminence in the opinion of his professional associates. He was
at one time president of the Virginia State Medical Association,
and was founder of the Tri-State Medical Society, comprising
the states of Virginia, North and South Carolina. He was also
a member of the American Medical Association.
Doctor Upshur at the age of sixteen was a cadet at the Vir-
ginia Military Institute in Lexington, Virginia, and was severely
wounded at the battle of New Market. He was always a staunch
Democrat, and an active member of St. James Episcopal Church.
He was affiliated with the Masonic fraternity.
Doctor Upshur married Miss Lucy Whittle, who died leav-
ing one son, Doctor Francis Whittle Upshur. On December 10,
1879, he married Miss Elizabeth Peterkin, who survives him
and resides at 1613 Grove Avenue in Richmond. Mrs. Upshqr
is a member of the Richmond Woman's Club. She is a native
of New Orleans, daughter of William S. and Emma (Meeteer)
Peterkin, who were born in Baltimore and lived for many years
in New Orleans, where her father was a cotton broker.
Mrs. Upshur is the mother of three children. Her son.
Colonel William Peterkin Upshur, graduated from the Virginia
Military Institute, having previously attended the McGuire
School for Boys in Richmond, and during the World war was in
France, and he was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor
for bravery while on duty at Haiti. Colonel Upshur married
VIRGINIA 77
Lucy Munford. The daughter, Elizabeth Nottingham, is the
wife of George J. Benson, a business man at Charlottesville,
Virginia, and they have three children, Elizabeth Peterkin,
Frances Day, and John Upshur Benson. The youngest child is
Doctor Alfred P. Upshur, of New York, who attended the
McGuire School at Richmond, the Virginia Military Institute at
Lexington, and the Virginia Medical College, and is now asso-
ciated with the Life Extension Institute of New York City. He
is a member of the Virginia State and American Medical Asso-
ciations. He served with many hospitals during the war as com-
mandant.
Dr. J. N. Upshur was professor of Materia Medica and
Therapeutics, and of the Practice of Medicine at the Medical
College of Virginia. He was also chief medical examiner in
Richmond, for the Equitable Life Insurance Company. He
was a member of the Lee Camp, N. C. V., and served on the
staff of the commanding General of that camp, as surgeon. Dur-
ing the World war, he was active as a speaker in behalf of
recruiting, at many public gatherings.
Robert B. Griggs was born and grew up in Roanoke County,
has been a participant in the development of the important city
of Roanoke, and is founder and active head of the Griggs Pack-
ing Company, one of the large and important industries of the
city.
Mr. Griggs was born in Roanoke County in 1861, son of
Samuel and Eva (Kefauber) Griggs, his father a native of Floyd
County and his mother of Roanoke County. Her father, Peter
Kefauber, was a pioneer farmer of this section of Virginia.
Samuel Griggs spent his life as a fai'mer and merchant, and was
a Confederate soldier throughout the Civil war. He always
voted as a Democrat, was a member of the Baptist Church, and
in a quiet, unostentatious way achieved a great deal of life's
most substantial rewards. He and his wife had eight children,
six of whom are living.
Robert B. Griggs grew up on a Roanoke County farm and
attended school at Big Lick, the village community which was the
nucleus of the larger city of Roanoke. He began his career as a
farmer, and as a farmer and stock raiser laid the substantial
basis of his larger enterprises. Mr. Griggs retained large land
holdings and farming interests in the vicinity of Roanoke until
1912, when he disposed of most of this property.
A number of years ago he started a small packing plant lor
hogs, and his individual push and enterprise have accounted for
the remarkable growth of this industry, which now kills and
packs ten thousand hogs annually, making a specialty of the
manufacture of Virginia hams, widely sold all over the Roanoke
territory. The great packing company is an incorjjorated. in-
stitution with Mr. Griggs as president and active manager, and
C. M. Griggs, vice president.
Mr. Griggs married, in 1891, Miss Hallie Mead, a native of
Bedford County, daughter of Oliver Mead, and her maternal
grandfather was Col. Richard Crenshaw, one of the extensive
land owners of his day in Bedford County, and who gave each
of his grandchildren a large farm. Mr/ and Mrs. Griggs have
had a family of five children : Mrs. Stewart Barber, whose hus-
band is a conti-actor at Roanoke, and mother of one daughter,
Lutitia, born in 1917 ; Robert C. Griggs, who died in 1926 at the
age of twenty-three ; Evelyn, who married Louis Hock, of Char-
78 VIRGINIA
lottsville, Virginia ; Ruth Griggs, a student in Virginia College ;
and Hallie Mead, in high school. The family are members of
the Trinity Methodist Episcopal Church, South. Mr. Griggs is
a Democrat and a member of the Roanoke Chamber of Com-
merce.
Branch W. Stonebraker. The career of Branch W. Stone-
braker, president and a member of the Board of Directors of the
Roanoke Iron Works, possesses all of the elements so dear to the
hearts of the lovers of self-made manhood. Starting life with
only a common school education, his first experience in the busi-
ness world was in a humble clerkship. Hard work, constant
application, thorough assimilation of the details of the job
which he held and fidelity to the interests of his employers car-
ried him up the ladder, and at present he has the respect and
esteem of his associates in one of the largest enterprises of its
kind in Virginia.
Mr. Stonebraker was born February 26, 1886, in Washing-
ton County, Maryland, and is a son of J. C. and Sarah W.
(Dalby) Stonebraker. His father, a native of the same county,
was given good educational advantages and after leaving col-
lege turned his attention to literature, in which he has spent the
greater part of his life, among his better known works being
"The Unwritten South" and "Puritan and Cavalier." He is a
member of the Reformed Church of the United States. A Demo-
crat in politics, he served one or more terms in the State Legis-
lature of Maryland, but is now living in retirement at Hagers-
town. Mr. Stonebraker married Sarah W. Dalby, who was born
near Farmville, Virginia, and graduated as salutatorian of her
class from Farmville College, where later for several years she
served as a teacher. She was a member of the first families
of Virginia, being a descendant of the Mayos, Branchs, Wor-
shams and Cabells, and is of the stock of the early French-
Huguenots, the original settlers of eastern Virginia. She is also
a direct descendant of William Mayo, who assisted in laying out
the City of Richmond and surveyed the first boundary line
between Virginia and North Carolina. To Mr. and Mrs. Stone-
braker there were born eight sons and two daughters, of whom
Branch W. was the third in order of birth, and five sons are now
living.
Branch W. Stonebraker received his education in the public
schools of Hagerstown, Maryland, and was seventeen years of
age when he started work as a clerk in the oifices of the Nor-
folk & Western Railroad at Roanoke. In 1908 he purchased an
interest in the Roanoke Iron Works, Inc., of which he became
assistant to the manager, and continued in that capacity until
1913, when he went to Chicago to become erection superintend-
ent of one of the largest ornamental iron works plants in the
United States. Returning to Roanoke, he became superintend-
ent of the Roanoke Iron Works, and in 1917 was made general
manager and a member of the directorate. On January 1, 1928,
he became president of the company. This company manufac-
tures ornamental iron work of all kinds and finds a ready and
eager market for its product from Maine to Florida and as
far west as Ogden, Utah. Mr. Stonebraker, who devotes his
entire time and energies to the responsibilities of his office, is
acknowledged to be one of the best informed and most capable
men in his line in the country. He has won his way to his pres-
ent position through hard and conscientious work, which has
VIRGINIA 79
met with well merited recognition and appreciation, and in his
labors has the full confidence of his associates and the friend-
ship and co-operation of the men under his management. He
has found no time for public life or political activities, but gives
his support to movements for civic improvement. He is a past
president of the local Lions Club and a member of the Loyal
Order of Moose and the Travelers Protective Association.
In 1906 Mr. Stonebraker was united in marriage with Miss
Lula F. Via, a daughter of N. W. Via, an Albemarle County
farmer. She was educated in the schools of Roanoke and is an
active member of St. Paul's Reformed Church, in which Mr,
Stonebraker is a member of the Board of Elders.
Joseph Wolfe Bear. One ot the alert and enterprising
business men of Roanoke who has made his mark through his
own efforts and who stands deservedly high with all classes of
people is Joseph W. Bear, president of the Double Envelope
Company, and interested in other enterprises of the city. Mr.
Bear was born in Rockingham County, Virginia, February 26,
1896, a son of Decatur B. and Anna Virginia (Gibboney) Bear,
he born at Elkton. Rockingham County, where he died in 1919,
and she born in Wytheville, Virginia, survives and living at Elk-
ton. During his younger life the father was a farmer, but
retired from that occupation early and gave his attention to
private matters and took some interest in politics, working in
conjunction with the Democratic party. Both he and his wife
were strictly religious people, but not of the same faith, as he
was a Methodist and she a Presbyterian. Of their eight chil-
dren, all of whom are living, Joseph W. Bear is the second in
order of birth. His father's father, his paternal grandfather,
was Adam Bear, an extensive farmer and prominent citizen of
Rockingham County.
Until he was eleven years old Joseph W. Bear attended the
local schools, but at that tender age he left home and began to
earn his own living. But a child, with no backing or training,
he had to do the little jobs that he could find and it was not until
he was sixteen that he was able to get a start. At that time
he began making envelopes, and he has continued in this line of
business ever since. His initial work was done in Richmond, but
later he moved to Roanoke, and in 1917 organized the Double
Envelope Company, of which he is president and manager. The
plant, modern in every respect, is conveniently located at 532-
534 Luck Avenue, West, and the product is shipped all over the
United States. The company specializes in double envelopes
for church collections and prints them in eight diff'erent
languages.
In November, 1922, Mr. Bear married Miss Jean McDonald
Franklin, who was born in Roanoke, a daughter of M. C. Frank-
lin, a broker of Roanoke. Mr. and Mrs. Bear have two children :
Joseph Wolfe, Junior, born August 7, 1923, and Clay Franklin,
born May 7, 1925. Mr. Bear is a member of the Second Presby-
terian Church of Roanoke, and Mrs. Bear of the First Baptist
Church of Roanoke, and both are active in church work. Mr.
Bear belongs to the Shenandoah Club, Roanoke Chamber of
Commerce and the Country Club. His political convictions make
him a Democrat, and he exerts his right of suffrage but does not
aspire to public honors, for all of his time is taken up with his
company's affairs. He is a director of the Mountain Trust
80 VIRGINIA
Bank and of the Roanoke Mutual Building & Loan Association.
Recognized as one of the really self-made men of Roanoke, Mr.
Bear is accorded a great deal of credit because of what he has
accomplished. Many were the obstacles that stood in his way,
but he did not allow them to keep him from advancing; he
worked long and faithfully at what he had undertaken, and gave
the best service that lay in his power from the very inception
of his business, and his rewards have proven that industry,
thrift and strict integrity are valuable assets to any man no
matter what he undertakes.
Thomas Elmer Jamison, president of Jamison's Chain
Stores and of the Roanoke Grocery & Milling Company, is easily
one of the leaders in the business life of his city and county, as
he is along other lines, for his is a nature that naturally assumes
control of affairs and carries them on to a successful completion.
He knows exactly what he is aiming for and does not deviate
from his planned course, and in his operations carries with him
others, so that the rewards which come of enterprising industry
and efficient thoughtfulness are not shared by him alone, but
are also participated in by his associates.
The birth of Thomas Elmer Jamison took place in Franklin
County, Virginia, May 4, 1865, and he is a son of John and
Christana (Hartsell) Jamison. Growing to useful manhood in
his native county, he attended the local schools and in them
secured a solid foundation upon which to erect the superstruc-
ture of his after life, supplemented as this instruction was by the
lessons inculcated in the home circle of the dignity of labor and
the value of wise economy.
When he reached his majority the future capitalist left the
shelter of the rooftree of his parents and went on the road as a
traveling salesman for the Wrought Iron Range Company of
Saint Louis. Missouri, his territory being the eastern part of
Virginia. After a year on the road, in 1888 he came to Roanoke,
arriving here at a time when the present citv was little more
than a village. However, with that faculty of looking into the
future that is so characteristic of him he realized its possibilities,
and commenced at once to plan to develop them. His first sten
in that direction was to ."secure congenial employment, and this
was obtained with the P. L. Terrv Milling Company as shipping
clerk, and he continued to hold it for a couple of years, and while
faithfully performing his allotted duties he was also learning the
business, and when the company was reorganized as the
Roanoke Grocery & Milling Company he was one of the old
employes to be retained by the new management, and he was
sent on the road. For the succeeding five years he visited the
trade, building up wide connections and gaining favor for his
company, and when he was recalled from the road it was to take
charge of the sales department. Two vears later he was elected
vice president of the company, and after he had held that office
for two vears he was elected president of the company, and still
retains that office. The Roanoke Grocery & Milling Company
controls a lartre wholesale trade in Roanoke and throughout Vir-
jrinia. West Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee and a part of
Kentucky.
Not content with what he had accomplished in one line. Mr.
Jamison began to branch out and organizing the Roanoke Coffee
& Spice Company, of Roanoke, the Salem Grocery Comnany,
Salem, Virginia, and the Mullens Grocery Company, Mullens,
VIRGINIA 81
West Virginia, he carried these enterprises on as president of
each one until they were placed upon a firm foundation. In the
meanwhile he became impressed with the value of the chain
store system, and September 9, 1921, established a chain of
grocery stores known as Jamison's, there being at the opening
of business seventy-six of these stores, but since that time the
number has been increased to eighty-one. These stores are con-
veniently located in the states of Virginia, West Virginia, North
Carolina and Tennessee, and it is the hope of Mr. Jamison to
have the territory expanded in the near future so as to take in
many other states. The Jamison Stores are conducted as sub-
sidiaries to the Roanoke Grocery & Milling Company. In or-
ganizing this system Mr. Jamison had in mind the plan of fur-
nishing the people of the different communities in which his
stores are placed not only foodstuffs at a much lower price, but
also to give them commodities of the very best quality, and so
rigidly has he followed this plan that the name of Jamison's is
now indissolubly connected with quality and fair prices, and the
stores have become very popular. Through his parent company,
the Roanoke Grocery & Milling Company, he is able to buy direct
from the manufacturer in such immense quantities that neces-
sarily he can place his goods on the market at prices that always
prove attractive.
With the market furnished by the chain stores the Roanoke
Grocery & Milling Company has steadily grown, from time to
time, increasing its capital until it is now capitalized at one-half
million dollars, and is the largest distributor of foods in Roanoke,
if not in this part of Virginia. Not only does the Roanoke
Grocery & Milling Company distribute foodstuffs to the general
trade, but also to a number of public institutions of Virginia, to
colleges and to hotels, the volume of business done annually
being greater than any other company operating between Rich-
mond, Virginia, and Cincinnati, Ohio. The work entailed upon
Mr. Jamison is tremendous, but he not only attends to it in a
most capable manner, but finds time to give considerable thought
and attention to the affairs of the Magic City, and has succeeded
in bettering conditions in a most remarkable degree. As the
principal promoter of the ordinance which provides increased
salaries for the fireman, he secured adequate fire protection, and
lowered the insurance rate. It was he who began the agitation
that resulted in the establishment of the Roanoke Chamber of
Commerce, of which he was an organizer and first vice presi-
dent. In all matters pertaining to improving and beautifying
Roanoke Mr. Jamison can be depended upon to take the initia-
tive, and in this connection special mention must be made of his
work in purchasing the Terry property for park purposes. Mr.
Jamison has served his city as an alderman, and while a member
of the council was appointed by the president of the Chamber
of Commerce to draft a plan for a better form of government for
the city. For many years he served as president of the Whole-
sale Grocers Association, and was a member of the Manufac-
turers Association that was later absorbed by the Chamber of
Commerce. The Presbyterian Church has in him an earnest
and generous member. His fraternal connections are those
which he maintains with the Knights of Pythias.
On November 10, 1892, Mr. Jamison married Miss Lillie
Davidson, of Roanoke, and they have three children : Gladys
Ann, who married D. R. Carpenter, a teacher in Roanoke Col-
lege, Salem, Virginia; Thelma Virginia, who married H. K.
82 VIRGINIA
Adams, who is with the First National Exchange Bank of
Roanoke ; and Frank Elmer, who has charge of the bakery of the
Roanoke Grocery «&: Milling Company. The children have all
been well educated, Gladys being a graduate of Hollins College ;
Thelma was also educated at the same college, and Frank is a
graduate of the University of Virginia, class of 1926.
John William Hancock, division manager of the Appala-
chian Electric Power Company, is also president of the Roanoke
Public Library. This latter office is something more than a
casual duty of a successful business man. Mr. Hancock for
many years has been interested in books and the things they
represent, the broad range of literature, arts and sciences. The
life of the world and its people have always interested him, and
he has made one of the best private collections of books on Vir-
ginia history. He has been fond of hunting, fishing, moun-
taineering, nature study and amateur photography.
Mr. Hancock was born in Franklin County, Virginia, June
17, 1870, son of Benjamin Peter and Sarah Frances (Hutchin-
son) Hancock, grandson of William Thomas and Agnes (Booth)
Hancock. His ancestors, the Hancocks, Booths, Duncans and
Hollands, have been in Virginia since early Colonial times. Ben-
jamin Peter Hancock was born in Franklin County, June 19,
1842, served in the Confederate army in Company D, Second
Virginia Cavalry, under Gen. J. E. B. Stuart, and was three
times wounded. After the war he followed farming in Frank-
lin County until he retired. He died at Washington, February
19, 1925. His wife was also a native of Franklin County,
daughter of John C. and Lucy (Meredith) Hutchinson.
John William Hancock, oldest of the four children of his
parents, was reared on a farm, had a common school and aca-
demic education, and acquired a sound business training as
clerk in stores and employe of banks at Rocky Mount and
Roanoke.
His experience in the electrical public utility field covers a
period of over thirty years. From 1895 to 1899 he was account-
ant and cashier of the Roanoke Street Railway Company and
the Roanoke Electric Light & Power Company. Upon the re-
organization and consolidation of these companies in 1899 as
the Roanoke Railway & Electric Company, Mr. Hancock was
made general manager and director, and in 1913 he also became
general manager of the Lynchburg Traction & Light Company,
which position he held until the formation of the Appalachian
Electric Power Company in 1926. He is president of the State
Association of PubKc Utilities, member of the American Insti-
tute of Electrical Engineers, National Electric Light Association
and American Gas Association.
During the Spanish-American war he was second lieutenant
of Company G, Second Virginia Volunteer Infantry, and acted
as assistant to the quartermaster of the Second Division, Sev-
enth United States Army Corps, at Jacksonville, Florida, Mr.
Hancock is a fellow of the American Geographical Society, mem-
ber of the Virginia Historical Society, Wisconsin State His-
torical Society, Sons of the American Revolution, Sons of Con-
federate Veterans, member of the Army and Navy Club of
Washington, Shenandoah Club of Roanoke, Roanoke Country
Club and Oakwood Country Club of Lynchburg. He is a mem-
ber of the Grolier Club of New York and the California Book
Club.
VIRGINIA 83
He married at Roanoke, April 30, 1898, Miss Mary Carr
Leffler. Her ancestor, Joiin Carr, of Loudoun County, was an
ensign in the Revolutionary army. The children born to Mr.
and Mrs. Hancock were: John William, Jr., who graduated as
a mining engineer from the Virginia Polytechnic Institute, took
a post graduate course at the Wharton School of Finance of the
University of Pennsylvania, and is now with an investment
banking house in New York City; Karl Bulow, now a student
of the University of Virginia; Mary Alice, who graduated from
Wellesley College; Elizabeth Dee; and Benjamin Philip, born in
1908 and died in infancy.
Edward L. Johnson is a talented physician and surgeon at
Bedford, where he has practiced a number of years, always
enjoying a large professional business, and has also established
connections in a business and civic way with his community.
Doctor Johnson was born on a farm in Bedford County, Vir-
ginia, December 19, 1879. His people have lived in Bedford
County for several generations. His parents, Jason and Mary
(Cottrell) Johnson, were natives of the same county. His
grandfather, John T. Johnson, was born in that county, as also
his maternal grandfather, James Cottrell. Jason Johnson spent
his life as a farmer and the old homestead is still owned by the
family. He was physically disqualified for service during the
Civil war, but rendered good service by helping neighbors who
had sons or husbands in the war. He was a Democrat and both
he and his wife members of the Baptist Church. Of their seven
children six are living.
Dr. Edward L. Johnson was educated at the old Jeter School
in Bedford County and from early manhood learned the les-
sons of self reliance. He had to earn the money and contrive
the means to complete his medical education. He determined to
become a doctor when a youth. Going to New York City he
found employment in the City Hospital on Blackwell's Island,
working there eighteen months and taking the course in nursing
at the same time. He was then employed as a nurse in another
hospital in New York, and had a certificate as a graduate nurse.
This work gave him opportunities for study and observation,
and he spent the greater part of each winter studying medi-
cine. He went to New York with thirty-seven dollars and when
he came away he had increased that capital to sixty dollars and
had made large progress in his professional education. Doctor
Johnson graduated in medicine from the Medical College of Vir-
ginia at Richmond in 1907. He has since practiced in Bed-
ford County. The day he established himself as a doctor he
had two professional calls. Since 1911 his home has been in
Bedford City, where in addition to his general private practice
he is surgeon for the Bedford Tire Company.
Doctor Johnson married in 1909 Ella Noell, a native of Bote-
toui't County, Virginia, who was educated there and at the Uni-
versity of Virginia, and taught school for a number of years.
She is very active in the Methodist Church and teaches the
Philathea class in the Sunday School. She is also matron of
Eastern Star. She is secretary of the local branch of the Daugh-
ters of the Confederacy. Her father, John Noell, was a farmer.
Dr. and Mrs. Johnson have one daughter, Eloise Noell, born
June 5, 1916. Both are members of the Methodist Church, and
Doctor Johnson is a past master of the Masonic Lodge, member
of the Royal Arch Chapter, Woodmen of the World, Benevolent
84 VIRGINIA
and Protective Order of Elks, Independent Order of Odd Fellows.
He is a member of Bedford County Medical Society and the Med-
ical Society of Virginia. Doctor Johnson owns a farm and
orchard, is a director of the Citizens National Bank of Bedford,
and is a member of the city council. He is also a director of the
Bedford Tire & Rubber Company, and of the Nardin, Armstrong
Corporation. He is the owner of the Johnson Service Station at
Bedford, Virginia.
Wilson Miles Cary belonged to the generation that fur-
nished some of the most youthful soldiers to the Confederate
armies, and in the half century after the war he became a prom-
inent figure in the tobacco industry at Richmond.
Colonel Cary was born at Williamsburg, Virginia, in 1843
and died at Richmond in April, 1919. He was the only son of
Lucius Falkland and Anne (Henley) Cary, his father a mer-
chant of Williamsburg. He was one of two children, his sister,
Hattie Coke Cary, now being Mrs. William Christian, of
Richmond.
Wilson Miles Cary was reared in the classical seat of learn-
ing at Williamsburg, attending William and Mary College. He
left college to enlist in the Virginia troops, and gave four years
to the service of the Southern cause. After the war he com-
pleted his college education, and then located at Richmond, en-
tering the tobacco business.
He served with the rank of colonel on the staff of two gover-
nors of Virginia, Governor Philip McKinney land Governor
Fitzhugh Lee. Colonel Cary was an ardent Democrat and for
many years held an official place in the Second Presbyterian
Church of Richmond. He was a member of the Westmoreland
Club.
His first wife was Anne E'. Sublett, and by that marriage
there are two children, Emily Sampson and Hunsdon. Emily
married Thomas Marshall, great grandson of the Chief Justice
Marshall, and has two children. Hunsdon married Mary Miller,
daughter of George D. Miller, of Albany, New York, and a
Richmond attorney.
Colonel Cary on October 10, 1878, married Lilias Blair
McPhail, who survives him and resides at 19 North Boulevard
in Richmond. She is a daughter of John Blair McPhail,
who was educated at Yale College and was a Norfolk attorney,
and married Ann Cabell Carrington. Mrs. Cary was educated
by a private tutor at Mulberry Hill, the home of her ancestor.
Judge Paul Carrington.
Mrs. Cary has a son and daughter, Lucius Falkland Cary,
and Lilias Blair Cary. The son was educated at Hampden-
Sidney College, graduated in law from the University of Vir-
ginia, and is now assistant city attorney of Richmond. He mar-
ried Alma Cecil, daughter of Rev. Russell and Alma (Miller)
Cecil, her father being pastor of the Second Presbyterian
Church of Richmond, while her mother was a daughter of Dr.
LaFayette Miller, a surgeon in the Confederate army. Mr.
and Mrs. L. F. Cary have three children, Lucius F., Jr., now
a student in the Virginia Military Institute, Elizabeth Cecil, and
Miles Fairfax. Lilias Blair Cary married Rev. T. K. Currie, of
Davidson, North Carolina, and now of Richmond, Virginia, and
has two sons, Thomas Lauchlin and Albert LaDoux.
4 * «
VIRGINIA 85
Thomas E. Payne, D. D. S. As a follower of one of the
skilled and learned professions, Dr. Thomas E. Payne, of
Roanoke, has achieved that success which comes to a man who
finds his vocation congenial and who invests it with determina-
tion, enthusiasm and natural talent. The modern dental prac-
titioner has ever before him the chance of making himself an
enormously important factor in the welfare of his community,
and a realization of this possibility has come to Doctor Payne
at Roanoke, of which city he has been a resident for about nine-
teen years.
Doctor Payne was born December 9, 1883, in Westmoreland
County, Virginia, and is a son of John T. and Ellen Cushen
(Jones) Payne. The Payne family is an old and honored one
in Virginia, having settled in the colony as early as 1620, at
which time the original ancestor took up his residence in what
is now Northumberland County. John T. Payne was a son of
Thomas Eweil, a native of King George County, Virginia, who
had large farming interests and also carried on an extensive
mercantile business. Mr. Payne was likewise a nephew and an
adopted son of Bishop John Payne, a noted dignitary of the
Episcopal diocese of Virginia. John T. Payne was born in King
George County, Virginia, and was given good educational advan-
tages in his youth, including preparation for the law. He was
admitted to the bar and for some years in his early life practiced
with a measure of success, but eventually disposed of his prac-
tice, gave up his profession, and became a minister of the Metho-
dist Episcopal Church. For thirty-five years, or until his death
in 1918, he was a member of the Virginia Conference, filling
numerous pulpits and becoming widely known and greatly
beloved for his many good works, his zeal, piety, and humani-
tarianism. He was laid to rest at Charlottesville, this state,
where Mrs. Payne, likewise a native of King George County,
still makes her home. Mr. Payne was a member of the Masons
and the Indei^endent Order of Odd Fellows, and was a Democrat
in his political allegiance, although he never sought public office.
He married Ellen Cushen Jones, a daughter of James Edward
Jones, a native of King George County, of which county he
served ably as treasurer for many years, and a member of a
family that settled in Virginia during Colonial days.
His father, John T. Payne, furnished Thomas E. Payne, who
was one of eleven children, with his early educational training,
following which he pursued a course at the New London Acad-
emy in Bedford County and the Bridle Creek Academy in Gray-
son County. His dental studies were prosecuted at the Medical
College of Virginia, at Richmond, where he took the dental
course, and in 1909 was graduated with the degree Doctor of
Dentistry. Doctor Payne commenced practice at Lynchburg,
but in 1910 located at Roanoke, where he has since attained
prominence in his profession as a general practitioner, and now
occupies well-appointed and perfectly equipped offices in the
Shenandoah Life Building. He has all of the appliances and
instruments known to modern dental science, and is a careful,
kind, considerate and highly skilled operator, who has won the
confidence and esteem of a large patronage, which has been
attracted by his diligent attention to his work. By keeping
himself fully abreast of all current developments and improved
methods in his art, he has maintained an excellent professional
standing, and meanwhile his amiable disposition and general
86 VIRGINIA
deportment have attracted to him many stanch friends. Doctor
Payne is a member of the Roanoke Dental Society, the Virginia
Dental Society and the National Dental Association, and his
religious connection is with Green Memorial Methodist Episcopal
Church, South. He is a past master of Lakeland Lodge, A. F.
and A. M., and a Scottish Rite Mason and Shriner, and is like-
wise prominent in the Knights of Pythias, being a past chan-
cellor commander, a past grand chancellor of the state, a past
royal vizier of the D. 0. K. K. and present imperial representa-
tive. He belongs to the Kiwanis Club and is an enthusiastic
supporter of all worthy civic movements. During the war he
served as a first lieutenant in the Dental Corps, was overseas
and was honorably discharged January 21, 1919, at Camp Stuart,
Virginia.
In October, 1920, at Roanoke, Doctor Payne was united in
marriage with Miss Katherine L. Lowry, who was born at
Lowry, Bedford County, and educated at Bedford City, and they
have one son, John Thomas, born March 19, 1922. Mrs. Payne
is a member of the First Baptist Church.
Lee R. Gills of Bedford has had a remarkably successful
career. He grew up on a farm, started to work at an early age,
never had many or special opportunities conferred upon him and
from his own industry and genius for handling business affairs
has made himself an influence in a number of communities and
cities in southwestern Virginia.
He was born in Bedford County, April 13, 1856, son of Asa
and Caroline E. (Poindexter) Gills, grandson of Anthony Gills
and Richard Poindexter, the former a native of Nottaway
County and the latter of Bedford County. On both sides
the family have been farmers and planters for a number
of generations. His father was born in Nottaway County,
served four years in the Confederate Army, and in June,
1865, returned home to find his farm devastated, his negroes
gone, but he adapted himself to the new conditions and
gained some measure of substantial prosperity before his death.
He was always a Democrat and a member of the Methodist
Church. He and his wife had eight children and four are now
living: Eliza A., wife of Joseph Skinell of Bedford City;
Edward Gills, a farmer and canner of Bedford County ; Lee R. ;
and Munford C, who is in the real estate business at Bluefield,
West Virginia.
Lee R. Gills was about nine years old when the Civil war
closed. He had had a few terms of common schooling and after
the war he took his place in the fields working as his strength
permitted. Afterwards he attended a private school, the Hale
Ford Academy in Franklin County, and qualified himself for
teaching. He taught seven terms of school during winter
months, working on the farm in the summer. He early became
interested in saw milling and merchandising, and these two
lines have accounted for most of his years of energy and gave
him the foundation of his material prosperity. In this business
he was associated with his brother C. W. Gills and Mr. Johnson
for a period of twenty-six years. It was a very unusual part-
nership, unbusinesslike in a way, since each of the firm paid
his household running expenses out of the business cash drawer,
but in other respects it was a real partnership of interest and
work and commended its methods because of the success that
VIRGINIA 87
rewarded the members. The firm had different titles at dif-
ferent times, Gills Brothers, Gills & Johnson, at Rocky Mount,
Gills and Holland, again Gills and Johnson and the Gills Grocery
Company at Felicia. Mr. Gills has been a resident of Bedford
for over thirty years. He was one of the organizers of the Peo-
ples National Bank of Bedford in 1901 and was elected the first
president and has served in that capacity for over a quarter of a
century. During his active career he has traded in timberlands
and bought millions of feet of lumber. His business operations
extended 4;o Roanoke where he began buying and building in
1907, and in recent years he has made a gift to his children of
several pieces of property in that city but still owns other im-
proved real estate there. For the last eighteen years he has
been president of the Grand Piano Company. In 1925 he organ-
ized the Bedford Tire & Rubber Company of which he was presi-
dent to January, 1S28. This is a corporation capitalized at one
million dollars, with $400,000 stock issued. Mr. Gills is a mem-
ber of the Methodist Episcopal Church at Bedford and is on
the Board of Stewards. He is a Uemocrat in politics.
He married, October 17, 1884, Cora M. Dudley, who was
born in Franklin County, Virginia, daughter of William R. Dud-
ley, a farmer and ex-Confederate soldier, who represented his
district in the State Senate. Mr. and Mrs. Gills have four chil-
dren. The oldest is Dr. W. L. Gills who was educated in the
high school at Bedford, graduated from the academy there at
the age of sixteen, took the regular four year course at the
Randolph-Macon College at Ashland in three years, making the
best grade credited to any student in a period of twenty-eight
years. For three years he taught in the academy at Bedford,
then entered Johns Hopkins University at Baltimore, taking the
four years' medical course and winning a scholarship every year.
On graduating he was offered an interneship in the Johns Hop-
kins Hospital, but declined to accept a post as interne he had
won in a competitive examination with forty other young doctors
at a hospital at Hartford, Connecticut. After twenty months
there he was licensed to practice in Virginia, spent two and one-
half years in general practice at Roanoke and since then has
specialized in eye, ear, nose and throat at Hartford, Connecticut,
where he is one of the outstanding physicians and surgeons. The
second child, Bessie G. Gills, is the wife of Dr. W. P. Jackson, a
physician at Roanoke. Clara E. Gills, married Major E. R.
Richardson, an instructor in the Bedford Academy. Harry A.
Gills, the youngest, a marchant at Bedford, married Roberta
Moncure of Stafford Court House, member of the distinguished
Moncure family of Virginia. She was educated at Nashville,
Tennessee.
David P. Scott, physician and surgeon at Lynchburg, is a
member of the Scott family that settled in Caroline County, Vir-
ginia, in 1690, and is one of a long succession of physicians in
the family.
Doctor Scott was born in Bedford County, Virginia, October
30, 1890, son of Dr. Hugh Donald and Evelyn (Davies) Scott,
grandson of Dr. Samuel Burks Scott, a Bedford County physi-
cian, and great-grandson of Hugh Roy Scott. The founder of
the Virginia branch of the family was James Scott, father of
Col. Thomas Scott, who came from Aberdeen, Scotland, in 1690.
There were six members of the family who held commissions
under General Washington in the Revolutionary war. Dr. Hugh
88 VIRGINIA
Donald Scott was born in Bedford County, was educated in the
Medical College of Virginia and practiced for thirty-five years
in Amherst County. He was a member of the Episcopal Church,
a York Rite Mason and Shriner, and belonged to the B. P. 0.
Elks. His wife was a daughter of Henry Landon Davies, a
native of Bedford County.
David P. Scott is one of a family of three children. His
brother Stuart Donald lives at Johnstown, Pennsylvania, and
his brother Samuel Burks, at Andover, New York. David P.
Scott was educated in the Hoge Military Academy, graduated
from the Medical College of Virginia in 1911, was an interne in
the Retreat for the Sick at Richmond and the Johnston-Willis
Sanitarium in that city. Doctor Scott engaged in practice at
Ashland, West Virginia, until 1915, and then took post-graduate
work in New York and at Harvard University and the Massa-
chusetts General Hospital in Boston until 1917.
In April, 1917, he volunteered his services and was assigned
active duty at Washington in November. He was given various
advancements, and for a time acted as assistant chief medical
examiner at Camp Lee. He received his honorable discharge in
March, 1919, and soon afterward located at Lynchburg, where
he has practiced with a steadily growing reputation. He spe-
cializes in diagnosis. He is a fellow of the American College of
Physicians, member of the Medical Society of Virginia, the
Lynchburg, Southern Piedmont and American Medical Associa-
tions.
Doctor Scott married, February 14, 1914, Miss Beulah Davis,
who was born at Charlottesville and was educated there and in
the Blackstone Girls School. They have one daughter, Judith
Donald Scott, born in 1922. Doctor Scott and wife are members
of St. John's Episcopal Church.
Forrest W. Whitaker is a veteran attorney of the Lynch-
burg bar, having practiced there for Over thirty-five years. In
recent years he has also taken upon himself the responsibilities
and honors of judicial office, being a judge of the municipal
court.
Judge Whitaker was born in Halifax County, North Caro-
lina, October 6, 1865, son of Ferdinand H. and Louise (D'Berry)
Whitaker, both natives of North Carolina. His mother was a
daughter of Lemuel and Elizabeth (Staunton) D'Berry. The
D'Berrys came from France. The Whitakers have been in
America since Colonial times. His Revolutionary ancestor was
John Whitaker, who served under General Washington and was
a son of Richard Whitaker. John Whitaker was the father of
Wilson Carey Whitaker, grandfather of Judge Whitaker. Fer-
dinand H. Whitaker was a farm owner in Halifax County,
North Carolina, was a member of the Methodist Protestant
Church.
Forrest W. Whitaker was the eighth in a family of eleven
children, four of whom are living. He attended private school
in North Carolina, completing his literary education in the Oak
Ridge Institute. He studied law in the famous Dick and Dil-
lard Law School at Greensboro, North Carolina, completing his
course in 1887. For several years he practiced in North Caro-
lina, and in 1892 removed to Lynchburg, where his abilities as
a lawyer and other qualifications have made him an important
figure in the community. Since October 1, 1922, he has been a
judge of the Municipal Court, assigned to juvenile and domestic
(J_^^^?^<H^ /^
VIRGINIA 89
relations division, and in that capacity has rendered a service
that cannot be measured by any financial standard. To the
examination of cases involving the delicate adjustments of
family life and individual development he has brought a wide
experience of humanity as well as a thoroughly seasoned knowl-
edge of the law.
Judge Whitaker is active in the Democratic party and has
been a delegate to state conventions. He is a steward in the
Methodist Protestant Church, a member of the Masonic fra-
ternity, and the Lions Club.
Judge Whitaker married October 4, 1900, Miss Carrie Kin-
near, who was born at Lynchburg and was reared and educated
there. Her father, George A. Kinnear, was for many years a
merchant. Judge and Mrs. Whitaker have one daughter, Louise
Kinnear, who attended the public schools and Salem College.
J. Frank Payne, D. D. S. Included among the various
branches of professional knowledge on which civilized humanity
is more or less dependent for the maintenance of healthful con-
ditions and the preservation of exemption from physical distress
is the science of dental surgery. Careless habits of living and
indulgences in articles of food and drink which are injurious to
the teeth have become so general that in all communities skilled
dental practitioners are indispensable factors. But, as in med-
icine and surgery, the science of dentistry is constantly develop-
ing new phases of usefulness, and in order to insure success
the dentist of today must keep fully abreast of the latest achieve-
ments of his profession. He must add skill to thorough research
and combine close application to his task with the ability gained
through experience. A modern practitioner of this type is found
in Dr. J. Frank Payne, of Roanoke, who while carrying on a
general practice is somewhat of a specialist in the making of
plates and crowns and of extraction.
Doctor Payne was born November 15, 1877, in Westmore-
land County, Virginia, and is a son of John T. and Ellen Cushen
(Jones) Payne, and a member of a family which came to
Northumberland County, Virginia, as early as 1620. John T.
Payne was a son of Thomas Ewell, a native of King George
County, Virginia, who followed merchandising throughout his
career, and a nephew and adopted son of Bishop John Payne,
a noted Episcopal divine. John T. Payne . was born in King
George County, Virginia, where he was educated for the law,
a profession with which he was identified successfully for a
number of years. In the middle part of his life he became a
minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and for thirty-five
years, or until his death in 1918, was a member of the Virginia
Conference. He was buried at Charlottesville, where Mrs.
Payne, also a native of King George County, still makes her
home. Mr. PajTie was a member of the Masons and the Inde-
pendent Order of Odd Fellows, and in politics was a Democrat.
He and his wife became the parents of eleven children, of whom
Dr. J. Frank was the second in order of birth. The maternal
grandfather of Doctor Payne was James Edward Jones, a native
of King George County, who was treasurer of that county for
many years, and a member of an early settled family of Virginia.
J. Frank Payne attended public schools of Virginia, spent
three years at Chesapeake Academy and a short time at Bowling
Green Academy, and then for five years was an instructor at
90 VIRGINIA
the Gordonsville Female College and for a few months was a
teacher in the public schools, and then prosecuted his dental
studies at the Virginia Medical College, where he completed
the regular three-year course in two years. Eventually, in 1911,
he settled permanently at Roanoke, where he has since been in
the enjoyment of a large and constantly increasing practice. As
before noted, he practices general dentistry, but makes a spe-
cialty of crowns, plates and extraction work, and his offices in
the McBain Building are fully equipped with the latest appli-
ances and instruments known to modern dental science. Doctor
Payne is a skilled operator and a man of kindly and gentle
personality. He was a member of the Roanoke Dental Society,
the Virginia State Dental Society and the National Dental Asso-
ciation, and fraternally is identified with the Knights of Pythias
and the Order of Owls. He is a Democrat in politics, without
political aspirations, and a consistent member of the Methodist
Church.
On February 24, 1904, Doctor Payne was united in marriage
with Miss Mary J. Mortimer, of Campbell County, Virginia,
who was educated in the public schools and at New London
Academy. They have two children: Caroline Mortimer, a
teacher in the public schools of Roanoke ; and Ellen Cushen,
still attending school.
Charles A. Metzgee. The name of Metzger has had hon-
ored associations with the industrial and business affairs of
Richmond for three quarters of a century. One of its repre-
sentatives was the late Charles A. Metzger, whose widow, Mrs.
Metzger, resides at 1 South Boulevard in that city.
Charles A. Metzger was born at Richmond, December 12,
1862, and died in that city August 29, 1923. His father, Harry
Metzger, came from Germany and settled in Richmond about
1850. He established a cooperage business, and was a very
thoroughgoing business man and also much interested in local
politics, serving for a time on the Richmond City Council. He
married Caroline Meyer, of Germany. They were married in
Richmond in the late '50s, and of their six children Charles A.
was the second son.
The late Mr. Metzger attended school at Richmond and as a
very young man went to work in his father's establishment, and
after about six years was appointed manager. He had the
controlling interest in H. Metzger & Son, cooperage business,
after his father's death, and his two brothers, Lewis T. and
Edward H., were associated with him, and since his death these
brothers have continued it. It is one of the oldest firms of its
kind in Richmond or in the State of Virginia. The late Mr.
Metzger was a Democrat.
Mrs. Metzger is an active worker in St. John's Evangelical
Church and for thirty-two years has been a member of the
Ladies Aid Society. She also belongs to the Kings Daughters.
Mr. Metzger and Miss Elizabeth C. Frick were married at Rich-
mond, October 9, 1884. She was reared in that city, attending
St. Joseph's Academy. Her father, Theodore Frick, came from
Germany to Richmond in 1850 and organized the Theodore Frick
Packing Company, one of the early meat packing houses of Vir-
ginia. Theodore Frick married, in Richmond, Miss Christine
Wunsch, who also came from Germany. They had six children :
Mrs. Caroline Oeters, deceased ; Theodore F., now deceased, who
VIRGINIA 91
continued the packing business after the death of his father;
Emma, whose first husband was Charles Frommer, and she is
now the wife of William H. Essig; Mrs. Metzger; Alvina W.,
who married J. H. Leisfield and has two children, J. H. Jr., and
Marie, wife of J. Cunningham and mother of a daughter, Eliza-
beth Cunningham ; and Pauline, wife of W. P. Klein, a Richmond
merchant, and they have two daughters, Mrs. Robert Waldbauer,
who has a son, Robert, and Mrs. H. Waldbauer, whose two sons
are Walter and Henry. Mr. H. Waldbauer is a member of the
firm Boedecker Drug Company of Richmond.
Randolph G. Whittle. Among the younger members of
the legal fraternity who are practicing at the bar of Roanoke,
one who has made rapid strides in his profession and is gaining
prestige and a large and important clientage is Randolph G.
Whittle. While his career has not been as lengthy as many
others of his fellow practitioners whose biographies appear in
this volume, he has made such good use of his opportunities and
has brought his natural abilities into play so energetically that
he has already attained a place in his profession beyond that of
many men who are his senior in years and experience.
Mr. Whittle comes of good legal stock, and was born May 4,
1900, at Martinsville, Virginia, a son of Judge Stafford G. and
Ruth (Drewry) Whittle. His father, a native of Virginia, and
a member of a fine old Southern family, received excellent edu-
cational advantages in his youth, at Washington & Lee Uni-
versity and at the University of Virginia, where he prosecuted
his legal studies. Judge Whittle commenced practice at Mar-
tinsville, where almost immediately he gained a position at the
bar. In a number of cases that attracted widespread interest
and attention he secured recognition, and as a consequence he
soon was elevated to the bench, where he rendered splendid
service. For many years he was judge of the Supreme Court of
Virginia, retiring in December, 1919, after a service of two
decades, during the last five years of which he was president of
the court. He is now living in comfortable and honored retire-
ment at Martinsville, where Mrs. Whittle died in 1923. Few
Virginia judges have made a more favorable impression upon
the people of their day than Judge Whittle. A man of profound
learning in legal lore, he was possessed of the judicial tem-
perament, and was wise, temperate and at all times fair-minded.
His retirement from the Supreme bench removed therefrom one
who possessed all the elementals of judicial distinction.
Randolph G. Whittle attended the grammar and high schools
of Martinsville, following which he entered Washington and Lee
University, and was graduated therefrom in 1924, with the
degree of Bachelor of Law. Immediately thereafter he engaged
in practice at Roanoke, where he has since continued with con-
stantly increasing success. He has specialized in no subject, his
business being of a general civil character, and the success that
he has gained has come through constant industry and able
application of the knowledge gained through thorough prepara-
tion. Mr. Whittle is a member of the Roanoke City Bar Associa-
tion, the Virginia State Bar Association and the American Bar
Association. He was president of the student body during his
last year at college, and is a member of the Phi Kappa Sigma
academic fraternity, Phi Delta Phi legal fraternity and Omicron
Delta Kappa honorary fraternity. Mr. Whittle is likewise a
Scottish Rite Mason, and in politics is a Democrat. While he is
92 VIRGINIA
greatly interested in civic affairs and is a modern citizen of en-
lightened views, he finds his practice sufficiently engrossing and
interesting to take up all his time. He is unmarried and a mem-
ber of St. John's Episcopal Church.
.. Prof. Elbert Murray Coulter. The art of drawing out or
developing the faculties, or the training of human beings for
the functions in life for which they are destined, more com-
monly known as education, means the imparting or gaining of
knowledge of every kind, good as well as evil, but specifically it
signifies all that broadens an individual's mind, develops his
tastes, corrects his manners and molds his habits. In a still
more limited sense it means any course of training pursued by
parents, teachers or a whole community to train the young
physically, morally and mentally. In recent years, in answer
to a constantly growing demand for training along 'commercial
lines, there have come into existence many institutions which
fit their students for the serious business problems of life.
Among the leaders in this field is the National Business College
of Roanoke, Virginia, of which Prof. Elbert Murray Coulter is
president. Professor Coulter's own life is an inspiration to his
students, as he started his career a poor youth and has worked
his own way, unaided, to prosperity and position.
Professor Coulter was born July 31, 1871, at Pittsfield, Illi-
nois, and is a son of John and Mary (Jones) Coulter. His
paternal grandfather was John Coulter, who was born in Ireland
and as a young man came to the United States and settled in
Canada, later moving to Ohio and still later moving to Western
Illinois, where he passed the remainder of his life in agricultural
operations. His maternal grandfather, Isaac Jones, married
Martha Preble, a descendant of Commodore Preble, U. S. N., a
hero of the Tripolitan war between the United States and Tripoli
in 1801-1805, which was caused by the refusal of this country
to increase its payment for immunity from the depredations of
the Tripolitan Corsairs. After several conflicts by sea and land
peace was concluded June 4, 1805. John Coulter, the father of
Professor Coulter, was born in Ohio, whence he removed in
young manhood to Illinois and engaged in agricultural pursuits
in the vicinity of Pittsfield. He later moved with his wife to
Missouri, ancl there they passed the remainder of their lives.
Mr. Coulter was a Republican in his political views, and he and
his wife were faithful members of the Methodist Episcopal
Church. Of their ten children only two are living, Elbert Mur-
ray being the second in order of birth.
Elbert Murray Coulter attended the public schools of Illinois
and Missouri, and supplemented this by a course at a normal
school in Kansas. He entered upon his career as a teacher at
the Saint Joseph Business University, Saint Joseph, Missouri,
and in 1896 came to Roanoke, Virginia, to take a professorship
in the National Business College at a salary of sixty dollars per
month. Aside from his meager salary he possessed nothing, but
was thrifty and economical, and by 1898 had saved enough to
buy a half-interest in the institution. Two years later he became
sole owner by purchase and commenced his independent opera-
tions in a little building which was entirely inadequate for his
needs, but the best he could afford in the circumstances. At
the end of thirteen years he found himself in possession of suf-
ficient capital to buy a lot and erect a building on Church Street,
VIRGINIA 93
where he remained for ten years, and then bought his present
quarters from the Fraternal Order of Eagles in 1919. Later
he found it necessary to build an addition to this structure, and
in 1928 another addition was constructed, so that at the present
time the school has 40,000 square feet of floor space. Because
of the able manner in which it has been conducted and the high
standard which has always been maintained by Professor
Coulter the school has prospered greatly, and is now one of the
leading institutions of its kind in the country, having an average
of from 700 to 800 students annually, and employing a teaching
staff of fifteen able and experienced instructors. Its curriculum
includes all of the regular branches, fitting its graduates to
take well salaried positions in business life and equipping them
in a modern and capable manner to meet and solve the problems
of business life and self-support. Professor Coulter is greatly
interested in civic aflTairs, but makes his home in the country on
a farm located five miles from Roanoke, where the family enjoy
the rural existence, and where he conducts a model dairy farm
with Holstein cattle. He is a member of the Presbyterian
Church and of the Board of Deacons thereof, and fraternally
is a York Rite Mason and a member of the Mystic Shrine. He
is a stanch Democrat in his political views, but has not cared
for public office.
In 1902 Professor Coulter was united in marriage with Miss
Mary Elva Keedick, who was born at Mount Vernon, Iowa, and
educated at Cornell College in that community, and taught in
the same schools where her husband was an instructor. To this
union there have been born two children : Dorothy Viola, who
attended high school at Roanoke, spent one year at the National
Business College and two years at Hollins College, and is now
completing her education at Columbia University, New York ;
and Murray Keedick, who is attending'high school at Roanoke.
Hon. Martin A. Hutchinson, secretary of the Common-
wealth of Virginia, is truly a self-made young man, and through
his own efforts, aided by the inspiration and helpfulness of his
father and mother, has achieved his present success in life.
While he has strong personal political influence at Richmond
and throughout Virginia, he may justly take pride in the fact
that his elevation to the important position he now holds is
due solely to merit and as a reward for faithful and efficient
service rendered, and not to the weight of this influence. As the
Richmond-Times Dispatch said editorially in part of his ap-
pointment:
"Prompt elevation of Martin A. Hutchinson from chief clerk
to secretary of the Commonwealth augurs well for the future
appointments to be made by Governor Harry F. Byrd under the
governmental reorganization plan adopted by the extra session
of the General Assembly. Without permitting politics to enter
into the selection of a successor of the late Colonel B. 0. James,
the Governor made an appointment which was a recognition of
services rendered and an implied promise that faithful work
will be rewarded in other departments.
"While one of the youngest men to occupy such an important
post as secretary of the Commonwealth, Mr. Hutchinson is well
qualified to perform the duties. He first came into the service
of the State as assistant to James M. Hayes, Jr., then chief clerk
• to Colonel James. He soon had a fine grasp of the duties of the
5— VOL. 3
94 VIRGINIA
office, and on the elevation of Mr. Hayes to the post of Motor
Vehicle Commissioner, Mr. Hutchinson stepped into his shoes.
"As chief clerk Mr. Hutchinson has been carrying the bur-
den of the office for many months, owing to the physical condi-
tion of Colonel James, who could give little more than a cursory
supervision of the work. In addition to the many duties of the
office Mr. Hutchinson has found time to reorganize the Land
Office, where untold history lies concealed in musty documents
long forgotten. He holds the position of secretary to the State
Democratic Committee, which he has filled with credit for
several years."
Martin A. Hutchinson was born near Newport, Giles County,
Virginia, September 13, 1892, a son of Daniel Mason and Theresa
Viola (Jones) Hutchinson. The mother passed away in March,
1928. Mr. Hutchinson, Sr., still makes his home at Newport,
Giles County. The Hutchinsons are of Scotch-Irish ancestry,
the sturdy race that, migrating from Pennsylvania, founded and
continued to maintain the forces of civilization in the Appala-
chian region of Virginia and the Carolinas.
For many years Daniel Mason Hutchinson was a country
school teacher, and he is a man of scholarship, a fine type of
citizen whose concern for the home, the church, the school and
the state develops and maintains the truly Christian and civilized
community. The home life of the Hutchinsons has been always
ideal, and this ideal has been transmitted to the rising genera-
tion. The paternal grandfather of Mr. Hutchinson of this re-
view was George W. Hutchinson, of Craig County, Virginia, a
man of genuine prominence and great influence in his day. The
maternal uncle of Secretary Hutchinson, the late Judge P. V.
Jones, of Newcastle, Craig County, Virginia, was for several
years judge of the Court of Craig County, and widely known in
public life. Both the Hutchinson and Jones families in fact have
been for many years very active factors in the public affairs of
the Old Dominion.
Growing up in his native community, Martin A. Hutchinson
attended the graded and high schools of Newport, after which
he took a thorough commercial training in the Roanoke, Vir-
ginia, Business College. Following his graduation from the
last named institution he entered the employ of the Bank of
Pembroke, Giles County, Virginia. While with this bank he was
appointed deputy county treasurer of Giles County, and was
serving in both capacities when his career was interrupted by
the call of his country, and he resigned from both to enter the
service for the World war. He took his training in the Officers
Training Camp, Fort Humphreys, Virginia, and was still sta-
tioned thei-e when the armistice was declared. Honorably dis-
charged from the army, he returned to Newport and civilian life.
In 1920 through the efforts of Governor Trinkle, then a mem-
ber of the Virginia State Senate, he was appointed to a clerk-
ship. During the regular session of 1922 and the extra session
of 1923 Mr. Hutchinson had the honor of serving as clerk of
the Virginia Senate. Following this service he was appointed to
a position in the office of the late Col. B. 0. James, first as assist-
ant to the chief clerk and later as chief clerk, and finally, after
the death of Colonel James, he was appointed secretary of the
commonwealth, as already stated. As may be gathered from the
editorial quoted above, this appointment met with general
approval, for Mr. Hutchinson is a young man who has proven his
"^..
Zlu^c^^^
VIRGINIA 95
worth in whatever he has undertaken. He has not only ability,
but initiative, and has never been content to rest upon the mere
performance of the duties assigned him, but is ever reaching out
for more opportunities for service, and a man is never doing
better service than when he is trying to raise the standards of
commercial or political morality. The condition of political
morality is especially important, for its influence works down-
ward through all the grades of society, and a country that is
corrupt at the top cannot expect to be better at the bottom.
Public service means that every department of public life shall
be conducted in the best possible manner for the welfare of
the largest number, and to accomplish this and to inspire others
to follow his example Mr. Hutchinson is devoting his time, his
ability and his whole heart.
Mr. Hutchinson married Miss Mary Estelle Givens, of Craig
County, Virginia, and they have a daughter, Madge Givens
Hutchinson. Mr. Hutchinson belongs to Newport Lodge No.
261, A. F. and A. M. He is a consistent member of the Metho-
dist Episcopal Church, South. An ardent Democrat, he has
given his party loyal support, and is serving it as secretary of
the State Executive Committee.
On December 20, 1927, Mr. Hutchinson passed the bar exam-
ination and is now qualified to practice law. In order to do this
he studied at night, and he has gained the reputation of being
specially conversant with election laws, on which he is con-
sidered an expert. His office handles all such cases, and he is
therefore well qualified.
Waller Jameson, M. D. The opportunities in medicine are
are attractive to a certain type of man to whom they give an
occupation in which he can use all the intellectual energy and
faculties he has. It requires technical skill based on scientific
knowledge to be a physician, but, unlike many scientific pursuits,
does not take a man out of contact with the everyday world. On
the contrary it puts him in contact with men in an unusually
intimate way, appealing to the man who is interested in his fel-
lows and who has an altruistic bent. Finally it gives him an
honorable opening to make a living. The material rewards of
medicine, however, never were and are not now commensurate
with those of other vocations equally exacting and responsible.
But the rewards, if not large, are dependable, and the conscien-
tious practitioner has also the gratification that comes from
a sense of social service and from the esteem and gratitude of
those he serves. Such facts as the above apply directly to Dr.
Waller Jameson, one of the able physicians and surgeons of
Roanoke, a man of the highest standing, and a member of one
of the old and honored families of Virginia. He was born in
Lynchburg, Campbell County, Virginia, April 15, 1878, a son of
Morton Clifford and Marie Frances (Ferguson) Jameson, na-
tives of Stafford County and Franklin County, Virginia, respec-
tively, both of whom are now deceased. For thirty-five years
prior to his death in 1903 the father was connected with the
Norfolk & Western Railroad, and rose to be its comptroller. The
mother died in 1892, having borne her husband seven children,
five of whom are living, and of them all Doctor Jameson is the
youngest. The father was an Episcopalian, and a vestryman of
the church. High in Masonry, he was advanced through all of
the bodies of the Scottish Rite and to the thirty-second degree.
96 VIRGINIA
A strong Democrat, he worked hard for his party, and at one
time was city collector of taxes in Lynchburg.
Doctor Jameson had the advantage of attending the excellent
public schools of Philadelphia, where his father lived for twelve
years, and he took his preliminary medical course in Randolph-
Macon College, and his regular medical training in the Uni-
versity of Virginia, being graduated therefrom in 1903, with
the degree Doctor of Medicine. For a year thereafter he was
abroad studying in the East London General Hospital and the
Rotunda Hospital, Dublin, Ireland. Returning to Virginia, he
established himself in practice in Roanoke in 1905, and here he
has since carried on a general practice, building up a large con-
nection and winning and holding the confidence and affectionate
respect of all with whom he is associated.
In 1905 Doctor Jameson married Miss Frances Chalmers,
who was born in Lafayette, Kentucky, and educated in the
public schools of Danville, Chatham, and in Chatham Institute.
There are no children. Doctor and Mrs. Jameson have long been
members of Saint John's Episcopal Church of Roanoke. While
in college he made Sigma Chi, Pi Mu, the Tilka Club and the
Thirteen Club, an honorary organization. He maintains mem-
bership with the Roanoke County Medical Society, the Virginia
State Medical Society, the Tri-State Medical Society and the
American Medical Association, and the Shenandoah Club of
Roanoke, Virginia.
Joseph A. Rucker, M. D. has a professional record in Bed-
ford County covering a third of a century. He is an able doctor,
and had likewise made himself indispensable as a citizen of his
community.
Doctor Rucker was born in Bedford County, June 27, 1871,
son of M. p. and Sallie Fannie (Parker) Rucker. The Rucker
family came from France, and some of his ancestors were
soldiers in the Revolution. His grandfather Anthony Rucker
was a farmer in Bedford County. The maternal grandfather
Joseph Parker was both a farmer and local Baptist Preacher.
M. p. Rucker was born in Bedford County, spent his life as a
farmer except for the four years he was a soldier in the Con-
federate Army and died in 1926. His wife was educated in the
Roanoke Institute at Danville and died February 4, 1924. They
were the parents of six children : Annie M., wife of William
Southerland of Franklin County; David H. and William P.,
farmers and merchants in Bedford County ; Dr. Joseph A. ; Dr.
M. P., a physician at Bedford ; and Sallie Margaret wife of Ira
P. Dixon of Covington, Virginia. Doctor Rucker's father was
a Methodist and his mother a Baptist, both being active in their
Church. He served for a number of years as superintendent of
the Sunday school, and was also on the School Board and a
justice of the peace.
Joseph A. Rucker was educated in the Sunnyside School near
Bedford, the New London Academy, the University of Virginia
where he began to study medicine and in 1893 graduated from
the University of Louisville. For eighteen months he practiced
and then returned to Bedford, where he has carried on his pro-
fessional work thirty-three years. He is local surgeon for the
Norfolk & Western Railway, physician to the Elks National
Home and physician to the Randolph-Macon Academy, while
the rest of his time is taken up with his duties as a general
VIRGINIA 97
practitioner. He is now County Healtii Officer of Bedford
County and for twenty years was secretary and has also served
as president of the Bedford County Medical Society. He is a
member of the Medical Society of Virginia and the American
Medical Association. Doctor Rucker is a director of the Citizens
National Bank of Bedford, is Independent in politics, is Past
Master of Liberty Lodge of Masons at Bedford, past district
deputy grand master of the B. P. 0. Elks at Lynchburg.
He married in 1901, Miss Eliza Cauthorn, a native of Bed-
ford, where her father Dr. George Cauthorn practiced medicine
for many years. She was educated in the Belmont Seminary at
Bedford. Doctor and Mrs. Rucker have four children : Joseph
A. Junior, member of the class of 1928 and William Vincent,
member of the class of 1929 in Washington and Lee University
at Lexington ; Ambrose A. and Virginia Browning, twins, both
attending public school at Bedford. Doctor Rucker is a deacon
in the Baptist Church and teaches an adult class of fifty mem-
bers. This is a very brief statement of the principal activities
and services of one of the best known citizens of Bedford County.
Walter A. Fitzpatrick is a Bedford City banker, a native
of Bedford County, grew up on a farm, has contrived his own
opportunities and has made an important success of his career.
He was born on a farm in Bedford County in 1865, son of
Hiram A. and Lucinda (Preston) Fitzpatrick, his father a
native of Buckingham County and his mother of Bedford
County. Hiram Fitzpatrick was a tanner and harness maker,
and during the war between the North and South employed the
resources of his business in making leather for the Confederate
government. He served as a justice of the peace, was a Demo-
crat and a member of the Methodist Church, while his first wife,
who died in 1868, was a Baptist. She was the mother of five
children, the two now living being Walter A. and Mrs. J. S.
Saunders. By a second marriage there was a son, Burke Fitz-
patrick, who is now an instructor in the State Teachers College
at Radford, Virginia.
Walter A. Fitzpatrick while a boy attended one of the old
Field schools in Bedford County, continuing his education in
the Hales Ford College in Franklin County, and spent one
session at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute at Blacksburg. Mr.
Fitzpatrick in 1886, at the age of twenty-one, began clerking
at Bedford in the Liberty Woolen Mills. He was there three
years, for one year was employed in the county clerk's oilice,
and one year with a commission house at Lynchburg. He
returned to Bedford to become an employee of the Bedford
branch of the Lynchburg Trust & Savings Bank. From that
time to the present his best energies have been devoted to the
banking business. In 1901 when the Peoples Bank was organ-
ized he was made its cashier. In 1919 this bank became the
Peoples National Bank, and for the past five years Mr. Fitz-
patrick has been the active vice president of the institution. He
has other business interests in Bedford and conducts an insur-
ance business.
He married in 1893, Mamie Turner, who was born in Bed-
ford County and was educated there and at Lynchburg, and
taught school for a time. Her father, ]Milton J. Turner, was a
well known resident of Bedford County. Mrs. Fitzpatrick died
in 1896. In 1907 he married Caroline White of Pittsylvania
County, daughter of B. S. White. Mrs. Fitzpatrick finished her
98 VIRGINIA
education in the Peace Institute at Raleigh, North CaroHna.
She is a member of the Presbyterian Church. He is active in
the Methodist Church at Bedford, being a steward of the church
and has been a regular attendant and worker in the Sunday
school for a number of years.
Martin P. Burks, Jr. In the allotments of human life few
individuals, comparatively, attain to true eminence. It is an
interesting and curious study to note how opportunity waits on
fitness and capacity, so that all at last fill the places for which
they are best qualified. In the profession of law there is no
royal road to promotion. Its high rewards are gained by dili-
gent study and long and tedious attention to elementary prin-
ciples, and are awarded only to those who develop, in the arena
of forensic strife, characters of integrity and moral worth. All
men generally fall into the niches of the elaborate edifice of life
that they are qualified to fill. However "natural selection" may
work in the production of species, there is a wondrous selection
in the sifting out of the fittest from the mass of common mate-
rial that crowds all the avenues of the law. In that most diffi-
cult and perplexing vocation the very occupation of superior
position argues for its possessor solid ability, signal skill, sound
learning and untiring industry. These are characteristics to be
noted in the career of Martin P. Burks, Jr., a leading member of
the Roanoke bar.
Mr. Burks was born April 3, 1882, at Liberty, Virginia, now
Bedford, and is a son of Prof. Martin P. and Roberta (Gambrell)
Burks, natives of Liberty, Virginia. A member of an old and
honored family, Professor Burks was given the best of educa-
tional advantages, and after graduating from Washington and
Lee University at Lexington, Virginia, pursued a law course at
the University of Virginia. For a number of years he was en-
gaged in the practice of his profession at Bedford, this state,
appearing in litigated cases and developing an aptitude and
capacity for forensic practice. Eventually, in 1899, he was
called to a professorship at Washington and Lee University,
where he was a member of the faculty of this noted institution
for many years. He was accounted one of the best legists in
the state and one who had no superior as an instructor of young
lawyers.
Martin P. Burks the younger seems to have inherited his
father's predilection and ability for the law and was given every
opportunity to develop his talents. He attended Randolph-
Macon Academy and the Episcopal High School at Alexandria,
Virginia, for two years, following which he completed his prepa-
rations at Washington and Lee University and graduated in
1905 with the degree Bachelor of Law. Mr. Burks commenced
the practice of his calling at Christianburg, Virginia, but after
a short time went to Bristol and later to Big Stone Gap, subse-
quently returning to Bristol. Eventually, in 1912, he settled
permanently at Roanoke, where he has since been engaged in a
general practice, his present offices being located in the Boxley
Building. He has attained a recognized position in his profes-
sion, and is a member of the Roanoke City Bar Association.
While at the Episcopal High School he was a member of the
debating society, and also of the Sigma Chi fraternity while at
Washington and Lee University. He became a charter member
of the Loyal Order of Moose at Roanoke when that order was
established at this place, and has a number of civic and o+her
VIRGINIA 99
connections. In politics Mr. Burks is a Democrat, but has pre-
ferred to devote himself to his profession rather than to the
doubtful honors of public hfe or the constant bickerings and
struggles of political activities. With his family he belongs to
Christ Church, Episcopal.
On February 4, 1908, Mr. Burks was united in marriage with
Miss Laura French Mangum Oglesby, who was born'in North
Carolina and educated at Randolph-Macon Woman's College, and
tau<i:ht school for two years prior to her marriage. To this
union there were born four children: Martin P. Ill, a student at
Washington and Lee University; Albert Oglesby,. who graduated
from high school in 1929; Laura French Mangum, who is at-
tending school; and Edward Calohill, who commenced school in
the fall of 1927. ■ •
Thomas Fraser, who died at Richmond March 10, 1925,
was prominent not only in that city but over the state as a doctor
of veterinary medicine, and in the course of his long experience
in private practice he did much to improve the standards of the
profession throughout the state.
He was of pure Scotch ancestry on both sides and was born
in Inverness, Scotland, June 2, 1864. His father was Robert
Fraser, and he was the second son in a family of six children.
His early education was acquired in Inverness, Scotland, and
several years later he came to America and located at Richmond
in 1886, entering a partnership with Mr. F. Finlayson in the
latter's blacksmith shop. He was made a member of the firm
of Finlayson and Fraser, and when Mr. Finlayson died Mr.
Fraser continued the business, finally' selling it to his brother,
who died in 1926. In the meantime Thomas Fraser turned his
attention to veterinary medicine and in 1901 was graduated
from the Veterinary College of Toronto, Canada. From that
date until his death he carried oil an extensive practice with
headquarters at Richmond, and during that time he served as
secretary of the Virginia State Veterinary Medical Association,
and was also a member of the legislative committee of the State
Board of Examiners. Doctor Fraser was an interested student
of Masonry, served as master of Amity Lodge No. 76, A. F. and
A. M., and was a thirty-second degree Scottish Rite Mason and
Shriner. He and his family were Presbyterians.
He married, August 8, 1888, Miss Jessie Anderson Rankine,
who was reared and educated in Lanark, Scotland. She was the
seventh of the twelve children of Jahies and Jessie (Anderson)
Rankine. Mrs. Fraser survives her husband and resides at
2623 Hanover Avenue in Richmond.
Robert T. Hubard. Virginia attorney, is a residen,t of Salem,
and has served consecutively for over three terms as common-
wealth attorney of Roanoke County.
He was born at Lynchburg, Virginia, July 7, 1881,, son of
Rev. E. W. and Julia L. (Taylor) Hubard. His father was
born on a plantation in Buckingham, Virginia, in 1841. and when
about twenty years of age he enrolled in the Buckingham Troop
of the Fourth Virginia Cavalry. He was wounded early in his
service and was unable to rejoin his command until 1863. After
the war he studied in the Episcopal Seminary, was ordained in
1868, and for nearly half a century was active in the ministry,
serving pastorates in Fincastle, Brandon, Lynchburg, Washing-
100 VIRGINIA
ton, Salem, and at Owensboro, Kentucky. He died August 8,
1915. He was a member of the Masonic Lodge at Lynchburg.
Rev. E. W. Hubard, whose father was R. T. Hubard, married
Julia L. Taylor, who was born in Caroline County, Virginia,
daughter of Henry Taylor, a Virginia planter. She died Novem-
ber 16, 1918, at the age of seventy-six. They had three chil-
dren : Julia T., deceased, E. B. Hubard, a civil and mining engi-
neer at Livingston, Montana, and Robert T.
Robert T. Hubard, who has never married, was educated
under his parents and also in private schools at Salem, gradu-
ated in 1901 with the A. B. degree from Roanoke College, and
took his law course at the University of Virginia, graduating in
1907. During the four years between his college course and
entering law school he worked in the oil fields of West Virginia.
Mr. Hubard since 1907 has practiced law at Salem. In 1914 he
was appointed to fill out an unexpired term as commonwealth
attorney, and since then has been elected for three successive
terms.
During the World war Mr. Hubard was United States appeal
agent. He has interested himself in various movements for
public improvement, particularly education and good roads. He
is a past master of the Masonic Lodge, member of the Independ-
ent Order of Odd Fellows, and a Democrat in politics. His
church home is St. Paul's Episcopal Church at Salem.
Charles Hilton Weber has become one of the prominent
figures in connection with public utility service in Virginia,
maintains his executive headquarters in the City of Richmond,
and here he served as division manager of the Chesapeake &
Potomac Telephone Company from 1913 until May, 1927, when
he was advanced to his present office, that of vice-president.
Mr. Weber is a representative of one of the old and influen-
tial citizens of Baltimore, Maryland, in which city he was born
January 7, 1879. He is a son of the late August Weber, who
was for many years president of the National Central Bank of
Baltimore, an institution that was founded by his father,
Charles Weber, and in point of continuous identification with
this important line of financial enterprise August Weber held
rank as the oldest banker in Baltimore at the time of his death,
in October, 1926.
The earlier education of Charles H. Weber was acquired in
private schools in his native city and was there advanced by his
attending Baltimore City College and thereafter Marston's Uni-
versity School, he having been graduated from the Marston
School as a member of the class of 1898.
Interesting data relative to the career of Mr. Weber are to be
found in the following extracts from a newspaper article that
appeared at the time of his election to the office of vice presi-
dent of the Chesapeake & Potomac Telephone Company :
"Entering the service of the telephone company as chief
clerk in Baltimore, in 1902, Mr. Weber has progressed steadily
from position to position of increasing importance in the tele-
phone organization. A few months after he was engaged as
chief clerk he was made chief collector, and in 1903 he was
appointed cashier. Shortly after this he was made manager for
the City of Baltimore. Successively Mr. Weber was division
manager, Baltimore district, and then division manager of Mary-
land, when he was transferred to Richmond in 1913. In the
fourteen years that Mr. Weber has been in charge of the tele-
VIRGINIA 101
phone matters in Virginia he has seen the company make sub-
stantial gains in telephone growth until today the system serves
every section of the state. When he came to Virginia in 1913
there were only 45,000 telephones connected with the system.
Today the Chesapeake & Potomac Telephone Company of Vir-
ginia serves about 130,000 stations.
"Besides being a director of the Petersburg Telephone Com-
pany at Petersburg and the Intermountain Telephone Company,
whose headquarters are at Bristol, Tennessee, Mr. Weber is con-
nected with a number of important financial organizations in
Virginia. Principal among these are the Richmond Trust Com-
pany, of which he is a director, and the Richmond Trust Building
Corporation, of which he is president."
In Virginia's capital city Mr. Weber has proven himself a
most loyal and progressive citizen and man of affairs, and he is
here actively identified with various civic and social organiza-
tions of representative order. He is a member of the Board of
Governors of the Westmoreland Club, and has membership also
in the Commonwealth Club and the Country Club of Virginia.
On April 11, 1908, in New York City, occurred the marriage
of Mr. Weber and Miss Gladys Vereen McNair, daughter of Col.
John Taylor and Mary Charlton (Strathy) McNair, of South
Carolina.
Rev. Francis H. Scott, pastor of the First Christian Church
of Roanoke, is one of the eloquent and scholarly divines of his
communion, and a man whose zeal in behalf of his Master may
be gleaned from the fact that ever since he was eleven years old
he has steadily worked to become a minister of the Gospel and
to remain faithful to his obligations. From one charge to an-
other he has ascended in the importance of his labors until to-
day he is ministering to a membership of 1,000 souls, and en-
joying the warm support of his community in his efforts to
better existing conditions. Rev. Mr. Scott was born in Essex
County, Virginia, a son of Francis and Kate (Ware) Scott, na-
tives of Virginia, he born in King William County, and she in
Essex County. For many years he was a merchant at Dunns-
ville, Virginia, and a consistent member of the Bapti.st Church,
but she was a member of the Christian Church. One of the
leading Masons of his locality, he held membership in Arling-
ton Lodge, A. F. and A. M., of Essex County. The following
children were born to him and his wife: Anne Elizabeth, who
married R. R. Rice, of Richmond, manager of the Slive .store:
Reverend Scott, who is the second in order of birth: Jeanette
Latane. who married E. M. Lewis, a son of Dr. Frank Lewis,
superintendent of education of Lancaster County, Virginia, and
himself cashier of the Chesapeake Bank of Lively, Virginia; and
Katherine Holt, who married J. P. Warren, of Richmond, con-
nected with the Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad. The paternal
grandfather of Reverend Scott was Rev. Azariah Francis Scott,
a Baptist minister for a long period. The maternal grand-
father was Robert Ware, a native of Essex County, and a farmer
upon an extensive scale.
Reverend Scott attended the local .schools of his native county
and Johnson Bible College at Knoxville, Tennessee, and he com-
pleted his theological education in Lynchburg College, where he
took special studies, but he returned to Knoxville for his degree,
which he received in 1907. His first charge was that of assistant
to Dr. Peter Ainslie, of Baltimore, Maryland, and during his
102 VIRGINIA
association with that outstanding figure in the church of the
Disciples of Christ he advanced considerably. After ten useful
years spent in Baltimore he came to Roanoke, October 1, 1917,
to take charge of his present church. Under his inspirational
leadership this church has made rapid progress, and has a mem-
bership of over 1,000.
On January 30, 1917, Reverend Scott married Imogene
Welck, born in Hagerstown, Maryland, and educated in an ex-
cellent private school of that city. Two children have been
born of this marriage: Francis H. Scott III, and Kathryn Vir-
ginia Scott. Rev. Mr. Scott is one of the valued members of the
Kiwanis Club and is now (1928) its president. During the
past ten years he has been reaching many people outside his
church through the medium of his lectures, the favorite one of
which, "An Evening in Dixie," he has given 250 times, and it is
still in great demand. He is president of the Virginia State
Conventon of Disciples of Christ, and a member of the Board of
Managers of the United Christian Missionary Society. During
1928 he served as president of the Roanoke Ministerial Associa-
tion. It is not easy to overestimate the value of the work of a
man like Reverend Scott, for it is so far-reaching and compre-
hensive in its scope and effect. Deeply imbued with the spirit
of his sacred calling, he never spares himself, but works con-
tinuously to convert sinners and to keep Christians who are try-
ing to live according to their vows in the straight and narrow
path. In all that he undertakes his upright honorable life is
an example others would do well to emulate, and Roanoke can
well consider itself fortunate in having him in its midst.
John W. McCauley. Roanoke has no more brilliant young
attorney than John W. McCauley, nor a man who devotes more
time and attention to his professional duties, and therefore his
undoubted success is not so remarkable. A very ardent Demo-
crat, he has received recognition at the hands of his party's
leaders, and in 1927 was nominated on the regular Democratic
ticket for the office of state representative from Roanoke
County. Mr. McCauley was born in Sweetwater, Texas, March
21, 1900, a son of Claud and Ora May (Ward) McCauley, both
natives of Tennessee, who were taken to Texas in childhood.
In addition to being engaged in the practice of law in Sweet-
water, in which he has attained to distinction, the father is a
banker. Two children have been born to him and his wife,
namely: John W., whose name heads this review; and Ray, a
Texas rancher, residing in San Antonio. The parents belong to
the Christian Church, in which they are very prominent. He is
a Mason and a Democrat, and at one time served as district
attorney of his county. His father, Jefferson McCauley, a native
of Tennessee, founded the family in Texas not long after the
close of the war between the states, in which he served as a
Confederate soldier, and received a serious wound in action,
but recovered and spent his life in farming. The maternal
grandfather, John W. Ward, went to Texas at an early day, and
as he was a man of large means had many interests, the most
of them centered in Waco.
John W. McCauley was graduated from high school in San
Antonio, and from the Virginia Military Institute, Lexington,
Virginia, in 1917, after which he studied law at home and was
admitted to the bar in 1921. For one year he was assistant
professor of mathematics in the Virginia Military Institute, and
VIRGINIA 103
at the same time was captain of infantry assigned to that insti-
tution during- the World war, being honorably discharged there-
from in the early part of 1919. Upon his admission to the bar
in 1921 Mr. McCauley entered upon the active practice of his
profession in Roanoke, in partnership with Bruce Hunt, but a
year later the firm of Woodrum, McCauley & Parsons came into
existence as successor to Woodrum & McCauley.
On June 7, 1919, Mr. McCauley married Elisabeth Sayers,
born in Wytheville, Virginia, where she attended school, but
she completed her education at The Castle, New York. She is
a daughter of Dr. W. S. Sayers, a retired physician residing in
Roanoke. Mr. and Mrs. McCauley have two sons, William
Sayers McCauley, who was born May 27, 1921, and Claud Ward
McCauley, born February 22, 1928. Mr. McCauley belongs to the
Christian Church, and Mrs. McCauley to Saint John's Episcopal
Church. High in Masonry, he has been advanced through both
the Scottish and York Rites, and he also belongs to the Mystic
Shrine. He is a member of the Knights of Pythias, the Benevo-
lent and Protective Order of Elks, the Loyal Order of Moose and
the Woodmen of the World. As a lawyer he is a prodigious
worker and he is making a most enviable record. Recognition
of his standing has been given by his appointment to the staff
of Governor Byard.
George E. Markley. The advent of George E. Markley at
Roanoke in 1884 was not a pai'ticularly auspicious one, as shortly
after his arrival he was overtaken with ill health that caused
him to return to his native Keystone State, but evidently the
community had made a strong and favorable impression upon
the young man who was then just entering upon his career, for
the year 1887 saw him again a resident of the growing city,
ready to take his place among its toilers and to accept such
opportunities as came to his hand. By virtue of the possession
of the homely qualities of industry and determination, overlying
a strong strain of natural ability, he has since made a place for
himself among the substantial and highly respected business
men of the city.
Mr. Markley was born on a farm in Juniata County, Pennsyl-
vania, in January, 1866, and is a son of Samuel and Mary J.
(Harmon) Markley, natives of the same state. Samuel Markley
came of a long line of agricultural stock, and after having
secured a public school education adopted the vocation of his
forefathers and for many years was a tiller of the soil in Penn-
sylvania. In the evening of life, after the death of his wife at
Altoona, Pennsylvania, in 1898, he retired from active pursuits
and moved to Virginia, where he died in 1913. They were con-
sistent members of the Lutheran Church and highly respected
people of their community.
George E. Markley was given the advantages of a public
school education in his native state, where his boyhood and
youth were passed on the home farm. Subsequently he was a
clerk in a grocery store and was employed otherwise until 1884,
at which time he first came to Roanoke. As before mentioned,
not long after his arrival he was taken seriouslv ill and forced
to return to his Pennsylvania home, but in 1887, at the time of
the attainment of his majority, he left the parental roof and
established himself in one of the largest retail grocery busine.sses
in Roanoke with his brother, Chris Marklev. After two vears
104 VIRGINIA
he left this business to accept the position of cashier of the
Traders Loan, Trust and Deposit Company, an institution with
which he continued to be identified for seven years, and in 1896
embarked in the plumbing- business, being at this time the oldest
plumber in point of consecutive years of service at Roanoke.
During the thirty-two years that have followed the business of
George E. Markley & Company, contract plumbers and jobbers,
has grown to be one of the largest in this part of the state and
has built up a reputation for high integrity and straightfor-
ward dealing. Mr. Markley also carries on an extensive roofing
business, and some of the largest contracts for roofing and
plumbing at Roanoke and the surrounding cities have been let
to his concern. He is a Democrat in his political views, but
has been so engrossed in business that politics has played only
a small part in his career. However, as a public spirited citizen
of civic pride he has given of his best in the support of all move-
ments making for progress and advancement, be they civic,
educational or religious. He is a consistent member of the
Lutheran Church, as are the members of his family. Being a
genial and sociable man, and one who enjoys the companionship
of his fellows, he is a popular member of the Country Club
and also a York Rite Mason and Shriner.
In 1894 Mr. Markley was united in marriage with Miss Flora
B. Hooge, of Martinsburg, West Virginia, who was educated at
her native place, a daughter of George H. Hooge, a machinist
in the employ of the Norfolk & Western Railway for many years.
Mr. and Mrs. Markley are the parents of two children: Her-
bert Ryneal, an electrician by trade, who is at present in the
West ; and Margaret Louise, aged fourteen years, who is attend-
ing school.
Charles M. Armes. Among the self-made men of Roanoke
County who by their ability, enterprise and industry have
reached prominence in business life and at the same time have
contributed to the welfare and prosperity of their several com-
munities, one who is well entitled to mention in any hi-story of
Virginia is Charles M. Armes, for many years identified with
the real estate business at Roanoke, but who now confines his
activities to the business of real estate loans. Mr. Armes com-
menced his career when still a lad, and without financial support
or friendly influence has made himself a leading business citizen,
and one who has a number of prominent civic connections.
Charles M. Armes was born in Charlotte County, Virginia,
March 6, 1866, and is a son of John W. and Mary A. (Anderson)
Armes, natives of Prince Edward County, Virginia, both of
whom are now deceased. His father was a railroad man for
many years, and he and Mrs. Armes were faithful members of
the Baptist Church. They were the parents of eight children,
of whom six are living, Charles M. having been the fourth in
order of birth.
Charles M. Armes received his education in the country
schools of Charlotte County, and was only eleven years of age
when he commenced work as a clerk in a small country store.
Although his school attendance was decidedly limited, he has
always made the most of his advantages and opportunities, and
today has a reputation as a man of sound and practical educa-
tion. When he had grown to sturdy young manhood he secured
a position in the railroad service, and was thus employed for a
VIRGINIA 105
number of years, in the meanwhile carefully conserving his
savings. When he gave up railroading he became a bookkeeper
for a wholesale house, but finally, in 1901, embarked in the real
estate business, to which he subsequently added a real estate
loan department. In 1906 Mr. Armes established the Columbia
Savings and Loan Corporation, and in 1917 retired from the
real estate field to give his entire attention to the loan business,
in which he is now engaged, with offices in the Colonial Bank
Building. Mr. Armes has large and important financial inter-
ests at Roanoke and in various other communities and stands
high in the confidence and estimation of his business associates.
In 1916 he established the Evergreen Burial Park, known as
the most beautiful cemetery in the United States, of which
he is the active head, holding the office of treasurer. Recently
Mr. Armes was elected a member of the Board of Trustes of
Roanoke College, and is a member of Green Memorial Methodist
Church. Fraternally he is a member of the Knights of Pythias,
and a York Rite Mason and Shriner, devoting considerable
of his time to the work of the Shrine. Politically a Democrat,
he is active and influential in the ranks of his party, although
not as a seeker for personal preferment or public office. All
public spirited civic movements have received his whole hearted
support and cooperation.
In 1888 Mr. Armes was united in marriage with Miss Belle
Norman, who was born at Mount Airy, North Carolina, but
brought as a child to Virginia, where she received her education.
They have no children.
JONATH.A.N C. Woodson is active head of one of the oldest and
largest organizations for handling real estate in the City of
Lynchburg. Mr. Woodson has been in the real estate business
thirty-five years, and his firm has developed and marketed the
finest residential subdivisions in the community.
Mr. Woodson was born in Appomattox County. Virginia,
January 30, 1853, son of John W. and Mary Elizabeth (Chris-
tian) Woodson. The Woodson family came from Scotland. His
grandfather, Drury W. Woodson, was a planter in Appomattox
County and also a tailor by trade. He married Louisa Hendrick.
John William Woodson was born in 1823, learned the trade of
tailor, taught school in order to complete his education at the
University of Virginia, and after graduating from the Law
School practiced his profession until the Civil war. He entered
the army, was in the Quarterma.ster's Department, and died of
tvphoid fever Julv 4, 1864. His wife. Mary Elizabeth Christian,
was horn in 1827 and died in 1892. Her father, Jonathan
Christian, was a native of Appomattox County. John W. Wood-
son and wife had five children. The three now living are:
Mary Elizabeth, wife of L. D. Isbell, judge of the Relations
Court of Huntington. West Virginia ; Henry P., of Clearwater,
Florida, and Jonathan Christian.
Jonathan Christian Woodson grew up in Appomattox
County, attended the common schools there, and ud to 1877
taught school. On locating in Lynchburg he clerked for a
tobacco firm and was in the tobacco business for about twenty
years. In 1893 he took up real estate, and since 1924 his firm
has also had a department devoted to fire insurance.
Mr. Woodson married in May, 1885, Miss Fannie C. Binford.
a native of Appomattox County. She died in 1887, leaving one
106 VIRGINIA
son, John William Woodson, who is associated with his father
in the real estate business and was educated at the Lynchburg
High School. He served four years on the Lynchburg City
Council. He married second. Miss Agusta Camm. They have
two sons, Jonathan Christian II and Henry Palmer. Mr. Wood-
son in 1890 married Miss Bennie M. Gipson, a native of Buck-
ingham County. She died in 1911, leaving two sons, Thomas
Gipson and Richard Boatwright. Thomas Gipson was educated
in the Lynchburg High School and Washington and Lee Uni_-
versity, and is with his father, in charge of the insurance de-
partment. Richard Boatwright is now studying public account-
ing at Atlanta. Both sons were in the World war, Thomas G.
in the Ambulance Corps until taken ill, and later joined the
navy on the V. S. S. Pamlico. He was honorably discharged
December 11, 1918. The other son was on transport duty during
the war.
Mr. Woodson and family are members of the Rivermont
Methodist Episcopal Church, South. He is affiliated with the
B. P. 0. Elks and is a Democi'at. The firm of J. C. Woodson &
Company has acted as brokers for city and farm property.
Some years ago they developed the Randolph-Macon Heights
property, the first high class subdivision at Lynchburg, and
later they opened the Peakland Division and also the Rivermont
Subdivision.
Frederick M. Davis. No profession or calling has ever
presented such opportunities for the really capable man as that
of the law, and from its ranks have come the ablest men of the
country. It has always been impossible for any man to rise to
distinction without a thorough preparation, even if self-earned,
and this study and thought naturally develop the reasoning fac-
ulties and broaden the understanding and character so that other
problems are more easily solved as they arise for disposal by
every public spirited citizen, and whenever, as is often the case,
a lawyer becomes interested in business as well he succeeds be-
cause of this professional training. Such training has brought
out in marked degree the varied capabilities of Frederick M.
Davis, able attorney and successful business man of Lynchburg,
well known to the people of his city and county because of his
valuable service as assistant commonwealth attorney in 1924
and 1925.
Frederick M. Davis was born in Lynchburg, February 28,
1893, a son of Micajah Preston and Maud (Mathews) Davis, he
born in Lynchburg and she in Rockingham County, Virginia.
His death occurred November 28, 1925, but she survives and
still resides in Lynchburg. After being graduated from the
Virginia Military Institute the father went into the insurance
business, which he built up to large proportions and through
which he became a well known man all over this part of the
state. He and his wife early united with the Westminster Pres-
byterian Church of which he was an elder at the time of his
death, and he was also a member of the Masonic Order. In
politics he was a Democrat. His father, George D. Davis, was
born in Bedford County, Virginia. The maternal grandfather,
John D. Mathews, was born in Port Republic, Virginia, but for
some years was a jeweler of Aberdeen, Mississippi, but returned
to Virginia, and continued to farm during the remainder of his
life. During the war between the states he was under the com-
mand of Gen. "Stonewall" Jackson. Both the Davis and
4M»^ ^, //^d^
VIRGINIA 107
Mathews families are old and aristocratic ones of the Old
Dominion.
The only son of his parents, Frederick M. Davis was sent to
Washington and Lee University after he was through his high
school work in Lychburg, and he was graduated from that Uni-
versity in 1914. From 1914 to 1915 he was deputy clerk of the
Corporation Court of Lynchburg, Virginia. He returned in 1915
to Washington and Lee University and in 1917 he graduated in
law, but his service in the United States Navy during the World
war as supply officer, with rank of assistant paymaster on board
the U. S. S. Gulf port, prevented his entering upon his practice un-
til 1919. Since then he has resided in Lynchburg, being engaged
in the activities of his profession until the death of his father in
1925 when he took over his father's insurance business, con-
ducting it in association with Norvell N. Holt. Mr. Davis is still
a member of the legal profession. Unmarried, he resides with
his mother. He belongs to the Rivermont Presbyterian Church.
High in Masonry, he has been advanced through the Scottish
Rite to the thirty-second degree. He belongs to Phi Delta Theta,
and Phi Delta Phi, the legal fraternity, and is the national his-
torian of Square and Compass, was president of Washington and
Lee Square, and helped to organize the Square and Compass.
At present he is secretary and treasurer of the Lions Club, of
Lynchburg. He is service officer of the Lynchburg Post No. 16
of the American Legion. He has been scout master of Troop
No. 1 since 1921, and takes a great deal of interest in the Scout
movement.
Mrs. Ellen G. Kidd is the founder of the Pin Money Pickle
Manufacturing Company, and while her home all her life has
been in Richmond both she and her business have been given
national and international recognition. Mrs. Kidd for twenty-
eight years was the only woman member of the Richmond
Chamber of Commerce, and for fifteen years she was a mem-
ber of the Chamber of Commerce of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania,
these being slight tokens of the respect that has been paid her
remarkable achievements as a woman in the field of commerce.
Ellen Gertrude Tompkins was born at Richmond, and her
ancestry includes several notable families. She is a daughter
of Edmund William and Julia Mosby (Burton) Tompkins, and
a granddaughter of Harry and Fanny (Taylor) Tompkins.
Through her mother she is in the sixth generation of descent
from John Taylor, who came from Carlisle, England, and settled
in Virginia. Another ancestor, in the fourth generation, was
Major Day, a member of General Washington's staff in the Revo-
lutionary war. Her father had two second cousins, one of whom
became the wife of Carter Lee, a brother of Gen. Robert E. Lee,
and the other married a sister of General Grant. Mrs. Kidd's
father was at one time city treasurer of Richmond.
The old Tompkins home in Richmond was at 706 East Leigh
Street, and it was m the. kitchen of that home that Ellen Ger-
trude in the years following the Civil war made pickles according
to an old recipe that had long been in the family. An old recipe
like an old violin needs a capable performer to insure a perfect
product, and the millions who have eaten Pin Money Pickles
would pi-obably agree that the quality and flavor are due at least
as much to the skill and artistry of the woman who first gave
her product that name and whose phenomenal ability as a busi-
ness organizer has made possible the continuation of the stand-
108 VIRGINIA
ard of quality on large scale manufacturing, as to the special
virtues of the original recipe.
It is said that Miss Tompkins only yielded after much urging
to sell pickles from the kettle in her own kitchen, and then for
the sake of "pin money," and so she happened upon the fortu-
nate name for the product. She started the business on a very
small scale, using her own kitchen as her plant, about 1872.
The manufacture of Pin Money Pickles at Richmond is an in-
dustry that has been in existence for over half a century, and
throughout its destiny has been carefully guided by Mrs. Ellen
G. Kidd. For several years it was a seasonal occupation, de-
pending upon custom orders. One of the first important orders
she received was from the Pullman Company dining car depart-
ment, for the sum of four hundred dollars. For many years
Pin Money Pickles have been one of the few special brands of
food products served on the standard menus of the Pullman
dining cars, and this alone has made the name and the product
familiar to the traveling public throughout America. Pin
Money Pickles are served in hotels and other fine establishments
in many foreign countries. From the small business that started
in Ellen Tompkin's kitchen the business has been developed
until it utilizes a large seven-story factory in Richmond. Be-
sides this factory there is another monument to the business at
Richmond, the Shenandoah Apartment Building, one of the
largest and most exclusive and luxurious apartment houses in
Virginia. Mrs. Kidd has her own home in that building.
Mrs. Kidd has attended many national conventions of the
Business and Professional Women's Clubs and has served as
vice president and treasurer of the League of Women Voters,
and for over a third of a century she has been on the board of
the Sheltering Arms Hospital. She has traveled extensively
abroad, and many articles have been published concerning this
remarkable Richmond business woman in the foreign as well as
the American press. She is a member of St. James Episcopal
Church, the King's Daughters and Musicians Club. Mrs. Kidd
completed her early education in the Pegram School for Girls
at Richmond.
A source of constant encouragement to her in the early years
of her business as a manufacturer came from her husband, the
late John Boulware Kidd. She had started the manufacture of
pickles on a commercial scale before her marriage, and Mr. Kidd,
an attorney by education, did everything in his power to assist
and build up the business. John Boulware Kidd was born in
King William County, Virginia, February 28, 1836, and died at
Richmond in October, 1910. He was a son of John and Kather-
ine (Boulware) Kidd, of King and Queen County. His mother
was a sister of William Boulware, who was United States min-
ister to Italy under President Tyler. John Kidd was an educator
by profession.
John Boulware Kidd was educated by private tutor, gradu-
ated in law at Columbian College at Georgetown, D. C, but never
practiced the profession. He taught school for some years, and
his chief profession was insurance, which he followed until his
death. He had studied law under Hon. James Lyons. The late
Mr. Kidd was during the Civil war employed in the treasury
department of the Confederate Government. He was a thorough
Greek and Latin scholar.
Mrs. Kidd is the mother of four children. Her daughter
Louise, who is a member of the A. V. P. A., Virginia League of
VIRGINIA 109
Fine Arts, Colonial Daughters of America, a member of the
board of the Sheltering Arms Hospital, the League of Women
Voters, and active in St. James Episcopal Church, is the wife
of E. Henry Meanley. The second daughter, Caroline, married
Thomas J. Foote, of Wilson, North Carolina, and they have three
children, named Henry A., John Boulware and Ellen Tompkins.
The son Leo Miller Kidd married Lydia Hamilton, and the
younger son is Hugh Tompkins Kidd.
William L. Powell, M. D. Many of the biographies ap-
pearing in this publication, illustrating the growth and progress
of the grand Old Dominion State, are those of early settlers or
of the founders of great business enterprises, or of leaders in
public life or in the professions. Such men through the circum-
stances of their coming, or of the period of their connection with
affairs, possess a certain factitious advantage quite apart from
their individual and intrinsic characters. Those following
these, while they may possess equal or greater endowments, are
in a measure overshadowed by the veneration in which men hold
their elders, and are quite submerged in the vaster multitudes
who, in great communities, compete with one another for prom-
inence, crowding every avenue of business and filling every
opening for fame. Nevei'theless, the life of the state cannot be
adequately illustrated without taking into account those who
have assumed the work of their fathers and carried it on with
success quite equal to and often exceeding theirs.
Dr. William L. Powell, a leading member of the Roanoke
County medical profession, belongs to one of the later genera-
tions of citizens. He was born at Winchester, Virginia, August
31, 1876, and is a son of William L. and Eva C. (Magill) Powell,
natives of Virginia, both of whom are deceased. His paternal
grandfather was Humphrey Powell, a native of Loudoun County,
Virginia, who passed his life on a large plantation which he
owned and which was worked by his numerous slaves until the
misfortunes of the war between the states swept away his for-
tunes. W. L. Powell, the father of Dr. William L. Powell, was
born in Virginia and given good educational advantages, includ-
ing a course at the Virginia Military Institute. He took up
civil engineering as a profession and was thus engaged at the
outbreak of the war between the states, when he entered the
Confederate army and was made a captain. Following the close
of that struggle, in which he established an excellent record, he
again applied himself to his profession, in which he won prestige
and success, and was engaged on many important improvements
from Virginia to Florida. He was a Democrat in politics, al-
though he never cared for public office, and his religious faith
was that of the Presbyterian Church, in the work of which
both he and Mrs. Powell were very active. She was a daughter
of Doctor Magill, for many years a prominent physician and sur-
geon of this state, and at one time a pi'ofessor of medicine in
the University of Virginia.
The only child of his parents, William L. Powell received his
early education in Washington and the Miller School in Albe-
marle County, following which he entered the University of
Virginia, from the medical department of which he graduated
with the degree Doctor of Medicine as a member of the class of
1900. For the next six years he was variously occupied in dif-
ferent hospitals at Philadelphia, Cleveland and other cities, and
in 1906 took up his permanent residence at Roanoke. For the
110 VIRGINIA
first two years he was in charge of the Roanoke Hospital, but
since then has been engaged in a general practice, his present
offices being located in the Shenandoah Building. Doctor Powell
makes something of a specialty of surgery, a field in which he
has gained well merited prominence, and is on the surgical staff
of the Roanoke Hospital. He belongs to the Roanoke Medical
Society, of which he formerly was president, the Virginia State
Medical Society, the Southwestern Virginia Medical Society, the
Southern Medical Society and the American Medical Associa-
tion, and attends all possible meetings of these bodies, in addi-
tion to which he has done much post-graduate work in various
cities. He is a close and careful student of his profession and
keeps fully abreast of its various discoveries and inventions.
Doctor Powell is a member of the Alpha Tau Omega fraternity,
the Pi Mu honorary medical fraternity. During the World war
he served for one year in the United States Medical Corps, being
stationed at base hospitals at Philadelphia, Camp Sherman and
Camp Greenleaf. He belongs to the Masons, the Independent
Order of Odd Fellows and the Knights of Pythias, in all of which
he has numerous friends, and his religious connection is with
the Second Presbyterian Church, in which he is a member of the
Board of Deacons. He is a public spirited supporter of all
worthy civic movements and a contributor to charitable and
religious enterprises.
In 1908 Doctor Powell was united in marriage with Miss
Eleanor Kerr, who was born at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and
educated in that city, where she was equipped for employment
as a trained nurse, a vocation which she followed for several
years prior to her marriage. Doctor and Mrs. Powell are the
parents of one son, John Randolph, born in 1911, who is now
attending high school at Roanoke.
Hon. Clifton A. Woodrum. Three generations of the Wood-
rum family have been identified with the practice of law in
Virginia, and all have attained high places in their profession,
as well as in public affairs. It would seem that the present
representative of the family, Hon. Clifton A. Woodrum, had
other plans in his youth, for he studied both pharmacy and
medicine, hut evidently the magnetic pull of hereditary traits
proved too strong. In any case, that he made a wise choice
finally is shown in the fact that he is senior member of one of
the leading law firms of Roanoke, that of Woodrum, McCauley
& Parsons, and is also a leader in public life, being at present
a member of the national House of Representatives as represent-
ative from the Sixth Congressional District of Virginia.
Judge Woodrum was born at Roanoke, April 27, 1887, and
is a son of Robert H. and Anna (Musgrove) Woodrum. His
paternal grandfather, Jordan Woodrum, was born in that part
of Virginia now included in West Virginia, but moved to Salem,
Virginia, where for many years he was engaged successfully in
the practice of law. His son, Robert H. Woodrum, was born in
what is now West Virginia and received good educational
advantages, attending Roanoke College and the law department
of the University of Virginia. For a number of years he was
engaged in the practice of his profession, and was also the
first commonwealth's attorney at Roanoke, but in his declining
years gave up his law practice and turned his attention to com-
mercial pursuits, to which he was devoting his activities at the
time of his demise in 1914. He was a man who was held in high
VIRGINIA 111
esteem throughout the community, and during the period of his
law practice was connected with much important litigation. He
was a Democrat in his political allegiance, and a strong and
active worker in the party, and his religious faith was that of
the Lutheran Church. Mr. Woodrum married Miss Anna Mus-
grove, who was born in Texas, a daughter of Robert Musgrove.
who for many years was a prominent stockman of Sweetwater,
Texas. Mrs. Woodrum, who is now sixty-seven years of age,
survives her husband and I'esides at Roanoke, where she is
active in the work of the Lutheran Church. Four children were
born to Mr. and Mrs. Woodrum: Clifton A., of this review;
Robert J. ; and two who are deceased.
The public schools of Roanoke furnished Clifton A. Wood-
rum with his early educational training, following which he
became a student of pharmacy at the University of Medicine,
Richmond. Eventually he turned his attention to the family
profession of law at the University of Virginia, from which he
was graduated with the degree Bachelor of Laws as a member
of the class of 1908. He was admitted to the bar in the same
year and at once commenced practice at Roanoke, where he is
now senior member of the firm of Woodrum, McCauley & Par-
sons, general practitioners, with offices in the Shenandoah Life
Building. Mr. Woodrum is equally conversant with all branches
of his profession, and therefore has made a specialty of none.
He is accounted a forceful, thorough and well-grounded lawyer,
and bears an excellent reputation among his professional
colleagues. He belongs to the Roanoke City Bar Association,
the Virginia State Bar Association and the American Bar As-
sociation, the Phi Delta Phi law fraternity and the Sigma Chi
fraternity. A Democrat in his political views, Judge Woodrum
long has taken a prominent part in public affairs. He served
as commonwealth's attorney and as judge of the Hustings Court,
and in 1922 was elected to represent the Sixth Congressional
District of Virginia in the national Congress. He was again
elected to this body in 1926, and his work has been of a highly
valuable and constructive character. He has been active and
sincere in his support of all public-spirited measures launched
in his community, and in every way has shown his civic pride
and far sightedness as a citizen. Judge Woodrum is well known
in fraternal circles, being a thirty-third degree Mason, and a
past potentate of Kazim Temple, A. A. 0. N. M. S. ; and a mem-
ber of the Knights of P>i:hias, the Benevolent and Protective
Order of Elks and the Woodmen of the World.
In 1906 Judge Woodrum was united in marriage with Miss
Lena Hancock, who was born at Bedford, Virginia, and educated
in the public schools of that city and at Jeter Institute. To this
union there have been born two children : Clifton A., Jr.,
attending Virginia Military Institute and Martha Anne, in the
graded schools. The family belongs to the Green Methodi-st
Episcopal Church, South.
William B. Harris is active head of one of the largest lum-
ber manufacturing organizations in the Southeast, the Williams
McKeitham Lumber Company of Lynchburg.
Mr. Harris, who has earned a steady succession of promo-
tions and important attainments in the commercial field, was
born in Appomattox County, Virginia, in 1882, son of Tandy and
Reberta Alice (Marks) Harris and grandson of John A. Harris,
112 VIRGINIA
a native of Buckingham County, Virginia, who moved to Appo-
mattox County, where he acquired a farm which, passing from
son to son, has been in the possession of the family for three
generations. Tandy Harris was born in Buckingham County,
was two years of age when the family went to Appomattox
County and he succeeded to the ownership of the old homestead
and lived on it until his death in June, 1927. He was a Confed-
erate soldier, joining the army at the age of fifteen, and served
four years, until the final surrender. The homestead farm
which has been in the family for three generations in Appomat-
tox County is known as Locust Hill. He was a Democrat in poli-
tics and an active member of the Methodist Episcopal Church,
South, serving as superintendent of its Sunday School. His wife,
Alice Marks, was born in Botetourt County, Virginia, and died in
1919. Her father, Hudson Marks, was also born in Botetourt
County. There were six children, three sons and three daugh-
ters, William B. being the oldest son and second child.
William B. Harris attended common schools while a boy on
the home farm, and at the age of eighteen began his business
career with C. I. Johnson, a prominent merchant and lumber-
man. He was in the service of Mr. Johnson for seven years
and then located at Lynchburg and became a stenographer for
the Williams McKeitham Lumber Company. In the consecu-
tive service of this one organization he accepted larger respon-
sibilities until he rose to the presidency of the company. It is
a large manufacturing organization, owning and directing a
number of plants in the two Carolinas and Florida.
Mr. Harris married in January, 1912, Ruby Smith, a native
of Tennessee. Her father, Pryor N. Smith, was at one time
president of the Smith-Briscoe Shoe Company of Lynchburg.
Mr. and Mrs. Harris have twin sons, William Ballard, Junior,
and Robert Smith. The family are members of the Episcopal
Church, and Mr. Harris is affiliated with the Oak Wood and
Piedmont Clubs.
Robert Withers Massie, a lumber dealer at Lynchburg, is a
member of an old Colonial family of Virginia, and has contrib-
uted something to the honorable prestige enjoyed by the family
in this state for several generations.
He was born in Campbell County, Virginia, April 24, 1858,
and grew up in Nelson County. He is a son of Patrick Cabell
and Susan C. (Withers) Massie, a grandson of Dr. Thomas
Massie, a physician and surgeon who was in service in the Ameri-
can forces as a surgeon in the War of 1812. The maternal
grandfather, Robert Walter Withers, was a planter and physi-
cian and married a Miss Alexander. Patrick Cabell Massie was
born in Nelson County, Virginia, and died in 1877. His wife
was born in Campbell County and died in 1903. Of their eight
children two are now living, Robert W. and Mrs. L. P. Brown.
Robert Withers Massie was given good home educational
opportunities and was a student in the Virginia Military Insti-
tute when the death of his father called him home to the respon-
sibilities of the farm and head of the family, since he was the
oldest child. During the next twenty years of his life he gave
his time to the management of the farm, and after his brothers
and sisters were all educated and established for themselves he
located at Lynchburg, in 1897, and since that year has been in
the lumber business. He has made the Massie Lumber Com-
pany, Incorporated, one of the largest manufacturing and whole-
sXu^^A£.^^c^J^-^
VIRGINIA 113
sale organizations in the Southeast, operating mills in South
Carolina and three mills in Virginia. Mr. Massie is president of
the lumber company. He is also a director of the First National
Bank of Lynchburg.
He married, in 1885, Miss Mattie W. W. Manson, who was
born in Bedford County, Virginia, daughter of Nathaniel C.
Manson, a Lynchburg attorney. They have three children.
Robert W. Junior, who was educated in the Virginia Military
Institute, is associated with his father's lumber business. By
his marriage to Wayatt McKinnon, of Red Springs, North Caro-
lina, he has one son, R. W. III. N. C. M. Massie, the second son,
a business man at Glasgow, Virginia, married Agnes Minne-
garode. Martha W. is at home.
Mr. Massie and family are members of Saint Paul's Epis-
copal Church at Lynchburg. He belongs to the Sigma Nu col-
lege fraternity, is a Democrat, and is president of the Board of
Visitors of Virginia Institute. For three years he was elected
president of the Order of the Cincinnati. He has membership in
this organization, made up originally of former officers of the
Revolutonary war, because of the service of his great-grand-
father, Major Thomas Massie, who served with the rank of
major in the war for independence and was in service from the
beginning until the final surrender at Yorktown. He was given
a large grant of land for his military services, and that land was
located near Chilicothe, Ohio, where the Massies were one of the
most conspicuous families in the early political history of that
state.
Ira H. Hurt, M. D. One of the brilliant young physicians
and surgeons of Roanoke who has already achieved distinction
in his profession, Dr. Ira H. Hurt, holds the confidence of the
public and the commendation of his associates because of the
able manner in which he discharges the heavy responsibilities
of his calling. Both by inclination and intensive training is he
fitted for his work, and while giving it every possible attention,
he does not neglect his obligations as a good citizen, and few
men stand better than he. Doctor Hurt was born in Franklin
County, Virginia, October 21, 1890, a son of Henry A. and Julia
(Huff) Hurt, natives of Virginia, he born in Franklin County
and she in Floyd County. The mother is deceased, but the
father survives and is now living in Roanoke. Formerly he was
a farmer, but after he came to Roanoke he worked in the car
shops for several years, later going into the bus business, and
finally becoming a grocer, in which line of business he is now
engaged. Of the seven children born to the parents six survive,
and of them all Doctor Hurt was the first born. All her life
the mother was an active member of the Baptist Church, to
which the father belongs, and he is also a Mason. In political
faith he is a Democrat. His father, Ira Hurt, was also a native
of Franklin County, Virginia, and at one time he was one of its
wealthiest men, and a very extensive planter. The Methodist
Episcopal Church. South, had in him a devout member. The
maternal grandfather, Isaac Huff, was born in Virginia, and he,
too, was a large landowner and planter.
Doctor Hurt attended the public schools of Roanoke, and
following his graduation from the high school course, had a year
of work in Roanoke College, after which he took two vears in
the Medical College of the University of North Carolina. He
114 VIRGINIA
was graduated from Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania, in 1919, and interned for one year in the Presby-
terian Hospital of the same city. In 1920 he established himself
in general practice in Roanoke, where he has since remained
with admirable results. In addition to his private practice Doc-
tor Hurt is an assistant at the Shenandoah Hospital.
In 1923 Doctor Hurt married Miss Edith Jackson, born in
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and there educated. She was a
trained nurse, in practice. One child has been born to Doctor
and Mrs. Hurt, Phyllis Julia, born December 23, 1925. Doctor
Hurt belongs to the Melrose Baptist Church, and he is a York
Rite and Shriner Mason, and belongs to the Benevolent and Pro-
tective Order of Elks. For several years he has taken an active
part in the work of the Roanoke Chamber of Commerce. He
belongs to the Roanoke Academy of Medicine, the Virginia State
Medical Society and the American Medical Association. During
the World war he was in the Students Army Training Corps,
and he now holds the rank of captain in the Medical Corps of
the Virginia National Guard and the Officers Reserve Corps,
U. S. A. He is commanding the Medical Detachment of the Two
Hundred and Forty-sixth Coast Artillery, and attends its en-
campment every year. From the above brief review can be
gathered the fact that Doctor Hurt measures up to the highest
ideals of his profession and good citizenship, and that his future
stretches out very bright before him.
Hon. Robert C. Jackson. For more than forty-six years
Hon. Robert C. Jackson has been a member of the Virginia bar,
and during the past two decades has been engaged in practice at
Roanoke. For a large part of his career he has been the in-
cumbent of positions of honor and trust, and at present is city
attorney of Roanoke, an office in which he has discharged his
duties with marked ability and conscientiousness. It has been
his fortune to have attained well merited distinction in his pro-
fession, and to have been identified with many important move-
ments that have contributed to the civic and general welfare.
Judge Jackson was born December 26, 1861, at Austinville,
Wythe County, Virginia, and is a son of Thomas and Amanda
(Porter) Jackson, and a grandson of Samuel Porter, a native of
Wythe County, where the family was prominent for many years,
its members for the greater part being planters. Thomas Jack-
son was born in England and came to the United States in young
manhood, settling in Wythe County, where he spent the remain-
der of his life in agricultural pursuits. He and his wife, who
was born in Wythe County, were the parents of seven children,
of whom six are living, Robert C. being the youngest. Two of
the sons were soldiers of the Confederacy during the war be-
tween the states: Samuel, who resides in Kansas, and John C,
of Galax, Grayson County, this state. The parents were faith-
ful members of the Methodist church.
Robert C. Jackson acquired his early education in the public
schools of Wythe County, and was graduated from Emory and
Henry College, Emory, Virginia, as a member of the class of
1879, receiving the degree Bachelor of Arts. He then entered
the University of Virginia, where he spent three years, and in
1882 was graduated with the degree Bachelor of Laws. Com-
mencing practice in Grayson County, he was elected county
judge when he was only twenty-two years of age, and held that
VIRGINIA 115
office for four years. When he resigned from that office he was
elected commonwealth's attorney, in which capacity he acted for
a like period, and continued to practice in Grayson County until
1896, when he moved to Wytheville. That community continued
to be the scene of his professional labors until 1898, when he was
elected judge of the Twenty-first Judicial Circuit, comprising
the counties of Wythe, Pulaski, Giles, Carroll, Bland and Taze-
well. Judge Jackson could have held this office indefinitely had
he so desired, but resigned and moved to Roanoke County in
1908, where he has since made his home, his present offices
being in the Shenandoah Life Building. He carries on a gen-
eral practice and has attained to a high position in his profession,
being the legal representative of a large and important clientage.
In addition to his private practice he has served for several
years in the capacity of city attorney. He is a member of the
Roanoke County Bar Association, the Virginia State Bar Asso-
ciation and the American Bar Association, and has been a mem-
ber of the Masonic fraternity for many years, having passed
through the chairs of the York Rite. He likewise has been
active in civic affairs and politics, and is a leading member of
Trinity Methodist Episcopal Church, South, in which he is a
steward and has been a Sunday School teacher for thirty years.
Judge Jackson married, in 1886, Miss Lelia Dickinson, who
was born in Grayson County, Virginia, and to this union there
were born three children: Hurd, who resides in the West; Eliza-
beth, who married a Mr. Anderson and resides in New Jersey ;
and Lelia, who married John Dechert, a resident of Harrison-
burg, Virginia. The mother of these children died in 1893 and
Mr. Jackson married, in 1900, Miss Marian R. Early, of Hills-
ville, Carroll County, Virginia, and has one .son, Ralph, who re-
sides in Florida.
Charles G. Craddock. Lessons are daily brought home to
us ; tuition is ours for the asking in the various fields of human
endeavor ; we need no school or instructors to show us in which
direction we must lay the course of our energies to gain position
and success. It is true that study is needed, but the careers of
the men who have tried and have attained furnish better instruc-
tion than can be gained through any other line. One of these
lessons is that a real man does not allow himself to know that the
word "quit" has found a place in our dictionary, our vocabulary
or our personality. We may take a case in this connection and
illustrate our point. Charles G. Craddock, president of the
Craddock-Terry Company, has worked his way up in his present
company from his initial position of clerk to that of president,
and his thoughtful interest in other persons and things and his
genial social qualities have well earned him the confidence and
high esteem in which he is held by all who know him.
Charles G. Craddock was born in Lynchburg, Virginia, No-
vember 17, 1890, a son of John W. Craddock, a sketch of whom
appears elsewhere in this work. Reared in his native city,
Charles G. Craddock attended its graded and high schools and
the Episcopal High School of Virginia, Alexandria, and had one
year in the University of Virginia and another year in the
University of Pennsylvania.
With the completion of his educational training Mr. Craddock
entered the auditing department of his present company, and
has steadily risen until today he is its president, which office he
has held since 1924. Under his wise and aggresive administra-
6— VOL. 3
116 VIRGINIA
tion the volume of business has expanded, while at the same
time the quality of the product has been maintained, and today
the company has a very high rating both commercially and in-
dustrially.
In 1916 Mr. Craddock married Miss Katharine Baker, born in
Lynchburg, a daughter of Dr. W. H. Baker, the first eye, ear,
nose and throat specialist of Lynchburg. Mrs. Craddock at-
tended the schools of Lynchburg and Agnes Scott College, and
is a finely educated lady of social graces. Three children have
been born to Mr. and Mrs. Craddock: Eliza Deane Craddock,
Charles G., Junior, and Frank Baker Craddock. Mr. Craddock
is a member of the First Presbyterian Church of Lynchburg,
and one of its most active workers. He belongs to the Delta
Tau Delta Greek letter fraternity, the Rotary Club and the Coun-
try Club, as well as to other organizations of the city. In close
touch with the progress of events he displays a thorough knowl-
edge of public and business conditions, and brings it to bear in
his skillful and systematic conduct of his affairs. From the
start he has shown an appreciation of those traits of character
which insure safe and sound business processes, and not only
has endeavored to develop them in himself, but to surround
himself with others who possess them, and because of this and
other reasons already enumerated has kept his concern in the
forefront of progress. Such men as he set the pace for others,
and encourage development and expansion along all lines.
David Hampton Kizer is an attorney, has practiced law at
Lynchburg since finishing his course at the University of Vir-
ginia, and has made a good record in his profession and in the
affairs and relationship of a citizen.
He was born in South Carolina, November 12, 1876, son of
Ellis R. and Rosa (Shuler) Kizer, also natives of South Caro-
lina. His mother was a daughter of Oliver Shuler, who was
born in South Carolina and was a planter and slave owner be-
fore the war. The paternal grandparents were David Frederick
and Elizabeth (Jackson) Kizer, the latter of whom died Janu-
ary 9, 1928, in her native State of South Carolina at the age of
103 years. David F. Kizer was a farmer. He and his wife
reared eleven out of fourteen children, and all of them married
and had sons and daughters. Ellis R. Kizer spent his life as a
farmer, was a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church,
South, the Masonic fraternity and a Democrat in politics. He
was born December 27, 1853, and died October 20, 1913, while
his wife was born in 1854 and died August 4, 1897. They had
a family of ten children.
David Hampton Kizer attended the common schools in South
Carolina, the Carlisle Fitting School at Bamberg, and in 1907
was graduated from the law department of the University of
Virginia, having had several terms of experience as a teacher
before finishing his law course. Mr. Kizer was admitted to the
bar January 11, 1907, and in the same year established his
offices in the Law Building at Lynchburg, where he has been for
twenty years.
Mr. Kizer married, November 15, 1911, Miss Lucille Bullock,
who was born in Russellville, Alabama, and was educated there
and in the State Normal School at Florence, Alabama. She
taught school before her marriage. Five children were born
to their union: D. H. Junior, Shuler Anderson, William Bul-
lock, Mildred Lawler and Charles Walter.
VIRGINIA 117
Mr. Kizer has served as steward of the Methodist Church of
Lynchburg fifteen years, also as superintendent of the Sunday
School and his wife takes an active part in the same church and
its social and charitable agencies. Mr. Kizer is a past master of
Marshall Lodge No. 39, A. F. and A. M., at Lynchburg, member
of Lynchburg Chapter No. 10, Royal Arch Masons, DeMolay
Commandei-y No. 4, Knights Templar, Kazim Temple of the
Mystic Shrine at Roanoke, and is also affiliated with Lynchburg
Lodge No. 17, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, is a past
chancellor of Lynchburg Courtney Lodge No. 11, Knights of
Pythias, and for the past twenty years has been treasurer of
the Knights of Pythias Lodge and is a member of the D. 0. K. K.
He also belongs to the Junior Order of the American Mechanics
and the Improved Order of Red Men, Tribe No. 96. He is a
member of the Piedmont Club, the Delta Chi legal fraternity and
is a Democrat in politics.
John W. Simmerman is an accomplished physician and sur-
geon whose most successful years in his profession have been
spent at Roanoke.
Doctor Simmerman was born at Ivanhoe, Wythe County,
Virginia, February 17, 1887, son of S. S. and Lula (Painter)
Simmerman, natives of the same county. His parents reside at
Wytheville, where his father is a farmer and banker. He is a
Methodist and his wife a Presbyterian, and he belongs to the
B. P. 0. Elks. There were three children : Dr. John W. ; S. S.,
Junior, a farmer at Wytheville; and Elizabeth, wife of C. P.
Huff, a merchant at Pulaski, Virginia.
John W. Simmerman was educated in local schools in Wythe
County, continued his education in the Virginia Polytechnic
Institute at Blacksburg and was graduated in 1911 from the
Maryland Medical College at Baltimore. He had his training
as an interne at the Chesapeake and Ohio Hospital at Richmond
and for two years practiced at McDonalds Mill. Doctor Simmer-
man in 1913 located at Roanoke, and has achieved a very excel-
lent general practice. He is a member of the Roanoke Academy
of Medicine, Medical Society of Virginia, American Medical
Association.
Doctor Simmerman is a director of the Colonial National
Bank of Roanoke and the Peoples Bank of Vinton. He is inter-
ested in community affairs, serving as a member of the School
Board and is a York and Scottish Rite Mason and Shriner, mem-
ber of the Knights of Pythias and its social adjuncts, the D. 0.
K. K. He and his family are members of Saint Peter's Epis-
copal Church.
He married, in 1910, Mae L. Quarles who was born in Hal-
ifax, Virginia. They have two daughters, Mary Louise and Mae
Morrison, both attending school at Roanoke.
Robert T. Lemmon, M. D. Indelibly inscribed on the pages
of the medical history of Campbell County and deeply graven
in the hearts of those who know him is the name and personality
of Dr. Robert T. Lemmon, of Lynchburg, whose modest deport-
ment, kindness of heart and true beneficence mark him as a
gentleman, while his strong intellect and experience directed in
the channels of materia medica have gained for him distinction
among the members of his profession in this part of Virginia.
The salient features in the life of Doctor Lemmon may be
118 VIRGINIA
deduced from the fact that he is beloved by all who know him,
as much in professional circles as by those with whom he comes
in contact in social relations. He has figured for a number of
years as a prominent member of the medical fraternity of
Lynchburg, which has always been distinguished for high rank
in the profession, and he has not shirked his duty as a citizen,
but has responded gladly to whatever calls have been made
upon him.
Doctor Lemmon was born in Campbell County, Virginia,
October 5, 1878, a son of Richard H. and Elizabeth (Maury)
Lemmon, the former of whom was born near Charlottesville,
Virginia, and the latter in Campbell County, and both are now
deceased. The father was also a physician, and was prepared
for professional work in the University of Virginia and the
University of Maryland. Beginning his practice in Charlottes-
ville, he later went to New Orleans, Louisiana, and from that
far away city of the South he came to Lynchburg, and here
he continued in active practice until his death in 1885. He was
one of the old-time physicians, devoted to his profession and
willing to sacrifice everything to it. For many years he was
remembered as the "beloved physician" of Lynchburg, and there
are those still living who were ministered to by him. The excel-
lent wife and mother passed away in 1880, five years before her
husband. After her death Dr. Robert Lemmon was taken into
the home of Robert Massie, and there he was practically reared.
He has one sister, Ann Maury, now the wife of John B. Light-
foot, Jr., of Richmond, an attorney, the two constituting the
children of their parents. The elder Doctor Lemmon was a
Democrat in political faith, but never an office seeker. A man
ahead of his times, he realized the necessity for additional train-
ing and did post-graduate work in Johns Hopkins University,
Baltimore, Maryland. His father, Dr. Robert T. Lemmon, was
also a physician, a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania,
and a general practitioner of Campbell County, so that Doctor
Lemmon of this review is the third in direct descent to practice
medicine in Campbell County. The great-grandfather on the
paternal side was Reverend Lemmon, a minister of the Episcopal
Church. The maternal grandfather, Jesse L. Maury, was born
in Albermarle County, Virginia, and in addition to extensive
operations as a farmer he built Piedmont, Virginia, and lived
to be ninety-two years old.
Doctor Lemmon, of whom we write, first attended the Cleve-
land High School and that at Woodbury Forest. Still later he
attended Kenmore High School, and in 1898 he entered the
University of Virginia, and was graduated therefrom in 1902,
with the degree of Doctor of Medicine. Going then to Norfolk,
he was the first to serve as interne in the Sarah Lee Hospital of
that city, and while there he took a six-months course in the
New York Polyclinic Hospital. From there he went to Saint
Joseph Hospital, Baltimore, Maryland. Entering the Medical
Reserve Corps of the United States Army, he served as a first
lieutenant in it for eight years, and for two years was in the
Philippines. In January, 1913, he came to Lynchburg, and here
he has since been engaged in practice, building up very wide
connections in the city and county. While he carries on a gen-
eral practice he specializes to a certain extent in genito-urinary
diseases.
On November 5, 1918, Doctor Lemmon married Miss Mary
Bigbie, a native of Lynchburg and a product of its public schools
VIRGINIA 119
and seminary. Two children have been born to Doctor and Mrs.
Lemmon: Robert T., Jr., and Richard H. Mrs. Lemmon be-
longs to the Episcopal Church. He is a member of Phi Kappa
Psi, the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, the Campbell
County Medical Society, the Virginia State Medical Society and
the American Medical Association, and at one time he served
the county medical society as secretary. Doctor Lemmon is a
man who possesses depths of feeling, of purpose, of high resolve,
that lead, when occasion demands, to virile action, and his
associates know that he will devote time and energy to plan for
and accomplish that which is best in civic life.
William C. Stephenson. In the broad and intricate field
of insurance success is the portion only of those who possess
certain qualifications and characteristics. Contrary to ordinary
belief, insurance is a highly specialized business, and its devotees
must be men of sound character, keen knowledge of human na-
ture, self confidence and untiring persistence. Diplomacy and
tact are desirable concomitants, and above all the insurance man
must be thoroughly conversant with his subject in its every de-
tail, be able to "think on his feet" and one ready instantaneously
to grasp an opportunity. Of the men who have possessed the
above characteristics and through their use have gained success,
one of the best known at Roanoke is William C. Stephenson, who
is also widely known in other business activities, particularly
those identified with the coal industry and with finance.
/Mr. Stephengon was born July 13, 1872, at East Brady,
Clarion County, cPennsylvania, and is a son of James B. and
Katherine G. "(Cowell) Stephenson. His father, who was born
in- New Jersey, became identified with the coal business at an
early age, and was- a pioneer in the Pocahontas fields of West
Virginia, where' he- opened the fifth.-mine in this field at Bram-
well, West Virginia. He eventually secured large and impor-
tant interests and was one of the leading men in the trade at
the time of his' demi^, which occurred at Roanoke, where he
maintained offices for many years. He was a member of the
Masonic fraternity and. the Benevolent and Protective Order
of Elks, and in his political convictions was a Republican. He
belonged to the Methodist Episcopal Church, while Mrs. Stephen-
son, who was born in Pennsylvania, held membership in the
Presbyterian Churcl;?,jin -the work of which she was very active.
.They became the parents of five children, of whom three are
living; William C;. of thisireview; H. L., a manufacturer of
Buffalo, New York; and N$lt' J., wife of Dr. J. O. Boyd, of
Roanoke, Virginia;..'-: i. •:■
The early educa^on af William C. Stephenson was acquired
in the public- schools of his- native county, following which he
pursued a course at the Clarion State Normal School. His first
Employment wa-s-with the Second National Bank of Pittsburgh,
Pennsylvania. In 1893 ihe located at Roanoke, where he became
interested in the various big business operations of his father.
He now maintainsi well appointed offices at 112 Kirk Avenue,
South West, and has a large and appreciative patronage which
extends to all parts of the city and the surrounding countryside.
Few men are better kno\vn^to the coal trade of the city and
state, and he is now president and treasurer of the Buckeye Coal
and Coke Company. He is also vice president of the firm of
Davis & Stephenson, Jneorporated, and a director in the First
National Exchange Bank of Roanoke and the Virginia Bridge
120 VIRGINIA
and Iron Company, all of which concerns have profited mate-
rially by his ability, judgment and acumen. In his political
views Mr. Stephenson is a stanch Republican, but has no desire
for public office. However, few citizens are more public spirited
or have contributed in greater degree to the welfare of their city
by their constructive support of worth while measures. He has
long been prominent as a York and Scottish Rite Mason, and
served as hig-h priest of his Chapter and eminent commander of
his Commandery at the same time, in addition to which on an-
other occasion he was grand commander of the state. With his
family he belongs to Christ Episcopal Church.
In 1899 Mr. Stephenson was united in marriage with Miss
Elizabeth M. Greenland, who was born in Clarion County, Penn-
sylvania, and educated at Wilson College, Chambersburg, Penn-
sylvania. To this union there have been born four children : Wil-
liam C, Jr., a medical student at the University of Virginia;
Walter G., a traveling salesman for Castner, Currant & Bullitt,
Incorporated; James B. II, and Richard C, attending school.
H. Herbert Harris has given the best years of his life to
the commercial interests of the City of Lynchburg, where under
his experienced hand the Harris-Woodson Company, of which
he is president, has become one of the largest manufacturing
and wholesale confectionery firms in the South.
Mr. Harris was born at Charlottesville, Virginia, October 1,
1869, son of Henry Herbert and Emma (Bibb) Harris. His
paternal grandparents, Henry and Susan (Hart) Harris, were
residents of Louisa County, Henry Harris being a farmer and
planter.
Henry Herbert Harris, a scholar and educator, for many
years identified with Richmond College, was born in Louisa
County December 17, 1836. Much of his early education was
acquired from an older sister, a very gifted woman. He was
graduated from the University of Virginia, and when the Civil
war came on he served with the Engineering Corps. After the
war he taught in a female seminary at Charlottesville, and left
that to become professor of Greek in Richmond College, a chair
he filled for twenty-nine years, and part of the time was also
professor of modern languages and philosophy. He was an in-
spiring teacher, and hundreds of graduates of Richmond College
have a most grateful memory for not only his scholarship and
learning, but for his kindly and generous character. He was a
member of the Baptist Church and for many years taught a
Bible class in the Grace Street Baptist Church at Richmond.
He resigned his position at Richmond College in 1895 to become
identified with the Baptist Theological Seminary at Louisville.
He died February 4, 1897, at Lynchburg and was buried in
Hollywood Cemetery at Richmond.
He married, November 26, 1862, Miss Emma Bibb, daugh-
ter of William A. Bibb, of Charlottesville, William A. Bibb was a
merchant and clerk of court. Professor Harris had six chil-
dren : William A., who succeeded his father as professor of
Greek at Richmond College, and has been with that institution a
quarter of a century, having been educated in the college under
his father and also at Johns Hopkins University. The second
son is H. Herbert, of Lynchburg. Janet is the wife of R. E.
Gaines, professor of mathematics at the University of Richmond.
Dr. George T. Harris is a Lynchburg physician. Isabelle is a
graduate of Richmond College and Columbia University, and
VIRGINIA 121
is teaching mathematics in the West Hampton School at Rich-
mond. The youngest of the family, Emma, married James H.
Hancock, a coal operator at Lynchburg.
H. Herbert Harris was reared in Richmond, attended the
McGuire Boys School, and graduated A. B. from Richmond
College in 1888. For three years he clerked in a wholesale
grocery store at Richmond, for two years was in the brokerage
business, and removing to Lynchburg was with a wholesale
grocery company there until 1901. In 1901 he established the
Harris-Woodson Company, candy manufacturers, and during
the past quarter of a century this has become one of the impor-
tant commercial institutions of Lynchburg. The company main-
tains a force of fourteen traveling salesmen covering Virginia,
West Virginia, Tennessee, North and South Carolina and Geor-
gia, and also distribute a large amount of their confectionery
products through brokers in other places. Mr. Harris is presi-
dent of the company, T. A. Woodson, vice president, and R. A.
Harris, vice president.
Mr. Harris is vice president of the Lynchburg City Savings
and Loan Corporation, vice president of the Guaranty Title and
Bond Corporation, and is a director in the First National Bank,
the Lynchburg Mutual Building and Loan Association, the Pilot
Building and Loan Association and a member of the Board of
Directors of the Atlantic Life Insurance Company, of Richmond.
For many years he has taken an active part in civic affairs.
He is treasurer and member of the board of the Baptist Hos-
pital, the best equipped institution of its kind in the South. He
is former president of the Lynchburg Chamber of Commerce
and Lynchburg Rotary Club, member of the Virginia State
Chamber of Commerce, is a member of the City School Board,
and is a deacon in the Rivermont Baptist Church and superin-
tendent of its Sunday School and chairman of the church build-
ing committee. Mr. Harris has membership in the United Com-
mercial Travelers, the Beta Theta Pi college fraternity, and is a
Democrat.
He married, October 25, 1902, Miss Annie Adams, a native
of Lynchburg. They have three children. The son, Richard
Adams Harris, was educated in the Episcopal High School at
Alexandria, the University of Virginia, where he was a member
of the Alpha Tau Omega fraternity, and is now vice president
of the Harris- Woodson Company. He married Martha Latham,
of Richmond, daughter of Rev. J. N. Latham, a Methodist min-
ister, and has one son, Richard A., Jr. The two daughters of
Mr. and Mrs. Harris are Annie Scott and Emma Maxwell Har-
ris, who were educated in the Mary Baldwin Seminary at Staun-
ton and Dana Hall at Wellesley, Massachusetts.
James V. Ramos, Jr., was a Richmond pharmacist, and a well
known member of a well known family in Virginia.
He was boi'n at Richmond in September, 1854, and died in
that city July 8, 1901. His father, Jose Ramos, came from the
Azores Islands to Richmond, and married in that city Maria
Kirby, a native of Virginia. Of their six children one was
Miss Essie Ramos, a graduate of the Richmond Woman's Col-
lege and a well known educator who taught for many years
in the Richmond High School.
James V. Ramos, Jr., attended Richmond College and com-
pleted his course in pharmacy in the Medical College of Vir-
ginia. For a time he was employed by the Polk Miller Com-
122 VIRGINIA
pany and in 1881 engaged in the drug business at 8 Main Street
under the firm name of Thornbury and Ramos, and it was one
of the leading drug stores of the city for ten years. For a brief
time before his death he had been interested in a drug business
at Norfolk. Mr. Ramos practically all his life was a member of
the Second Baptist Church of Richmond.
Mr. Ramos was survived by Mrs. Ramos and three children.
Mrs. Lutie Page Ramos, whose home is at 2018 Gi'ove Avenue,
has in her ancestry some of the distinguished family names of
old Virginia. Mr. Ramos and Miss Lutie Page were married
January 8, 1884, at the St. James Hotel in Richmond, in the
presence of her father. Major John M. Page, then on his death-
bed, it having been his expressed wish and determination that
the ceremony should take place before his death. They were
married by Rev. Dr. James G. Armstrong, of the Episcopal
Church, assisted by Rev. William W. Landrum, of the Baptist
denomination, and Rev. J. W. Bledsoe. Major John M. Page,
who died at the age of fifty years, was born in Campbell County,
Virginia, and early in the war between the states became a first
lieutenant in the Scottsville Greys commanded by Gen. James C.
Hill. His company became a part of the Forty-sixth Virginia
Regiment of Infantry in Wise's Brigade. He was made adju-
tant of the regiment and was conspicuous for his coolness and
courage as well as for his qualities as a drill master. After the
war he lived at Charlottesville, and several years before his
death became proprietor of the St. James Hotel at Richmond.
He was a member of the Charlottesville Lodge of Masons.
Major John M. Page married Lucy Maria Flanagan, and they
were the parents of six children : William Louis, John Leonard,
cashier of the Peoples Bank of Charlottesville ; James, who mar-
ried Jennie Frazier and had three children, named Almira, John
Leonard and Martha; Thomas L. ; Fannie L. ; and Mrs. Luttie
Page Ramos.
Through her mother Mrs. Ramos is a descendant of the
Payne and Flanagan families. George P. Payne, who died in
December, 1744, was a justice of Goochland County in 1729-33,
was sheriff of the county, 1734-37. He married Mary Woodson,
daughter of Robert and Elizabeth (Feris) Woodson, and grand-
daughter of Doctor John Woodson, who came from England to
Virginia in 1619. A son of George P. Payne was Josias Payne,
born October 30, 1705, and died in 1785. He was a member of
the House of Burgesses from Goochland County during several
sessions, from 1761 to 1765. He married Anna Fleming, daugh-
ter of Tarleton Fleming, Sr. Their son, William Payne, born
February 10, 1732, and died March 2, 1822, married Mary Bar-
rett, and of their nine children one was Col. James Payne, born
April 2, 1762. Col. James Payne married Frances Dix, and the
fourth among their eight children was Frances M. Payne.
Frances M. Payne, born February 8, 1791, and died Decem-
ber 14, 1873, became the wife of Capt. William Flanagan, of
Fluvanna County. Their daughter, Lucy Maria Flanagan, born
February 1, 1830, was the mother of Mrs. Ramos. William
Payne, the great-great-grandfather of Mrs. Ramos, was com-
missioned a first lieutenant in Virginia troops March 22, 1776.
Capt. William Flanagan was captain of Buford's Company of
Militia in the War of 1812.
Of the three children of Mrs. Ramos the oldest is John Page,
who married Pattie Haskins, of Mecklenburg County, and their
two children are John Page, Jr., and Nathaniel Haskins. The
VIRGINIA 123
daughter Maria Vieria, now Mrs. W. R. Jones, is a graduate of
Miss Coleman's School of Richmond. The third child is Jose
Berrian Ramos.
The records of the Pension Bureau at Washington supply
some further information concerning Captain Flanagan. He
enlisted October 28, 1814, and was in service until January 13,
1815. His application for a pension was allowed January 18,
1872, when he was ninety years of age. He was born in Louisa
County, Virginia, son of James Flanagan, whose first wife was
Phoebe Simpson, and his second wife was the widow Mary
Bowles Johnson. William Flanagan married in December, 1809,
Sarah Curd Johnson, who died May 10, 1859, and his second
wife was Anne E. Hughson, daughter of James and Mary
Hughson.
Edward Roberts Johnson, president of the Roanoke Securi-
ties Corporation, has made his home at Roanoke almost continu-
ously since he was fifteen years of age, at which time his father,
the late Lucius E. Johnson, located at Roanoke to begin a service
of more than twenty years as general superintendent and after-
wards as general manager and president of the Norfolk & West-
ern Railway Company. In transportation, industrial and finan-
cial affairs hardly any name in the present century has been
accorded more prestige in Virginia than that of Johnson.
Lucius E. Johnson was born at Aurora, Illinois, April 13,
1846, son of J. Spencer and Eliza (Brown) Johnson. He was
educated in public schools, served during the concluding months
of the Civil war in Company C, One Hundred and Thirty-second
Illinois Infantry, and in 1866 was working as a locomotive fire-
man, with headquarters at Aurora, the division point of the
Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railway. He was with that com-
pany, vdth headquarters at Aurora, for twenty years, rising to
the position of master mechanic. In 1886 he was made superin-
tendent of the Saint Louis Division of the Burlington System,
two years later became superintendent of the Chicago Division,
from 1890 to 1893 was superintendent of the Montana Central
Railway, and from 1893 to 1897, superintendent of the Michigan
Division of the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern, New York
Central Lines, located at Toledo, Ohio.
On July 10, 1897, Lucius E. Johnson became a resident of
Roanoke, having been called to the important responsibilities
of the office of general superintendent of the Norfolk & Western,
which at that time was in its formative stage of development as
one of the great industrial railway systems of the East. As a
practical railroad executive no man impressed his abilities more
thoroughly on this system than Lucius E. Johnson. In 1899 he
became vice president and general manager, on October 1, 1903,
was elected president of the company, and on resigning that
office January 1, 1918, was chosen chairman of the Board of
Directors. From June 1, 1918, until March 1, 1920, during the
United States Railroad administration, he was again president
of the corporation, after which he resumed his post as chaii-man
of the Board of Directors. Lucius E. Johnson died February 11,
1921.
An appreciation of what he did as a railroad man, particu-
larly for the Norfolk & Western, is contained in the following
paragraph : "Mr. Johnson came to the Norfolk & Western with
a splendid reputation as a practical railroad executive. That
124 VIRGINIA
reputation was greatly enhanced during his management of
the Norfolk & Western. His administration wrought a great
improvement in physical condition, increase of equipment, and
betterment of its general transportation facilities and service.
His mastery of the many technical problems involved in railroad
operation enabled him to devise and put in force plans that
placed every department in position to meet the requirements of
a traffic, the continued growth of which has been one of the most
remarkable in the railroad history of the country. An important
direct result of this efficient management was the improvement
of the financial status of the Norfolk & Western from year to
year until its stock came to be regarded as one of the best rail-
road securities in the United States. The Norfolk & Western
was rendering efficient service not only from the technical
operating standpoint, but as head of the company Mr. Johnson
succeeded in developing a most cordial feeling between the
public and the railway management, this factor of good-will
being hardly less valuable to a transportation company than the
more tangible asset."
Lucius E. Johnson married, April 10, 1869, Miss Ella Parker,
of Aurora, Illinois, and they both lived to celebrate their golden
wedding anniversary. The two sons of the marriage were
George P. and Edward Roberts Johnson.
Edward Roberts Johnson was born at Aurora, Illinois, Sep-
tember 10, 1882, and acquired his early education in public
schools in that city, in Helena and Great Falls, Montana, at
Toledo, Ohio, and after coming to Roanoke was a student in the
Allegheny Institute of that city. He had a thorough technical
education in Purdue University at Lafayette, Indiana. After
his university career he was with the traffic department of the
Norfolk & Western Railway at Suffolk, Virginia, resigning to
engage in the coal business. From 1906 to 1910 he was vice
president of the H. T. Wilson Coal Company at Detroit, and
from 1911 to 1913 was president of the Borderland Coal Sales
Company of Cincinnati. He became general manager of the
Virginia Supply Company at Roanoke in 1914, and in 1917 was
elected president of the company. Mr. Johnson is identified
with other important interests and is a director in the Walker
Machine and Foundry Company, the Securities Insurance Cor-
poration and the Johnson-Carper Furniture Company. He served
as president of the Roanoke Rotary Club from July 1, 1927, to
June 30, 1928. He was president of the Roanoke Chamber of
Commerce for 1928.
On account of his experience as a practical traffic man he
was in a position to render special service of great value to the
Government during the World war. On May 20, 1918, he was
appointed fuel expert. Quartermaster Corps, as a dollar a year
man; June 25, 1918, was commissioned captain. Quartermaster
Corps, in charge of coal procurement branch, raw materials
division; August 1, 1918, was made executive officer, raw ma-
terials division; October 17, 1918, was commissioned major.
Quartermaster Corps ; December 14, 1918, was made chief, raw
materials division ; and was given his honorable discharge
April 3, 1919. In the early months of the war he was employed
under the auspices of the Young Men's Christian Association
War Council at Atlanta, Georgia, and Camp Lee, Virginia.
Mr. Johnson organized in 1921 Johnson, Brown and Com-
pany, which subsequently became the Roanoke Securities Corpo-
VIRGINIA 125
ration, of which he has since been president. He is also a direc-
tor of the National Exchange Bank of Roanoke. Mr. Johnson
is a Republican, member of the Phi Delta Theta college fra-
ternity, is a Royal Arch, Council and Knight Templar York Rite
Mason, also a Scottish Rite IMason and Shriner. He is a member
of the Shenandoah Club, Roanoke Country Club, has served on
the Official Board of the Greene Memorial Methodist Church and
as president of the Roanoke Y. M. C. A.
He married at Toledo, Ohio, January 16, 1905, Miss Edith
Grace Carson, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. C. F. Carson. They
have two children, Lucius C. and Ruth Johnson.
Rev. William Fred Locke is a gifted minister of the Method-
ist Episcopal Church, South, known and loved in many commu-
nities, not only in Virginia but in Maryland and elsewhere.
His present pastorate is the Green Memorial Church at
Roanoke, Virginia. Rev. Mr. Locke was born at Charles Town,
West Virginia, in 1865, son of Thomas and Esther (Locke)
Locke. Both parents were natives of Virginia and his father
was a merchant and later a farmer. They were members of
the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, and the father was a
Democrat and a Mason. Of their eight children one son, Wil-.
liam S., was killed at Ashland during the Civil war. Three are
now living: Dr. T. F. Locke, a dentist at Woodstock, Virginia;
Mrs. Sudie E. Lloyd, of Charles Town, West Virginia; and Wil-
liam F.
William F. Locke attended the Charles Town High School,
continued his education in an academy conducted by Captain
Cabell, and was also under the instruction of his brother, Austin
M. Locke, a graduate of the University of Virginia. At an
early age he began his studies preparatory for the ministry and
was ordained in 1892. His first church was in the Springfield
Circuit. For three years he was pastor at Piedmont, West Vir-
ginia, for two years had charge of St. James Church at Roanoke,
and for four years was at Washington, D. C, with the Marvin
Church. He was pastor three years at Front Royal, at Rock-
ville, Maryland, at Mount Vernon Place Church in Washington
three years, spent four years at IMartinsburg, West Virginia,
four years at Lexington, Virginia, six years in Baltimore, and
five years at Fredericksburg, Virginia, and in October, 1927.
was assigned pastoral duties with the Green Memorial Church
at Roanoke, Virginia.
Rev. Mr. Locke married, in 1893, Daise E. Jamesson, who
was born at Westernport, Maryland, and was educated in the
Western Female Institute at Staunton, Virginia. They have one
daughter, Dorothy Jamesson.
Rev. Mr. Locke is a York Rite Mason and Shriner, being a
past master of the lodge at Front Royal. He also belongs to
the B. P. 0. Elks, is a Rotarian and a member of the Kiwanis
Club.
William F. Lawrence in his business career belonged to the
Richmond of both ante-bellum as well as post-bellum times. He
was one of the noteworthy men of his generation, and among
other services to his credit was his record as a soldier of the
Confederacy.
He was born in Henrico County July 4, 1830, and died at
Richmond December 28. 1908, at the age of seventy-eight. His
parents were William and Susanne (Ford) Lawrence, his father
126 VIRGINIA
having been identified with planting and farming in Henrico
County.
William F. Lawrence, oldest son of his parents, was educated
in schools in Henrico County, grew up on a farm and plantation,
and worked there until he took up a business career at Rich-
mond. As a clerk he learned the grocery trade, and about 1858
engaged in the business on his own account. He left this when
the war broke out and had three years of service with the Vir-
ginia troops, serving in a regiment of cavalry.
At the close of the war he returned to Richmond and re-
opened a grocery store at Graham and Broad streets. At that
time Richmond was under military rule, and he did an extensive
business with the Northern soldiers who were camped in Monroe
Park, across the street from his store. About 1874 he retired
from merchandising, and gave his chief attention to the owner-
ship and management of valuable parcels of real estate he
owned in the business district, much of it on Broad Street, his
keen knowledge in values bringing him a substantial fortune.
He was always a Democrat in politics but never sought political
preferment.
Mr. Lawrence first married Virginia Schumaker, who died
in 1885, leaving no children. On March 6, 1895, he married
Arlie R. Taylor, who survives him and resides at 22 North
Boulevard. Mrs. Lawrence is a daughter of W. T. and Julia R.
(Ford) Taylor. Her father was an early day merchant in
Richmond, conducting a general store. Mrs. Lawrence was the
oldest child of her parents. Her brother, W. T. Taylor, became
a Richmond merchant and married Hattie Bowles. Her sister
Kate Jane is now Mrs. C. M. Waldrop. Her brother Charles L.
is deceased. Mrs. Lawrence's father served as a courier in the
Confederate army and was once wounded in action.
Mrs. Lawrence became the mother of four children, the old-
est, William F., being now deceased. Henry J. is a graduate of
the University of Virginia and a successful architect at Hous-
ton, Texas; he married Helen Brook. Virginia C. Lawrence is
the wife of J. C. Watson, secretary and treasurer of the Fire and
Marine Insurance Company of Virginia, and has a daughter,
Jeanne. Walter L. Lawrence, an employe of the State of Vir-
ginia, married Louise Boschen, daughter of Louis Boschen, a
former member of the Virginia House of Delegates.
John E. Topping both as a Doctor of Dental Surgery and as
a business man and citizen has made himself a popular and
prominent factor in the citizenship of Roanoke.
Doctor Topping was born in Middlesex County, Virginia, in
1886, son of F. E. and Mary F. (Purcell) Topping, both natives
of the same county, and grandson of Edward Topping and John
Purcell, likewise natives of Middlesex County and farmers and
planters of that region. Doctor Topping's parents both died in
1925. His father was a substantial farmer and for twelve
years held the office of sheriff of Middlesex County. They were
members of the Baptist Church and he belonged to the Ma-
sonic fraternity.
John E. Topping was third in a family of five children. He
grew up on the home farm in Middlesex County, attended public
schools there and for three years acted as quartermaster on a
boat on the Chesapeake Bay. He left that to study dentistry,
paying most of his expenses while he studied. He took his
degree of Doctor of Dental Surgery at the Baltimore Medical
C^<^i^&::^.
VIRGINIA 127
College, which is now the Maryland University, in 1913. Doc-
tor Topping for several years practiced at Fincastle and in 1917
located at Roanoke. He performs the general service of a well
trained and capable dentist. In addition he is vice president of
the Rutrough-Gilbert Motor Company, Incorporated, one of the
largest and finest sales and service stations in Southwest Vir-
ginia.
Doctor Topping married, in 1921, Miss Jamie Arline Wilhoit,
who was born in Albemarle County, Virginia, and was educated
at Bedford and in North Carolina and taught before her mar-
riage. Doctor and Mrs. Topping attend the Calvary Baptist
Church. He is a Scottish Rite Mason and Shriner and is direc-
tor of the Degree Team of the Shrine. He belongs to the Xi Si
Psi dental fraternity and the B. P. 0. Elks.
David P. Sites. Strength of purpose, intelligently directed,
results in almost every case in material advancement. The man
who fluctuates from one line of endeavor to another seldom
achieves lasting success. It is the man who, knowing well
what he desires to accomplish, forges ahead, undeterred by
obstacles, undismayed by the chances and changes of life, until
he reaches his ultimate goal. It sometimes happens that in his
enthusiastic endeavors he sacrifices health and strength and is
gathered to his forefathers before his time, but even then in the
brief span of years he has accomplished more than one who is
content to sit still and idly watch the army of workers pass by.
No man can reach heights of prosperity through his own efi'orts
if he shirks duty or seeks to lay upon other shoulders the respon-
sibilities belonging to him. Centers of indu.stry develop men of
large affairs, for competition acts as a stimulus to action and
brings forth the best in a man, and so it is that David P. Sites,
secretary and treasurer of Caldwell-Sites Company, Incorpo-
rated, wholesale and retail booksellers, stationers, paper dealers
and office outfitters, has achieved a solid success in the work for
which he is fitted and to which he has given his attention since
1897, or for more than thirty years.
David P. Sites was born in Rockingham County, Virginia,
April 20, 1870, a son of Henry and Elizabeth (Helbei't) Sites,
both of whom were born in Rockingham County, and are now
deceased. For many years the father was a cabinet maker and
farmer, and worked very successfully at his trade. During the
war between the states he served as a brave and valorous soldier
of the Confederacy. Of the four children born to him and his
wife David P. Sites is the third in order of birth. Both parents
were members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, and
the mother was always active in its good work.
After he had attended the common schools of his native
county David P. Sites became a student of Cedar Grove Semi-
nary and still later of Dunsmore College, Saunton, Virginia. For
a time he worked as a stenographer for the general passenger
agent of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad in Washington, D. C,
until he could get a start, and then, in 1897, coming to Roanoke,
established a wholesale and retail book and stationery store,
which from somewhat small beginnings he has built up to one
of the largest concerns of its kind in this part of the state, and
gives employment to forty people. The business is conducted
under the name of Caldwell-Sites Company, Incorporated, of
which C. R. Caldwell is president and David P. Sites is secretary
128 VIRGINIA
and treasurer. Mr. Sites is the active head of the business, as
Mr. Caldwell is a resident of Staunton.
In 1896 Mr. Sites married Miss Christine Harman, a daugh-
ter of John and Elizabeth Harman. Two children have been
born to Mr. and Mrs. Sites, namely: Elizabeth, who married
Gordon B. Macke, of Washington, D. C, an operator in tobacco;
and Henry G., who is manager of the wholesale paper depart-
ment of his father's company. Mr. Sites is an Episcopalian, and
is serving his church as a vestryman. He belongs to the Roanoke
Rotary Club, of which he is a past president, and served Rotary
International as governor of the Fourth District, consisting of
Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina. He is a member
of the Roanoke Country Club, and he has been president of the
Roanoke Chamber of Commerce and of the Retail Merchants
Association. He was the first president of the Lee Highway
Association that sponsored Lee Highway, the transcontinental
highway from Washington, D. C, to San Diego, California. Dur-
ing the World war he served as chairman of Unessential Indus-
tries in the district and was chairman of Virginia State Smileage
Committee. At present he is a vice president and chairman of
the board of the Mountain Trust Bank, and is on the directorate
of several other banking concerns. Starting out in life as a
poor boy, his advance has been steady and has come as a result
of his own untiring industry and good management. At differ-
ent times he has held the office of chairman of committees
appointed to advance this locality. In fact it would be difficult
to find a man more generally representative of the best interests
of this section of the South than he.
Daniel Robert Hunt. One of the most important offices in
the government of any large and growing municipality is that
of the city commissioner of revenue. This is a post that de-
mands the utmost accuracy, the highest ability and the strictest
integrity in order that the business of the city, as pertaining to
this department, may move with the smoothness of well-oiled
machinery. The City of Roanoke, therefore, is to be congratu-
lated as possessing for the incumbent of this office such an able,
energetic and honorable man as Daniel Robert Hunt, a resident
of the city for thirty-three years, who has held his present office
since 1913, it being a notable fact that he has had no opposition
at the polls during the last four elections.
Mr. Hunt was born October 8, 1876, at Chatham, Pittsylvania
County, Virginia, and is a son of Daniel Robert and Emma
(Mebane) Hunt, the former a native of Pittsylvania County and
the latter of the State of North Carolina. The parents of Mr.
Hunt were both active members of the Presbyterian Church,
and his father, who was a merchant at Chatham for many years,
was a Mason fraternally and a Democrat in his political convic-
tions. There were six children in the family, of whom Daniel
Robert was the fifth in order of birth, and one child is deceased.
Daniel R. Hunt attended the public schools of Henry County
and Ruffner Institute, but was only eleven years of age when he
started to work in a tobacco factory. Following this for two
years he worked on a farm in North Carolina, where he lived
with an elder brother, Frank D. Hunt, a preacher of the Presby-
terian faith. Following this he went to Charlotte, North Caro-
lina, where he was employed on a farm for four years, and in
1895 came to Roanoke, which has since been his home and the
VIRGINIA 129
scene of his unqualified success. At the time of his arrival he
secured a modest position in the general offices of the Norfolk &
Western Railway, and continued with that company for a period
of eighteen years, during which time he rose steadily by reason
of ability, great industry and fidelity until finally he was second
in charge of the claim department of the auditor's office. He
was holding this position in 1913 when he was elected city com-
missioner of revenue, a position which he still retains by virtue
of four reelections, all without opposition in his party. Mr.
Hunt has long been active in local Democratic politics and in
movements which have contributed to the material welfare of
his adopted community. In 1926, with C. H. Morrissett and
J. Vaughan Gary, he was appointed by Governor Byrd to codify
the tax laws of Virginia, this being one of the most progressive
features of Governor Byrd's administration. Mr. Hunt is a
member and elder of the Raleigh Court Presbyterian Church and
teacher of a class in the Sunday School. Fraternally he is a
York and Scottish Rite Mason and Shriner, belongs to the
Knights of Pythias and is a life member of the Benevolent and
Protective Order of Elks. He likewise holds membership in the
Improved Order of Red Men, the Shenandoah Club, the Kiwanis
Club and the Billy Sunday Club, and is a sociable man who en-
joys the companionship of his fellows.
In 1922 Mr. Hunt was united in marriage with Miss Doris
Huff", who was born in Floyd County, Virginia, and educated in
the public schools of Roanoke and at HoUins College, where she,
carried off high honors. Prior to her marriage Mrs. Hunt
taught in the public schools of Roanoke for several years. She
is active in the social life of the city and a helpful member of the
Raleigh Court Presbyterian Church. >
Sylvester K. Bitterman. The wonderful growth in realty
values in Roanoke during the past decade has brought to the
forefront a class of men who for general ability, astuteness and
driving force are unsurpassed in the annals of trade in this sec-
tion. It may be well to say that conditions develop men, but it
is better to say that men bring about conditions. Roanoke owes
what it is today to the men who have had the courage to per-
severe, to act wisely and keep their operations clean in one of
the most difficult fields of endeavor. Each section of the city
can boast of a business man who has been practically its builder,
and in the Church Avenue neighborhood is to be found Sylvester
K. Bitterman, whose name is nearly as familiar as the proverbial
household word. Since 1916 he has been operating in real
estate with remarkable success. Starting out in life a poor
boy, conditions of their own accord did not favor him ; he made
them what he wished them to be.
Sylvester K. Bitterman was born in Pennsylvania, August 1,
1864, a son of John and Harriet (Kehler) Bitterman, both of
whom were born in Pennsylvania, but are now deceased. For
many years the father was engaged in business in the Mahan-
tango Valley, but died in 1865. The mother survived him for
many years, passing away in 1926, aged eighty-four years. They
had two children : Ellsworth, who is living retired in Pennsyl-
vania, and Sylvester K., who is the younger.
The parents were conscientious members of the Evangelical
Church, in which they took an active part, and they were held
in high esteem by all who knew them. The paternal grand-
father was John Bitterman, a native of Germany, who came to
130 VIRGINIA
this country in young manhood, settled in Pennsylvania, and
there, through his industry and thrift, became a prosperous
farmer and highly respected citizen.
Sylvester K. Bitterman was educated in the public schools of
Pennsylvania, and was early taught to work hard and save a
portion of what he earned. His first business life came through
his connection with the butchering industry, first in Pennsyl-
vania and later in McDowell County, West Virginia, and later in
Roanoke, to which latter community he came in 1886. After a
short time spent in the city he went to West Virginia, but re-
turned to Roanoke in 1889, and here he has since remained.
From 1893 to 1916 he was in the retail liquor business, but in the
latter year he went into the real estate field, in which, as already
stated, he has been so strikingly successful.
In 1883 Mr. Bitterman married Miss Sallie E. Umlauf, who
was born in Pennsylvania, and they became the parents of seven
children, of whom five survive, namely : Sylvia, who is unmar-
ried ; Myrtle, who married Henry Scholz, a theatre manager ;
Edna, who married J. C. Johnson, Jr., of Roanoke, chief clerk in
the motor power office; Virdie, who is a student at Beaver Col-
lege, Jenkintown, Pennsylvania; and Margaret, who is also in
the same college. Mr. Bitterman belongs to Christ Episcopal
Church, and is active in church work. He is a life member of
the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks and of the Frater-
nal Order of Eagles. In addition to his extensive real estate
operations and holdings Mr. Bitterman has other interests, and
is a director and vice president of the Roanoke Industrial Loan
Corporation. A man of many charities, he seldom lets the world
know his benefactions, but his kindly heart can never let a case
of destitution go unrelieved. His advice is oftentimes sought,
for his sound judgment and knowledge of men and the motives
which influence them are recognized, and it would be difficult to
find one who is more closely identified with the progress of
events than he.
Charles M. Broun. It is sometimes found that efi'orts die
away and enterprise becomes engulfed in inertia when the in-
dividual gains his desired goal, while, on the other hand, the
chances for successful attainment continually encourage the
exercise of perseverance and energy. In almost every case
those who have reached the highest positions in public confi-
dence and esteem and who are accounted among the most in-
fluential in business and professional lines are those whose lives
have been devoted, without cessation, to deep study and close
application. It is probable that the law has been the main high-
way by which more men of merit have advanced to prominence
and position in the United States than any other road, and it
is not unusual to find among the leading citizens of a community
a legal practitioner. To respond to the call of the law, to devote
every energy in this direction, to broaden and deepen every
highway of knowledge, and finally to enter upon this chosen
career and finds its rewards worth while — such has been the
happy experience of Charles M. Broun, one of the learned legal-
ists practicing at the bar of Roanoke. Mr. Broun has gained
honor and position in his profession through the application of
honesty, energy, perseverance, conscientiousness and self-
reliance, and has kept abreast of his calling in its constant ad-
vancement; but it is not alone as a lawyer that he is known to
VIRGINIA 131
the people of his city, for he has also attained to distinction in
politics, is interested in business enterprises, and, perhaps, best
of all, gives freely of his time and money in promoting religious
and charitable movements.
Charles M. Broun was born in Middleburg, Loudoun County,
Virginia, July 14, 1862, a son of Dr. James Conway and Ann
Rebecca (McCormick) Broun, natives of Virginia, he born in
Loudoun County and she in Clarke County. A physician, Doc-
tor Broun received his professional training in the University
of Virginia, and was engaged in the practice of his calling in
Middleburg and Alexandria, Virginia. During the war between
the states he served in the Confederate army, but, contracting
a cold because of exposure, was stricken and died in 1864, leav-
ing two children, of whom Charles M. Broun is now the only
survivor. He and his wife, also deceased, were members of the
Episcopal Church, and he was a Mason.
First attending the Shenandoah Academy, Charles M. Broun
later became a student of the Kanawha Military Institute,
Charleston, West Virginia, and took his professional training in
the law department of the University of Virginia. His first
experience in legal practice was gained in Berryville, Virginia,
and he continued a resident of that community until 1908, during
which period he steadily advanced in public confidence, and then
came to Koanoke, and, forming the connection he now maintains,
is engaged in a very large practice under the iirm name of Broun
& Price, with offices in the American National Bank Building.
In 1900 Mr. Broun married Miss Elizabeth Rice Page, who
was born in Berryville, Virginia, and there educated. Two chil-
dren have been born of this marriage : Charles Conway, and
Elizabeth Page, the son attending Roanoke College at Salem and
the daughter, a pri\ate school in Roanoke City. Both Mr. and
Mrs. Broun are members of the Episcopal Church, of which he
was a vestryman for many years at Berryville, Virginia. He is
a past master of Treadwell Lodge, A. F. and A. M., of Berry-
ville, and he belongs to Pleasant Lodge, A. F. and A. M., of
Roanoke. Mr. Broun is also a member of the Knights of
Pythias, the Improved Order of Red Men and the Benevolent
and Protective Order of Elks, tiie Roanoke Country Club and the
Shenandoah Club. For some years he served as commonwealth
attorney of Clarke County, being elected on the Democratic
ticket, and after coming to Roanoke he served as president of
the Board of Aiderman and mayor of the city. In fact he has
always been active in the Democratic party, and one of the local
leaders. Several years ago he organized the National Theati-e
Corporation, of which he is president. He is vice president of
the Sun Investment Company and of the Consolidated Ice Com-
panies, and president of the General Finance Small Loan Cor-
poration. While stid living in Berryville he organized the First
National Bank of that town, and was its first president. An-
other enterprise in which he is largely interested is a power plant
near Roanoke for the deve.opment of electric powar, and his
assistance is given to many other undertakings, for he is a man
who believes in encouraging local enterprise, and proves it by
investing his money at home. Beginning life with nothing, all
that he has today has been earned by him in a legitimate way
and his material success has been accompanied by the approval
and warm friendship of all with whom he has been associated.
132 VIRGINIA
John C. Burks, M. D. In noting the representative men
of Roanoke County, a prominent one in medical science is found
in Dr. John C. Burks, able and experienced physician and sur-
geon at Roanoke, where he is director and chief surgeon of St.
Charles Hospital, with which institution he has been identified
for sixteen years. Doctor Burks has reached high place in his
profession, and has won confidence, consideration and esteem
throughout a wide area of his native state.
Dr. John C. Burks was born in 1873, in Rockbridge County,
Virginia, son of Dr. Charles Richard and Frances (Stoner)
Burks, both of whom were born also in Rockbridge County,
where their families had been early settlers and once owners of
large estates. Dr. Charles Richard Burks, whose memory in
Rockbridge County as honorable man and faithful physician is
still preserved although many years have gone by since he
passed away, was born in 1833, in Rockbridge County, Virginia,
where he received his early schooling. As a student of medicine
he spent one year in the Medical College of Virginia, and then
entered Jefferson Medical College at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania,
where he completed his course and from which he was gradu-
ated with his degree. His life was one of faithful devotion to
his profession, both before and after the war between the states,
in which he played no insignificant part, being attached during
the entire period to the command of Gen. James E. Stuart, Con-
federate army, and took part as a cavalryman in the first battle
of Bull Run, and participated later at Chancellorsville and at
Gettysburg. For some years he resided at Buffalo Forge and
then moved to Natural Bridge, where, until his death in 1904,
he carried on a large practice, both local and beyond, the number
of his patients being yearly augmented by tourists from all over
the world who came to view, wonder and admire one of Amer-
ica's most beautiful and picturesque regions. To his marriage
with Miss Frances Stoner, who survived until 1916, four sons
and four daughters were born, John C. being second in order of
birth, and all were reared in the faith of the Methodist Episcopal
Church.
John C. Burks received his early educational training in the
public schools, later attended Fancy Hill Academy, and then,
whether influenced by heredity or not. Doctor Burks is the one
qualified to decide, he needed no urging to enter the Medical
College of Virginia to prepare for a future career. From this
well known institution he was most creditably graduated in
1897, and shortly afterward established himself in medical
practice at Glasgow, Virginia, and practiced there and at Poca-
hontas until 1900, when he came to Roanoke, his object being a
wider field of professional opportunity and the scientific advan-
tages close at hand in a large city.
Doctor Burks' judgment was not at fault. Upon locating at
Roanoke he entered into partnership with Dr. C. G. Cannedy,
with whom he continued until the latter's death in 1908, after
which he operated the Rebecca Hospital until 1912. In the
meanwhile, through further intensive scientific study, together
with attendance on numerous and important clinics in the great
medical centers of the country and Canada, Doctor Burks had
not only kept thoroughly abreast of the times in medical dis-
covery, but had through personal investigation of many hos-
pitals, both great and small, been able to plan satisfactorily the
present St. Charles Hospital at Roanoke, which he built in 1912,
and of which he has been chief surgeon ever since. At that time
Idy^c^
VIRGINIA 133
considered a model institution, later discoveries in mechanics
have been taken advantage of and modern conveniences have
been increased, and perhaps no city hospital of its size in the
state offers better accommodation to the ill and afflicted or more
reasonable expectancy of relief. Doctor Burks maintains thirty-
three beds in the hospital and his patients come from all over
the country.
Doctor Burks married Miss Lelia McCorkle, daughter of
Dr. George B. McCorkle, a physician practicing at Covington
and Glasgow, Virginia. Mrs. Burks, beloved by all who knew
her, and a devoted member of the Presbyterian Church, passed
away at Roanoke in January, 1927, leaving no issue.
Professionally connected with such organizations as the Vir-
ginia State Medical Society and the American Medical Associa-
tion, Doctor Burks has a wide and appreciative acquaintance.
He is a Scottish Rite Mason and a Shriner, belongs to the Elks
and the Shenandoah Club, and since boyhood has belonged to the
Methodist Episcopal Church.
Daniel Sayler Good. To succeed as a member of the
Roanoke bar requires more than ordinary ability which has been
carefully trained along the lines of the legal profession, as well
as a vast fund of general information and keen judgment with
regard to men and their motives. In a city oijthe size of Roan-
oke there is so much competition ; events crqWd each other ;
circumstances play so important a part in the shaping of events,
that the lawyer has to be a man capable of grasping affairs with
a competent hand to effect satisfactory results. Among those who
have won enviable distinction as a member of the legal pro-
fession of this city is Daniel Sayler Good, with oflfcffes "ah the
Mountain Trust Bank Building. He was born in ShenaiftloaH
County, Virginia, January 16, 1865, a son of Samuel and S^^a^i
(Wampler) Good, both of whom were born in Rockirr£*:RSra
County, Virginia, where they were reared. Mr. H^ood ;i^'t/f
German descent but nevertheless tried to enlist in the late World
war but was rejected on account of age limit. He did, howev4^
enlist and served in Company A of Joe Lane Stern Battalion bf
Virginia Volunteers, Wm. S. Mounfield captain and R. F. Taylor
being the major of the four Roanoke companies, A, B, C and D,
and was honorably discharged when this company was merged
with the National Guard.
His paternal ancester located in Pennsylvania according to
a strong family tradition and had three sons, one of whom re-
mained in Pennsylvania, another went West and the third came
to Virginia.
William Good, the great-great-grandfather of the subject of
this review, bought land in Dunmore, now Shenandoah County,
Virginia, as early as May, 1772. Said William Good's eldest
child was named Jacob and his youngest child was named
Susanna, who married David Kaufmann, who served in the War
of 1812. The said Jacob Good has a number of children : the
younger also being named Jacob was the grandfather of the
subject of this review. He married a young widow named
Susanna Silvius, whose maiden name was Myers (sometimes
spelled Moyers). The said widow had one son, Jacob, by her
first marriage, and Samuel Good, the father of the subject of
this review was her first child by this second marriage. The
father Samuel was a farmer all of his life, and was a Democrat,
134 VIRGINIA
and served as road commissioner of Shenandoah County, to
which locality he and his wife moved after their marriage, buy-
ing a farm near New Market, on which both of them passed
away. They are buried in Cedar Grove Cemetery in that neigh-
borhood. For many years they were members of the German
Baptist Brethren Church. Of their twelve children, ten lived
to reach maturity, and of them all Daniel Sayler was the eighth
in order of birth. The paternal grandfather of Attorney Good
was Jacob Good, a farmer and wagonmaker, who married
Susanna Silvius, as above stated. Both of them were born in
Shenandoah County, Virginia. The maternal grandparents,
John and Mary (Cline) Wampler, were both born near Timber-
ville, Rockingham County, Virginia, and he was also a farmer
by occupation.
Daniel Sayler Good attended the public schools of Virginia,
and had a short course in the Polytechnic Institute, New Market,
Virginia. Later he took a special course at Woodstock under
J. Monroe Hottel and Worth Logan, as well as several courses
at different normal schools, all being preparatory to entering
the George Peabody College for Teachers, Nashville, Tennessee,
from which he was graduated with the degree of Licentiate of
Instruction, in 1887. That summer he taught grammar and pen-
manship in the State Normal school of Strasburg, Virginia. Dur-
ing 1887 and 1888 he was principal of the graded schools of New
Market, and during the summer of the latter year he conducted
a summer normal school at New Market. With that work con-
cluded, in the fall of 1888 Mr. Good came to Roanoke, and en-
tered the law offices of Griffin & Watts, where he read law, and
during the summer session of 1890, attended the Law School
of the University of Virginia, where he was under the preceptor-
ship of John B. Minor, studying to such purpose that he was
admitted to the bar in 1890, and established himself in a prac-
tice in Roanoke which he is still continuing with marked success.
Mr. Good is unmarried. He is a member of Calvary Baptist
Church, and is secretary of the elementary department of the
Sunday school. For years he has belonged to the Knights of
Pythias, and he is a member of the Roanoke Country Club.
Always interested in politics, he is a staunch Democrat, and,
although never aspiring to office, preferring to work in behalf
of his friends, he was alternate to the convention that nominated
Charles T. O'Ferrell for governor of Virginia ; and a delegate
to the convention that nominated Governor Montague and Lieut.-
Gov. Joseph E. Willard, the latter being a former law classmate
of Mr. Good. He has also served as delegate to other state con-
ventions, and was a delegate to the State Convention that elected
delegates to the National Convention that first nominated Wood-
row Wilson for the presidency and was a delegate to the State
Convention held at Norfolk, that chose the delegates to the
National Convention of 1924. Mr. Good has real estate holdings,
as well as other local interests, which, together with his law
practice, take up his time and attention.
He is a member of the Roanoke Chamber of Commerce and
the Roanoke and the American Bar Associations. Essentially a
self-made man, Mr. Good has every reason to be proud of what
he has accomplished. His schooling was paid for by him, his
course at George Peabody being paid for in part by a scholar-
ship he won, and he has never ceased his interest in that body.
Upon the occasion of its fiftieth anniversary he represented his
VIRGINIA 135
class, and was historian of his class in 1909, when a directory
of the alumni was published. When the drive for $20,000,000
endowment was made in 1926 in behalf of the college, he was
local representative in Roanoke, and more than filled his quota.
A man of distinction, learned, able, public-spirited, the personal
friend of the great men of the state, Mr. Good occupies a high
position, not only at the bar, but in his community, and confers
honor upon whatever project he undertakes.
Waddie Pennington Jackson is a physician at Roanoke,
specializing in internal medicines, and his attainments and serv-
ice have such as to give him a steadily mounting reputation all
over Southwest Virginia.
Doctor Jackson was born at South Hill, Mecklenburg County,
Virginia, February 18, 1888, son of Thomas J. and Elva
(Ogburn) Jackson, natives of the same county. His grand-
father, William Green Jackson, was a Mecklenburg soldier of the
Confederacy, being a captain and later colonel, and was all
through the war, though once captured in battle. The maternal
grandfather of Doctor Jackson was Benjamin W. Ogburn, of
Mecklenburg County. He was a graduate of Randolph-Macon
College and for several years president of the Girls' School at
Danville, Virginia. Doctor Jackson's parents were well-to-do
farming people in Mecklenburg County, members of the Method-
ist Episcopal Church, South. Of their four children three are
living: William Green, a merchant at Lawrenceville, Virginia;
Julian A., a farmer at Baskerville ; and Doctor Jackson.
Doctor Jackson attended high school at South Hill, graduated
from Randolph-Macon Academy at Bedford in 1907 and from
Randolph-Macon College at Ashland in 1910. After graduating
from college he had to earn his own living, and during the sev-
eral years before he was ready to enter medical college he en-
gaged in teaching. He began his medical studies in Johns Hop-
kins University at Baltimore, where he was graduated in 1917
and during summer vacations had also taken additional work at
the University of Michigan and Columbia University. After
graduating he enrolled in the United States Navy, served on the
U. S. S'. Galveston and later was attached to the Naval Base
Hospital at Hampton Roads, Virginia, until 1919. After the
war and after being put on the inactive list Doctor Jackson spent
a year in post-graduate work at Johns Hopkins University.
Few doctors begin their careers with a more thorough training
and ample preparation than Doctor Jackson. He located at
Roanoke October 25, 1920. He is a member of the Roanoke
Academy of Medicine, the Medical Society of Virginia, the South-
west Virginia, Southern and American Medical Associations and
is an associate member of the American College of Physicians.
He belongs to the Phi Chi medical fraternity.
Doctor Jackson married, September 16, 1918, Bessie Mae
Gills, who was born at Union Hall, Franklin County, Virginia,
and was reared and educated in Bedford County, finishing in
Randolph-Macon Institute at Danville, where she was graduated
in 1909. Doctor and Mrs. Jackson have two children : Eliza-
beth Harwell, born November 2, 1919, and Dudley Pennington,
born April 1, 1924. Doctor and Mrs. Jackson are menibers of
the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, and he is serving as a
steward of the church. He is at member of the Masonic frater-
nity.
136 VIRGINIA
Walter M. Otey is a capable physician and surgeon practic-
ing at Roanoke, having spent all the twelve years of his active
experience in the medical profession in that city.
Doctor Otey was born in Bedford County, Virginia, Febru-
ary 8, 1891, son of Frank C. and Ossie (Sheer) Otey, Iboth na-
tives of Bedford County. His grandfather, Charles C. Otey, was
born in the same county, became a captain in the Confederate
army and was killed at the battle of Seven Pines. Frank C.
Otey devoted his life to the farm, and died in 1925. His widow
now resides with her son, Doctor Otey, at Roanoke. He was
an active member in the Presbyterian Church and a Democrat
in politics.
Doctor Otey was the second in a family of five children, four
of whom are living. He was reared in a rural locality in Bed-
ford County, and after the local schools attended Randolph-
Macon College and the Virginia Polytechnic Institute at Blacks-
burg. He then entered the Medical College of Virginia at Rich-
mond, was graduated in 1916, and for about a year was in the
hospital at Roanoke under Doctor Sheer. Since 1916 he has
engaged in a general practice as a physician and surgeon and a
high degree of success has attended his efforts. He is a member
of the Roanoke Academy of Medicine, the Medical Society of
Virginia and the American Medical Association. In addition
to his medical practice Doctor Otey superintends the manage-
ment of the old homestead farm in Bedford County. He is a
Scottish Rite Mason and Shriner, member of the B. P. 0. Elks,
Country Club and Shenandoah Club, and he and his family
belong to Saint John's Episcopal Church.
Doctor Otey married, in 1914, Mary Hairston, a native of
Henry County, Virginia, who was reared and educated at Dan-
ville. They have two children, Mary Elizabeth and Walter
Maynard, Jr., both attending school in Roanoke.
Louis A. Scholz is a veteran Roanoke business man and,
having been identified with that city since 1889, participating in
its grow1;h from a small railroad town to a community of mani-
fold industries and commercial prestige all over the Southeast.
Mr. Scholz was born at Freiburg, Germany, November 28,
1862, and spent his early years in that famous university town.
His parents, Joseph and Pauline (Teichler) Scholz, lived all their
lives in Germany, where his father was a blacksmith. They
were Catholics. Of their seven children three are living, two
sons, Louis and Fritz, being residents of Roanoke, while the only
living daughter, Anna, is the wife of Martin Baier and lives in
Germany.
Louis A. Scholz had a common school education in Germany
and when fourteen years old began his apprenticeship to learn
the brewing and malting trade. From the practical standpoint
he was given very thorough instructions in every branch of the
industry. When, in 1882, he came to the United States, a young
man of twenty, he was thoroughly skilled in the brewing profes-
sion. His first six months in America were spent at Cincinnati,
Ohio, where he was employed by Peter Schwab, after which he
was with the Green Tree Brewery at Saint Louis for six months,
then followed a journeyman experience in Kansas City, Omaha,
Seattle and in San Francisco. At San Francisco in 1884 he
brewed the first lager beer in that city for the National Brewing
Company. His next location was at Baltimore, and in Decem-
ber, 1889, he arrived at Roanoke, thus ending his experience of
j^IV'^ ^^^t--*^^^^^*^
VIRGINIA 137
travel. Mr. Scholz was in the brewery business at Roanoke,
active manager of the Virginia Brewing Company Plant from
1889 to 1916. In connection with the brewery he also engaged
in ice manufacture, and he and his brother Henry became in-
terested in quite a number of local enterprises and acquired a
large amount of real estate.
Mr. Scholz is probably best known over Southwestern Vir-
ginia for his long and active identification with the Roanoke
Fair Association, which he has served continuously as secretary
since the fair was inaugurated in 1903. Mr. Scholz, a self-made
business man, has prospered through his industry and the intent
way he has applied himself to every undertaking. He owns an
attractive country estate fifteen miles from Roanoke and makes
his home there. Mr. Scholz and his family are Lutherans. He
is one of the three surviving charter members of Roanoke Lodge,
B. P. 0. Elks, and is also affiliated with the Shenandoah Club and
a life member of the Order of Eagles.
He married, in 1888, Henrietta Schaeffer, who was born at
O'Fallon, Illinois. There are three children : Miss Pauline ;
Walter, a druggist at Roanoke; and Henrietta, wife of Stanley C.
Weaver, a Roanoke real estate man.
Hon. Jacob H. Frantz. After he had won the approval of
his fellow citizens as a sound business man of undoubted finan-
cial ability in his operation of large real estate transactions,
Hon. Jacob H. Frantz was elected city treasurer of Roanoke, and
the manner in which he is handling the affairs of this important
office proves the good judgment displayed in his selection. He
was born in the vicinity of Roanoke, June 17, 1869, a son of
Emory J. and Clarinda (Obenchain) Frantz, both of whom were
born in Virginia, and are now deceased. The father was a
farmer all his life, and was a substantial citizen of Roanoke
County standing well with his neighbors, voting the straight
Democratic ticket, and giving a splendid support to the Metho-
dist Episcopal Church, South, in which work he was actively
assisted by the mother. His fraternal connections were those
which he maintained with the Masonic Order. During the
last two years of the war between the states he served in the
Confederate army, in which he enlisted at the age of sixteen
years. Of the seven children born to the parents five are living,
and of them all Jacob H. Frantz is the eldest. The paternal
grandfather, Jacob Frantz, was born and reared on Mason's
Creek. Early in life he was a farmer, but later became a
tanner, and for many years operated a large tannery on Peters
Creek. The maternal grandfather was a native of Botetourt
County, Virginia, and he spent his life as a farmer. Both
grandfathers were men of the highest standing, and gave a loyal
support to progressive movements in their communities.
While his educational training was limited to the common
schools, Jacob H. Frantz has since added much to his store of
knowledge, and is today a very well informed man. Until he
was thirty-five years old he was engaged in farming, but about
190.5 he moved to Roanoke and embarked in the real estate busi-
ness, conducting it until in 1925 he was elected city treasurer.
Since then he has been devoting himself to the duties of his
office.
In April, 190.3, Mr. Frantz married Miss Mary K. Nelms.
who was born in Bedford County, Virginia, a daughter of
7— VOL. 3
138 VIRGINIA
Charles Dandridge Nelms, a farmer of Bedford County. Mrs.
Frantz was educated in Roanoke County, and she is connected
with church work as a member of the Methodist Episcopal
Church, to which her husband also belongs, and of which he is a
steward. They have had four children born to them, namely:
Jacob Henry, who graduated from William and Mary College
class of 1928; Mary Dandridge, attending Randolph-Macon Col-
lege; Clarinda Ellen and Eben Nelms, who are attending the
Roanoke High School. Mr. Frantz belongs to the Roanoke Lions
Club. He is one of those who proves that the influence of a good
and capable man is not confined to his own personal transactions,
but rather is reflected in the lives of those with whom he be-
comes associated, and through them filters to the oncoming gen-
eration which shall contribute to the community's growth. Lib-
eral in his views and in his contributions to worthy objects, Mr.
Frantz has long been a decided addition to the citizenship of
Roanoke and proven a notable increase of strength to the cause
of public progress.
John M. Otey. In 1878 the late Col. Kirkwood Otey was
made city auditor of Lynchburg. When he died in 1897 he was
succeeded by his son, John M. Otey. The latter is still serving,
thus making an uninterrupted succession of service of father
and son in one municipal office for half a century. This is a
noteworthy record in itself, and it is also significant of the citi-
zenship of the Otey family, which for generations has expressed
itself in terms of usefulness and self sacrificing devotion to com-
munity and state.
There have been many distinguished men of the Otey family
in Virginia. At the corner of Eleventh and Federal streets in
Lynchburg is the old Colonial home of the Otey family. The
Revolutionary ancestor was John Otey, who had a son, Major
Isaac Otey, who lived in Bedford County, Virginia, and mar-
ried Elizabeth Matthews. Major Isaac Otey and wife had a
son, John M. Otey, who in turn was the father of Col. Kirkwood
Otey. Col. Kirkwood Otey married Lucy Dabney Norvell, and
of their four children John M. Otey is the oldest. His sister
Norvell is the wife of James A. Scott, of the insurance firm of
Scott & Otey at Lynchburg. The second son, Kirkwood Otey,
Jr., is in the automobile business at Charleston, West Virginia.
The youngest of the four children died when eighteen years of
age. John M. Otey also has the distinction of being a direct
descendant of Sir John Pettus, who was one of the founders of
the Virginia Colony established on the banks of the James
River in 1607.
Col. Kirkwood Otey was born at Lynchburg October 19, 1829,
graduated from the Virginia Military Institute and the Uni-
versity of Virginia, and before Virginia seceded from the Union
helped organize and became first lieutenant of the Lynchburg
Home Guard, which on April 22, 1861, was mustered into the
Confederate service as Company G of the Eleventh Virginia
Volunteers. He soon became captain of the company and under
his command the company participated in thirteen battles and
twenty-two skirmishes. Colonel Otey was three times wounded.
He commanded his company as a part of Pickett's famous
division in the charge at Gettysburg, and after that battle he
was promoted to colonel in command of the Eleventh Regiment.
After the war he was honorary captain of the Lynchburg Home
VIRGINIA 139
Guard, was also commander of the local camp of the Confed-
erate Veterans, and he was buried with the Masonic and military
honors that his career merited. Like many other prominent
Virginians he was impoverished as a result of the war, and his
wounds made him practically an invalid for a number of years.
During this time his talented wife, daughter of a professor of
the college at Lexington, Kentucky, supported the family by
making tobacco bags. His mother during the war had bought
an old warehouse at Lynchburg and converted it into a Con-
federate hospital. Mrs. Lucy Dabney Otey, who died August
25, 1903, was for many years active in charitable work, bei'hg
the first member of the Salvation Army at Lynchburg, also active
in the Florence Crittenden Home. Col. Kirkwood Otey after
recovering from his wounds engaged in the insurance business,
and in connection therewith performed the duties of city auditor
from 1878 until his death. He and his wife were active members
of the Court Street Methodist Episcopal Church, and he was a
member of Marshall Lodge of the Masonic fraternity.
John M. Otey was born at Lynchburg February 5, 1866, and
was educated in public schools and also in the academy con-
ducted by Col. Thomas H. Carter. At the age of nineteen he
went to work in his father's insurance office, and has been in
that line of business ever since. The firm is now known as
James A. Scott and John M. Otey, Incorporated, handling a
general line of insurance.
Mr. Otey married, June 15, 1898, Miss Maggie Marshall
Murrell, who was born at Lynchburg and was educated in
public schools there and the Randolph-Macon Woman's College.
Her father, Thomas E. Murrell, was a prominent tobacconist.
Mr. and Mrs. Otey have one son, John M. Otey, Jr., who was
educated ih the Augusta Military Academy and the University of
Virginia, and is now in the insurance business.
Mr. Otey for over thirty years was active in the Lynchburg
Y. M. C. A., and for a number of years was its treasurer. He
is one of the older members of Acca Temple of the Mystic
Shrine at Richmond, and has membership in the various York
Rite bodies of Masonry at Lynchburg, including the lodge to
which both his father and grandfather belonged. He is also
affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the
B. P. 0. Elks. He is a member of Grace Memorial Episcopal
Church.
Albert Sidney Nowlin, a prominent coal merchant of
Lynchburg, with offices in the Peoples National Bank Building,
is a member of one of the best known families of that city, one
that has been closely identified with the history of Virginia since
early Colonial times.
He was born in Appomattox County, September 8, 1878, son
of Col. John H. and Sallie Louise (Woodson) Nowlin. He is a
descendant of James Nowlin, a native of Ireland, who came to
Virginia about 1700 and married Catherine Ward, a daughter
of Bryan Ward. Their son James was the father of Abraham
Nowlin, who married Mildred Watkins, and their son, Capt.
Bryan Watkins Nowlin, married Mary Spencer and was the
father of Col. John H. Nowlin.
Col. John H. Nowlin was a soldier and officer in the Confed-
eracy during the Civil war and for many years followed plant-
ing and merchandising in Appomattox County. The home of
140 VIRGINIA
the Nowlins in the county was in the vicinity of Oakville.
Colonel Nowlin married Louise Woodson, daughter of John W.
Woodson, of another prominent Virginia family of Appomattox
County. Of their six children Albert Sidney Nowlin was the
oldest son.
Albert Sidney Nowlin grew up and received his early educa-
tional advantages in Appomattox County. He has been a resi-
dent of Lynchburg for thirty years, and has had a very success-
ful career in the wholesale coal business, handling over an exten-
sive territory in the Southeast the output of a number of coal
companies.
He married, February 28, 1915, Miss Annie Mosely Thorn-
hill. They have one son, Albert Sidney, Jr., born January 30,
1917, and a daughter, Helen Thornhill, born November 21, 1924.
John 0. D. Copenhaver, a resident of Roanoke, is president
of the Evergreen Cemetery Association. He was born in Taze-
well County, Virginia, December 30, 1877, and is a son of An-
drew J. and Eliza (Barnes) Copenhaver. The Copenhaver
family originated in Denmark, and the original immigrant set-
tled in Pennsylvania, whence the family came to Virginia at a
very early day. The paternal grandfather of Mr. Copenhaver
was Samuel Copenhaver, a native of Virginia, who followed the
life of a planter throughout his career. Andrew J. Copenhaver,
the father of John 0. D. Copenhaver, was born in Smyth County,
Virginia, and in young manhood enlisted for service in the Con-
federate army during the war between the states, at the close of
which he resumed his activities as a farmer. Later he removed
to Tazewell County, where he married a native of that county,
Eliza Barnes, a daughter of Robert Barnes, a Virginia farmer
whose family had come from Ireland at an early date and set-
tled in the Old Dominion. Andrew Copenhaver and his wife
spent the remainder of their lives in Tazewell County, where
both passed away. He was a Republican in politics, and he and
his wife were faithful members of the Methodist Church, in
Vv-hich he served as steward for forty-one years. Of their seven
children five are living, John 0. D. having been the fifth in order
of birth.
John 0. D. Copenhaver attended the country schools of Taze-
well County, the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and Emory and
Henry College at Emory, Virginia, and after he finished from the
latter returned to the home place, where he was associated with
his father in the elder man's agricultural activities. At the age
of twenty-one years he went to Bluefield, West Virginia, where
he entered the employ of the Baldwin-Felts Detective Agency,
with which he continued to be identified for more than a (luarter
of a century. This concern did much work for the Norfolk &
Western Railway Company, and Mr. Copenhaver was really
connected with the railroad company through the agency. In
March, 1926, Mr. Copenhaver resigned his position and took up
his residence at Roanoke, becoming president of Evergreen
Cemetery, which is conceded to be the most beautiful as well as
the best cared for cemetery in the United States. He has con-
tinued to act in this capacity and maintains offices in the Colonial
Bank Building. Mr. Copenhaver is a member of the Methodist
Episcopal Church, South, in which he has been a steward for ten
years. He is a thirty-third degree Mason, and in addition to
having been master of all bodies in the Scottish Rite has served
as potentate of the Mystic Shrine. He is also a member of the
VIRGINIA 141
Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks and th6 Kiwanis Club,
and is a Republican in his political convictions.
In 1907 Mr. Copenhaver was united in marriage with Miss
Letha A. Witten, who was born at Graham, Virginia, and re-
ceived her education there and at Bristol, supplemented by at-
tendance at Madison Hall, Washington, D. C. Two children
have been born to this union : John Dresden, attending high
school, and Martha Jane, attending public school.
John Garnett Dew was admitted to practice law in Vir-
ginia in 1867, and from that time until his death his career added
many new associations and distinctions to the family names of
Garnett and Dew. Judge Dew was a descendant of William
Dew, who came from England in Colonial times and settled in
Maryland. The Garnett family came from Essex, England, and
there are many representatives of both names found in the
military and professional annals of Virginia.
The father of Judge Dew was Benjamin Franklin Dew, an
attorney, teacher and farmer of King and Queen County, who
was a magistrate and a member of the County Court for a num-
ber of years. He was a brother of the notable educator, Thomas
R. Dew, who was born in King and Queen County in 1802, son
of Thomas R. and Lucy (Gatewood) Dew. Thomas R. Dew
graduated from William and Mary College, and in 1826 was
elected professor of history and political law in William and
Mary College, and in that capacity he developed the chair of
history and political science to real dignity and importance.
He was elected president of William and Mary College in 1836,
and the college enjoyed an unprecedented era of prosperity under
him. He died in 1846. Benjamin Franklin Dew married Mary
Susan Garnett.
She died when her son John Garnett Dew was ten years of
age. The latter, with his brother, James Harvie, who later be-
came a distinguished physician in New York City, attended
school under Dr. Gessner Harrison. He was not yet sixteen when
the war broke out between the states, and before it was over
he had been in the service of the Confederacy for two years. He
resumed his work at the University of Virginia during 1865-67
and took his degree Bachelor of Laws there in 1867. Judge Dew
began practice in King and Queen County in 1868, and for over
thirty years devoted his time to his large general practice and
his public duties. He was a member of the County School Board
from the time of its inception until 1884, and from 1884 to 1900
was judge of the County Court of King and Queen. In 1900
he became second auditor of State of Virginia and served in that
office two term.
Judge Dew was a member of the Baptist Church and belonged
to the Virginia State and American Bar Associations.
He married, October 28, 1875, Lelia Fauntleroy, descended
from the distinguished Fauntleroy family of Virginia. The
Fauntleroys have been prominent in their own name and many
of them intermarried with other distinguished Virginia lines.
Lelia Fauntleroy was born in King and Queen County, where
her father, Dr. S. G. Fauntleroy, was a distinguished phvsician.
Doctor Fauntleroy, who died in 1899, was highly educated in
medicine, but it was not so much his vocation as an opportunity
for useful service to his community. He owned three large plan-
142 VIRGINIA
tations and before the war was a slave owner, and much of his
practice was among his own people, and his service was ren-
dered without compensation. He also held the office of overseer
of the poor. Doctor Fauntleroy was eighty-one years of age
when he died. He had four daughters and two sons. The son
Dr. Claybrook Fauntleroy was a practicing physician and fol-
lowed the worthy example of his father in his extensive char-
itable work. He died in 1924 after having practiced for forty
years in King and Queen County. Dr. Claybrook Fauntleroy,
his father and grandfather made up three generations who are
represented on the list of alumni of the University of Pennsyl-
vania.
Mrs. Dew, who resides at 1520 Grove Avenue in Richmond,
is the mother of four children : Miss Mary Susan, a graduate
of Hollins College; S. G. Dew, now deceased, who married Miss
Nettie Thompson; B. Frank Dew, vice president of the State
Planters Bank of Richmond, a Knight Templar Mason and
Shriner and member of the Commonwealth Club, married Miss
Gertrude Clark and has a son, B. Frank, Jr. ; and Miss Eliza-
beth Dew.
Judge Dew was born at Newtown, King and Queen County,
Virginia, July 23, 1845, and passed away at his home in Rich-
mond in January, 1920.
John William Smith, D. D. During the more than eight
years that Dr. John William Smith has served as pastor of
Greene Memorial Methodist Episcopal Church, South, of
Roanoke, he has vigorously and continuously attacked ignorance,
sophistry and error with the fearless loyalty to his honest con-
victions that is so characteristic of him. He has preached as
he has lived, has been useful in all good works as a citizen and
has borne himself in every position so that he has commended
himself as an example for both young and old, and he is contin-
uing in this work along the same lines with the prospect of many
years of usefulness before him.
A native son of Virginia, for he was born in Loudoun County,
his appointments have been held in Fairfax County, Virginia,
Washington, District of Columbia, Baltimore, Maryland, and
Roanoke, and he is deeply attached to the Southland, to which
he so essentially belongs. His parents, John and America
Smith, gave him a wholesome early environment in the home
circle, and he attended the public schools of Washington City and
Randolph-Macon College at Front Royal, Virginia. Upon his
graduation from the latter he received his degree of Bachelor of
Arts, and he has since carried on post-graduate work in George
Washington University and Johns Hopkins University. In
1920 Randolph-Macon College honored him by conferring upon
him the degree of Doctor of Divinity, and in 1925 he was given
his Phi Beta Kappa key from the same institution because of his
outstanding service and recognized leadership among her alumni.
While in college he had distinguished himself as editor of the
college annual, and in his preparatory school he won a medal as
being its best debator.
From the beginning of his ministerial work Doctor Smith
has proven his worth to his church, and honors have been con-
ferred upon him with increasing frequency as he has become
recognized as one of the outstanding figures in the Southern field,
and of the Baltimore Conference, to which he is attached. In
1921 he was sent as a delegate to the Fifth Ecumenical Method-
VIRGINIA 143
ist Conference held in London, England, where he delivered the
first of a series of addresses on "The Church and Modern Indus-
trial Problems." From London he went on a trip through Eng-
land and the continent, Mrs. Smith accompanying him. In 1924
he and Mrs. Smith made their second trip abroad, visiting Syria,
Egypt, Greece and the Holy Land, and upon his return to Ro-
anoke Doctor Smith gave many lectures upon his travels, espe-
cially those in the Holy Land, and brought vividly before his
audiences conditions in these countries. However, these are
not the first lectures he has delivered, for throughout his career
he has appeared frequently upon the lecture platform, and is a
very popular speaker. One of his lectures, the one on the Psalms
and other portions of the Bible, is a special favorite, and he
delivers it, and others, before minister's gatherings, summer
conferences, young people's assemblies, Sunday School Training
Institutes and similar church and lay meetings, his powerful
oratory and flaming sincerity being particularly convincing.
Doctor Smith does not confine his activities to his ministerial
and lecture work, but branches out in many directions, and he
is president of the Boy Scout's Council, president of the Chil-
dren's Home Society, and a trustee of the Roanoke Hospital.
For two years he was president of the Minister's Conference,
and also served for several years as a director of the Roanoke
Kiwanis Club.
Mrs. Smith belongs to an old and honored family, she being
a daughter of Dr. W. E. Edwards, at one time a member of the
Virginia Conference of the Methodist Church, and her grand-
father, great-grandfather and brother were all clergymen. Doc-
tor and Mrs. Smith have four children: Landon E., who is a
business man of Roanoke; Emory E. and Ashby W., both of
whom are attending Emory and Henry College; and Ethelbert
Grake, who is a student in the local high school.
Rev. Thomas Kay Young, D. D. No other profession makes
such demands upon its members as does that of the ministry,
and were it not for the fact that these "Men of God" are sus-
tained by a power higher than their own many would fall
fainting by the way. The intellectual attainments of the major-
ity are beyond the ordinary, oratoiy plays an important part,
and business acumen is frequently a necessary requisite, tact
in marked degree must be present, but above all there must be
a deep sincerity and steadfast belief in the divine origin of the
call in order that the best results be obtained, and the Master's
work be properly performed. But few of these ministers are
adequately recompensed for their labors, their presence in times
of deep sorrow and affliction, their influence in all uplift move-
ments, and their example of godly living and speech, but they
work on, "sustained by an unfaltering trust" and great must be
their eternal reward. In Rev. Thomas Kay Young, pastor of the
First Presbyterian Church of Roanoke, is to be found a man of
the above described type, a man of learning, eloquence, business
acumen and unblemished character, who is not only sustaining
his church, but influencing his community in a manner that is
attracting favorable comment from outsiders all over this part of
the state.
Doctor Young was born in West Virginia, Fayette County,
a son of William Wilsen and Elizabeth (Kay) Young, natives of
Scotland, he born in Edinburgh and she in Lanark, and she
survives and is living with her son. Doctor Young. The father
1441 VIRGINIA
was a miner, and was engaged in operating mines for big coal
companies after coming to this country in 1880. He met his
wife in Fayette County, West Virginia, although she had lived
in Pennsylvania for some years, her parents having settled in
that state upon coming to the United States in 1870, and they
were married January 1, 1884. They had six sons and three
daughters born to them, of whom five are living, and of them
all Doctor .Young is the second in order of birth. After he had
secured his citizenship papers the father espoused the principles
of the Democratic party, and continued to vote its ticket until
his death. He was a Mason, an Odd Fellow and a Knight of
Pythias, and both he and his wife early united with the Presby-
terian Chui'ch, to which she still belongs.
Doctor Young attended the public school of Royal, West Vir-
ginia, and the West Virginia State Normal School at Athens,
and later became a student of Hampden Sidney College, Virginia,
from which he was graduated in 1908, with the degree Bachelor
of Arts. His theological training was taken in the Union Theo-
logical Seminary, Richmond, Virginia, and he was graduated
therefrom in 1911, with the degree Bachelor of Divinity. His
first charge was a mountain mission at Holden, West Virginia,
and he held it for eighteen months, his work there, diflScult as it
was, being productive of a real spiritual awakening, and a sub-
stantial increase in membership to the church. In October,
1912, he was sent to Covington, Virginia, and for the six suc-
ceeding years he labored faithfully and well, and when he left,
March 1, 1918, he was followed by the regrets of his congre-
gation. Sent to the Presbyterian Church at Lexington, Vir-
ginia, he repeated his good work there for six years, and Janu-
ary 1, 1924, was assigned to the pa.storate of the First Presbyte-
rian Church of Roanoke. This is an important charge with a
membership of 1,100 souls, and the responsibilities are weighty,
but Doctor Young is discharging them with inspired capability.
On September 21, 1907, Doctor Young married Miss Harriet
Rebecca Cox, who was born in Farmville, Virginia, and edu-
cated in the Virginia State Normal School. She is a daughter
of Benjamin Matthew Cox, for thirty-eight years manager of
the above mentioned school, which position he held at the time
of his death in 1924. Four children have been born to Doctor
and Mrs. Young: Thomas Kay, Junior, who is a high school
student; William Benjamin, who died in 1915, at the age of
three months; Helen Laing; and Mary Elizabeth. Doctor
Young was made a Mason in Petersburg, Virginia, and retains
his membership with that lodge. He belongs to the Lions Club
and the University Club. For several years he has been on the
Board of Stewards of Jackson College, and for nine years he has
been a trustee of Union Theological Seminary, Richmond, Vir-
ginia.
Joel T. Bandy. It is said that the keynote of salesman-
ship, any kind of salesmanship, is sincerity, and that a salesman
should not ti-y to sell goods that he vvfould not buy himself, and
at the same price, same place and same time, and if it is true, as
it is, then is it especially applicable to the real estate and invest-
ment business. In no other line does insincerity and lack of
confidence prove obstacles as they do in that dealing with the sell-
ing of realty and the making of investments. These facts were
long ago appreciated and approved by Joel T. Bandy, and in the
years that he has been handling real estate and investments in
VIRGINIA 145
Roanoke he has been guided by them with very satisfactory
results, and stands today in the fore front of operators in these
lines. However, if a man is going to build up a profitable sales
business in real estate over a term of years he ought to be more
than a salesman; he ought to be an advisor in economics to the
people with whom he deals. When a salesman has sold a client,
the client ought to be so well pleased that he will go out and
bring in his friends. The neglect of such suggestions Mr. Bandy
has found will nearly always work to the disadvantage of the
salesman himself, and is simply ruinous to the house which he
serves, and therefore he has tried to train his men to accept
them, and act accordingly, and the successful ones have done so.
Starting in life without any capital, by safeguarding the inter-
ests of his clients he has advanced until he is one of the leading
realtors of Roanoke.
Joel T. Bandy was born on a farm in Roanoke County, Vir-
ginia, December 12, 1860, a son of Thomas L. and Frances J.
(Huddleston) Bandy, both of whom were born in Bedford-
County, where he was engaged in farming throughout his life.
Throughout the entire war period of the sixties he served in
the Confederate army. In political faith he was a Democrat.
Both he and his wife were active members of the First Presbyte-
rian Church of Roanoke. Of the four children born to the par-
ents two survive: Mrs. E. S. McNanel, of Roanoke, where Mr.
McNanel is now a retired railroad man, and Joel T. The pater-
nal grandfather was George Bandy, born in Bedford County, a
lifelong farmer. The maternal grandfather, Joel Huddieston,
was also born in Bedford County. The Bandys are of Welsh
extraction, and the Hudd.estons are of English origin.
Ihe local schools and Roanoke College educated Joel T.
I2andy, and he earned his first money by farm work. Later he
taught school, and after he located in Roanoke he was in the
coal and feed business for several years. It was not, however,
until he embarked in the real estate busines in ISOO that he
found the vocation for which he was fitted, and in it he has
steadily progressed and has to his credit some of the best of the
development projects carried to successful completion in this
region, notably that of Virginia Heights. He bought the land,
put in the improvements, and buiit up what is recognized to be
one of the most desirable residential suburbs of Roanoke. Re-
garding this property as a gilt-edged investment, he has retained
ownership of several houses. Mr. Bandy is a director in the
Colonial National Bank, and is otherwise interested in local en-
terprises. A strong Democi-at, he works for his party's suc-
cess, and served for twenty years as a member of the school
board.
In March, 1891, Mr. Bandy married Miss Nannie P. Nelms,
who was born in Bedford County, but reared in Roanoke County.
After being graduated from Sufiivan's College, Bristol, Virginia,
she taught school until her marriage. Mr. and Mrs. Bandy have
one child, Frances, who married W. M. Denny Taylor, of Ro-
anoke, and they have two children : Nancy E. Taylor and Frances
Taylor. Both Mr. and Mrs. Bandy belong to the Raleigh Court-
house Methodist Episcopal Church, South, of which he is a
steward. A high Mason, he has been advanced through the
Scottish and York Rites, and he also belongs to the Mystic
Shrine. He is a member of the Knights of Pythias and the
Roanoke Kiwanis Club, and is popular in all of these organiza-
tions.
146 VIRGINIA
Robert E. L. Abbott. Like many men who have won suc-
cess in commercial and industrial life, Robert E. L. Abbott, sec-
retary, treasurer and general manager of the Virginia Lumber
Manufacturing Company of Roanoke, commenced his career as
a school teacher. His experience in the educational profession
lasted for ten years, but his inclinations were always for a busi-
ness career, and in 1906 he entered the employ of the firm with
which he is now connected, and in which he has gained promo-
tion and success through the application of sound and substan-
tial abilities.
Mr. Abbott was born May 4, 1868, in Craig County, Virginia,
and is a son of Sinclair C. and Lucinda Jane (Williams) Abbott,
natives of the same county. His paternal grandfather was
James Abbott, who passed his entire life as a farmer in Virginia,
principally in Craig County, where he was held in high esteem
and respect by his fellow citizens. Sinclair C. Abbott received
a public school education and as a youth learned the trade of
cabinet maker, which he followed until the outbreak of the war
between the states, when he enlisted in the Confederate army
and subsequently served throughout the four years of the war.
At the close of the struggle the young soldier returned to Craig
County, having recovered from a slight wound, and resumed his
activities as a cabinet maker, in which he was engaged during
the remainder of his life. For some years he served as post-
master of the little Town of Abbott in Craig County, which was
named in his honor. He was a Democrat in his political views
and a member of the Christian Church. He married Lucinda
Jane Williams, a daughter of Rev. Philip Williams, a native of
Virginia and a minister of the Christian Church. They had ten
children, of whom four are living, Robert E. L. having been the
fourth in order of birth. One of the children. Dr. B. A. Abbott,
a prominent minister of the Christian Church, is editor of the
religious publication, the Christian Evangelist, of Saint Louis,
and in 1927 went to Lausanne, Switzerland, to attend the con-
vention of members of all denominations for the general ad-
vancement of Christianity. Some ninety churches representing
a score of different beliefs sent delegates to this world confer-
ence on faith and order.
Robert E. L. Abbott attended the local schools of Craig
County, following which he pursued a course at Kentucky Uni-
versity (.now Transylvania) at Lexington, and after his gradu-
ation therefrom began teaching school. During the following
ten years he was employed as a teacher in various schools in
Craig, Henry and Tazewell counties, but in the fall of 1906 ac-
cepted a position as bookkeeper for the Virginia Lumber Manu-
facturing Company of Roanoke. He has been identified with
this concern for twenty-three years, and now acts as secretary,
treasurer and general manager, having risen to these posts by
industry and merit. He is widely and favorably known in busi-
ness circles and particularly in the lumber trade, and is known
as a man of the highest integrity and of broad information. Mr.
Abbott has applied himself devotedly to his business affairs and
has few outside interests, although he is a Mason of the Scottish
Rite and a member of the Mystic Shrine. He has cooperated
willingly and energetically in worthy civic movements, and with
his family belongs to the Christian Church.
In 1904 Mr. Abbott was united in marriage with Miss Bertie
Shelburne, who was born in Lee County, Virginia, and educated
at Milligan College, Tennessee, and to this union there have been
Q5J'Si/>^<£.
VIRGINIA 147
born three children: Elizabeth Christal, who resides with her
parents; Robert Shelburne, who holds a position with the Vir-
ginia Lumber Manufacturing Company, and Edward Lee, who
died when two years of age. The pleasant family residence is
situated at 210 Wasena Avenue, Roanoke.
Henry M. Stowe, postmaster of Bedford City, became a
Virginian through his interest in the National Elks Home at
Bedford. Few men among his contemporaries have had a career
of greater variety of experience and association with prominent
men than Mr. Stowe.
He was born at Cleveland, Ohio, September 10^ 1854, son of
Thomas A. and Maria (McKinzie) Stowe, and grandson of
William Stowe, who was born at Middletown, Connecticut, No-
vember 15, 1795, and was an early settler in Ohio, where he
married Emily Kelsey. This branch of the Stowe family was
established in America by John Stowe, a native of England, son
of John Stowe, the historian. John Stowe, the American, arrived
in the United States April 9, 1734, on the ship Elizabeth, bring-
ing with him six children. Thomas A. Stowe was born at Hud-
son, Ohio, July 23, 1827, was educated in Western Reserve
College, became a printer and was connected with the Cleveland
Plain Dealer from the establishment of that old and influential
newspaper at Cleveland. He was on the staff of the Plain Dealer
at the time of his death. For three years he was in a printing
office in Iowa, but with that exception lived all his life in Ohio.
He was a leading Democrat, served fifteen years on the board of
education of Cleveland, and was president of the board when he
died in 1877. At one time he was nominated for lieutenant-
governor, and he served as a lieutenant in the Civil war. His
wife, Maria (McKinzie) Stowe, was born January 1, 1834, and
is still living at the age of ninety-four, making her home with a
daughter in Los Angeles. She had a family of three children:
Henry M. ; Josephine Maria, a widow in Los Angeles ; and
Charles Brown, head of the Stowe-Fuller Corporation, fire-brick
manufacturers at Cleveland. Thomes A. Stowe was an active
Presbyterian, member of the church choir, served as grand
master of the State of Ohio in the Ancient Order of United
Workmen.
Henry M. Stowe was educated at Cleveland, as a boy sold
newspapers on the streets, left school in 1871 at the age of
seventeen to become a chainman with a surveying party. For
five years he was in the news room of the Plain Dealer, but in
December, 1877, left the printing office on account of lead poison-
ing. Three months later he became connected with the Wors-
wick Manufacturing Company, manufacturers of plumbing and
steam fitting supplies. He went to work for this company at
thirty dollars a month.
In 1875 Mr. Stowe had married Angelina N. Worswick,
daughter of the manufacturer. Two children were born to their
union. The daughter, Winifred Olive, is the wife of Stanley L.
Galpin, a member of the faculty of Trinity University in Con-
necticut. The daughter Marjorie is an art teacher living in
Cleveland. The mother of these children died in 1922.
While with the Worswick Company Mr. Stowe acquired a
thorough knowledge of the pipe fitting and plumbing business.
He was put in the sales department and in January, 1880, was
offered general supervision of the plant. Instead he organized
148 VIRGINIA
the Union Machine Works, which did a prosperous business. In
1882 he had to give up his work on account of ill health, and
spent three months on the salt waters on the coast of Florida.
He then became a traveling salesman for the Macintosh Goode
& Company, covering Ohio, Indiana and Michigan, and in 1886
went with the Continental Tube Works. Mr. Stowe in Septem-
ber, 1888, while in the employ of its Pittsburgh Tube Company,
he located at Marion, Ohio, where he organized the firm of Cun-
ningham & Stowe, heating engineers. This business later em-
ployed about twenty-five skilled workers. Owing to the panic
of 1893 he returned to his plumbing business at Marion. He
sold out in 1896, and for a time was identified with the work of
the Monarch Cement Company in establishing a plant at Bron-
son, Michigan. Mr. Stowe in 1897 went to Alaska in the gold
fields, but this was an experience without profit. He arrived
in Chicago with only 25 cents, and through the friendship of
a conductor was able to get back to Marion, Ohio. Mr. Stowe
in February, 1899, went with the Forest City Electric Company,
for nine months sold insurance, then resumed employment with
the Forest City Company, and again took up insurance, a busi-
ness he followed until 1918, when faihng eyesight compelled him
to seek a residence in the Elks National Home at Bedford,
Virginia.
He remained there until he was appointed postmaster by his
friend President Harding in 1918. He now gives all his time to
his official work. Mr. Stowe in 1896 was president of the Bryan
Silver Club in Ohio, but while living at Marion became interested
in Warren G. Harding and was one of his local friends and
admirers who brought him into politics.
Mr. Stowe married June 16, 1927, Camille Binnix Houston,
a native of Philadelphia, daughter of John Binnix, general man-
ager of the Central Iron Works at Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.
Mrs. Stowe is a member of the Episcopal Church. Mr. Stowe
has been actively identified with the B. P. 0. Elks since 1888.
For twelve years he was secretary of Cleveland Lodge of Elks,
No. 18, being No. 5 on the membership roll and now the oldest
member of that oraganization.
Hugh J. Hagan, M. D., has practiced medicine in Roanoke
since 1914. He was born in Atlanta, Georgia, December 11,
1888, a son of Hugh and Sallie Cobb (Johnson) Hagan, the
latter of whom was born in Selma, Alabama, and the former in
Richmond, Virginia. He studied medicine in the College of
Physicians and Surgeons, New York City, and in Berlin, Ger-
many, and Vienna, Austria, and upon his return to the United
States was engaged in the practice of his profession in Atlanta,
Georgia, for ten years. His death occurred in 1898, but she
survives and is now living in Roanoke. They had two children :
Doctor Hagan and Willis Cobb, the latter being a banker of Bir-
mingham, Alabama. The parents belonged to the Episcopal
Church from their youth up.
Doctor Hagan of this review attended school in Atlanta and
Roanoke, and then entered Washington and Lee University,
from which he was graduated in 1910. He then became a stu-
dent of Johns Hopkins University, and was gi-aduated therefrom
in 1914, after having completed the four-year medical course,
with the degree of Doctor of Medicine. His interneship was
taken in Jefferson Hospital, Roanoke. During the World war
VIRGINIA 149
he served, with the rank of captain, in the Medical Corps from
May 10, 1917, to January 30, 1919, being honorably discharged
on the latter date. He was stationed at Monroe, Vale, Forrest,
Devens and Dix camps, his service being entirely performed in
this country.
On July 14, 1917, Doctor Hagan married Miss Barbara
Fowle Campbell, who was born in Charles Town, West Virginia,
and educated in that city and in a finishing school of New York
City. Two children have been born to Doctor and Mrs. Hagan:
Hugh Campbell and Robert Cameron. Doctor Hagan belongs to
the Episcopal Church. He is a member of Kappa Alpha, Phi
Beta Kappa, the Southwest Virginia Medical Society, the Med-
ical Society of Virginia, the Southern Medical Association, the
American College of Physicians, the Shenandoah Club, the
Roanoke Country Club, the Dinner Dance Club and other local
organizations, in all of which he is deservedly popular. His
practice is internal medicine, and he devotes all of his time to
it, not being connected with any business concerns.
Preston Garnett Hundley, physician and surgeon at
Lynchburg, comes of a family of prominent professional people,
being a brother of John T. T. Hundley, president of Lynchburg
College, and his father was also an educator, though his out-
standing service was in the upbuilding and extension of the in-
fluence of the Christian Church in Virginia.
Doctor Hundley was born at Dunnsville, Essex County, Vir-
ginia, March 14. 1880, son of John T. T. and Sarah Elizabeth
(Garnett) Hundley, both natives of Essex County,, and a grand-
son of Andrew Hundley, a planter and slave owner of Essex
County who served as sheriff and treasurer of his county. An-
drew Hundley married Nancy Trible. John Trible Thomas
Hundley, Sr., was born in Essex County and was educated in
Bethany College in West Virginia, the institution founded by
Alexander Campbell of the Church of the Disciples. He began
teaching in Essex County when little more than a boy, and kept
up the work of teaching for over thirty-nine years in a two-room
school known as the Dunnsville Academy, and his personal
scholarship and inspiring influence made that an institution of
the highest service in preparing young men for college en-
trance. He taught higher mathematics, surveying, Greek and
Latin and other subjects. Throughout his life he was one of
the most prominent laymen of the Christian Church in Virginia,
and probably no ordained minister of the church did more for it
than this educator. He died in 1890, at the age of fifty-nine
years. His wife, Sarah Elizabeth Garnett, was a daughter of
Judge Muscoe Garnett, who was a lawyer, for seventeen years a
member of the House of Delegates, and an elder in the Christian
Church. Sarah Elizabeth Hundley died in 1895.
Preston Garnett Hundley was the youngest son in a family of
thirteen children. After the local schools he attended William
and Mary College during 1897-99, and completed the work of the
Virginia School of Pharmacy in 1903. From 1903 to 1905 he
was manager of the Johnson Pharmacy at Hampton, and then
entered the medical department of the University of Maryland at
Baltimore and was graduated with the M. D. degree in 1909.
Doctor Hundley practiced two years in the coal fields of West
Virginia, for seven years at Pembroke, Virginia, and since 1921
has had his home and a busy practice at Lynchburg, a large
amount of his work being in gynecologj- and obstetrics. Doc-
150 VIRGINIA
tor Hundley is a member of the Lynchburg Medical Society, Med-
ical Society of Virginia and American Medical Association. He
is affiliated with the Knights of Pythias, the Lions Club, Inde-
pendent Order of Odd Fellows, and is a deacon in the First Chris-
tian Church.
He married, November 24, 1909, Miss Maiy E. Lyell, who
was born in Richmond County, Virginia, and was educated in
Baltimore College. They have three children: Robert Lyell,
born in 1914 ; Preston Booker, born in 1915 ; and Olivia Ander-
son, born in 1917.
Mrs. Hundley is a daughter of John M. and Anna (Booker)
Lyell. Her father served in the Ninth Virginia Cavalry in the
Civil war and for a number of years was a member of the Legis-
lature. He was a merchant in Richmond County, and owned the
first automobile in the North Neck of Virginia.
John Otto Boyd, M. D. In sketching the career of one who
has impressed himself by his versatile gifts upon the passing
generation, one is pleased to find the unusual union of high
philanthropic ends with such practical qualities as have made
him a successful physician and surgeon. However rare may be
such a combination of qualities, that they are not altogether
incompatible is illustrated in the career of Dr. John 0. Boyd, of
Roanoke, who has a large practice and high standing in his pro-
fession, particularly in the field of his specialties, gynecology
and obstetrics. With the exception of the period of his military
service during the World war he has been located in the dis-
charge of his- professional duties at Roanoke since 1905, and dur-
ing this time has established himself firmly in the confidence and
esteem of the people.
Doctor Boyd was born March 12, 1881, at Winchester, Vir-
ginia, and is a son of Dr. P. W. and Fredericka (Schultz) Boyd.
His paternal grandfather was Rev. Andrew Hunter Holmes
Boyd, a well known early Presbyterian minister of Virginia, who
filled many pulpits in various parts of the state and was a man
who was held in great esteem and respect. Dr. P. W. Boyd was
born in Frederick County, Virginia, where he received his early
education, and as a youth entered Washington and Lee Univer-
sity, where he was graduated, and later graduated from the
University of Maryland with the degree Doctor of Medicine.
After engaging in practice for a few years he turned his atten-
tion to the hardware business, which he followed for many years
at Winchester, both he and Mrs. Boyd, also a native of Frederick
County, dying at that place. She was a daughter of Frederick
Schultz, a native of Virginia and a larger planter, whose father,
John Schultz, served in the American army during the War of
1812. Doctor and Mrs. Boyd were faithful members of the
Presbyterian Church, in the work of which they were active, and
Doctor Boyd was a Confederate soldier during the war between
the states, serving as a private in Chew's battery. They had a
family of eight children, of whom seven are living. Dr. John 0.
of this review being the last in order of birth.
John 0. Boyd received his early education at Shenandoah
Academy, Winchester, following which he pursued a course at
the University College of Medicine at Richmond, and was gi-adu-
ated with the class of 1905, receiving the degree Doctor of Medi-
cine. For a short time he served as an interne in the Virginia
Hospital, but in 1905 located permanently at Roanoke, where he
since has achieved remarkable success and high standing, his
VIRGINIA 151
present offices being located in the Shenandoah Life Building.
When the United States became embroiled in the great Euro-
pean struggle Doctor Boyd offered his services to the Medical
Corps, and, being accepted, was sent to Camp Greenleaf, where
he underwent intensive training. He was then assigned to Base
Hospital No. 45, and subsequently was sent to the Base Hospital
at Camp Pike, serving in surgical work in all its branches and
also as acting chief surgeon. He finally was transferred to Hos-
pital No. 23 at Philadelphia, whence he was discharged in 1919
and returned to his practice at Roanoke, after doing post-grad-
uate work at Philadelphia and New York. Although he is
equally at home in any branch of his profession. Doctor Boyd
specializes as a gynecologist and in obstetrical cases, and is fre-
quently called into consultation by his fellow practitioners for
advice. He is a member of the Pi Mu honorary medical frater-
nity, the Roanoke Medical Society, the Virginia State Medical
Society, the Southern Medical Society and the American Medical
Association and is a fellow of the American College of Surgeons.
He belongs also to the local Kiwanis Club and takes a keen inter-
est in all that affects the welfare of the city, its institutions and
its people. While he is an exceptionally busy man, he is much
more than a professional drudge, for he is sociable by nature and
enjoys the companionship of his fellows. He is a popular mem-
ber of the Shenandoah Club and the Country Club, and his prin-
cipal hobby and pastime is tennis, the Doctor being known as a
very capable performer on the courts.
In 1912 Doctor Boyd was united in marriage at Roanoke with
Miss Nellie J. Stephenson, who was born at Doylestown, Penn-
sylvania, and educated in the schools of Roanoke and at Wilson
College, Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, and to this union there
have been born four children : John Otto, Jr., Katharine Cowell,
William Stephenson and Nellie Stephenson. The family belongs
to the Presbyterian Church, in the work of which Mrs. Boyd is
active and helpful.
David Denton Hull, Jr., during a law practice covering a
period of a third of a century early became identified in a pro-
fessional capacity with the great iron and coal industries of the
South, and for many years he has not only handled the legal
affairs but has also served in an executive capacity for large cor-
porations.
He represents the tenth generation of the American Hull
family, one of the oldest of consecutive record from the time of
the establishment of the original English colonies. His first
American ancestor was George Hull, who was born in England
in 1590 and was a member of the original Massachusetts Bay
Colony, locating at Dorchester, Massachusetts, (now a part of
Boston) and became a man of considerable local prominence, and
was a representative in the first General Court of the Massachu-
setts Bay Colony. Members of successive generations of the
family lives in New England, were soldiers in the Colonial Wars,
business men and statesmen. The founder of the Virginia
branch of the family was Samuel Hull, representing the sixth
generation of the American family. Samuel Hull came from
Ulster County, New York, to Virginia and settled in Smyth
County in 1789. His son Norton Hull was born in Smyth County
in 1792, and the only child of his first marriage was Thomas T.
Hull, who was born in Smyth County, February 23, 1811, and
died September 30, 1851.
152 VIRGINIA
He was the father of David Denton Hull, Sr., who was born
at Marion, Smyth County, December 26, 1837, and who died
June 19, 1919. Before the Civil war David Denton Hull, Sr., was
a merchant, entered the Confederate army with the rank of
lieutenant, and later was a captain in the Sixty-third Virginia
Volunteer Infantry, General Humphrey Marshall's Division, and
for a considerable time was with General Morgan's forces in Ten-
nessee and Kentucky. After the war he became a man of ex-
tensive business enterprises at Marion, engaged in merchandis-
ing and milling, was one of the organizers and was successively
vice president and until his death president of the Bank of
Marion. He also served on the county board of supervisors, was
a member of the board to supervise the erection of the South-
western State Hospital, took a prominent part in maintaining
educational facilities for Marion and his section of the state,
being a member of the board of trustees of the Marion Female
College and for over seventeen years chairman of the board of
Emory and Henry College. He was a steward in the Methodist
Episcopal Church. He married July 29, 1868, Mary A. H.
Graham, of Wythe County, Virginia. Of their family of seven
children David Denton, Jr., was the second child and second son.
David Denton Hull, Jr., was born March 26, 1872, and grew
up in the attractive home which his father had established on a
farm west of Marion. He attended private schools, and in 1891
was graduated valedictorian of his class at Emory and Henry
College with the Bachelor of Arts degree. He spent about two
years in the Law Department of the University of Virginia and
in 1894 began practice at Pulaski. In 1900 he removed to Bris-
tol and since 1908 has made his home at Roanoke. Mr. Hull in
1903 bceame general counsel and in 1917 also vice president of
the Virginia Iron, Coal and Coke Company; a corporation that
has owned and operated extensive coal and iron properties in the
State of Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia and North Caro-
lina. That relationship has been maintained ever since.
Mr. Hull takes an active part in the civic affairs of the com-
munity in which he resides. He is a member of the Roanoke,
Virginia State and American Bar Associations, belongs to the
American Steel and Iron Institute, the Trinity Methodist Epis-
copal Church at Roanoke, is a Kappa Sigma, a Pi Gamma Mu, a
member of the Shenandoah Club of Roanoke, of the Roanoke
Country Club and of the Westmoreland Club of Richmond. He
served a term as president of the Roanoke Chamber of Com-
merce; is a member of the Board of Visitors of the University of
Virginia ; and is president and a member of the Board of Trus-
tees of Hollins College Corporation.
He married June 16, 1923, Miss Elizabeth Duval Adams,
daughter of Captain and Mrs. Richard Henry Toler Adams of
Lynchburg. There are three children of this union : Annie Max-
well Hull, Susan Elizabeth Hull and Mary Graham Hull.
William Wise Boxley. Prominent among the citizens of
Roanoke who have risen from obscurity and poverty to high posi-
tion and affluence solely through the medium of their own abili-
ties is William Wise Boxley, known throughout Virginia and
the adjoining states as one of the foremost railroad contractors
in this part of the country. When he commenced his connection
with railroad work Mr. Boxley was fresh from the farm, and his
wage earning career began at the modest salary of one dollar
per day. During the forty years that have passed since that
VIRGINIA 153
time he has improved every opportunity that has arisen, and
today is first vice president of the Colonial National Bank, an
ex-mayor of the city, and a man universally looked up to and
admired.
Mr. Boxley was born July 17, 1861, at the ancestral home,
known as the "Great House," situated on the banks of the North
Anna River, adjoining Spotsylvania, Louisa County, Virginia,
and is a son of James and Sallie Ann (Lipscomb) Boxley. His
paternal grandfather was Joseph Boxley, a native of Boxley,
England, who came to the United States in young manhood and
settled in Louisa County, Virginia, where he built the home above
mentioned and passed the remainder of his life as a planter.
His son, James Boxley, was born in his father's home, and fol-
lowed in his father's footsteps as to the matter of a vocation,
being a planter all of his life. He espoused the cause of the Con-
federacy during the war between the states and was active in se-
curing food supplies for the army, but the misfortunes of war
practically wrecked the family fortunes. Both he and his worthy
wife were active members of the Baptist Church. Mr. Boxley
married Miss Sallie Ann Lipscomb, who was born at Spotsyl-
vania, a daughter of John Lipscomb, also born there, a farmer
by vocation and a prominent leader in the Baptist Church. Five
sons and three daughters were born to Mr. and Mrs. Boxley, of
whom two sons survive : C. A., a retired capitalist of Charles-
ton, West Virginia ; and William Wise, of this review.
William Wise Boxley received only the advantages of a public
school education and was reared on his father's farm, where he
remained until the age of twenty-seven. In 1888, tiring of agri-
cultural work and being attracted by the glamor and romance of
railroading, he took a position as a common laborer in a con-
struction gang, at wages of one dollar per day. It was not long
before his employers took note of his industry and intelligence,
and he was advanced to a foremanship and later to a superin-
tendency. It was while thus employed that he embarked on a
venture of his own, in the way of railroad construction, in 1892.
At first, because of his limited capital, his operations were small,
but with the accumulation of a larger source of income, as well
as growing confidence, he increased and broadened his scope, and
at the present time has to his credit many miles of railroad con-
struction. He still continues in the same line of business and is
interested in four of the most highly improved rock-crushing
outfits obtainable. He maintains well appointed offices in his
own building, bearing his name, which has eight stores and
numei'ous offices, and was erected by him in 1923, although his
headquarters have been at Roanoke since 1906. Mr. Boxley is
first vice president and chairman of the executive committee of
the Colonial National Bank of Roanoke, and in 1926 was presi-
dent of the Chamber of Commerce. A Democrat in politics, he
has been prominent in public aft'airs, and served four years as
mayor under the first term of the city manager form of govern-
ment. Mr. Boxley is a Scottish Rite Mason and a Noble of the
Mystic Shrine. He belongs to the First Baptist Church of
Roanoke, in which he is a member of the Board of Deacons, while
his wife belongs to St. John's Episcopal Church.
In 1884 Mr. Boxley was united in marriage with Miss Fannie
Haley, who was born in Louisa County, Virginia, and to this
union there were born two children: William, who is deceased;
and Littlebui-ry James, a graduate of Washington and Lee Uni-
versity, who is associated in business with his father. Mrs.
154 VIRGINIA
Boxley met death by drowning in 1893, and in 1903 Mr. Boxley
married Miss Willie Saunders, who was born in Louisa County,
the marriage ceremony being performed at Richmond. Three
children have been born to this union : Abney, a graduate of the
Virginia Military Institute, in 1925, degree Bachelor of Science,
who is now engaged in the contracting business with his father
and half-brother; Mary Wise, a graduate of the National Cathe-
dral, Washington, D. C; and Cheyenne, a daughter, attending
school at Gunston Hall, Washington, D. C.
J. Burton Nowlin, who has had a broad and successful ex-
perience in medical practice, now specializing in internal medi-
cine at Lynchburg, is a member of an old Campbell County fam-
ily, one that has been in Virginia for a number of generations.
The founder of the family was James Nowlin, who was born
in Ireland in 1655. The name was spelled Nowlan in that coun-
try. James Nowlin on account of participation in religious wars
came to America about 1700, and died in 1725. In order to pay
his passage across the ocean he indentured himself to a Virginia
planter named Bryan Ward, and he subsequently married Cath-
erine Ward, the planter's daughter. One of their sons, Bryan
Ward, married Lucy Wade, and their son, James Nowlin, a
native of Pittsylvania County, married Rainey Downey. Mathew
Bates Nowlin, son of James and Rainey (Downey) Nowlin, was
born in Pittsylvania County, was a farmer, mill owner, and a
man of large property interests, owning a hundred slaves before
the war. At an early date he located on a large plantation in
Campbell County, where he also operated a store. He died in
1856. He had served in the State Legislature. Mathew Bates
Nowlin married Elizabeth Preston, and they were the grand-
parents of Doctor Nowlin of Lynchburg.
Doctor Nowlin was born in Campbell County in July, 1873,
son of James Bowker and Susan Hamner (Burton) Nowlin.
His mother was born near Lynchburg on her father's plantation
"The Oaks." Her mother was Damaris Cobbs. Her grand-
father, John Hudson Burton, who married Margaret Macon, was
a descendant of Thomas Burton, who came from England in
1634 and settled in Henrico County, Virginia, being one of the
pioneer planters in the vicinity of Richmond. James Bowker
Nowlin spent most of his active life in the banking business at
Lynchburg. He was a member of Kirkpatrick's Battery in the
Confederate army. He was a Methodist, while his wife be-
longed to the Methodist Protestant Church. Of their four chil-
dren two are now living, Dr. J. Burton and J. Graham, of Lynch-
burg.
Dr. J. Burton Nowiin was educated at the Lynchburg High
School and graduated from the College of Physicians and Sur-
geons at Baltimore in 1896. For twelve years he practiced in
Buckingham County, for two years was in Richmond specializing
in children's diseases, and since 1910 has practiced at Lynch-
burg.
Doctor Nowlin married. September 21, 1898, Roberta Ellis
Hall, daughter of Thomas B. Hall, a farmer. Doctor and Mrs.
Nowlin have two children. The son, Preston Nowlin, was edu-
cated at the University of Virginia, graduating in medicine in
1924, spent twenty months as an interne in the Boston City Hos-
pital and is now specializing in surgery. The second child, Ellis
Nowlin, is the wife of George H. Cosby, Jr., a special insurance
agent and insurance inspector at Charlottesville. Doctor Now-
VIRGINIA 155
lin and family are members of the Presbyterian Church. He is
a Scottish Rite Mason and Shriner, member of the Woodmen of
the World, and belongs to the Lynchburg and Campbell County
Medical Society and the Medical Society of Virginia.
David Halbert Howard. During the many years that he
was identified with the bar of Lynchburg, the late David Hal-
bert Howard demonstrated the possession of splendid legal abili-
ties, in the exercise of which he gained the right to be known as
one of the leaders of his profession in Campbell County. From
the time that he left college in young manhood until his death,
in 1925, he led an active, useful and successful career, and as a
member of the firm of Kirkpatrick & Howard was identified
with much litigation of a highly important character. While
he never sought office that would bring him to the forefront as
a public figure, in a quiet and unassuming way he exerted an
influence for good and was known as a man of public spirit and
civic pride.
Mr. Howard was born July 19, 1865, in Wythe County, Vir-
ginia, a son of J. Milton and Rhoda Jane (Allison) Howard. His
father, who spent his entire life in Wythe County, was an agri-
culturist, and the early environment of David H. Howard was
that of the home farm. After attending the rural schools he
took an academic course at King's College, Bristol, and then
became a law student at the University of Virginia, from which
he was duly graduated with his degree in 1890. He at once took
up his residence at Lynchburg, where he followed his profes-
sion with great success during the remainder of his life. He
was a member of the Virginia State Bar Association and the
American Bar Association, and carried on a civil practice, being
at all times an upholder of the ethics and amenities of his calling.
Mr. Howard was an elder in the First Presbyterian Church, and
belonged to the Masons, the Knights Templar and the Mystic
Shrine, and the Piedmont and Oakwood Clubs. Politically he
gave his allegiance to the Democratic party.
In 1897 Mr. Howard was united in marriage with Miss Nan-
nie Vaughan, who was born at Danville, Virginia, and educated
in the schools of Lynchburg. She is a daughter of Dr. Egbert
G. and Lucie Guinn (Estes) Vaughan, the former a native of
Amelia County, Virginia, and the latter of Nelson County, Vir-
ginia. Doctor Vaughan received his medical degree from the
University of Pennsylvania and for many years was engaged in
practice in Halifax County, this state, where he became greatly
respected because of his skill and high personal character. He
is now deceased, but is survived by his widow, who resides with
Mrs. Howard, and who, although now at the advanced age of
ninety-five years, is in good health and both mentally and
physically active. Of the six children in the Vaughan family,
four are living: James Oscar, a traveling man, who resides at
Atlanta, Georgia; B. Estes, president of the First National Bank
of Lexington, Virginia, and also president of three other bank-
ing institutions in this state; Mrs. Janie V. Hudson, a widow
residing at Lynchburg; and Mrs. Howard. To Mr. and Mrs.
Howard there were born five children : Lucie, who completed
her education at the Agnes Scott School, at Atlanta. Georgia;
Nannie Vaughan, a graduate of Randolph-Macon College, who
studied art at New York City for one year and completed her
education at Paris, France, where she received the degree of
Interior Decorator and is now following her profession in New
156 VIRGINIA
York City ; Rhoda, who graduated from Hollins College with
the class of 1927 ; David Halbert, Jr., who graduated from
Davidson College in 1928; and Estes Vaughan, who graduated
from McCauley Preparatory School, Chattanooga, Tennessee, in
1928 and who is now attending the University of Virginia. Mrs.
Howard has always been active in religious affairs, and belongs
to the Woman's Auxiliary of the First Presbyterian Church.
Charles W. Womack is head of the firm C. W. Womack &
Company, general contractors, whose work is found in a number
of the prominent public buildings in Lynchburg.
Mr. Womack learned the contracting business thoroughly
from a beginning as a building mechanic, and has long been one
of the prominent representatives of business in the civic affairs
of his home city. He was born on a farm in Campbell County,
August 30, 1866, son of James and Mildred (Yancey) Womack,
natives of the same county. His father spent most of his life
as a contractor, largely in rural construction, and erected a num-
ber of the fine country homes ai'ound Lynchburg. He was quite
active until his death at the age of eighty-one. He was a mem-
ber of the Methodist Church and a Democrat in politics. Of ten
children, five sons and five daughters, one son, Benjamin L., was
a Confederate soldier in the Civil war.
Charles W. Womack attended public schools and learned the
trade of carpenter under his father. He was associated with
his father until the latter's death, and in 1887 removed to Lynch-
burg and there became associated with another veteran building
contractor, John P. Pettyjohn, and was Mr. Pettyjohn's fore-
man twenty years. Mr. Womack in 1907 engaged in business
for himself, organizing the firm of C. W. Womack & Company.
Most of the important contracts handled by this firm have been
in the City of Lynchburg. They include the Market House, the
Christian Church, John Wyatt School, West End Shoe Factory,
Lynchburg Hospital and many others involving similar amounts
but less well known to the public.
Mr. Womack married in 1890 Miss Ellen A. Luck, who was
born in Bedford County, Virginia, daughter of Marshall Luck.
She attended schools in Bedford. Mr. and Mrs. Womack are
members of the College Hill Baptist Church. He is a York Rite
Mason and Shriner, member of the Grotto of Masons, and has
filled all the chairs in James River Lodge No. 48, Independent Or-
der of Odd Fellows. He and his wife are members of the East-
ern Star and Rebekahs, and Mrs. Womack has filled the chairs in
the Eastern Star Chapter. He is a member of the Lions Club, a
Democrat, and is a former member of the Board of Aldermen of
Lynchburg.
John Hundley Hoskins, M. D., is a native Virginian, grad-
uated from the Medical College of Virginia, and a large part of
his professional service has been in the line of surgery, in con-
nection with hospitals. He is one of the leading surgeons in the
City of Lynchburg.
Doctor Hoskins was born in Essex County, Virginia, April
22, 1892, son of Willard Dunbard and Ella Garnett (Hundley)
Hoskins, and grandson of William Hoskins and John T. Hund-
ley. William Hoskins was born in King and Queen County, was
a physician and practiced his profession in his native county for
many years. John T. Hundley was born in Essex County, Vir-
ginia, spent most of his life as an educator, and was a Confed-
VIRGINIA 157
erate soldier in the Civil war. Willard D. Hoskins was born in
King and Queen County, and his wife, in Essex County, and both
died on the same day and were buried in the same grave, in
1910. He was a merchant at Dunnsville, a member of the
Christian Church, a Mason and Democrat. In their family of
eight children, five sons and three daughters, Doctor Hoskins
was the second.
Doctor Hoskins after the common schools attended William
and Mary College for two years. He graduated with his medi-
cal diploma from the Medical College of Virginia in 1915 and
had some special training at the Marine Hospital at Buffalo,
New York. He began practice at Beckley, West Virginia, an
important industrial community, leaving there at the time of
the World war and was with the colors as a medical oflScer for
nineteen months. He was stationed at Fort Oglethorpe, Geor-
gia, and Metuchen, New Jersey, until discharged. After leaving
the army Doctor Hoskins had post-graduate work in the great
Bellevue Hospital of New York, then resumed practice at Beck-
ley, and in 1923 bought a hospital at Hazard, Kentucky, which
he conducted until 1925. Since 1925 he has practiced at Lynch-
burg, his work being almost exclusively in general surgery. He
is a member of the Lynchburg and Campbell County Medical
Society, the Medical Society of Virginia, the Piedmont and the
American Medical Associations.
Doctor Hoskins married, January 5, 1918, Miss Emma Kelly,
of Culpeper, Virginia. She was educated in the Cincinnati Con-
servatory of Music and was teaching at Beckley, West Virginia,
when she met Doctor Hoskins. They have one daughter, Emily
Hume Hoskins, born October 6, 1920, and they lost their only
son, John H., Jr., who died in May, 1927. Doctor and Mrs. Hos-
kins are active members of the First Baptist Church of Lynch-
burg, and he is serving on the Board of Trustees. He is a Royal
Arch Mason, member of the B. P. 0. Elks, the Pi Kappa Alpha
fraternity at William and Mary College, and the Phi Chi medical
fraternity.
Frank Scott Cooper, M. D. The son and grandson of
physicians, it was but natural that Dr. Frank Scott Cooper, of
Roanoke, should evidence an inclination for the profession of
medicine in his youth and that he should apply himself thereto
with success. However, versatility has always been one of his
strong points, and as he is possessed of a degree of business
judgment and foresight not always to be found among strictly
professional men he has gradually drifted away from the moor-
ings of his youth, and for many years has not been identified
with medical or surgical science, various large business and
financial interests having claimed his attention and interest to
the exclusion of other activities. At present he is widely known
in the automobile business, with which he has been connected
since 1914, and in which he has attained an unqualified success
and prestige.
Doctor Cooper was born at Fayetteville, Fayette County,
West Virginia, March 22, 1878, and is a son of Dr. Calvin S.
and Stella (Jones) Cooper. His paternal grandfather. Dr. John
Cooper, was born in what is now the State of West Virginia, and
was a country physician of the old-time type, who put his pro-
fession far above any emolument he might secure for his ser-
vices, and who in the process of his practice covered an area of
many miles in the vicinity of Fayetteville. His son. Dr. Calvin
158 VIRGINIA
S. Cooper, was born at Sewell, West Virginia, and received his
medical education principally under the preceptorship of his
father, although he also attended a medical school in Tennessee.
For a time he was engaged in practice in West Virginia, but
finally located at Roanoke, where he continued to follow his call-
ing until his death in 1888. He was a Mason and a member
of the Presbyterian Church, and a man who was held in uni-
versal esteem in his community. His worthy wife, a member
of the Baptist Church, and a native of Amherst County, West
Virginia, died in 1878, shortly after the birth of her son. There
were two children : Mrs. Lottie C. Troegle, of Huntington, West
Virginia, whose husband is a retired business man ; and Dr.
Frank Scott, of this review.
Frank Scott Cooper was but twelve years of age when he
was forced to become partly self-supporting, his mother having
died about the time of his birth and his father having passed
away when the lad was only ten years old. He acquired a
hardly-gained common school education, but seems to have in-
herited a heritage of love of learning from his father and grand-
father, and spent what leisure time he could get in reading and
study, when he was not employed in the coal mines in the vicin-
ity of his home. He received some support from his maternal
grandfather, Llewellyn W. Jones, who was born in Virginia and
became a pioneer in Fayette County, West Virginia, where he
acquired 10,000 acres of land and many slaves, but met a tragic
death by drowning in the Mississippi River. Eventually Frank
Scott Cooper accumulated sufficient funds with which to pursue
a course at the University of West Virginia, following which
he spent three years at the Medical College of Virginia, and then
entered the College of Physicians and Surgeons at Baltimore,
Maryland, from which he was graduated with the degree Doctor
of Medicine as a member of the class of 1903. Having some
knowledge of conditions in the coal regions. Doctor Cooper com-
menced his practice in the coal fields of Giatto, West Virginia,
where he remained for about six years, and in 1908 took up his
permanent residence at Roanoke. Here he opened an office and
followed his profession as a physician and surgeon, and con-
tinued therein until 1914, building up an excellent practice and
becoming recognized as a capable, thorough and reliable practi-
tioner. During this time he had become increasingly interested
in the automobile industry, and in 1914 formally gave up his
practice to establish an agency, handling Overland, Dodge, Hud-
son and Essex cars. This he has developed into one of the larg-
est enterprises of its kind in the state, and the Virginia Motor
Car Company, Inc., of which he is the owner, now controls
thirty-six successful and going agencies in the Old Dominion.
Its remarkable growth may be attributed to Doctor Cooper's
good business judgment, great industry and absolute integrity
and to the thorough knowledge which he has gained through
study and experience of the automobile industry in all its
branches. Doctor Cooper also has a number of other important
business connections and is a member of the Board of Directors
of the First National Exchange Bank of Roanoke. He was one
of the organizers of the large and handsome Patrick Henry
Hotel, and has been vice president of the corporation since its
inception. At all times he has had the civic welfare of the city
thoroughly at heart, and formerly was vice president of the
Chamber of Commerce. As has been noted, his career has been
one of intense industry since boyhood, and he has made the most
VIRGINIA 159
of his opportunities, at all times preserving a love of high stand-
ards and ideals. Politics has played no pai't in his career and
he maintains an independent stand, exercising his right of fran-
chise by voting for the man rather than for the party. He is a
York Rite Mason and Shriner and member of the Benevolent and
Protective Order of Elks, and his religious faith is that of the
Presbyterian Church.
In 1905 Doctor Cooper was united in marriage with Miss
Elizabeth Williams, who was born in Bland County, Virginia,
and educated in her native community, and to this union there
have been born three childi'en : Flora, attending the Flora Mc-
Donald School in North Carolina ; Frank Scott, Jr., a graduate
of Mercersburg (Pennsylvania) Academy, and now a medical
student at Princeton University; and Paul S., born in 1916,
who is attending public school at Roanoke.
Moses Peter Rucker, physician and surgeon, is a profes-
sional man of high standing, credited with many years of service
in Bedford County, his home being at Bedford City.
He was born on a farm in that county June 27, 1876. The
Rucker family came from France. Doctor Rucker is of Revolu-
tionary ancestry. His parents were M. P. and Sallie Fannie
(Parker) Rucker, and his grandfathers were Anthony Rucker
and Joseph Parker. M. P. Rucker was a soldier in the Confed-
erate army, and otherwise devoted his life to his farm in Bed-
ford County, where he died in 1926. His wife passed away
February 4, 192.5. Of the four sons two became farmers and
merchants and two physicians.
Moses Peter Rucker was educated in the Bedford High
School, the New London Academy, and graduated with the
M. D. degree from the Maryland Medical College in 1904.
Since that year he has practiced steadily in Bedford, handling a
general practice and also doing work as general surgeon for the
Norfolk & Western Railway. He is a member of the Bedford
County Medical Society, Medical Society of Virginia, and Ameri-
can Medical Association.
Doctor Rucker married June 28, 1910, Miss Mary Pryor
Williams, who was born in Essex County, Virginia, descended
from one of the first families in that county. Her father, Wil-
liam A. Williams, was an Essex County farmer. Mrs. Rucker
finished her education in a girls school at Uniontown, Pennsyl-
vania, and for two years taught at Norfolk. They have one
daughter, Nancy Williams, now attending school. Doctor Rucker
is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, is affiliated
with the Masonic fraternity. Independent Order of Odd Fellows
and Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks.
Edward L. Stone. While the art of producing impressions
from characters or figures on paper or any other substance is
of comparatively recent origin, less than five centuries having
elapsed since the first book was issued from the press, there
is proof that the principles on which it was ultimately developed
existed among the ancient Assyrian nations. Printing from
movable types was probably practiced in China as early as the
twelfth or thirteenth century, as there are Korean books printed
from movable clay or wooden types in 1317. The first book
printed from cast, movable metal type was the Bible, printed
by Gutenberg at Mainz, 1450-1455. Printing was taken to
England in 1476 or 1477 by William Caxton, and the first
160 VIRGINIA
printing press set up in America was introduced by the Vicero
of Mexico, Antonio de Mendoza, in 1536. The earliest press
in the British-American colonies was brought over for Har-
vard College in 1638. In Philadelphia a press was set up in
1685 and in New York in 1693, and from that time to the present
the history of printing has been one of constant advancement and
marvelous improvement. In this connection there is often too
much stress laid upon the inventors of new appliances, who, while
undoubtedly due to unqualified credit for their inventions, had to
have the support of the printing concerns themselves, and it is
in the latter connection that Edward L. Stone, president of the
Stone Printing and Manufacturing Company, past president of
the Chamber of Commerce, business man and book lover, of
Roanoke, should be given extended mention in any history of
Virginia.
Edward L. Stone was born at Liberty (now Bedford City),
Virginia, September 15, 1864, and after receiving a public
school education, at the age of eleven years took a job as
an apprentice in a small printing office located in his home
town. Several years later he took a more promising position
with J. P. Bell, at that time the most progressive printer at
Lynchburg. When the Shenandoah Valley Railroad was com-
pleted to Roanoke in June 1882, the former little way-station
took on new life, and Mr. Bell, a man of great foresight and busi-
ness judgment, visioning the development and growth that was
to come, determined to open a printing office in the embryo city.
He arrived in July, 1883, bringing with him young Stone, and
they set up a printery in a small frame building on Commerce
Street, opposite the old Trout House. The mechanical equip-
ment of the plant consisted of two Gordon presses, a few cases
of body type, several dozen fonts of display type and the essen-
tial tools for a small office. There had been two other small
printing offices at Roanoke, but these were soon passed by the
Bell concern, although the financial returns for the first few
years were far from satisfactory. In 1885 Samuel G. Fields, of
Abingdon, the manager, died, and Mr. Bell appointed the twenty-
one-year-old Ed Stone to succeed him. By 1887 the business had
expanded to such an extent that it was necessary to install two
new presses, a large amount of new type and a two horse-power
steam engine to operate the machinery. On February 28, 1889,
the plant was entirely destroyed by fire, but this probably was a
blessing in disguise, for the firm decided to build more substan-
tially and permanently, upon Mr. Stone's advice, and a short
time after the conflagration leased the second and third floors of
the Gale Building, located on Jefferson Street, where new presses,
type and equipment were installed. By 1890 a working force of
thirty-three persons was essential to handle the business, and in
1891, when J. P. Bell retired from the presidency, the controlling
interest was purchased by Edward L. Stone, J. B. Fishburn and
T. T. Fishburn. At this time the capacity of the plant was
practically doubled, and Mr. Stone succeeded to the presidency,
under whose management the industry was developed into a
national business. In September, 1891, the reorganized com-
pany removed to its own three-story brick building on Jefferson
Street, and in 1892 the corporate name of the firm was changed
to The Stone Printing and Manufacturing Company, which it
retains to this day. Later the building on North Jefferson Street
was doubled and trebled in size to provide for the constantly
growing business, and in 1907 the present building was erected>
VIRGINIA 161
this being two stories and basement, with a frontage of 218 feet
and a depth of 110 feet. At present the company employs from
150 to 200 skilled workers and is operating one of the best
equipped printing plants in America. For many years the com-
pany has been specializing in such lines as railroad tariffs, busi-
ness stationery, twelve-sheet calendars and commercial printing
in general. Great quantities of printed matter are being pro-
duced for railroads, mining companies, banks and trust compa-
nies, and for big business concerns in general. Recently the com-
pany added the 45-year continuous-service bar to Mr. Stone's
golcl medal.
The company has long been noted for fine typography and
excellent quality of process color printing. At the Jamestown
Tercentennial Exposition, held at Hampton Roads in 1907, the
company won the bronze medal for its exhibit. At the Fourth
District Typothetae Federation Convention, held at Wilmington,
Delaware, April 17 and 18, 1925, the company was awarded
first prize for booklets and catalogues, and second prize for
printer's own advertising. It also won prizes at other conven-
tions of this organization at Winston-Salem in 1923 and at Nor-
folk in 1924.
Mr. Stone is an enthusiastic member and honorary vice presi-
dent of the American Institute of Graphic Arts of New York
City, to the members of which the Stone Company, in 1926, pre-
sented "Keepsake No. 21," which consists of a facsimile of
"Typographia : an Ode on Printing," one of the earliest books
printed by William Parks, at Williamsburg, Virginia, and
dated 1730. Mr. Stone with his own hands set the type mat-
ter for the introductory pages of this unique keepsake. Only
one copy of this book, which some authorities claim to have
been the first printed in Virginia, is known to be in existence,
this being in the John Carter Brown Library at Providence. By
special permission from this library Mr. Stone obtained the
photostat prints of this rare book, from which photoengravings
were made, and from these plates the keepsake was printed in the
plant of the company. Mr. Stone's energetic work in behalf of
Typothetae and similar organizations is well known, he having
been one of the pioneers in perfecting and establishing the Stand-
ard cost system in the printing and other industries. He was a
member of the executive council and cost commission of the
United Typothetae and Franklin Clubs of America, and is a
member of the Better Printing Committee. For the U. T. A. he
has also served as a member of the executive committee, a mem-
ber of the cost commission and a member of the legislative com-
mittee. He was president of the Virginia Printers' Cost Con-
gress, and was a member of the directorate of the same organi-
zation.
At his home Mr. Stone has a collection of rare books which is
quite unique and comprehensive. The library is already famous
and is bound to become more renowned among book lovers. IMr.
Stone knows the works of both the early printers and the great
modern printers as few other book collectors know them, and
to hear him talk on this subject is a pleasure for anyone in-
terested in the "Art Preservative of all Arts." Mr. Stone is a
member of the National Geographic Society; a life member of
the Virginia Historical Society. Richmond : Florida Historical
Society; Westmoreland Club, Richmond; Manufacturers' Club,
Philadelphia; Huntingdon Valley Country Club, Philadelphia;
American Institute of Graphic Arts (honorary vice president),
8— VOL. 3
162 VIRGINIA
New York City ; Grolier Club, New York City ; director member
(honorary), University Club, Roanoke; Roanoke Country Club;
Roanoke Dinner Dance Club; Life Member Roanoke Realtors
Association (honorary) ; Associated Advertising Clubs of the
World ; Bibliographical Society of London, England ; Miami An-
glers' Club, Miami; Roanoke German Club, Roanoke; Interna-
tional Benjamin Franklin Society, New York City; a charter
member of the Lee Highway Association, Washington ; Virginia
Historic Highway Association, Lynchburg; Board of Trustees,
Roanoke Community Fund; Board of Trustees, Committee to
Assist the Blind ; The Virginia Academy of Science, Richmond ;
Past-President, Chamber of Commerce, Roanoke; President,
Secretary, Treasurer, "an' everything," Quadraginta Club, New
York and Roanoke ; Southwest Virginia Historical Society, Roan-
oke; Chairman City Planning and Zoning Commissions,
Roanoke.
Mr. Stone's activities are not confined to the printing com-
pany. He is a vice-president and director of the First National
Exchange Bank, Roanoke, the Walker Machine and Foundry
Corporation. He is also a director of the Virginia Bridge and
Iron Company, Roanoke; the Borderland Coal Corporation, the
Roanoke Auditorium Company, and many others. His civic ac-
tivities are numerous, and he is also identified with several civic
and fraternal organizations.
Stonewall Jackson Gill, M. D. For twenty-one years Dr.
Stonewall Jackson Gill has carried on a general practice in Roan-
oke, and when he came here it was as the experienced physician,
ripened by years of experience in his profession and service to
humanity. During the long period he has ministered to the
people of Roanoke he has won and holds their warm esteem and
approval, and there are very few men held as high as he by the
general public. He was born in Amherst County, Virginia,
December 16, 1861, a son of Curtis and Elizabeth (Martin)
Gill, both natives of Amherst County, now deceased. During
the earlier part of his life he was a contractor, and in addition
to erecting the first houses in Rockbridge and Elm Springs he
had contracts for building houses and milling plants all over
Virginia and West Virginia. After he married he bought a
farm on Indian Creek, and the remainder of his life was devoted
to farming. A man fond of outdoor life, during the last fifteen
years he lived he made it a practice to spend three months of
each year camping at the breakwaters of Big Piney River, a
number of his friends joining him in the outing. Of the nine
children born to him and his wife five are living, and Doctor
Gill is the youngest born. Both he and his wife were long very
active members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, and
he was a very real pillar of the church, and carried his faith into
his everyday life. Too old himself for military service during
the war between the states, his son, Thomas Gill, enlisted at
the age of sixteen years, during the latter part of the war. An
ardent Democrat, he took part in politics, although not an office
seeker. His father, Jonas Gill, was born in Chesterfield County,
Virginia, and became a prosperous farmer. The maternal
grandfather, Lowe Martin, was born in Amherst County, and
was a farmer by occupation. Although he owned many slaves,
one of the great-grandfathers of Doctor Gill was so impressed
by the evils of slavery that he set free 100 and sent those who
wished to go to Liberia at his expense.
VIRGINIA 163
Doctor Gill attended school in Harrisonburg, Virginia, and
took his degree in medicine in Vanderbilt University, Nashville,
Tennessee. Later he took post-graduate work in Georgetown
University of Medicine, Washington City. He began the prac-
tice of his profession in Lowesville, Virginia, but after three
years settled in Bedford County, Virginia, and there he remained
in active practice for seventeen years, coming then to Roanoke,
where he has found congenial surroundings and a large measure
of success.
In 1887 Doctor Gill married Miss Lillian Page, who was born
in Nelson County, Virginia, a daughter of James Page, a farmer.
The following children have been born to Doctor and Mrs. Gill :
Charlie Briggs, who died at the age of twenty-one years ; Eliza-
beth H., who is in the hospital with her brother ; Dr. Elburne G.,
a practicing physician of Roanoke ; and Fannie Lou, who mai*-
ried Dr. W. H. Stryker, a dental surgeon of Williamsburg, Vir-
ginia. For four years Mrs. Stryker taught domestic science in
William and Mary College, Williamsburg.
Doctor and Mrs. Gill belong to Cavalry Baptist Church. He
is a Mason, a Knight of P>i:hias and an Elk. The Roanoke
County Medical Society, the Virginia State Medical Society and
the Southern Medical Society all hold his membership. During
the past few years Doctor Gill has become veiy much interested
in horticulture and owns an apple orchard in Bedford County
which is bearing heavily, in 1927 producing about 18,000
bushels. When he bought the land he paid S2.25 per acre for
it, and during the thirty-five years he has owned it, it has
steadily advanced until today, with all his improvements upon
it, this is a very valuable property.
Elburne Gray Gill graduated from medical college in 1916,
and has enjoyed a steadily growing reputation in his profession
at Roanoke, and has also been active in the club and civic affairs
of that city.
Doctor Gill was born at Sedalia, Bedford County, Virginia,
October 21, 1891, son of Dr. Stonewall Jackson and Lillian Gill,
and grandson of Mr. and Mrs. Curtis Gill of Amherst County,
and of Mr. and Mrs. James W. Page of Nelson County.
Doctor Gill attended the Roanoke City High School and from
1912 to 1916 was a student in the medical department of Vander-
bilt University at Nashville, Tennessee, where he obtained the
degree Doctor of Medicine. In his work at Roanoke he has
largely specialized in diseases of the eye, ear, nose and throat.
In 1926 he was responsible for the construction of the Gill
Memorial Eye, Ear and Throat Hospital, which is the only insti-
tution of its kind in Virginia.
Doctor Gill is a member of the American College of Surgeons
and in 1921 was president of the Virginia Society of Ophthal-
mology and Oto-Laryngology.
He is a director of the Liberty Trust Company of Roanoke,
was president of the University Club in 1921 and the Roanoke
Lions Club in 1925. He is a Democrat, a Mason and Shriner,
member of the Roanoke Country Club, and is a deacon in the
Calvary Baptist Church and teacher of the Young Men's Bible
Class, which has a membership of one hundred.
Mr. Gill married Miss Ruth Meals, a daughter of I. J. Meals,
of Roanoke. She is a graduate of the Mary Baldwin Seminary
at Staunton, Virginia. They have two daughters, Edith Page
and Martha Vaughan Gill.
164 VIRGINIA
Paul C. Hubard. There are, unquestionably, men of natural
force found in every prosperous community, who by reason of
their inherent ability, by the use of their brains and the sound-
ness of their judgment, attain distinction and acquire authority.
They are men who industriously work for an end, and in helping
themselves add to the sum of comfort and happiness for all
about them. These quiet, resourceful men are the dependence of
the whole social fabric, for their efforts not only bring into being
the substantial industries that support commerce, but conduct
along the safe and sane channels which assure public prosperity
and general contentment. They may be men of versatile gifts
and talents of a high order in many directions, but it is their
soundness, their vitality and their steadfastness that sum up the
whole and make them such important factors in the work of
their communities. Such a man is Paul C. Hubard, proprietor
of the Hubard Foundry & Machine Works, Incorporated, of
which he is president.
Paul C. Hubard was born in Nelson County, Virginia, Decem-
ber 22, 1865, a son of William B. and Eliza (Callaway) Hub-
ard, natives of Buckingham and Nelson counties, respectively,
and both are deceased. The father was a planter and a man of
prominence in Nelson County. Both he and his wife were active
members of the Episcopal Church, and he was a member of the
Masonic fraternity. In political faith he was a Democrat. Of
the eleven children born to the parents three survive, those in
addition to Paul C. Hubard being: Mrs. Sommerville, a widow,
who lives on a farm, is the relict of Rev. George S. Sommerville,
a clergyman of the Episcopal Church ; and Anna, who is unmar-
ried, is employed in the Forestry Department in Washington
City.
Paul C. Hubard was educated in a local normal school and
college, and his first work was done in the Glenmorgan foundry,
where he learned draughting, completing his work in this line
in Franklin Institute, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Returning
to his old foundry, he remained there for a number of years, and
was its designer. He also was a practical machinist, and became
so adept that he also served as an instructor in the Virginia
Polytechnic Institute for several years. During all of this time,
however, he was steadily working toward the end of establishing
his own business, and this he was able to do in 1896, when he
opened the Hubard Foundry & Machine Worlvs in Lynchburg.
From the start the business was a success, and in 1904 he incor-
porated it, and is now president and general manager ; C. W.
Gooch, vice president; and A. B. Dabney, secretary and treas-
urer. A general line of machine work is done, and the quality
is rated very high.
Mr. Hubard married in Richmond in the latter part of the
last century Miss Louise Carrington, a native of that city, and
a daughter of Dr. George Carrington, one of the prominent
physicians and surgeons of Richmond and Rustburg until his
death. Very prominent in Masonry, he at one time held the
office of grand secretary of his order. Three children have been
born to Mr. and Mrs. Hubard, but one only survives, she being
Eleanor, who is attending school. A man of strong religious
convictions, Mr. Hubard belongs to the International Bible Stu-
dents Association. He is a Mason and a Knight of Pythias.
While he votes the Democratic ticket and supports his party's
principles, he is not an aspirent for political honors. A man of
uncommon ability, kindly disposition and broad sympathies, he
C::;'Cl:^z^c-<^,.,-^^^ X>. /^'^^yz.^^^
VIRGINIA 165
knows how to win the approval of men and earn and retain their
friendship. His interest in Lynchburg and its development is
warm and sincere and he has ever contributed generously toward
the advancement of those measures which appeal to him as
worthy ones. His success in life is all the more noteworthy in
that it has been attained entirely through his own efforts.
LiNWOOD Dickens Keyser, of Roanoke, took his A. B. degree
at the University of Virginia in 1914, the M. D. degree at Johns
Hopkins University in 1918, and has also been accorded a dis-
tinction readily recognized by all members of the medical and
surgical profession, the degree Master of Science in Pathology
from the University of Minnesota in 1921, bestowed in recog-
nition of the several years of active connection with the Mayo
Clinic.
Doctor Keyser was born at Victoria, Texas, September 26,
1893, but is a member of an old and well known family of Vir-
ginia. His great-grandfather, Christopher Keyser, was an elder
and minister of the Baptist Church. Doctor Keyser's grand-
father, Henry Marcellus Keyser, was a doctor of medicine and
was born in Page County, Virginia, January 22, 1835. He grad-
uated from the Cincinnati Medical College, later attended the
Jefferson Medical College of Philadelphia, and in addition to
practicing medicine was superintendent of schools in Page
County, and for five terms a member of the State Legislature.
He died in 1898.
The father of Doctor Linwood Dickens Keyser is Ernest Lin-
wood Keyser, a well known business man of Roanoke. He was
born in Page County October 21, 1868, attended the New Mar-
ket Polytechnic Institute, graduated in pharmacy at Chicago in
1892, and for ten years was in the drug business at San Antonio
and Victoria, Texas. In 1902 he located at Roanoke, and in re-
cent years has given most of his time to drug and chemical
manufacturing. He is president of the Keyser Chemical Com-
pany and has also been president of the Keyser-Warren Drug
Company, and an official in the Keyser-Holback Drug Company.
Ernest L. Keyser has been prominent in the Democratic party
for many years, having been a delegate to the National Conven-
tions of 1908 and 1912, was elected to the Virginia House of
Delegates in 1910, and made himself especially valuable to Roa-
noke while in the Legislature. He is a Royal Arch thirty-second
degree, Knight Templar and Shriner Mason, member of the
B. P. 0. Elks, and he is a member of the Baptist Church, while
his wife is a member of St. John's Episcopal Church. He mar-
ried, in 1889, Lillie Dickens, daughter of M. H. Dickens, of Bee
County, Texas.
Their only son, Linwood Dickens Keyser, has spent most of
his life at Roanoke, having been about six years of age when
his parents established their home here on returning from
Texas. Doctor Kevser graduated with the A. B. degree from
the LTniversity of Virginia in 1914. He took his degree at Johns
Hopkins University School of Medicine at Baltimore in 1918,
and the degree Master of Science in Pathology was bestowed by
the University of Minnesota in 1921.
During the World war Doctor Keyser was commissioned a
first lieutenant in the Medical Reserve Corps, but was not called
to active duty. From June, 1917, to March, 1918, he was an
interne in the Church Home and Infirmary, Baltimore; June,
1918, to July, 1919, was an interne in the Johns Hopkins Hos-
166 VIRGINIA
pital at Baltimore, and from July to December, 1919, was
assistant resident surgeon at the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital
in Boston. He was resident surgeon at the New York Post-
Graduate Hospital from January to June, 1920, and on Septem-
ber 8, 1920, entered the Mayo Foundation as a fellow in pathol-
ogy. He had a range of service and experience with the Foun-
dation lasting several years, including nine and a half months
in surgical pathology, nine months in urology, three months in
general diagnosis, nine months in operative surgery, three
months in orthopedic surgery, and twenty-seven months in ex-
perimental surgery and pathology, this last work being carried
en in connection with his duties in other special departments.
Doctor Keyser on July 1, 1923, left the Mayo Foundation and
is now attending surgeon and surgical pathologist at the Roa-
noke Hospital. He is a member of the Roanoke Academy of
Medicine, Southwest Virginia Medical Society, Virginia State
Medical Society, Tri-State Medical Society, Southern Medical
Association and American Medical Association. He belongs to
the Association of Resident and Ex-resident Physicians of the
Mayo Clinics. He is a member of the American Urological Society
and belongs to the Sigma Xi honorary iraternity and Phi Chi
medical fraternity and is a fellow of the American College of
Surgeons. Doctor Keyser is one of the brilliant men of his pro-
fession in Virginia today. In addition to his work in labora-
tories, clinics and the general routine of his service he has con-
tributed about twenty-five articles to various medical and surgi-
cal journals, chiefly on surgery and urological subjects.
While at the University of Virginia Doctor Keyser was a
member of the Raven Society and acted as student assistant in
chemistry during 1912-14. He is a Scottish Rite Mason and
Shriner, member of the Lions Club, Chamber of Commerce, Uni-
versity Club, Shenandoah Club, Country Club and St. John's
Episcopal Church. He is also assistant surgeon-in-chief to the
Sons of Confederate Veterans.
Howard Seville Hunt for many years was in the railway
train service, being associated with some of the great trunk
lines of railway traversing Virginia and other eastern states,
was prompt, vigilant and efficient, and enjoyed the esteem of
both his associates and superiors.
He was born in North Carolina August 2, 1866,, and lost his
life while in the line of duty at Okonoko, West Virginia, in Feb-
ruary, 1907. His father, Samuel H. Hunt, was born in Alabama,
entered the Confederate army when young, and at the end of
the war was mustered out in North Carolina, met his wife there,
Frances Ellerson, and after a few years in that state moved to
Virginia and spent the rest of his life as a merchant and farmer.
Howard S. Hunt was the oldest in a family of eight children,
seven sons and one daughter. He finished his education in the
Fishburne Military Academy at Waynesboro, Virginia. As a
youth he learned telegraphy with the Chesapeake & Ohio Rail-
way at Lynchburg, spent two years there, and resigned from
that branch of the service to become a locomotive engineer. He
was an engineer for the Chesapeake & Ohio several years and
then with the Baltimore & Ohio, having an important run be-
tween Cumberland and Brunswick, Maryland, and lost his life
in a wreck on that division. He was a popular member of the
Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers, belonged to the Masonic
VIRGINIA 167
fraternity, was a Democrat, and both he and his wife were active
members of the Baptist Church.
He married at Crozet, Virginia, in February, 1892, Miss
Dora Lee Wood, who survives him and resides at 1529 Morris
Avenue in Norfolk. Mrs. Hunt was educated in the Gordans-
ville Female Institute in Virginia and the Centi-al Female In-
stitute at Clinton, Mississippi. Her father, William H. Wood,
was a merchant at Granada, Mississippi, and had served in the
cavalry in the Confederate army during the Civil war. Her
mother was Mary Elizabeth Robertson, a native of Virginia, and
Mrs. Hunt is one of two living children. Mr. and Mrs. Hunt had
five children : Samuel, who served overseas during the World
war in the Signal Corps, is now an electrician living in New
Jersey, and by his marriage with Amy Street has two children,
Russell Hunt and Margarett Hunt ; Hai'vey Lee, a chemi-st, who
served two years in the Chemical Warfare Division in labora-
tory work during the World war, is a member of the firm Nor-
folk Testing Laboratories, and married May Hudson ; William
Hamilton, assistant manager of the Monticello, Norfolk's largest
hotel, married Reva Hawkins, of Charlottesville, Virginia, and
has one daughter, Marcia ; Miss Eunice May lives with her
mother, and James Wood is a student of aviation.
H. Hilton Anderson. Among the men prominently identi-
fied with the real estate, loan and insurance business of Fairfax
County, one who has at all times maintained high ideals of busi-
ness integrity is H. Hilton Anderson, of the firm of H. H. Ander-
son & Company of East Falls Church. His career has been sig-
nalized by participation in a number of large and important
transactions and by strict adherence to the ethics and amenities
of his business, and as a result he has not only won personal
success and prominence, but has also attracted and held the con-
fidence and esteem of the people of his community.
Mr. Anderson was born March 11, 1875, on a farm in Rappa-
hannock County, Virginia, and is a son of H. B. and Eugenia
(Griffin) Anderson, natives of the same county. H. B. Ander-
son was reared on a farm, on which he worked until the out-
break of the war between the states, at which time he, with his
brothers Peji:on and Joseph, enlisted in the Confederate army
and went almost immediately to the field of conflict. Although
Fort Sumter had been fired upon April 12, 1861, and the first
blood had been shed April 19 in a street attack on the Sixth
Massachusetts Regiment, which was on its way to Washington,
it is thought that Peyton Anderson was the first soldier wounded
in the war in actual conflict between forces of the South and
North. His wound was not a fatal one, but his brother Joseph
later met a soldier's death on the field of battle. Following the
close of the war H. B. Anderson returned to Rappahannock
County, where he resumed his farming operations, and also en-
gaged in the operation of a sawmill. These activities he con-
tinued until his retirement several yeai's before his death, which
occurred February 17, 1909. Mrs. Anderson had passed away
years before, February 18, 1886.
The education of H. Hilton Anderson was acquired in the
public schools of Rappahannock County, and he was reared in
a rural atmosphere. It was natural that he should adopt farm-
ing in his youth, and he remained with his parents until reach-
ing the age of twenty-six years, at which time he moved to
Fairfax County. In 1902 he took up his residence at Falls
168 VIRGINIA
Church, where he embarked in the feed and lumber business,
and continued therein for about twenty years, with much suc-
cess. In 1922 he received his introduction to the real estate
loan and insurance business with Garland L. Kendrick, and in
January, 1923, bought out the business, which he has conducted
with much success to the present. While this is an old estab-
lished business, it has prospered most materially since Mr. An-
derson became its owner, and the firm of H. H. Anderson &
Company now occupies a place among the leaders in its field in
Fairfax County. Mr. Anderson applies himself strictly to his
business and has few outside interests, not being a club or
fraternity man. He is a staunch Democrat in his political con-
victions and a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, while
the members of his family are Baptists.
On February 21, 1905, Mr. Anderson married Miss Lulu
Wileorbin, daughter of W. B. and Emma N. (Spillman) Wile-
orbin, natives of Rappahannock County. Mr. Anderson's father-
in-law has always been a farmer, and is now eighty-four years
of age, his worthy wife also surviving. He is a Confederate
veteran of the war between the states. To Mr. and Mrs. Ander-
son there has come one son, E. James, born May 16, 1913, who
is attending school.
William Power Tyree. Although unknown to the present
generation of business men of Virginia, his death having oc-
curred in 1906, the late William Power Tyree was one of the
strong and forceful men of his day at Danville, where he was
engaged for a number of years in the wholesale brokerage busi-
ness. His career, cut short by death when he was only forty-
five years of age, was an active, varied and useful one, and in
each of his several avenues of activity he won the respect of
men who admire and appreciate the abilities of others.
Mr. Tyree was born at Danville, Virginia, in April, 1861, and
was a son of David and Hannah (O'Brien) Tyree. His parents
were born and married in Dublin, Ireland, where David Tyree
was a merchant, and following their union immigrated to the
United States and settled at Danville, where Mr. Tyree continued
his business as a merchant until his death. William Power
Tyree was the fourth child in a family of eight children, among
whom was a son Tom, who rose to a captaincy in the Confederate
army during the war between the states, and another son, David,
who was engaged in business affairs at Danville for many years.
The public schools of Danville, as well as a private school,
furnished William Power Tyree with his educational training,
following which he became teacher of mathematics at the Bap-
tist College of Danville, a position which he retained for two
years. He then entered the Commercial Bank of Danville, with
which he remained until elected city tax collector of Danville.
When he left that office four years later he embarked in the
wholesale grocery business as a broker, and continued therein
until his death May 2, 1906. Although he was a Democrat in
his political views, Mr. Tyree was a life long fighter in the cause
of temperance and for many years was the head of the prohibi-
tion party at Danville. Fraternally he was a popular member
of the Knights of the Maccabees. As a man of civic pride and
public spirit, he was one of the enthusiastic workers in the
Chamber of Commerce and the Board of Trade, and his asso-
ciates in the business world frequently came to him for counsel
and guidance. He belonged to Epiphany Episcopal Church of
%.
/^1,
VIRGINIA 169
Danville, in which he was superintendent of the Sunday school
and missed onlv one Sunday in thirteen consecutive years.
On July 2, 1891, in Halifax County, Virginia, Mr. Tyree was
united in marriage with Miss Jennie C. Clarke, of that county,
daughter of E. H. Clarke, a prominent plantation owner. The
Clarke family is descended from an ancestor who sat in the
House of Burgesses, and the family resided in Cumberland
County, Virginia, prior to the War of the Revolution. E. H.
Clarke was a member of the Home Guards stationed at Rich-
mond during the war between the states, and he and his wife,
Mary Robinson, of Campbell County, Virginia, were the parents
of three sons, Frank, Thomas and Samuel, all of whom were
soldiers of the Confederacy, and all now farmers of Halifax
County. To Mr. and Mrs. Tyree there was born one son, William
Power, who was educated at Danville and Norfolk and since
his twenty-first year has been manager of the tractor depart-
ment of the Ford Motor Company at Norfolk. He married Mary
Elizabeth Fritchard, of Pantego, Beaufort County, North Caro-
lina. Since the death of her husband Mrs. Tyree has resided at
Norfolk, where she has an attractive home at 533 Maryland
Avenue. She is a member of the Episcopal Church, and has been
active and helpful in its work.
Charles Lee Robinson. To the civic and industrial advance-
ment and prestige of the City of Winchester, judicial center of
Frederick County, the late Charles L. Robinson made splendid
contribution. He was a business man of remarkable initiative
and executive ability, and had the courage to carry forward
important industrial enterprises to success in the face of objec-
tive predictions of his failure. He developed two of the leading
industries of Winchester and was one of the most valued and
honored citizens of this historic old city at the time of his death,
which occurred April 1, 1922. It is obvious that a tribute to
his achievement and to his memory will be a fitting contribution
to this publication.
Mr. Robinson was born in the State of Indiana, January 1,
1855, and was a boy when the family home was established at
Fairmont, Marion County, West Virginia, which state was at the
time still a part of Virginia. His father, Francis Harrison
Robinson, came to West Virginia as a representative of the
construction and service of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, with
which he long continued his alliance, both he and his wife hav-
ing continued their residence to Fairmont until their death.
To the public schools of Fairmont the subject of this memoir
was indebted for his early education, and even as a boy he mani-
fested exceptional mental alertness, self-reliance and tenacity
of purpose — attributes that distinctly marked and conserved
the success of his later business career. His early experience
in business affairs was gained at Fairmont, and there he initi-
ated his independent activities by engaging in the retail coal and
ice business on a modest scale. He made this venture a success,
but he constantly was on the outlook for broader opportunities,
with the result that eventually, in 1902, he removed with his
family to Winchester, Virginia, and entered upon the vigorous
and constructive business career that led to his advancement
to the status of one of the leading figures in the industrial and
commercial life of this community. He came to Frederick
County before the apple industry of this section of the state
had developed to its present large and important proportions.
170 VIRGINIA
Though discouraged in such action by other men of affairs at
Winchester, Mr. Robinson here purchased a small ice manufac-
turing plant that had been operated with negligible success. In
his initial stage of developing this enterprise he encountered
many perplexities and discouragements, but he had faith in him-
self and his judgment and, as ever, refused to be baffled or dis-
mayed by adverse conditions. He built up a prosperous ice and
storage business and likevv^ise turned his attention to developing
other enterprises that had been semi-failures under previous
control. He believed in Winchester and its great future, and
proved that he had a reason for this faith. In 1907 Mr. Rob-
inson bought the Winchester Steam Laundry, and under his
resourceful and vigorous policies this likewise was made a suc-
cess. The Snapp Foundry next attracted him as an investment.
This likewise had proved a waning industrial enterprise, but
he promptly infused his characteristic energy and progressive-
ness into its management, with the ultimate result that it now
stands as one of the leading industrial concerns of this section
of Virginia. He purchased this property in 1910, and in the
upbuilding of the business he had the effective co-operation of
his sons, under whose control the business has been successfully
continued since his death.
It was in April, 1902, that Mr. Robinson made his initial
business venture in Winchester, by purchasing the modest ice
plant that as to prove the nucleus around which has been
developed the substantial and important enterprise now con-
ducted under the corporate title of the C. L. Robinson Ice & Cold
Storage Corporation. The original manufactory of this con-
cern had a production capacity of only ten tons of ice daily, and
the output was used almost exclusively in local consumption.
The capacity of the present modern plant in 100 tons of ice
daily. In connection with the enterprise Mr. Robinson pro-
ceeded with the development also of a cold-storage plant, to
meet the demands of apple-growers of this section of the state.
In 1905 he established a cold-storage plant with a capacity of
20,000 barrels, and this was used almost entirely for the stor-
age of apples for market demands. By subsequent expansions
the capacity of the Winchester storage plant has been increased
to 200,000 barrels, and the scope of the business has been
increased through the operation of a well equipped storage plant
at Berryville, Clarke County, Virginia, and another at Charles
Town, West Virginia. In 1912 Mr. Robinson and his sons
assumed control of the Berryville Ice & Refrigerating Com-
pany, and later developed the prosperous ice and storage busi-
ness at Charles Town, both of these plants being of modern
equipment and large capacity. In 1911 was effected the incor-
poration of the business under the present title of C. L. Rob-
inson Ice & Cold Storage Corporation, the stock of which is
retained entirely by the Robinson family. Of this corporation,
the service of which has been of inestimable value in affording
market outlet for the great apple industry, Mr. Robinson con-
tinued the president until his death, and its operations are based
on a capital stock of $150,000. In 1917 Mr. Robinson bought
the entire capital stock of the business at Berryville and also of
the holdings at Winchester and Charles Town. The association
of the Robinson family with the apple industry became still
closer when, in 1910 the subject of this memoir acquired his first
orchard, and since that year the family holdings of bearing
orchards have been increased to 1,200 acres, — in Frederick
VIRGINIA 171
County, Virginia ; Jefferson and Berkeley counties, West Vir-
ginia; and Washington and Allegany counties, Maryland. In
these splendid orchards are produced the finest types of apples,
including New Town Pippins, Grimes Golden, Golden Delicious,
Stark's Delicious, King David, Jonathans, Stayman Wine Saps,
York Imperials, Ben Davis, Yellow Transparent, Dutchess,
Wealthy, Mcintosh, Rome Beauty, etc.
In 1910 Mr. Robinson purchased the Snapp Foundry, which
is now incorporated under this title and the stock of which is
owned by his family. The Snapp Foundry was established in
1865, by F. R. Snapp, and the original plant stood on the site
of the present large and modern plant. Mr. Robinson acquired
the property from the heirs of the founder of the business, and
as owner he entrusted the operations of the foundry to eflficient
managers, this arrangement having continued until his death.
From a run-down status he developed the business into a sub-
stantial and important industry, and the work of progress has
been effectively carried forward by his sons since he himself
passed away. After the death of Mr. Robinson the business of the
Snapp Foundry was reorganized and incorporated, and his
widow became its president, his daughter Mary E. was made
vice president, and his son Charles A. became secretary and
treasurer. The capital stock of the Snapp Foundry is S15,000,
and the son Frank B. is now president of the corporation, while
the son Charles A. continues not only as secretary and treasurer
but also as general manager. The major development of this
enterprise has occurred within the past eight years, and the
foundry now maintains a corps of thirty employes, most of
whom are skilled workmen. The establishment manufacturers
gray-iron castings, and these are shipped over a wide territory,
from Albany, New York, to New Orleans, Louisiana, and as far
west as Butte, Montana. In the machine shop are maintained
the best of modern facilities for the handling of general repair
work for the industries of this section of the state, and the cor-
poration has also provision for the fabrication and erection of
structural steel, in which connection it has executed important
contracts and provided service that previously had required
recourse to concerns in outside cities. The company figures
likewise as jobbers of machine supplies and material, and this
effective service obviates former expenditure of time, with inci-
dental financial losses, in connection with providing supplies
that formerly had to be shipped from distant points.
The late Charles L. Robinson is survived by his widow, whose
maiden name was Marie Elizabeth Barnes and who was born
and reared at Fairmont, West Virginia, she being still a resident
of Winchester and being a loved figure in the social life of this
community. Of the five children the eldest is Frederick A., who
is now vice president of both the Snapp Foundry and the C. L.
Robinson Ice & Cold Storage Company; Frank B. is president
of these companies and maintains his home at Charles Town,
West Virginia; Harry D. is treasurer of both corporations;
Charles A. is secretary, treasurer and general manager of the
Snapp Foundry; and Miss Mary Elizabeth remains with her
widowed mother in the attractive home at Winchester. All of
the children were born at Fairmont, West Virginia. Frederick
A. married Miss Mamie Brown, of Winchester; Frank B., mar-
ried Miss Blanch Boxwell, of the same city ; and Harry D. mar-
ried Miss Louise Hall, of Fairmont, West Virginia. Charles A.,
youngest of the sons, is familiarly kno^vn by his second personal
172 VIRGINIA
name, Arthur, and he married Miss Reba Beam, of Carlisle,
Pennsylvania, in which city he and his brother Harry D.
attended Dickerson College. All of the sons are affiliated with
the Masonic fraternity, including the Mystic Shrine.
The late Charles L. Robinson was a zealous member of the
Methodist Episcopal Church, as is also his widow, and he was a
Knight Templar Mason, besides being a Noble of the Mystic
Shrine. He was affiliated also with the Knights of Pythias, the
Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the Improved Order of
Red Men. He was a business man of exceptional ability, was
loyal and public-spirited as a citizen, and his sterling character
found expression in kindly and generous human helpfulness,
ever extended in an unostentatious way. His genial and buoy-
ant personality gained to him the high regard of all who came
within the sphere of his influence.
Hon. Wilson Mahone Farr, commonwealth's attorney of
Fairfax County, and one of the ablest men practicing at the bar
of Fairfax, is a man fortunate in his choice of a profession. Its
employments are congenial to him, and he follows them with
unflagging interest and zest. To him the work of the law is not
drudgery, but a source of keen intellectual pleasure, and its con-
troversies aflford him frequent opportunities to show his ability
to meet his opponent upon any ground. It is his rare good for-
tune to be a man in love with his work and to find in it adequate
and satisfying occupation for all his faculties. So generally
recognized are his unusual capabilities, his uprightness and his
unflinching courage that he is regarded as the ideal man for
the important office he holds, a fact attested by his election and
reelection to it during a period of over six years.
Mr. Farr was born in Henrico County, Virginia, October 17,
1884, while his parents were residing there temporarily, but his
family belongs to Fairfax County. He is a son of Richard Rat-
cliffe Farr, born at Farr's Crossroads, Fairfax County, Virginia.
During the second year of the war between the states, when only
a little over sixteen years old, his father enlisted in Company B,
of General Mosby's command. Seriously wounded in the Blazer
fight, he was paroled at the close of the war, at the time being
only in his eighteenth year. After the close of the war he took
a prominent part in local aff'airs, was active in politics, and
served in the State Legislature for a number of terms. Another
honor was his, that of being one of the early state superinten-
dents of public instruction, holding that important office for the
term beginning January 1, 1882, and ending January 1, 1886.
He married Miss Margaret E. Malone, born in Buncombe
County, North Carolina, a daughter of John and Ann Rebecca
(Gooding) Malone of Fairfax County.
Growing up in Fairfax, Wilson M. Farr attended its public
schools, and later the Central High School, Washington City,
after which he entered Roanoke College, Salem, Virginia, and
remained there through the sophomore year. His legal educa-
tion was taken in Georgetown University of Law, Washington,
and he was graduated therefrom in 1907, with the degree of
Bachelor of Laws. For the term of 1906-07 Mr. Farr taught
school in the town of Fairfax, and in 1906, he passed the state
bar examinations and was admitted to the bar. From then on he
has been engaged in a general practice with offices in Fairfax,
with increasing success. In 1922 he was appointed common-
wealth's attorney to fill out an unexpired term, was reelected
without opposition in 1924, and again reelected in 1927, and is
the present incumbent of the office.
VIRGINIA 173
On November 24, 1915, Mr. Farr married Miss Edith Wiley,
a daughter of Robert Wiley (a member of Jackson's Corps) and
Mary E. (Lee) Wiley, and they have two daughters: Edith
Malone Farr, who was born September 7, 1923; and Ann Rat-
cliffe Farr, who was born November 22, 1924. Mr. and Mrs.
Farr maintain their home in Fairfax, and here they welcome
their many friends with true Southern hospitality. Mr. Farr
belongs to the Belle Haven Country Club, the Fairfax Chamber
of Commerce, the Sons of Confederate Veterans, the Virginia
State Bar Association and is a director of the National Bank of
Fairfax.
Robert Lee Strange. The late Robert Lee Strange was
given but a little more than half a century in this world, but
during that time he accomplished much, and left behind him the
memory of a life well spent, of duty faithfully discharged, and
of good citizenship proved and sustained. He was born in Flu-
vanna County, Virginia, in 1866, and died in Richmond, Virginia,
in November, 1923. He was a son of William George Strange,
a commission merchant, saw-mill owner and prominent business
man of Richmond for many years. Descended in direct line from
Gen. John Bony Strange, of Revolutionai-y fame, Robert Lee
Strange was proud of the connection and that other members of
the family were notable, one of them more nearly in his genera-
tion being his father's cousin, who was clerk of the County
Court of Fluvanna County for many years.
Educated in the public schools of his native county, Robert
Lee Strange grew- up to useful manhood, and when old enough
for its responsibilities went into the saw-mill business with his
father in Dinwiddle County, Virginia, maintaining that connec-
tion until after the death of his father, when he went to Gooch-
land County and engaged in farming for himse'f. He also
bought and .sold and fattened cattle for market. Still later he
reentered the saw-mill business and remained in it for ten years,
and then he and H. S. Holland began quarrying stone from the
quarry in Goochland County, and in this occupation he com-
pleted his business career, retiring in 1922 and locating in Rich-
mond. While he was in the last named line he served as post-
master and freight agent for the Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad
at the station adjacent to his quarry. In political faith he was a
Democrat, and quite active locally. However, he was not a man
who sought publicity, but rather tried to do his duty as privately
and unostentatiously as possible. His home and his family came
first with him, and with his loved ones he found his greatest hap-
piness. A devoted husband, a careful father and a kind friend,
he was a man whose loss was deeply felt when death removed
him from the midst of those who knew and appreciated him.
On December 28, 1899. Mr. Strange married Miss Kathrine
Tillman, a daughter of P. R. and Sarah Virginia (Brown) Till-
man, and granddaughter on her mother's side of James Dabney
Brown, a private courier for Gen. Robert E. Lee during the war
between the states, an honor his descendants deeply appreciate.
Mrs. Strange was educated in public and private schools in
Goochland County, and she is a lady deeply interested in current
events, a good mother and neighbor. Four children were born
to Mr. and Mrs. Strange : Virginia, who married Elmer Kiser,
of Tazewell, Virginia ; Bernice, who is a registered nurse, grad-
uated from the Retreat of the Sick Hospital, Richmond, class of
1925, and engaged in the practice of her profession ; Catherine,
who is in the employ of the Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad; and
Robert Lee, Junior, at home, aged ten years.
174 VIRGINIA
Henry Louis Smith since 1912 has had the distinction of
presiding over one of the South's finest institutions of learning,
Washington and Lee University at Lexington.
Doctor Smith was born at Greensboro, North Carolina,
July 30, 1859, son of Jacob Henry and Mary Kelly (Watson)
Smith and a great-grandson of Henry Louis Smith, a pioneer
of the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, Jacob Henry Smith was
born in the Shenandoah Valley and his wife was a daughter of
Judge Egbert R. Watson, long a member of the bar of Charlottes-
ville. Jacob Henry Smith gave his life to the Presbyterian min-
istry in Virginia and North Carolina. He was the father of five
sons who gained eminence in the ministry and in the learned
professions, all five listed in "Who's Who in America." One of
them was Dr. Samuel M. Smith, of Columbia, South Carolina,
who was known as a scholar, preacher and orator in the South-
ern Presbyterian Church ; another was the late Dr. Charles
Alphonso Smith, at one time professor of English in the Uni-
versity of Virginia and in the United States Naval Academy,
who died in 1924 ; another is Dr. Egbert Watson Smith, secre-
tary of Foreign Missions of the Presbyterian Church in the
United States since 1911 ; and a fourth is Dr. Hay Watson
Smith, of Little Rock Arkansas.
Henry Louis Smith was reared in a home of high ideals and
of religious influences, and learned to appreciate the qualities of
intellectual culture when a boy. He also had the interests of a
normal boy, participating in all outdoor sports both in school
and college. He received his early education at Greensboro, en-
tered Davidson College of North Carolina in 1877, and was
graduated in 1881 with the A. B. degree maxima cum laude and
winning gold medals for his work in Greek, mathematics and
English essay. For five years he was principal of a classical
academy at Selma, North Carolina, and in 1886 Davidson Col-
lege bestowed upon him the Master of Arts degree and called
him to the chair of physics and geology. He held that chair
until 1901. From 1898 to 1901 he was vice president of the col-
lege, and from 1901 to 1912, president. In the meantime he had
continued his post-graduate studies at the University of Vir-
ginia, which awarded him the Doctor of Philosophy degree in
1891, his major work being in physics and geology. He is cred-
ited with being the first scientist in the United States to use
the X-Ray in medical and surgical cases, and made the first
X-Ray photograph ever taken in the South. He did laboratory
work at Cornell and Harvard Universities in 1893 and 1894. He
was president of the North Carolina Teachers Assembly in 1889,
and of the Association of Virginia Colleges in 1914-15. The
University of North Carolina awarded him the honorary LL. D.
degree in 1906. He has been vice president of the American Col-
lege Association, is a member of the American Academy of
Political and Social Science, American Society for Broader Edu-
cation, American Association for the Advancement of Science,
and is a Phi Beta Kappa, Phi Delta Theta and Omicron Delta
Kappa.
In the closing months of the World war much influence
was credited, in the weakening of the German popular morale,
to the widespread distribution of pamphlets behind the lines,
dropped from balloons. This device was originated by Doctor
Smith, who for it was awarded the prize offered by the Na-
tional Security League for the best means of distributing among
the German people such propaganda. Doctor Smith is the
'ZJ
SO...-^^ 'v^.'^
VIRGINIA 175
author of many articles and bulletins on educational and scien-
tific subjects and a widely known lecturer on educational and
scientific subjects. He has for many years been a ruling elder
in the Presbyterian Church. In 1921, representing the governor
of Virginia, he headed the delegation which formally presented
to the government and people of Great Britain in Trafalgar
Square, a bronze duplicate of Houdon's statue of Washington.
He married at Davidson, North Carolina, August 4, 1896,
Julia Lorraine Dupuy, a descendant of Bartholomew Depuy and
his wife, the Countess Susanne Lavillon, Huguenots, who came
to Virginia from France during the era of religious persecution.
Doctor and Mrs. Smith had the following children : Jacob
Henry, deceased ; Helen Lorraine, Raymond Dupuy, Julia Dupuy,
Louise Watson, Opie Norris and Francis Sampson.
William Lewis Schafer, M. D. Were all the good deeds
of the members of the medical profession to be published the
pages of this work would be crowded with nothing else, for no
class of men are so innately charitable and self-sacrificing as
those who take upon themselves the responsibilities of this most
exacting as well as noble calling. No physician lets his charities
be known to the general public. Where the need exists, he gives
of his care, experience and knowledge without thought of a
return, and a very few of the profession rise to great wealth
through their practice. The requirements of the profession are
such as to demand the highest class of characteristics, and the
development of character is very pronounced. In many com-
munities the medical men are the leading factors in municipal
life, and always they give their support, usually taking the
initiative, in inaugurating sanitary reforms and improvements.
Such a man is Dr. W. Lewis Schafer, one of the brilliant young
physicians of Alexandria, whose success is marked, and who has
wen and holds the confidence of his fellow citizens.
Doctor Schafer is not only carrying on a large private prac-
tice, with offices at 511 Prince Street, but he is serving as city
bacteriologist with exceptional capability. He was born in
Alexandria, February 22, 1899, a son of W. Lewis and Effie L.
(McCracken) Schafer, natives of the same city. The father is
manager of the Doremus Machine Company, having charge of
the company's electric plating shop in Washington City, a
responsible position.
Fcllcwing his graduation from the Alexandria High School
in 1916 Doctor Schafer entered George Washington University,
Washington, and had been there but a year when he enlisted,
in 1917, as a private in the regular army, and was assigned to
the Medical Corps. He served for ten months overseas, was
gassed twice, and was invalided for six months on account of
his injuries from the gassing, but upon his recovery and honor-
able discharge he returned to the University, and was graduated
therefrom in 1925, with the degree of Doctor of Medicine. For
the subsequent year he interned in Stuart Circle Hospital, Rich-
mond, and in the latter part of 1926 came to Alexandria and
entered upon the practice of his profession, in which he has
succeeded so wonderfully. Almost immediately he was made
bacteriologist, and has since continued to so serve the city.
He is unmarried. Doctor Schafer belongs to the Alexandria
Medical Society, the Virginia State Medical Society and the
American Medical Association. On January 1, 1929, he was
appointed to the position of city health officer. He still holds
176 VIRGINIA
the rank of first lieutenant in the Six Hundred and Ninth Coast
Artillery Reserve Corps. The Masonic Order, the American
Legion, the 40 and 8, and the Old Dominion Boat Club hold his
membership. He is numbered among- the stalwart Democrats
of Alexandria, although his various professional responsibilities
prevent his participating as actively in politics as he might
otherwise. The Episcopal Church is his religious home.
Hon. Bryan Gordon. Among the men who have contrib-
uted to the dignity and stability of public affairs at Clarendon,
few have rendered more valuable and capable service than Hon.
Bryan Gordon, justice of the peace and assistant police juage at
Clarendon, with offices at the Arlington County Court House.
For more than thirty-two years a member of the bench and bar
of Virginia, West Virginia and Oklahoma, his experience had
been broad and varied, and he has been successful in building up
a substantial reputation for legal ability and personal probity.
Judge Gordon was born August 7, 1873, in Albemarle County,
Virginia, and is a son of Dr. John C. and Mary (Pigram) Gor-
don. His father, a native of Orange County, Virginia, was
educated for the profession of medicine, which he followed
throughout his life in Albemarle County, with the exception
of his service with the Confederate army as a surgeon during
the war between the states. He was a man of high standing in
his calling, who won respect no less by his high character than
by his professional ability, and was an honored member of the
Albemarle County Medical Society, the Virginia State Medical
Society and the American Medical Association. He also had
several business connections, and in his death in 1919 his com-
munity lost a valuable member of society. Mrs. Gordon, who is
also deceased, was a native of Norfolk, this state.
In his boyhood Bryan Gordon's parents took up their resi-
dence at Charlottesville, where the youth received his early edu-
cational training at Major Jones' University School. He then
entered the University of Virginia, in the law department of
which institution he took the three year course with the excep-
tion of C. and T., and immediately engaged in the practice of
his profession at Charlottesville. Subsequently he went to
Morgantown, West Virginia, where he remained for five years,
removing to Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, and this was followed
by twelve years of practice at Manassas, Virginia. On leaving
Manassas Judge Gordon accepted a position in the United States
Internal Revenue Department at Washington, D. C, and at the
end of six years, in 1924, took up his residence at Arlington
County Court House, where he has since become a prominent
figure in his profession. For several years Judge Gordon served
very capably as justice of the peace, a position which he still
holds, and January 1, 1928, was appointed assistant police judge.
He is able, courageous and thoroughly learned in all depart-
ments of the law, and is a member of the local bar association
and the Virginia State Bar Association. He belongs to the Blue
Lodge of Masonry and the Monarch Club and politically is a
Democrat. In his youth Judge Gordon joined the Baptist
Church, and at present is a member of the Board of Deacons and
also teaches a class of boys in the Sunday School. He has always
been a staunch supporter of all measures fostered for the benefit
of the community, and has the reputation, well earned, of being
a public spirited and constructively inclined citizen.
VIRGINIA 177
In December, 1913, Judge Gordon was united in marriage
with Miss Elise Stevens, a daughter of Dr. William L. and Eloise
P. (Gibson) Stevens, of Orange County, Virginia. Doctor Ste-
vens served as a contract surgeon during the Spanish-American
war, and for many years was successfully engaged in the prac-
tice of his profession at Orange, where his death occurred in
1921. To Judge and Mrs. Gordon there have been born two
children: Bryan, Jr., born in 1916 and Julia Lindsay, born in
1920. By a former marriage Judge Gordon has one daughter :
Mary Frances, who is a student at the University of Pittsburgh.
Kenneth H. Gayle was born shortly before the inception of
the great Civil war that brought much of distress and devasta-
tion to his native state of Virginia, and the period of his boy-
hood was marked by the depressed and inconsistant conditions
that prevailed during the so called period of reconstruction after
the close of the war. He passed his entire life in Norfolk
County, Virginia, was long and actively concerned with business
affairs in the City of Norfolk, and was one of the sterling and
honored citizens of Norfolk at the time of his death, in October,
1926.
Mr. Gayle was born at Portsmouth, judicial center of Norfolk
County, June 7, 1860, and thus was sixty-six years of age at the
time of his death. He was the fifth in order of birth in the fam-
ily of eight children born to Robert F. and Sarah B. Gayle. The
public schools of Portsmouth afforded Kenneth H. Gayle his
early education, and after having been employed about two years
in a grocery store he formed the business association that was
to continue during the remainder of his earnest and worthy life.
He was still little more than a boy when he entered the employ
of C. C. Billups & Son, engaged in the agricultural implement
business in Norfolk, and with this representative concern he
continued his alliance fully half a century, that alliance having
been terminated by his death. In his inviolable loyalty and effi-
ciency Mr. Gayle contributed much to the upbuilding of the large
and important business of this concern, and every stage of his
career was marked by his retention of the confidence and the
esteem of his business associates, the while his circle of friends
in his native county and state was limited only by that of his
acquaintances.
Mr. Gayle was loyal and public spirited in his civic attitude,
was a staunch supporter of the cause of the Democratic party,
but he never manifested any ambition for political office. In his
youth he served as a member of the Old Dominion Guards of
Portsmouth, in which military organization he was a member
of Grimes' Battery. He was long and actively affiliated with
the Royal Arcanum, and was an earnest member of the Method-
dist Episcopal Church, South, as is also his widow-. The subject
of this memoir was a member of the Gayle family that was
founded in Mathews County, Virginia, many years ago, and it
may be noted that he was a brother of Rev. Finley Gayle, D. D.,
a distinguished clergyman of the Methodist Episcopal Church,
South.
On the 6th of April, 1885, was solemnized the marriage of
Mr. Gayle and Miss Irene R. Young, who was born and reared
in Portsmouth, where she received the advantages of the public
schools. She is a daughter of the late Joseph L. and Caroline E.
Young, she having been the third in their family of eight chil-
dren. Joseph L. Young long gave service as a clerk in the United
178 VIRGINIA
States Navy Yards at Portsmouth and was one of the honored
and public spirited citizens of that city, where he was for a
number of years a valued member of the Board of Education.
The Young family, of French and Welsh lineage, made settle-
ment on the Slashes plantation, near Richmond, Virginia, prior
to the War of the Revolution. The father of Mrs. Gayle was a
gallant young soldier of the Confederacy during virtually the
entire period of the Civil war, and in that service his brother
George was killed in battle. Joseph L. Young in his earlier
career followed the printing trade and was for a number of
years employed in the office of the Richmoyid Enquirer, in the
fair old capital city of Virginia. After the close of his service
in the Civil war he was for many years manager of the Old
Landmark Publishing Company at Norfolk, and it was after his
experience that, under civil-service regulations, he initiated his
effective clerical service with the United States Navy Yards at
Portsmouth, where he and his wife passed the remainder of their
lives.
Mr. Gayle is survived by his widow and their two children.
Irene Y., elder of the children, is a graduate in music and is a
popular figure in the social and cultural circles of her home city
of Norfolk, where she was born and reared and where she re-
ceived the advantages of the public schools, including high
school. She now is retained as an efficient private secretary in
Norfolk. Kenneth H. Gayle, Jr., younger of the two children,
was graduated fi'om the Virginia Military Institute with the
degree of Civil Engineer, and is now executive head in the New
York City office of the Ingall's Iron Works. He married Miss
Mary Jackson, of Montgomery, Alabama.
Frederick Ridings Savage. One of the very sound financial
institutions of James City County is the Peninsula Bank & Trust
Company, and its patronage and high standing is sustained by
the character of the men associated with its management. Of
them none is of more moment in the world of business and
finance than Frederick Ridings Savage, its vice president and
treasurer.
The birth of Mr. Savage occurred in Berlin, Maryland, Oc-
tober 7, 1884, and he is a son of Thomas T. and Emma (Ridings)
Savage, he born in Accomac County, Virginia, and she born in
Maryland. The father was a hotel proprietor of Berlin, Mary-
land, all of his life, and for years he was a well known figure to
the traveling public, for his hotel was noted for its excellent
accommodation. His death occurred in April, 1916, but he is
survived by the mother, who makes her home with a daughter
in Dover, Delaware.
His boyhood and youth passed in Berlin, Maryland, Fi-ederick
Ridings Savage went into the local bank when he left school, and
was also in one of Accomac County, and in these connections he
learned the banking business from the bottom up. In 1903 he
came to Williamsburg and organized a branch of the banking
house of L. L. Dirickson & Company that is now the First Na-
tional Bank of Williamsburg. Although at that time he was but
eighteen years old, he was made its first cashier, and discharged
his duties in a most satisfactory manner. The bank was incor-
porated in 1909 and nationalized in 1916, and during these
changes Mr. Savage continued with it. On May 1, 1917, he re-
signed and February 11, 1918, was made secretary and ti'easurer
of the Peninsula Bank & Trust Company of Williamsburg, and
VIRGINIA 179
in 1928 was made its vice president and treasurer. This bank
was organized in 1897 and reorganized in 1917 by William A.
Bozarth. In 1918 the present modern banking home was erected,
which furnishes every facility for the conduct of a general bank-
ing business. The bank is capitalized at $100,000 ; has a surplus
of $55,000, and deposits of $1,500,000. Within the last year the
deposits have been doubled in proportion to the growth of the
bank in public confidence. At the time Mr. Savage came into it
the bank was in bad condition, and its deposits were only
$260,000. A level-headed business man and experienced banker,
Mr. Savage knew just how to build up his institution and win
and retain the confidence of the people of this section, and that
he has done so the financial statement last issued proves. Mr.
Savage's fellow officers are : George P. Coleman, president ;
F. R. Savage, first vice president ; H. M. Clements, second vice
president; A. D. Jones, secretary and assistant treasurer. Some
of the leading business men of Williamsburg are on the direc-
torate of this bank.
On July 11, 1912, Mr. Savage married Miss Lorna Daley, a
daughter of Thomas R. and Minnie (Cole) Daley, he born in the
State of Wisconsin and she born in the State of Maine. They
are now residents of Leesburg, Florida. Mr. and Mrs. Savage
have two children : Minnie Cole, who was born in July, 1913 ;
and Thomas Daley, who was born in December, 1917. A Demo-
crat both by inheritance and conviction, Mr. Savage has always
given his party loyal support, and has been honored by being its
successful nominee for the City Council a number of times, his
period of service with that body covering some years, during
which he has given an excellent account of himself. Active in
Masonry, he has served several times as master of his lod:?e, and
he is a member of the Mystic Shrine, also of the Odd Fellows,
and is a life member of the Elks. Interested as he is in the wel-
fare of the city, he cooperates with the Rotary Club, of which he
is a member, in forwarding public spirited movements, and is a
valuable citizen in many ways. He is an Episcopalian.
Charles C. Bowe is now the senior member of the repre-
sentative Richmond real estate firm of N. W. Bowe & Son, and
in this connection, as well as in his civic loyalty, he is well
upholding the high honors of the family name. This business
was established by his father in Virginia's capital city nearly
sixty years ago, and the firm now has prestige as one of the
oldest and most important in the domain of real estate operations
in this section of the Old Dominion.
Mr. Eowe was born in Richmond, July 2, 1884, and is the
son of Nathaniel Woodson Bowe and Emma Lewis Bowe, the
former of whom died March 14, 1914, at his home in Richmond.
Nathaniel W. Bowe was born in Hanover County, Virginia,
and received in his youth excellent educational advantages.
When the Civil war was precipitated on a divided nation he
gave loyal and gallant service as a soldier of the Confederacy, as
a member of the First Virginia Infantry, which became a part
of the Army of Northern Virginia, commanded by the revered
Gen. Robert E. Lee. After the war he did well his part in
reviving the depressed civic and industrial affairs of "\'irginia
and in overcoming the chaotic conditions that resulted from the
misrule of the so-called reconstruction period. After the war
he served one term as sheriif of Hanover County, and upon
removal to Richmond he here assumed a clerical position in the
180 VIRGINIA
office of Grubbs & Williams, a leading real estate firm of that
period. Upon the death of Mr. Grubbs he was admitted to part-
nership in the business, which thereafter was conducted under
the title of Williams & Bowe. Later Mr. Bowe operated as N. W.
Bowe until 1902, when his son Bruce was taken into partnership
under the title of N. W. Bowe & Son. In 1914, after Mr. Bowe,
Sr., died, the business was incorporated with Bruce Bowe as
president and Charles C. Bowe vice president.
Nathaniel W. Bowe was a man whose life was ordered on
the highest plane of integrity and honor in all its relations, and
thus it was that he brought to his real estate firm not only con-
structive service but also a reputation for inviolable fidelity
to trust, he having insisted that at all times the interests of the
buyer must be held on a parity with those of the seller. His
careful and honorable policies gained to his firm a large and
representative clientage, and year after year he had charge of
properties and investments of many of the oldest and most in-
fluential families in Richmond. He thus functioned in connec-
tion with the historic Ravensworth and Whitehouse estates of
the Gen. Robert E. Lee family, and since his death his sons have
continued the same safeguarding of all of these varied interests.
The sons were by their honored father thoroughly schooled in
the business and in the sterling policies he had adopted therefor.
There has continued to be a close and mutually appreciative
social and business relationship between the Lee and the Bowe
families, and in this connection it is interesting to note that
Charles C. Bowe, immediate subject of this review, was chosen
to act as godfather at the baptism of Robert E. Lee IV in 1924,
the youngster who thus perpetuates for his generation one of
the most distinguished names in American history, being a son
of Dr. George Boiling Lee of New York City, who is a son of
William Fitzhugh Lee and a grandson of Gen. Robert E. Lee.
Bruce Bowe, son of the late Nathaniel W. Bowe, was, as
previously stated, the first of the number to be admitted to
partnership in the old established real estate business, and he
continued his close executive connection with the firm until his
death March 26, 1923. Like his father, he was uniformly re-
spected and trusted by all who knew him, and his death was a
distinct loss to the business circles of the Virginia capital, as
well as a source of sorrow to his host of friends. Since his death
the business has been conducted by the younger sons, Charles C.
and Nathaniel W., Jr.
Charles C. Bowe was graduated from Richmond College as
a member of the class of 1901, and received therefrom the degree
of Bachelor of Arts. His entire active career has been marked
by close and efi'ective association with the real estate business
of N. W. Bowe & Son, and he is now senior member of the firm,
which has membership in the National Association of Real Estate
Boards, in which Mr. Bowe is a member of the committee on
code of ethics. Governor Trinkle appointed Mr. Bowe a mem-
ber of the Virginia Real Estate Commission at the time of its
organization in 1924, and subsequently advanced him to the posi-
tion of chairman of this commission. He was reappointed by
Governor Byrd, and continued his service as chairman until
1926, when he resigned the post, owing to the insistent demands
placed upon him by his private business interests. Mr. Bowe
is secretary of the Union Stockyards Company of Richmond, his
father having having held this office many years and having been
the incumbent of the same at the time of his death.
VIRGINIA 181
Henry Phineas Thomas. Efficiency is the keynote of suc-
cess in every profession, along all lines of endeavor. It is the
symbol, the co-related sign and working feature of the marvel-
lous accomplishments of every age and of all people. Without
it civilization today would never have passed beyond the state
of the cave man. None of the learned professions would have
been developed from the faint beginnings of people striving for
mental advancement, nor would the air, the earth, the water
and even the Heavens above all be bound together to produce
power and place for each generation. Half-way methods can-
not succeed in anything. To raise anything beyond the low
level of mediocrity requires skilled and carefully trained knowl-
edge and the power to use this to the highest degree. In nothing
is this truer than in the practice of the law. The attorney with-
out efficiency is a dead letter; his progress is measured by his
lack of this important quality, and his failure is a foregone con-
clusion from the beginning. Among those who have forged to
the front among the members of the bar of Alexandria none
deserves higher praise than Henry P. Thomas, for he is a
man who has always striven to develop his natural and acquired
talents and add to his store of knowledge until he has reached
the highest degree of efficiency in each line, and this policy,
inaugurated at the beginning of his professional career, still
continues to animate his actions.
Mr. Thomas was born in Leesburg, Loudoun County, Vir-
ginia, May 22, 1894, a son of William Phineas and Sallie (Bite-
cor) Thomas, both of whom were born in Loudoun County.
After the close of the war between the states the father, who
had been a soldier of the Confederacy, engaged in farming, and
following that occupation the remainder of his life, became one
of the well known agriculturists of his county, and he died in
Loudoun County in July, 1915, aged sixty-nine years. The
mother died in November, 1919, aged sixty-nine years.
Reared in Leesburg, Henry P. Thomas was graduated from
High School in 1915, after which for two years he was
a student of the University of Virginia. In 1917 he enlisted
in the United States Navy, and served in that branch of the
country's forces until May, 1919, when he was honorably dis-
charged. With his return to civilian life Mr. Thomas entered
the National University of Law, Washington, District of Colum-
bia, and was graduated therefrom in June, 1923, with the degree
of Bachelor of Laws, and the following year received his degree
of Master of Laws from the same institution. In 1923 he came
to Alexandria and became associated with Judge C. E. Nicol in
the practice of law, continuing with him until Judge Nicol died
two years later, since which time he has practiced alone, and
has built up a very large clientele, and has been markedly suc-
cessful. In addition to attending to his law practice Mr. Thomas
has other interests and is president of the Alexandria Realty,
Investment, Finance Corporation. He is an officer in George
Washington Lodge, A. F. and A. M., and he has been advanced
to the Mystic Shrine in the Masonic order. The Alexandria
Bar Association and the Virginia Bar Association hold his mem-
bership, and he belongs to the American Legion and the Belle
Haven Country Club. As a director of the Alexandria National
Bank he is becoming well known in banking circles. For several
years he has been an enthusiastic member of the Kiwanis Club,
and he has also had charge of the Boy Scouts of Alexandria
for about the same length of time. His support in politics is
182 VIRGINIA
given to the Democratic ticket, but he is not one who seeks public
honors. Long a consistent member of the Presbyterian Church,
he is active in its different bodies, and is now treasurer of the
Men's Bible Class. Mr. Thomas is unmarried. He resides at
428 North Washington Street, and maintains his office at 115
North Fairfax Street, Alexandria. A public-spirited man, and
one who has the welfare of his fellow citizens at heart, he is
always ready and glad to assist them as far as lies in his power.
Hon. Richard C. L. Moncure. During the past several dec-
ades there has been undoubtedly no single factor that has played
such an important part in the advancement and success of young
business men of ambition and energy as the automobile industry.
The marvelous growth of this business, which still is going for-
ward to such an extent that no man can predict the size of its
future, has furnished the opportunity for young men from all
walks of life to secure positions which, in proportion to their
importance, were formerly held only by men many years their
senior. In this relation mention should be made of Hon. Rich-
ard C. L. Moncure, mayor of Falls Church, Fairfax County, and
president of the Moncure Motor Company, Inc., who is the
authorized Ford dealer for his community and who has already
achieved a success that many men would consider desirable if
gained only after a lifetime of effort.
Mr. Moncure was born at Macon, Georgia, March 30, 1903,
and is a son of R. C. L. and Irene (Winship) Moncure. His
father, a native of Stafford, Virginia, was given good educational
advantages, and for a number of years was engaged in the suc-
cessful practice of law at Arlington County Court House and
Washington, D. C. He made his home at Falls Church for a
number of years, and was a man of high ability in his profession,
whose promising career was cut short by death at the age of
forty-three years, April 23, 1918. Mrs. Moncure, who was born
at Macon, Georgia, now lives at Falls Church.
The education of Richard C. L. Moncure was thorough and
comprehensive, including attendance at the public schools of
Falls Church and the high schools of Macon, Georgia, and Wash-
ington, D. C. After studying French abroad he entered New
York University, and then returned to Washington and entered
George Washington University, from which he was graduated
with the degree of Bachelor of Laws in 1925. Mr. Moncure
commenced his career as a lawyer and was well on his way
toward the attainment of a large and representative practice
when he decided to enter the automobile industry as a dealer.
He accordingly secured the Ford agency, in March, 1926, taking
over the Moses Motor Company, which he renamed the Moncure
Motor Company, Inc., of which he has since been president. He
deals in Ford and Lincoln cars and Fordson trucks and in addi-
tion maintains an up-to-date service station and repair depart-
ment and deals in equipment and accessories of all kinds. Mr.
Moncure has made a success of his business and is accounted
one of the successful young men of his community. In local
affairs he has also taken an active part, and March 1, 1927, was
elected to the office of mayor of Falls Church. Although prob-
ably one of the youngest mayors in the United States, he has
given his city a splendid administration, which has included the
installing of a number of improvements.
Mr. Moncure is unmarried. He is treasurer of the Falls
Church Fire Department, and a member of the Masonic Order,
VIRGINIA 183
the Order of the Eastern Star, the Washington Golf and Coun-
try Club and the Episcopal Church. His mother, with whom he
makes his home on Brown Avenue, is a Christian Scientist.
William Aaron Gaylord, Jr., passed his entire life in Nor-
folk and gained status as one of its progressive business men,
he having for many years represented in this seaboard section
a large English concern and having had supervision of the load-
ing and unloading of tramp steamers in the interests of this
English corporation. He became widely and favorably known
in ocean navigation circles, and as citizen and business man in
his native county he commanded unqualified popular confidence
and esteem.
Mr. Gaylord was born in Norfolk on the 23d of January,
1875, and here his death occurred in October, 1919, his early
education having been received mainly in St. Mary's Academy
in this city. He was the second of the seven children born to
William Aaron Gaylord, Sr., and Anna Theresa (Farrell) Gay-
lord, his father having here given many years of service as
foreman of the Reid Bakery, one of the leading concerns of this
kind in Norfolk. The original American representatives of the
Gaylord family came from France and settled in Virginia in
the Colonial era. The paternal grandfather of the subject of
this memoir was a loyal soldier of the Confederacy in the Civil
war. Reuben Nicholls Farrell, an uncle of Mr. Gaylord on the
maternal side, served many years as high constable of Norfolk
County. Richard Gaylord, a brother of the subject of this sketch,
was a loyal and efficient member of the Norfolk fire department
and as such sacrificed his life at the post of duty in the great fire
that swept the city in 1918. He was killed while on duty in
that conflagration, his death having occurred June 30, 1918.
Edward T. Smith, a brother of Mrs. Gaylord, is likewise a brave
and honored member of the Norfolk fire department, at Station
No. 2, on Battle Street, and while on duty at the fire that de-
stroyed the Monticello Hotel he was so severely burned he was
for many months incapacitated and in the care of physicians.
At the age of fifteen years Mr. Gaylord found employment
in the bakery of which his father was the foreman, and he was
thus enga^'ed about two years. At the age of seventeen years
he entered upon an apprenticeship to the trade of wheelwright,
which he followed until he was nineteen. At the age of twenty
years he initiated his service with the English concern previously
mentioned, and With this service he continued to be identified
during the remainder of his life. He had supervision of the
unloadng of tramp steamers from all parts of the world and
laden with all manner of cargoes, his activities in this connec-
tion having gained to him a wide acquaintanceship among those
engaged in the shipping trade touching the maritime ports of
America's Atlantic coast.
Mr. Gaylord was a Democrat in political allegiance, was
affiliated with the Improved Order of Red Men and the Fra-
ternal Order of Eagles, and his widow is a member of the Ladies
of the Maccabees.
On the 12th of February, 1895, was solemnized the marriage
of Mr. Gaylord and Miss Susie Smith, who was born and reared
in Norfolk. Of the children of this union five survive the hon-
ored father : William James, who is a city employe of Norfolk ;
Myrtle Louise, who is the wife of Henry Lewis Farrell, a civil
engineer in the service of the Virginian Railway ; Edward L.,
184 VIRGINIA
who is a printer by trade and vocation ; James L., who likewise
resides in Norfolk ; and Seabright, who is the wife of Thomas
0. Downing. Mr. and Mrs. Downing reside in Norfolk, where
Mr. Downing is connected with the American Oil Company, and
their one child is a son, Thomas 0., Jr.
Mrs. Gaylord is a daughter of James L. and Maria (Warren)
Smith, both natives of Virginia, where they were reared and
educated and where the father became a substantial business
man in Norfolk. The first American representative of this
Smith family came from Ireland and settled in Virginia prior
to the Revolution, and five generations have lived in the Norfolk
community. Settlement was here made more than 200 years
ago, and members of the family were patriot soldiers in the War
of the Revolution. Andrew J. Smith, an uncle of Mrs. Gaylord,
was wounded while he was serving as a soldier of the Confed-
eracy in the Civil war, as were also two of her maternal uncles,
William and Major Warren. Mrs. Gaylord still resides in her
native city, where her attractive home is at 428 Twentieth Street,
and where her circle of friends is limited only by that of her
acquaintances.
John W. Moore, one of the leading realtors of Richmond,
and a member of the Virginia Real Estate Commission, was for
many years a member of the Common Council of Richmond, and
an active figui'e in politics and civic affairs. He has the honor
at present of being state president of the Ancient Order of Hi-
bernians, and he belongs to other fraternal organizations, in
all of which he is highly regarded. Mr. Moore was born at
Richmond, in 1874, a son of Michael and Catherine (Kane)
Moore, the former of whom was born in Ireland.
Growing to useful manhood in his native city, John W. Moore
attended the parochial schools, and when old enough went into
a grocery business, later leaving it to engage in handling real
estate, in which he found his fife work. For some years he
has been senior member of the old and reliable realty firm of
Moore & McGranighan.
Always a Democrat, Mr. Moore has been for many years a
forceful figure in local politics, and for twenty-two years, ending
in 1928, he was a member of the Common Council of Richmond,
first of the City of Manchester on the South Side of the James
River from Richmond, and following the consolidation of the
two cities in 1910 he continued a member, representing after
that the Madison Ward in the Richmond Common Council. He
has always been a progressive in municipal aff'airs, and was
among those who brought about the city manager plan for
municipalities, which originated in Virginia. For several years
Mr. Moore was also president of the Virginia League of Munici-
palities, and he is still carrying on the same line of work, for
his heart is centered in his home city, and he is deeply interested
in continuing its prosperity and advancing still further its
progress.
In addition to his other interests Mr. Moore is a director of
the Mechanics & Merchants Bank. In May, 1927, he was sig-
nally honored by appointment by Governor Byrd to membership
in the Virginia State Real Estate Commission. He belongs to the
Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, the Fraternal Order
of Eagles, whicli he formerly served as state president in Vir-
ginia, and the Ancient Order of Hibernians, of which he is state
president in Virginia, having held the oflice since 1922.
VIRGINIA 185
Mr. Moore married Miss Annie M. Kain. They maintain
their residence at 1509 Porter Street, where they have a very
pleasant home, one of the most desirable in Richmond. Mr.
Moore's business address is 18 North Seventh Street, and here
he has been located for some years. It would be difficult to
find a man more thoroughly representative of the best interests
of Richmond and Henrico County than Mr. Moore, and his per-
sonal popularity is at its height and his commercial standing is
unquestioned. All that he today possesses has been won through
his own efforts, and great credit is due him for what he has
accomplished.
Aylett Bauder Nicol. The legal profession is one that
demands much and requii-es of its devotees implicit and
unswerving devotion to its exactions. Long and continued
study, natural ability and keen judgment with regard to men
and their motives are all required in the making of a successful
lawyer. That so many pass beyond the line of the ordinary
in this calling and become figures of note in political life demon-
strates that this profession brings out all that is best and most
capable in a man. For ages the most brilliant men of all coun-
tries have turned their attention to the study of the law, and
especially is this true in the United States, where the form of
government gives opportunity for the man of brains to climb
even into the very highest position within the gift of the people,
and it is a notable fact that from among the lawyers have more
of our great men come than from all the other callings combined.
One of the men who is already giving promise of great things
in his part of the state, Aylett B. Nicol, of Alexandria, is measur-
ing up to the highest ideals of his profession, and is enjoying
a very large and constantly augmenting practice. He was born
in Prince William County, Virginia, August 5, 1883, a son of
Charles Edgar and Mary Louise (Bauder) Nicol, natives of
Prince William and Port Royal, Caroline County, Virginia,
respectively. The father was engaged in the practice of law
in Brentsville, Virginia, and in Manassas until 1908, when he
moved to Alexandria, and here he continued in his law practice
until his death. He was elected judge of the Circuit Court of
the Sixteenth Circuit in 1894, and served in that capacity until
1907, when he resigned to become a candidate for Congress.
While he made an excellent running, he was defeated, and
resumed his law practice, in which he continued until October
21, 1924, when he was claimed by death, at the age of seventy
years. His prominence was not confined to the domain of the
law, however, for he served for two or three terms in the House
of Burgesses, and he was one of the leaders of his political
party. The mother died December 31, 1901.
Growing to manhood in his native state, Aylett B. Nicol
attended the public schools of Manassas, and had some instruc-
tion in an excellent private school, and attended the high school
of that city and also Richmond College. His professional train-
ing was gained in the University of Virginia, and he was
admitted to the bar in 1905, and that same year entered upon
the practice of his profession in Alexandria. After the retire-
rnent of his father from the bench he practiced with him. After
his father's death he continued the work of the firm alone, and
has never taken another associate. In all of his practice he has
been eminently successful. A man of unusual capabilities, Mr.
Nicol is a valued addition to the legal fraternity and to the
186 VIRGINIA
City of Alexandria, and is, without doubt, one of the best types
of a Virginia gentleman and professional man.
On June 16, 1926, Mr. Nicol married Miss Mary Prudence
Terry, a daughter of Frank F. and Mary Terry, natives of
Massachusetts, the former of whom is retired and a resident
of Assonet, Massachusetts. The latter died in February, 1926.
On September 4, 1928, Mrs. Nicol died. There are no children.
Mr. Nicol is substitute civil and police justice of Alexandria,
and he belongs to the Virginia and Alexandria Bar Associations.
Fraternally he maintains membership with the Fraternal Amer-
icans and the Improved Order of Red Men. He belongs to the
Belle Haven Country Club and the Alexandria Chamber of
Commerce. During the World war he was in training, but was
not sent overseas as the armistice was signed before he was
fully prepared. In political faith he is a Democrat. The First
Baptist Church of Alexandria holds his membership, and he is
one of its trustees. His father left a large estate, principally
in real estate, and Mr. Nicol as one of the five children inherited
some very valuable residential and business properties, and he
has invested in others. All of the father's six children are now
living with the exception of one. Mr. Nicol has a most desirable
residence at 112 Myrtle Avenue, and possesses one of the finest
law libraries in the state, which reflects his originality, profound
grasp of the law and his studious habits.
J. Franklin McLaughlin has been since May, 1927, the
vice president in charge of operations of the Virginia Electric
& Power Company, of which important corporation more specific
record is given on other pages of this work, in the personal
sketch of its president, William E. Wood, so that a repetition
of the data is not here required.
Mr. McLaughlin claims the historic old Bay State as the
place of his nativity, as he was born at Hingham, Massachusetts,
his early education having been acquired in public schools and
having been supplemented by his special courses in Brown Uni-
versity, Providence, Rhode Island. In 1912 he initiated his
association with the Stone & Webster Management Corporation,
the headquarters of which are in Boston, Massachusetts, and
with this great corporation he has since continued his alliance.
He won successive promotions and was finally assigned by this
corporation to take charge of the Norfolk division of the Vir-
ginia Electric & Power Company, and he thus continued his
residence at Norfolk, Virginia, until May, 1927, when he was
elected vice president of the company and assigned to take
charge of operations at the company's headquarters at Richmond.
Prior to coming to Norfolk, Virginia, in the interest of the
Stone & Webster Management Corporation, which assumed con-
trol of the Virginia Electric & Power Company at that time,
Mr. McLaughlin had represented the corporation in efifective
service in Boston, Massachusetts ; Providence, Rhode Island ; El
Paso, Texas; and Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Concerning his loyal
civic attitude while he was a resident of Norfolk the following
estimate has been written : "He accomplished much progressive
work in Norfolk. He was chairman of the industrial commis-
sion, a vice president and director of the Norfolk-Portsmouth
Chamber of Commerce, and was a director of the Rotary Club,
the Maritime Exchange, the Norfolk National Bank of Com-
merce & Trusts, and of the Boys Club of that city."
VIRGINIA 187
In the period of the nation's participation in the World war
Mr. McLaughlin made a record of loyal and efficient service in
the aviation department of the United States Army, in which
he won the rank of captain. His initial training for this service
was gained at Kelly Field, San Antonio, Texas, and thereafter
he was sent to England as a staff officer with a squadron of
army flyers, he having there continued on staff duty until the
close of the war. He came to Norfolk, Virginia, June 30, 1925,
and there remained until his transfer to Richmond in May, 1927.
as previously noted in this review. In the historic old capital
city of Virginia Mr. McLaughlin has become a member of the
Commonwealth Club, the Westmoreland Club, the Hermitage
Club and the Country Club of Virginia. He is a progressive and
popular accession to the civic, business and social circles of the
iair old capital city.
Frank St. Clair in the later years of his life was identified
with Norfolk, a prominent figure in real estate circles there.
The foundation of his successful life had been laid as a journalist
in Southwest Virginia, particularly at Wytheville, where he and
his father were in the newspaper business for a long period of
years.
Frank St. Clair was born at Wytheville May 15, 1857, son
of David and Sarah V. . (Walker) St. Clair. His father for
many years was a newspaper publisher at Wytheville. Frank
St. Clair was the oldest of seven children and was reared and
educated in Wytheville. As a boy he worked in his father's news-
paper office, learned the trade of printer and had experience in
all departments. In 1885 he established the Wytheville Eyiter-
prise, and that newspaper has now had a continuous existence
for forty-three years. It has been one of the most popular
newspapers in Southwest Virginia, and today it exemplifies the
progressive policy given it by its former publisher, Frank St.
Clair. Mr. St. Clair about 1888 also established the Farmers
Alliance, a newspaper for the rural population and expressing
the doctrines of the Farmers Alliance organization. It con-
tinued to be printed for several years. Mr. St. Clair sold both
newspapers in 1903 and at that time moved to Norfolk, where
he engaged in the real estate business. He spent his last years
in retirement and died September 21, 1925. He was as success-
ful in the real estate field as he had been as manager, editor
and owner of the Wytheville Enterprise.
He married at Norfolk October 2, 1889, Miss Alice Genevieve
Smith, who was reared and educated in that city, daughter of
Thomas and Mary Jane Smith. Mrs. St. Clair, who resides at
400 Raleigh Avenue in Norfolk, is a member of the Catholic
Church. Her grandfather came from Ireland and settled in
Virginia. Her father was in the wholesale dry goods business
for many years at Norfolk. Mr. and Mrs. St. Clair had two
children, Frank, Jr., and Robert.
Randall Davisson Taylor Elliott was born in Loudoun
County, Virginia, August 30, 1897. After completing his pri-
mary schooling in the public schools and the Western High
School of Washington, D. C, he attended the University of Vir-
ginia, where he took one year of academic work, followed by a
law course, from which he graduated in 1923 with the degree of
Bachelor of Laws (LL. B.). Mr. Elliott is the son of Henry-
Randall and Elizabeth (Taylor) Elliott.
188 VIRGINIA
Mr. Elliott is admitted to practice before all of the courts
of Virginia and the District of Columbia and before the
Court of Claims. He was admitted to the bar of the State of
Virginia in 1922 and to the bar of the District of Columbia in
1925. He maintains his offices at 1331 G Street and at 119 South
Fairfax Street, Alexandria, Virginia. From 1925 until 1928
Mr. Elliott was senior member of the law firm of Elliott &
Nelms, being associated with Henning C. Nelms, of Washington.
Mr. Elliott has specialized in the practice of corporation law,
having gained prominence through his representation of cor-
porations which have retained him as general counsel, among
which may be mentioned : Washington — Shenandoah Valley
Motor Lines, Inc., a subsidiary of the Eastern Public Service
Corporation ; the National Biographical Society, Inc. ; Lee Jack-
son Caverns, Inc. ; Automatic Railroad Inspector Corporation ;
Battlefield Crystal Caverns, Inc. ; Allied Brokerage Corporation
and the Hotel Development Corporation.
On November 16, 1926, Mr. Elliott married Miss Gladys
Mary Berry, daughter of William Wallace and Gladys (Kelsey)
Berry, natives of Bedford, Virginia. Mrs. Elliott is a graduate
of Columbia University of New York. Mr. and Mrs. Elliott
have one child, Randall Davisson Taylor Elliott, Jr., born Octo-
ber 24, 1927.
During the World war Mr. Elliott served in the United States
Railroad Administration as Assistant to the Title Examiner.
Mr. Elliott belongs to the International Association of Cos-
mopolitan Clubs, the City Club of Washington, the University of
Virginia Club of New York City, and the Board of Trade of
Washington. He holds the rank of Assistant Deputy Commis-
sioner of the District of Columbia Council of the Boy Scouts of
America. Mr. and Mrs. Elliott reside at 3315 Garfield Street,
N. W., Washington, D. C.
Charles Frederick Petrie for forty years was a resident of
Norfolk, and in his profession as a civil engineer had an ex-
tensive practice that kept him in touch with many of the great
landed and industrial interests of the Atlantic Seaboard.
Mr. Petrie was born in Dundee, Scotland, May 24, 1860, and
died at Norfolk May 13, 1928, at the age of sixty-eight. His
father, David R. Petrie, was a broker in the jute business at
Dundee, Scotland. The only son of the family now living is
Dr. Reginald 0. Petrie, a physician in England. One other son,
Alexander, was a shipping agent at Calcutta, India, and another,
David, was a ship owner in Scotland.
Charles Frederick Petrie was educated at Dundee, graduated
from a technical school as a civil engineer, and after some years
of experience in his native country came to New York City in
1888, and in 1889 established his home at Norfolk. At Norfolk
he was associated with the firm of W. D. Murray Company as
a partner for six years. After selling his interest in this firm
he established himself in practice under his own name, and for
thirty years looked after an extensive business as a civil engineer
and surveyor. He retired from Business in 1927. Mr. Petrie
was a member of the Presbyterian Church.
He married Helen Williamson, of Edinburgh, Scotland, who
died at Norfolk in 1908. At Norfolk October 27, 1910, he mar-
ried Ella Landrum Rice, daughter of W. L. and Sallie C. (Wing-
field) Landrum. Her father was a carriage manufacturer for
many years and served in the Confederate army. The Landrum
VIRGINIA 189
family came from England and settled in Albemarle County,
Virginia, before the Revolutionary war. The Wingfields were
also a distinguished Colonial Virginia family. Sallie C. Wing-
field's father was a captain in the Confederate army. Mrs.
Petrie, who resides at 112 West Twenty-eighth Street in Norfolk,
by her first marriage had two children, Lillian May and Edward
A. Rice. Lillian May is the wife of James R. Guy, superintendent
of the Southern Transportation Company, and his two children,
Laluce, wife of Irving H. Dwyer, and Louis Lee. Edward A.
Rice, assistant superintendent of the Richmond office of the
Otis Elevator Company, married Mamie G. Bransford and has
two sons, Adolph and Ralph E. Rice.
Hon. Paul Morton, city manager of Alexandria, is a civil
engineer by profession, and served for two and one-half years
overseas during the World war, so that he is a man of broad
vision, wide experience and trained ability, and in his present
office in rendering an excellent account of himself. He was born
in Louisville, Kentucky, December 24, 1894, a son of Thomas
B. and Margaret (Williams) Morton, natives of Kentucky and
Tennessee, respectively. The father is president of the Armored
Car Company of Louisville, Kentucky, and a man of considerable
prominence in that city.
Reared and educated in Louisville, Kentucky, Paul Morton
was graduated from the Dupont Training School of that city in
1913, and for the succeeding year was a railroad engineer on
the Louisville & Nashville Railroad in Alabama, where he was
connected with Railway construction. In 1914 he came to Vir-
ginia and was engaged in building double tracks; for the South-
ern Railroad from Charlottesville to Orange. Later he went
with the Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad in West Virginia, and was
stationed in different parts of the state, during the last two
years having his headquarters in Richmond. In January, 1922,
he came to Alexandria as director of public safety, and in May,
1925, was made city manager, in which office he has since con-
tinued with eminently satisfactory results. While serving as
city manager he still looks after the public safety, and his time
is fully occupied.
In December, 1919, Mr. Morton married Miss Elizabeth R.
Smith, a daughter of Russell and Mamie (English) Smith,
natives of Virginia and New Jersey, respectively. Mr. English
was an admiral in the United States Navy for many years. For
the past thirty-five or forty years Mr. Smith has served as
treasurer of Culpeper County, Virginia. Two children have
been born to Mr. and Mrs. Morton, namely : Paul, Junior, and
Earlena English, the former born in November, 1920, and the
latter in February, 1923. Mr. Morton is a member of Wash-
ington Lodge, A. F. and A. M., No. 22 and of the Benevolent
and Protective Order of Elks.
In June, 1917, Mr. Morton volunteered for the World war,
and was sent overseas with the unit commanded by General
Dawes, now vice president of the United States. He enlisted
as a civil engineer, and served overseas until the month of May,
1919, when he was returned to the United States and honorably
discharged. The American Legion, the Belle Haven Country
Club and the Kiwanis Club, of which he is a director, and the
Chamber of Commerce hold his membership. His political
convictions make him a Democrat, but he has never aspired to
public honors. In religious faith he is an Episcopalian. Mr.
190 VIRGINIA
Morton maintains his residence at 122 Walnut Street. With
his enHghtened mind and strong intellect, coupled with his
knowledge upon many subjects, Mr. Morton is a valuable asset
to his community, a fact that is heartily appreciated by his fel-
low citizens.
William Wallace Wills is a Fluvanna County farmer who
has had a prominent part in promoting the planting industry
in this section of Virginia. Mr. Wills lives at Palmyra on a
farm a mile south of town. The property has been in the family
for generations. Originally it comprised a great estate, but
has been reduced until the property now owned by Mr. Wills
consist of 464 acres.
Mr. Wills was born there August 11, 1860. The farm for
many years was called "Falling Gardens," but in later years
has borne the name "Solitude." Mr. Willis is a son of Dr. Al-
bert J. and Martha (Coodington) Wills. His grandfather was
John Wills. His mother was born in Cumberland County on the
old Hatcher estate, being a descendant of the prominent Hatcher
family. Dr. Albert Wills was born at Chatham, practiced med-
icine for many years at Palmyra, and when he died left his
estate to his children, and it subsequently came into the posses-
sion of William Wallace Wills. Doctor Wills was on the medical
board of the Confederate army. He was a Democrat but not
active in politics. In his later years he removed to Texas for
his health, and one or two of his sons also went out to that state.
There were five children in the family: Virginia, wife of Pen-
brook Pettit, of Palmyra; Albert, now deceased; William Wal-
lace; John; and Mattie Q. The son John in 1884 went to the
Panhandle of Texas and was one of the founders of what is now
the outstanding city of the Panhandle, Amarillo. He was con-
nected with the United States Government survey in laying out
a route for express and mails across the southwest plains.
William Wallace Wills attended school at Palmyra, and prac-
tically all his life has bean spent on the old homestead. He
early took part in the management of the property, and has
been one of the progressive and far-seeing farmers who have
sought to develop good markets for the products of this rich
section. He was instrumental in having numerous canning
factories established over Fluvanna County and owned and
operated three of his own. For many years he shipped canned
tomatoes to midwest centers such as Chicago, Omaha, Kansas
City, but of late years the local canneries have been compelled
to develop other markets partly through the competition of the
western state canneries and also on account of the high freight
rates from Virginia.
Mr. Wills has been quite active in the Democratic party,
though never seeking a public office. He is a steward of the
Methodist Episcopal Church, South, and for many years was
superintendent of the Sunday School. He belongs to the Inde-
pendent Order of Odd Fellows. He married, October 1, 1890,
Miss Alice B. Bell, of Fluvanna County, daughter of Askley and
Hardenia (Leslie) Bell. Her parents are still living, her father
being a planter. Mr. and Mrs. Wills had three children, Askley,
now deceased, Cora and John. Cora is the wife of W. N. Han-
nah, of Palmyra, and her three children are William N., Jr.,
Askley Bell and Alice Rebecca. John Wills, connected with the
Virginia State Highway Department at Richmond, married Miss
Jessie Campbell, of Wellington, Vii'ginia.
VIRGINIA 191
James Hatton Watters. The late James Hatton Waiters,
president of the wholesale hardware house of Watters & Martin,
the only concern of its kind in Norfolk, was a public spirited
man, active in political and civic affairs, and prominent in finan-
cial circles. Very charitable, he gave generously wherever he
saw the need of assistance, and he was a zealous church worker
and popular with all classes. He was born in Norfolk, Virginia,
July 13, 1840, and died at Virginia Beach, Virginia, July 9, 1918.
James Hatton Watters was a descendant of William Wood-
house, the father of the Episcopal Church in Princess Anne
County, who died in 1774. His son, Jonathan Woodhouse, was
a soldier of the American Revolution, and for his services in that
war was commissioned a major in the Virginia State Militia by
the governor. The parents of Mr. Watters of this review were
James and Georgiana (Martin) Watters. She was a daughter
of Alexander Martin, of Norfolk, and a member of the oldest
family of that name in Norfolk.
When war was declared between the states James Hatton
Watters enlisted in the Confederate army and served for four
years with the Norfolk Light Artillery Blues. While he was
wounded in the battle of Chancellorsville, he recovered, rejoined
his regiment, and was with General Lee at the time of the sur-
render at Appomattox.
Returning to Norfolk at the close of the war, he entered the
wholesale hardware business under the name of Taylor, Martin
& Company, which firm was composed of Walter H. Taylor, S.
Martin and Thomas Elliott. Mr. Watters later bought Mr. Mar-
tin's interest and the name was changed to that of Taylor,
Elliott & Watters. Still later the firm became Watters & Martin,
was incorporated, and Mr. Watters continued to serve it as
president until his death. His son James Watters is general
manager of the business, and it is located at 110 Water Street,
Norfolk. A Mason, Mr. Watters belonged to Owens Lodge,
A. F. and A. M. He belonged to Epworth Methodist Episcopal
Church, South, of Norfolk, and served it as steward for many
yeai's. Banking also attracted his attention and for a long
period he was a director of the Marine Bank of Norfolk. The
city benefited by his work in its behalf and he served at difl^erent
times as chairman of the Finance Committee, chairman of the
Waterworks Committee and chairman of the Police Commission.
After the death of his first wife, who bore the maiden name
of Margaret Garrett, Mr. Watters married Miss Mattie Lee
Watts, who was born in Richmond, Vii'ginia, a graduate of Nor-
folk College, the ceremony taking place Januaiy 21, 1893. She
is a daughter of Joseph Cranberry Watts, a prominent business
man of Norfolk, who had been engaged in the manufacture of
brick in Richmond prior to moving to Norfolk. The following
children were born to Mr. Watters : Garrett, who was graduated
from the Law School of the University of Virginia, is connected
with his father's hardware business, and is a prominent Elk ;
James H., who is vice president of the New York Air Brake
Company of New York City, married Miss Pearl Luthy ; Martha,
who married William C. Griffiths, a business man of Narberth,
Pennsylvania; and Elizabeth, who for two years was a student
of Goucher School, after which she entered Teachers' College,
Farmville, Virginia, and w^as graduated therefrom. Mrs. Wat-
ters still resides in Norfolk, her home being at 315 Fairfax
Avenue, and here she and her daughter are enjoying life sur-
192 VIRGINIA
rounded by the comforts provided for them by Mr. Watters, and
the companionship of their many friends. They are active
church workers, and continue many of the charities of the good
husband and father.
Edmond Gary Lindsay. During the more than forty years
that the late Gapt. Edmond Gary Lindsay followed the sea he
passed through many experiences and vicissitudes of fortune,
but when his life ended at his home at Norfolk in September,
1921, it could be said of him that his career had been a worthy
and useful one, characterized by a high sense of Christian obli-
gation and featured by numerous instances of sheer bravery
and indomitable courage. The life of the captain of a sea-going
tug or United States revenue cutter is necessarily a hard one,
tending to coarsen many men's nature, but Gaptain Lindsay
always preserved the manner and actions of a gentleman, while
at no time allowing the finality and sternness of his discipline
to be abated.
Gaptain Lindsay was born March 19, 1858, in York County,
Virginia, a son of William J. and Martha Ann (Elliott) Lind-
say. His father was a native of Scotland, who came to the
United States and settled in York County, where he passed the
remainder of his life in agricultural operations. Edmond Gary
Lindsay acquired his education in the country schools of York
County, and his early boyhood v/as passed in an agricultural
atmosphere and environment, but he had inherited an adven-
turous nature and a natural love for the sea. Accordingly, when
he was still a young lad he shipped as a mess boy, and in the
years that followed visited many ports of the world. He grad-
ually worked his way upward until when only twenty years of
age he secured his master's papers and took the title of captain.
For the greater part of his life he was captain of a tug boat,
but during his later years was captain of a United States revenue
cutter, and held this position at the time of his retirement from
active service in 1919. As before noted, he had many experi-
ences. On one occasion he was captain of a tug stationed at
Old Point Comfort, where he saved the life of a small girl from
drowning, and at another time, when he was captain of the
tug Matt White and that vessel blew up, he saved a man from
drowning, these two being the only survivors of the ill-fated
vessel. Captain Lindsay was a popular and highly respected
member of the Captains and Pilots Association, and in his
political convictions was a stanch Democrat.
On November 14, 1878, Captain Lindsay was united in mar-
riage with Miss Mary R. Conkle, of Richmond, daughter of
Gottlieb and Fredericka Conkle, natives of Germany. Ten chil-
dren were born to this union : William Lee, captain of a tug-
boat, who married Gertie Harrington ; Bessie May, the wife of
Edward William Winder, a farmer of Norfolk County, who has
two daughters, Mary and Elizabeth ; Francis Edwai'd, who fol-
lows the profession of a marine engineer ; Lottie Pearl, the wife
of Ed Smith, a locomotive engineer ; Edmond Cary, a command-
ing officer in the United States Navy during the World war,
who was in the coast service for twenty-six months, and is now
a captain in the service of the Old Dominion Steamship Com-
pany, who married Mary Petty ; John Laurence, an ensign in the
United States Naval Reserves for twenty-two months during
the World war, in which he made many trips between the United
States, England and France, and is now engaged in business at
t}-
VIRGINIA 193
Norfolk as a flour miller, married Eugenia Manuel and has three
sons, Charles Vernon, John Laurence and Gary ; Glaudius May-
nard, Ralph Stewart and Allen Earleston, all members of the
Norfolk police department ; and Annie Madeleine, who married
Howard Lambert and has one child, Beverly Ann. Mrs. Lind-
say, who survives her husband and resides at 327 Poole Street,
Norfolk, is an active member of the Methodist Church.
Reese Charles Bowton is giving a most constructive and
progressive administration as city superintendent of schools in
Alexandria, and has been the incumbent of this office since 1923.
Mr. Bowton is able to advert to the staunch old Hoosier
State as the place of his nativity, his birth having occurred at
Lawrenceburg, Indiana, April 28, 1876. He is a son of James
and Eleanor (Reese) Bowton, both of whom were born and
reared in Indiana, the parents of James Bowton having come
to the United States from London, England, and having gained
pioneer prestige in Indiana. The father of Mrs. Eleanor (Reese)
Bowton was a native of Pennsylvania, and her mother was born
in Virginia. James Bowton became and long continued one of
the substantial exponents of farm industry in his native state,
but passed the closing years of his life in Illinois, where he died
in March, 1925, his birth having occurred August 19, 1844. His
widow, now (1929) seventy-eight years of age, is a loved mem-
ber of the family circle of her son Reese C., subject of this
review.
The childhood and early youth of Reese C. Bowton were
compassed by the influences of the old home farm in Dearborn
County, Indiana, and in the public schools of that county he
continued his studies until he was graduated from the high
school at Lawrenceburg. Thereafter he completed a course in
the University of Indiana, in which he was graduated as a
member of the class of 1911 and with the degree of Bachelor
of Ai'ts. Through his post-graduate work in the University of
Wisconsin he received from the latter institution in 1915 the
supplemental degree of Master of Arts, and in Columbia Uni-
versity, New York City, he has thus far taken eighteen months
of the work that will lead to his reception of the degree of
Doctor of Philosophy. Mr. Bowton taught his first term of
school when he was twenty years of age, in 1896, and he con-
tinued his pedagogic service at intervals while he was pursuing
his university courses. Mr. Bowton is an enthusiast in all that
pertains to the work of his profession, and his service therein
has been cumulative in its success. He has taught in the public
schools of Indiana, Illinois and Missouri, and has been in active
educational work in Virginia during a period of ten years. He
gave five years of service as superintendent of the public schools
of Clifton Forge, Alleghany County, Virginia, and since July,
1923, he has been superintendent of the city schools of Alex-
andria. He is a member of the National Education Association,
is affiliated with the Phi Delta Kappa college fraternity, is an
active member of the Kiwanis Club in his home city, is a Demo-
crat in his political allegiance, and his religious faith is that of
the Methodist Church, of which he has been a member since
his boyhood and in which he and his wife now maintain active
affiliation with the local organization of the Methodist Episcopal
Church, South. He has valuable farm interests in Iroquois
County, Illinois, where his father passed the closing years of
his life. The one other child of the family was Alma T., who
194 VIRGINIA
likewise became a successful and popular teacher, her death
having occurred November 13, 1903.
In July, 1918, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Bowton
and Miss Edna Iddings, who likewise was born and reared in
Indiana, as were also her parents, Charles and Martha (Wil-
son) Iddings, who there passed their entire lives. Mr. Iddings
was long and successfully engaged in farm enterprise in Indiana,
and there his death occurred in March, 1922, his widow having
survived him about three months, as her death occurred in June
of the same year. Mr. and Mrs. Bowton have four children,
Reese C, Jr., Forrest Lowell, James Russell, and Virginia Elder.
Mr. Bowton purchased from the City of Alexandria the fine and
historic old home now occupied by him and his family at 323
South Fairfax Street. The house was erected more than a
century ago, and this venerable residence has as its popular
chatelaine a gracious and cultured woman, Mrs. Bowton, who
is well upholding the social prestige that has attached to it for
many years.
William Otis Bailey, specialist in eye, ear, nose and throat,
is a resident of Leesburg and has had an interesting career in
his profession, and particularly as an officer in the Medical
Corps of the United States Navy during and subsequent to the
World war.
He was born September 12, 1889, at Charleston. South Caro-
lina, son of Ephraim Mikell and Helen (Trenholm-Prentiss)
Bailey, his father a native of Edisto Island and his mother of
Cheraw, South Carolina. His father, for several years a pros-
perous hardware merchant of Charleston, died in that city in
February, 1910. The mother lives with her son at Aldie.
After attending public schools in Charleston and Washington,
D. C, William Otis Bailey entered Emerson Institute at Wash-
ington, graduating with the class of 1907. In 1912 he gradu-
ated from the medical department of George Washington Uni-
versity, was an interne in the public health service at Boston,
Massachusetts, and at the Providence and Casualty Hospitals at
Washington. He took post-graduate work in the Army Medical
School in 1914 and at the Naval Medical School in 1917 and
1920. Doctor Bailey during 1914-15 was on active duty with
the Medical Reserve Corps, U. S. A., and following that spent
six months in the Indian service in Arizona and Minnesota.
During 1916-17 he practiced as an eye, ear, nose and throat
physician at Washington. In 1917 he joined the Medical Re-
serve Corps of the navy, with which he was connected for about
two months, and upon America's entrance into the World war
was commissioned a lieutenant, junior grade, later becoming
a lieutenant commander (T.).
Capt. C. S. Butler, of the United States Naval Medical School
at Washington, has furnished an interesting account of Doctor
Bailey's World war service. He was on duty in connection with
the naval establishment in the Virgin Islands from September,
1917, to about the same date in 1920. Shortly after reporting
at St. Thomas in September, 1917, he was ordered to assume
charge of the medical work of the Island of St. Croix, as chief
municipal physician. As he was the senior naval medical officer
on the island he was responsible for all medical work and sani-
tation for the entire island and its population, about 16,000
souls. This is the largest of the three islands purchased from
Denmark and officially transferred to the United States in Feb-
VIRGINIA 195
ruary, 1917. He found at St. Croix two run-down municipal
hospitals, a poorly equipped leper asylum, an insane asylum, and
everywhere ordinary sanitary provisions neglected. With the
trained personnel furnished him by the naval government Doctor
Bailey during the three years of his stay in St. Croix accom-
plished results that make Americans proud. The municipal
hospitals and other institutions were organized along modern
lines, brought to a high degree of working efficiency, the natives
were taught in the training schools how to care for their sick,
and sanitation as a whole was perfected so that the entire popu-
lation experienced benefits. These constructive measures re-
sulted in a great decrease in infant mortality, in the better care
of women in child-bed, in the treatment of internal disease, in
the establishment of the means to carry out modern procedures
in surgery as well as the actual work of surgery, and in sani-
tation and prophylaxis. To this work Doctor Bailey took, in
the words of Captain Butler, an honesty of purpose, a desire to
serve, a disarming ap'proachableness and a happy disposition,
and consequently he at all times enjoyed the esteem of his subor-
dinates and made great headway in winning the afl'ection of
the natives.
Doctor Bailey resigned his commission in March, 1924, and
then took up his residence at Leesburg, where he has since car-
ried on the routine of his private practice as a specialist and
has charge of the eye, ear, nose and throat work at the Loudoun
County Hospital and the Fauquier County Hospital. He also
has offices at Warrenton and Charles Town, West Virginia,
Manassas and Culpeper.
Doctor Bailey is a member of the District of Columbia Med-
ical Society, the Maryland and Virginia Medical Societies, the
Loudoun County and Fauquier County Societies, and the Ameri-
can Medical Association. During the fall of 1928 he was abroad
studying at Vienna and Budapest. He is a member of the Lou-
doun County Golf and Country Club, is a Democrat and a mem-
ber of the Episcopal Church. Associated with him in charge of
the offices at Warrenton, Culpeper and Manassas is his brother,
Dr. M. Prentiss Bailey.
Doctor Bailey married, March 24, 1917, Miss Mary Hardin
Parker, daughter of Edwin Pearson and Mary Lillington (Har-
din) Parker, her father a native of Portsmouth, Virginia, and
her mother of Hickorj', North Carolina. Mr. Parker is now
in the insurance business at Washington, D. C. Doctor and
Mrs. Bailey, whose home is at Aldie, have three children : Wil-
liam Otis, Jr., born December 28, 1917, Mary Lillington, born
August 10, 1923, and Edwin Pearson, born May 7, 1928.
The Portsmouth Star, a newspaper that has reflected the
modern spirit in the Virginia Tidewater country, bringing daily
to its readers the life of the outside world and at the same time
providing a medium for the expression of the views and inter-
ests of the home people, and using its influence first and last and
all the time for a better and greater Portsmouth and Eastern
Virginia, was founded September 3, 1894, just a century after
the first beginnings of journalism in Norfolk County.
The founders of the Star were Paul C. Trugien and William
B. Wilder. They made the Star a modern newspaper from the
start, publishing the full afteimoon report of the old Southern
Associated Press. After the retirement of Mr. Wilder, Mr.
Trugien carried on for many years, steadily building a news-
196 VIRGINIA
paper of power and influence. In 1900 he incorporated the
Portsmouth Star Publishing Company, enlarged and modernized
the plant, putting in the first typesetting machines and the first
perfecting press used by any newspaper in Tidewater, Virginia.
He brought into business and financial cooperation with him
many of the prominent men of Portsmouth of that day. Mr.
Trugien in 1906 sold the majority stock in the company to
A. McK. Griggs, who had been associated with the paper since
1900. He was its editor and publisher for twenty years.
Early in 1917 the Portsmouth Star Corporation, with Nor-
man R. Hamilton as president, acquired the business and inter-
ests of the Portsmouth Star Publishing Company. Norman R.
Hamilton was one of the first .subscribers to the original Star
while he was a student in the Portsmouth High School and for
Messrs. Trugien and Wilder secured its first subscription lists.
Later he became the Star representative in Norfolk, and it may
be said he has had an interest in the Sta.r throughout the third
of a century of its history. Under the new ownership in 1917
improvements and developments were inaugurated to give the
Star increased influence and power among Virginia newspapers.
One was the establishment of the Sunday Star. Mr. Hamilton in
1924 acquired the controlling ownership of the Star, and during
the past five years the equipment and the facilities of the paper
have been steadily enlarged and improved.
In addition to realizing its primary function as a daily news-
paper circulated throughout Tidewater, Virginia, the Star has
also adhered to a notable tradition of public service and public
duty. The achievements standing to its credit comprise a chap-
ter in constructive journalism. It was instrumental in the or-
ganization of the Kings Daughters Hospital while Mr. Trugien
was in charge ; in the formation of the original Business Men's
Association of Portsmouth, in establishing the Home for the
Aged, and twice used the full power of its public influence in
preventing the removal of the general offices of the Seaboard
Air Line from Portsmouth. It has given valuable publicity to
the work of the Navy Yard, to the city in campaigns for physical
betterment and moral improvement, to schools, churches and
other institutions, and a number of years ago it did much to
arouse sentiment for the construction of the George Washington
Highway between Portsmouth and Eastern North Carolina. The
Portsmouth Star is an independent newspaper, published every
afternoon and Sunday morning, devoted to the interest and wel-
fare of the people it serves. It is the people's paper, standing
feai'lessly for that which it believes to be right, independent of
influences of every kind, except those of the best.
Norman R. Hamilton. In the history of Portsmouth's only
newspaper, the Portsmouth Star, brief reference was made to
its owner and publisher, Norman R. Hamilton. Mr. Hamilton
was born at Portsmouth November 13, 1877, was educated in
the public schools of that city and has had practically a life long
experience and contact with newspaper work. His early train-
ing was at Norfolk and for a number of years he has figured
in the history of the Portsmouth Star.
Mr. Hamilton is a son of Richard Dabney Hamilton, printer
and journalist, and the great-grandson of Rev. William Hamil-
ton, who with Rev. Gideon Ousley was one of the earliest pioneer
Methodist missionaries sent out to Northern Ireland by John
Wesley, founder of Methodism. Mr. Hamilton's ancestors fought
VIRGINIA 197
in the Revolutionary war, in tlie Mexican war, in the Seminole-
Indian wars in Florida, and were in the Confederate ai-my and
navy.
Mr. Hamilton in addition to being a publisher has a note-
worthy record in politics and public affairs. In 1912 he was
Democratic presidential elector from Virginia. In 1914 Presi-
dent Wil'-on appointed him collector of customs for the district
of Virginia, and he served two terms in that position. Before
America entered the war Mr. Hamilton as collector of customs
at Norfolk and Newport News, was charged with the enforce-
ment of American neutrality in the waters of Virginia, and it
became his duty to handle difficult diRlomatic problems in con-
nection with the arrival in Hampton Roads, first, of the German
raider T^rinz Eitel Frederick, next, the Krom Prinz Wilhelm and
later, the German prize ship Appam. All of these shins he in-
terned, along with other enemy vessels that had taken haven in
Vireinia waters and which were there when the United States
entered the World war.
For this and other conspicuous service rendered the Govern-
ment as collector of customs and as representative of the treas-
ury and state department at Hampton Roads Mr. Hamilton re-
ceived the commendation of President Wilson, and at the close
of his term as collector was similarly commended by President
Harding.
Mr. Hamilton in 1924 was a delegate from Virginia to the
Democratic National Convention at New York. The Demo-
ci-atic State Convention at Roanoke June 21, 1928, named him
delegate to the Houston convention. As a result of automobile
injuries received while attending the state convention at Roa-
noke he was unable to go to Houston and the Virginia State Con-
vention named as alternate in his stead his son, Richard Douglas
Hamilton, a .student at Washington and Lee University, just of
voting age, who in consequence served as the youngest member
of the National Democratic Convention at Houston.
Mr. Hamilton and Miss Adelaide Etheredge were married
October 10, 1901, in the First Presbyterian Church of Ports-
mouth. Among Mrs. Hamilton's ancestors were members of the
Madison family of Virginia. The two sons of Mr. and Mrs.
Hamilton are Norman Etheredge, a young Norfolk business man,
and Richard Douglas Hamilton.
James Hoge Tyler, member of a family that has conferred
so many distinctions upon old Virginia, was in his long career a
soldier of the Confederacy, a business man and farmer, and
climaxed his service to the State as governor from 1898 to 1902.
He was born at his father's old home "Blenheim" in Caroline
County, August 11, 1846. He died at East Radford, Virginia,
January 3, 1925, when in his seventy-ninth year. Blenheim,
his birthplace, had been the home of the Tyler family for 170
years. His parents were George and Eliza (Hoge) Tyler, his
mother a daughter of Gen. James Hoge. His mother dying at
his birth, James Hoge Tyler was reared by his grandparents.
General and Mrs. James Hoge, at their home "Belle Hampton" in
Pulaski County. There at an early age he 'became assistant to
his grandfather, who was stricken with paralysis. He was in-
structed by private tutors and by his grandfather, and after the
death of General Hoge in 1861 he joined his father in Caroline
County and attended the school of Franklin Minor in Albemarle
County. He also attended Schooler's Academy. He enlisted
198 VIRGINIA
as a private in the Confederate army and served throughout the
vi^ar with characteristic courage and fidelity. After the war he
engaged in farming in Pulaski County, and through his writings
for the press and his individual influence had much to do with
awakening the need of the country to manufacturing and mining
development and the bringing in of necessary capital for that
purpose. In 1877 he was elected a member of the State Senate
and in the Senate urged the reduction of state taxes and made
another early contribution to economy as a member of the com-
mission which settled the state debt. He also served as a mem-
ber of the Board of Public Buildings at Blacksburg and Marion,
and was made rector of the Virginia Agricultural and Mechan-
ical College, now the Virginia Pol>i;echnic Institute at Blacks-
burg. This position he resigned to become lieutenant governor,
having been elected in 1889. He was a member of the commis-
sion to examine into the disputed Virginia-Maryland boundary
line, and was elected chairman of the joint committee of the two
states.
Governor Tyler from early youth was affiliated with the
Presbyterian Church, being chosen a deacon at the age of eigh-
teen and an elder at twenty-three, and for three times was dele-
gate to the General Assembly, attending the Pan-Presbyterian
Council at Toronto, Canada, and at Glasgow, Scotland, where he
presided over the session.
In 1897 he was given the nomination for governor by accla-
mation and was elected by a majority of more than 52,000. His
administration was a triumph in its combination of economy
with constructive progress. The state debt was reduced by more
than a million dollars without hampering any important public
interest, and at the same time the public school fund was in-
creased, and at the close the public treasury contained more than
$800,000.
In the words of an editorial in the Norfolk Ledger-Dispatch :
"Assuming the governorship of Virginia when the common-
wealth was just recovering from the transitory stages following
the reaction to the reconstruction regime, James Hoge Tyler
was a chief executive of the State who set a pace which may
have well been followed by some of his successors. A young
man, virtually a youth coming out of the Confederate army, he
entered business life and was the last governor of Virginia who
had seen service under the stars and bars, and in that way in
particular may be designated as the connecting link between the
old and the new Virginia. It was during Governor Tyler's ad-
ministration that the call for a constitutional convention was
submitted to the people and the document of the 1902-03 was
the result. He urged many reforms in the operation of the
State government which failed of adoption, but the establish-
ment of a Bureau of Labor was one achievement, while the
State tax rate was reduced and appropriations for State institu-
tions increased, an accomplishment that is almost paradoxical.
Governor Tyler was perhaps not a brilliant executive, but of all
of Virginia's leaders past and present no man stands higher for
rugged honesty, integrity and fidelity to the State's interests, and
displayed a desire to put his administration on the road to sub-
stantial constructive achievement. Perhaps, judged by modern
ideas, he did not go as far as he might have done, but neverthe-
less he initiated ideas that have been accepted since the time of
his active participation in State affairs and have been taken up
■^
"^^^ii^^t-^^^f^^-i^y^^/^^v^^^^
VIRGINIA 199
by his successors with more or less credit to themselves. Nor-
folk feels that it has been linked with Governor Tyler's family
for many years. His son, the present mayor of the city, ex-
emplifies many of the qualities that characterized the public life
of the father."
Governor Tyler was in a great measure a representative of
the agriculture side of Virginia's life. He was interested in
farming and served as president of the Virginia State Farmers
Institute and as president of the Southwest Virginia Live Stock
Association. He was a trustee of Hampden-Sidney College, was
on the board of the Union Theological Seminary and the Synod-
ic'al Orphans Home at Lynchburg.
Governor Tyler married, November 16, 1868, Miss Sue M.
Hammet, of East Radford. His children were : S. Heth Tyler,
of Norfolk; E. H. Tyler, of Pulaski Countv; James Hoge Tyler,
Jr., of Roanoke ; Hal C. Tvler, of East Radford ; Mrs. Frank P.
McConnell, of East Radford; Mrs. Robert W. Joplin, of Lan-
caster, South Carolina ; and Mrs. Henry Wilson, of Harrisburg,
Pennsylvania.
Thomas Brooke Howard, one of the brilliant young attor-
neys practicing at the bar of Alexandria, has achieved a dis-
tinction that has brought his name into favorable notice all
over Virginia and at the national capital, and he is not only
recognized because of his professional attainments, which are
somewhat remarkable, but also because of his high personal
character and pleasing personality. He was born in Alex-
andria, Virginia, September 28, 1902, a son of Thomas Clifton
and Minnie (Stansbury) Howard, natives of that part of Alex-
andria County that is now Fairfax County. While he is in
business as a merchandise broker in Washington City, Thomas
Clifton Howard still maintains his residence in Alexandria,
where he is regarded as one of the leading citizens of this his-
toric city.
Growing up in Alexandria, T. Brooke Howard attended the
local schools, including the high school, from which he was
graduated in 1919, and even thus early displayed abilities that
led his teachers to advise his developing them along the line of
professional training. Encouraged by his wise and helpful
parents, he took a course in law in the University of Virginia,
and was graduated therefrom in 1924. In October of the suc-
ceeding year he established himself in practice in Alexandria,
his offices being at 10.5 South Royal Street, and his residence at
207 South Washington Street. He is a young man who from
the start has deeply impressed others with his unshakable hon-
esty as well as his ability to lay hold of the essentials of a
situation, and has won and holds the respect too often withheld
from beginners in any line. His influence is and has been in-
variably for enlightened progress, for his sympathies are true
and his judgment sound. He represents in character and accom-
plishment the qualities which raise and dignify democratic
citizenship and are the foundation of our best leadership. In
addition to his careful and masterly professional services he is
ever ready to give the best that lies within his unusual powers,
his qualities of heart and brain.
Mr. Howard is unmarried. He is a member of the Virginia
State Bar Association and of the Alexandria Bar Association.
One of the social leaders, he finds relaxation and congenial com-
200 VIRGINIA
panionship as a member of the Belle Haven Country Club and
the Old Dominion Boat Club. While he has not entered public
life, he is a staunch Democrat, and gives his support to his
party's principles and candidates. The Presbyterian Church
has in him a consistent member.
Henry Wood Campbell, Doctor of Dental Surgery, F. A.
C. D., who has practiced dental surgery at Suffolk since 1889,
was born at Amherst, Virginia, July 9, 1866, son of an old and
prominent Virginia family.
His father, Rev. Thomas Horace Campbell, a native Virgi-
nian, was born December 18, 1838, and was a soldier of the South
in the Confederate army, being in the command under Gen.
George E. Pickett. A bullet received in the battle of Gaines
Mills he carried to his grave. After the close of the war he
entered the ministry of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South,
and was distinguished by his eloquence, his devotion to the
church and humanity, and for thirty-two years carried on his
labors as a pastor, from 1874 until his death on July 14, 1906.
Rev. Thomas Horace Campbell married Miss Henry Virginia
Wood, whose father. Rev. Henry D. Wood, was a Methodist
minister who died in Georgia. Henry Virginia Wood was born
April 12, 1843, in Buckingham County, Virginia, was married
at "Spring Garden," Amherst County, Virginia, April 16, 1864,
and died January 5, 1920, at her home, "The Oaks," in Amherst
County. She was interred at Lynchburg, Virginia.
After completing his early education in the schools of Am-
herst and under private tutors Henry Wood Campbell entered
the University of Maryland, from which he was graduated with
the degree Doctor of Dental Surgery in 1889. In the same year
he established an office at Suffolk, Virginia. His professional
work has, always had a broader range than that of routine prac-
tice. He has been influential in setting higher standards in the
profession generally. From 1896 to 1918 he was president of
the Virginia State Board of Dental Examiners, retiring in that
year from the board. He was reappointed to the state board
in 1920 by Governor E. Lee Trinkle of Virginia, and was re-
elected its president, in which capacity he still serves. He was
honored with election as president of the Virginia State Dental
Association for the year 1894-95, and was chairman of its legis-
lative committee from 1909-11. It was largely through his in-
fluence that the General Assembly of Virginia passed a bill recog-
nizing dentistry as a specialty of medicine in the same class
with the other specialties of medicine which required the degree
of M. D. This bill was passed in 1910, and became effective in
1914. This standard, if continued, would have required a com-
plete medical education for all dentists practicing in Virginia.
He is a member of the American Dental Association, and has the
honorary degree of "Fellow of the American College of Den-
tists." He is a member of the committee of the National Asso-
ciation of Dental Examiners in conjunction with the Carnegie
Educational Foundation working to create a National Board of
Dental Examiners. He served as president of the National Asso-
ciation of Dental Examiners in 1905-06. He also is an honorary
member of the North Carolina Dental Society, the South Side
Virginia Dental Society, and a member of the Virginia Tide-
water Dental Association, and for many years he has been a
contributor to periodicals and journals of his profession.
VIRGINIA 201
Aside from his profession Doctor Campbell is president of
the Suffolk Mutual Building- & Loan Association, a director of
the American Bank & Trust Company, Inc., and from 1903 to
1919 he was a member of the Suffolk City Council, being its
president from 1914-16, and chairman of the finance committee
in 1918. During the World war he was appointed a member
of the Medical Advisory Board, and was secretary of this board
during its existence. Doctor Campbell is affiliated with the Ma-
sonic fraternity, is a member of the Country Club, former presi-
dent of the Lions Club, a member of the Association for the
Preservation of Virginia Antiquities, a member of the Virginia
State Chamber of Commerce, is a Democrat and a Methodist.
On June 4, 1895, he married Miss Emmeline Eley, of Suffolk,
daughter of Richard Seth and Eliza Priscilla (Riddick) Eley.
Her parents were native Virginians, and her father was a lieu-
tenant in the Confederate 'army, and was imprisoned upon
Johnson's Island. Afte¥'"'tfi^^VW-' Itfe'-Hvas a retail merchant in
Suffolk until the tirtfe^\3f ^if^'tJeErtli irfl^^B^"'' flfei< ffli^tjl.er died in
1.924, at the age of gighty^se%iiv' BbtH^aW iflfet^ife^-if^S^lk,
Virginia. Doctor and ; Mrs; 'Campbell havfe 'a'fitttiftT^ ^f'^our
children: Seth Ele/, "an felectrical ehgineer with' the*'&eneral
■ CLAtJDE L?-Yt5WEifct^Wlrft%1^6f'^*^;_Wa-%^ g?;hool,
Hampsteaid, M'arvland, is a ■member'^'6~P%n'^'6ld*-cii^^^^fffilient
family of Madisbn Coiirfty, Virginia.^ >' '- •■"^^T s^s^r -^i^
Mr. Yowell was born' in Madison County, March 7, iSS^STson
of Casper and MSry (-Weaver) Yowell. The Yowells came'from
England and the''We^\'^ei3i;^from Germany, settling in Virginia
in Colonial tirnes.'-Md feoth-fJfeiMi^^'ftere'i'epi'esented by^ soldiers
in- the War of th^-lt-e.\'^Hiti5K -The Weavers Were 'Elitfergns and
helped establish the "fiVM Llitheran Churehln th> stMe'^'frt 1-726.
Mr. Yowell's grandfather 'Weaver enlisted at the age'io'Pseven-
teen in the Confederate army, serving'with' the Reserves. 'His
grandfather Yowell served in the Madison cavalry under Gen-
eral Lee. Casper Yowell has been a noted stock farmer and
breeder in Madison County, having a farm specializing- in Black
Angus cattle, Poland China hogs and Shropshire sheep. He is
a deacon in the Baptist Church and active in the Sunday School.
Casper Yowell and wife had two sons, Claude L. and Russell W.
Russell was born March 23, 1908, and is a student in the Uni-
versity of Vii'ginia.
Claude L. Yowell grew up on the home farm in Madison
County, attended local schools and in 1922 graduated Bachelor
of Science from the University of Virginia. He took the Mas-
ter of Science degree at the University in 1927, and is now doing
work on a Doctor of Philosophy degree in the summer sessions
at Johns Hopkins LTniversity. He has been teaching for the
past six years, two years at the Handley High School, Winches-
ter, Virginia ; three years as principal of the Stanardsville High
School. For his theses in taking the Master's degree he wrote
a history of Madison County which is now on the market and
is the first work of this nature finished on the history of this
county. The publication of this book led to his becoming a
member of the Pi Gamma Mu, honorary social science fraternity,
of which he is now an active member.
Mr. Yowell married, June 30, 1925, Miss Grace T. Yowell,
of Rappahannock County, daughter of Weldon A. and Mazie
202 VIRGINIA
(Leathers) Yowell. Her father is a farmer and stock raiser
in Rappahannock County. Mrs. Yowell is one of five children,
Gladys R., Susie G., Kelsey A., Grace T. and Hugh A., being
the only one of these now married. Mrs. Yowell graduated from
the Harrisonburg Teachers College in 1925, and was engaged
as a teacher in the Stanardsville High School for the next three
sessions. Mrs. Yowell is active in the clubs of her adopted town.
John W. Darden. No better illustration of the value of
industry, perseverance and determination, guided by integrity
and probity and directed by natural and developed ability, could
be found than the career of the late John W. Darden. Left an
orphan at a tender age, he faced life with but a meagre educa-
tion and without the aid of friendly alliances or other adventi-
tious circumstances worked his way to a position among the sub-
stantial men of his community, being long a well known figure
in railway, mercantile and agricultural circles in Nansemond
and Southampton counties. He was a man of high character
and public spirit, and in his death, which occurred in October,
.1914, his community lost one of its reliable and valued citizens.
Mr. Darden was born at Southampton, Virginia, July 16,
1847, the oldest of six children of John Wilson Darden, a farmer,
and his wife, Nannie (Norfleet) Darden. He was descended
from a family which urigxBSked in. Scotland, whence the Ameri-
can jjragenitor immigrated to iixis country during the early
{^lonial period «nd settled in Virginia. John W. Darden was
«lily twelve years of age when his parents died and he was
forced to leave school at Southampton to face life's responsibili-
ties on his own account. He was variously employed at such
honorable employment as he could find until he reached the age
of seventeen years, and then enlisted in a regiment of Virginia
volunteer infantry, with which he served bravely until the close
of the war between the states, seeing much active service and
receiving a wound in the arm, the scar of which he carried until
his death. At the close of his military service he sought rail-
roading as a means of livelihood, and through industry and
fidelity rose to be section master of the Seaboard Airline Rail-
way in Southampton County. Later he held a like position
with the Southern Railway, and during its construction was in
charge of the leveling of rails. Resigning from this position,
Mr. Darden embarked in mercantile affairs and for several years
was the proprietor of an establishment at Franklin and subse-
quently at Southampton, but following his marriage sold his
business interests, purchased a farm in Nansemond County, and
from that time forward until his demise was successfully en-
gaged in agricultural pursuits. Mr. Darden was a man of high
character and a consistent member of the Baptist Church. While
he took much interest in public affairs, he never sought office,
but supported generously the movements that his good judgment
told him would benefit his community.
In November, 1874, Mr. Darden married Miss Margaret Jane
Edney, a descendant of a family which originated in England
and settled in Virginia prior to the Revolutionary war. She was
educated at private schools and is a daughter of Jonathan and
Margaret (Spence) Edney, her father being originally an in-
ventor and manufacturer of machinery in Camden County,
North Carolina, who later moved to Franklin, Virginia, and
spent the rest of his life in the lumber and grain milling business.
Mrs. Darden was the fifth in order of birth in a family of ten
VIRGINIA 203
children. To Mr. and Mrs. Darden there were born ten chil-
dren : Junius Willard, who is deceased ; John W. H., a merchant
of Branchville, Virginia, who married May Taylor and has one
son, John Taylor ; Nancy Norfleet, who married Thomas Ewre, of
Camp Mill, Franklin, and has three children, Oretha, Margue-
ritte and Thomas ; Lucy Emma, who is deceased ; Margaret In-
diana, the wife of Robert L. Harper, of Raleigh, North Carolina,
and has one child, Darden ; William Mosby, of California, who
has two children, Sarah and William Mosby, Jr. ; Wallace Alex-
ander, who is deceased ; Annie Asenath, the wife of John E.
Coggin, a lumberman of Philadelphia ; Dr. St. Clair, a medical
college graduate and specialist in tuberculosis, in charge of the
Healthwin Sanitarium at South Bend, Indiana, who has two
children, Thomas and Robert ; and Sarah Mabel, who married
Rochelle Harrell, of Suffolk, Virginia, and has two children,
Sarah and Rochelle. Mrs. Darden, who survives her husband
and resides at 615 Colonial Avenue, is one of the highly esteemed
ladies of Norfolk, and is active in the work of the Baptist Church.
Carter Perkins, D. D. S., was one of the veteran and
honored representatives of his profession in his native state of
Virginia at the time of his death, which occurred in the city of
Newport News December 7, 1926. Not only his professional
skill and precedence but also his sterling character and high
communal standing make specially consistent the memorial
tribute here accorded to him.
Doctor Perkins was born in Middlesex County, Virginia,
August 13, 1832, and thus he had attained to the patriarchal age
of ninety-four years when his earnest and worthy life came to
its close. Aside from the marked success that he gained in the
practice of his profession Doctor Perkins became a leader in
real estate development and exploitation after he had estab-
lished his residence in Newport News, and as a young man he
gave loyal service in defense of the cause of the Confederate
states in the Civil war.
The subject of this memoir was a son of Col. Carter Perkins
and Mary Ann (Humphrey) Perkins, of whose six children he
was the fourth in order of birth. Colonel Perkins was owner
and operator of a fine plantation estate in Middlesex County,
and he made a record of gallant service as a soldier in the War
of 1812, in which he held the rank of colonel.
Doctor Perkins gained his early education mainly in private
schools and under the direction of private tutors. In fortifying
himself for the work of his chosen profession, before the era of
regular dental colleges, he was favored in gaining technical and
practical instruction under the preceptorship of Doctor Cowlen,
of Baltimore, Maryland, who was one of the eminent dental
practitioners and authorities -of that period. After completing
his through course in dentistry Doctor Perkins returned to Vir-
ginia, and thereafter he continued in the active practice of his
profession in Middlesex and Lancaster counties until 1858, when
he removed to Charles City County, where he continued in
practice until the inception of the Civil war, when he promptly
subordinated all personal interests and enlisted for service in the
Confederate army. On the 5th of July, 1861, when he was
twenty-nine years of age, he enlisted at Jamestown in Company
K, Fifty-third Virginia Infantry, and soon afterward he was
detailed to duty as quartermaster clerk. In September, 1861,
he was assigned to a clerkship in the commissary department,
and in 1862 he was placed in hospital service, supply department,
204 VIRGINIA
in the city of Richmond. Before the close of 1862 he was hon-
orably discharged, by reason of physical disability.
After the close of the Civil war Doctor Perkins engaged in
the lumber business in Charles City County, and there he con-
tinued operations on an extensive scale until 1889, when he
sold his interests in the lumber business and removed to New-
port News, where he resumed the practice of his profession. In
1894 the Doctor retired from practice and turned his attention
to the real estate business. He became president of the Newport
News Development Company, which promoted the development
of the east end of the city, and after a few years of association
with this line of enterprise he became associated with his son
Robert W., in the furniture business, under the title of Newport
News Furniture Company. He sold his interest in this business
in 1901, and for the ensuing five yeai's he was cashier and a
substantial stockholder of the Newport News Savings Bank.
In 190f) the Doctor here resumed the practice of his profession,
from which he did not retire until 1920, when he was eighty-
eight years of age. He thereafter lived in gracious and well
earned retirement in Newport News until his death at the
venerable age of ninety-four years. Doctor Perkins long held
meTibership in the American Dental Association and the Vii'-
ginia State Dental Association, and as author he made valuable
contributions to the .standard and periodical literature of his
profession. He was a stalwart advocate of the principles of the
Democratic party, and he served as a member of the City Coun-
cil of NewDort News, as well as a member of the Board of Edu-
cation H'^ WPS an earne.st member of Trinity Methodist Epis-
copal Church, South, as is also his widow, who continues a gra-
cious figure in the social and cultural circles of Newport News,
whei-e she is a member of the Woman's Club and also of the
American Legion Auxiliary.
In May, 1858, Doctor Perkins was united in marriage with
Miss Mai'y Minge Graves, of Charles Citv County, and of this
union were born five children : Robert W. became one of the
representative business men of Newport News and served as a
member of the Virginia Legis'ature. Carter, William C, and
John Freeman likewise became actively identified with business
enterprises, and the only daughter was Mary Minge. The death
of Mrs. Perkins occurred prior to the removal of the Doctor to
Newport News, and he was still a resident of Charles City
County when his marriage to Miss Mary Sue Richardson was
there solemnized in Charles City Chapel of the Methodist
Church, November 25, 1885. Mrs. Perkins is a daughter of
the 'ate Dr. Pryor Richardson and William America (Christian)
Richardson, the former of whom was born in New Kent County
and the latter of whom was a member of the influential Christian
family that was founded in Virginia in the Colonial days. Dr.
Pryor Richardson was graduated from William and Mary Col-
lege as a member of the class of 1837, and thereafter he took
a course in a leading medical college in Baltimore, Maryland.
He became one of the leading physicians and surgeons in Charles
City County, where he likewise owned a large and valuable
plantation estate, and he was influential in the councils of the
Democratic party during the course of many years. Ann, eldest
of the children of Dr. Carter Perkins and Mary S. (Richardson)
Perkins, is the wife of William E. Scruggs, a Government
employe at Newport News, and they have one child, Ann Carter.
Pryor Richardson Perkins, second of the children, sacrified his
life in the World war, he having been killed in action while with
his command at the Argonne front in France, October 3, 1918.
VIRGINIA 205
He held the rank of first lieutenant in the Twentieth Aerial
Squadron. This gallant young Virginian had received prelimin-
ary training at the University of Ohio, Columbus, and was of
the first contingent of Americans to receive training with the
school of the Royal Air Force at Oxford University, England,
where he was graduated as a technical expert in air service
early in 1918, his commission as first lieutenant having been re-
ceived by him in May of that year. Margaret, next younger of
the children, is the widow of Benjamin C. Flannagan, who was
in the service of the Norfolk Southern (electric) Railway, and
their two children are Margaret Perkins Flannagan, and Rich-
ard Perkins Flannagan. Elizabeth, youngest of the children,
is the wife of Frank E. Kuhn, an employe of the Chesapeake &
Ohio Railroad, and their one child is Frank E., Jr.
Lemuel Cornick Shepherd, M. D., was through a period of
forty years one of the able representatives of his profession in
the City of Norfolk. He was a doctor of broad and liberal cul-
ture, of progressive ideas, enjoyed not only a successful private
practice, but was also a leader in public health work.
He was born at Petersburg, Vii'ginia, January 26, 1864, son
of Jchn Camp and Susan (Land) Shephei'd. At the time of his
birth his mother was living as refugee from Norfolk, which was
the home of the family. After the war John Camp Shepherd
became a merchant in Princess Anne County, Virginia, and was
also a farmer. He served in the Confederate cavalry through-
out the period of the war.
Doctor Shepherd was one of a family of six children and was
educated in country schools in Princess Anne County, attended
the Episcopal High School at Alexandria, and was graduated
from the Bellevue Hospital Medical College of Long Island in
1888. A few years later he interrrupted his private practice to
JO abroad and spent portions of the years 1892-93 in study at
Vienna and Berlin. For several years Doctor Shepherd was a
member of the Norfolk Board of Health and also served as city
bacteriologist. He was a mem^^er of the Norfolk and American
Medical Associations and the Medical Society of Virginia. Doc-
tor Shepherd was a Democrat in pohtics, and he and his wife
were active members of St. ^aul's Episcopal Church.
Doctor Shepherd was still a comparatively young man when
he died April 4, 1926. He married, September 6, 1894, Emma
Cartwright. Mrs. Shepherd, whose home is at 1219 Westover
Avenue, f orfolk, was born in Nantucket, Massachusetts, and
was i-eired and educated in that state, attending the State Nor-
mal School at New Britain, Connecticut. Her father, Benjamin
Cartwright, was an old time whaling captain who sailed out of
the Port of New Bedford. Her mother was Agnes Hamilton,
and Mrs. Shepherd was one of four children. Mrs. Shepherd is
an active member of the Norfolk Society of Arts. She is the
mother of three children. Her son Lemuel C. II was educated
in the Norfolk Academy and the Virginia Military Institute and
is a captain in the United States Marine Corps. Captain Shep-
herd married Virginia Tunstall Driver, of Norfolk, and has two
sons, Lemuel III, and Wilson Driver. Edith Shepherd, who was
educated in the Randolph-Macon Woman's College at Lynchburg,
is the wife of James Vass Brooke, a civil engineer, and they
have two daughters, Mary Goode Brooke and Edith Shepherd.
The youngest child. Miss Virginia Hamilton, attended school at
Norfolk and Skidmore College at Saratoga Springs, New York.
206 VIRGINIA
Adam Addison Wendel, sheriff of Norfolk County, is a
prominent type of the new Virginian, a western man who was
attracted to this section of Tidewater, Virginia, many years ago.
He has taken a prominent part in the development of its indus-
trial resources, and has given an administration of the office of
sheriff which has been approved three times by the votes of the
people.
Mr. Wendel was born at Washington Court House, Fayette
County, Ohio, July 8, 1869. His people were early settlers in
Ohio. Mr. Wendel was reared and educated in that locality, and
as a young man became interested in the lumber industry. It
was his connections with lumbering which brought him to Nor-
folk County in 1901 as superintendent and manager of an or-
ganization which had secured ten thousand acres of timber land
in the famous Dismal Swamp region. He and his associates put
up a saw mill which had a daily cut of sixty thousand feet of
lumber. This inaugurated the production of lumber in a region
which for centuries had been practically waste land, and for
twenty years Mr. Wendel gave his time and energies to this
business. Besides clearing away the timber and utilizing it for
lumber, some eight hundred acres were turned into valuable and
productive farming land. For this drainage was essential, and
this was secured through the formation of a drainage district.
Besides its possibilities for farming the region is a natural game
preserve, abounding in deer, bear and other prizes of sports.
All these advantages have made Mr. Wendel very much attached
to the region, and he spends a considerable part of the year in
that recreation ground.
He has never been a seeker for office, but the possibilities of
a real public service led him to become a candidate for sheriff
in 1919. He was elected, was reelected in 1923, and in the
August primaries of 1927 was nominated by a large margin of
votes. The three hundred square miles of territory in Norfolk
County, with six hundred miles of road, demand utmost vigi-
lance on the part of the sheriff and his nine full-time deputies
in the enforcement of the laws providing for peace and good
order.
Mr. Wendel is a member of the B. P. 0. Elks and the Izaak
Walton League, and is deeply interested in the fish and game
conservation work with a view to making the Dismal Swamp a
nationally known game preserve. Mr. Wendel married Olive
Durnell, of Washington Court House, Ohio. She is active in
church and social life at Portsmouth.
Luther Spurgon Ballard was for many years well known
in business circles in Portsmouth, a leader in the insurance field
there, and had a great many friends and business associates who
keenly felt his loss when he died December 15, 1925.
He was born in North Carolina, in 1875, one of the thirteen
children of Stephen Ballard, a planter of the old North State.
Luther S. Ballai'd was educated in public schools, and learned
the insurance business by several years of active experience at
Philadelphia. From there he removed to Portsmouth, and built
up a large business as general agent for the Mutual Insurance
Company of Richmond. He always voted as a Democrat and was
a member of the Court Street Baptist Church at Portsmouth.
He married in September, 1909, at Port-smouth, Mrs. Ella
(Scott) Savage, widow of William Savage and daughter of David
and Sarah (Bunting) Scott. Her father was a Norfolk County
U A-<-«J: ot-^J^vt^ iyjJ(U.-riJ^
VIRGINIA 207
farmer and Mrs. Ballard was reared and educated in that county.
She was left a widow with one small child, Russell Scott Savage,
who also took the name of his step-father, and is now continuing
in the insurance business in Virginia, being one of the leaders
in that field. He married Minnie Allen and has two children,
David Savage and Jack Allen.
Mrs. Ballard, who resides in Portsmouth, at 225 North Elm
Avenue, is a member of the Central Methodist Church, is presi-
dent of its aid society and treasurer of the Earnest Workers
Society. She is also a member of Stonewall Chapter, United
Daughters of the Confederacy.
Martin Donohue Delaney, M. D., has been established in
the practice of his profession in the City of Alexandria more
than a quarter of a century, and his unqualified success offers
the best evidence of his professional skill as well as of his secure
place in popular confidence and esteem in the community that
has profited by his earnest and able ministrations. He gives
special attention to the surgical branch of his profession, and
in the same has attained to high reputation. He maintains
both his residence and office headquarters at 131 North Wash-
ington Street.
Doctor Delaney was born in the City of Toledo, Ohio, April
28, 1874, and is a son of Dennis William and Josephine (Dono-
hue) Delaney, both of whom were born in Ireland and both of
whom were young at the time of the coming of the respective
families to the United States. They lived in Philadelphia and
he served three years under General McClellan. During the
greater part of his active career Dennis W. Delaney was a suc-
cessful contractor and builder in Prince William County, Vir-
ginia, and there his death occurred Februaiy 5, 1911, his wife
having passed away on the 12th of January of the following
year and both having been devoted communicants of the Catholic
Church. Doctor Delaney is a direct descendant on his mother's
side of Commodore Barry, the father of the old American Navy.
On his father's side he is descended from the nobility of France.
As a boy and youth Doctor Delaney attended the Christian
Brothers School of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and thereafter
continued his studies in St. John's Academy in his present home
City of Alexandria. His higher academic education was
acquired in Mount St. Mary's College at Emmettsburg, Mary-
land, from which he received the degrees of both Bachelor and
Master of Arts. His technical education for his chosen calling
was gained in the medical department of Georgetown University,
District of Columbia, from which he was graduated as a member
of the class of 1898. After thus receiving his degree of Doctor
of Medicine he gained fortifying experience by serving two
years as an interne in Columbia Hospital, Washington, D. C,
and he then, in 1900, established himself in the practice of his
profession in Alexandria, where he has since continued his
ministrations with marked success and where he specializes in
surgery, with many delicate operations to his credit, both of
major and minor order. Recognition of his special skill as a
surgeon is attested by his being a fellow of the American Col-
lege of Surgeons, the representative national organization. He
has membership also in the American Medical Association, the
Virginia State Medical Society, the Northern Virginia Medical
Society and the Alexandria Medical Society. He is surgeon for
the Southern Railway, Richmond, Fredericksburg & Potomac
208 VIRGINIA
Railroad, and the Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad. Doctor Delaney
is a member of the Virginia Governing Committee of the Gorgas
Memorial Institute of Tropical and Preventive Medicine. He
is also a life member of the Service Veterans of the United
States.
The political allegiance of Doctor Delaney is given to the
Democratic party, and both he and his wife are zealous com-
municants of the Catholic Church. The Doctor is affiliated with
the Knights of Columbus and the Benevolent and Protective
Order of Elks, is a charter member of the Washington Society,
and in his home community is a member of the Belle Haven
Country Club. Ancestors of Doctor Delaney were gallant
soldiers in the War of the American Revolution, though his par-
ents were natives of Ireland, and he is thus eligible for affilia-
tion with the Sons of the American Revolution, while by similar
ancestral heritage Mrs. Delaney has eligibility for membership
in the Daughters of the American Revolution and also the
Colonial Dames, she being a descendant of Col. John Fitzgerald,
who served as an aide-de-camp on the staff of Gen. George
Washington in the great struggle that gained American Inde-
pendence.
On the 4th of June, 1906, was solemnized the marriage of
Doctor Delaney and Miss Catharine O'Donoghue, a daughter of
Martin and Margaret (Lyne) O'Donoghue, of Georgetown, Dis-
trict of Columbia, where her father was a wholesale merchant,
both he and his wife having been born in Ireland. Mr.
O'Donoghue died at the age of fifty-two years, June 28, 1888,
and his widow attained to the age of seventy-five years, she
having passed to the life eternal on the 9th of September, 1917.
Martin O'Donoghue was descended from the O'Donoghues of
Ross Castle, Ireland. Martin Donohue, eldest of the children
of Doctor and Mrs. Delaney, was born June 5, 1907, and is now
(1928) a student in the Virginia Military Institute; Paul Lyne
was born April 5, 1909, and is attending Georgetown Univer-
sity, where he is pursuing studies in both the literary and law
departments ; Catharine, the only daughter, was born Novem-
ber 28, 1913, and is a student in the Alexandria High School ;
William Morgan, youngest of the children, was born February
20, 1916, and is attending school in his home city.
Eugene Marcellis Pollard. A veteran of the Confederate
service and a business man of unquestioned ability, the late
Eugene Marcellis Pollard, after years of faithful service as a
railroad man and druggist retired to Richmond, and here, in the
capital city of the South, he passed away in 1913, beloved and
honored by all who knew him. He was born in Chesterfield
County, Virginia, July 27, 1845, and was educated in its schools
up to the age of sixteen years. He was a son of Joseph and
Lydia Frances (Bottom) Pollard, who had five children.
The school days of Eugene Marcellis Pollard were inter-
rupted by the tocsin of war, and in spite of his youth he en-
listed in the Confederate army, and remained in the service
for four years, during which period he was wounded in action,
and rose to the rank of sergeant. After the close of the war he
entered the employ of the Norfolk & Western Railroad, and
remained with that company for three years, leaving to go into
the drug store of Dr. W. B. Conway, and rose, during the fifteen
years he remained with him, to be manager of the business.
Never very strong as a result of his war experience, he then
VIRGINIA 209
retired, and, coming to Richmond, here passed the remainder of
his life. He was a member of Virginia May Lodge, A. F. and
A. M., and Stonewall Jackson Post, Confederate Veterans. He
and all his family were Presbyterians, and earnest church work-
ers and supporters. '
On December 13, 1871, Mr. Pollard married Miss Virginia
M. Jones, a daughter of David T. and Martha Ann (Beville)
Jones, and granddaughter of John Archer Beville, a French
Huguenot who came from France to Virginia. For several
generations the Jones family has resided in Chesterfield County,
Virginia. David T. Jones was a planter, and served as a cap-
tain of a company of Virginia militia in the ante-bellum days.
He and his wife had two children, Mrs. Pollard's brother, Ulysses
Boiling Jones, being her senior. Mrs. Pollard was educated in
the Masonic Female Institute in Blacksburg, Virginia. Of the
children born to Mr. and Mrs. Pollard eight lived to reach ma-
turity, namely : Maude, who is the owner of the Poe Court
Book Shop and an authority on. antiques, married Joseph Kelly
Hull, a railroad man connected with the Chesapeake & Ohio
Railroad ; Mrs. Virginia May Wright, widow of the late John
Wright, formerly with the Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad, and
mother of five children, John Caskie, Randolph, Evelyn, David
and Charles ; Stella Frances, who is cashier of the Postal Tele-
graph Company and lives in Richmond ; Parke P., an electrical
contractor of Richmond, who married Eva Lee Russel, of Meck-
lenburg County, Virginia, and has two children, Parke P., Junior,
and Dorothy Elizabeth; Lulu, who is the wife of T. W. Graves,
manager of the Wilson Packing Company, Danville, Virginia;
Edith Argyle, who is the wife of Howard Mann Morecook, trav-
eling freight agent for the Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad, and
mother of Howard Mann Morecook, Junior ; Glenna Leville
Pollard, who is with the Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad ; and Eu-
genia Minon Pollard, who resides in Richmond.
William Edward Reese. In recalling the life and activities
of those who once trod the old familiar ways with ourselves but
have now passed from the scene of life, their characteristics are
remembered, their generous impulses are recollected and the
real value of their influence is determined. In such a review a
loving and appreciative light shines on the life and personality
of William Edward Reese, who for many years was one of the
honored citizens of Richmond, where his widow is still residing.
He was born in Virginia, September 23, 1868, and died in Rich-
mond April 15, 1924. His father, William Reese, was a farm
owner and planter of Halifax County, Virginia, a man well and
favorably known throughout a wide region, and his mother's
first name was Rebecca. They had thi-ee children: Albert, who
is a truck farmer upon an extensive scale ; Mrs. Eliza Dawson ;
and William Edward, who was the youngest of the family.
The public schools of Halifax County educated William Ed-
ward Reese, and when he completed his education he became
a clerk in a hardware store at Cody, Halifax County, but after
several years he left that employment to enter the sawmill busi-
ness. Selling his mill later on, he engaged in the wholesale lum-
ber business in Lynchburg, Virginia, and at the same time he
was interested in a stone quarry. When he sold these interests
he located permanently in Richmond, and for two years handled
scrap iron, and for two years more he was in the bag business.
He was also interested in a fertilizer plant in Ellerson, Virginia,
210 VIRGINIA
that is still in operation. However his health failing, he found
it necessary to dispose of all his holdings, and for several years
prior to his death lived retired. He w^as an enthusiastic member
of the North Side Baptist Church, but outside of that connection
his interests were centered in his family. A public spirited
citizen, warm hearted and generous, anxious to help others and
to sustain through his contributions the higher things of life, his
influence lives on.
In November, 1900, Mr. Reese married Miss Dollie McDaniel,
a daughter of James W. and Dolly (Ridgeway) McDaniel, who
had seven children, of whom Mrs. Reese was the third in order
of birth. She was educated in Halifax County, and is a very
fine lady, a good mother and kind neighborhood visitor, no
trouble or calamity coming to those in her vicinity without her
offering her sympathy and material help. One child, Dr. Clyde
Bishop Reese, was born to Mr. and Mrs. Reese. He was edu-
cated in the public schools of Lynchburg, Virginia, and the Vir-
ginia Military Institute, from which he was graduated in 1923
with the degree .of Doctor of Dental Surgery, and since then has
been engaged in the practice of dentistry in Richmond. Doctor
Reese married Miss Vernesse Cecelia Batterfield, of Virginia.
His fraternal connections are with the Masonic order and the
Odd Fellows, and his professional ones are with the Virginia
State Dental Association. A young man of undoubted ability,
well trained, he has forged ahead, and is today one of the leading
dentists of the city, and a man of whom the best is spoken, for
he stands well with the public.
John 0. Gamage was born at Norfolk, Virginia, in January,
1837, and here he maintained his home until his death, which
occurred in February, 1910. He was an honored representative
of one of the sterling and influential pioneer families of Norfolk,
here succeeded to the control of a large and important wholesale
merchandise business that had been founded by his father fully
ninety-five years ago, and here he continued as a leading citizen
and business man until the close of his long and worthy life.
The business founded by his father, Elisha Gamage, nearly a
century ago is still continued under the family name and its ex-
ecutive head at the present time is Miss Nancy C. Gamage, who
is a daughter of the subject of this memoir and who provided the
data on which this tribute to her honored father is based.
John 0. Gamage was reared and educated in Norfolk and
was the first of three generations of the Gamage family to be
educated at the Norfolk Academy. He was a son of Elisha and
Mary Ann (Fulton) Gamage, of whose seven children he was
the third in order of birth. The Gamage family was founded in
America in the early Colonial period, and its lineage is one of
ancient and distinguished order in France and England. The
French branch spelled the name, De Gamache. The family rec-
ord traces back to 900, A. D., and it was one of royal status in one
of the minor kingdoms of ancient France, whence representa-
tives went into England with William the Conqueror. It was
from England that came the original representatives of the fam-
ily to America, where settlement was made in the Massachu-
setts colony long prior to the war of the Revolution, members of
the family having later been established in the State of New
York.
Elisha Gamage, the pioneer merchant of Norfolk, Virginia,
was born and reared in the State of New York and was a son
VIRGINIA 211
of Samuel Gamage II, who was a large landowner in that com-
monwealth and whose father, Samuel, Sr., went forth from
Massachusetts as a patriot soldier in the Revolution, he having
been a member of the Massachusetts troop commanded by Col.
Thomas Croft, and another member having been Paul Revere,
whose historic ride has made him a famed figure in American
history. Subsequently this first Samuel Gamage became a lieu-
tenant of marines on the frigate Demi, and on this war vessel
he served under Capt. Samuel Nicholson in the naval arm of the
Continental service in the Revolution. Samuel Gamage II was
a gallant soldier in the War of 1812.
It was in the year 1833 that Elisha Gamage established him-
self in the wholesale general merchandise business in Norfolk,
and the business has been continued under family name and
control to the present time, though changing conditions in the
passing years have brought both modification and expansion of
its varied functions. It was about 1834 that Elisha Gamage
became executive head of the Farmers Bank of Norfolk, and he
continued the president after the reorganization under the title
of Merchants & Mechanics Bank. He was long one of the most
progressive and influential business men of Norfolk and was a
citizen who commanded unqualified popular esteem and confi-
dence, the high prestige of the family name having here been
maintained by his son John 0. after he himself had passed
from the stage of his mortal endeavors.
As a young man John 0. Gamage became actively associated
with his father's wholesale mercantile business, and his diversi-
fied experience well fitted him for assuming eventual control.
The enterprise is now conducted under the title of John 0. Gam-
age, and its present functions are the handling of lime, cement
and other building supplies and accessories. The business is
one of substantial order and representative character, and is the
oldest business in this line in Norfolk to be continuously con-
ducted by one family. Since the death of her father in 1910
Miss Nancy C. Gamage has been active president of the company
and has directed the business with marked ability and success.
John O. Gamage was a man of fine character, loyal and
public spirited as a citizen, and progressive and resourceful in
the handling of business interests of importance. He was sig-
nificantly loyal to the cause of the Democratic party, though
never a seeker of public office, and was a valued member of the
Norfolk Board of Ti'ade and the local Chamber of Commerce.
His original religious affiliation was with the Presbyterian
Church, but he later became an active member of the Methodist
Episcopal Church, South. He was a member of that splendid
old organization, the Norfolk Light Artillery Blues, which was
founded in 1828, and with this command he served as a loyal
soldier of the Confederacy in the Civil war, as a member of
Capt. C. R. Grandy's Battery, Garnett's Battalion of the army
corps commanded by Gen. A. P. Hill. Mr. Gamage was wounded
and captured, and was for some time held as a Federal prisoner
of war at City Point, near Petersburg, Virginia.
In 1859 was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Gamage and
Miss Bell Sarah Williams, daughter of Rev. Peter Williams, of
Northampton County, Virginia, her father having been a clergy-
man of the Methodist Church and having been a descendant of
Henry Williams, who settled on the Dale Gi-ant in Northamton
County, he having been a brother of Roger Williams, the
founder of the State of Rhode Island. Mrs. Gamage, venerable
212 VIRGINIA
in years, continues to maintain her home in Norfolk and was
long a gracious figure in its social and cultural activities, besides
being a devout member of the Methodist Church. She is a grand-
daughter, on the maternal side, of Thomas Clay, who bought
part of the historic Arlington estate from the Custis family.
John W. Gamage, eldest of the children of Mr. and Mrs.
John 0. Gamage, married Miss Fannie Camp, of Petersburg,
Virginia, and he continued as a representative business man
of Norfolk until his death. Albert E., the second son, was asso-
ciated with his father in business and was about forty years
of age at the time of his death. Mary Bell, eldest of the daugh-
ters, died at the age of twenty-five years. Miss Nancy Clay
Gamage assumed control of the business interests of her father
at the time of his death and is now president of the John 0.
Gamage business, which was established many years ago, and
is engaged in the building material business of wholesale order.
Miss Gamage has proven herself amply able to maintain the
honors of the family name in both civic and business affairs and
is a popular figure in both social and business circles in her
native city, where she is a member of the Woman's Club and
of the Chamber of Commerce, besides being a zealous member of
the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. Ida B., next younger of
the daughters, was graduated from ' the Maryland Institute
of Art and was twenty-three years of age at the time of her
death. Miss Edna Sue, youngest of the children, was graduated
in 1916 from the training school for nurses maintained by the
Protestant Hospital in Norfolk, and as a nurse she served with
the University of Virginia Corps in the World war period. She
and her sister Nancy C. maintain a home in Norfolk, Virginia.
Samuel Horace Hawes, whose record as one of the leading
merchants and business men of the City of Richmond for over
fifty years is recalled by all the older residents of the city, was
a fine example of Virginia citizenship and a man of distinguished
family connections.
He was born in Powhatan County, Virginia, June 5, 1838,
and died at Richmond February 13, 1922, at the age of eighty-
four. His father, Samuel Pierce Hawes, was born in Dorchester,
Massachusetts, in 1799, and was sixteen years of age when he
came to Richmond in 1815. In 1845 he established a coal busi-
ness in the city, and was active in that line of commercial work
until his death. Samuel Pierce Hawes married Judith Ann
Smith, of Virginia. They had a family of eight children. One
of these was Rev. Dr. Herbert H. Hawes. Another, Mary Vir-
ginia, was one of the most widely known American women of
letters, under the pen name Marion Harland. She married the
Rev. Edward Payson Terhune.
Samuel Horace Hawes was educated in public schools in
Richmond and as a youth became associated with his father's
coal business. He took active charge of the business at his
father's death. At the outbreak of the Civil war he enlisted in
the Richmond Howitzers, and was in the service four years.
During the last thirteen months of the war he was a prisoner at
Fort Delaware and later at Morris Island, South Carolina. He
held the rank of first lieutenant. After the war he returned to
Richmond and thereafter gave his active attention to his busi-
ness affairs.
He was a director of the State Planters Bank of Richmond
for many years and for two terms president of the Chamber of
ayr~eSy'^^(^-<^<^^^c£hl^
VIRGINIA 213
Commerce. He was on the Police Benevolent Association board
and for many years a member of the board of the Male Orphan
Asylum. Mr. Hawes used the prosperity gained in business in
many ways for the benefit of the community in which he lived.
He was a member of the Westmoreland Club and of Lee Chap-
ter No. 1, United Confederate Veterans.
On October 3, 1867, he married Miss Martha C. Heath, of
Newark, New Jersey, where she was born and educated. She
died February 13, 1897. Her father, S. R. W. Heath, was a mer-
chant and president of the Firemen's Insurance Company of
Newark. Mr. and Mrs. Hawes had three children. Horace
Sterling Hawes, the oldest, was educated in Rutgers College at
New Brunswick, New Jersey, and is a merchant at Richmond.
He married Mary McCaw, daughter of William McCaw, of
Richmond, and has two children: Mary McCaw, wife of Ran-
dolph Cai'ter Harrison and mother of two children, Randolph
Carter, Jr., and Mary Ann ; and Ann Sterling, wife of A. E.
Willson Harrison and mother of a son, Horace Hawes. The sec-
ond son. Heath Woodruff Hawes, is deceased. The daughter,
Miss Katharine H. Hawes, who resides at 3211 Chamberlayne
Avenue in Richmond, was educated in the Ely School in New
York City. She is a member of the Richmond Woman's Club, is
a life member of the Association for the Preservation of Virginia
Antiquities, and for seven years was president of the Richmond
Y. W. C. A.
Samuel Horace Hawes' second wife was Mrs. Mary Mayo
Blair Fitts, widow of James Henry Fitts.
Charles McCulloch, physician and surgeon, is one of the
prominent citizens of Lexington and has practiced medicine in
the state nearly thirty years.
Doctor McCulloch is a grandson of one of the most dis-
tinguished figures in American finance, Hugh McCulloch, who
was a native of Maine and in 1833 located at Fort Wayne, Indi-
ana, where he soon became cashier and manager of the Fort
Wayne branch of the State Bank of Indiana. In 1856 he was
made president of the Bank of the State of Indiana, and from
that post resigned in May, 1863, to become comptroller of the
currency under Secretary of Treasury Chase, and had the task
of enormous responsibility of organizing the newly created
bureau and putting into operation the National Banking System.
He was given the chief credit for making that transition without
friction or delay, and he was also given high credit for funding
the national debt at the close of the Civil war. In March, 1865,
he was appointed secretary of the treasury by President Lincoln,
serving until March, 1869, and in October, 1884, was again
appointed secretary of treasury at the close of President
Arthur's term, being the only man who ever held that oflRce by
two appointments. He was the founder of the Hamilton
National Bank of Fort Wayne, and his son Charles succeeded
him in the bank, and his grandson, Ross McCulloch, is still head
of the institution.
Dr. Charles McCulloch was born at Fort Wavne, Indiana,
June 2, 1873, son of Frederick H. and Caroline (Riddle) McCul-
loch, his father a native of Fort Wayne and his mother of Cin-
cinnati. Her father, Adam Riddle, was also born at Cincinnati
and was a leading lawj'er of that city. Frederick McCulloch was
in business as a merchant at Fort Wayne and after coming to
Virginia followed farming for over forty years. He was a
214 VIRGINIA
vestryman in the Episcopal Church and a member of the
Masonic Order. Of his three children two are hving: Doctor
Charles and Elizabeth, the latter of whom is the wife of Dr.
James Morrison, of Lynchburg.
Charles McCulloch was given liberal educational advantages.
He was a student in the University of Virginia during 1891-92,
and while there became a member of the Phi Kappa Psi fra-
ternity. His first call to a professional career was in veterinary
surgery, and he graduated in that subject in New York in 1894.
He practiced for a short time and then entered the medical
department of George Washington University, taking his
diploma in 1897. He first practiced at Howardsville, Virginia,
and after two years became a member of the faculty of the
Virginia Polytechnic Institute at Blacksburg, where he remained
three years. From 1901 to 1922 he was busy with a very exten-
sive country practice, with home at Howardsville, his profes-
sional work taking him over three counties. Doctor McCulloch
in 1922 retired from his profession and during the next five
years lived on a farm near Lexington. He resumed general
practice in 1928. He is a member of the Rockbridge County,
Virginia State and American Medical Associations.
Doctor McCulloch married Rosa Bruce Anderson, of Rich-
mond, Virginia. They have two children, the son Hugh McCul-
loch, a graduate of the Virginia Polytechnic Institute, being a
salesman for the Frigidaire and Delco Light products. The
daughter, Nancy B., is a student in St. Hilda's Hall at Charles-
ton, West Virginia. The mother of these children died in 1914,
and Doctor McCulloch later married Ruth Floyd Anderson, of
Lexington, daughter of Major William A. Anderson, former
attorney-general of Virginia.
John Thomas White. The late John Thomas Wliite, of
Norfolk, was a well known figure in its business and civic life,
and in addition to managing his large oyster planting and pack-
ing business, he was concerned with other matters of general
importance, in all of his operations showing keenness of per-
ception, excellent judgment and cooperation in public eff'ort. He
was a man of broad and abundant sympathies, always working
for better conditions wherever public need was recognized, and
his memory is tenderly cherished by those who knew and appre-
ciated him.
John Thomas White was born in Mathews County, Virginia,
December 4, 1845, and died in Jacksonville, Florida, March 7,
1919. He was a son of John and Sarah (Bohanon) White, grand-
son of Capt. James White, captain of a company in the War of
1812-, and great-grandson of John C. White, who was a Revo-
lutionary soldier. Through his mother John Thomas White
descended in a direct line from Ambrose Bohanon, who settled
in Virginia in 1660, taking up a land grant in Kingston Parish,
now Mathews County. Ambrose Bohanon, a son of the above,
was quartermaster in General Washington's army during the
American Revolution. Joseph Bohanon held the rank of colonel
in the Continental army. He and his wife had eight children
born to their marriage.
Growing to manhood in his native county, John Thomas
White attended its schools, and after his education was completed
he went to the eastern shore of Maryland and was there engaged
in merchandising until 1886, when he sold his interests and,
coming to Norfolk, engaged in the oyster planting and packing
VIRGINIA 215
business, in which he continued until hia retirement in 1918,
although he retained an interest in the business until his death.
He was long a member of the City Council, and never lost his in-
terest in the city's progress, nor in the success of the Democratic
party, of which he was a loyal supporter all his life. A high
Mason, he was a past master of the Blue Lodge and was advanced
through the various bodies of the Scottish Rite to the thirty-
second degree. He was a member of the Disciples Church.
On May 29, 1873, Mr. White married Miss Rebecca Jane
Furniss, born, reared and educated in Somerset County, Mai-y-
land. She is a daughter of Ephraim and Amanda Furniss, the
former being a brick mason by trade. Mrs. White is the young-
est of the nine children born to her parents. The following
children were born to Mr. and Mrs. White: Scotia Ann, \Yho
married Crawford Nottingham, a retired business man of Nor-
folk, was educated in Princess Anne, Maryland ; Ernest Floyd,
now deceased, who was educated in the private schools of Nor-
folk, married Mary Hundley; Rooker John, a practicing physi-
cian, at Keller, Virginia, was graduated in medicine at the
Medical College of Virginia at Richmond and is taking a post-
graduate course at the Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore,
Mai'yland, was active in the World war, and married Fairy
Mapp ; Harry Fletcher, who attended the medical school of the
University of Virginia, was active in the World war, is now
major in the United States Public Health Service of the Regular
Army, married Mrs. Jean Holmes ; Eunice Virginia, who was
educated in Blackstone College, married H. H. Johnson, an
insurance man. Although Mr. White has been dead for some
years the force of his example remains and helps to make better
the lives of those among whom he once moved.
William John Matroni, who lived his life at Lynchburg,
was a popular merchant and business man and citizen of that
community. Since his death Mrs. Matroni has moved to Norfolk,
where she has her home at 308 East Twenty-sixth Street, and
some of her children also reside in that city.
Mr. Matroni was born at Lynchburg in June, 1865, and died
in that city April 23, 1919. He was the second son of nine
children of Thomas and Levinia Matroni. His father was born
in Italy, came to America and settled at Lynchburg just before
the Civil war, and spent his active life as a merchant.
William J. Matroni was educated in Lynchburg schools and at
the age of nineteen took up a business career as a general mer-
chant with a store at the corner of Salem and Jackson streets.
To a general stock of merchandise he subsequently added coal
and wood, and had a continually expanding business in those
lines for over thirty years. He was a member of the Retail
Merchants Association and Retail Coal Dealers Association, and
was a man of marked charity, liberal with the use of his means
and influence.
He married at Lynchburg December 28, 1893, Ellen Nora
Monahan, of that city, where she was reared and educated. She
was the oldest of eight children of Patrick and Nora (O'Con-
nell) Monahan. Her father was born in Limerick, Ireland, and
settled in Lynchburg in 1852, spending many years of his life
in the railroad service. Mrs. Matroni had a family of seven
children. Mary Ethel, the oldest, is the wife of L. F. White, of
Noi'folk, and their three children are Leroy, Mary and Annie;
Miss Annie resides with her mother ; Millie married Curley Han-
216 VIRGINIA
son, of Norfolk, and has a son, Ernest ; Virginia married Hugh
Hamilton, of Norfolk, and has one son, Hugh, Jr.; Ruth is the
wife of Mack M. Lee, a railroad man ; Louise Margaret married
Clarence Brimer, a business man of Norfolk, Virginia, and they
have one son, Clarence, Jr.; and the youngest of the family is
George. The late Mr. Matroni was affiliated with the Fraternal
Order of Eagles, was a Democrat, and Mrs. Matroni and her
children are members of St. Mary's Catholic Church. Her son-
in-law, L. F. White, is a veteran of the World war and was
gassed while overseas.
Bernard Clifton Rhea was a scion of a sterling Scotch
family that was founded in Virginia in the early Colonial period,
its representatives having given loyal support to the Colonies
in that great struggle for independence that is recorded in history
as the War of the Revolution.
Bernard Clifton Rhea was born in Norfolk, January 1, 1874,
was here reared and educated, and here he passed his entire
life, his death having occurred February 20, 1927. He was a
son of John Thomas and Virginia (Tulane) Rhea and his father
was long and successfully engaged in mercantile enterprise in
Norfolk. The Tulane family was founded in America by a wid-
owed mother and her two sons, her husband having been a
magistrate in Ireland and having there been killed by enemies
who were in ambush. It was a member of this family that
founded the great Tulane University in New Orleans, and of
this distinguished citizen the mother of the subject of this me-
moir was a niece.
At the age of twenty years Bernard C. Rhea entered the
service of the municipal government of his native city by as-
suming a position under the late John M. Broughton, who for
the long period of thirty-three years was the efficient and hon-
ored superintendent of the cemeteries maintained under direct
supervision of the city government. Mr. Rhea eventually mar-
ried the daughter of Mr. Broughton, and he continued his service
with the cemetery department until the close of his life. He
proved a loyal and capable executive in this connection, and in
his native community his circle of friends was co-extensive with
that of his acquaintances. Mr. Rhea was public spirited as a
citizen and was a Democrat in political adherency.
June 16, 1903, recorded the marriage of Mr. Rhea and Miss
Eleanora Lee Broughton, who was born, reared and educated
in Norfolk, and who is a daughter of John Manning and Susan
Rogers (Taylor) Broughton, the latter a daughter of Beverley
Kennon Taylor, who served the Confederacy as a lieutenant
in the Atlantic Coast Artillery during the period of the Civil
war and whose father had served as a midshipman in the
United States Navy, under Commodore Beverley Kennon in
the War of 1812. Mrs. Rhea's mother, Susan Rogers Taylor,
was direct in descent of William Clayton Rogers, who married
Priscilla Valentine. Arthur Tulane, an uncle of Mr. Rhea on
the maternal side, was a gallant soldier of the Confederacy in
the war between the states of the North and the South.
John M. Broughton continued to maintain his home in Nor-
folk until his death, at the age of seventy-five years, and it has
already been noted that he gave fully a third of a century of
service as superintendent of the city's cemetery department.
In earlier years he had here been a prominent contractor and
builder, and in the period of 1892-94 he served with characteris-
VIRGINIA 217
tic loyalty as a member of the City Council. He was a stalwart
in the local ranks of the Democratic party, and was affiliatsd
with the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, the Independ-
ent Order of Odd P'ellows and the Royal Arcanum. Mr. Brough-
ton was a son of William Broughton, who was born in Princess
Anne County, Virginia, in ISOi, and whose father was one of
four brothers who came from England, and one ssttling in
Georiiia, one in North Carolina and two made ssttlsrncnt in
Virginia prior to the War of the Revolution. His mother's
maiden nama was Penelops Jarvis. Since the deatJi of her hus-
band LIrs. Rhea has continued to maintain her home in her
native city, where she has ever been a popular factor in social
circles, and bar residenco is at 119 West Eleventh Streot. The
subjecc of this memoir is survived also by one child, Virginia
Lroughton, who is the wife of Fran:; ± orter Lavdar, her husband
being employed in the Norfolk National Bank of Commerce and
Trust, lur. and Mrs. Lawler have a son, Beverley Rhea, born
November 3, 1925.
RoLERT Lee May, vital and progressive business man and
loyal ciui^en of Alexandria, has shov/n exceptional initiative
ability and versatile resourcefulness in the development of the
virlua, lAibiic utility service represented in the Alexandria-
Bareroit-Washiniiton Rapid Transit Company and the Rich-
monu-V'/a h.ngton Motor Ccaihas, Inc. Of the former modern
line of motor-coach transports Mr. May is the owner, and of the
latcer ociijoration he is tne president. Throu:ih the admirable
suvice iji.en by the t.,'o concerns, thus founded and developed
by Mr. ..-.ay, Alexandria and Barcroft are given direct motor
ti.an„pOrcat.on facilities to the national capital and similar ser-
vice is e.vtanded betvv^een the nation's capital city and the historic
old cit^ tiic»t is the capital of Virginia.
L.r. May was born in Spotsylvania County, Virginia, i^Iarch
13, Ih^k, and is a son of i.. arcin Luther and Susie A. (Clore)
May, b cli ;L;ewise natives oi the county. Martin L. May was
engaged a number of years in the work of his trade, that of
Cc*rp.,ncor, priOr to enttr.ng service as a member of the police
force in the City of V. ashingt^n, D. C, and after his retirement
from tii-3 constabulary service he resumed work at his trade.
He was ui the Dominion of Canada at the time of his death, and
his wiaow died in 1.^20.
Robort Lee May was a lad of twelve' years at the time of the
family removal to Washington, D. C, and in the schools of that
city he received the major part of his youthful education. As
a young man he there gave hve years of service as car conductor
on the lines of the Capital Traction Company, and he then
joined the metropolitan police department in Washington, his
service with which continued e.even years. He resigned his
pcs.tion at the time of the nation's entrance into the World war,
joined the secret-service departmant of the Government and had
the distinction of serving as bodyguard to President Woodrow
Wilson during the period of the war, his resignation having
occurred after the armistice had brought the great conflict to a
close. It was while he was thus engaged that a sequence of
circumstances led to his initiation of the motor-transport enter-
prise through the medium of which he has since gained splendid
success and prestige. While engaged in Washington he had
shown his loyalty to his native state by retaining his residence
at Barcroft, a little Virginia hamlet about five miles distant from
218 VIRGINIA
the White House, and in making his daily trips between his
home and the capital he utilized a motorcycle. A casual accident
to the somewhat decrepit Ford automobile used by his wife led
him to the train of thought that brought him to a decision to
establish and operate a motor-bus line between Barcroft and
Washington for the accommodation of the people of the village
and those residing along the Columbia turnpike. Mr. May, with
a Reo chassis, fitted up a sort of rudimentary transport that
would accommodate about twenty persons when crowded, and
this he placed in commission on the route, while he himself
officiated as driver. The first trip was made June 27, 1921,
and thus was given inception to what has become a large and
important enterprise in the field of interurban motor trans-
portation. The year 1928 finds five motor busses in operation
on the Barcroft-Washington line, and July 1, 1924, Mr. May
expanded his business by estabhshing his line between Wash-
ington and Alexandria, fine de luxe cars being operated on this
line and express service provided during rush hours. Mr. May
encountered opposition in the latter project, but popular senti-
ment was with him, as the pioneer, and he eventually gained
control of the interests of his competitors and is now sole owner
of the Alexandria-Barcroft-Washington Rapid Transit Com-
pany, the service of which is maintained at the best modern
standard. The service of the line is used by fully 3,000,000
persons annually.
It was in 1926 that Mr. May effected the organization of
the Richmond-Washington Motor Coaches, Incorporated, and the
de luxe service given by this admirable line between the national
capital and the Virginia capital has met with unqualified popular
approval and support, the while it constitutes a valuable public
utility for the communities through which the line passes. Of
this corporation Mr. May has been president from the beginning,
and his progressive policies have been the force through which
the service has been developed and perfected. Mr. May has been
able to translate his thoughts into constructive action and has
made an outstanding record in the domain of national motor
transportation. He is chairman of the executive committee of
the Virginia Motor Bus Association, at the time of this writing,
in the summer of 1928, and is a member of the transportation
committee of the Alexandria Chamber of Commerce. He main-
tains his home in Barcroft and his busses activities have con-
tributed much to the remarkable development and progress of
that place. His executive headquarters are established at 127
North Pitt Street in the City of Alexandria.
Mr. May is a Democrat in politics, is a member of the Rotary
Club of Alexandria, as well as of the Old Dominion Club, is
affiliated with the Knights of the Maccabees, and he and his wife
are members of the Baptist Church, though he was reared in
the faith of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. He is a
stockholder in the American Fidelity and Casualty Company of
Richmond.
The two transportation concerns of which Mr. May is the
executive head maintain at Alexandria a monster garage, with
a floor space of 20,000 square feet, and this is equipped with all
facilities for the repairing of the motor coaches of the two lines,
more than fifty busses being now in operation, employment
being given to seventy persons, and a smaller garage being main-
tained in the City of Washington.
October 12, 1904, marked the marriage of Mr. May and Miss
Lulu Jackson Barr, daughter of Lewis J. and Virginia (Jack-
VIRGINIA 219
son) Barr, both of whom were born in Virginia and the latter
of whom was a descendant of Gen. Stonewall Jackson. Mr.
Barr is now a member of the A. B. & W. Rapid Transit Com-
pany, his wife having died in November, 1887. Mr. and Mrs.
May have two children: Beverly Cornell, who was born in
November. 1905, is now associated with his father's business in
the capacity of traffic manager and as vice-president of the Rich-
mond-Washington Motor Coaches, Inc. He married Miss
Margaret Louise Curtis, and they have two children, Robert
Marshall, born October 15, 1925, and Martha Lou, born Novem-
ber 4, 1926. Sidney Alice, younger of the two children of the
subject of this review, was born January 1, 1907, and is the wife
of Virgil Gaines, who is a director and second vice-president of
the Richmond-Washington Motor Coaches, Inc.
George Allison, Jr., was one of the valued local executives
of the Virginia Electric & Power Company in the City of Nor-
folk at the time of his death, which here occurred in September,
1912. He had been long and prominently concerned with public
utility service in Virginia and had made a record of successful
achievement in this connection, the while his sterling charac-
teristics gave him a strong hold upon the confidence and good
will of all who knew him.
Mr. Allison was born in the City of Knoxville, Tennessee,
in November, 1870, the Allison family having been established
at Charleston, South Carolina, prior to the Civil war and the
ancestral line having been marked by kinship with the dis-
tinguished Harrison family that gave two Presidents to the
United States, Gen. William Henry Harrison and Benjamin Har-
rison. The subject of this memoir was a son of George and
Margaret (Parham) Allison, his father having been a skilled
electrician and having been for a long period in navy yard
service.
Mr. Allison received most of his early educational discipline
in the City of Richmond, Virginia, where the family home was
maintained in the period of his boyhood and early youth. His
father was for some time a construction foreman for the Western
Union Telegraph Company, and the subject of this memoir
gained practical experience by assisting his father in this con-
nection. Thereafter he was for ten years in the employ of the
Southern Bell Telephone Company, his next connection, with
the Southern States Telephone Company, was of about equal
duration, and finally he entei'ed the service of the Virginia Elec-
tric & Power Company, with which he continued his association
until the time of his death.
Mr. Allison gained high reputation as a technical and prac-
tical expert in the various phases of applied electricity, and his
service in this connection was ever marked by loyalty and effi-
ciency. He had no ambition for the activities of practical poli-
tics, iDut was a staunch supporter of the cause of the Democratic
party. He was a communicant of the Protestant Episcopal
Church, and his widow, who still resides in Norfolk, is a member
of the Presbyterian Church, in the faith of which she was
reared.
In June, 1892, Mr. Allison was united in marriage to Miss
Minnie Martin Davis, who was born and reared in Prince Ed-
ward County, Virginia, a daughter of John W. and Sarah Eliza-
beth Davis, her father having been a substantial farmer of
that county and a scion of a family that was founded in Vir-
220 VIRGINIA
ginia in the early Colonial period, the lineage tracing back to
sterling Scotch origin. Prior to the Civil war members of the
Davis family held large landed estates and were extensive ex-
ponents of plantation industry in Charlotte County. The father
of Mrs. Allison gave loyal service in support of the Confederacy
during the period of the Civil war, his assignment having been
to the commissary department of the Confederate army. Con-
cerning the children of Mr. and Mrs. Allison the following brief
data are available : Percy E. is in the service of the Virginia
Electric & Power Company, as is also the next younger son,
George L., who likewise maintains his home in Norfolk, the
maiden name of his wife having been Mildred Dillon and their
two children being daughters, Mildred and Jane. Robert, who
is, like his older brothers, associated with the same utility com-
pany, as v/as the honored father, married Miss Rae Lipschutz,
and their one child is Frank. Minnie, older of the two daughters,
is the wife of Vincent Thomas, who is engaged in the mercantile
business in Norfolk, and they have two children, Vincent, Jr.,
and William. Margaret, the younger daughter, is the wife of
Erskine Blackburne, who is in the service of the Norfolk Loan
& Bank Company. Frank, youngest of the sons, likewise is
connected with the Virginia Electric & Power Company.
Luther Paul Baum. The knowledge that a man is judged
for what he accomplishes and the effect his work has on others,
not alone with reference to himself, should encourage the average
American to put forth his best efforts so that when he has
passed from this earthly sphere he will be remembered with
kindly interest and respectful regard. Many opportunities are
within the grasp of every man who is determined to live an
honest and upright life, and among the men of Norfolk who
during his lifetime set an example to his fellow citizens not
only as a private citizen, but also as an able public official was
the late Luther Paul Baum. For some years he was connected
with the Norfolk County engineer's office, and his service in
this particular is sufficient evidence of his ability and fidelity
to duty, but it is but due to his memory to state that he in his
public capacity displayed only the same traits which charac-
terized his private life — strict attention to the details of his
work and thoughtful and intelligent management, qualities which
could not fail to bring about satisfactory results.
Luther Paul Baum was born in Princess Anne County, Vir-
ginia, in October, 1861, and died in Norfolk in April, 1904. He
WES educated in Reynoldson College, Gates County, North Caro-
lina, but he did not complete his collegiate course, as he returned
home and began farming on the portion of his father's estate
that he had inherited at the time of his father's death. There
he remained until 1887, and in that year came to Norfolk County,
Virginia, and here he continued his farming, but subsequently
moved to the City of Norfolk to assume the duties assigned him
in the office of the county engineer, and it was while he was in
office that he died.
In February, 1884, Mr. Baum married Miss Penelope Jack-
son, of Norfolk County, Virginia, a daughter of William A. and
Penelope (Pendleton) Jackson. Mr. Jackson was a landowner
and lumberman of Norfolk County, and one of the leading cit-
izens of this section of the state. Eight children were born to
Mr. and Mrs. Baum, namely : Renan C, who is an electrical en-
gineer, married Miss Emma Patterson, of Pittsburgh, Pennsyl-
VIRGINIA 221
\ania, and they have two children, Elizabeth and Marjory; Mary
Pendleton, who married Temple L. Gatewood, of Richmond, Vir-
ginia, an extensive drayman and transfer man, owning his own
business, has no children ; Harvey A., who is vice president and
general manager of the Atlantic Commission Company, married
Miss Gladys Lanning, and they have three children, John Minch,
Harvey A., Junior, and Phyllis Matilda ; Lillie, who married
John Plant, of Boston, Massachusetts, has two children, John
and Elizabeth ; Christie, who is a business man of Norfolk, is
a veteran of the World war, during which he served overseas
with the One Hundred and Sixteenth Infantry, A. E. F., was
wounded and gassed in the Argonne offensive, married Miss
Carolyn Rapeltz, and they have one child, Carolyn Penelope ;
Nellie Bryan Baum ; Luther Paul, who is a business man, married
Miss Hattie Schultz ; and William A. Jackson Baum.
Mr. Baum was a member of the Royal Arcanum and the
Independent Order of Odd Fellows. For years he belonged to
the Baptist Church, of which his wife is still a member. She
is very active in the Woman's Club and the Art Club Society.
The Baum family is of German origin, and was established in
Virginia when it was still a colony of England. The Pendletons
came to Virginia from England at a very early day, and took
possession of a grant of 12,000 acres of land in New Kent County.
From that time to the present those bearing the name have been
active factors in the professions and public life, and all of them
have been honorable and upright gentlemen. The Jackson fam-
ily was early established in Norfolk County, and its members
have also been in the public eye ever since, holding positions
of importance and acquitting themselves most creditably. Dur-
ing the summer months Mrs. Baum maintains her residence at
204 Nineteenth Street, Virginia Beach, but after October 1 of
each year she lives at 1017 Colonial Avenue, Norfolk. Her
position in society is well established and she is most highly
regarded by all with whom she is associated. The children are
a credit to her and her husband, and she is naturally very
proud of them and what they are accomplishing.
Rev. John Willi.^mson Daugherty. Both at Richmond and
in Norfolk County the name of the late Rev. John Williamson
Daugherty is held in affectionate memory for the zeal and earn-
estness of his ministry and the work he did in building up the
institutions of organized Christianity.
Doctor Daugherty was born at Williamsburg, Virginia, in
January, 1856, and died at Richmond in April, 1909. His grand-
father was a native of Ireland and came to America and settled
in Maryland after the Revolutionary war. The Daughertys were
for several generations identified with the sea. Doctor Daugh-
erty's father, John Fenton Daugherty, was a sea captain. The
mother of Rev. Doctor Daugherty was Lucy Bassett, member
of the old Colonial family of Bassetts of Williamsburg, a family
that gave soldiers to the Revolution and men high in poltical
station.
John Williamson Daugherty was the oldest of three children.
For several years he clerked in stores, and at the age of twenty-
four engaged in the commission business. He followed an active
business career until he was thirty years of age, when he left
commercial pursuits to enter the ministry, and was ordained
and had as his first charge the Court Street Baptist Church of
Portsmouth. Later he was assigned to the South Street Baptist
222 VIRGINIA
Church for six years. While in those pastorates he was able
to raise practically all of the donation for the addition to the
Court Street Baptist Church Sunday School building and secured
most of the fund for the original building of the South Street
Baptist Church. On leaving Portsmouth he became pastor of
the Fulton Baptist Church at Richmond. In 1896 Doctor
Daugherty withdrew from the Baptist communion and organized
the Apostolic Chui'ch at Fulton, in Richmond, and devoted his
full time and energies to this denomination until his death. He
was a Democrat in politics.
Doctor Daugherty first married Margaret Guy, of Ports-
mouth. She died leaving five children : Lucius ; John Williamson,
Jr., now a physician at Flushing, Long Island ; Thomas B., a
physician engaged in practice at Fayetteville, West Virginia;
Elizabeth B., wife of Frank B. King, of Orlando, Florida ; and
Margaret H., wife of Fred Bates, of Richmond. The son, John
W., Jr., served with the rank of first lieutenant in the Medical
Corps of the United States Navy during the World war, con-
tinuing in the service altogether for three and a half years.
Doctor Daugherty married in January, 1894, at Portsmouth,
Miss Minnie Lee Fulford, of Portsmouth, her father being a
descendant of Sir John Celestus Fulford, who was with the
King's Court of James II, and who later settled on the Virginia
coast, acquiring a grant of land. Capt. John C. Fulford was
captain of the Portsmouth Grays in the Confederate army, and
married Virginia C. Davis. Mrs. Daugherty was the oldest of
four children. Mrs. Daugherty, who now makes her home at
Portsmouth, at 1055 Ann Street, is the mother of six children :
Richard F., who served as a chief yeoman with the United States
Navy during the World war, is now an employe of the Standard
Oil Company at Norfolk, married Ruth Wainwright and they
have one daughter, Ann Lee ; Paul C, a dental technician at
Norfolk, married Percy Ethel York ; Emily J. is the wife of
Malcolm F. Beazley, a railway engineer, and has a son, Mal-
colm F., Jr., Mary P. is the wife of W. T. Beck, a railway em-
ploye, and they have two sons, W. T., Jr., and Richard Edward ;
Daniel, with the Burrow & Martin Drug Company, married
Mary R. Unser ; and James B., dental technician at Portsmouth,
married Isabel Hooks and has one daughter, Jane Lee.
John Gary Curling was a prominent business man of Nor-
folk County, winning his own way from an early age and in a
comparatively brief lifetime secured more than a normal prestige
and degree of success.
He was born in Norfolk County in October, 1886, and died
at Portsmouth in July, 1921, son of J. W. and Virginia F.
(Grimes) Curling. He was four years old when his father died
and had to face the prospect of working to make his own oppor-
tunities. He attended the schools in Norfolk County and for
several years he and his brother operated the home farm for
their mother. From seventeen to nineteen years of age Mr.
Curling was with the Roper Lumber Mill. At Portsmouth for
several years he was in the furniture business and also in the
fish business, leaving that to become associated with J. E. Nor-
man in a merchant tailoring business known as the Silver Dollar
Tailoring Company. From one shop this business steadily grew
until they were operating stores in twelve cities of Virginia
and North Carolina. Mr. Curling gave all his time to this busi-
ness for ten years, when he sold out to his partner and then
VIRGINIA 223
concentrated his attention on a clothing store at Portsmouth.
He was also interested in the fish business during his later years.
Mr. Curling married Rosa Hanrahan, of Portsmouth, daugh-
ter of J. W. and Sarah Frances Hanrahan. Her father was a
Portsmouth business man and was descended from a family that
settled in this section of Virginia shortly after the Revolutionary
war. Mrs. Curling is a Methodist. Her brother, Frank C. Han-
rahan, is a prominent Portsmouth business man, now serving his
second term as city manager of Portsmouth. Mrs. Curling, who
resides at 415 Webster Street in Portsmouth, has one daughter,
Ruth Elizabeth, now deputy city collector.
Howard Malcolm Smith is one of the progressive young
business men of the City of Alexandria, metropolis of Arlington
County, where he is engaged in the real estate and general insur-
ance business and is regional superintendent for the Provident
Relief Association of Washington, D. C. His office headquarters
are at 624 King Street, in the Smith Building.
In the picturesque little mountain city of Staunton, Virginia,
Howard M. Smith was born January 15, 1896, and he is a son of
Howard M. and Margaret (Bacon) Smith, the former of whom
was born in Nelson County, this state, and the latter at Waynes-
boro, Augusta County. Wilson Smith, grandfather of the sub-
ject of -this review, operated wagon trains between the City of
Richmond and the Shenandoah Valley prior to the Civil war.
Howard M. Smith, Sr., was long and successfully identified with
the insurance business, and at the time of his death was deputy
superintendent of the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company at
Staunton, Virginia, where he died January 15, 1924, and where
his widow still maintains her home.
Howard M. Smith of this sketch was reared and educated in
his native city and there gained his youthful experience in the
insurance business as an associate of his father. In 1916, as
a member of a Virginia regiment of the National Guard, Mr.
Smith entered military service on the Mexican border, where his
command was inducted into the United States Army and where
he held the rank of sergeant until he received his honorable dis-
charge in May, 1917. Thereafter he continued his as3ociation
with the insurance business in his native city of Staunton until
May, 1920, when he established his headquarters in Alexandria,
where he has built up a substantial real estate and insurance
business and is superintendent for the Provident Relief Associa-
tion of Washington, D. C, which issues health, accident and
life insurance. As a general underwriter of insurance Mr.
Smith likewise represents other important insurance corpora-
tions in the various lines of indemnification. In his real estate
operations Mr. Smith has figured as manager of development
and exploitation for all of the Alexandria subdivisions of F. C.
Gcodnow, has given similar service in connection with the Wash-
in: ton & Kane subdivisions and also has a most attractive sub-
division of his own, called Westwood and situated near Mount
Vernon, the historic George Washington estate. He is a director
of the Alexandria Realty Investment Corporation, of which he
served as secretary three years. His political allegiance is given
to the Democratic party, he and his wife are communicants of
the Protestant Episcopal Church, and he is afiiliated with the
American Legion.
February 3, 1916, recorded the marriage of Mr. Smith and
Miss Mary L. Smith, daughter of John D. and Ida V. (Clem-
224 VIRGINIA
ents) Smith, the latter of whom died at the birth of her daughter
Mary L., who was doubly orphaned by the death of her father
when she was a child of three years. Mr. and Mrs. Smith have
two children : Dorothy Ann, born January 18, 1917, and Nancy
Lee, born February 2, 1919.
James Iredell. Probably no family has played a more prom-
inent or conspicuous part in the history of North Carolina than
that which bears the name of Iredell. It has not been alone in
public and miltary life that it has shone brightly ever since the
birth of the nation, but in the professions and arts and sciences,
in finance and in business. Among the brilliant men of this dis-
tinguished family, one who chose banking and the marts of
commerce and trade as the medium through which to attain
success was the late James Iredell of Norfolk, long identified
with banks and railways, but at the time of his death an impor-
tant factor in the business of nitrate shipping.
Mr. Iredell was born in 1868, at Raleigh, North Carolina,
and was a son of Cadwallader James and Martha (Southgate)
Iredell. He was a direct descendant of the historical character.
Justice James Iredell, who held his office under President George
Washington, and who was his great-grandfather, while his
grandparents were Governor James and Frances (Tredwell)
Iredell. A complete review of the career of Governor Iredell
will be found elsewhere in this work. Cadwallader Iredell was
for many years a banker of South Carolina, making his home
for the most part at Columbia, although he also resided for
some years at Raleigh, North Carolina. He was a man of high
character who upheld the best traditions of the family. During
the war between the states he held the rank of captain of a
company of North Carolina volunteer infantry.
James Iredell was a child when taken by his parents to South
Carolina, and there acquired his early education in public schools.
Following this he went to Columbia College, from which insti-
tution he was graduated with the degree of Bachelor of Arts, and
not long thereafter entered the Bank of Columbia, South Caro-
lina, where he arose to the position of cashier. He remained
with that well known banking house in the same capacity for a
period of fifteen years, during which time he formed a wide
acquaintance among men high in finance and prominent in other
lines of industry. In 1903 Mr. Iredell resigned his position and
changed his scene of operations to Norfolk to become treasurer
and auditor of the Norfolk Street Railway Company, and re-
tained this position until 1917, in which year he became inter-
ested extensively in the shipping of nitrate. He was engaged
in this line of business at the time of his death, which occurred
in July, 1919. Mr. Iredell was a Democrat, but did not seek
public office or political preferment. He was a citizen of public
spirit and civic pride, however, and always a supporter of worthy
movements for the betterment of his community. He had a
number of social and fraternal connections, and his business
interests were many and varied.
In September, 190.5, Mr. Iredell was united in marriage with
Miss Laura Merle Higgs, of Raleigh, North Carolina, who was
educated at St. Mary's College and is a daughter of Jacob and
Laura (Sorrel) Higgs, both the Higgs and Sorrel families being
well known in North Carolina, where they are of worthy pioneer
stock. Jacob Higgs was for many years a merchant at Raleigh,
where he had an excellent reputation for integrity and good
VIRGINIA 225
citizenship. Mrs. Iredell survives her husband and resides at
5A Weynoke Apartment, Colley and Princess Anne avenues,
Road W. She is a consistent member of the Episcopal Church
and has been active in its work. There were three children
born to Mr. and Mrs. Iredell, James Iredell IV, born July 15,
1906, connected with the Texas Oil Company at Norfolk, Vir-
ginia ; Martha Southgate Iredell, born August 4, 1909, and Ann
Stith Iredell, born September 22, 1918.
Ira Jefferson Brooks II. Practically the entire career of
the late Ira J. Brooks II, of Portsmouth, was passed in connec-
tion with railroad work, and from 1900 until his death in 1919
he was car inspector for the Norfolk & Portsmouth Belt Line
Railway. During his life he depended solely upon his own
ability and resources to win promotion and success, and it was
his fortune so to conduct himself as to win the esteem and respect
of his associates and fellow citizens.
Mr. Brooks was born in Dinwiddle County, Virginia, Jan-
uary 23, 1856, a son of Ira W. and Sarah (Mays) Brooks. His
father, a native of Petersburg, this state, enlisted in the Con-
federate army during the war between the states, in which he
suffered a wound while in the cavalry service, but fought until
the close of the great struggle. Following his return to the pur-
suits of peace he took up the business of contracting, and fol-
lowed that line with success until the time of his demise. He and
Mrs. Brooks, who was a native of Dinwiddle, were the parents
of nine children, of whom Ira J. was the eldest.
Ira J. Brooks received his education under private teachers
in Dinwiddle County, and as a young man was employed for a
time at Petersburg. In 1877, at the age of twenty-one years,
he secured a position with the Norfolk & Western Railroad, and
remained with that line for a period of twenty-three years. In
1900 he took up his residence at Portsmouth to accept the posi-
tion of car inspector for the Norfolk & Portsmouth Belt Line
Railway. As before noted, he continued with this concern until
his death June 10, 1919, when he was sixty-three years of age.
Mr. Brooks was a thorough master of every detail of his busi-
ness, and at all times had the full confidence and respect of his
associates and fellow citizens. He was a member of the Knights
of Pythias, the Woodmen of the World, the Junior Order United
American Mechanics, the Improved Order of Red Men and the
Independent Order of Odd Fellows, in all of which orders he
had many friends and took a profound interest in the work. He
was a stalwart Democrat in his political allegiance and was
active in his support of the principles and candidates of his
party. His religious connection was with the Methodist Church.
On June 30, 1896, in Nansemond County, Mr. Brooks was
united in marriage with Miss Rosa Saunders, who was reared
and educated in that county and was a daughter of Benjamin
Saunders, a farmer and lumberman, and a Confederate veteran
of the war between the states, in which he was wounded. He
was a son of Edward Saunders, a plantation owner, and the
latter was a son of George Saunders, a soldier of the War of
1812, while the latter's father was a member of the Virginia
troops during the War of the Revolution and was present at the
surrender of Yorktown. The men of the Saunders family have
been planters almost without exception. The mother of Mrs.
Brooks was Emily Hunter, and she and Mr. Saunders were the
parents of fourteen children. To Mr. and Mrs. Brooks there
226 VIRGINIA
were born four living children : George Henry, who is employed
by P. D. Guathmey, of Smithfield, Virginia ; Miss Florence Cath-
erine, who is preparing for a career as a professional nurse, and
will graduate from the Provident Hospital of Norfolk in the
class of 1929 ; Miss Ida Laurine, who has a position with the
Seaboard Air Line Railway ; and Ira Guy, who is attending
school. Mrs. Brooks, who survives her husband and resides at
459 Maryland Avenue, Portsmouth, belongs to the ladies' auxil-
iary of the Woodmen of the World and the Pythian Sisters, and
is also active in the work of the Methodist Church.
Johnston Pettigrew Coffield. From the time of his ar-
rival at Portsmouth in 1898 until failing health necessitated his
retirement in 1919, the late Johnston Pettigrew Coffield was
one of the substantial citizens of his community and was widely
known in the risk and indemnity field as the capable manager
of the Portsmouth office of the Virginia Life Insurance Company.
His career was one in which he engaged in a variety of pursuits,
in all of which he displayed ability and versatility, and while
his connection with civic affairs was only that of a good citizen,
he so comported himself in all walks of life as to be remembered
as a man whom his community could ill afford to lose.
Mr. Coffield was born at Edenton, Chowan County, North
Carolina, August 18, 1864, and was a son of William Henderson
Coffield, the owner of "Green Hall," one of the largest planta-
tions of the Old North State, which was conducted with all the
hospitality that characterized the pre-war South. This planta-
tion comprised thousands of acres of land, and was worked by
slave labor, while its owner was a true type of the old Southern
gentleman. A large part of his wealth was swept away by the
misfortunes of war, but up to his death he always maintained
"open house" and was known far and wide for his generosity
and benefactions.
Johnston Pettigrew Coffield attended private school at Eden-
ton, although his education was somewhat curtailed by the early
death of his father. He was still little more than a youth when
he was called upon to take charge of the great plantation, which
consisted of land extending for eight miles on each side of the
road to Edenton. After a few years the plantation was sold and
the estate settled, and Mr. Coffield engaged in the fish packing
business at Edenton, an industry to which he applied himself
for six years. In 1895 he removed to Norfolk, where he entered
the employ of the Virginia Life Insurance Company, and several
years later was sent to the Portsmouth office in the capacity of
superintendent. Here he greatly increased the volume of the
company's business and built up a substantial reputation as a
capable and energetic insurance man. Failing health caused his
retirement in 1919, and from that time forward until his death,
December 12, 1922, he lived quietly at his home, although still
superintending the details of his large interests. Mr. Coffield
was a Democrat, but in no sense a politician. His religious faith
was that of the Baptist Church.
In November, 1888, at Petersburg, Virginia, Mr. Coffield was
united in marriage with Miss Roberta Powell, the youngest of
the nine children of John H. and Mary (Wescott) Powell. Mr.
Powell, who was born at Edenton, North Carolina, moved to
Petersburg, Virginia, where he spent a long and successful
career in merchandising. Four children were born to Mr. and
Mrs. Coffield : Mary Louise, who died unmarried ; Minnie Petti-
TUM-^-y^.
VIRGINIA 227
grew, the wife of Fletcher Smith, a business man and Mason and
Elk of Petersburg, who has twin children, John Fletcher and
John Newsome ; Dr. John Albert, a practicing dental surgeon of
Portsmouth, who served in the hospital service during the World
war ; and Roberta Powell, a teacher in the public schools of
Portsmouth, and a member of the Virginia State Teachers'
Association. Mrs. CofReld, who survives her husband and re-
sides at 200 Florida Avenue, is an active member of the Woman's
Club and the Monumental Methodist Church.
Alexander M. Nelson, president of the Nelson Hardware
Company, and connected in an official capacity with a number of
other important business enterprises of Roanoke and its vicinity,
has achieved a really great success. As a poor boy, without re-
sources except his clean hands, high ideals, strong purpose and an
ability to make friends, he began his business career. From the
first he put such vision, understanding and fidelity into his work
as to attract the favorable attention of those engaging him. Soon
he was by himself, beginning in a small way, but an independent
merchant. There were years of hard struggle ; there were criti-
cal periods, and there were moments when his courage almost
failed, but always there was a definite policy reaching into the
years ahead ; there was a clearly defined program, and there was
a magnificent purpose always pushing behind policy and pro-
gram, and this condition still prevails. For fifty-two years Mr.
Nelson has been engaged in the hardware business, and out of
the 20,000 hardware stores in the United States he is one of the
eighty-nine that has been continuously in operation for half
a century.
The subject of this review was the second born of one of
those fine, prolific unions so popular before birth control propa-
ganda became a factor in the domestic life of the country. His
parents, William J. Nelson and Sally Harrison (Rodes) Nelson,
respectively of Port Republic and Lynchburg, Virginia, settled
and reared their children a few miles south of Staunton, in
Augusta County. Virginia. Both parents and seven of the
twelve children are now deceased. William J. Nelson and his
wife were life time members of the Presbyterian Church, the
former being an elder in the church that Woodrow Wilson's
father served as pastor. After an academic course at Washing-
ton and Lee University he graduated in law at the University
of Virginia, leaving his profession to accept a lieutenancy in the
Confederate army. After Appomattox he returned to Staunton
and the practice of law, serving for a number of years as a
member of the City Council. His wife's father marched under
the Stars and Stripes in Mexico, but, later on, her brother. Gen.
Robert Rodes. was killed fighting against this emblem at the
battle of Winchester in the Civil war.
Alexander M. Nelson attended the public schools of his native
place, and was graduated from its high school in 1875. When
only sixteen years old. however, he had begun working in a
hardware store, receiving fifty cents a day at Lexington, Vir-
ginia, and in 1883 was able to go into business for himself at
Culpeper, Virginia. In 1888 he came to Roanoke and estab-
lished a retail hardware store under the name of Nelson &
Myers, and the partners continued to operate as retail merchants
until 1902, when Mr. Nelson took over the business and estab-
lished a wholesale hardware store which he operates as the
Nelson Hardware Company. Associated with him in this busi-
228 VIRGINIA
ness, of which he is president, are John M. Nelson, vice presi-
dent ; Robert R. Nelson, secretary-treasurer, and Alexander M.
Nelson, Jr., purchasing agent. This is a close corporation, the
stockholders being members of the Nelson family, each of the
six sons being stockholders and actively engaged in the business.
Mrs. Stout, sister of Mr. Nelson, and widow of the late Judge
Stout of Augusta County, and Mrs. Sublett, another sister of
Mr. Nelson, and widow of the late Ed Sublett, a former whole-
sale produce dealer, are the only others owning stock in the
company. Mr. Nelson is also vice president of the First Na-
tional Exchange Bank, and a member of its executive committee,
and he is president of the Nelson Coal Corporation. The Nelson
Hardware Company covers Virginia and portions of West Vir-
ginia and North Carolina, keeping four men on the road all the
year. It is capitalized at 8400,000 and is the largest and oldest
house in Roanoke, and one of the leading ones of the state. The
name of Nelson was connected with Washington and Lee Uni-
versity for many years, as Prof. Alexander L. Nelson, an uncle
of Alexander M. Nelson, held the chair of mathematics in that
institution of learning for fifty years.
In 1888 Alexander M. Nelson married Miss Sallie Hart, who
was born in Charlottesville, Virginia, a daughter of the late
John Hart, a prominent educator. Eight of their ten children
are living: John M., who was educated in Washington and Lee
University ; Alexander M. Nelson, Jr., who attended the Roanoke
High School ; Coleman H., who was educated in the Roanoke
schools and the University of Virginia; William J., who was
educated in the Roanoke schools ; Robert R., who attended Vir-
ginia Polytechnic Institute ; Katherine, who married Junius P.
Fishburn ; Elizabeth, who is unmarried, and her twin brother,
Charles L. The family was well represented in the World war,
three of the sons serving in combat divisions of the A. E. F.,
while a fourth was on guard duty in this country. His family
all belong to the Second Presbyterian Church, of which he has
been a trustee for many years. He is a member of the Shenan-
doah Club and the Roanoke Country Club. Very active in the
local Democratic party, he served for several years as a member
of the Roanoke City Council, and has been useful to his city
in many other capacities. The success Mr. Nelson has achieved
is no little thing. It is in no sense the fortuitous result of a
combination of favoring circumstances, but the working out of
a policy long held and definitely followed, often against great
difficulties and discouragement, and such a success is the mark
of a big man.
Joseph H. Faber. From 1880 until his death in May, 1922,
the late Joseph H. Faber was identified with the photographic
business at Norfolk, where through his high character and great
integrity he won the confidence and esteem of his fellow citizens.
In no department of human activity have greater strides been
made in recent years than in photography. The man who suc-
ceeded several decades ago would find himself hopelessly in ar-
rears should he, with no additional equipment, attempt to cope
with the conditions of the present. Photographic portraiture
is an art which admits of infinite conception and requires varied
knowledge and great painstaking in its development. The men
who maintain its highest artistic methods necessarily have a
thorough knowledge of human nature and are artistic and schol-
VIRGINIA 229
arly in their inclinations, and it was to this class that the late
Mr. Faber belonged.
The Faber family originated in Germany, whence came the
first American progenitor at an early day, the family taking
up its residence in the vicinity of Charleston, South Carolina,
where they became large planters prior to the war between the
states. Joseph H. Faber was lorn at Charleston, South Carolina,
and was reared and educated in his home community. In young
manhood he removed to Fredericksburg, Virginia, where he and
his brother established themselves in business as the proprietors
of a photographic studio. After a few years Mr. Faber married
and in 1880 moved to Norfolk, where he passed the remainder
of his life. He was at the time of his death the senior member
of the photographic firm of Faber & Son, and a man who was
held in the highest esteem.
Mr. Faber married Miss Emma J. Freeman, and they liecame
the parents of three children : George Lewis, of whom more
later ; Thomas L., a commercial photographer and member of
the Masonic fi-aternity ; and Fred, a graduate of the University
of Virginia, who was on the staff of engineers who built the
Mount Royal tunnel in Canada, and now a consulting engineer
of Crowley, Louisiana, married Tillie Ficklin and has two chil-
dren, Ann and Jane.
George Lewis Faber was born at Norfolk, Virginia, in Sep-
tember, 1886, and received his education at Norfolk and Rich-
mond College. At the close of his college career he returned to
Norfolk to join his father in the firm of Faber & Son, of which
he became the owner at the elder man's death, and which he
conducted successfully until his own demise in December, 1925.
He was a good business man and one who enjoyed the confidence
and respect of those with whom he came in contact, and his
death lost to his community a reliable and public spirited citizen.
He belonged to the Rotary Club and the Princess Anne Country
Club and was a Mason and Shriner. For several years he
taught a class in the Sunday School of the Freemason Baptist
Church.
In July, 1914, George L. Faber was united in marriage with
Emily Sheri'er LaBlanc, who was born at Philadelphia, Penn-
sylvania, a daughter of Samuel and Sadie LaBlanc, and a member
of a family which originated in France and settled at Phila-
delphia prior to the war between the states. Samuel LaBlanc
fought as a soldier in a Pennsylvania volunteer infantry regi-
ment during that struggle, following which he followed the pro-
fession of a construction engineer during the remainder of his
life, his death occurring in 1907. He married Sarah (Sadie)
Sherrer, of Reading, Pennsylvania, and Mrs. Faber is the oldest
living child of this union. Her brother, Charles Wesley LaBlanc,
was district manager in Westchester County, New York, for the
Hoover Vacuum Cleaner Company, is a veteran of the World
war, in which he enlisted as a private and rose to a lieutenancy
in France. In July, 1929, he was appointed to the ofiice of
assistant general manager of the same company at Philadelphia.
He married Anne Dobson, of New York City, and they have one
son, Charles Wesley, Jr. Another brother, Samuel LaBlanc. Jr.,
was in the engineering department at the NewiDort News Ship-
building Company, was a well known baritone singer and in
1906 he died in the height of his career.
Mrs. Emily Faber, one of Norfolk's most talented women,
attended school at Norfolk, and began her musical education in
11— VOL. 3
230 VIRGINIA
New York City, where she took organ and piano under Gaston
Detheir. She then went abroad, where she studied organ under
Alexander Guilmont in France and Dr. Varley Roberts in Eng-
land. She also attends the studio of Frank La Forge of New
York City. She is now organist and choir director of the Free-
mason Baptist Church and organist and director of Ohef Sholom
Temple of Norfolk, and conducts a musical studio. She was one
of the organizers of the Mifane Trio, a musical organization con-
sisting of violin, Marian Carpenter Miles ; piano, Emily LaBlanc,
and 'cello, Philip 0. Nelson, and is a member of the Norfolk
Country Club, the Princess Anne Country Club, the Norfolk
Society of Arts, and the Freemason Street Baptist Church. She
is a past secretary of the Virginia Music Teachers State Asso-
ciation and is a member of the National Federation of Music
Clubs, representing the Emily LaBlanc Faber Junior Club. She
is also a member of the American Guild of Organists.
Wills Cowper was a merchant before the Civil war, having
a reputation all over the Norfolk district. Members of his family
still reside in that city.
He was born in Gates County, North Carolina, son of Thomas
Cowper, also of Gates County, and grandson of John and Louise
(Godwin) Cowper.
Dr. Thomas Cowper acquired a thorough education and in
his youth was sent abroad, studying and completing his medical
course in France. He remained abroad five years and after
returning to the United States settled at Portsmouth, Virginia,
where he took up the practice of his profession. He carried
the routine work of a physician there until he fell a victim to
a scourge of the yellow fever in 1858, dying in the line of duty.
Wills Cowper married Dizer Saunders, who was born in
Nansemond County, Virginia, daughter of Robert and Sarah
(Hedges) Saunders, natives of the same county, and of English
and Scotch ancestry. Mrs. Cowper became the mother of thir-
teen children : Thomas, John G., Walter G., Elizabeth Ann,
Emma Frances, Clarence, Laura, Anna, Virginia, Wills, Richard,
Louise and James P.
Of these children Laura Cowper became the wife of John N.
Dewell, who was born at Garysburg, North Carolina, and from
early manhood was a merchant at Norfolk and Portsmouth,
where he lived until his death at the age of seventy-two. Mrs.
Dewell and her sister Anna now reside at 314 East Free Mason
Street in Norfolk. Their brothers, John Gilbert, Clarence and
Walter G., were all soldiers in the Confederate army. Clarence
lost a finger in one battle. John, though participating in fifty-
two battles and in the war from beginning until the surrender
at Appomattox, was never wounded or captured.
Armistead Plummer Pannill, commissioner of revenue for
the City of Norfolk, is descended from an old Colonial Virginia
family. The Pannills have been active in the public life of
Norfolk for a great many years.
Mr. Pannill was born at Petersburg, Virginia, a great-grand-
son of William Pannill, who was born in Orange County, Vir-
ginia, February 1, 1768, and married Martha Ann Morton, who
was born at Greenville, North Carohna, December 12, 1762.
Their son. Col. William Pannill, was born at Oxford, North
Carolina, July 6, 1794, located at Petersburg, was educated in
William and Mary College, and during the war between the states
VIRGINIA 231
was provost marshal at Petersburg. He became the first presi-
dent of what is now the Norfolk & Western Railway. Colonel
Pannill married Eliza Binns Jones, who was born at Petersburg
July 3, 1804. Her father, George Hamilton Jones, was born
at Petersburg, May 1, 1775, being a lineal descendant of John
Jones, who represented Brunswick County in the House of Bur-
gesses. George Hamilton Jones married Elizabeth Binns, of
a family that settled in Sus.sex County as early as 1652.
Capt. Thomas Pannill, father of Armistead P. Pannill, was
born at Petersburg March 8, 1834, and enlisted in the Third
Regiment of Virginia Infantry, commanded by Roger Prior.
This regiment was attached to Pendleton's Brigade. The bri-
gade held a position on the south side of the James River at the
time of the McClellan raid on Richmond, and members of the
brigade witnessed the battle between the Merrimac and the
Monitor in Hampton Roads. Captain Pannill participated in
the battle of the Crater in the siege of Petersburg. After the
war he engaged in business handling real estate, was an auc-
tioneei", and died in 1919. He and his wife reared the following
children : Henry ; Eliza Otey, who married George M. Pollard ;
James Knox ; William ; Robert Houston ; Armistead Plummer ;
Samuel Weisiger ; Louise Barlow, who married James H. Johns-
ton ; and Charles Jackson, who married Ethel World.
Armistead Pannill was educated in public schools, and as a
young man became identified with the real estate business. In
1898 he was appointed assistant health officer and in 1917 be-
came commissioner of revenue for the City of Norfolk, an office
he has filled for eleven years. He is affiliated with Atlantic
Lodge No. 2, A. F. and A. M., John Waters Chapter No. 1, Royal
Arch Masons, Grice Commandery of the Knights Templar, Khe-
dive Temple of the Mystic Shrine, Norfolk Lodge No. 38, B. P. 0.
Elks, and Norfolk Lodge No. 39, Independent Order of Odd
Fellows.
Ml". Pannill married in 1901 Lillian Burke Archer. They
have a daughter, Martha Archer, who is the wife of Robert W.
Ribble and has a son, Robert W., Jr.
Rev. Edw^ard Turner Dadmun. A gentle spirit, a splendid
intellectual equipment, a deep and abiding human sympathy and
tolerance, and a significant consecration to human service were
expressed in the personality and achievement of the honored
subject of this memoir. Mr. Dadmun was a leader in the work
of the Y. M. C. A. in Virginia, served in this splendid organiza-
tion in its overseas activities in the World war, and as a clergy-
man of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, he made his
powers a force in advancing Christian work and the aiding and
uplifting of his fellow men. Mr. Dadmun was sixty years of
age at the time of his death, which occurred in the City of Nor-
folk, Virginia, December 5, 1923. and a tribute to his memory
consistently finds place in this publication.
Mr. Dadmun was born at Watertown, Massachusetts, in May,
1863, and was the eldest of the three children of William Henry
and Charlotte (Turner) Dadmun, the former of whom was
born in Boston, Massachusetts, and the latter in Ontario, Can-
ada. William Henry Dadmun was long and prominently con-
cerned with the lumber industry, and both he and his wife
continued to reside in Massachusetts until their death.
The subject of this memoir gained his earlier education in
the public schools of Massachusetts and under the private pre-
232 VIRGINIA
ceptorship of Prof. Henry Loomis. He early became animated
with the spirit of constructive service in connection with the
finer ideals of human thought and action, and he was twenty-
one years of age when he came to Virginia to enter service as
the first secretary of the Y. M. C. A. in the City of Norfolk. He
acted as a general supervisor in the erection of the first building
of the association in this city, and made a trip to the North to
purchase furniture and other accessories for the new instiution.
He here continued his faithful and constructive service about
four years, and thereafter he served a few years as secretary
of the Y. M. C. A. in the City of Staunton, this state. He was
next advanced to the position of assistant secretary of the Vir-
ginia state organization of the Y. M. C. A., and about five years
later he resigned this office to enter active work in the ministry
of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, in which he was duly
ordained a clergyman. His work as a minister and evangelist
was principally in the tidewater region of Virginia, and he
served some time as presiding elder of the Farmville district
of his conference. Sincere, earnest and loyal, a strong and
brilliant pulpit orator, Mr. Dadmun labored zealously and effec-
tively and brought many converts into the fold of the Divine
Master whom he served.
When the nation entered the World war Mr. Dadmun re-
sumed his active association with the work of the Y. M. C. A.
and was assigned to service at Camp Johnson, Florida, where
he remained six months as camp secretary of the Y. M. C. A.
As an overseas secretary of his organization he made one voyage
to France, and upon his return he was assigned to duty at Ho-
boken. New Jersey, where he had supervision of selecting men
for Y. M. C. A. overseas service. Later he became port secre-
tary of the Y. M. C. A. at Newport News, Virginia, and there
he did valuable work in connection with assigning Y. M. C. A.
workers to the transports that bore them to overseas service.
After the armistice brought the war to a close Mr. Dadmun
resumed his work in his conference of the Methodist Episcopal
Church, South, and he held a pastorate at Lynchburg one year,
he having then been assigned to the pastorate of the church at
Hampton, where he continued his labors until he suffered the
health impairment that resulted in his death. He was virtually
a pioneer in Y. M. C. A. work in Virginia, and did much to infuse
in the organization that vitality and usefulness that have con-
tinued to characterize it in the intervening years. He was an
implacable adversary of the liquor traffic and a resolute worker
in behalf of the prohibition cause. His widow continues a
zealous member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, and
also of the W. C. T. U. In a basic way Mr. Dadmun gave al-
legiance to the Democratic party, and he was affiliated with the
Improved Order of Red Men and the Junior Order United
American Mechanics. His unfailing kindliness and his perfervid
zeal in human service gained to him the affectionate regard of
those who came within the sphere of his benignant influence.
On the 21st of July, 1891, was solemnized the marriage of
Mr. Dadmun and Miss Olive Leigh Morgan, daughter of Olive
Branch and Hope Alice (Davis) Morgan, of Petersburg, Vir-
ginia, where the father was a representative business man.
Since the death of her husband Mrs. Dadmun has maintained
her residence in Norfolk, where her home is at 418 West Nine-
teenth Street. Of the five children of this union the eldest is
Miss Hope Alice, who was educated in the City of Richmond
I
I
VIRGINIA 233
and who remains with her widowed mother, as does also the
next younger daughter, Charlotte, whose education was acquired
in the Norfolk schools. Edward Henry, the eldest son, attended
the Virginia Military Institute, and he entered World war service
with the Norfolk Light Artillery Blues when that fine organiza-
tion was mustered into the United States Army, he having been
in active service in France one year and having reecived his
honorable discharge after the armistice brought the great conflict
to a close. He and his wife, whose maiden name was Julia
Whitmore, maintain their home in Richmond. Branch Morgan,
next younger of the sons, received the advantages of the Vir-
ginia Militarj' Institute, is a civil engineer by profession and
maintains his home in Norfolk. Robert, youngest of the children,
is associated with business in this city.
Alvin T. Dulaney. Emerson said "I cannot even hear of
personal vigor of any kind, great power of performance, with-
out fresh resolution. This is the moral of biography." Measured
according to that standard how inspirational is the life of Alvin
T. Dulaney, who in the short span of his mature years has made
himself the wealthiest man in Greene County, and while thus
gaining large material rewards he has not failed to win and
hold the respect and confidence of his associates. Accounts of
achievements like his encourage the disheartened to hold on
when they are ready to let go ; they induce them to persevere
when they had decided to go back ; they give them fresh help and
renewed confidence in themselves. Ambition requires a great
deal and a great variety of food to keep it vigorous, and perhaps
one of the reasons for Mr. Dulaney's success has been that he
has branched out and, not resting content ^\^th his progress in
merchandising, entered the oil industiy, in both rising to high
position.
Alvin T. Dulaney was born in Greene County, Virginia, June
8, 1881, a son of James Fillmore and Lou Alice (Wilhoit)
Dulaney, and grandson of John G. Dulaney, a native of Greene
County, and Ezekiel F. Wilhoit, a native of Albemarle Countj'.
Both grandfathers were farmers, and that was also the occupa-
tion of James Fillmore Dulaney, who was born in Greene
County and who through his efforts developed a valuable prop-
erty in his home farm. He died March 14, 1914, and his widow,
who survives him, was born in Albemarle County. James Fill-
more Dulaney was a Democrat in politics. They had five chil-
dren : Charles Q., who owns and opei-ates the home farm ;
Alvin T. ; Mrs. E. D. Ott, wife of a practicing attorney at Har-
risonburg, Virginia ; John E. F.. associated ^\^th the State High-
way Department at Richmond, Virginia ; and Gary B., with the
Sanitary Grocery Company at Washington, D.C. Both parents
were strong church members, the father a Methodist and the
mother a Baptist, and they took their religion into their every
day lives, and the influence they exerted among their children
and in their communitj- was of an uplifting character.
Alvin T. Dulaney acquired his education in local public and
private schools and in several excellent academies. At the age
of eighteen he left home and secured a position as salesman in
the dry goods and notion store of Charles E. Hughes at Char-
lottesville. In the fall of 1900, going to Covington, Virginia, he
and his brother, C. Q. Dulaney, and F. M. Beale opened a small
dry goods and notion store under the name Covington Bargain
House. This business was sold out the following year, when
234 VIRGINIA
Mr. Dulaney and his brother opened at Ruckersville, Virginia, a
general merchandise store under the firm name of Dulaney
Brothers. This was operated as a partnership until 1919, and
since then Mr. Alvin T. Dulaney has been sole owner, operating
a department store carrying everything reciuired for the home,
farm and automobile. Realizing- the market that existed for
certain lines not then handled, the partners in 1903 established
the Ruckersville Implement Company, handling a general line of
farm implements, machinery, wagons, buggies, harness, et cetera.
After the death of T. B. Jennings, a partner in 1912, the bus-
iness was incorporated in the general business of Dulaney Broth-
ers. In 1908 they established a firm at Barboursville, compris-
ing C. Q. Dulaney, Alvin T. Dulaney and M. H. Williams, under
the name Dulaney, Williams & Company, handling a general
line of machinery, vehicles and farm supplies of all kinds. In
1913 the interest of Dulaney Brothers was sold to M. H. Wil-
liams, who later sold it to his nephews, Williams & Company,
under which title the business is still operated.
In 1914 the Dulaney Brothers added to their Ruckersville
business a Ford agency. At that time there was one car in
Greene County. They continued the operation of the agency
until the fall of 1925, and during the twelve years it became
the outstanding country automobile agency in Virginia. The
success they had with the Ford business at Ruckersville caused
the Ford Motor Company to request the Dulaney Brothers tc
establish another agency at Gordonsville, Virginia. This vv^as
started as the Gordonsville Motor Company, Incorporated, in
1921, and the business was a success from the start. Mr. Alvin
T. Dulaney was vice president and principal stockholder of the
Gordonsville business until 1924, when he sold his interest to
the remaining stockholders, who still carry it on. The first
venture in oil made by Alvin T. Dulaney was the Gordonsville
Gas & Oil Company at Gordonsville, a small distributing com-
pany formed in 1923 and continued until 1926, at which time Mr.
Dulaney sold out to his partners and then formed the Shenan-
doah Park Oil Company, of which he is the manager. He is
also a director in the Peoples National Bank of Charlottesville.
On June 10, 1910, Mr. Dulaney married Buford J. Stephens,
born in Standardsville, Virginia, a daughter of Doctor Stephens,
one of the beloved physicians of Standardsville. Mr. and Mrs.
Dulaney have three sons : James Fillmore, who is attending
school in Standardsville, and Alvin T., Jr., and Albert Stephens,
who are attending the Ruckersville schools. Mrs. Dulaney is
a valued member of the local Methodist Episcopal Church, South.
V/hile Mr. Dulaney votes the Democratic ticket, he has not had
the time or inclination to go into politics, his business interests
absorbing all of his energies, but he is interested in the advance-
ment of his home city and county, in which he takes great pride.
Denham Arthur Kelsey is a prominent Norfolk attorney,
with offices at 111 East Main Street in that city. He came to
Norfolk from the Piedmont section.
He was born at Bedford, son of Oswald W. Kelsey and grand-
son of Alfred Kelsey. His father was born in the Cathedral
Close near Salisbury, England. Alfred Kelsey spent all his life
in England, a very devout member of the Established Church.
Oswald W. Kelsey was educated in Christ Church School and
about 1872 came to the United States, being the only representa-
tive of his family to come to America. He bought a farm near
VIRGINIA 235
Bedford, in Bedford County, Virginia, but did not find farming
profitable and subsequently engaged in the real estate business
at Bedford. He died at the age of forty-seven. He married
after coming to Virginia, Rosalie Bell, who was born at Bed-
ford, which at that time went under the name of Liberty. She
was a daughter of Alfred and Mary (Lowry) Bell, of English
ancestry. D. Arthur Kelsey was one of two children. His sister,
Gladys is the wife of William W. Berry and has two children.
D. Arthur Kelsey attended public schools, including the Bed-
ford High School, and was a young man when he came to Nor-
folk. He was deputy clerk in the Federal Court until 1907, and
while in that position studied law. After being admitted to the
bar in 1907 he engaged in practice and later was appointed chief
deputy clerk of the Norfolk District Court. He resigned this
office in 1920 and has since engaged in a genei'al law practice, to
which he gives all his time.
Mr. Kelsey married in 1919 Nelle Buchanan, who was born
at Richmond, daughter of H. L. and Elizabeth Buchanan. Mr.
Kelsey by a previous marriage has two sons, D. Arthur, Jr., a
student at the University of Virginia, and Sidney Harrison, a
student at William and Mary College. Mr. Kelsey is a member
of St. Luke's Episcopal Church, and in politics is a Republican.
SiGMUND MiTTELBORFER BRANDT, Norfolk lawyer, member of
a family that has been identified with the commercial interests
of Eastern Virginia for many vears, was born at Norfolk in
1880.
His parents were Henry and Pauline (Mitteldorfer) Brandt.
Henry Brandt, in 1876 established at Norfolk the foreign bank-,
ing business which is yet in successful operation. The late Jo-
seph Brandt, brother of Sigmund M., was admitted to partner-
ship in 1906. Henry Brandt was born in Neustadt, Germany,
son of Joseph Brandt, of the same city, and grandson of Herman
Brandt, also of Nuestadt. The first of this family to come to
America was Leon Brandt, who built up a name and reputation
in American journalism, and died shortly before the Civil war,
being buried at Albany, New York. It was through the influence
of Leon Brandt that Henry Brandt, his brother, came to this
country at the age of fifteen. Henry Brandt finished his educa-
tion in schools in Noi'th Carolina, living in Fayetteville, that
state, until the outbreak of the Civil war. As a member of the
North Carolina Militia he entered the Confederate army with
his brother George Brandt, who had come to Fayetteville at the
instance of Leon Brandt several years earlier, and who also
served in the Confederate army. Prior to the war George
Brandt was connected with cotton mills in the vicinity of Fay-
etteville, and also was intei'ested in sailing vessels operating be-
tween the ports of Wilmington and Liverpool.
Henry Brandt's wife, Pauline IMitteldorfer, was born in the
City of Nuremberg, Bavaria, and was a very young girl when
her father died. She came to Richmond, Virginia, living with
her uncle, Moses Mitteldorfer, who had settled in Richmond
many years earlier. She was followed by her mother, Jlrs.
Cecilia Mitteldorfer. The first Mitteldorfer located at Richmond
about 1840. Henry Brandt and wife were married in Norfolk,
and they lived to celebrate their golden wedding anniversary
April 3, 1921. They were married in what is known as Olaf
Sholem Temple, and they held membership in that temple for
236 VIRGINIA
half a century. Henry Brandt was a member of Ruth Lodge,
A. F. and A. M., forty years.
Sigmund M. Brandt was educated in Norfolk Academy, spent
one year in the Virginia Polytechnic Institute, and in 1901 was
admitted to the bar by the Supreme Court of Appeals of Vir-
ginia. He qualified in the Supreme Court of the United States
April 25, 1913. Mr. Brandt is a member of the Virginia State
and American Bar Associations. He is a member of the Croatan
Country Club.
He married, April 10, 1918, Miss Juliette Heller, of Atlanta,
Georgia, daughter of Max and Clara (Kaufman) Heller. They
have one daughter, Claire Pauline Brandt, born June 17, 1919.
Claude Eugene Herbert. The Herbert family have lived
in and around Norfolk for generation after generation. The
family were established in this section of Virginia in the early
Colonial period.
As early as 1659 John Herbert was a resident of Norfolk
County. His will was probated in Norfolk in 1675. His son,
John Herbert, was born at Norfolk and was a landed proprietor.
His will was probated in 1679. He left two children. One of
them, Thomas Herbert, was born at Norfolk in 1679, and mar-
ried Margaret Dale, daughter of Henry and Frances (Ballen-
tine) Dale. He was a ship builder and owned and operated a
ship yard, and took a prominent part in local affairs, bearing
the title of captain. He died at the age of seventy-nine, his will
being probated in 1749. Of his family of six sons and one
daughter the son Henry, born at Norfolk about 1715, married
Abigail Carson, daughter of Jonas Carson, of Accamac County,
Virginia. Henry succeeded to the ownership of the ship yard
and conducted it as a successful business. He was a vestryman
of St. Brides Parish. His will was probated in 1778.
His son, Caleb Herbert, one of nine children, was born in
Norfolk about 1745 and was the chief representative of the
family in this generation in the Revolutionary war period. He
was a member of the committee of safety during the war and
was listed on the committee as a master ship builder, owning
a .ship yard. He married Ann Nicholson, daughter of James
Nicholson. His will was probated in 1796, and he reared five
children.
His son Maximilian Herbert was born in Norfolk about 1772,
succeeded to the ownership of the ship yard and also conducted
a large plantation. He died in 1828. By his first marriage he
had four children and one by his second marriage. A son of
his first marriage was Maximilian II, born at Norfolk in 1806,
and who followed planting, employing slave labor on his farm.
He organized a company for service in the Confederate army
and was commissioned a captain, serving in General Mahone's
Brigade. He died in the camp at Petersburg in 1862. His wife
was Lydia Herbert Nash, daughter of Thomas and Sarah Nash.
He was survived by five children.
His son Maximilian Herbert III was born in Norfolk March
18, 1834, and became a farmer in Southampton County, but later
returned to Norfolk and died there in 1903. He married Mrs.
Eugenia (Briggs) Pace, daughter of Bennett and Louise Pace.
They reared a family of eight children, one of whom was Claude
Eugene Herbei't.
Claude Eugene Herbert was born in Southampton County,
October 18, 1869. He attended a one-room schoolhouse in his
1
VIRGINIA 237
native county and since 1895 has been a resident of Norfolk.
He learned the wholesale grocery business by several years of
experience as a clerk, and later he and J. W. Hough formed a
firm handling wholesale groceries. Later the Southern Distrib-
uting Company was organized and he became its secretary and
treasurer, and is now president of that successful Norfolk busi-
ness.
Claude Eugene Herbert married Eva Parrish Beale, who
was born in Norfolk. Her father, Cype Beale, came from Hert-
ford County, North Carolina, to Norfolk County, and for a
number of years was in the dairy business and later a wholesale
grocer. Cype Beale married Julia Ann Raboteau, who was
born in Fayetteville, North Carolina, daughter of John Samuel
and Esther (Barclay) Raboteau. Claude E. Herbert and wife
reared two sons, Eastwood Davidson and Claude Page. Mr.
Herbert is a member of Corinthian Lodge No. 266, A. F. and
A. M., has membership in the various Scottish Rite bodies and
Khedive Temple of the Mystic Shrine. He is a member of the
Park Place Methodist Episcopal Church, South. He has always
been keenly interested in the public affairs of Norfolk and has
been a member of the City Council continuously since 1918.
His son Eastwood Davidson Herbei"t, a prominent young
Norfolk attorney, with offices in the Bank of Commerce Build-
ing, was born at Norfolk, was educated in public schools in that
city, attended the Episcopal High School at Alexandria, and
in 1917 entered the University of Virginia, where he took his
A. B. degree in 1920 and his degree in law in 1922. He was
admitted to the bar and at once engaged in practice at Norfolk,
where he has made himself an attorney of recognized ability and
with a splendid practice. He is a member of the Park Place
Methodist Episcopal Church, and of Corinthian Lodge No. 266,
A. F. and A. M.
Wilbur Curtis Hall has practiced law at Leesburg since
1915. and for ten years has been a representative of Loudoun
County in the Virginia Legislature.
He was born at Mountain Gap, Loudoun County, February
5, 1892, descended from a family of Halls that settled in Vir-
ginia shortly after the close of the Revolutionary war. His
grandfather, James M. Hall, was a native of Loudoun County,
spending his life there as a farmer. John W. Hall, father of
the Leesburg attorney, was born in 1857, and was engaged in
farming until he retired in 1917. He married Annie E. Holli-
day, who was born in Loudoun County in 1869. Their two sons
are Wilbur Curtis and Stilson Hutchins, both prominent citizens
of Leesburg.
\\'ilbur C. Hall attended a two-room school at Mountain
Gap, graduated in 1910 from the Leesburg High School, and
as a means of financing himself in law school he worked in a
printing office. He was a student in Washington and Lee Uni-
versity during 1913-14. was licensed to practice in 1914, and
in 1915 took his law degree at Georgetown University.
During most of the time since he started his law practice
he has engaged in some form of civic or patriotic service. July
10, 1918, he joined the colors, being honorably discharged De-
cember 4, 1918. He held the rank of petty officer in the navy
and later was one of the organizers of the American Legion of
Virginia, serving on the State Executive Committee and as
238 VIRGINIA
delegate at large to national conventions. He served as colonel
on the staff of Governor Davis.
He was elected to represent Loudoun County in the House
of Delegates in November, 1917, and has been regularly
reelected, his increasing experience making him one of the most
influential members of the Lower House of the Virginia Legis-
lature. Among other measures he has been actively identified
with legislation in behalf of soldiers of the World war and the
enforcement of the prohibition laws. He is the author of Vir-
ginia insurance code, having instigated the fire insurance inves-
tigation and wrote the bill providing for revocation of the
license of any driver of an automobile convicted of driving
while intoxicated.
Mr. Hall is unmarried. He is a member of St. James Epis-
copal Church at Leesburg, Ohve Branch Lodge No. 114, A. F.
and A. M., of which he is a past master, Loudoun Chapter No.
25, Royal Arch Masons, of which he is a past high priest, Pied-
mont Commandery No. 26, Knights Templar, Acca Temple of
the Mystic Shrine at Richmond, Loudoun Lodge No. 26, Inde-
pendent Order of Odd Fellows, of which he is a past grand,
Hamilton Council No. 24, Junior Order United American
Mechanics. He is a member of the University Club of
Washington.
Hugh Caperton Preston. Among the men of Virginia who
wielded with equal energy and ability the implements of peace
and the weapons of war, the late Hugh Caperton Preston, of
East Radford, was a striking example. Coming of a long line
of distinguished ancestors who had established splendid records
as patriots, soldiers and statesmen, it was natural that he should
inherit military ability, while in no less a degree did he rank
high as a real estate dealer at East Radford, where his death
occurred January 3, 1905.
Mr. Preston was born at "Elmwood," the old Caperton
estate in West Virginia, September 5, 1856, and was a son of
Col. James Francis and Sarah (Caperton) Preston. Old records
show the fact that one John Preston came from England to
Virginia in 1745 and settled on a land grant at Tinkling Springs,
Augusta County. His son, William Preston, after taking part
in the Indian wars as a captain, became a colonel in the Colonial
army during the War of the Revolution, following the close of
which he became the founder of Smithfield Plantation, a tract of
some 7,000 or 8,000 acres on a part of which is located the Vir-
ginia Polytechnic Institute. James Patton Preston, son of Wil-
liam Preston and grandfather of Hugh Caperton Preston, was
a colonel during the War of 1812, and afterward became gov-
ernor of Virginia. Among his sons was Hon. William Ballard
Preston, a famous lawyer and statesman, who in 1849 was secre-
tary of the navy in President Taylor's cabinet, and during the
war between the states a member of the Confederate Senate.
Another son, Robert Taylor Preston, served as a colonel in the
Confederate army.
Col. James Francis Preston was born in Virginia and as a
youth secured a commission to West Point Military Academy,
from which institution he was duly graduated. During the
Mexican war he volunteered for service, equipped and organized
a complete company at his own expense, was commissioned a
captain, and after the close of that struggle he returned to his
estate, "White Home," in Montgomery County, Virginia. When
VIRGINIA 239
the trouble broke out between the forces of the North and South
he espoused the cause of the Confederacy and became colonel
of the Fourth Virginia Infantry, a part of the great "Stonewall"
Brigade, which won deathless fame on many a hard-fought field.
Colonel Preston did not live to see the fall of the Confederacy,
his death occurring in 1862, caused by the exposure incidental
to his military service. He married Sarah Caperton, of Elm-
wood, Monroe County, Virginia (now West Virginia). One of
their sons, William Ballard Preston, enlisted for service in the
Spanish-American war under his brother, Hugh C, and received
a commission as first lieutenant. Later he went to the Philip-
pines, where he was commisisoned a captain on the Island Panay
at Iloilo, and then was appointed governor of one of the group
of islands, but died before assuming ofl[ice. He married Eliza-
beth Scott.
The education of Hugh Caperton Preston was completed at
Virginia Military Institute, from which he was graduated as
a senior captain and adjutant as a member of the class of 1877.
As a young man he became head and master of his mother's
estate, known as "White Thorn" in Montgomery County, Vir-
ginia, but sold this in 1892 and went to East Radford, where
he entered the real estate and insurance business, also serving
two terms in the capacity of mayor. At the outbreak of the
Spanish-American war he lived up to the family traditions by
enlisting as a captain in the volunteers. Company M, Fourth
Virginia Volunteer Infantry, under Colonel Petit, and saw one
year of service in Cuba. One month after his return the regiment
was mustered out of the service, but he secured a commission in
the Thirty-first United States Volunteers, and with the rank of
first lieutenant went to Mindanao, Philippine Islands, where for
two years he served as captain of the post. In 1901 Mr. Preston
returned to the United States and again took up the real estate
business at East Radford, in which he continued to be engaged
until his death. He also had various other business connections,
was widely and favorably known in business circles, and served
as secretary of the Southwest Virginia Live Stock Association.
He was a Democrat in his political convictions, was fraternally
affiliated with the local lodge of the Independent Order of Odd
Fellows, and was a member of the Episcopal Church.
On April 30, 1878, at Staunton, Virginia, Mr. Preston was
united in marriage with Miss Cary Marx Baldwin, of Winches-
ter. Virginia, who was educated at Dunbar Institute and Mary
Baldwin's School at Staunton, a daughter of Dr. Robert Fred-
erick and Cary (Barton) Baldwin, the former of whom was a dis-
tinguished surgeon of his day who held the rank of colonel in
the Confederate army during the war betw'een the states. Seven
children were born to ^Ir. and Mrs. Preston : James Francis, who
died in infancy ; Robert Baldwin, county engineer of Norfolk
County, who married Merle Page and has three children, Rob-
ert Baldwin, Jr., Edwin Page and John Baldwin ; Cary Baldwin,
the wife of Hartwell Henry Gary, a mechanical engineer of
Norfolk and president of the Norfolk Tank Corporation, and has
two children, Cary Preston and Hartwell Henry, Jr. ; Sarah
Caperton, president of the Preston School of Dancing and di-
rector and owner of the Camp Carybrook for Girls; William
Ballard, who enlisted for service on patrol duty on the Mexican
border and served as sergeant until the United States entered
the World war, when he was appointed first lieutenant and sent
to Camp Lee, and in May, 1918, went to France, where he was
240 VIRGINIA
promoted to the rank of captain of a machine gun company on
the battlefield, and who married Lelia Harrison Dew and has
two children, Bettie Harrison Braxton and William Ballard IV;
Hugh Caperton, identified with the National Highway Commis-
sion, who married Ann Cahill and has one child, Hugh Caperton
III ; and Katherine Stuart, a registered nurse, who is a member
of the McGuire clinical staff of St. Luke's Hospital at Richmond.
John Henry Niningeris a Norfolk attorney, has practiced
law there a number of years and represents one of the prominent
families of Southwestern Virginia.
He was born at Hollins in Roanoke County, son of Christ
Nininger and grandson of Peter Nininger. Peter Nininger was
a farmer in Botetourt County and also a preacher in the German
Baptist Church. He married Lydia Gish, member of an old
Virginia family. She died at the age of eighty-nine and he
passed away at the age of eighty-seven.
Christ Nininger was born at Daleville, Botetourt County,
Virginia, in 1835, grew up on a farm, and from Botetourt moved
to Roanoke County, where he acquired a plantation of 650 acres.
He engaged in general farming and also established and con-
ducted a cannery for fruits and vegetables. He was a lay
preacher of the Progressive German Baptist Church and died
at the age of seventy-three. Christ Nininger married Nannie
Frantz, who was born near Salem in Roanoke County, daughter
of Jacob Frantz. She was reared a Methodist. She died at the
age of seventy-two, having reared nine children, named Rosa B.,
Letcher, George M., Lula G., Frank P., John H., Staples V.,
Harry C. and Charles M.
John H. Nininger grew up on a farm in Roanoke County,
attended a one-room country school, and afterwards entered the
National Normal University at Lebanon, Ohio. He received a
thorough academic training in that splendid school and subse-
quently for two years attended the law department of the Uni-
versity of Virginia. Mr. Nininger was admitted to practice in
1894 and first established his law offices at Bluefleld, West Vir-
ginia. In 1898 he went to Washington to become a clerk in the
treasury department, but after one year resigned and located
at Norfolk, where he has become permanently established as a
citizen and attorney, engaged in a general law practice. He
is a man of wide experience, learned in the law, resourceful in
the handling of his professional work, and has been deservedly
successful.
He married in 1903 Emily L. Eggleston, who was born in
New Kent County, Virginia, daughter of William T. and Sarah
(Williams) Eggleston. Mr. and Mrs. Nininger have three chil-
dren, Mary Eggleston, Louise Fisher and John Henry, Jr. Mary
is a student in William and Mary College. Mr. and Mrs. Nininger
are members of the Park Place Baptist Church of Norfolk.
William Brooks Smith. In those sections where the agri-
cultural interests are important, many of the men who serve in
public office come from the farming class, and rightly so, for it
is their work and their property which support the machinery
of the law, and they are the logical officeholders. There is an-
other reason, and it is that they, living as they do close to the
soil, know the needs of the people, their resources and possibili-
ties, and they can therefore give a better and more comprehen-
sive service than an outsider no matter how capable or experi-
VIRGINIA 241
enced he might be along other lines. As a case in question at-
tention is called to William B. Smith, one of the leading agricul-
turists of Mathews County, now serving as county clerk. In
his office he is rendering a service that is appreciated by all who
have reason to call upon him, and his fellow citizens are satis-
fied that in him they have a friend and able representative, one
who will safeguard their interests.
William B. Smith was born at Mathews Court House, Vir-
ginia, February 27, 1888, a son of Sands and Carrie W. (Diggs)
Smith, natives of Mathews County. Vvhen war was declared
between the states Sands Smith was one of the gallant young
men who enlisted in the cause of the Confederacy, and served
with the famous Black Horse Cavalry throughout the war period,
winning distinction for his intrepid bravery. After the close of
the war, and his return to IVIathews County, he served it as
sheriff for a number of years, or until 1886, when he was ap-
pointed clerk of the county, and at the following election was
elected to the office. From then on he was continued as county
clerk through successive elections until his death November 10,
1914. The mother died September 23, 192.3.
Reared and educated in Mathews County, William B. Smith
attended its public schools and Randolph-I\Iacon Academy, Bed-
ford City, Virginia. Returning home, he became deputy clerk of
Mathews County, and November 16, 1914, after his father's
death, was appointed his successor to fill out the unexpired term.
With its expiration he was elected to the office, and has been
reelected every eight years since that time. This is a somewhat
remarkable case, as for forty-two years the office of county clerk
of Mathews County has been filled by a father and son. Jlr.
Smith is unmarried. He resides in ]\Iathews County, where he
has COO acres of valuable farming land, 150 acres of which he
operates himself, and is a scientific farmer. His fraternal con-
nections are numerous and include membership with Oriental
Lod.e Ni. 20, A. F. and A. M. ; the local lodge of the Junior
Order United American Mechanics ; and Naoman Tribe, Im-
proved Order of Red Men. In political faith he is a Democrat,
and he is very active in the local party. While he is not a mem-
ber of any religious organizations, he was reared by parents who
were zealous members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South,
and is a liberal donor to different churches in his neighborhood.
Hon. L. Sumter Davis. When Newport News was but a
small town of no special impoi-tance, Hon. L. Sumter Davis
came into its midst, and from thenceforward until his death,
July 21, 1920, he continued to take a most important part in its
development. On the day of his death the following appeared
editorially in the local press :
"Newport News has sustained a genuine bereavement in the
death of Sumter Davis, one of its pioneer citizens and a man
devoted to the best interests of the community. As citizen and
member of the common council he discharged his duties with
fidelity and he enjoyed the respect and good will of his fellows.
We chronicle this record in the public print as a mark of respect,
and we point to his character, his cai'eer and the esteem in which
he was held as an incentive to good citizenship in others."
L. Sumter Davis was born in Williamsburg, Virginia, in
1861, a son of Philip and Rosa Davis, the former of whom was
a farmer and Confederate veteran. The parents had ten chil-
dren, of whom L. Sumter Davis was the youngest child. As a
242 VIRGINIA
boy he assisted his father on the farm, and at the same time
attended school in Newmarket, Virginia. When he was eighteen
years old he came to Newport News, entering the employ of
the ship yards, and he maintained that connection the remain-
der of his life, and when he died was manager of one of its
important departments, a position he held for many years.
In September, 1891, Mr. Davis married Miss Cora Puckett,
a daughter of Walter and Virginia (Lee) Puckett. Mr. Puckett
was a resident of Richmond, and later of Newport News, and
while living in the former city he served on the school board.
He was a Confederate veteran, having served in the Southern
army during the war between the states. Of the four children
born to Mr. and Mrs. Puckett, Mrs. Davis is the third in order
of birth.
Five children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Davis, namely:
Horace, who is a draughtsman in the ship yard ; Sumter, who
is instructor of apprentices in the ship yard ; Emerson, who is
timekeeper in the ship yard ; Evelyn, who is the wife of Russel
Cooper, a business man of Newport News ; and Lois, who i'-^
attending the public schools of Newport News.
Mr. Davis was a charter member of Newport News Lodg«»
No. 92, I. 0. 0. F. ; an energetic and helpful member of the
Junior Order United American Mechanics, and for years he
was in the City Council, practically serving from the incorpora-
tion of the city until his death.
The funeral of Mr. Davis was held in his late residence,
Rev. W. P. Stuart of the Hampton Baptist Church officiating,
and his remains were interred in Greenlawn Cemetery. The
active pallbearers were two members of the Odd Fellows Lodge,
Dr. F. B. Longan and H. B. West, of the Board of Aldermen,
R. W. West and A. E. Lowder. The honorary pallbearers were
D. S. Jones, R. Lee Davis, E. F. Piland, Floyd Hudgins, C. C.
Smith, Dr. R. B. Gary, W. B. Yost, Arthur Davis and Minor
Manning. The floral tributes were numerous and beautiful, at-
testing the high esteem in which he was held. A multitude
attended, many more people than could be accommodated in the
house in East End, where for many years he had made his home.
The following is quoted from a local newspaper after the
death of Mr. Davis :
"L. Sumter Davis was one of those pioneer citizens of middle
age who are peculiar to a young city.
"He will be missed acutely because though a pioneer in resi-
dence, he was one of the men who kept step in the march of
village to city, who put his shoulder to the wheel, gave himself
unselfishly to the service of his town and was never surprised
at the good and development that came because he believed in
his city and in himself.
"It is citizenship of that character which will remain the
hope of the city, however much it grows and develops with the
years."
At the regular meeting following the death of Alderman
Davis, the City Council of Newport News appointed the follow-
ing as a committee on resolutions : Guy P. Murray, H. B. West
and James D. Bohlken. The following resolutions were drawn
up by the committee and approved by the Council :
"Whereas, God, in His infinite wisdom, saw fit to call from
our midst to His eternal reward, Mr. L. Sumter Davis, one of
the most active, faithful and conscientious members of the Board
of Aldermen of Newport News ; therefore, be it resolved.
1
Qj ^"^ , CUU^-ii^....^^
VIRGINIA 243
"First, That the city has sustained a great loss in the death
of our fellow alderman.
"Second, That we extend to the bereaved wife and children
our deepest sympathy, and pray that they may be comforted by
Him who doath all things well.
"Third, That a copy of these resolutions be sent to the fam-
ily, a copy to the press, and a copy be spread on the minutss of
the board of aldermen.
"Guv P. Murray,
"H. B. West,
"J. D. Bohlken."
In conclusion it may be said of Mr. Davis that he peacefully,
honorably and capably met and discharged all of the obligations
of life ; honored and beloved he passed avi^ay, sincerely mourned
by all who knew him. As a successful business man he was
honorable, prompt and true to every engagement ; he was al-
ways a warm friend of education, and the supporter of all worthy
movements which have their root in unselfish devotion to the
best interests of the country. As an alderman he left his impress
indelibly inscribed upon the history of Newpoi't News, and to
his friends and family his memory will ever remain enshrined
in a hab of gracious presence and kindly spirit.
Hon. Eugene Silvester Adrian. The man who honorably
discharges the duties of the office of sheriff in these days of
many perplexities and danrerous criminals must possess more
than an ordinary amount of personal courage, and be a man of
unflinching honesty. Within the past decade so many problems
have arisen which must I e handled by the sheriff of a county
that the office carries with it onarous duties, and the qualifica-
tions are of necessity much higher than formerly. In Eugene
S. Adrian, Loudoun County possesses one of the best men to
serve as its sheriff it has ever had, and each day adds to the
prestige he enioys. The lawless element understand that in him
they have a relentless enforcement officer, and that his bailiwick
is not a desirable field for operations of a criminal character.
However, on the other hand he is a man who insists on a fair
deal for everyone, and protects the rights of his charges no
matter what ma.v be the crime of which they are accused. All
of these qualities are appreciated by his fellow citizens, and
they intend to keep him in his present office.
Sheriff Adrian was born near Ashburn, Loudoun County.
Virginia, September 6. 1878, a son of James Alexander and
Olivia E. (Havner) Adrian, he born in Philadelphia, Pennsyl-
vania, and she in Loudoun County. During the war between
the states he served in the Confederate army, and after peace
was declared he returned to Loudoun County, from which
locality he had enlisted in the artillery branch of the service,
and was engaged in farming until his death, which occurred
in May, 1915. The mother survives and resides with her
children.
Reared and educated in Loudoun County. Sheriff Adrian
remained on the farm with his parents until he reached his
majority, at which time he went into pump and well work,
drilling wells all over this neighborhood, and this continued to
occupy him for twenty-six years. He then became deputy sheriff
of Loudoun County, and after serving in that capacity for seven
years he was elected sheriff of the county, taking office January
1, 1924. So admirable was his administration that he was
244 VIRGINIA
elected to succeed himself, taking office for his second term
January 1, 1928.
On August 6, 1902, Sheriff Adrian married Miss Mary Lil-
Han Hummer, a daughter of Maurice A. and Catherine (Brown)
Hummer, natives of Loudoun County. After serving as post-
master for many years, Mr. Hummer is now living retired in
Sterling, Virginia, and receives a pension from the United States
Government. Sheriff and Mrs. Adrian have had thirteen chil-
dren born to them, namely: Keith F., who is in the employ of
the Washington-Potomac Electric & Power Company of Wash-
ington City ; Allen M., who is with the Roberts Construction
Company, Falls Church, Virginia; Helen C, who is in the
employ of the Bell Telephone Company ; Alma and Elsie, both
of whom are attending Leesburg High School ; and Etta, How-
ard, Ruth, Dorothy, Nellie, Alice, James and Fred. Sheriff
Adrian is a Mason, and he belongs to the International Sheriffs
Association, the Business Men's Association of Leesburg, the
Rotary Club and the Sons of Confederate Veterans, and Mrs.
Adrian belongs to the Daughters of Confederate Veterans and
the order of the Eastern Star. He is a staunch supporter of
the Democratic party. In religious faith he is a Presbyterian.
Sheriff Adrian's office is in the courthouse at Leesburg, and he
lives at the county seat, his home being one of the comfortable
ones of the city. Both he and Mrs. Adrian have many friends
throughout the county and enjoy a pleasant social life. It can
be truly said of him that no man ever had cause to regret his
faith in him, nor has anyone any reason to feel that his con-
fidence is misplaced, for Sheriff Adrian is an admirable, upright
and conscientious official and true Christian gentleman of the
highest personal character.
Junius Francis Lynch, Norfolk physician and surgeon, is
a former surgeon general of Virginia and was a division surgeon
with the American Expeditionary Forces in the World war.
Doctor Lynch has had many ancestors who served with dis-
tinction in the army and navy. His people on both sides have
lived in Virginia for a number of generations. However, Doctor
Lynch himself was born in Alabama, December 2, 1865, son of
Col. Francis Edward and Mary Knox (Buford) Lynch. The
founder of the Lynch family was Francis Lynch, who came to
this country about 1790, settling at Petersburg, Virginia. He
acquired a fortune as a tobacco exporter. The old Lynch home
is still standing on High Street in Petersburg.
Doctor Lynch's grandfather was William F. Lynch, a captain
in the United Staes Navy and later a commodore in the Confed-
erate States Navy. As a captain and under the auspices of the
United States Government he made the first and only authentic
exploration of the Dead Sea and the Jordan in 1848. His book,
Lynch's Expedition to the Dead Sea and the Jordan, was pub-
lished shortly after this and attracted wide attention and was
the source of most of the reliable information published in differ-
ent accounts of these features of the Holy Land. The French
Geographical Society awarded him a medal for the work. As a
commodore of the Confederate States Navy he commanded the
Confederate naval forces in the battle of Roanoke Island Feb-
ruary 2, 1862. Commodore Lynch married Virginia Shaw, a
daughter of Capt. John Shaw of the United States Navy. Cap-
tain Shaw came from Ireland, and was also an officer of high
standing in naval circles.
VIRGINIA 245
Francis Edward Lynch, who attained the rank of colonel in
the Confederate army, was a physician by profession. He was
born at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, was educated in Georgetown
University and the College of Physicans and Surgeons at Balti-
more. At the time of the war between the states he entered the
Confederate army as a captain and before the close was a colonel
in Wheeler's Cavalry Corps. His wife, Mary Knox Buford, was
a daughter of William Knox Buford, of Virginia. The oldest son
of their marriage is Dr. Junius Francis Lynch.
Doctor Lynch graduated from the Medical College of Vir-
ginia in 1888. He has always been a leader in his profession.
For twenty-five years he was on the staff of Saint Vincent's Hos-
pital at Norfolk. He was the founder, is a former president and
now an honorary member of the Seaboard Medical Association
of Virginia and North Carolina. He is a member of a number
of other professional societies and in the course of his work
covering forty years has used his experience and research as
the source of a number of articles he has contributed to medical
journals. He is former vice president of the Medical Society
of Virginia.
Doctor Lynch continues the tradition of the family in the
military affairs of his home state and nation. For twenty-five
years he has been identified with the Virginia National Guard,
in service all the way from enlisted man to surgeon general of
Virginia. In 1910 Governor William Hodges Mann commis-
sioned him surgeon general, and he held that position at the
time of the World war. He entered the Federal service as major,
was made assistant division surgeon in the Twenty-ninth Di-
vision at Camp McClellan, Alabama, was transferred to the
Ninety-third Division as division surgeon at Camp Stuart, Vir-
ginia, in December, 1917, and shortly afterward sailed for
France. In France the Ninety-third Division was broken up and
Doctor Lynch was attached to the Forty-second or Rainbow Di-
vision until July, 1918, when he was put in command of a hos-
pital at Saint Maixent, France. After the armistice he was
ordered to Paris as chief of surgical service in the United States
Army Hospital No. 57, the largest American hosiptal in Paris.
He was discharged in Hoboken, New Jersey, in the fall of 1919.
He went into the army as a major in the Medical Corps, was
promoted to lieutenant colonel in France and was commissioned
a colonel in the Medical Reserve Corps shortly after his return
from service abroad.
Colonel Lynch is a past department commander of the Ameri-
can Legion, a past national executive committeeman of that
organization, and founder and commander of Post No. 35. He
is president of the Department of Virginia Reserve Officers' As-
sociation of the United States and member of its executive coun-
cil. Doctor Lynch has never held a political office, though deeply
interested in the Democratic party. During the campaign of
1924 he was president of the local Davis-Bryan Club.
He married at Orange, Virginia, in 1891, Miss Lucy Virginia
Kemper, who died in 1915. She was a daughter of James L. and
Belle (Cave) Kemper. Her father for many years prior to the
Civil war was speaker of the House of Delegates in the Virginia
Legislature, and is best known in Virginia history as governor
of the state from 1874 to 1878. He was the first Democratic
governor of Virginia after the Civil war. He was one of Vir-
ginia's sons to reach the rank of major-general in the Confed-
erate army. While commanding a brigade in Pickett's memor-
246 VIRGINIA
able charge at the battle of Gettysburg he was desperately
wounded at the head of his men and was left on the field for
dead. He survived, and was commissioned a major-general. He
died in Orange County in 1895. Doctor Lynch in 1921 married
Mary Shield, of Hampton, Virginia, widow of Harvey L. Wilson
and daughter of Dr. Mallory Shield, of "Little England," Hamp-
ton. Doctor Shield entered the Confederate army at an early
age, was severely wounded in action, and after the war took up
the study of medicine, graduating from the University of Vir-
ginia. Doctor Shield married Florence Winder Booker, a woman
of rare charm and beauty, whose life was devoted to good works.
Doctor Lynch's only child is a daughter by his first marriage,
Virginia Kemper Lynch, who was married in 1916 to Lyman
Millard, of Norfolk. Mr. and Mrs. Millard have two children,
Lyman Millard, Jr., and Virginia Kemper Millard.
Milton Benjamin Ames, well known in life insurance circles
at Norfolk, represents some of the oldest and most prominent
families of the eastern shore of Virginia-.
Mr. Ames himself is a native of that section of Virginia. He
was born in the Village of Pungoteague in Accomac County.
His father, Samuel W. Ames, was born in the same village
August 25, 1862. The grandfather, Leonard H. Ames, was born
in the same locality, son of Levin Sneed Ames, grandson of
Joseph Ames. Joseph Ames was a son of Levin Ames, grandson
of Joseph Ames. The Ames family came from England and
settled in Accomac County in early Colonial times, and through
every generation since then they have played a prominent part
in the civic, business, professional and social life of that section.
The family was represented by soldiers in the Revolutionary
war, the War of 1812 and in the Confederate army. Mr. Ames'
great-great-grandfather, Capt. Joseph Ames, commanded a com-
pany in the War of 1812. His grandfather, Leonard H. Ames,
was a soldier in the Confederate army, rising to the rank of
lieutenant. Leonard Ames married Virginia Joynes, another
name of distinction in the eastern shore. She was a daughter
of Edward Joynes, granddaughter of William R. Joynes, great-
granddaughter of Reuben Joynes. The Joynes family is of
Scotch ancestry. Reuben Joynes was a planter and land owner
who served as a lieutenant in the Ninth Virginia Regiment in the
War of the Revolution. He married Margaret Dunton. William
R. Joynes was a life long resident of Accomac County, a planter
and slave owner, and married Hester Rogers. Edward Joynes,
father of Virginia Joynes, was a planter and merchant, conduct-
ing a business at Old Warehouse Point in Accomac County. He
married Catherine Scott.
Samuel W. Ames was liberally educated, but chose a business
rather than a professional career. As a young man he was a
merchant at Pungoteague, and subsequent years brought an
accumulation and enlargement of his commercial interests. At
the present time he is president of the Accomac Farm Land As-
sociation of the Federal Land Bank, is vice president of the
Eastern Shore Banking Company, vice president of the Eastern
Shore Agricultural Association, the oldest agricultural society in
the United States, and he individually owns a large amount of
land in that rich section of Virginia.
Samuel W. Ames married Nannie Edmonds Mears. She was
born at Keller in Accomac County. Her father, Benjamin W.
Mears, was a son of William Mears, grandson of William Mears,
VIRGINIA 247
great-grandson of John Mears, and great-great-grandson of John
Mears, whose father was William Mears. The records of the
Mears family in Accomac County run back to 1755, and they
have constituted a long line of planters and business men. Ben-
jamin W. Clears was a planter and merchant, a Confederate sol-
dier, and always deeply interested in educational matters, serv-
ing as a member of the local school board. He married Emma
S. Mapp, daughter of George B. Mapp and granddaughter of
George Thomas Mapp, great-granddaughter of Howson Mapp,
who was a son of Howson Mapp and grandson of John Mapp,
the earliest representative of this well known family in Accomac
County. Ann Edmonds, the mother of Emma S. Mapp, was a
daughter of James and Nannie (Wharton) Edmonds. Nannie
Wharton was a daughter of James and Susanna Wharton, grand-
daughter of John and Elizabeth (Bagwell) Wharton and great-
granddaughter of Francis W. Wharton.
Samuel W. Ames and wife reared the following children :
Milton B., Susie M., Virginia Emma, Nannie Wharton, Lucy
Mears, and Cora Byrd.
Milton Benjamin Ames attended the Accomac High School,
continued his education in Randolph-Macon College, taught one
year in Accomac County, then entered Lehigh University in
Pennsylvania and graduated from the Eastman Business College
of Poughkeepsie, New York, in 1907. Mr. Ames had the benefit
of an e.xtended experience in banking in New York, clerking in
a Fifth Avenue Bank, and during the two years he was there
he also attended night classes of New York University.
After returning to Accomac County he engaged in banking.
For several years he had been a student of life in=iurance, and he
took up that business on the conviction that a much larger per-
centage of young people should invest in life insurance, not only
for the protective feature, but in order to secure a competency
for old age. ]\Ir. Ames after taking up life insurance removed
to Norfolk and for many years has represented the Mutual Bene-
fit Life of Newark, New Jersey, in this district.
He married in 1912 Miss Mabel Jordan Roberts, a native of
Norfolk, daughter of Leonard P. and Ruth (Handy) Roberts.
Mr. and I\Irs. Ames have three sons, I\Iilton B.. Jr., William Jor-
dan and Samuel Roberts. Mr. Ames is a member of the Colonial
Avenue Methodist Episcopal Church, and for several years he
was on its Official Board and superintendent of the Sunday
School. Mrs. Ames is a member of the First Baptist Church.
Fraternally he is affiliated with Atlantic Lodge No. 2, A. F. and
A. M., Norfolk, United Royal Arch Chapter No. 1. Grice Com-
mandery No. 16, Knights Templar, and Khedive Temple of the
Mystic Shrine.
Richard Buckner Spindle, Jr.. judge of the City Police
Court of Norfolk, has had a very successful career as a lawyer
since beginning practice. He is a native son of Virginia and
member of a family that has been in this state since Colonial
times.
Judge Spindle was born at Christiansburg, Montgomery
County, Virginia, and is a descendant of Robert Spindle, a native
of England, who came to America in the period of Colonial set-
tlement and located in Virginia. He was the father of William
Spindle, who married Elizabeth Alsop, and they were the parents
of Benjamin Spindle, a nativ'e of Spotsylvania County, Virginia,
248 VIRGINIA
where he Hved out his life as a planter. Benjamin Spindle was
twice married ; first to Maria Claiborne Wigglesworth, daughter
of Thomas and Matilda (Foster) Wigglesworth, granddaughter
of John and Philadelphia Claiborne (Fox) Wigglesworth, and
great-granddaughter of John Wigglesworth, who came from
England when a young man and settled in Virginia ; and, second,
to Sarah Hill Buckner, a daughter of Col. Richard Buckner, of
Hazel Grove, Caroline County, and a descendant of Richard
Buckner, of Essex County, planter and clerk of the House of
Burgesses in 1714.
Richard Buckner Spindle, Sr., son of Benjamin and Sarah
Hill (Buckner) Spindle, was born near Spotsylvania Court House
in 1854. The ancestral home was burned during the battle of
Spotsylvania Court House, and he was only a boy when both his
parents died. He was educated by his uncle, Cuthbert Buckner,
principal of a boys' school at Fredericksburg, and at the age of
sixteen went to Christiansburg and entered the service of his
older brother, Capt. Thomas Wigglesworth Spindle, a merchant.
He afterwards entered business for himself, in which he re-
mained until his death in September, 1928. He married Bessie
Gertrude Wardlaw, who was born in Oglethorpe, Georgia. Her
father. Rev. John Wardlaw, was a minister of the Methodist
Episcopal Church, South. Her aunt, Mrs. 0. S. Pollock, was the
principal of the Montgomery Female College in Christiansburg,
and Bessie Gertrude Wardlaw attended that school, acquiring a
thorough culture and education, and she herself for several years
conducted a private school in Christiansburg. She and her hus-
band reared seven children, named Gertrude, Daniel H., now de-
ceased, John W., William Henry, Katherine, deceased, Theodore
and Richard Buckner, Jr. The daughter Gertrude is the wife of
Alfred Randolph Wilson, president of the Amicable Life Insur-
ance Company of Waco, Texas.
Richard Buckner Spindle, Jr., received his preparatory train-
ing in his mother's school. He graduated with the A. B. degree
at Washington and Lee University in 1906, then was an instruc-
tor for two years at the Augusta Military Academy. In 1910 he
took his law degree at Washington and Lee, acting as instructor
in English while pursuing his studies in the law school. In the
same year he located at Norfolk, and has been busy with his gen-
eral practice and his official duties. He was assistant city attor-
ney from 1918 to 1922, and was elected judge of the City Police
Court in 1923, and reelected in 1927. He has been particularly
interested in the traffic problem, inaugurated the first distinct
Traffic Court in Norfolk, was a member of the National Confer-
ence of State and Highway Safety, popularly known as the
Hoover Conference, which promulgated the Uniform Traffic
Code subsequently adopted by the General Assembly of Virginia
and the Model Municipal Traffic Ordinance. He is a director of
the National Highway Traffic Association sponsored by the
Automobile Club of Am.erica, and of the Tidewater Automobile
Association.
Judge Spindle married, October 20, 1914, Lettie Mae Mc-
Roberts who was born at Lancaster, Kentucky, daughter of
Robert E. and Annie (Ware) McRoberts. She is of old Virginia
ancestry and has membership in the Daughters of the American
Revolution. Judge and Mrs. Spindle have two children, Marjory
Ware and Richard Buckner III. Successful as lawyer and judge,
he has found time to be interested in varied outside activities.
He is a Mason and a Shriner, a member of the local and state bar
VIRGINIA
249
associations, president of the Norfolk Saddle Club, one of the
trustees of the Norfolk Public Library, vestryman of Christ
Church, and has membership in the Virginia Historical Society.
Francis Patterson Landon. A man of sterling integrity
and worth, possessing in a high degree the esteem and confid-
ence of the entire community, Francis P. Landon, the genial
and accommodating postmaster at Hopewell, is well worthy of
representation in this biographical volume. A true Virginian,
he was born in Salem, Roanoke County, Virginia, a descendant,
several generations removed, of one of three Landon brothers,
James, John and William, who immigrated from England to
America in early Colonial days and settled in Virginia. His
father, George Hopkins Landon, was a son of Alvin Landon, a
life long resident of the "Old Dominion."
Alvin Landon, who possessed not only good business ability,
but keen foresight, owned and operated stages along the bound-
ary line between Virginia and Tennessee, the line extending
from Lynchburg to Bristol. This stage route was well patronized
by people on business or pleasure bent, among the passengers of
prominence having been Andrew Johnson, who frequently
travelled over it, both as vice president of the United States
and as president of our country. Alvin Landon married
Candace Rogers, and into their household three sons were born,
namely : James M.. Thomas and George Hopkins.
As a youth George Hopkins Landon served an apprentice-
ship in a printing establishment, becoming familiar while thus
em.ployed with the art preservative of all arts. During the Civil
war his sympathies were with the Southern people, and during
the last years of the conflict he enlisted in the Confederate serv-
ice, took part in several engagements, and when Lee surrendered
was doing guard duty at New River Bridge. Soon after his
return to Virginia he embarked in the drug business at Salem.
He met with good success, and continued as a druggist the
remainder of his active life. Lie far outlived the allotted period
of three score and ten years, dying at the age of seventy-eight
years. His wife, whose maiden name was Mary J. Acton, was
born in I hiladelphia, Pennsylvania, a daughter of James and
Elizabeth (Wood) Acton, well known families, both the Woods
and Actons having been among the early settlers of Virginia.
She, too, attained a ripe old age, passing away at the age of
seventy-two years.
One of a family of seven children, Francis P. Landon
obtained his elementary education in the public schools of Salem,
Virginia, in the meantime sjjending his leisure hours as a clerk
in his father's store. At the age of sixteen years, having a
decided taste for pharmaceutics, he entered the Philadelphia
School of Pharmacy, from which in 1892 he was graduated ■\\ith
the degree of Phar. D. Locating then in Richlands, Virginia,
Mr. Landon was there associated with Doctor Roberts, a physi-
cian and druggist, for a few years. He was afterward engaged
in the drug business in different places, including Bluefield, West
Virginia, Tazewell and Pocahontas, both in Virginia. Keystone,
West Virginia, and Charlottesville, and Lynchburg, Virginia.
In 1916 Mr. Landon located in Hopewell, Prince George
County. Virginia, where he remained in the employ of a leading
druggist until 1922. In that year he was appointed postmaster
at Hopewell, and at the expiration of his term of service was
reappointed to the same responsible position by Calvin Coolidge.
250 VIRGINIA
Mr. Landon has been twice married. He married first, in
1892, Lata Frances Tuttle, who was born in Brooklyn, New
York, a daughter of Charles and Elizabeth Tuttle. She died in
1907, leaving four children, as follows: Bertha Groge, Ger-
trude Acton, George Kemlo and Francis P. Bertha G., wife of
J. C. Walters, has four children, all boys, Jesse C., Frank, Wil-
liam and Douglas. Gertrude Acton, who married Theodore Ben-
ning, has four children. George Kemlo married Mary Taylor
Eggleston, and they are the parents of two children, Ann Taylor
and George K., Jr.
While a resident of West Virginia Mr. Landon was appointed
by Governor Dawson a member of the State Board of Examing
Pharmacists, and was one of the organizers, and a charter mem-
ber of the West Virginia State Pharmaceutical Association.
Prominent in public affairs, he was vice president and secretary
of the Keystone Board of Trade and vice president of the West
Virginia State Board of Trade. He is a member of the Cham-
ber of Commerce, of the Kiwanis Club, and is a thirty-second
degree Mason and a Noble in the Mystic Shrine, Potentate
representative for Hopewell, Virginia, a past Master Mason, a
past chancellor commander of the Knights of Pythias and a
past noble grand of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. He
is a member of the National Geographic Society and is author
of the Woman of the Clan. Mr. Landon has one of the finest
reference libraries in the state. He is building a fine home
at Broadway and Wilson, opposite Abbott Park.
William Marvin Minter is an attorney practicing at
Mathews, and was born in Mathews County November 26, 1886,
son of J. Willie and Lillian Ethelyn Minter.
Mr. Minter finished his education in the College of William
and Mary, and has been practicing law since 1916. He was also
a newspaper man, having been proprietor of the Mathetvs Jour-
nal from 1908 to 1923. In November, 1917, he was commissioned
a second lieutenant in the Ofl^cers Training School at Fort Myer
and served in home camps until his discharge in December, 1918.
He married, December 5, 1917, Eva M. Armistead, daughter
of A. L. and Mary Virginia Armistead.
George Edward Pickett. Far back, even to Colonial days,
reach authentic records of a notable Virginia family, the Pick-
etts, one that has contributed much to the state's prestige, par-
ticularly along military lines. The name of Col. William Pickett,
once owner of a great estate in Farquier County, is memorialized
for his valor and activity in the early Colonial, French and In-
dian wars, and no less distinction is accorded Col. Robert Pickett,
of the next generation, who was a member of General Washing-
ton's stafl" in the Revolutionary war and later identified with
military affairs in the War of 1812. That same spirit of personal
courage and determined independence has prevailed uninter-
ruptedly in the family ever since. A worthy member of this
old family is found in George Edward Pickett III, of Wash-
ington, District of Columbia, lawyer, business man, historian
and honored overseas veteran of the World war.
George Edward Pickett was born October 23, 1893, at Wash-
ington, District of Columbia, second son of Maj. George Edward
and Ida (Christiancy) Pickett, and grandson of Maj-Gen.
George Edward Pickett, a distinguished officer both in the Mexi-
can war and later in the Civil war. Maj. George Edward Pickett
VIRGINIA 251
was born at Richmond, Virginia, as was his father, whom he
greatly resembled. He was a graduate of the Virginia Military
Institute, and in 1898 entered military life as a major in rank
in the United States Regular Army, and went to the Philippine
Islands, where he remained until 1911, when he started on his
return to the United States but did not survive to reach his home,
his death occurring in mid-ocean on April 18, 1911. He married
Miss Ida Christiancy, who was born in Monroe County, Michi-
gan, and is now a resident of the City of Detroit. Their two
sons survive : Christiancy and George Edward, both of whom
are overseas veterans of the World war.
Christiancy Pickett served in France as a member of the
13th Field Artillery, Fourth Division, and, although in imminent
danger throughout the entire period, was fortunate enough to
escape all injury and returned at the end of the war practically
unharmed. He is now a captain in the Regular Army, stationed
at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, and as a specialist on tractors and trucks
has compiled valuable statistics on army motor transportation.
He married Miss Eula Mae Cherry, and they have two children :
Christiancy, Jr., and Marguerite, aged four and two years, re-
spectively.
George Edward Pickett enjoyed superior educational advan-
tages during boyhood and youth, not only in Washington and
Richmond, but also in San Franci.sco, California, in which city
he was graduated from high school. He then accompanied his
parents to the Philippine Islands, and while there attended Bish-
op Brent's Boys School, and after returning to America entered
the Virginia Military Institute at Lexington, from there going
to Hai'vard University and taking a classical course. For some
time he then was a student in Hobart College at Geneva, New
York.
Thus well equipped educationally for the future, Mr. Pickett
turned his attention to the business field, accepting a clerkship
in the National City Bank of New York in 1916, and received
rapid promotion, filling the position of an assistant manager
when in May, 1917, he hastened to Washington City in order to
enlist for service in the World war. In this he was sadly disap-
pointed, as a disability of color blindness cau.sed his rejection
by army, navy and Marine Corps officials. Although he did not
permit himself to be entirely discouraged, he returned tempo-
rarily to the banking business, with the Riggs National Bank at
Washington. In the meanwhile the great war, in which his
heredity and instinct constantly urged his taking part, developed
into more and more of a calamity, and when an opportunity came
in December, 1917, to enlist as a private in the 20th Engineers
he took advantage of it gladly, attended the Officers Training
School at Camp Johnson and was graduated ninth in a class of
350. After serving as sergeant and seargeant-major he re-
ceived his commission as second lieutenant, and on April 6, 1918,
when Company H, Quartermaster Supply, set sail from Newport
News, Virginia, he accompanied this body, as second in com-
mand, for France, and after reaching Depot No. 1 was assigned
as personal officer, mess officer and semi-court officer, the duties
of which he performed with the utmost efficiencj', and largely
because of this unremitting attention to duty he met with his
first serious war injury. In his official capacity it was his custom
to frequently visit the front lines, and on one of these dangerous
trips he received a bullet in his arm. He did not permit this
painful wound to limit his activities materially, but a subsequent
252 VIRGINIA
injury ended his military service in France and almost closed
his brave young life. It occurred when he was on duty as a
mess officer, when his truck ran into a tree and was demolished,
causing permanent injury to the bones of his knee. He was not
able to leave France until July 18, 1919, when he returned to
the United States and immediately went under treatment in
Walter Reed Hospital, Washington City, from which he was
honorably discharged from military service on August 18, 1921,
with the surgical dictum of permanent total disability. This
opinion, however, has been proved faulty, for since then he has
improved seventy-five per cent.
Upon his release from the hospital and with marked evidence
of returning health, Mr. Pickett put into operation a business en-
terprise in which he is still interested, this being an information
brokerage business, by which reports were prepared for clients
on any desired subject. It was not until 1924 that he began the
study of law, and applied himself so closely that in 1926 he was
graduated from the National University at Washington with his
LL. B. degree, and in June, 1927, received his LL. M. and his
M. P. L. degrees. He maintains his law office in the Interna-
tional Building on F Street, Washington City, and was also
licensed to practice in North Carolina on January .30, 1928. As
resident manager in Washington, Mr. Pickett is identified with
the Blackstone Institute, Chicago, Illinois, an institution of merit
that prepares and sells law courses to non-resident students.
Along additional lines Mr. Pickett is successfully engaged in
literary work, as he is department historian of the Disabled
Amei'ican Veteran organization.
Mr. Pickett married on August 10, 1920, Miss June D. Ogles-
by, daughter of Capt. Milton Landis and Ella (Drewhl) Oglesby,
the former of whom was born in Kentucky and the latter in
Illinois. Captain Oglesby is a captain in the Army Reserve
Corps and formerly, during the World war, was a captain in the
Ordnance Department. His present headquarters are in New
York City, he being special repi-esentative and lecturer for the
Bureau of Explosives for the American Railway Association.
Mrs. Pickett is a highly educated lady and a member of the
Daughters of the American Revolution. The two little children
of the family are : George Edward, fourth, born in 1921 ; and
Virginia, born in 1924.
Mr. Pickett belongs to a number of clubs and organizations,
including such bodies as the American Legion, the American War
Veterans Club, Sons of the Loyal Legion, Sons of the Confeder-
acy and the Military Order of the Aztecs. He is a member of
St. Stephen's Episcopal Church and teaches the boys' class in
the Sunday School. In political life he is independent.
Clifford William Banks has for many years been asso-
ciated with one of the greatest organizations in the world for
the handling, transportation and marketing of fruit products,
the American Fruit Growers Association. Mr. Banks is sales
manager for that association, and as such has his business offices
at Norfolk and also at Rural Retreat, he and his family spending
the greater part of the j'ear at Norfolk.
Mr. Banks is a native Georgian, and comes of a family that
has been prominent in the state for a number of generations,
and several communities cari-y the family name. Mr. Banks was
born at Macon October 28, 1881, son of James A. and Lula
(Asbury) Banks. His father was born and reared in Macon,
VIRGINIA 253
graduated from Emory College, now Emory University, of At-
lanta, and at the age of thirteen was accepted as a soldier of
the Confederacy. Three of his brothers were killed in action
during the war. Following the war he became a farmer and
fruit grower and merchant. He was interested in military
affairs, being a captain in the Georgia State Militia, and while
attending an encampment at Chickamauga he exposed himself
and contracted pneumonia, from which he died. He is buried
at Forsyth, Georgia. His wife, Lula Asbury, was born and
reared at Forsyth, was educated in the Monroe Female College,
now the Bessie Tift College, and has been distinguished by some
unusual accomplishments, has been an artist, musician, a fine
singer, and has used her talents in music in the Baptist Church
for many years. She is now eighty-one and lives at Macon. Her
family has been closely identified with the cause of female edu-
cation in Georgia. Her parents were Richard T. and Katie
(Peteet) Asbury. Richard T. Asbury was a splendid type of
the old time southern gentleman, a lawyer by profession, and
after the Civil war was in the same law oflSce with the great
southern statesman, Alexander H. Stephens. He turned from
the law to educational work, and he donated many acres and
founded the Monroe Female College at Forsyth, and for many
years served as president of the institution, now the Bessie Tift
Female College. He died in 1914 and his wife in 1919. James
A. Banks and wife had five children : Mattie Lou, Clifford W.,
James A., Bessie and Richard T. James A. is head of the St.
Johns River Terminals of Jacksonville, Florida.
Clifford W. Banks attended public school at Macon, Mercer
University of Georgia, and after his college career was in the
service of the American National Bank of Macon for about eight
years. He was assistant cashier when he left. As a financier
and business man he has long made a study of conditions effect-
ing the marketing of the great volume of fruit grown in the
southeastern states. He left the bank to become associated with
the Georgia Fruit Exchange as sales manager. For ten years
he was instrumental in providing adequate and profitable mar-
keting facilities for the hundreds of carloads of choice Georgia
peaches and other fruit. Mr. Banks for seven years was in the
fruit and produce business for himself, with headquarters at
Saint Louis. In 1921 he became associated with the American
Fruit Growers Association as sales manager, with head offices
at Norfolk and with branch offices at Staunton, Winchester,
Rural Retreat and Cheriton, Virginia, and Martinsburg, West'
Virginia. This organization probably handles more fruit in the
course of a year than any other similar organization in the world.
Mr. Banks is a member of the Norfolk Kiwanis Club, is affili-
ated with the Knights of Pythias, is a Democrat and a member
of the Episcopal Church.
He married at Macon, Georgia, September 17, 1907, Miss
Marion Lane, who was reared and educated at Macon and at-
tended the Wesleyan Female College there. She is a member of
the Society of Colonial Dames, Daughters of the American Revo-
lution and United Daughters of the Confederacy, but her chief
interest is in her home and her two talented daughters. She is
a daughter of Gen. Jeff and Marion (Reese) Lane. Her grand-
father was a general in the Confederate army and for many
years after the war a leading figure in railroad transportation
in the South, being at the time of his death general manager of
12— VOL. 3
254 VIRGINIA
the Georgia Southern & Florida Railway, part of the Southern
Railway System. He died in 1905, and both he and his wife are
buried at Macon. The original Reese family home is still stand-
ing at Athens, Georgia, and every American is interested in that
home because it was there that John Howard Payne wrote his
immortal song "Home Sweet Home," and the copy in his own
handwriting was in the hands of the family until recent years.
Mr. and Mrs. Banks had four daughters, two of whom died in
infancy. The two now living are Lillian Williams and Marion
Lane, both attending school at Norfolk. Lillian is a member of
the class of 1929 in the Maury High School, and is one of the
editors of the Maury Ne^vs.
Albert Micou Sneed, M. D., chief surgeon for the Peninsula
Transit Corporation, coroner of James City County, and a mem-
ber of the County Board of Health, is one of the ablest members
of his profession in this region, and he maintains his residence
and office at Toano, Virginia. He is a man who has always
placed professional ethics above personal convenience, and who
has given freely of his skill and time to the furtherance of public
health measures and the treatment of those unable to afford
proper care. As a result he stands deservedly high in public
esteem, and it is a matter of record that since he took charge
of the affairs of the coroner's office are in better condition than
ever before.
Doctor Sneed was born in Albemarle County, Virginia, July
9, 1889, a son of Dr. Edgar Morris and Stella Virginia (Stark)
Sneed, natives of Albemarle County. Dr. Edgar Morris Sneed
has been engaged in the practice of medicine in Stafford County,
Virginia, since 1902, having previously practiced in Albemarle
County from 1889, and is one of the eminent members of his pro-
fession in that neighborhood. His father was a Confederate
veteran, having served in the Southern army throughout the
war between the states. The mother is also living.
The early education of Dr. Albert Micou Sneed was secured
in several private schools of Albemarle County and Stafford
County, and he later became a student of William and Mary Col-
lege, and while there became a member of Pi Kappa Alpha fra-
ternity. Upon leaving William and Mary College he entered
the Medical College of Virginia, Richmond, and was graduated
therefrom in 1912, after taking the full course, with the degree
of Doctor of Medicine, and as a member of Phi Chi, the medical
Greek letter fi-aternity. For the subsequent two years he was
one of a staff of eight doctors connected with the hospital main-
tained at Stonega, Virginia, by the Stonega Coke & Coal Com-
pany. When he left that company Doctor Sneed went to New
York City and for one year was associated with Dr. H. L. Winter,
nervous diseases. In December, 1915, Doctor Sneed came to
Toano, James City County, where he has since been very suc-
cessfully engaged in practice.
On October 9, 1912, Doctor Sneed married Miss Lucy Harri-
son Wade, a daughter of Dr. William and Annie F. (Powers)
Wade, natives of Virginia, the father born in Albemarle County;
and the mother in Richmond. Doctor Wade was engaged in the
practice of dentistry in Richmond until his death, which occurred
June 11, 1918. Mrs. Wade followed him in October of the same
year. Doctor and Mrs. Sneed have three children : Ann Harri-
son, who was born in January, 1914; Emily Gresham, who was
born in February, 1916 ; and Mary Micou, who was born in Jan-
g^f^^^. x^
i
VIRGINIA 255
uary, 1920. He is a member of the University Club of Rich-
mond, and he and his wife belong to the Williamsburg Cotiiion
Club. Professionally he maintains membership with the Vir-
ginia State Medical Society, the American Medical Association,
the Walter Reed Medical Society and the James City County
Medical Society. A very active Democrat, he is a member of
the James City County Central Committee of his party. For
years an Episcopalian, he is now serving as vestryman of Hick-
ory Neck Episcopal Church. During the World war he served
as a member of the Medical Advisory Board of James City
County. Mrs. Sneed is the first of her sex to be elected a mem-
ber of the James City County School Board, and she is also
motor vehicle agent for James City County and the City of
Williamsburg. For several terms she has served as president
of the Toano Woman's Club ; she is president of the Guild of the
Episcopal Church ; State chairman of illiteracy, for the Parent-
Teachers Association and is a past vice president of the State
Parent-Teachers Association. Both Doctor Sneed and his wife,
as will be seen from this brief review, are very potent factors
in the life of James City County, and they are accomplishing a
vast amount of good along many lines of endeavor.
George Harrison Musgrave, M. D. A member of the med-
ical profession of Virginia for eighteen years, it is not at all
unlikely that Dr. George H. Musgrave, of Leesburg, owes the
selection of his profession and much of his success therein
largely to heredity, inasmuch as both his grandfather and great-
grandfather were physicians. However that may be, he has
honestly earned his present position as a skilled, conscientious
and reliable practitioner through industry and faithful fidelity
to the highest ethics of his calling, while his success in the care
of his large practice has won him universal confidence and
esteem.
Doctor Musgrave was born July 12, 1884, in Southampton
County, Virginia, and is a son of R. N. and Sallie H. (Pope)
Musgrave. His great-grandfather was Dr. Robert T. Musgrave,
one of the pioneer physicians of this section of Virginia, and his
old ledger, showing his accounts from the years 1825 until 1832,
inclusive, are not only kept by his great-grandson as a keep-
sake, but as a valuable historical record of those early days
and as matter indicative of the activities of the pioneer devotees
of medicine. The grandfather of Doctor Musgrave, Dr. George
N. Musgrave, was likewise an early country practitioner, whose
practice extended over an area of many miles of territory and
who was beloved and respected during his day.
R. N. Musgrave was born in Southampton County, Virginia,
and in young manhood adopted the lumber business, which he
followed for a long period of years in his native locality. At
this time he has an office at Norfolk, whence he conducts his
numerous activities in this line of business. He has been suc-
cessful in his operations and is known as one of Norfolk's sub-
stantial business men and reliable citizens. Mrs. Musgrave
passed away at Norfolk August 17, 1926.
George H. Musgrave acquired his early education in the
public schools of Southampton County, following which he pur-
sued courses at Bedford Academy and Randolph-Macon College.
He matriculated at the University of Virginia, from which insti-
tution he was graduated with the degree of Doctor of Medicine
as a member of the class of June, 1908, and then served his
256 VIRGINIA
interneship at the Norfolk Protestant Hospital. Doctor Mus-
grave commenced practice at Capron, Virginia, January 1, 1910
this being contract lumber practice, and then went to Boykins,
Virginia, where he had his headquarters until he enlisted in the
Medical Reserve Corps in April, 1917, for service during the
World war. Securing a first lieutenant's commission, he saw
twenty months of service overseas, and was honorably dis-
charged with the rank of major in April, 1919. He then re-
turned to Boykins and resumed practice, continuing until Janu-
ary, 1924, when he became a member of the Virginia State
Department of Health, and was identified therewith until Octo-
ber, 1926, since when he has been engaged in general practice
at Leesburg, his well appointed offices being located in the Orr
Building. Doctor Musgrave has a splendid practice and has
acquired a substantial reputation for reliability as a diagnosti-
cian, skill as a practitioner and ability as an operator. He is a
member of the Loudoun County Medical Society, the Virginia
State Medical Society and the American Medical Association,
and is a conscientious student of his profession, keeping fully
in advance of its discoveries and developments. He is affiliated
with the Masonic Order and belongs to the American Legion.
Politically he is a Democrat, and his good citizenship is evi-
denced by his willing support of civic movements of a worth-
while nature. He belongs to the Methodist Episcopal Church.
In June, 1919, Doctor Musgrave was united in marriage with
Miss Bessie D. Ridley, daughter of John W. and Bettie (Good-
win) Ridley, natives of Southampton County, where Mr. Ridley
resides as a retired agriculturist, Mrs. Ridley having passed
away in 1920. Doctor and Mrs. Musgrave have had three chil-
dren: Bettie Goodwin, born April 26, 1920; George Harrison,
Jr., born February 5, 1927, who died January 4, 1928, and
Nancy Harrison, born February 7, 1929.
Isaac Talbot Walke, proprietor of an insurance agency at
Norfolk which has been in existence and under the ownership
and management of the Walke family for six decades, is de-
scended from one of the very first families to establish homes
in what is now Norfolk County.
He is a direct descendant of Thomas Walke, a native of Eng-
land, who first went to the Barbadoes in 1622 and later moved
to Virginia, estabhshing himself at Fairfield in Princess Anne
County. He married Mary Lawson, whose father. Col. Anthony
Lawson, was one of the eminent lawyers of Virginia Colony.
Thomas Walke held the rank of colonel of militia under King
Charles II. He was a vestryman in the Lynnhaven Parish
Church, one of the famous churches of old Colonial Virginia.
His son, Anthony Walke, married Anna Lee Armistead, a
granddaughter of Capt. Hancock and Mary (Kendell) Lee. Mary
Kendell was a daughter of Col. William Kendell, who served as
collector of revenues at Accomac in 1660. Hancock Lee was a
son of Col. Richard Lee, the ancestor of Richard Henry Lee,
known as the champion of American Independence. In William
Forest's sketches of Norfolk the statement is made that Anthony
Walke purchased 150 acres of land on which at a later date the
City of Norfolk was laid out, the first plat of the city being made
in 1682. Anthony and Anna (Armistead) Walke had as one of
their children Anthony Walke, who married Jane Randolph, and
they were the parents of William Walke, who married Mary Cal-
vert. The next generation was represented by William Walke,
VIRGINIA 257
who married Elizabeth Nash, and they in turn were the parents
of Richard Walke, who married Diana Talbot. Richard and
Diana were the grandparents of Isaac Talbot Walke.
Mr. Walke was born at Norfolk. His father, William Talbot
Walke, was also a native of that city, where he was reared and
educated, and served in the Confederate government during the
Civil war. Afterwards he took up the insurance business and
followed it until his death. His wife was Sally Gary, born at
Garysburg, North Carolina. They reared the following children,
William Talbot, Richard Gray, James Newsom, Mary Diana,
Sally Willoughby, Isaac Talbot and Herbert Nash.
Isaac Talbot Walke after completing his course at Norfolk
Academy entered Eastman's Business College at Poughkeepsie,
New York, and with this training became associated with his
father in the insurance business. In later years he acquired
that business. This insurance agencv was established bv his
father in 1869. It is located at 203 Granby Street in Norfolk.
Mr. Walke married Linda Harrell, a native of Murfreesboro,
North Carolina. They have three children, Isaac Talbot, Jr.,
Linda Harrell and Gertrude Willoughby. The family are mem-
bers of Christ Episcopal Church in Norfolk.
WILLI.4M Thomas Ellett. The late William Thomas Ellett,
long one of the substantial business men of Richmond, and an
active factor in the furniture industry, had a career typical of
the period in which he lived when the South was recovering
from the disastrous effects of over four years of warfare, and
he participated in much of the constructive work of his city.
His youth and young manhood spent on a Virginia farm, he
came to Richmond at the age of twenty-two years, and followed
the path of ambition and gave his native qualities of character
and practical ability to assist in whatever came to hand. It is
upon such men as he, their accomplishments and their strong
faith, do those of the rising generation build their confident
hope of the American future.
\^'illiam Thomas Ellett was born in New Kent County, Vir-
ginia, in February, 1861, and he died in Richmond, Virginia,
July 7, 1922, a son of Cornelius and Mary Ann (Lacey) Ellett,
the former of whom was a farmer and planter. Mrs. Ellett was
a lady of superior education and in the absence of adequate
schools taught her children, of whom there were ten, not only
the lessons to be found in books, but those which come from the
heart of a loving mother and good Christian woman.
Farming in his native county until he was twenty-two, the
ambitious young man sought a wider horizon in the capital city
of the South, and here, in Richmond, he learned the carpenter
trade, followed it for a few years, and then became a contractor
and builder. The strenuous character of his work brought about
a breakdown and he was forced to seek a change of occupation,
returning to farming, and was engaged in that occupation for
ten years, when once more he came to Richmond, entered the
furniture business, and continued in it until 1920. He retired
from it, and later entered the grocery field, but a few months
later his death occurred.
On April 27, 1887, Mr. Ellett married Miss Evelyn Thomas
Long, a daughter of Andrew Jackson and Martha Ann (Blake)
Long. Her father was a farmer and carpenter, and he and the
mother had ten children born to them, of whom she was the
258 VIRGINIA
eighth in order of birth. Mrs. Ellett was educated in King
William County. During the latter part of the war between
the states Andrew Jackson Long served in the Confederate army.
The Long family came to the United States from Ireland and
settled in Caroline County, Virginia. The Ellett family settled
in King William County, Virginia, just after the close of the
American Revolution, so that both it and the Long family are
old ones in the state.
Of the children born to Mr. and Mrs. Ellett there are five
now living, namely: Pearl Blake, who married Joseph Alexan-
der Barlow, a farmer and planter, and they have two children,
Joseph Alexander, Junior, and William Edward ; Chastine Clyde,
who married Annie Laurie Gordon, and has two children, Mary
Evelyn and Lester Earle ; William Wyatt, who is engaged in the
plumbing business in Richmond, married Elizabeth Ruby Thorpe,
and they have two children, William Wyatt, Junior, and Lowell
E. ; Andrew Cornelius, who is an automobile salesman, married
Lelia E. Anderson, and they have one child. Gay Nelle; and
Evelyn Inez, who married Walter Dewitt Smith, a Government
employe. Of the above children William Wyatt is the veteran
of the World war, for which he voluntered, and served in the
United States Navy for eighteen months, and had nine months of
active service on the sea.
Mrs. Ellett is a consistent mem.ber of the East End Baptist
Church, to which Mr. Ellett belonged in line. He was a Mason
and belonged to the Shrine in that order, and to the Owls, Junior
Order United American Mechanics, and the Odd Fellows.
John Walker Down was well known as a lumberman in
Virginia, manufacturing large quantities of timber products that
entered extensively into the coastwise trade and also went to
foreign markets.
Mr. Down was born in Gloucester County, New Jersey, April
21, 1840, and died in Mathews County, Virginia, in November,
1917. His father, John Walker Down, Sr., was in the lumber
industry in New Jersey for many years. The Down family
came in Colonial times to New Jersey. A town in Gloucester
County, Downstown, was named for one of the family. Several
monuments in that county refer by name or otherwise to the con-
spicuous services rendered by members of the Down family
in the Revolutionary war and Colonial affairs.
John Walker Down was the youngest in a family of five chil-
dren. He attended common schools and at the age of twelve
years was driving a team for his father. When he was twenty-
three years old he engaged in general merchandising, but after a
few years left that to continue in the lumber business. From
New Jersey he extended his interests down inlo Virginia, in
Mathews County, and at one time had three mills in operation in
this state, shipping lumber by the shipload to New Jersey and
Philadelphia markets, and also large quantities to Europe. He
retired four years before his death. He was a Democrat, a
member of the Masonic fraternity, and he and his wife were
Methodists.
His first wife was Matilda Miller, of New Jersey, who died
five years after their marriage. Of the two sons born to this
marriage the one now living is Everett, a banker at Atlanta City.
His second wife was Miss Anna McGonigall, who died twenty
years later. Two of their three children are living. Lena
I
<'
KX:L^^<y7^>U
VIRGINIA 259
Hester is the wife of Harry L. Nelson and has three children,
Harry, Jr., William W., and Anna M. ; and Hannah R. married
Herbert Ingram, of Hagerstown, ]Maryland, who was killed in
action in France in the early part of the World war.
Mr. Down in 1893 married Nannie Simpson Cromwell, of
Petersburg, Virginia, who was reared and educated at Norfolk
and who resides at 701 West Thirty-eighth Street in that city.
Mrs. Down's father, John A. Simpson, was a farmer, and served
all through the Civil war in the Confederate army. He was
captured and was a prisoner when the war ended. Her mother
was Sarah Hendren, and Mrs. Down was the third in a family of
nine children. Mrs. Down has two daughters, Bessie Vernon
and Sarah Louise. Bessie Vernon is the wife of William Waugh,
of Bedford County, Virginia, and her four children are named
Vernon, Lester, Merlyn and Elizabeth. Miss Sarah Louise
Down is in the employ of the state government at Norfolk, with
the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children.
Hon. Charles Robert Fawley. sheriff of Rockingham
County, is one of the substantial men of that region, and has
served not only as sheriff but as deputy under four other
sheriffs. He has lived a life of action and responsibility and
has proven his courage and resourcefulness innumerable times.
His administration as sheriff has been one in keeping with the
strength and integrity of his character, and has been attended by
strict law enforcement and reduction of criminal activities.
Sheriff Fawley was born on a farm in Rockingham County,
Virginia, May 8, 1875, son of George W. and Sarah J. (Fulk)
Fawley. Both the Fawley and Fulk families have been in Vir-
ginia for many generations. The Fawleys were of Irish de-
scent, and first established homes in Pennsylvania and then
moved down into Virginia, into Loudoun County. His grand-
father, Jacob Fawley, was a native of Loudoun County and spent
all his life as a farmer.
George W. Fawley was for many years a farmer and black-
.smith. He served as a justice of the peace, was the first post-
master at Fulk's Run, when the office was established in 1870,
and he taught in the Fulk's Run district. He was a local leader
in the Democi-atic party, and a member of the Baptist Church,
while his wife belonged to the Church of the Brethren.
Sarah J. (Fulk) Fawley was a descendant of Matthew Fulk,
who was of Scotch-Irish descent and came to America about
1735. He was with Colonel Lewis in an expedition to treat with
the Indians and he married an Indian woman. Not long after
the Indians were removed from Rockingham County he also
went west, but left a large family of boys and some girls who
settled in the vicinity of Broadway in Rockingham County.
Sarah J. Fulk was a daughter of John G. Fulk, who was a son
of Daniel Fulk and a grandson of John Fulk. John Fulk, a son
of Matthew, was born in 1760, and married a Miss Bible. He
moved to Brock's Gap in 1785.
Sheriff Fawley was the youngest of ten children, seven of
whom are living. He grew up in a rural neighborhood, attended
school there, and farming was the business he first learned and
the occupation he followed until 1912. For twelve years he was
in the employe of the Virginia State Highway Commission and
for years was district supervisor of the Seventh Congressional
District for the Virginia State Game Commission. Mr. Fawley
260 VIRGINIA
in November, 1927, was elected sheriff by a majority of over
1,400 votes and assumed the duties of his office in January,
1928. He had been a deputy sheriff for a quarter of a century.
In December, 1899, he married Augusta V. Siple, who was
born in Pendleton County, West Virginia, and educated in the
common schools of her home neighborhood. Sheriff and Mrs.
Fawley have one daughter, Lucile Virginia, attending the Junior
High School. He is a member of the United Brethren Church,
while his wife is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church,
South. Mr. Fawley is a member of the Masonic fraternity and
Independent Order of Odd Fellows. He ovnis a farm in Rock-
ingham County, and is interested in its operation. A man of
high principles, upright and honorable in everything he under-
takes, he is making an excellent record as sheriff, and law
breakers have recognized his sturdy qualities in the enforce-
ment of the laws.
Hon. Bathurst Daingerfield Peachy, commonwealth's at-
torney of James City County, and one of the most brilliant of
the able attorneys practicing at the bar of Williamsburg, al-
though still in the full flush of vigorous manhood, has a remark-
able record of achievement behind him, and holds the confidence
and respect of his professional associates as well as the public
generally. He was born in Williamsburg, Virginia, July 5, 1893,
a son of Bathurst Daingerfield and Mary Garnett (Lane) Peachy,
natives of Williamsburg.
The elder Bathurst Daingerfield Peachy was also an attor-
ney, and was engaged in practice in Williamsburg, and his
father, Samuel Peachy, was a member of the same learned pro-
fession. For a number of years the office of commonwealth's
attorney was filled by the older Bathurst Daingerfield Peachy,
and he attained to a distinguished position among his associates
in the law. His death, which occurred July 23, 1916, when he
was fifty-eight years old, removed from Williamsburg one of its
most distinguished citizens, and from his family a devoted hus-
band and father. Mrs. Peachy survives her husband and is still
living in Williamsburg.
The younger Bathurst Daingerfield Peachy grew up in Wil-
liamsburg, and enjoyed the normal life of any lad of his locality
while attending the local schools, and, being an apt pupil, he was
graduated from the high school in 1908, when he was but fifteen
years old. Entering William and Mary College, Williamsburg,
he was graduated therefrom in 1914 with the degree of Bachelor
of Arts. For the succeeding year he was an instructor in his
alma mater, and then took legal training in the law department
of the University of Virginia, and was admitted to the bar that
same year, in 1916. Establishing himself in practice in Wil-
liamsburg, Mr. Peachy showed from the beginning of his career
the same admirable qualities which had advanced both his father
and grandfather at the bar, and has built up a very large and
lucrative practice. For four years he served as judge of the
Juvenile Court and the Domestic Relations Court, handling the
difficult problems brought before him with masterly tact and
kindly authority. On January 1, 1928, he assumed the duties of
the office of commonwealth's attorney, to which he had been
elected the preceding fall, and already has proven his courage,
his thoroughness and his unflinching, uncompromising attitude
toward offenders against the law. He has as one of his most
cherished possessions the splendid law library of his grand-
VIRGINIA 261
father, and this, in addition to his own large collection of law
books, gives him one of the best law libraries, of a private char-
acter, in the state.
On June 16, 1919, Mr. Peachy married Miss Grace Bozarth, a
daughter of William A. and Flora (Weeks) Bozarth, native of
New Jersey. Mr. Bozarth is a lumber dealer and president of
the Peninsula Bank & Trust Company of Williamsburg, and he
has been a resident of Williamsburg for thirty years. Mr. and
Mrs. Peachy have two children : Grace Monro, who was born
February 14, 1922 ; and Bathurst Daingerfield, Junior, who was
born December 30, 1924.
For some years Mr. Peachy has been a valued member of the
Virginia State Bar Association and the American Bar Associa-
tion. He belongs to the Williamsburg Rotary Club and the
American Legion. His fraternal connections are those which he
maintains with the Masonic Order and Kappa Sigma. In polit-
ical faith he is a Democrat, and he is one of the leaders of his
party in this section. He is an Episcopalian. During the World
war Mr. Peachy enlisted in the Aviation Corps of the Marine
branch of the service and was stationed at the Boston Institute
of Technology. His honorable discharge bears the date of Feb-
ruary 1, 1919. When he was released from military service he
returned to Williamsburg and resumed his practice. Judge
Peachy maintains his office in the First National Bank Building.
Rev. Theodore Whitfield, D. D., an eminent Baptist divine,
whose last years in the ministry were spent in Richmond, Vir-
ginia, was born in Hinds County, Mississippi, January 31, 1834,
and died at Richmond May 28, 1894.
The Whitfields came from England in the early part of the
seventeenth century, settling in Elizabeth City and Nansemond
counties, Virginia. They intermarried with the Bryan and
Hatch families. His parents, Rev. Benjamin and Lucy (Hatch)
Whitfield, were natives of North Carolina, from which state
they moved to Mississippi. Theodore was the eighth in a
family of twelve children.
"Rev. Theodore Whitfield, D. D., was converted in the church
next to his father's home 'Magnolia,' Hinds County, Mississippi,
when thirteen years of age. * * * Reared in a lovely South-
ern home, he was educated in the fine arts as well as in the more
substantial sciences and classics; entered the University of
North Cai-olina 1852, A. B., 1854; entered the Baptist ministry,
studied at the Theological Seminary, Newton Center, Massachu-
setts. * * * jjjg pastorates were in Danville, Kentucky,
Aberdeen and Meridian, Mississippi, Charlotte, Goldsboro and
Newbern, North Carolina, and Fulton, near Richmond, Vir-
ginia, where he served for seven years before his death. He
received the degree of D. D., from Wake Forest College, North
Carolina, 1878. While in Greensboro, North Carolina, at the
time of the war between the states, he preached for the Baptist
Church and did local services for the Confederate States. While
ministering to soldiers of both armies in Goldsboro, North Caro-
lina, he contracted camp fever, from which he was desperately
ill for a long time. Later he was superintendent of the State
Institute for the Blind at Jackson, Mississippi, until removed
when General Ames of Boston became governor of Mississippi.
"Born of wealthy and distinguished parents, he was a gen-
tleman both by breeding and culture. * * * jjis life was
devout. * * * As a theologian he stood without a rival
262 VIRGINIA
among the Baptist ministers of Richmond and was called by
them 'the Sage' of their Conference. For some years he served
as North Carolina vice pi'esident of the Foreign Mission Board
of the Southern Baptist Convention. Singularly guileless, he
wras courteous and dignified in deportment. A concise preacher,
indefatigable pastor, a facile writer, a beloved friend, he be-
queathed to his wife and children the priceless legacy of an
unsullied name and saintly memory. He died May 28, 1894."
(Extract from a memorial volume published at the time of his
decease.)
Doctor Whitfield married into one of the oldest and most
distinguished families of North Carolina, the Moreheads. He
and Miss Annie Eliza Morehead weer married at Greensboro,
North Carolina, October 11, 1859. Mrs. Whitfield was a daugh-
ter of Hon. James Turner and Mary Teas (Lindsay) Morehead.
Charles Morehead, founder of the Morehead family in the South,
settled in the Northern Neck of Virginia about 1630. Joseph
Morehead married Elizabeth Turner, a daughter of James Tur-
ner and Keren-Happuch Norman, of Spotsylvania County, Vir-
ginia. Their son, John Morehead, married Obedience Motley,
of Amelia County, and settled in Rockingham County, North
Carolina. John Morehead was a soldier of the Revolution. John
Morehead and his wife. Obedience Motley, had two distinguished
sons. One of them, John Motley Morehead, born in 1796 and
died in 1886, became governor of North Carolina.
The other son, James Turner Morehead, was born in Rock-
ingham County, North Carolina, January 11, 1799, and died at
Greensboro May 5, 1875. He was a lawyer, served in the State
Senate 1935-42, and the United States Congress, 1851.
Doctor and Mrs. Whitfield had three children : James More-
head Whitfield, George H. Whitfield and Miss Emma M. Whit-
field.
James Morehead Whitfield graduated from the University
of Virginia with the degree of M. D. He became a medical
chemist and for some years served as city chemist and coroner
of Richmond. He married Mary Graham Mathews, of Virginia,
and has three living children: James M., Jr., a physician now
practicing in Richmond ; Theodore M., a graduate Ph. D., of
Johns Hopkins University, a teacher; and Philip Whitfield, ^
lawyer. All these sons were born in Richmond and all graduated
at the University of Richmond.
George H. Whitfield, at present director of the Department
of Public Utilities of the City of Richmond, graduated at Rich-
mond College with the degree of A. B. and at Cornell University,
New York, 1896, as a mechanical and electrical engineer. Dur-
ing the World war he was for several years connected with the
International Arms & Fuze Company, Bloomfield, New Jersey,
part of this time as manager of the shell factory. Previous to
this he was one of the directors of the Virginia Railway & Power
Company of Richmond. He married Laura Merryman Crane,
of Baltimore, and has two daughters, Clare Merryman and Anne
Morehead, both born in Richmond.
Miss Emma Morehead Whitfield, of Richmond, was born at
Greensboro, North Carolina, graduated at the Woman's College
of Richmond, studied at the Art Students' League of New York
and in Paris. Examples of her work as a portrait artist are
to be found in the Confederate Battle Abbey and the Governor's
Mansion at Richmond ; the Supreme Court Building at Raleigh,
and at Greensboro, North Carolina, etc. Miss Whitfield is a
VIRGINIA 263
member of the Woman's Club, Society of Colonial Dames of
America in the State of Virginia, United Daughters of the Con-
federacy, Daughters of the American Revolution, and is historian
of the Baptist Woman's Missionary Union of Virginia.
Sidney Thompson. In the thriving town of Middleburg,
Loudoun County, is a financial instituticn that gives the mosc
effective of service in safeguarding and advancing communal
interests along all lines, and of this substantial and well ordered
institution, the Middleburg National Bank, Sidney Thompson is
the cashier.
Mr. Thompson w^?.s born in Washington, D. C, on the 13th
of October, 1893, and is a son of John L. and Anne (Price)
Thompson, the former a native of North Carolina and the latter
of Maryland, and both representatives of old and influential
famines that were early established in these respective common-
wealths. Dr. Jacob Thompson, grandfather of the subject of
this review, was a loyal surgeon of the Confederacy during the
course of the Civil war, and was a son of Sidney Thompson, an
influential citizen and extensive exponent of plantation indus-
try in North Carolina. Jacob Thompson, like his father, was
also a tobacco-grower on an extensive scale on his plantation
estate in North Carolina. On the maternal side Sidney Thomp-
son of this review is a scion of the Price family that was long
one of prominence and influence in Southern Maryland.
John L. Thompson was born and reared in North Carolina
and received his education in that state. He finally e.stablished
his residence in Washington, living there until he met his death
in a railroad wreck at Danville, Virginia, in September, 1903,
his widow having not long survived him, as her death occurred
in August, 1905.
Sidney Thompson was reared in the capitol city of the na-
tion and there received his early education, and after his gradu-
ation from a military academy he was employed in the Pooles-
ville National Bank, Poolesville, Maryland, the attractive little
town in which he now maintains his home and from which he
makes trips to and from Middleburg, Virginia, for the discharge
of his executive duties as cashier of the ]\Iiddleburg National
Bank.
Mr. Thompson has devoted his career to bank work since he
graduated from school and in 1914 assumed his present execu-
tive office, that of cashier of the Middleburg National Bank.
Mr. Thompson has made a close study of financial affairs per-
taining to practical banking, and his advancement has come
through his own ability and loyal service. He is also now the
financial advisor for the Foxcroft School for Girls, one of the
exclusive girls' schools in America, located near the town of Mid-
dleburg.
The Middleburg National Bank was established and char-
tered in 1924. When the bank was organized Mr. Thompson
became its cashier through the recommendation given by E. F.
Rorebeck, then the chief national bank examiner of the Fifth
Federal Reserve District.
The political allegiance of Mr. Thompson is given to the
Democratic party, and he and his wife are communicants of the
Protestant Episcopal Church.
In September, 1915, was solemnized the marriage of Mr.
Thompson and Miss Katherine Walling, who was born and
264 VIRGINIA
reared in Maryland and who is a daughter of Dr. Byron W.
Walling, for fifty years a representative physician at Poolesville,
Maryland, where he is now living retired from active practice,
he having been born in Maryland, as was also his wife, whose
family name was Poole and who was a representative of the
family in honor of which Poolesville was named. Mr. and Mrs.
Thompson have two fine sons, Byron Walling and Sidney, Jr.
Reginald L. Nixon. Among the men who have contributed
to the good government of Virginia during recent years, through
faithful and conscientious service in the discharge of the duties
and responsibilities of the oflSces to which they have been elected
by their fellow citizens, Reginald L. Nixon, of Leesburg, is
worthy of more than passing mention. His career has been
typical of the self-made man, and the success he has gained is
another exemplification of the fact that industry and fidelity find
their just rewards. For the last five years Mr. Nixon has been
before the people of his community as a public servant, and dur-
ing this period has won the confidence and respect of his fellow
citizens in a marked degree, his present activities being carried
on in the capacity of commissioner of revenue of Loudoun
County.
Mr. Nixon was born at Leesburg, December 26, 1881, and is
a son of George H. and Virginia E. (Milbourne) Nixon, the lat-
ter a native of Hamilton, Virginia. George H. Nixon was born
at Leesburg, where he received a public school education, and
when a mere lad volunteered for service in the Confederate army
during the war between the states. He came through that strug-
gle unscathed and returned to his native place, where after sev-
eral other ventures he established himself in the hotel business.
He became well known to the traveling public as the popular host
of a modern hostelry, and bore an excellent reputation among
his fellow townsmen for high character and good citizenship.
He passed away in 1903, and is survived by his widow, who still
makes her home at Leesburg.
Reginald L. Nixon was given good educational opportunities
in his youth, first attending the public schools of Leesburg, later
pursuing a course at Randolph-Macon Academy, and finally
being a student at a military academy at Danville, Virginia.
He began his career as a bookkeeper in the employ of Chapin &
Sacks of Washington, D. C, and later was with Golden & Com-
pany, also of the capital, then becoming identified with the bank-
ing business as a bookkeeper for the Loudoun National Bank of
Leesburg. He remained with this institution, gaining steady
promotion, for seven years, or until 1924, when he was elected
commissioner of revenue of Leesburg. During his two-year
term of office he discharged his duties in such a capable and ex-
peditious manner that in 1926 he was elected commissioner of
revenue for Loudoun County, and is still acting in that capacity.
Mr. Nixon is a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows
and the Rebekahs, and in his political allegiance supports the
candidates and principles of the Democratic party. A member
of the Methodist Episcopal Church since his youth, he is active
in its work, and is now lay leader and teacher of the Men's Bible
Class in the Sunday School.
In February, 1920, Mr. Nixon was united in marriage wtih
Miss Naomi Galleher, a daughter of W. R. and a Miss (Webb)
Galleher, both natives of Loudoun County. Mr. Galleher has
VIRGINIA 265
been a traveling- salesman all of his life and makes his home at
Leesburg, where he and his wife are held in high esteem. Mr.
and Mrs. Nixon have no children. Mrs. Nixon is active in the
work of the Methodist Episcopal Church.
Cecil Connor, Leesburg attorney, is the present representa-
tive of the Twenty-ninth Senatorial District in the Virginia
State Senate. He has practiced law thirty years, and few men
have be3n more diligent in makin<? use of the opportunities for
individual accomplishment and public service.
Mr. Connor was born at Philomont, Loudoun County, Vir-
ginia, February 4, 1871. His grandfather, John T. Connor,
was also a Virginian, a farmer, and married Susan A. Lyne,
representative of another well known family name in Loudoun
County. John T. Connor, father of Senator Connor, was born
in Loudoun County in 1844, was a shoemaker, farmer, shoe
merchant and postmaster at Philomont and Faxon. He died at
Bluemcnt, Virg-inia, in May, 1916. His wife, Mary E. Brown,
was born near Lincoln, in Loudoun County, in 1847.
Cecil Connor, one of the children of these parents, grew up
on his father's farm in Loudoun County, attended rural schools,
and beyond those advantages had to contrive his own oppor-
timities. At the age of eighteen he became a teacher, and teach-
ing gave him the financial means and also some of the leisure
required for his pi'ivate law studies. Later he spent a year in
Washington and Lee University, graduating from the Law
School in 1896. He was licensed to practice in June, 1898, and
since that year has been a busy member of the bar at Leesburg,
handling a general practice, and has also represented several
banks and other corporations in his clientage.
Mr. Connor prior to his election to the State Senate served
four consecutive terms in the office of commonwealth attorney
of Loudoun County. He was in that position during the World
war, which brought a large addition of responsibilities to his
official routine. He also served as counsel and appeal agent of
the Local Draft Board. Senator Connor is a member of the
Leesburg and Virfinia Bar Associations, and is a member of
the Knights of Pythias.
He married at Washington, D. C, November 8, 1905. Miss
Edna F. Fadeley, daughter of Henry J. and Mary Estelle (John-
son) Fadeley. They have one son, Cecil Fenton, born May 6th,
1907. He is now practicing law in the law office of Charles
Henry Smith at Alexandria, Virginia.
George Mason Dillard is a member of the Norfolk bar, and
has brought to his profession a ripe scholarship, integrity of
character and a resourcefulness that have stood the test of many
years of successful practice.
He was born at Charlottesville, Virginia. His father, George
Walden Dillard, was born in Caroline County in 1812 and at an
early age was left an orphan, being reared in the family of an
uncle. He had a fair education and at Scottsville became a
merchant, invested in farm land in that vicinity and owned a
country home four miles from Scottsville. He died in 1896, at
the advanced age of eighty-four. George Walden Dillard mar-
ried Lucy Jane Dillard, who was born in Spotsylvania County,
daughter of William and Elizabeth (Mason) Diliard. In a local
history of Henry County, Virginia, the statement is made that
George Dillard of Wiltshire, England, settled at Jamestown in
266 VIRGINIA
1660, being then twenty-six years of age. He had a son, James
Stephen, two years old. This George Dillard was granted 250
acres for services in fighting Indians, and later 25,000 acres
were granted to James Stephen Dillard, his son, and the Carys,
Wises and Pages, a tract that became known in history as the
Williamsburg Plantation.
George Walden Dillard reared a family of nine children :
Alice E., James Daniel, JuHa B., William B., Mary E., Martha
F., Benjamin L., George Mason and Nora L.
George Mason Dillard was educated at Scottsville, and grad-
uated in law at the University of Virginia in 1882. Soon after-
ward he moved to Norfolk, where he has practiced law for over
forty-five years, being one of the oldest members of the bar of
that city.
Mr. Dillard married, in 1904, Elizabeth Allyn, who was born
at Norfolk, daughter of Joseph T. and Mary R. (Bell) Allyn.
They have four children, Allyn, George Mason, Mary Walden
and Elizabeth Allyn. The son Allyn was educated in the Wood-
bury Forest School, graduated in law at the University of Vir-
ginia and is now practicing in New York City. The son George
Mason graduated from the Maury High School at Norfolk,
attended the Woodbury Forest School and the Virginia Military
Institute, and is now associated with the Cleveland Illuminating
Company at Cleveland, Ohio. The members of the family that
remain at Norfolk are communicants of St. Paul's Episcopal
Church.
William Frederick Low. The really useful men of a com-
munity are those on whom their fellow citizens can rely in mat-
ters of import, especially those of finance ; men who have won this
confidence by the wisdom of their own investments and by the
honorable lives they have led in every field of effort and as neigh-
bors and friends. Such a man in every particular is William F.
Low, cashier of the First National Bank of Williamsburg, a
prominent representative of the financial interests of his city
and James City County.
William F. Low was born April 1, 1891, in Richmond, Vir-
ginia, a son of Fred and Mary Alice (Day) Low, natives of
Richmond. During a large portion of his mature life the father
was with the city fire department, and was a man highly re-
spected by all who knew him. His death took place December
18, 1903. The mother is still living and resides in Williamsburg.
Growing up in Richmond, William F. Low attended its public
schools, but, as there was necessity for him to become self-sup-
porting, he did not plan for a collegiate training, but entered the
American Locomotive Company as a mechanical draughtsman,
and held that position for about five years. When he left that
company it was to enter the banking business, first as runner for
the Broad Street Bank. His faithfulness and reliability brought
about promotions, and during the ten years he was connected
with this bank he rose to be assistant manager of the savings de-
partment. In March, 1918, he left Richmond and the Bi'oad
Street Bank and came to Williamsburg to assume the duties of
assistant cashier of the First National Bank, and one month
later was made cashier, which position he still holds. The bank
was organized about 1903, and has a capital of $30,000, a sur-
plus of $30,000, and total resources of over a million dollars.
Mr. Low is a stockholder in the bank. His associates are : L. W.
VIRCxINIA 267
Lane, president ; J. \V. Jones, vice president ; and T. L. Sheppard,
assistant cashier.
An active Democrat, Mr. Low is a member of the City School
Board, and a friend of education. He is a thirty-second degree
Meson, and belongs to the Rotary Club. Long an Episcopalian,
he is now connected with Bruton parish, and is one of its vestry-
men. Mr. Low is unmarried. Few men in banking circles in
this section of the state have established a reputation broader
and more striking than has he; few have gained a higher reputa-
tion for efficiency, fidelity and faithfulness, and as a man of
marked intellectual activity his labors have given an impetus
to business life and educational progress.
George Schley DeShazor, Jr., is clerk of the Circuit Court
and county clerk of Warwick County, with home and headquar-'
ters at Denbigh.
His family have been identiiied with Virginia since Colonial
times. Mr. DeShazor was born at Newport News, Virginia,
September 19, 1899, son of George S. and Mary A. (Dugan)
DeShazor. His father was born at Nashville, Tennessee, and a
year after his birth his parents returned to Virginia. He was a
son of John A. DeShazor, a native Virginian, who during the
Civil war was a contractor for the Confederate government,
building fortifications and other military works. Two of the
brothers of George S. DeShazor, Sr.. were soldiers in the Con-
federate army. Mary A. Dugan was born in Philadelphia and
her father was a L'nion soldier in the war.
George S. DeShazor, Jr., attended school at Newport News,
graduating from high school in 1916. This was followed by a
business course at Newport News, and his first employment there
was clerk in the postoffice. After a year and a half he was made
deputy clerk of Warwick County, January 9, 1924, and on August
2, 1927, was elected to the office of Circuit Court clerk and clerk
of the county for a term of eight years.
Mr. DeShazor is unmarried. He is affiliated with Lodge No.
1514 of the Loyal Order of Moose, and is a Democrat in politics.
D.wiD Minor McDonald. Leesburg has its full representa-
tion of men who, starting on their independent careers without
financial resources or other adventitious aids, have forced their
way through sheer energy and native business talent to posi-
tions of independence and prestige, but it is doubtful if a better
illustration could be found than David Minor McDonald, pro-
prietor of the McDonald Auto Service. Losing his father when
he was but nine years of age, his education was necessarily cur-
tailed by the need of his assistance in contributing to the family
support, but this proved no hindrance to the ambitious and
determined youth, whose energies have since carried him so far.
At present he is accounted one of the substantial citizens of the
younger generation, and is contributing to the civic welfare of
Leesl urg in the capacity of vice president of the Rotary Club.
Mr. McDonald was born July 22, 1892, in Loudoun County,
Virginia, and is a son of Capt. John B. and Virginia C. (Lyon)
McDonald. His father, a native of Scotland, came to the United
States in young manhood and took up his residence in Loudoun
County. Eventually he became captain of a tusrboat plving the
waters of Alexandria Bay, and there lost his life by drowning
during a storm in 1901. Mrs. McDonald, who was born in
268 VIRGINIA
Loudoun County, survived him until April, 1922, and passed
away at Leesburg.
David Minor McDonald received a public school education
in Loudoun County, and was still a youth when he started solicit-
ing insurance. TJhis business he followed with a measure of
success for some years, but he did not feel that he was making
the progress that he should, and in 1918 took a position as an
automobile mechanic for the Lambert Motor Company. During
the six years that followed he applied himself to the fullest
extent in learning every detail of the business, and in the mean-
time saved hisj earnings carefully and added to them by several
well placed investments. Finally he decided that he was equipped
and ready to embark upon a venture of his own, and in 1924
he founded the McDonald Auto Service, of which he has since
been the proprietor. So successful was this business under his
direction and management that from practically nothing it had
grown within four years to an enterprise valued at $160,000.
Mr. McDonald handles Chevrolet automobiles, and maintains a
commodious salesroom and service station, making a specialty
of repair work and the recharging and repairing of batteries.
He also handles tires, equipment and accessories, and has one
of the most modern establishments of its kind in this section of
the state, his present building, erected in 1927, being 100 by
50 feet, and his accessory building 36 by 16 feet. He now gives
employment to ten people, including skilled mechanics. Mr.
McDonald has an excellent reputation in business circles and is
vice president of the Rotary Club and master of the Leesburg
Hunt Club. He votes the Democratic ticket, and he and Mrs.
McDonald are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church.
On January 17, 1917, Mr. McDonald was united in marriage
with Miss Pauline Lambert, daughter of J. D. and Sallie B.
(Weeden) Lambert, natives of Virginia. Mr. Lambert is a
retired merchant of Ashburn, this state, where Mrs. Lambert
died in 1925. Four children have been born to Mr. and Mrs.
McDonald : Marie Louise, born December 20, 1917 ; Ann Eliza-
beth, born November 19, 1921 ; Eda Lee, born January 20, 1926;
and David Minor, Jr., born November 1, 1928.
Hon. John Pendleton Leachman, treasurer of Prince Wil-
liam County, is one of the substantial farmers of the county,
his finly developed property lying near Manassas, and there
he resides, although he has his oflfices in the Farmers Bank
Building, Manassas. He was born in Prince William County,
Virginia, December 18, 1853, a son of John Thomas and Eliza-
beth Ann (Lewis) Leachman, also natives of Prince William
County. Although not an enlisted man, the father served as
a guide during the first battle of Manassas, and he continued
farming after the close of the war, being so engaged at the time
of his death. His father was John Leachman, for many years
sheriff of Prince William County and owner of the farm now
owned and operated by Treasurer Leachman. The father passed
away in December, 1912, and the mother in 1902, and both were
most excellent people, highly esteemed by all who knew them.
While he remained with his parents on the farm until he was
twenty-five years old, John Pendleton Leachman attended the
local schools and Bethel Military Academy near Warrenton, Vir-
ginia. When he left the homestead it was to begin operating
his present farm of 160 acres, and here he raises pure bred
Shorthorn cattle. During the period he was getting his farm
VIRGINIA 269
in good shape he served for ten years as sheriff, and when he
left office it was to become assistant cashier of the National
Bank of Manassas. In 1911 he was elected treasurer of the
county, and has continued to serve in this office ever since, his
present term expiring in 1931, at which time he will have been
county treasurer of Prince William County for twenty con-
secutive years. In 1897 he had a little preliminary experience
in his office, as he served at that time as deputy treasurer.
I\Ir. Leachman married Mary Virginia Strother in October,
1884. She is a daughter of Thomas and Mildred (Childs)
Strother, natives of Fauquier County, Virginia. He died in
1861, but she survived him many years and passed away in
1916. Ten children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Leachman,
namely : Mildred, who is the wife of D. B. Smith, of Warrenton,
Virginia; Edith May, who is the wife of Robert H. Smith, of
Manassas, Virginia; Olivia, who is the wife of Allen L. Oliver,
of Cape Girai'deau, Missouri; Lillian, who is the wife of J. L.
Hinson, of Manassas ; Marie, who is the wife of Douglas Janney,
of Clarksburg, West Virginia ; William H., who is a traveling
salesman, residing in Manassas ; John P., who died in New
Mexico when he was twenty-three years old ; Thomas Keith,
who was accidentally killed in New York City by a railroad
when he was twenty-one years old ; James Lewis, who died at the
age of eighteen months ; and one child, who was boim dead.
Mrs. Leachman died in 1918. In November, 1925, Mr. Leach-
man married Miss Emma Shisler, of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania,
a daughter of John Shisler, a native of Pennsylvania, who with
his wife resides in Philadelphia. Mr. Leachman is a thirty-
second degree Mason, and belongs to Acca Temple, A. A. 0. N.
M. S., Richmond. He belongs to the Manassas Kiwanis Club,
is active in the local Democratic party, and is a member of the
Episcopal Church. His farm four miles southwest of Manassas
is, as already stated, a magnificent property, and is interesting
historically as having been in the Leachman family for many
generations, and on it is buried the paternal great-grandfather
and great-grandmother of Mr. Leachman of this review. It
was from Prince William County that his uncle, William Leach-
man, enlisted for service in the Mexican war, and others bearing
the name have been prominent in both war and peace in this
and other regions of the state.
Horace Bluford effectively upheld in all the relations of
life the honors of a family name that has been worthily linked
with the annals of Virginia history since the Colonial era. He
passed his entire life in Norfolk and was one of the representa-
tive business men and influential citizens of this community at
the time of his death, which occurred April 6, 1905. Through
his wide and constructive activities in fraternal circles Mr.
Bluford became specially well known throughout his native state,
and his circle of friends was limited only by that of his
acquaintances.
Horace Bluford was born at Norfolk September 6, 1861, and
was a son of George A. and Margaret Ann (Cooke) Bluford,
both representatives of old and honored Virginia families.
George A. Bluford likewise was born and reared in Norfolk, and
he became one of its most progressive and influential citizens,
many of the streets of the city having been laid out by him
and his other contributions to civic and material advancement
having been of noteworthy order, besides which he here built
270 VIRGINIA
up an important hide and leather business that received his close
attention many years.
The schools of his native city afforded Horace Bluford his
youthful education, and his initial business experience was
acquired by his serving a short time as clerk in a local mer-
cantile establishment. He finally engaged independently in the
produce commission business, and in this connection he de-
veloped one of the largest and most important enterprises of
the kind in Norfolk. At the time of his death the business was
conducted under the title of H. Bluford Company, and since he
passed away the business has been eifectively carried forward
under the control of his son Vernon, while the title of the con-
cern has been changed to Crocker-Bluford Corporation.
Mr. Bluford served as a gallant soldier in the Spanish-
American war, he having been a member of Company B, Fourth
Virginia Volunteer Infantry, and having been with this com-
mand in active service in Cuba. His company was commanded
by Captain Higgins. The political allegiance of Mr. Bluford was
given unreservedly to the Democratic party, and his religious
faith was that of the Presbyterian Church, of which his widow
likewise is a zealous member. Mr. Bluford was specially prom-
inent in fraternal circles and was the organizer and first presi-
dent of the Virginia Grand Aerie of the Fraternal Order of
Eagles. He organized also the Norfolk Lodge of the Benevolent
and Protective Order of Elks, and he was prominently affiliated
also with the Royal Arcanum and the Improved Order of Red
Men. He took deep interest in all that concerned the civic, social
and material welfare of his native city and was one of its
progressive and public spirited citizens. His fraternal relations
included his membership in the Virginia organization of the
veterans of the Spanish-American War, and he was one of the
loyal and influential members of the Norfolk Chamber of
Commerce.
On the 13th of June, 1883, was solemnized the marriage of
Mr. Bluford and Miss Annie Lee Fowler, who was born at
Petersburg, this state, but who was educated in the schools of
Norfolk. Mrs. Bluford is a daughter of Thomas Henry and
Elizabeth V. (Bolsam) Fowler, the former of whom was born
in Maryland and the latter of whom was born and reared in
Norfolk, Virginia, the Bolsam family having been founded in
Norfolk County prior to the War of the Revolution and having
given patriot soldiers to the Continental Line in that great
struggle for national independence. Thomas Henry Fowler gave
loyal service to the Confederacy in the Civil war period, and
for a time was in a hospital at Petersburg. He was active as a
representative of the drug business for some time after the close
of the war and later was an executive with the Old Dominion
Steamship Company, with headquarters at Norfolk, in which
city he and his wife continued to reside until their death. Mrs.
Bluford is the gracious and popular chatelaine of one of the
attractive and hospitable homes of Norfolk, where she resides
at 323 West Fourteenth Street. Mr. Bluford is survived also
by three children, the eldest of whom is Vernon, who is his
successor in business as president of the Crocker-Bluford Cor-
poration. Vernon Bluford received the advantages of the Nor-
folk public schools and also those of a business college. He is
one of the popular and progressive business men of his native
city, his Masonic affiliations include his membership in the local
Commandery of Knights Templar and also the Mystic Shrine,
VIRGINIA 271
and he is a member also of the Benevolent and Protective Order
of Elks and the Fraternal Order of Eagles. His wife, whose
maiden name was Lillian Ellis, was born and reared in Mary-
land, and their one child is a daughter, Jean Ellis. Horace,
Jr., the second son, is likewise a representative business man
of Norfolk, and he is a member of the local lodge of Elks. He
married Miss Capitola M. Prince, and they have five children:
Marguerite, Doris K., Gloria Lee, Barbara A. and Frances Eliza-
beth. Nellie Virginia, the only daughter, is the wife of Robert
M. Boyd, who is president of the Twin City Tobacco Company,
with his residence and executive headquarters in Norfolk, where
he has served two terms as city treasurer. Mr. and Mrs. Boyd
have two children, Robert M., Jr., and Patricia Lee. Mr. Boyd
is affiliated with the Masonic fraternity, including the Ancient
Arabic Order Nobles of the Mystic Shrine.
J. Green Carter has become one of the influential and pro-
gressive representatives of the real estate and insurance bus-
iness in the county in which he was born and reared, and at the
county seat of which, the thriving city of Warrenton, he main-
tains his residence and business headquarters.
The birth of Mr. Carter occurred at Casanova, Fauquier
County, Virginia, February 11, 1876, and he is a son of Cassius
and Frances (Scott) Carter, the former of whom was born in
Prince William County and the latter in Culpeper County, this
state. When the Civil war was precipitated on a divided nation
Cassius Carter loyally cast in his lot with the Confederacy, and
his service in that conflict was with a fine black-horse company
of cavalry that was recruited at Warrenton. He took part in
the vai'ious engagements in which his command was involved
and made a record of gallant and faithful service. After the
close of the war he engaged in farm enterprise in Fauquier
County, and he continued to give his supervision to his well
improved farm estate near Casanova during the remainder of
his life, his death having occurred December 2.5, 1914, and his
wife having passed to the life eternal October 10, 1893. Cassius
Carter was one of the substantial and honored citizens of
Fauquier County, was a stalwart supporter of the cause of the
Democratic party, was affiliated with the United Confederate
Veterans, and he held the faith of the Protestant Episcopal
Church. Both were representatives of sterling families that
were early founded in Virginia.
The public schools of Fauquier County were the medium
through which J. Green Carter acquired his earlier education,
and this discipline was supplemented by his course in the Vir-
ginia Polytechnic Institute at Blacksburg, where he studied civil
engineering and became skilled in its various phases. This pro-
fession he followed a number of years, during a portion of which
he was in government service, and in the period of 1910-1.5 he
was assistant manager of the Fellsmere Farms Company at
Fellsmere, Florida, in which locality the corporation controlled
a large and valuable landed property. During the period of
the nation's participation in the World war Mr. Carter did his
part in patriotic service, as he was retained as supervisor of
the Bartlett-Hayward munition plant at Baltimore, Maryland.
Since 1918 he has been successfully established in the real e.state
business at Warrenton, and he has handled both city and farm
properties in such degree and such manner as to make his opera-
tions count much in furtherance of civic and material progress
272 VIRGINIA
in his native county. In connection with his real estate business
he maintains a well ordered insurance department.
The political allegiance of Mr. Carter is given loyally to
the Democratic party, he is a communicant of the Protestant
Episcopal Church, and in his home city he has membership in the
Chamber of Commerce, the Rotary Club and the Fauquier Club,
besides being a popular and appreciative member of the War-
renton Country Club. Mr. Carter still permits his name to
appear on the roster of eligible bachelors in his native county,
where his circle of friends is limited only by that of his
acquaintances.
James Louis Early graduated from medical college in 1901
and has had a progressive record in the work of his profession,
with a steadily increasing range of responsibilities and profes-
sional honors. For many years he practiced at Saltville, but is
now one of the leading men of his profession at Radford.
Doctor Early was born at Woodlawn in Carroll County, Vir-
ginia, September 14, 1876. His people have been in Southwest
Virginia for a number of generations. His grandfather,
James W. Early, was born in Wythe County in 1806, and for
many years followed farming in Carroll County, where he died
in 1889. The father of Doctor Early was William Kenny Early,
who was born in Carroll County in 1847 and at the age of six-
teen entered the Confederate army, serving with the cavalry
until the end of the war. After the war he graduated from
Roanoke College, was a farmer in Carroll County until 1908,
and then moved to Galax, where he became a lumber manufac-
turer. Both he and his wife are now deceased. His wife,
Mary Louise Belo, was born at Salem, Virginia, in 1853. Dr.
James L. Early had a brother, George B., who for many years
was in the service of the Newport News Ship Building & Dry
Dock Company and another brother, Charles William, is a grad-
uate of the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis and
was a commander in the navy during the World war. Harry
Edward Early is an electrical engineer.
James Louis Early was educated in private and public schools
in Carroll County, graduated from the Woodlawn Normal Insti-
tute in 1895, and in 1901 graduated from the University College
of Medicine at Richmond. For several years he practiced at
Woodlawn and Galax, and for a time was surgeon for the Caro-
lina, Clinchfield & Ohio Railroad while it was in course of con-
struction. Doctor Early in 1905 located at Saltville, where in
addition to a general practice acted as surgeon and physician to
the Norfolk & Western Railroad and several industrial organiza-
tions. In October, 1926, Doctor Early moved to Radford, and
has a fine suite of offices in the Farmers & Merchants Bank
building. For a number of years, up to January, 1929, he was
a director in the Mountain Trust Bank of Roanoke. He is a
director of the Peoples State Bank of Radford.
Doctor Early is a member of the Southwest Virginia, the
Southern and American Medical Associations, the Medical So-
ciety of Virginia and the Association of Norfolk & Western
Railway Surgeons. During the World war he was chairman of
the Examining Board of Smyth and Grayson counties. He is a
director of the Kiwanis Club of Radford, a Royal Arch and
Knight Templar Mason and Shriner, having filled a number of
offices in Masonic bodies, and is also affiliated with the Indepen-
VIRGINIA 273
dent Order of Odd Fellows and B. P. 0. Elks. He is a member
of the Presbyterian Church.
Doctor Early married, June 29, 1910, Miss Melita Rorer Wil-
son, daughter of Dr. William A. and Mary (Miller) Wilson, of
Radford. Mrs. Early finished her education in the State
Teachers College at Farmville.
George Franklin Simpson, M. D., D. D. S. In the case of
Dr. George Franklin Simpson, of Purcellville, is shown the
effects of determination, hard work and aspiring ambition, for
he worked his way through college and later on attended night
classes while practicing dentistry during the daytime, for he
is a graduate dental surgeon as well as a physician and surgeon.
The fact that he was without money or influence did not dis-
courage him, rather it braced him and enabled him to overcome
obstacles and achieve success where one less persistent might
have failed. This hard and intensive training has brought out
admirable characteristics, broadened his viewpoint and made
him a most desirable citizen, and one always willing to assume
civic responsibilities.
Doctor Simpson was born at Woodgrove, Loudoun County,
Virginia, June 19, 1869, a son of John Thomas and Rose Anna
Agnes (Allder) Simpson, natives of the same county as their
son. During the war between the states John Thomas Simpson
fought in the Twelfth Virginia Cavalry under the command of
General Ashby. At one time he served as a member of the
Charleston, West Virginia, Militia. After the close of hostilities
he settled down to farming in Loudoun County, where he died
on his ninetieth birthday. The mother and wife died at the
age of eighty-three years, February 6, 1912.
Doctor Simpson was reared in Loudoun County and went
to school held in a one-room schoolhouse. However, during that
period he had been able, at different times, to get a little school-
ing in the public schools of Washington City, and was also under
a private tutor. Beginning his studies for a professional career,
he took dentistry and medicine, and was graduated in the former
June 6, 1900, and was licensed to practice. In August, 1901, he
was graduated in medicine, his courses having been taken in
the National University, Washington. He was president of his
graduating class. He was engaged in the practice of dentistry
in Washington for a year and taught dentistry during 1901,
1902 and 1903 in his alma mater and had charge of the dental
infirmary of that institution. Until 1908 he was £ngaged in
the practice of both dentistry and medicine in Washington, but
in the latter year came to Loudoun County, first locating in
Hillsboro, but coming to Purcellville January 26, 1916, and here
he has built up a very large and valuable medical practice.
WTiile a resident of Washington, Doctor Simpson married
Miss Maude Evelyn Garner, of Washington, a daughter of
George Thomas and Mary C. (Claggett) Garner, natives of Vir-
ginia and Maryland, respectively. For a good many years Mr.
Garner was in the Government employ, but is now deceased.
He is survived by Mrs. Garner, a lady seventy-nine years old,
and a resident of Norwood, Massachusetts. Doctor and Mrs.
Simpson have no children.
Doctor Simpson has served on the Town Council of Purcell-
ville, as he did on that of Hillsboro. He is an e.x-president of
the Purcellville Chamber of Commerce, having held the office
for two successive terms. He is a director of the Loudoun
274 VIRGINIA
Light & Power Company and vice president of Loudoun Hos-
pital. During the World war he was chairman of the Medical
Advisory Board of Loudoun County. In Masonry he is a past
master and a past district deputy grand master of the Blue
Lodge ; belongs to Leesburg Chapter No. 55, R. A. M. ; Pied-
mont Commandery, K. T., of Plains, Virginia ; and Acca Temple,
A. A. 0. N. M. S., and the Shrine Club, of Alexandria, Virginia.
He is a charter member of the Loudoun County Golf and Coun-
ti\v Club, and belongs to the Virginia State Medical Association,
the District of Columbia Medical Association, the Northern Vir-
ginia and Maryland Medical Society, the Loudoun County Med-
ical Society, and the American Medical Association. He is local
surgeon for the Washington & Old Dominion Raih'oad. In
politics he is a Democrat. A very zealous Methodist, he is chair-
man of the building committee now constructing the new church
edifice, and is a steward of the church. Lee Camp, Sons of
Confederate Veterans, at Leesburg, holds his membership, he
being eligible because of his father's military service in behalf
of the Confederacy. The beautiful Simpson residence and office,
one of the finest in Purcellville, was built by Doctor Simpson
in 1915, and here he and his wife welcome their many friends
on all occasions.
Charles Adams Hubbard, of Denbigh, is commissioner of
revenue of Warwick County, and has performed the duties of
that responsible position for a period of twenty years.
He was born at Yorktown, Virginia, January 20, 1874, son of
Judge James Filmer and Emily C. (Adams) Hubbard. His
mother was born in Massachusetts, while his father was a native
of James City County, Virginia, and was an able and successful
lawyer. For thirty-five years he served in the office of common-
wealth's attorney of York County, and just prior to his death
had been appointed circuit judge, dying before taking office.
His death came in December, 1903, at the age of sixty-four. He
had been a lieutenant in the Confederate army during his youth,
was in the cavalry and served during the entire conflict. The
wife of Judge Hubbard died in 1882.
Charles A. Hubbard was reared and educated at Yorktown,
attended Lee Hall and William and Mary College at Williams-
burg. After his college training he managed his father's farm
until 1902, in which year he took employment with S. R. Curtis,
the county treasurer, a railway contractor, and was identified
with that line of business until 1908, when he accepted appoint-
ment as commissioner of revenue, the office in which he has
served continuously. He has made a splendid record in handling
the finances of Warwick County.
Mr. Hubbard married, April 23, 1909, Miss Georgia Eller
Garrow, daughter of James Toomer and Cornelia Nelson
(Wright) Garrow, the former a native of Warwick County and
the latter of Surry County. Her grandfather, John Toomer
Garro\y, was at one time sheriff and a justice of the peace of
Warwick County, and died as a result of his service in the Civil
war. Mrs. Hubbard's father served as deputy sheriff and for
many years was a merchant in Denbigh, being at the time of his
death, February 3, 1929, the oldest business man of the com-
munity, dying at the age of eighty years. Mrs. Hubbard's
mother died in November, 1922, at the age of sixty-three.
Mr. Hubbard is affiliated with the B. P. 0. Elks. He has
been a practiced rider since a small child, and for forty or forty-
VIRGINIA 275
five years has kept fox hounds and has indulged In the sport
of fox hunting. He Iinows and is known by all the followers
of that sport in Eastern Virginia. The Hubbards are active in
the Methodist Church, Mrs. Hubbard teaching an intermediate
class in the Sunday School. She is a member of the United
Daughters of the Confederacy and is secretary of the local
chapter, Comte de Grasse. of the Daughters of the American
Revolution, and is also a member of the Ladies Auxiliary of the
Veterans of Foreign Wars. Mr. Hubbard's father was a leading
Mason. Mrs. Hubbard was a teacher for several years before
her marriage. Recently they have completed one of the fine
homes in Denbigh.
Jeremy Pate Whitt is a prominent educator whose work
for a number of years has been familiarly associated with the
Radford State Teachers College and through that institution a
large body of active school workers have learned to appreciate
his ability and his fine personal character.
He was born near East Radford, September 2-5, 1879, son
of Hezekiah and Ellen (Cecil) Whitt. His great-grandfather
was one of the early settlers of Montgomery County. His grand-
father was also named Hezekiah Whitt. His father was born
and reared in the Meadow Creek settlement near East Radford,
attended private schools, was a Confederate soldier, and after
the war followed farming and stock raising until his death. He
owned and operated one of the first flour and corn mills in his
community, known as Whitt's Mill. He was eighty-two years
of age when he died in 1913, and is buried in the old Laurel Hill
Church Cemetery. His wife, Ellen Cecil, was born and reared
in Pulaski County, and was one of the first students of Martha
Washington College at Abingdon. Her father, J. G. Cecil, had
much to do with early educational afi'airs in Pulaski County,
serving as the first county superintendent of schools, and w'as
one of the founders of Emory and Henry College. He was in the
Virginia Legislature during the Civil war. The mother of
Jeremy P. Whitt taught school before her marriage. She was
a member of the Christian Church. Her death occurred March
26, 1906. Both of these parents had been married previously.
The first wife of Hezekiah Whitt was Miss Mollie Harman, of
Montgomery County, and the two children of that marriage were
Walter Whitt, of Lockney, Texas, and Minnie, wife of A. H.
Finks, of Roanoke, Virginia. Professor Whitt's mother first
married Alford Goodykoontz, of Floyd County, Virginia, and
her one son of that marriage, John, died in 1897.
Jeremy Pate Whitt was the only child of his parents' second
marriage. He attended public schools in Montgomery and
Pulaski counties, and in 1902 was graduated with the degrees
A. B. and A. M. from Milligan College of Tennessee. For twenty
years he taught school in North Carolina. Tennessee, Kentucky,
Florida and Virginia, being superintendent of the Radford city
.schools from 1911 until 1920. During 1920-21 he spent a year
in post-graduate study in the Peabody Normal College at Nash-
ville, Tennessee, and then came to the Radford State Teachers
College as registrar and director of the training school of the
depai'tment of education.
Mr. Whitt is a member of the Pi Gamma Mu fraternity, is
a Democrat, and an elder in the Christian Church, a teacher in
the Sunday School and chairman of the Official Board of the
church. He married at Milligan College, Tennessee, March 26,
13— VOL. 3
276 VIRGINIA
1904, Miss Jaynie Clyde Shumate, of Danville, Kentucky. She
was educated in private schools in Kentucky, graduated from
girls' college in that state, and afterwards attended the Uni-
versity of Tennessee. She taught in public schools, was in-
structor in English in Sullins College in Bristol, Virginia, and
in Milligan College. Tennessee, and from 191] to 1920 was prin-
cipal of the Radford High School and instructor in English. For
several years she has taught in the summer schools of the Rad-
ford State Teachers College. Mrs. Whitt is active in church,
and has been secretary and president of the Radford Woman's
Club. She is a member of the United Daughters of the Con-
federacy, an associate member of the American Association of
University Women, and is eligible to membership in the Daugh-
ters of the American Revolution. Her parents were Francis
Marion and Elizabeth (Higginbotham) Shumate, of Danville,
Kentucky. He and his wife after retiring moved to California,
and he now resides at Glendale, where his wife died in 1924.
Wilson R. Bowers, head of the department of mathematics
in the Radford State Teachers College, had as the background
of his experience before coming to the college many years of
work as a teacher in country and town schools over Southwest-
ern Virginia.
Mr. Bowers was born near Galax, in Carroll County, Virginia,
March 3, 187F>. son of William and Sarah (Gallimore) Bowers.
He is a grandson of William Bowers and a great-grandson of
George Bowers, who came from Germany and was one of the
early settlers in Carroll County, Virginia. William Bowers, his
father, was born and reared in Carroll County, attended private
schools and at the age of sixteen was drafted for service in the
Civil war, but the war closed before he was called to active duty.
He spent his active career as a farmer and stock raiser and died
May 10, 1917, being buried in the family cemetery near Galax.
His widow, who survives him at the age of seventy-four, has
always been a regular member of the Christian Church. She
was born and reared near Austinville, Virginia, and attended
private schools. She lives with a daughter at Hopewell, Vir-
ginia.
Wilson R. Bowers was the oldest in a family of eleven chil-
dren. He attended public schools and private schools in Carroll
County, the Stuart Normal School and Woodlawn Institute, and
in 1900 graduated with the degrees Bachelor of Science and later
Bachelor of Arts from Milligan College of Tennessee. Lynch-
burg College gave him the honorary degree Master of Arts. For
three summers he did graduate work at the University of Vir-
ginia and for one and a quarter years at Columbia University
of New York, where he won his Master of Arts degree in 1919.
He has since done one and a quarter years work toward his
Ph. D. degree. Mr. Bowers for eighteen years was engaged
in grade and high school work in Virginia, all except the first
three years as principal of high school. For several years he
was head of the schools at Rural Retreat, and while there was
instrumental in securing the erection of a handsome new high
school building. Mr. Bowers in 1919 came with the Radford
State Teachers College as head of the department of mathema-
tics. He owns his home in Radford, other real estate and a farm
in Carroll County.
He is affiliated with Virginia May Lodge No. 38, A. F. and A.
M., and the Knights of Pythias and Knights of the Mystic Chain,
(^l^i^j^--ei^ . /J ' W^
VIRGINIA 277
is a member of the Kiwanis Club, Chamber of Commerce and
the Southwestern Virginia, incorporated. He is independent
politically and a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church,
South. Since 1921 he has been superintendent of the Grove
Avenue Sunday School, Radford.
He married at Rural Retreat Miss Nannie Brown Eiffert,
who attended public school there and the Hawkins Institute
and Milligan College. She was a teacher of music in the Rural
Retreat High School for several years before and after her mar-
riage, and she took an active part in choir work at East Rad-
ford. She is a daughter of Henry A. and Susan (Brown) Eif-
fert. Her father for many years was a farmer and stock raiser
at Rural Retreat and then engaged in business as a merchant
there. After retiring he moved to Cleveland, Tennessee, where
he died in 1927 and where his widow lives with her youngest
daughter, Mrs. Max Fouts. Mr. and Mrs. Bowers have two chil-
dren, Eleanor Randolph and Warren Brown Bowers, the former
a member of the class of 1929 and the latter in his first year in
the Radford High School. Mr. Bowers is author of the following
pamphlets and articles: America's Discontent, A Factor in Her
Development ; Martin Luther's Contribution to Modern Educa-
tion ; School Hygiene ; Principles and Methods in Teaching Pri-
mary Arithmetic ; The Relationship of the Practical and the Cul-
tural in Modern Education. He is now beginning to write a
book on the "Teaching of Elementary Mathematics."
Hon. Eppa Sherman Cox, county treasurer of Fauquier
County, has a long and honorable career behind him in the
service of his county, and has built up a reputation second to
none for faithful performance of duty and strict adherence to
high ideals of good citizenship. He was born near Elk Run,
Fauquier County, Virginia, January 6, 1869, a son of James W.
and Alvernon T. (Lake) Cox, natives of Virginia. During the
war between the states James W. Cox served as a clerk in the
commissary department at Richmond, and after the war was
over he returned to Fauquier County and for thirty years was
a teacher of the county and at the same time he was engaged
in farming. His death occurred when he was fifty-seven years
old, in 1889, but he was survived by the mother until 1902.
Through his mother Treasurer Cox belongs to the Lake Clan,
which has a membership of 300 in the difi'erent states of the
Union, all of whom trace back to three brothers by the name of
Lake who came to the American colonies prior to the Revolu-
tion, in this hemisphere, and in the Old World to forebears for
1,000 years. The clan holds annual meetini^s, and it is a source
of interest and pleasure to those belonging to it to have the
privilege of keeping in touch with those of common family ties
and connections. The pride of race is something that lies very
close to the heart of everyone, and when the family record is
as honorable as that of the Lakes, then those allied to it ought
to give every assistance in keeping it up to the high standards
already reared, and this Treasurer Cox is doing.
Reared and educated in Fauquier County, Eppa S. Cox had
his father for his teacher during the greater portion of his
school days. Subsequently he took a correspondence school busi-
ness trainino: course, but he continued on the farm with his
parents until he was thirty-three years old, after which he
farmed on his own account for two years. In 1899 he was
elected commissioner of revenue for the Cedar Run District, and
278 VIRGINIA
held that office for twelve years, at the termination of that period
receiving appointment as deputy county treasurer, and holding
the office from 1911 to 1915. In 1923 he v^^as elected county
treasurer and reelected to the same office in 1927, without oppo-
sition, and is still the incumbent of the office.
On September 25, 1901, Mr. Cox married Miss Carrie May
Lee, a daughter of James E. and Sarah Virginia (Lee) Lee,
natives of Bedford County, Virginia, and Missouri, respectively.
Mr. Lee was a Confederate veteran, and a distant relative of
Gen. Robert E. Lee, and served with the rank of sergeant. Re-
turning home after the close of the war, he was engaged in
farming in Bedford County the remainder of his life, and died
there in 1899. Mrs. Lee survived him until 1901, when she,
too, passed away. Mr. and Mrs. Cox have had four children
born to them : Virginia Alvernon, who was born January 15,
1903, is a trained nurse, and is now superintendent of a hospital
at Sheridan, Wyoming; Gilbert Lee, who was born March 2,
1906, is a graduate of the Virginia Polytechnic Institute, class
of 1928 ; James Edwin, who was born October 5, 1908, is a
student of the Virginia Polytechnic Institute ; and Ida Louise,
who was born December 25, 1912, is a student of Calverton
High School. Mr. Cox belongs to the Independent Order of
Odd Fellows, of which he has been a member for thirty years,
and to Black Horse Camp, Sons of Confederate Veterans. His
political views make him a Democrat, and he is a strong sup-
porter of his party's principles. For years a member of the
Methodist Episcopal Church, South, he is a trustee of the church
at present, and also superintendent of the Sunday school. While
his office is in Warrenton, he continues to reside at Calverton,
and he is held in the highest esteem by the people of both com-
munities and throughout Fauquier County. The welfare of the
county is dear to him and he has worked hard both, as a public
official and private citizen to do everything within his power to
keep things abreast of the times, and it would be difficult to find
anyone more universally respected or more highly honored.
Adam Monroe Turner, whose home is at Broadway, Rock-
ingham County, was born on the top of the Shenandoah Moun-
tains in the same county March 2, 1859. His career has been
made up of commendable industry and honorable relations with
his fellowmen.
He is a descendant of James Turner who came from Sweden
and settled at Greencastle, Pennsylvania, about 1790. He was
a very successful farmer, and while never in politics he wielded
an important influence in the promotion of schools and churches.
He was of the Dunkard faith. In 1803 he removed to Rocking-
ham County, Virginia, settling about two miles above Brock's
Gap on a little stream known as Lambs Run, a tributary of the
north branch of the Shenandoah. He married a Fronkfodder,
and among their children were John Turner, born in 1798,
Jacob, born in 1800; Andrew, born in 1803; Joseph and James
and also four daughters. Of the sons John married a Pear,
Jacob, a Cherryholes, Andrew, a Zetty, Joseph, a Bible.
James Turner, who was born on Lambs Run after his par-
ents settled in Rockingham County, grew up with a farm train-
ing and a fair education so that he qualified for teaching school.
He was a member of the Christian Church, a Republican and in
1861 served with the Virginia Militia. He married Mary Fulk,
a daughter of John G. Fulk and a descendant of Mathew Fulk,
VIRGINIA 279
who was of Scotch-Irish descent and came to America about
1735. He was with Colonel Lewis in an expedition to treat with
the Indians, and he married an Indian woman. Not long after-
ward the Indians were moved from Rockingham County and
he also went, but left a large family of boys and some girls,
who lived or settled about two miles west of Broadway in Rock-
ingham County, at a place called Trissels Church. John Fulk,
a son of Mathew Fulk, was born in 1760 and married a Miss
Bible. He moved to Brock's Gap in 1785. One other member of
the family was Adam Fulk, who moved to Ohio when it was still
the Northwest Territory, and Adams County in the southern
part of the state of Ohio was named for him, and he became
prominent in county affairs. Another member of the family,
Jacob Fulk, was an early settler near Fort Wayne, Indiana, and
George Fulk figured in the early settlement of the South Branch
Valley of West Virginia. John Fulk had a son, Daniel Fulk, who
was the father of John G. Fulk and grandfather of Mary (Fulk)
Turner.
Another descendant of Mathew Fulk is Charles R. Fawley
the present sheriff of Rockingham County. The sheriff's father,
George W. Fawley, married Sarah J. Fulk, a daughter of John
G. Fulk. George W. Fawley was a school teacher and for many
years a justice of the peace, and in 1860 as a Union man voted
for Douglas of Illinois and died a Democrat. He was a son of
Jacon Fawley, who married a Minnick and settled at Brock's
Gap about 1800 from Loudoun County, having come originally
from Pennsylvania.
Adam Monroe Turner, a son of Adam Monroe Turner, a son
of James and Mary (Fulk) Turner, derived his education from
the common schools and as a young man took up farming and
lumbering. He owns about 800 acres of farming land, mostly
in Rockingham and Shenandoah counties, besides several thous-
and acres of mountain land.
Mr. Turner in his public relations with the community has
always been guided by a desire to better the conditions of the
people, providing better schools, churches and good roads. One
of his outstanding services was his work in bringing about the
construction of the Brock Gap State Highway for the purpose
of developing the northwestern section of Rockingham County,
the greater part of which lies within Brock's Gap. He devised
a plan by which this road could be built and paid for by the
traffic, and this was the plan followed in its construction. In
promoting this plan Mr. Turner was under the handicap of being
a Republican, while the legislative board of supervi.sers of the
county and district were all Democratic and the officials them-
selves opposed to the project. In spite of all this Mr. Turner
persisted until his ideas were adopted and the plan carried out,
and the result has more than justified all his expectations, the
highway having paid for itself and given revenue to the rest
of the county. The road is about seventeen miles long and has
since been taken over by the state as a part of the national sys-
tem of highways leading into West Virginia. It was Mr. Turn-
er's motion that put the Valley Pike in the hands of the state
and he cast the first vote to that end.
Mr. Turner taught seven terms under the free school system,
and of the eleven children in his father's family eight became
school teachers. In after years he built a house which he turned
over to the county for a public school, and this has been the
280 VIRGINIA
means of giving a large number of men and women the funda-
mentals of an education.
Mr. Turner since early boyhood has been an enthusiastic
sportsman. He has enjoyed hunting as a pastime for over half
a century, and during that time has killed 154 bears besides
many deer and other wild animals and wild fowl. The deer
became extinct about 1900, and about six years ago he restocked
a part of the mountain with deer and these are now accumulat-
ing fast. In politics Mr. Turner has always been a Republican
in national affairs, and also in the state except once when he
supported and helped nominate Governor Byrd. He votes a
mixed ticket in the county. He was twice elected to the Board
of Supervisors, serving eight years, was twice appointed land
assessor, holding that office until the law was changed, and only
by a small majority was defeated for the House of Delegates,
carrying the county but losing the city of Harrisonburg. Mr.
Turner, his friends declare, is a thorough practical Christian,
though not a member of any denomination. He has helped build
every church in the western part of his district, and has given
his time and means generously in behalf of other worthy institu-
tions and charities.
He married, December 25, 1879, at Fulks Run in Rocking-
ham County, Miss Mary Catherine Ritchie. Her father, Jona-
than Ritchie, was a fai-mer and served in the Confederate army
from 1861 to 1865. This branch of the family is distantly re-
lated to that of Governor Ritchie of Maryland. Her mother was
a Sprinkle, descended from Peter Sprinkle, a soldier in the War
of 1812, and a niece of John C. Sprinkle, a Confederate officer.
Mr. and Mrs. Turner are the parents of two daughters. Hallie
Hester, born September 27, 1881, near Fulks Run in the Brock's
Gap community, is well educated, taught in public schools and
is now the wife of Lahone Clutteur, a farmer living near Broad-
way. Alice Virginia Dare, the second daughter, was born on
Shenandoah Mountain in December, 1883, was educated in the
common schools and is the wife of John W. Fulk, a farmer near
Singers Glen in Rockingham County.
ErvvIN Grover Hall, physician and surgeon, since locating
at East Radford, has specialized in eye, ear, nose and throat, and
is one of the outstanding specialists in that field in Southwest
Virginia.
He was born at Willis in Floyd County, Virginia, December
18, 1886, son of Isaac Thomas and Leah (Young) Hall. His
father was born and reared in the same locality, attended private
schools, and spent his life as a farmer. He died in 1912 and is
buried in Rockingham County. His wife, Leah Young, was born
and reared in Floyd County, attended private schools, and now
lives with her son, Doctor Hall, at Radford. She is an earnest
member of the Baptist Church. Of the ten children born to the
parents of Doctor Hall six died in childhood from diphtheria.
Another, William, died at East Radford at the age of twenty-
one, and Luther was drowned at East Radford when eleven
years old. The two surviving children are : Addie, wife of A. H.
Jennings, of East Radford ; and Doctor Erwin.
Erwin Grover Hall attended public schools at East Radford,
spent one year in the University of Richmond, and this was
followed by the full four years course in the University College
of Medicine at Richmond. He was graduated in 1911 and for
ten years conducted a general practice in medicine and surgery
VIRGINIA 281
in Rockingham County. On giving up his work there he went
to Baltimore, and for a year devoted his time to post-graduate
work with the Presbyterian Eye, Ear, Nose and Throat Hos-
pital. With this special training and his years of general medi-
cal practice he located at East Radford in 1922, and his office
hours have been crowded with work in his special line. Doctor
Hall is a member of the Medical Society of Virginia and the
Southwest Virginia Medical Association. He was for a number
of years a member of the Rotary Club, and is affiliated with
Virginia May Lodge No. 38, A. F. and A. M. He is a Democrat
and is on the Board of Deacons in the Baptist Church and
teacher of a men's Bible class.
He married at Eclipse, Virginia, September 23, 1911, Miss
Clara Earle Harrison, of Nansemond County, where she was
reared and educated. She is a member of the Baptist Church
and the Woman's Club of Radford. Her parents were William
Allen and Lelia (Sweeney) Harrison. Her father, who died in
1914, was for many years engaged in the oyster industry at
Eclipse. Her mother is a resident of Eclipse. Doctor and Mrs.
Hall have three sons, Stewart Harrison, Robert Allen and E. G.,
Jr., all attending the public schools of East Radford.
John Calvin Hopkins is associated with his brother, Robert
S. Hopkins, as joint owners of the Hopkins Pharmacy at East
Radford, and both brothers are graduate pharmacists, masters
of that profession and very capable and energetic young busi-
ness men.
John C. Hopkins was born at Tazewell, Virginia, March 14,
1890, son of 0. E. and Rebecca W. (Peery) Hopkins, and grand-
son of John Calvin Hopkins, who spent many years of his life
as a merchant at Tazewell. 0. E. Hopkins was born in Taze-
well, attended public schools there, and for many years has
been engaged in farming and stock raising. He and his wife
live at Tazewell and are members of the Methodist Episcopal
Church, South. His wife, Rebecca Peery, was born at Taze-
well Court House and is a graduate of the Martha Washing-
ton College of Abingdon. Her parents were Albert and Sarah
(Smith) Peery. Her father was a merchant at Tazewell and
died about thii'ty years ago. Her mother is now eighty-six years
of age. 0. E. Hopkins and wife had seven children : Alice,
wife of M. Zeigler; Elizabeth, wife of A. S. Greybeal; Albert;
John C. ; Robert S. ; Martha, wife of J. A. Stimson ; and Edward.
John Calvin Hopkins attended public schools in Tazewell
and took his degree in pharmacy at the Medical College of Vir-
ginia in 1919. For the past ten years he has been associated
with his brother in the drug business at East Radford, and the
Hopkins Pharmacy there is a very popular trading place, and
especially enjoys the confidence of the medical profession be-
cause of the skill in pharmacy of both the proprietors. Mr.
Hopkins is also a director of the Peoples Bank. He is affiliated
with Virginia May Lodge No. 38, A. F. and A. M., is a mem-
ber of the Rotary Club, and is serving on the local school board.
He is a Democrat and a member of the Methodist Episcopal
Church, South.
He married at Tazewell, February 21, 1912, Miss Stella Ver-
million, of Tazewell, who finished her education in Martha Wash-
ington College at Abingdon. For a number of years she has
been a teacher of art and holds a position as art instructor in
the Radford State Teachers College. She is a Methodist, a mem-
282 VIRGINIA
ber of the Music and Art Clubs, and is very popular in the
college community. Her parents were W. I. and Elizabeth
(Williams) Vermillion, residents of Tazewell. Her father has
carried on an extensive business as a road and stone contractor.
Mr. and Mrs. Hopkins have one daughter, Elizabeth, who gradu-
ated in 1929 from the Radford High School.
Robert S. Hopkins was born at Tazewell October 27, 1892,
was educated in public schools and Randolph-Macon College, and
graduated from the School of Pharmacy of the Medical College
of Virginia at Richmond in 1917. He has a war record, having
enlisted in January, 1918, in the United States Marine Corps.
He was trained at Paris Island, South Carolina, and at Quantico,
Virginia, and in April, 1918, went overseas with the Third Re-
placement Battalion, Second Division, and joined the Marine
Headquarters in France. In September, 1918, he was invalided
home, was honorably discharged on January 14, 1919, and soon
afterwards removed to Radford, and in April joined his brother
in the drug business.
Robert S. Hopkins is affiliated with Virginia May Lodge No.
38, A. F. and A. M., Peyton Coles Chapter No. 27, Royal Arch
Masons, Bayard Commandery No. 15. Knights Templar at Roan-
oke, and Kazim Temple of the Mystic Shrine at Roanoke. He
is a member of Harvey Howe Post No. 30 of the American
Legion, the Kiwanis Club, is a Democrat and a Baptist.
He married at Radford, October 24, 1919, Miss Agnes John-
son, daughter of Albert Sidney Johnson, and member of a very
prominent family in this section of the state. Mrs. Hopkins
attended high school at Radford and is a graduate of the State
Teachers College, after which she taught school for several
years before her marriage. She is a Baptist and a member of
the United Daughters of the Confederacy and Daughters of the
American Revolution.
Charles H. Stimpson throughout his residence in Virginia
was identified with some phase of the maritime interests center-
ing around Norfolk and Portsmouth. He lived all his life close
to and in touch with the affairs of the sea.
He was born at Bath, Maine, in 1831, and died at Berkeley,
Norfolk, in 1885. The Stimpsons were of English ancestry.
His mother was a Lamont, of French Huguenot extraction.
Charles H. Stimpson attended school at Bath, Maine, and as a
young man came to Virginia, working in ship yards, but for the
greater part of his active life was associated with Captain Baker
in the business known as the Baker Ship Salvage & Wrecking
Company, one of the largest organizations of its kind on the
Virginia coast.
Mr. Stimpson married, December 19, 1877, Ann J. Simpson,
of Toronto, Canada, daughter of Samuel and Mary Simpson.
The Simpsons were of Scotch-Irish ancestry, coming to Canada
from Ireland. Her father was a pioneer lumberman in Canada,
where the family settled about 1830. He did an extensive bus-
iness in exporting lumber to the United Kingdom. Mrs. Stimp-
son now resides at 309 Dinwiddle Street in Portsmouth. She
is a member of the Episcopal Church and her husband was a
Mason. She has two children, Harry L. and Miss Mary. Harry
L. is mate of a steamship on the Pacific Ocean, and married a
western girl. Miss Mary Stimpson has become well known in
educational and social service work, is a member of the Virginia
State Teachers Association, and is a graduate of Columbia Uni-
versity of New York City.
VIRGINIA 283
Walter Gordon Trow, M. D., has been engaged in the suc-
cessful practice of his profession at Warrenton, judicial center
of Fauquier County, since 1911, save for the interval of his
service in the Medical Corps of the United States Army in the
World war and the subsequent period of his recuperation from
the effects of being gassed while with his command at the front
with his unit in France.
Doctor Trow was born in the City of Washington, D. C,
December 16, 1879, and is a son of Gordon Winthrop Trow and
Fidelia Harriet (Bundy) Trow, who were born in the State of
Vermont, of Colonial American ancestry. For a long term of
years Gordon W. Trow was in Government service in the
national capital, and there his death occurred in 1903, his
venerable widow being now a loved member of the family circle
of her son. Dr. Walter G., of this review.
After his graduation from the Eastern High School in Wash-
ington, D. C, Doctor Trow soon initiated his preparation for
the exacting profession of his choice, and in 1905 he was gradu-
ated from the medical college of George Washington University.
After thus receiving his degree of Doctor of Medicine he forti-
fied himself further by devoting much of the ensuing year to
post-graduate work at the Hahnemann Hospital in the City of
Philadelphia. Thereafter he was engaged in practice in his
native city one year, and during the ensuing four years the
stage of his professional activities was at Hallwood, Accomac
County, Virginia. He then, in 1911, removed to Warrenton,
where he has since continued in active and successful general
practice save for the period of his World war service, and where
he has been retained since 1916 as local surgeon for the Southern
Railway. When in the spring of 1917 the nation became in-
volved in the World war. Doctor Trow soon volunteered for
service in the Medical Corps of the United States Army, gained
therein the rank of first lieutenant, later was promoted to cap-
tain and finally was advanced to the rank of major. He was
with his unit in overseas service from April, 1918, until the
following December, and in the meanwhile the armistice had
brought the great conflict to a close. He suffered a severe gas
attack while at the front, and after his return home he went
to Camp Lee and then received treatment at the Walter Reed
Hospital, Washington, D. C, where he was confined until July,
1919. He has not as yet recovered fully from the effects of the
gas attack, and February 9, 1929, he was retired under the
Emergency Officers Retirement Act with the rank of major.
After measurably recuperating in a physical way and after
receiving his honorable discharge. Doctor Trow resumed his
professional ministrations at Warrenton, where he controls a
large and representative practice and has standing as one of the
representative physicians and surgeons of this section of the
Old Dominion State.
Doctor Trow has membership in the Northern Virginia
Medical Society, the Virginia State Medical Society, the Vir-
ginia, Maryland and District of Columbia Medical Societies, the
American Medical Association, the Southern Railroad Surgeons
Association, besides being an influential member of the Fauquier
County Medical Society. He is affiliated with the American
Legion, the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the Royal
Arcanum, and in his home city is a member of the ChamlDer
of Commerce and the Community League. He and his wife are
members of the Presbyterian Church, and Mrs. Trow is eligible
284 VIRGINIA
for affiliation with the Daughters of the American Revolution
and also the Colonial Dames. The Doctor has had neither time
nor desire to enter the arena of practical politics, but he is a
staunch advocate and supporter of the cause of the Democratic
party.
In November, 1910, Doctor Trow was united in marriage
with Miss Elizabeth Edmonds Harper, who was born near Lees-
burg, Virginia, and who is a daughter of Robert and Roberta
(Parrott) Harper, the former of whom was born in Stafford
County, and the latter of whom was born in Petersburg. For
a long term of years Robert Harper was engaged in the dry
goods business in Alexander, and thereafter he was long engaged
in the same line of enterprise at Leesburg, Loudoun County.
He finally retired to his farm in Loudoun County, and he died
in May, 1908, at the age of eighty-three years. His widow
attained to the same age, and her death occurred in February,
1926. Mr. Harper served as a member of the Confederate Home
Guard in the Civil war period, he was a lifelong member of
the Presbyterian Church and in the same served many years
as an elder, an office of which he was still the incumbent at the
time of his death, besides which he had served a long period
as Sunday school superintendent. He was twice married and
became the father of fourteen children. Doctor and Mrs. Trow
have five children: Walter Gordon, Jr., and Robert Harper
(twins) , born September 26, 1911 ; Randolph Edmonds, born
March 7, 1914; William Newi;on, born April 20, 1916; and
Roberta Parrott, born May 13, 1922. At the time of the prepara-
tion of this review Robert H. is a student in the military
academy at Danville, Virginia (summer of 1929), and his twin
brother, Walter G., Jr.. is a student in the Warrenton High
School, as is also Randolph E.
Ambrose Wilson, senior member of the firm Wilson
Brothers, druggists at East Radford, was born in that Southwest
Virginia community September 6, 1893. Both he and his brother
are World war veterans, and Mr. Wilson has had a wide and
diversified experience in business.
The Wilsons have long been prominent in and around Staun-
ton, Virginia, and they are of the same stock as that from which
was descended the World war president, Woodrow Wilson. Mr.
Wilson's grandfather was a pioneer circuit riding Presbyterian
minister. John A. Wilson, father of Ambrose, was born near
Staunton, attended public schools and spent many years in the
service of the Norfolk & Western Railway Company. He was
foreman at Radford, general foreman at Roanoke, then was
made master mechanic of the Radford Division, and after his
health failed so that he was unable to keep up with the heavy
responsibilities of this position he was made foreman in the
shops at Radford and held that position when he died, April 1,
1910. He is buried in the Central Cemetery at East Radford.
His vdfe, Mary Catherine Locke, was born and reared in Vir-
ginia. Her parents, Frederick and Wilhelmina Locke, came
from Darmstadt, Germany, living for a time at Baltimore, later
at Fredericksburg, then near Staunton, and made their final
home near Lynchburg and Radford. Mrs. Mary Catherine Wil-
son attended school at Lynchburg. She is a member of the
Episcopal Church. Of her twelve children the daughters Ethel
and Sue are deceased; Frederick; Louise, wife of E. Demming
Lucas, a Petersburg attorney; Robert L., of Radford, foreman
VIRGINIA 285
in the Norfolk & Western Railway shops, married Stella Ross, a
descendant of the famous Betsy Ross ; Rev. John A., Jr., an
Episcopal minister at Richland, Virginia, married Bess Gilles-
pie ; Henry R., general foreman of the Norfolk & Western Shops
at Shenandoah, married Bessie Lucas, of Radford ; Frank S., of
Detroit, Michigan, married Margaret Fink, of Radford ; Louis L.,
district manager at Huntington, West Virginia, for the Reliance
Life Insurance Company, married Lillian Dorsey, of Hurricane,
Putnam County, West Virginia ; Ambrose ; Edward, with the
Foster Sumner Corporation at Radford, married Addie Painter;
and Hugo L. Wilson. Hugo L. Wilson is the junior member of
the firm of Wilson Brothers. He was born in East Radford in
1898, graduated from high school and was with the colors three
years, going with the First Virginia Field Hospital Corps, which
subsequently was made a part of the Twenty-ninth Division. He
returned from overseas in July, 1919, and at that time became
associated with his brother in business. He is a charter member
of Harvey Howe Post of the American Legion and is a member
of the Episcopal Church.
Ambrose Wilson attended the grade and high schools at Rad-
ford, leaving school to take work as a clerk with the Goodykrantz
Drug Company. Later he was with Scott Brothers at Charles-
ton, West Virginia, for two years with the Frederick Pharmacy
at Huntington, a year and a half with the Dow Drug Company at
Cincinnati, for two years with the Van Lear Drug Store in
Roanoke, two years with the Pearisburg Pharmacy and a year
and a half with the Gus Washington Drug Store at Logan, West
Virginia, and a year with the Covington Pharmacy at Covington,
Virginia.
In June, 1916. he enlisted and was sent to the Mexican border
at San Antonio, Texas. In March, 1917, he returned home, but
was almost immediately recalled for service in the World war.
He was in training at Camp McClellan, Alabama, until June,
1918, when he sailed for overseas, landing at Cherbourg, France,
as a member of the One Hundred and Fifteenth Field Hospital,
Twenty-ninth Division. He was in the Haute Alsace Sector and
in the Meuse Argonne campaigns and received his honorable dis-
charge at Camp Meade, Maryland, June 19, 1919.
It was shortly after his return from overseas that he and
his brother established the firm of Wilson Brothers in East Rad-
ford. Both of them are very competent business men, and have
given the town a very up-to-date establishment, affording a
splendid service and also carrying a varied stock of goods that
makes their store a very popular center of trade. Besides the
regular stock of a drug store they handle the Atwater Kent,
Fada and Kolster radio sets and equipment, and also phono-
graphs and records.
Mr. Ambrose Wilson took the lead in organizing the Rad-
ford Kiwanis Club, and was secretary and director four years.
He is a director and secretary of the Retail Merchants Associa-
tion, and in 1926-27 was on the executive committee of the State
Department of the American Legion. He is a Royal Arch
Mason, member of Harvey Howe Post of the American Legion,
belongs to the Kiwanis Club, and is a Democrat in politics. He
is a vestryman in the Radford Episcopal Church.
Mr. Wilson married at Winston-Salem, North Carolina,
March 7, 1922, Miss Epsie Celina Rike, of Randleman, Ran-
dolph County, North Carolina. She attended public schools and
the North Carolina Woman's College of Greensboro. Mrs. Wil-
286 VIRGINIA
son is a member of the Episcopal Church, the Music Club and
Woman's Club, and the American Legion Auxiliary. Her father,
Samuel R. Rike, has for many years been a leading farmer and
tobacco grower in Randolph County, North Carolina, where both
her parents reside.
John B. Spiers is an attorney, a World war veteran and
since locating at Radford has accumulated a very satisfactory
business and is enjoying a high degree of prestige in his pro-
fession and as a public official.
He was born at Newport News, Virginia, June 29, 1897, son
of Louis H. and Nora (Belcher) Spiers. The Spiers and Bel-
cher families lived in North Carolina and over the line in South-
ern Virginia. His maternal grandfather, John E. Belcher, was
a Confederate soldier. Louis H. Spiers was born in North Caro-
lina, and for many years was a lumber inspector, being employed
by the Newport News Ship Building and Dry Dock Company.
In 1920 he was held up and robbed and killed by a highwayman.
His wife, Nora Belcher, was born and reared in Chesterfield
County, Virginia, and was a member of the Christian Church.
She died in 1907. The five childi-en of these parents were:
Helena 0., wife of W. G. Avery, of Newport News ; Anna P.,
wife of Fred L. Brucker, of Gary, Indiana ; John B. ; Louis J.,
of Greenville, South Carolina ; and Norma, wife of Ernest Fisher,
of Norfolk, Virginia.
John B. Spiers passed his boyhood days at Newport News,
attended the grade and high schools there and eno'aged in some
self-supporting activities before he entered the University of
Virginia. In October, 1917. he resigned his position in Rich-
mond to join the colors, and wps trained nt Fort Monroe with
the Sixtieth Regiment of the Coast Artillery Corps. In the
spring of 1918 he was commissioned a second lieutenant, went
overseas with the Fifty-fourth Coast Artillery Corps, and while
in the Officers Training School at Saumur, France, was in-
jured, sustaining a broken foot, and during the remaining
month'^ of the war he was in Ba^-e Ho^-pital No. 2'7 and other
hospitals in France and finally was s-^nt home and given his
honovab'e discharge at (^amo Lee in March, 1919. For a^^out
six months after leaving the armv he was employed at Rich-
mond and in the fall of 1919 began his studies at the University
of Virginia. He is a member of Harvey Howe Post of the
American Legion.
Mr. Spiers graduated from the law department of the uni-
vei'sitv in 1922. He had been admitted to the bar in 1921 and
he first practiced at Lynchburg. In March. 1923, he re-no^'ed to
Radford, where he opened an office and quickly made his abilities
recognized in his profession and was accorded a larore general
practice. His law offices are now in the First National Bank
Building. In 1923 he was appointed commonwealth's attorney
of the city of Radford and in 1924 was elected to that office.
His administration as commonwealth's attorney has been one
highly satisfactory to the good people of the county and has
brought increased prestige to him both as a lawyer and man.
Mr. Spiers is a director of the Radford Veneering Lumber
Company, Inc., is president of the Radford Kiwanis Club, is a
member of the Virginia Bar Association and a Democrat in
politics. He is affiliated with Ginter Park Lodge, A. F. and
A. M., at Richmond, Virginia; May Lodge of the fraternity at
Radford, Chapter No. 27 of the Royal Arch Masons, and the
VIRGINIA 287
Order of the Mystic Chain, Modern Woodmen of America. He
belongs to the college fraternities Delta Upsilon and Delta Theta
Phi. He is a deacon of the Christian Church.
Mr. Spiers married in Orange County, Virginia, June 7, 1924,
Miss Maxine Graves, of Liberty Mills, Virginia, where she grew
up and where she attended public schools and later continued
her education in the Episcopal School at Chatham and is a
graduate of West Hampton College of Richmond in the class of
1923. She taught in the high schools at Gordonsville, Virginia,
and Danville, West Virginia, before her marriage. Mrs. Spiers
is a member of the Christian Church, is a member of the Music
Club at Radford and belongs to the Daughters of the American
Revolution. Her father, L. W. Graves, was for over four years
a member of the House of Delegates, representing Orange and
Madison counties. He was one of the leading farmers of Orange
County, was president of the Gordonsville National Bank and
president of the Charlottesville Lumber Company. Mrs. Spiers'
mother died in 1923. To the marriage of Mr. and Mrs. Spiers
was born one son, John B., Jr., in 1925.
Col. Frank P. McConnell. prominent banker at Radford,
is a native of Alabama, son and grandson of two distinguished
citizens of that state, but in his home at Radford is closely asso-
ciated with that section of Virginia where his earlier ancestors
lived for several generations. One of his first ancestors in South-
western Virginia and on the border country in Eastern Tennes-
see was John McConnell, who married Martha Campbell. Their
son, Major John P. McConnell, was born at Fayetteville, Tennes-
see, and married Martha Campbell Kennedy. Major John P.
McConnell was the great-grandfather of Frank P. McConnell of
Radford. Major John P. McConnell's mother was a sister of
General Lewis of Virginia.
Felix Grundy McConnell. the grandfather, was born at Nash-
ville, Tennessee, April 1, 1809, and moved to Talladega County,
Alabama, in 1834. He rose to prominence as a lawyer, served
in both Houses of the Alabama Legislature, and in 1843 was
elected to represent the Fourth Alabama District in Congress.
He was reelected and died while still a member of Congress at
WaFhington, September 10, 1846. He married in 183.5 Elizabeth
Jennings Hogan, who was a great-granddaughter of William
Jennings, a captain in the Revolutionary war. Felix Grundy
McConnell had two daughters, Kathleen and Olivia, who were
respectively the first and second wives of Gen. Charles M.
Shel'ey. a brigadier general in the Confederate army and a
member of Congress.
Col. William Kennedy McConnell, father of Col. Frank P.
McConnell, was born in Talladega County, Alabama, March 25,
1841. He left LaGrange College to join Company B of the
Sixteenth Alabama Infantry as a private, was made color bearer,
drill master, and later transferred to the Thirtieth Alabama
Infantry and participated in a long list of well known battles
of the war and became a colonel of infantry in the Confederate
service. After the war he spent two years in Mexico, then
located at Selma, was appointed commandant of the University
of Alabama, for seven years was tax collector of Dallas County,
and in 1884 became agent for what is now a branch of the
Southern Railway Company at Talladega and served in that
capacity until his death, January 16, 1891. He married. May 7,
1868, Martha Ellen Smith, of Columbia, Tennessee, who was
288 VIRGINIA
educated in the Columbia Female College, graduating with high
honors in 1867. She died January 25, 1914. She possessed a
decided literary talent and contributed a number of short stories
and other articles to magazines. She was active in the Metho-
dist Episcopal Church, South, the United Daughters of the Con-
federacy and Daughters of the American Revolution. Of her
children the oldest is Felix G. McConnell, of Oklahoma City, and
Col. Frank P. is the second son. William K., Jr., died in infancy.
Dr. Ray M. McConnell became a noted scholar, a graduate of
Southern University of Greensboro, Alabama, of Vanderbilt
University of Tennessee, and the University of Chicago, took his
Master and Doctor of Philosophy degrees at Harvard University,
and won a traveling fellowship at Heidelberg, Leipsic and Bonn,
Germany, and at the University of Paris, Paris, France. He
traveled extensively abroad and was professor of philosophy in
Harvard University when he died in June, 1911, being buried in
the Professors Plat in Mt. Auburn Cemetery at Cambridge,
Massachusetts. The daughter Lena married Capt. Clifton L.
Sitton, a captain in the Spanish-American war, who died about
1900, and she is now engaged in missionary work as matron of
the Methodist Orphanage at Raleigh, North Carolina.
Col. Frank P. McConnell was born at Union City, Tennessee,
July 1, 1870. He attended public and private schools at Selma
and Talladega, graduated in 1890 from the Alabama Polytechnic
Institute at Auburn, and later attended the Law School at the
University of Richmond. At the age of sixteen he became asso-
ciated with his uncle, Houston Isbell, in the Isbell National Bank,
and he was cashier of that institution in 1908, when he married.
For several years he was actively associated with a group of
banking interests in Oklahoma and Arkansas, and still has
large holdings in the banks of those states. In 1911 Colonel
McConnell removed to Richmond, Virginia, and became presi-
dent of the Manchester National Bank, president of the South
Richmond Bank and vice president of the Bank of Commerce and
Trust. In 1920 he took up with the State Banking Depart-
ment as state bank examiner, but in 1922 resigned to become
associated in the organization of the Peoples Bank of Radford,
of which institution he has since been president and cashier and
a director. A number of prominent Virginia men are associated
with this bank, including Hon. Hal C. Tyler as vice president,
Judge R. L. Gardner, vice president, and another vice president
is Harry S. Walker. Colonel McConnell is a director in the Rad-
ford Real Estate and Insurance Corporation.
He derived his military title from his service of four years
as colonel in command of the Third Regiment of the Alabama
National Guard. Colonel McConnell is a Royal Arch and Knight
Templar and thirty-second degree Scottish Rite Mason, member
of Acca Temple of the Mystic Shrine at Richmond, is a past
exalted ruler of the B. P. 0. Elks, member of the Independent
Order of Odd Fellows, and for fifteen years was grand purser
of the Kapna Alpha Fraternity. He is a member of the Army
and Navy Club of New York. He is a Democrat and an elder in
the Presbyterian Church at Radford.
One of the interesting news dispatches published in Rich-
mond, Virginia, newspapers, in the fall of 1908, may be quoted
as the introduction to Colonel McConnell's family life: "Cul-
minating a romance which had its origin at Virginia's executive
mansion years ago will be the wedding of Miss Belle Norwood
Tyler, daughter of ex-Governor and Mrs. J. Hoge Tyler, to Col.
VIRGINIA 289
Frank P. McConnell of Talladega, Alabama, at the Tyler home
in East Radford, on November 16, 1908. The happy romance
had its origin at a notable gathering of distinguished members
of the Kappa Alpha fraternity in the executive mansion in 1901.
The social affair was a reception given at the mansion to the
Kappa Alpha convention and the naval hero, Capt. Richmond
Pearson Hobson, by the Governor and his wife. The bride-to-be
is one of the most prominent young ladies of Virginia society.
She is a fine type of that queenly beauty which made Virginia
famous."
Mrs. McCcnnell as a girl lived at Governor Tyler's country
home. Belle Hampton, and was educated by private tutors and
governesses at Radford. She is an active member of the Pres-
byterian Church and is well known in social circles in South-
west Virginia. She is a member of the United Daughters of
the Confederacy and Daughters of the American Revolution.
Colonel and Mrs. McConnell have one son, J. Hoge Tyler Mc-
Ccnnell, now attending the Radford High School.
Daniel Cox Sands, president of the Middleburg National
Bank at Middleburg, Loudoun County, is not only one of the
substantial capitalists and loyal and progressive citizens of the
historic Old Dominion, but is also doing a splendid service in
maintaining Virginia's prestige in the breeding and exploiting
of fine track horses. He has in this section of Virginia a splendid
landed estate of 3,000 acres, given over primarily to the raising
of thoroughbred horses and fine Guernsey cattle.
Mr. Sands was born in New York City, in November, 1875,
and is a son of Daniel C. and Martha (Titus) Sands, both like-
wise natives of the old Empire State of the Union. Daniel C.
Sands became a successful manufactui'er of woolen goods, but
lived virtually retired for many years prior to his death, which
occurred in March, 1917. his widow having passed awav in
February, 1923.
I'he public schools of New York City afforded Daniel C.
Sands his early education, which was there supplemented by
his attendin-:;: Columbia University. After leaving the univer-
sity he gave two years of service as a civil engineer and he
then turned his attention to farm industry and incidentally
initiated his activities in the raising of turf horses of the best
type. In March, 1908, Mr. Sands established his residence in
Loudoun County, Virginia, where he has since continued to give
supervision to his valuable landed estate, which he has made
one of the finest of American stock farms, and his civic loyalty
was further shown when he became, in 1924, one of the organ-
iz?rs and incorporators of the Middleburg National Bank, of
which he has since continued the president. He is likewise
president of the Goose Creek Lime Grinding Works, and his
influence and tangible aid are always to be counted upon in the
furtherance of measures and enterprises tending to advance
th?' communal welfare. Mr. Sands is an enthusiast in hunting
and also in the game of polo, and at the time of this writing, in
1928, he is the popular master of the Middleburg Hunt Club.
In New York City he has membership in the Union League Club
and the Riding Club, besides being an influential member of the
Turf and Field Club. In his home community in Loudoun
County he is a popular figure in both business and social circles,
and at Warrenton, Fauquier County, he has membership in the
Country Club and the Fauquier Country Club. His political
290 VIRGINIA
allegiance is given to the Democratic party, and though he is a
birthright member of the Society of Friends, he attends and
supports the Protestant Episcopal Church in his home town of
Middleburg, his wife being an active communicant of this parish.
In the World war period Mr. Sands was a zealous worker in
behalf of patriotic activities and served as chairman of the
various committees in charge of war work in Loudoun County.
Mr. Sands is a prominent figure in leading turf circles and
has exploited many of his fine horses on the American turf. He
is the owner of "Playfellow," who has made a splendid track
record, and is associated with Admiral Grayson, of the United
States Navy, in the ownership of "My Own," another famous
race horse. On his Loudoun County estate he has a stable of
twenty selected brood mares of the best lineage and type, and
maintains also a herd of purebred Guernsey cattle, representa-
tives of which have been prize winners at local stock shows.
Mr. and Mrs. Sands maintain their residence on their ideal
rural estate four miles north of Middleburg, and the beautiful
home is known for its gracious hospitality.
In October, 1908, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Sands
and Miss Edith M. Kennedy, daughter of the late David Ken-
nedy, who was born in England and whose wife was born in the
State of New York. David Kennedy was a successful contractor
and builder, and both he and his wife were residents of New
York City at the time of their death. Mr. and Mrs. Sands have
no children.
John Jacob Giesen, physician and surgeon, in the Hopkins
Building at East Radford, is a native of Southwest Virginia,
and is a man of splendid equipment for his profession. He com-
pleted his medical course just in time to go into training and
service with the Government during the World war.
Doctor Giesen was born at Roanoke, Virginia, October 26,
1891, son of Anthony and Emilia (Rossa) Giesen. His father
was born and reared at Buffalo, New York, attended public
schools there and from early manhood worked in and followed
the business of ice manufacturing. About 1890 he became
interested in an ice plant at Roanoke and in 1900 moved to Rad-
ford, where he established the Radford Ice Corporation and
was active head until 1928, when he sold the plant to the Cen-
tral Atlantic States Service Corporation. He has not entirely
retired from business, being associated with his sons in the
automobile business at Radford. He is an active member of the
Lutheran Church, and his wife was also identified with that
church. She was born in Germany and attended school there,
and came to this country with her parents, who located at Balti-
more, where she finished her education. She died in 1926. Of
their eight children one died in infancy, and the others are:
Dr. John T. ; W. L. A. Giesen, of Radford ; Catherine, wife of
H. H. Lowman, of Radford ; Dr. Andrew F., now practicing
medicine at Konowa, Oklahoma ; Anthony Jr., of Radford ;
Arthur R., of Radford; and Virginia, wife of J. L. Sharp, of
Pottsville, Pennsylvania.
John Jacob Giesen attended public schools at Roanoke and
also at Radford, took his preparatory course at St. Albans
Academy and was also in the National Business College at Roan-
oke. In 1913 he received the A. B. degree from Roanoke College
of Salem and followed that with his professional studies in the
University of Maryland at Baltimore. The university conferred
VIRGINIA 291
upon him the M. D. degree in 1918. In the meantime he had
enlisted with the 115th Field Hospital, Twenty-ninth Division,
and was in training at Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia, and at Camp
McClellan, Alabama. On July 1, 1918, he was commisioned a
first lieutenant in the Medical Corps, was assigned duty with
the Maryland General Hospital and remained there until Janu-
ary 1, 1919.
After leaving the service of the Government Doctor Giesen
became a member of the staff of the St. Albans Sanatorium at
Radford, and his work was with that institution from June 1,
1919, until April 1, 1925. For two years his health was such
that he retired from the active work of his profession, and on
June 1, 1927, opened his private offices in the Hopkins Building
at East Radford, and a large volume of practice has come to
him.
Doctor Giesen is a member of the Grand Chapter of the
medical fraternity Chi Zeta Chi, is a member of the Medical
Society of Virginia, the Southwest Virginia, Southern and Amer-
ican Associations. He is a past secretary and now president of
the Rotary Club, is an Independent Republican, and is president
of the council of the Lutheran Church at Radford. He is also
affiliated with Virginia May Lodge No. 38, A. F. and A. M.,
and a lodge of Elks at Baltimore.
Doctor Gie=;en married at Elkton, Maryland, May 5, 1919,
Miss Goldie Mae Miles, of Mathews County, Virginia, where
she grew up and attended school. She is a graduate of the
Nurses Training School at the Maryland General Hospital. Mrs.
Giesen is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South.
Her father, James A. Miles, was for many years active in the fish
and oyster business in Mathews and Westmoreland counties,
and is now retired at Mathews Court House. Her mother died
about 1903. The three children of Doctor and Mrs. Giesen are
Jane Miles, Ann Elizabeth and John Williams, Jane being a
student in the grade schools of Radford. Doctor Giesen is the
present commander of Harvey Howe Post No. 30 of the Amer-
ican Legion.
Frank Y. Caldwell, city treasurer of Radford, was born
in that city, where he is a member of a family that has been
long and prominently identified with business and public affairs.
In his official career he continues the traditions of public service
set by his father.
His father is Milton M. Caldwell, now retired, who was born
in Craig County, Virginia, attended public schools and the Vir-
ginia Polytechnic Institute at Blacksburg, and in early years
was a merchant at Radford. For seventeen years he held the
office and performed the duties of clerk of courts and for twelve
years was city treasurer. He has lived retired since 1921. His
father, George C. Caldwell, served in the Confederate army four
years. Milton M. Caldwell married Carrie Yingling, who was
born and reared at Radford, attended school there, and was al-
ways a devoted member of the Methodist Episcopal Church,
South. She died October 24, 1926, and is buried in the East
Radford Cemetery. Her parents were George W. and Sallie
(Cofer) Yingling. George W. Yingling for many years was
employed as a machinist with the Norfolk & Western Railroad.
Milton M. Caldwell and wife had five children : Frank Y. ; Paul
R., a Norfolk & Western Railway employe at Bluefield, West
Virginia ; Miss S. Lorena, a teacher at Radford ; Katherine,
292 VIRGINIA
widow of T. W. Lawford, and a teacher in the public schools
of Radford ; and Wilda May, who died in infancy.
Frank Y. Caldwell was born at Radford February 23, 1895,
and was educated in the errade and high schools, graduating from
high school in 1914. That was followed by four years at the
Virginia Military Institute, where he was a member of the class
of 1918, but on June 12, 1917, he answered the call to the colors
and went for training to Fort Myer, Virginia, for two months,
and on August 15, 1917, was commissioned a second lieutenant
and transferred to Camp Lee. He remained there until May
25, 1918, when he went overseas with the 317th Infantry,
Eightieth Division, in Company F. He was put with the British
and French troops south of Calais, France, until August 8,
1918, when he was returned home and given duties in the train-
ing camp at Greenville, South Carolina, and Charlotte, North
Carolina, and received his honorable discharge at Camp Greene
at Charlotte on March 15, 1919.
Mr. Caldwell after his return home engaged in the mercantile
business in April, 1920, and on January 1, 1922, began his term
of service as city treasurer of Radford. He was reelected to
this office in 1925. Mr. Caldwell is a Democrat, member of the
Methodist Episcopal Church, South, the Kiwanis Club, and is
affiliated with Virginia May Lodge No. 38, A. F. and A. M., East
Radford Chapter No 27, Royal Arch Masons, and Harvey Howe
Post No. 30 of the American Legion.
He married at Belspring, Virginia, January 9, 1926, Miss
Pauline Perfater, who attended public school there and is a
graduate of the Radford State Teachers College with the class
of 1921. Prior to her marriage she taught in schools at Ports-
mouth, Virginia, and in Pulaski County. Mrs. Caldwell is a
member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, the Amer-
ican Legion Auxiliary, and takes a helpful part in the life of
her community. She is a daughter of A. T. and Dora (Sifford)
Perfater. Her parents reside at East Radford, her father for
many years having been a locomotive engineer with the Nor-
folk & Western Railway. Mr. and Mrs. Caldwell have one son,
Frank Y., Jr., born May 3, 1928.
James A. Painter is a native of Southwest Virginia, and
has given the years of his manhood to merchandising, the real
estate business, and in later years to his duties as clerk of the
Corporation Court of the city of Radford, where he and his
family reside.
He was born in Wythe County, Virginia, August 23, 1875,
son of James Bell and Sallie (Gillespie) Painter, and grandson
of Isaac Painter, who was a farmer and stock raiser in Wji:he
County. James Bell Painter grew up in Wythe County, served
four years as a Confederate soldier, taking part in many of the
great battles of the war, part of the time as a member of the
Stonewall Jackson Brigade. After the war he engaged in farm-
ing and stock raising, and finally sold his property in Wythe
County and moved to a farm in Tazewell County, where he lived
until his death. His first wife, Sallie Gillespie, was born and
reared in Tazewell County, daughter of Reese Gillespie, who for
many years was clerk of the County Court there. .Mrs. Sallie
Painter attended public schools and private schools in Tazewell
County, and was always a member of the Methodist Episcopal
Church. She died in 1880. The second wife of James Bell
Painter was Mary Jane Davis, of Rural Retreat, Virginia. There
VIRGINIA 293
were six children by each marriage, those of the first union be-
ing: Warren G., of Harrisonburg, Virginia; Jesse H., of Dallas,
Texas ; Lina Belle, who married Sidney Brown and is deceased ;
Temple E., of Hopewell, Virginia; James A., of Radford, Vir-
ginia, and Charles S., of Kingsport. Tennessee. The children of
the second marriage were : Ida, wife of Tyler Witten, of Pearis-
burg; William L.. of Tazewell; Francis Neal, of Bristol, Vir-
ginia : Gary, of Bluefield, Virginia ; Mrs. Lillian Brown, de-
ceased ; and George Whitefield. of Pearisburg.
James A. Painter grew up in Tazewell County on his father's
fai-m and had the advantages of public schools there. His first
work after leaving school was clerking in a store at Tazewell
for the firm of Britten and Greaver. This experience and that
of five or six years with W. W. Jeter, of Pocahontas, Virginia,
gave him a fundamental knowledge of business, and he then
embarked his experience and capital in a general store at Nar-
rows, Virginia, and was a merchant in that town for ten years.
After selling his business he removed to Newport News, lived
there about six years and was in the furniture business. On
selling out he returned to Southwest Virginia and located at
Radford in 1906, and for four years was a furniture merchant,
and since then has conducted a real estate business, chiefly
operating with his own properties. He is a director of the
Peonies Bank of Radford.
Mr. Painter was appointed clerk of the Corporation Court
of Radford on January 31, 1910, and has performed the duties
of that position consecutively for nineteen years, having been
three times elected without opposition. Mr. Painter is a past
master of Glencoe Lodge No. 148, A. F. and A. M., member of
Royal Arch Chapter No. 27 at Radford, the Independent Order
of Odd Fellows, Modern Woodmen of America and the Order
of the Mystic Chain. He is a Democrat and a Presbyterian.
He married in Giles County, Virginia, December 2, 1893,
Carrie Morrison Priddy. She attended school at Narrows. She
is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church. South, the
United Daughters of the Confederacy and the Daughters of the
American Revolution, her ancestors having been in Virginia
since Colonial times. She is a daughter of Frank Nelson and
Melvina (Stanley) Priddy. Her mother's people as well as her
father's were Colonial Virginians. Her father spent most of
his life as a merchant at Narrows and was a soldier of the
Confederacy. Mr. and Mrs. Painter had a family of eight
children, two of whom died in infancy. Eileen A., who was
educated in the Radford High School, is the wife of B. C.
Addington, a commercial traveler living at Bluefield, West Vir-
ginia. James Frank Painter was educated in the public schools
of Radford, in 1917 enlisted in the navy, and was in training
at the Norfolk Navy Yard until honorably discharged because
of disability in 1918, and has been more or less an invalid ever
since, though for four years he carried on an insurance busi-
ness and was deputv clerk under his father until 1925. He
married Catherine DuBay, of Mount Clemens, Michigan, and
they have two children, Jane Morrison, born in 1925. and James
F., born in 1927. Miss Mary Belle Painter graduated in 1928
from the Radford High School. Miss Virginia Wilson finished
high school work in 1927, Miss Evelyn Elizabeth was a member
of the high school class of 1929, and the youngest of the family,
Thomas Wesley, is still in high school.
294 VIRGINIA
Leo S. Howard, city judge of East Radford, is representative
of the younger group of attorneys and citizens of Southwest
Virginia, and his career so far has been in line with the many
distinguished attainments of the Howard family running back
through the various generations.
This is a family connection equally well known in England
,and America. The Howards of Virginia were a branch of a
very wealthy family of England, and the Virginia descendants
today are among the claimants to a great estate which for many
years has been a subject of prolonged chancery adjudication,
and in the meantime is held in trust by the Bank of England.
The founder of the Howard family in Montgomery County, Vir-
ginia, was a Presbyterian minister who came from England.
At one time the sum of 25,000 pounds, English money, was sent
to New York for the Virginia relatives, and a son of the Presby-
terian minister rode all the way on horseback to that city for
the money, but so much time had been consumed in prepara-
tions for the journey and the journey itself that the money had
in the meantime been sent back to England.
Judge Howard's grandfather, William Howard, was a mer-
chant, farmer and stock raiser in Pittsylvania and Floyd coun-
ties, and he and his wife are buried in the Floyd Court House
Cemetery.
Leo S. Howard was born at Floyd Court House, September
23, 1901, son of B. G. and Katherine (Sutherland) Howard.
His father was born and grew up in Floyd County, attending
public schools and the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and Uni-
versity of Virginia. He has been a member of the bar for
thirty-five years, practiced at Floyd Court House, at Stewart and
Hillsville, Virginia, and has had business in all the courts. For
a number of years he has been president of the Peoples Bank
of Floyd County, and has done a great deal in promoting good
road building in that county. He and his family reside at
Floyd Court House. He is owner of two farms, one comprising
250 acres near the Court House and partly within the corpora-
tion limits, and another of 250 acres of blue grass grazing land
on the top of the Blue Ridge Mountains. His wife, Katherine
Sutherland, is a daughter of Capt. W. H. Sutherland, who was
an officer in the Confederate army and served for thirty-six
years as clerk of Carroll County. Mrs. Katherine Howard at-
tended public schools in Carroll County and a girls' school at
Wjd;heville. She is a member of the United Daughters of the
Confederacy and is active in the Methodist Episcopal Church,
South. There are two sons in the family, B. G. Howard, Jr.,
and Leo S., both of whom have followed the law as a profes-
sion. B. G., Jr., was educated in the Virginia Polytechnic
Institute and Washington and Lee University, is associated in
practice with his father, married Miss Alice K. Smith, of Floyd
Court House, and has two children, Katherine and William
Joseph.
Leo S. Howard graduated in 1919 from the high school at
Floyd Court House, but from August, 1918, had been with the
Students Army Training Corps at the Virginia Polytechnic
Institute until the armistice. For two and a half years he was
a student in Roanoke College, took the three years law course
at Washington and Lee University, graduating in 1925, but was
admitted to the bar in December, 1923. Mr. Howard has been
in practice at East Radford since February, 1926, associated
with the well known attorney Hal C. Tyler, a son of the late
<^ <^- G^A (^"^T^
VIRGINIA 295
Governor Tyler. Mr. Hov/ard in October, 1928, was appointed
city iud^e, and gives most of his time to hi.s Judicial functions.
He is a member of Floyd Lodge No. 329, A. F. and A. M., is a
m.ember of the Knights of the Mystic Chain, the Rotary Club,
is a Democrat and a Presbyterian.
He married at Christiansburg, Virginia, January 14, 1929,
Jliss Evelyn Gerald. Mrs. Howard graduated from the Chris-
tiansburg High School, and afterwards attended the Marion
Female College, the Lynchburg College, the University of Vir-
ginia and the Radford State Teachers College, and was a teacher
for about a year before her marriage. She is active in the
Christian Church. Her parents are Walter Crockett and Mary
(Hawley) Gerald. Her father is one of the leading farmers and
stock men at Christiansburg.
Oliver Allison Ryder, physician and surgeon at 115 South
Columbus Street, Alexandria, located in that city for private
practice shortly after the close of his military service as a medi-
cal officer during the World war.
Doctor Ryder is a descendant of Isaac Ryder, who was given
a grant of land from the King of England in Orange County,
New York. His descendant, Oliver Ryder, was born in Rock-
land County, New York, in 1827, was a successful building con-
tractor, and died in 1917. He married a Miss Van Voort, of
Holland Dutch ancestry. Their son. Rev. Oliver Ryder, v/as
born at Fort Montgomery, New York, May 5, 1860, and on
account of his health when a boy was sent to Yadkin College in
Yadkin, Noi'th Carolina, where he graduated. He became a
minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, holding
pastorates in North Carolina and Virginia, and died at Norfolk
May 21, 1912. He married Martha Allison Russell, who was
born in Union County, North Carolina, January 26, 1864.
Oliver Allison Ryder, one of a family of three sons, was
born at Siler City, Chatham County, North Carolina, September
3, 1887. He was educated in private schools, graduated from
the Richmond High School in 1906, was clerk in the Richmond
office of the Chesapeake & Ohio Railway for three years, for
two years attended the University of Richmond, and in 191. '3
took his M. D. degree from the Medical College of Virginia.
He had his interneship in the Chesapeake & Ohio Railway Hos-
pital at Huntington, West Virginia, and in 1914 located for prac-
tice at Cambria, Virginia.
Soon after America declared war on Germany he ^v'as com-
missioned a first lieutenant in the Army Medical Corpd, was
called to active duty September 20, 1917, and for six months
was in the Lhiited States Army X-ray School at Richmond, one
month in the Officers' Training School at Fort Oglethorpe, two
months at Camp Forest, Georgia, and one month near Allen-
town, Pennsylvania. He was himself in a hospital for two
months recovering from appendicitis, and was then put in
charge of the X-ray Department of the Attending Surgeons'
Office at Washington. On May 1, 1919, he was commissioned
a captain.
After leaving the army Doctor Ryder did work in the New
York Children's Hospital, and during the summer of 1919 was
in the New York Post Graduate School specializing in children's
diseases and X-ray work. In his general practice at Alexandria
since October, 1920, Doctor Ryder has given the community
the benefit of his unusual training and early experience. He is
296 VIRGINIA
a member of the American X-Ray Society, Medical Society of
"Virginia, Northern Virginia and District of Columbia, and
Alexandria Medical Societies, and the Southern and American
Medical Associations.
Doctor Ryder is a member of Andrew Jackson Lodge No.
20, A. F. and A. M., Mount Vernon Chapter No. 14, Royal
Arch Masons, Virginia Consistory No. 2 of the Scottish Rite at
Alexandria, and is also a Shriner. He has affiliations with the
Independent Order of Odd Fellows, Knights of Pythias, B. P. O.
Elks, Modern Woodmen of America and Woodmen of the World.
He married at Portsmouth, Virginia, October 8, 1921, Miss
Anne Elizabeth Potts, daughter of Rev. Reginald H. and Anne
(Moore) Potts. Her father was at one time pastor of the Monu-
mental Methodist Episcopal Church, South, at Lynchburg. Mrs.
Ryder was a graduate of Randolph-Macon Woman's College of
Lynchburg. She died at Alexandria April 14, 1927. Mr. and
Mrs. Ryder had two children, Oliver Allison Ryder IV, born
December 12, 1922, and Oscar Potts Ryder, born June 18, 1925.
Roy Watson Arthuk, city manager of Radford, came to his
present position after a long and varied experience with some
of the great industrial organizations operating in Virginia. He
possesses a great knowledge of technical details, has an able
executive record, and has done a great deal of valuable work
for the community of Radford.
Mr. Arthur was born at Motleys in Pittsylvania County,
Virginia, November 6, 1878, son of William C. and Theresa Wat-
son (Laughon) Arthur. The Arthur family came from England
about the time of the Revolution. William C. Arthur was born
and reared in Bedford County, attended private and public
schools there, and was a Confederate soldier in the war between
the states. For many years he was an employe of the Southern
Railwav Company, both in construction work and in train opera-
tion. He died in January, 1925, and is buried at Lynchs Station.
His wife, who died in August, 1926, and is buried in the same
place, was born and reared in Campbell County, near what is
known as Lynchs Station. Both she and her husband were
active members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South.
The Laughon family has been in Virginia for a number of
generations and some of her ancestors were in the Revolution.
Her father was John Edward Laughon. William C. Arthur
and wife had a family of seven children : Ernest L., deceased ;
William K., deceased; James S. ; Lillian, who died in infancy;
Roy W. ; Esther B. ; and Lizzie M.
Roy Watson Arthur acquired his early education in the pub-
lic schools of Campbell County, attended the Piedmont Business
College at Lynchburg and the University College of Medicine
at Richmond for two and a half years. Ill health caused him to
leave medical school and give up the training for a professional
career. Soon afterward he found the opening opportunity that
brought him many successive relationships with the great min-
ing and industrial organizations of the state. For three years
he was employed as cashier of the Cranes Nest Coal & Coke Com-
pany at Toms Creek. From 1906 to 1914 he was with the Lane
Brothers Company, contractors of Alta Vista and their subsidi-
aries companies, part of the time in clerical duties, later in
charge of operations. He left that to go with the Boyd-Smith
Mines, Incorporated, at Mineral, Virginia, and when these prop-
erties were sold to the Dupont Company Mr. Arthur remained
VIRGINIA 297
and eventually was made superintendent of operations, serving
in that capacity until 1919, when he was transferred to the Du-
pont plant at Hopewell. Virginia, becoming assistant power
supervisor and later shipping supervisor during the dismantling
of the plant. He was at Hopewell until 1922 and for two years
remained there with the Gibson Appliance Company as manager.
For about a year Mr. Arthur was in the real estate business and
in 192.5 accepted the call to Radford as city manager, in charge
of the practical operations of the city government.
Mr. Arthur is interested in two farms, one in Campbell
County and the other in Louisa County. He is a member of
Orange Chapter No. 47. Royal Arch Masons, the Kiwanis Club,
is a Democrat and a Methodist.
He married near Christiansburg, Virginia, March 16, 1907,
Miss Verna Mae Pelter, of Montgomery County. Mrs. Arthur
was educated in public schools, attended the Concord State
Teachers College at Athens, West Virginia, and was a teacher
before her marriage, in Montgomery County. Mrs. Arthur is
a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, the United
Daughters of the Confederacy and the Woman's Club. Her par-
ents were J. E. and Josephine (Childress) Pelter. Her father
was a Confederate soldier and after the war engaged in farm-
ing and stock raising. He had acquired part of his early educa-
tion in the University of Virginia. He always took a keen in-
terest in politics. He died in 1874 and is buried in Franklin
County, Virginia. Her mother passed away in 1917 and is
buried in Montgomerj^ County. Mr. and Mrs. Arthur have a
family of three children. Audrey Mae, Lucille Pelter and Roy
William. Audrey was educated in high school in Louisa County
and Hopewell, graduated in 1929 from the Radford State Teach-
ers College and is teacher of English and mathematics at War,
West Virginia. Lucille attended school in Louisa County, the
high school at Hopewell and Radford, and is a member of the
class of 1930 in the Radford State Teachers College. The son
Roy is a seventh grade pupil at Radford.
Gordon McNeely Roberts is one of the active business
leaders of the Radford community of Southwestern Virginia,
active manager of the M. L. Harrison Tie & Lumber Company.
He was born at Stoneville, North Carolina, March 16, 1885,
of old Southern antecedents and a son of William M. and Louise
(McNeely) Roberts. His grandfather, George W. Roberts, was
a farmer in North Carolina and married a Miss Strong. Wil-
liam M. Roberts was born and reared in North Carolina, at-
tended private schools and spent his active career as a farmer.
He died in 1923 and is buried in the McNeely Cemetery. By
an unusual coincidence he was born, was married and was
buried on the 14th of April. His wife, Louise McNeely, was
born and reared near Stoneville, North Carolina, and attended
private schools in Caswell County. She also died in 1923. Her
father, Rev. George W. McNeely, was a minister of the Primi-
tive Baptist denomination, preaching in North Carolina and in
Southwestern Virginia. The children of William M. Roberts
and wife included one that died in infancy ; Jesse Howard, who
died in Texas in 1910: Myrtle, wife of t. P. Poole, of Stone-
ville. North Carolina; and Gordon M.
Gordon M. Roberts attended public schools in North Carolina,
the Massey Business College at Richmond and after leaving col-
lege in 1906 spent two years with the Norfolk & Western Rail-
298 VIRGINIA
way Company as a clerk. Since 1908 he has been in the cross
tie and kimber business, associated with the M. L. Harrison
Tie & Lumber Company. He started as bookkeeper for the or-
ganization and since 1912 has been general manager of this
business at the Radford headquarters. He is financially inter-
ested in the company and is also a director of the Taylor-Col-
quitt Company of Spartanburg, South Carolina, and is inter-
ested in several other business enterprises in Southwestern Vir-
ginia.
Mr. Roberts is a past president of the Radford Rotary Club,
is a Thirty-second degree Scottish Rite Mason and Shriner,
being a member of Kazim Temple at Roanoke. He is a Demo-
crat, and is on the board of deacons of the Presbyterian Church.
He married at Radford November 26, 1912, Miss Willie Trol-
inger Harvey. She was educated by private instructors and
in Hollins College, and is a member of the Pi-esbyterian Church.
She is a daughter of Lewis and Bettie (Trolinger) Harvey,
residents of Radford, her father being a well-to-do farmer and
stock raiser. There were eight children in the Harvey fam-
ily: Mrs. Roberts; Robert B. Harvey, of Radford; Henry M. ;
James of Blneield. West Virginia ; Margaret M., wife of Emory
Mit-'he'l, of Bluefield, West Virginia; Lieutenant Fred who was
killed in action in France during the World war ; Miss Eliza-
beth and Miss Frances, both of Radford. Mr. and Mrs. Roberts
have two daughters, Margaret McNeely and Bettie Gordon.
James Samuel Branch, Sr., a descendant of Col. John
Branch, governor of two states. North Carolina and Florida,
was a native of North Carolina, became a well known figure in
the lumber business in the southeastern states, and Mrs. Branch
and some of her children reside at Norfolk, her home being at
643 West Thirty-fourth Street.
Mr. Branch was born at Enfield, Halifax County, North Caro-
lina, April 17, 1863, and died at Florence, South Carolina, Janu-
ai'y 26, 1917. He was a son of John Richard and Josephine
(Hunter) Branch. His father was a merchant and planter at
Enfield, North Carolina, and a soldier in the Confederate army.
Mrs. Josephine Branch is now living in Rocky Mount, North
Carolina. Her father. Doctor Hunter, was a Florida planter.
Col. John Branch, governor of North Carolina and Florida and
also a member of the United States Senate from Florida, was
the great-grandfather of the late James Samuel Branch.
James Samuel Branch was a boy when his father died and
he early assumed responsibilities in assisting his mother in the
management of the home farm. He was educated at Wake For-
est Preparatory School and Bingham College in North Carolina.
On leaving the farm he became associated with the Cape Fear
Lumber Company at Wilmington, North Carolina, as a lumber
inspector, and after the plant was burned in 1906 he went with
the Camp Lumber Manufacturing Company at Marion, South
Carolina. He retired from business about six years before his
death. He attended the Methodist Church, was a Democrat,
and Mrs. Branch is an active member of the Baptist Church.
Mr. Branch married at Franklin, Virginia, in August, 1893,
Alice Eliza Wiggins, who was reared and educated at Suffolk,
Virginia. Her parents were John Bowers and Mary Sarah
(Parker) Wiggins, of North Carolina and Virginia. Her father
was a merchant. Her great-grandfather, Thomas Oliver, was
sent by the King of England on a special mission to the Colonies.
I
VIRGINIA 299
Her uncle, Capt. Irvin C. Wills, was an officer in the Confederate
army. Mrs. Branch's brother, Jasper L. Wiggins, is now in his
third term as mayor of Edenton, North Carolina, and also served
in the Spanish American War. Mr. and Mrs. Branch had four
children. The son John Richard, now connected with the Texas
Asphalt Company at Richmond, Virginia, was in France two
years during the World war and is a member of the Masonic
fraternity. Samuel C. Branch, an employe of the city of Nor-
folk in the water department, is a member of the Masonic
Order, married Elsie Burns and has a daughter. Norma. Lin-
wood 0. B. Branch, in the service of the Seaboard Air Line Rail-
way, was for four years, 1922-26, city assistant purchasing
agent, served eighteen months in the navy during the World
war, and by his marriage to Iris Godfrey has a son, Linwood
0. B., Jr. James S. Branch, Jr., the youngest of the four sons
of Mrs. Branch, was secretary to Col. Charles Borland in the
city safety department, served as a first lieutenant in the Nor-
folk Home Guard, and is now connected with the Virginian Rail-
way.
Walter Adgate Vv'^abfield, M. D. The City of Alexandria,
metropolis of Arlington County, has its due quota of able and
successful physicians and surgeons, and among the number is
Doctor Warfield, whose technical skill and personal popularity
have conspired to gain to him a substantial and important gen-
eral practice and give him rank among the leading representa-
tives of his profession in his native city and county.
Doctor Warfield, who maintains his office at 908 Cameron
Street and his residence at 910 that thoroughfare, was born in
Alexandria on the 4th of February, 1884, and is a son of Frank
and Cora M. (Smith) Warfield, the former of whom was born
at Alexandria and the latter in the City of Richmond, this state.
Frank Warfield was reared and educated in Alexandria and in
his native city he has been actively identified with the drug
business during virtually his entire career, as has also his uncle,
Edgar, who is still actively engaged in this line of enterprise,
though he celebrated in 1928 the eighty-seventh anniversary of
his birth, his being the distinction of having been a gallant
young soldier of the Confederacy in the Civil war.
In the Alexandria High School Doctor Warfield was grad-
uated as a member of the class of 1898. and thereafter he was
a student in the National School of Pharmacy, Washington,
D. C. until he decided to broaden the scope of his studies and
pi'epare himself for the medical profession. With this ambition
in view he attended the George Washington University for
three years, then entered the medical department of the Uni-
versity of the South at Sewanee, Tennessee, and in that institu-
tion he was graduated in 1905. In the year that thus marked
his reception of the degree of Doctor of Medicine he opened an
office in Alexandria, and here he has continued in successful
general practice during the intervening period of nearly a
quarter of a century, save for the interval of his service on the
Mexican border during the troubles that there occurred in
1916-17. In this military service the Doctor went forth as a
member of a Virginia regiment in which he was accorded the
rank of first lieutenant in the Medical Corps, this rank having
been retained by him after the regiment was mustered into the
United States Army, from which he resigned and was accorded
honorable discharge in January, 1917. The Doctor has mem-
300 VIRGINIA
bership in the American Medical Association, the Virginia State
Medical Society, the District of Columbia Medical Society and
the Alexandria Medical Society. His political allegiance is given
to the Democratic party, he and his wife are communicants of
the Protestant Episcopal Church, he is affiliated with the Kappa
Sigma college fraternity, and is a member of the Belle Haven
Country Club. His home in Alexandria is one of the beautiful
places of the city, and he maintains also a fine summer home on
Belmont Bay, where he erected a beautiful residence, which
with its surrounding estate of more than 500 acres makes the
place rank well with historic Mount Vernon in beauty. The
ancestral lineage of Doctor Warfield traces back to both Eng-
land and Sweden.
On the 19th of March, 1919, was solemnized the marriage of
Doctor Warfield and Miss Ruth Barkley, who was born at Wel-
don. North Carolina, the daughter of James E. and Sarah
(Parker) Barkley. Her father was born at Tallahassee, Florida,
while her mother was born at the "Meadows" in Northampton
County, North Carolina. Doctor and Mrs. Warfield are prom-
inent figures in the representative social and cultural circles
of their home city, and both the city and country homes are
known for their gracious hospitality under the regime of Mrs.
Warfield as the popular chatelaine thereof.
Hon. James M. Barker. Whether considered from the
standpoint of his professional attainments or from the viewpoint
of progressive citizenship, Hon. James M. Barker is a young law-
yer of pronounced character. For four years, from 1923 until
1927, he occupied the office of commonwealth's attorney of Wash-
ington County, and established a record for sterling accomplish-
ments that would have assured his retention in that capacity as
long as he desired, but, preferring to return to private practice,
he refused to stand for reelection. He now has an excellent prac-
tice at Abingdon, where he is a prominent factor in all civic
movements and enterprises.
Mr. Barker was born at Turkey Cove, Lee County, Virginia,
November 6, 1888, and is a son of John B. and Susan (Slemp)
Barker, and a grandson of Charles Barker, a native of Washing-
ton County, who for many years was engaged in planting in Lee
County, where his death occurred. John B. Barker was born in
Lee County, where he received a public school education, and
during the war between the states enlisted in the Confederate
army, with which he fought valiantly until the close of the
struggle. He then returned to his home, where he followed the
life of a planter until his death in March, 1926. In addition to be-
ing a successful agriculturist he was active in Democratic pol-
itics, and was a man of high character and considerable influence
in his community. Mrs. Barker, who was also born in Lee
County, died in 1925. She was a daughter of Hugh Alley Slemp,
who had a plantation at Turkey Cove, and was a first cousin of
Congressman Slemp, the elder, and a second cousin of Hon. Bas-
com Slemp, for many years a member of Congress and subse-
quently private secretary to President Coolidge.
James M. Barker was given excellent educational advantages
in his youth, attending the grammar and high schools of Cleve-
land, Virginia, and Emory and Henry College of Emory, this
state, from which he was graduated with the degree of Bachelor
of Arts in 1910, winning the Robertson medal for oratory. Mr.
Barker has always been a good speaker, and is well known for
VIRGINIA 301
his work on the stump- during political campaigns, his services
as a speaker also being in constant demand on all public occa-
sions. After leaving Emory and Henry College he pursued his
professional studies at the University of Virginia, from which
he was graduated with the degree of Bachelor of Laws in 1913,
and immediately entered upon the practice of his profession at
Hazard, Kentucky. While there he had a large practice and also
served as a member of the school board. At the end of six years,
during the greater part of which time he was attorney for the
Virginia Iron and Coke Company, doing their title and abstract
work, he moved to Abingdon, which has since been his home and
the scene of his really remarkable success. Soon after his arrival
at Abingdon he entered Democratic politics, and in 1923 was
elected commonwealth's attorney for Washington County, an
oflice in which he established a record of securing about 90% of
convictions out of all persons indicted, being at all times an ac-
tive, vigorous and fearless prosecutor. He was urged to accept
the nomination for reelection in 1927, but his private practice
had grown to such proportions he felt that he owed it his entire
attention. He still is a leading member of the Democratic party,
was manager for the national committee in Washington County
during the last presidential election, and on several occasions has
been a delegate to congressional conventions. He maintains of-
fices at Abingdon, and is a member of the Virginia Bar Associa-
tion. Mr. Barker is 'active in all matters pertaining to the wel-
fare and advancement of his community, and he and his family
are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South.
On June 3, 1916, Mr. Barker was united in marriage with
Miss Olletha May St. John, of Washington County, daughter of
D. S. and Annie St. John, members of old and distinguished Viiv
ginia families, and residents of Washington County, where Mr.
St. John is engaged in extensive operations as a planter. Mrs.
Barker was educated at Martha W^ashington College, Abingdon,
and is active in club circles at Abingdon, and in the various
charities of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. Mr. .and
Mrs. Barker are the parents of two children: James M.^-Jr;,
born February 16, 1917; and Joseph Kelly, born November 10;
1919. .1
Joseph A. McGuire, surgeon, founder and proprietor of the
Norton Hospital at Norton in Wise County, has enjoyed a dis-
tinguished service in his profession for over a quarter of a cen-
tury. During that time he has lived in his native locality of
Southwe.st Virginia, and for some years also practiced on the
other side of the state line in West Virginia.
Doctor JMcGuire was born at Cedar Bluff, Tazewell County,
Virginia, March 17, 1876, son of James M. and Maggie (Hurt)
McGuire, and grandson of James McGuire. James M. McGuire
was born in 1839, was a farmer and merchant, and died in 1893.
His wife. Maggie Hurt, was born in 1857.
Dr. Joseph A. McGuire is a graduate of Emory and Henry
College, taking the Bachelor of Science degree there in 1896.
He was graduated in medicine from the University of Virginia
in 1900 and began practice in Wise County. After four years he
went to Texas, and for six years made his home at Dallas, where
he enjoyed a favorable professional record. In 1910 he located
at Princeton, West Virginia, and in connection with his private
practice became one of the promoters of the Virginian General
Hospital and served as surgeon for the Virginian Railway.
302 VIRGINIA
Doctor McGuire disposed of his hospital and other profes-
sional interests at Princeton in 1920 and, locating at Norton,
Virginia, erected the Norton Hospital. This is a three-story
brick structure, with a thirty-five bed capacity, and in its general
equipment comprises practically every facility found in a modern
standard hospital. Doctor McGuire since its founding has been
manager of the hospital and chief of its surgical staff.
An honor that is significant of his high standing in the surgi-
cal profession of Southwest Virginia came with his appointment
as a member of the Virginia State Board of Health. He is a
member of the Wise County Medical Society, Medical Society of
Virginia, American Medical Association, Southern and Clinch
Valley Medical Associations. Doctor McGuire is a member of the
Kiwanis Club, is a Knight Templar Mason and Shriner, member
of the Elks, and is a Methodist.
He married, June 5, 1907, Miss Gertrude Flanary, who was
born at Wise Court House February 26, 1885. Her father, C. F.
Flanary, was a business man and state senator of Virginia, and
died in 1910. Doctor and Mrs. McGuire's children were: Joseph
A., Jr., born September 14, 1909, and died in 1918 ; and Ruth
Flanary, born October 23, 1912.
Robert Swanson Kyle, M. D. Prominent among the lead-
ing members of the younger generation of physicians and sur-
geons of Wise County is Robert Swanson Kyle, M. D. who is en-
gaged in the successful practice of his profession at Big Stone
Gap. Prior to taking up the active duties of his calling he pre-
pared himself thoroughly, having a full realization of the re-
sponsibilities as well as the opportunities devolving upon the
devotees of medicine and surgery, and has continued to be a
faithful student of his vocation, with the result that he is rapidly
becoming one of the skilled practitioners of his section.
Doctor Kyle was born in Carroll County, Virginia, June 14,
1898, and is a son of S. D. and Mary J. (Howard) Kyle. The
Kyle family is of Scotch origin and came to America at an early
date, having been for many years well known in Carroll County,
where was born Madison Kyle, the grandfather of Doctor Kyle.
Madison Kyle was a successful planter of his locality and an ac-
tive Democrat, as well as a devout member of the Methodist
Episcopal Church, South. S. D. Kyle, the father of Doctor Kyle,
was born in Carroll County, where he received a public school
education, and as a young man adopted the vocation of planter,
which he has followed with industry and success to the present.
He is a Democrat without political aspirations, and he and his
wife are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, in
the work of which both are active.
Robert Swanson Kyle was graduated from Woodlawn High
School in Carroll County in 1917, following which he was a
student in William and Mary College for two years, and then
enrolled as a medical student in the Medical College of Virginia,
Richmond. He was graduated from that institution as a member
of the class of 1923, receiving the degree of Doctor of Medicine,
and served his interneship of one year at the Lewis-Gale Hospi-
tal, Roanoke. In 1924 he commenced the practice of his pro-
fession at Galax, Virginia, where he remained for two years, and
then settled permanently at Big Stone Gap, where he has since
built up an excellent practice in general medicine and surgery.
Combined with his skill and learning is a pleasing personality,
which has made him many friends, and in addition to his regu-
^y^^
VIRGINIA 303
lar practice he is acting as medical examiner for all of the lead-
ing life insurance companies represented at Big Stone Gap. He
is a member of the Wise County Medical Society, the Virginia
Medical Society and the American Medical Association, and as
a fraternalist belongs to Clinch Valley Blue Lodge, A. F. and
A. M., and the Phi Beta Pi fraternity. He is a Democrat in
his political convictions and a member of the Methodist Episco-
pal Church. As one of the rising young men of his community
he takes an active part in all worthy civic movements, and dur-
ing the World war attended the Army Students Training Camp.
In June, 1926, Doctor Kyle was united in marriage with Miss
Vera Sue Hampton, of Grayson County, Virginia, a member of
an old and distinguished Virginia family and a daughter of
Kemper and Annie Hampton, residents of Grayson County,
where Mr. Hampton is a leading figure in the lumber industry.
Mrs. Kyle, a woman of superior attainments and accomplish-
ments, was educated at Martha Washington College and the
Atlanta Conservatory of Music of Atlanta, Georgia. She is a
leader in the club and social life of Big Stone Gap and an active
member of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Doctor and Mrs.
Kyle are the parents of one daughter, Mary Ann, who was born
March 18, 1927.
Anthony Giesen has for years been one of the leaders in
business and public aff'airs in the community of Radford, where
he is president of A. Giesen & Sons.
Mr. Giesen was born at Buffalo, New York, November 28,
1869, son of Andrew F. and Katherine (Nobb) Giesen. His
parents were natives of Germany, and on coming to the United
States in 1845 settled in Buffalo, and in 1888 moved to Balti-
more, Maryland, where both of them are buried. After the
death of the father the widowed mother spent her last years at
Roanoke. There were fourteen children in the family, and
twelve of them grew up : Mary, John, Anthony, Adam, three
deceased sons, Andrew, Conrad and George, Annie, Gertrude,
and three other children are deceased, Jacob, Katherine and
Christine.
Anthony Giesen attended public schools in Bufi'alo and
learned the machinist's trade there. He followed the trade of
machinist with various companies and organizations until 1901,
in which year he established an ice factory and bottling plant
at Radford. He has been prominently identified with the com-
mercial life of the city ever since. In 1928 the ice plant was
sold, but the bottling business is still carried on, making a spe-
cialty of the manufacture and distribution of the King Cola
drinks. Mr. Giesen branched out into another line in 1923 when
he established A. Giesen & Sons, automobile dealers, having the
distribution over this locality for the Chrysler and Plymouth
cars. The company owns and operates a modern garage and
shop, with repair, oil and gas service. Mr. Giesen has numer-
ous other investments in the city and for a number of years was
an active stockholder in the Peoples Bank. He owns local
real estate.
Both he and his sons are popular citizens and take a keen
interest in local politics. Mr. Giesen was for two and a half
terms a member of the City Council. In the last election he ran
for city commissioner, and in spite of the fact that he was away
from the city during the campaign, he was defeated by only
eleven votes. Mr. Giesen is a member of the Independent Order
304 VIRGINIA
of Odd Fellows, B. P. 0. Elks, Improved Order of Red Men,
Modern Woodmen of America. He is a Republican and for
many years was a member of the council of the Lutheran
Church.
He married at Baltimore, Maryland, July 19, 1892, Miss
Emelie Rossa, of Baltimore. She was born and spent her early
years in West Poland, being sixteen years of age when her
parents came to America and located at Baltimore. She regu-
larly attended the Lutheran Church, but was all in all devoted
to her home and children. She died August 20, 1926, and is
buried in the Radford Cemetery. Her parents were Carl and
Elizabeth Rossa, who settled at Baltimore in 1887, and both are
buried in the Forest Lawn Cemetery of that city. Her father
was an employe of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Company.
Mr. and Mrs. Giesen were the parents of eight children, one
of whom died in infancy. The oldest son is Dr. John J. Giesen,
a well known physician at Radford. William L. A. Giesen, asso-
ciated with his father in the A. Giesen & Sons, is an aviator,
owning his plane at Cooks field, and married Miss Grace French,
of Radford. The daughter Katherine is the wife of H. H. Low-
man, of Radford, and has two children, Robert Anthony and
Rebecca. Dr. Andrew Giesen was educated in Roanoke College,
spent one year in the University of Virginia and finished his
medical studies in the University of Oklahoma, and is now prac-
ticing in that state. He married Virginia Vaughan, of Rad-
ford, and has a son, Andrew F., Jr. Anthony G. Giesen attended
high school at Radford, graduated from Roanoke College in 1925,
is secretary and treasurer of A. Giesen & Sons, and is one of the
prominent young business men of the city, being a Rotarian, a
member of the Pi Kappa Phi and Modern Woodmen of America.
Arthur Rossa Giesen, the next son, graduated from the Virginia
Military Institute in 1927, holds a commission as second lieuten-
ant in the Reserve Officers Training Corps, and is with his father
and brothers in the automobile business. The youngest child,
Virginia Gertrude, is the wife of Jack Lee Sharp, who is con-
nected with the coal industry at Pottsville, Pennsylvania.
Henry C. Rolling. Occupying a position of prominence in
his profession in Wise County, and a specialist in real estate and
corporation law at Norton, Virginia, Henry C. Boiling is recog-
nized as one of the ablest younger members of the bar in active
practice in Southwest Virginia. He worthily bears an old and
nationally distinguished family name, one that is linked to cen-
turies of American history and to Virginia's earliest Colonial
.settlements. From the founding of Jamestown in 1607 has come
down the beautiful story of Pocahontas, one that still thrills the
.school children over the entire country, and a romantic story
that is seldom in after life entirely forgotten. The Boilings of
Wise County are in the ninth generation of descent from Poca-
hontas, who became the wife of the Virginia planter, John Rolfe,
and was the grandmother of the maiden espoused by Robert
Boiling, the only Englishman by that name to come to America,
and from whom all the Boilings in America have sprung. Henry
C. Boiling's direct line of descent is traced to the Boiling who
married Martha, sister of President Thomas Jeff'erson, while the
John Randolphs of Virginia were also kindred.
Henry C. Boiling was born at Flat Gap, Wise County, Vir-
ginia, September 21, 1902, son of George Washington and Ellen
(Kiser) Boiling, and grandson of Amos Boiling and of Abednego
VIRGINIA 305
Kiser. The maternal grandfather was a native of Virginia but
of German parentage. At one time he was an extensive planter
in Russell County, and was a soldier in the Confederate army
during the Civil war. The paternal grandfather, Amos Boiling,
was born at Wytheville, Virginia, and from there came to the
Big Sandy River in Wise County, where he owned much land and
operated large plantations before the war between the states. He
was active in the Democratic party, served in local offices and
with his family belonged to the Baptist Church.
George Washington Boiling, father of Attorney Boiling, has
practically spent his entire life at Flat Gap, where he was born
and where he has always had important business interests. For
many years he was the leading merchant at Flat Gap, and now
gives attention ond oversight to agricultural affairs. He is a
Confederate veteran of the Civil war, and has always been active
in Democratic politics in Wise County, and a supporter of the
Baptist Church. He married Miss Ellen Kiser, who also survives,
and they had a family of five sons and three daughters
born to them, Henry C. being sixth in order of birth. All survive
except the eldest. Pearl, who was the wife of Floyd Caldwell, of
Kentucky, and Mary, the fourth child, who died in infancy ;
Samuel A., the eldest son, who served on the military police
force at Camp Lee, Petersburg, Virginia, during the World war,
resides at Esserville, Virginia, and is deputy sheriff of Wise
County; Rufus A. and Walter D. who are in the Government
mail service and lives at Flat Gap ; Ethel E., who is the wife of
Will Riddle, of Jenkins, Kentucky ; and Luther, who resides with
his parents. Another highly considered close relative is that
beautiful and gracious lady, Mrs. Woodrow Wilson, formerly
Boiling, with similar descent from Pocahontas.
After completing his course in the Flat Gap High School
Henry C. Boiling attended the Virginia State College at Rad-
ford for a time and then taught school in Wise County for five
months. Even then he had commenced to cherish an ambition
to study for the law, but circumstances were not favorable just
then and he bravely turned his attention in another direction and
accepted a clerkship in the store of the Blackwood Coal & Coke
Company at Blackwood in Wise County, and three and a half
years later was advanced to the position of store superintendent,
in which capacity he continued with the company for two years
longer. During this time, in addition to attending to his business
duties most satisfactorily, he had advanced himself intellectu-
ally by taking correspondence courses in business administration,
photo and play writing, business english, and business psychol-
ogy, and when he resigned the position with the Blackwood Com-
pany, which he had won and retained through personal merit, it
was in order to enter the University of Richmond to secure high-
er educational advantages. There also he neglected no oppor-
tunities, during his first year attending classes in general litera-
tui'e in the evening and law classes during the daytime, neces-
sarily making rapid progress through such diligence, and subse-
quently spent two years as a student of law in the University of
Richmond and a general review course on all the subjects of law
at the University of Virginia. On passing his bar examination in
June, 1927, Mr. Boiling located at Norton, Virginia, as a general
law practitioner, and has made real estate and corporation law a
specialty. His unusual legal talent and his thorough knowledge
have been recognized and he has a satisfactory number of im-
portant clients throughout the city and county already showing
306 VIRGINIA
confidence in his professional judgment. He is a member of the
Wise County and the Virginia State Bar Associations, and a
member of the Commercial Law League of America.
Mr. Boiling married at Norton, Virginia, February 29, 1925,
Miss Nell Elizabeth Mann, daughter of Robert L., and Ellen
(Osdorne) Mann, the former of whom is interested in the furni-
ture business at Norton. The Mann family, of which Governor
Mann of Virginia is also a member, is an old and distinguished
one of the state. Mrs. Boiling is a graduate of the Norton High
School, an active member of the Methodist Episcopal Church,
South, in which he is a Sunday school teacher, and has a wide
and appreciative social circle in her native city. Mr. Boiling be-
longs to the Masonic fraternity and the Modern Woodmen of
America, and is very active in Democratic political circles.
Hon. Embree W. Potts. Among the men of notable pro-
fessional achievement at Abingdon, Virginia, none are held in
higher personal regard than Hon. Embree W. Potts, a leader
of her bar and formerly judge of the Juvenile and Domestic
Relations Court of Washington County. Additionally, he has
long been an influential factor in Democratic politics in Wash-
ington County, and both in public affairs and professional ef-
fort is numbered with the worth-while citizens of Southwest
Virginia.
Judge Potts was born at Gainesville, Texas, October 21,
1886, son of Hugh Frank and Lura (Hagy) Potts. His paternal
ancestry came from North Carolina and his maternal ancestry
from Virginia, but during the life of the paternal grandfather
the Potts family removed to Alabama, and in that state the late
Hugh Frank Potts was born and reared. Later he became es-
tablished at Gainesville, Texas, as a banker and merchant, and
he is credited with being one of the early clear-headed business
men to make practical the idea of chain-store merchandising.
He was a faithful supporter of the Methodist Episcopal Church,
South, and was a member of the Masonic fraternity. He mar-
ried Miss Lura Hagy, whose father. Judge Pleasant Hagy, and
whose grandfather, Martin Hagy, were both born in Washington
County, Virginia. The latter was an extensive planter at one
time, and a member of the Presbyterian Church.
Judge Pleasant Hagy, maternal grandfather of Judge Potts,
was a man of remarkable character, and the occurrences of his
eventful life linked him with both Virginia and Texas. Early in
the war between the states he enlisted in the Confederate army,
in an organization called the Glade Springs Rifles, in Washing-
ton County, Virginia, in which he proved the possession of sol-
dierly qualities including daring, which probably brought about
his capture by a Federal force. Shortly afterward, however, he
was exchanged, when he made his way to Texas and reenlisted
there and served until the close of the conflict as captain of his
company. He then joined the Texas Rangers and assisted with
that brave organization in preserving peace and safety on the
frontier. Some years later he lead important land surveys over
the country, and still later was called to the Circuit bench, be-
cause of his upright character and sound judicial qualifications.
Until the close of his life he was active also in Democratic polit-
ical circles in Cooke and other counties of Texas.
Embree W. Potts received his early educational training in
the public schools of Gainesville. In 1903 he was graduated from
the Webb School at Bellbuckle, Tennessee, and later entered
VIRGINIA 307
Vanderbilt University at Nashville, from which he was gradu-
ated in 1908 with his A. B. degree, continuing in the study of
law. While there Mr. Potts was not only a satisfactory student
and unusually proficient in many of his studies, but took an ac-
tive interest in the Delta Kappa Epsilon Greek letter fraternity,
and in such interests as represented by the Commodore Club, of
which he was made president and also president of the Senior
Class.
Upon leaving Vanderbilt University Mr. Potts entered upon
the practice of law at Abingdon, Virginia. In the years that
have followed he has built up a large civil and corporation prac-
tice, has taken an important part in notable cases of litigation
and has won legal victories that have brought him well deserved
professional distinction. He was appointed the first judge of the
Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court in Washington County,
and served three years, but then retired in order to resume his
private practice.
In 1915 Judge Potts married Miss Victoria Ayers Eaton, of
Bristol, Virginia, daughter of A. B. and Ann J. Eaton, the late
Mr. Eaton having been a prominent business man at Bristol and
Big Stone Gap for many years. Mrs. Potts is a niece of Attor-
ney-General Rufus A. Avers of Virginia, and a direct descen-
dant of Governor Wingfield, the first governor of the Virginia
colony. She was educated in the schools of Bristol and at SuUins
College, is a member of the D. A. R., and is interested in the so-
cial life at Abingdon. Judge and Mrs. Potts have one daughter
and one son, Mary Victoria and Embree William, Jr., aged re-
spectively ten and eight years.
Judge Potts grew up under Democratic political training, and
old party principles have always governed his convictions and
received the approval of his judgment. He has served as a mem-
ber of the Sinking Fund Committee of Washington County and
on the Abingdon City Council. He belongs to the Virginia State
Bar Association and is a Knight Templar Mason and a Shriner.
and is a pa.st master of his lodge at Abingdon, and belongs also
to the order of Odd Fellows and to the Civitan Club, of which he
is a past president. Both the Judge and Mrs. Potts are active
members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, in which he
is both church and district steward.
William A. Baker, M. D. Not only is Dr. William A. Baker,
of Big Stone Gap. a well-known figure as a general practitioner,
but he is also achieving a wide reputation in pediatrics, his suc-
cess in the disease of children fast making him a specialist in
that branch of his profession. His broad sympathy, his thorough
understanding of children, and his deep .study of the maladies
with which they are stricken, all combine to make him the ideal
children's doctor, and it will not be long before he will become
one of the leaders in pediatrics in Virginia.
Doctor Baker was born in Jonesville, Virginia. April 4, 1863,
a son of W. A. M. and Ellen A. (Hamblin) Baker. Mr. Baker is
deceased, and Mrs. Baker died at the age of eighty-three in Dal-
las, Te.xas. During his life time he was a farmer, and a very
active Democrat. During the war between the states he served
most bravely in the Confederate army, and for some years he
was deputy sheriff" of Lee County, Virginia. The Methodist Epis-
copal Church, South, held his membership. The Baker family is
of English descent. The Hamlin family descent is traced from
308 VIRGINIA
the Hamblin who established Fort Blackburn in Scott County,
Virginia, a man of historical fame.
From Jonesville Institute Doctor Baker went to the Univer-
sity of Maryland, and still later to the Louisville Medical College,
Louisville, Kentucky, from which he was graduated in 1891 with
the degree of Doctor of Medicine. He returned to Jonesville and
established himself there in a general practice, which he con-
tinued to carry on for fifteen years, but then went to Pennington
Gap, Virginia, for a year, after which he located permanently at
Big Stone Gap, where he has enjoyed a large and lucrative prac-
tice and become one of the very prominent men of his profession
in this part of the state. He belongs to the Wise County Medical
Society, which he has served as president, the Clinch Valley
Medical Society, the Virginia State Medical Society, Southern
Railroad Surgeons Association and the American Medical Asso-
ciation. For two years he has been surgeon for the Southern
Railroad, and he is examiner for all the leading insurance com-
panies for this district. He has been advanced to the Chapter in
Masonry, and is a past master of the Blue Lodge and a past high
priest of the Chapter, and he also belongs to the Modern Wood-
men of America. During the World war he served on the Volun-
teer Medical Board and the Medical Advisory Board. For many
years he was a member of the board of Jonesville Institute. Not
only does he frequently read papers before the different medical
societies to which he belongs, but he has had many of them pub-
lished in the medical journals of the country, and is regarded as
an authority upon numerous subjects. He sponsored a bill before
the Legislature to place student nurses in this state on an eight
hour shift, but it failed of passage, although his idea has been
adopted by all the hospitals and schools in Virginia. Like his
father, he is an active Democrat, and served as health officer for
Big Stone Gap until the county system was adopted. A man who
appreciates the value of keeping abreast of the progress that is
being made in his profession all the time, he makes it a practice
to attend clinics at frequent intervals, usually going to Louis-
ville, Kentucky, for that purpose. Whenever the opportunity of-
fers he lectures before civic bodies, taking these openings to
bring before the public his progressive ideas with reference to
health conservation, sanitation and the care of children. Long a
member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, he is now
serving the local church as steward.
Doctor Baker married Miss Elizabeth D. Duncan, of Jones-
ville, a daughter of Col. C. T. Duncan, one of the distinguished
men of Lee County, a noted attorney, commonwealth attorney,
judge of the Circuit Court, and in later life counsel for the
Louisville & Nashville Railroad. During the war between the
states he served under Gen. "Stonewall" Jackson with the rank
of colonel. Mrs. Baker was educated in the Female College of
Asheville, North Carolina, and the Female College of Lynch-
burg, Virginia, and she is now one of the valued members of the
Methodist Episcopal Church, South, of Big Stone Gap, and very
active in its missionary work. Of the children born to Doctor
and Mrs. Baker, two died in infancy, Fanchi and Billy Baker.
Thelma. who was graduated from the high school of Big Stone
Gap, married R. H. Engel, of the same place; Mary E., who was
graduated from the high school of Big Stone Gap, died in 1918,
while a pupil nurse of the University of Maryland ; Eleanor, who
was graduated from the high school of Big Stone Gap, is a pro-
I
f^^.f?^^^:L^
VIRGINIA 309
fessional nurse; Duncan McLaurin is an engineer with tiie State
Highway department at Richmond, and Margaret, who was
graduated from the high school of Big Stone Gap, is a stenog-
rapher.
Francis Burke Fitzpatrick, who holds the chair of educa-
tion in the Radford State Teachers College, came to that insti-
tution with a record of successful work as a teacher and admin-
istrator, and educators all over Virginia know him as the author
of numerous text books and educational bulletins, and as a
pioneer in the introduction of improved efficiency methods in
school work.
Mr. Fitzpatrick, who holds the degrees A. B. and M. A., was
born at Fancy Grove in Bedford County, Virginia, March 15,
1872. His grandfather. Thomas Fitzpatrick, moved from the
vicinity of Scottsville, Virginia, to Bedford County, where he
lived out his life. Hiram A. Fitzpatrick, the father, was born
in Rockingham County, Virginia, was fifteen years of age when
the family settled in the Goose Creek Valley of Bedford County,
and during the Civil war he was employed as a saddle maker
by the Confederate government. After the war he became iden-
tified with an extensive establishment as a merchant at Kaseys,
Virginia, and was also postmaster there, and operated a tannery
and saw mill. He died about 1907 and is buried in Fairview
Cemetery at Roanoke. By his first marriage he was the father
of five children : W. T. Fitzpatrick, deceased ; B. N. Fitzpatrick,
deceased ; W. A. Fitzpatrick, a banker at Bedford City : Celia,
deceased ; and Minerva, of Goodview, Bedford County, widow of
J. S. Saunders, who died in 1928. The second wife of Hiram A.
Fitzpatrick was Frances Johnson, daughter of Beniamin and
Fannie (Preston) Johnson, a family of farming people in Bed-
ford County. Frances Johnson was born and reared in that
countv, near Fancy Grove, and was educated in private schools.
She died in 1872, at the birth of her son Francis Burke.
Francis Burke Fitzpatrick was educated in public schools in
Bedford and Pittsylvania counties, graduated from Randolph-
Macon Academy of Bedford City, and took his A. B. degree at
Randolph-Macon College at Ashland in 1898. During the past
thirty years he has been a constant student, and has come in
contact with eminent educators in various institutions. For
several summers he pursued research work in Columbia Uni-
versity of New York, and in 1919 took his Master of Arts degree
at the University of Chicago. Practically all of his residence
work has been completed preparatory to the Doctor of Philos-
ophy degree, the only requirement being the preparation of his
thesis. Mr. Fitzpatrick for several years taught in grammar
and high schools in Bedford and Pittsylvania counties. For six
years he was principal of the high school at Gate City, formerly
known as Shumaker College, for two years was high school
principal at Pulaski, and for three years principal of the
Roanoke High School. In 1913 he was elected superintendent
of schools at Bristol, Virginia, resigning in 1919 to become pro-
fessor of education in the Radford State Teachers College.
Mr. Fitzpatrick in 1908 was honored with election as presi-
dent of the Virginia State Teachers Association, and has been
vice president for a number of years and one of the active
leaders in the organization. Some of his text books include
Present Day Standards for Teaching. Present Day Standards
for Supervision and Teachinrj. As principal of schools and
310 VIRGINIA
through his influence at the State Teachers College he has done
much to bring about the use of standard tests. He made thor-
ough surveys of the schools of Bristol, Lynchburg, and in Page
County, and the results of his researches have been issued in a
number of bulletins, one of the most important being Present
Standard and Practices of Virginia School Superintendents,
published by the Radford State Teachers College. His text
books are published by the F. A. Owen Company of Dansville,
New York. Mr. Fitzpatrick for many years was a member of
the State Board of Examiners.
During the World war he was a director of the Red Cross
work in Southwestern Virginia and has been president of the
Radford Chapter. He is a member of the National Education
Association, the Southwestern Virginia, Incoi'porated, the
Knights of the Mystic Chain, is a Pi Gamma Mu, member of the
Kiwanis Club. He is a Democrat, and for years has taught in
the Sunday School of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South,
and is a lay leader of the church, frequently filling pulpits for
pastors of different churches.
He married at Christiansburg, Virginia, December 24, 1903,
Miss Mary Douglas Wade, daughter of Col. Hamilton and Bettie
(Earhart) Wade. Her father was a colonel in the Confederate
army under Lee, and after the war for many years filled the
office of county clerk of Montgomery County. He died in 1907
and his wife in 1914, and both are buried at Christiansburg.
Mrs. Fitzpatrick was educated in the grade and high schools of
Christiansburg, was a member of the class of 1900 in Marion
College at Marion, Alabama, and taught in public schools in
Virginia, for several years before her marriage teaching art in
the Jeter Institute at Bedford. She finds a diversity of interests
in church work, is a former president of the Woman's Club of
Radford, former president of the United Daughters of the Con-
federacy, and also of the Chapter of the Daughters of the
American Revolution. Mr. and Mrs. Fitzpatrick have three
children: Frances Elizabeth was educated in the Radford High
School, graduated in 1926 from the State Teachers College, and
is now teacher in a public school at Richmond ; Hamilton Doug-
las graduated from the local high school, from Randolph-Macon
College at Ashland in 1927, and is teacher and athletic director
of the high school of Pocahontas, Virginia ; and Evelyn Margaret
graduated from Radford High School and is a member of the
class of 1929 in the Radford State Teachers College.
Nicholas F. Hix, physician and surgeon, graduated from
medical college in 1900, and during the greater part of his pro-
fessional career has been a resident of Wise. His thorough
training, natural gifts and long experience have brought him
well deserved leadership in his profession.
Doctor Hix was born in Prince Edward County, Virginia,
December 8, 1876, son of Dr. Thomas W. and Bettie (Gough)
Hix. His father was born in Appomattox County, Virginia, in
1832, grew up there on a farm, served all through the war as a
Confederate soldier, graduated from Jefferson Medical College
of Philadelphia, and practiced for some years at Appomattox
and later in Prince Edward County. He was at the height of
his career of usefulness when he died in 1884. He was a mem-
ber of the Baptist Church and the Masonic fraternity. The wife
of Dr. Thomas W. Hix was born in Campbell County, Virginia,
in 1834 and died in 1915. Their children were: William G., an
VIRGINIA 311
educator, who died at Greensboro, Alabama, in June 1929, Jen-
nie, who married W. R. Bracy; Mary A., who married Benjamin
Hooper and died at Sheppards, Virginia, in 1926; Thomas B., a
farmer; John W., a business man of Roanoke; Elizabeth, de-
ceased ; Lucv A., deceased wife of Charles Garden ; and Nicholas
F.
Nicholas Flood Hix attended public school in Prince Edward
County, continuing his education in Randolph-Macon Academy
at Bedford, and in 1894 graduated from William and Mary Col-
lege. For two years he was principal of the high school at Rust-
burg in Campbell County, and then entered the medical depart-
ment of the University of Virginia. He was graduated with the
M. D. degree in 1900, and from 1900 to 1904 practiced at Gate
City, Alabama. He returned to Virginia and since 1904 has made
his home and professional residence at Wise. Doctor Hix has
kept in touch with professional interests by post-graduate study,
having attended the Chicago Fost-Graduate College of Medicine
in 1916 and has frequently attended clinics at Louisville and else-
where. He is a member of the Wise County Medical Society,
Medical Society of Virginia, and during the World war was med-
ical examiner for the Wise County Draft Board.
Doctor Hix has been chairman of the Board of Welfare of
Wise County, and is interested in the coal industry and owns and
operates several farms in the county. He is a Democrat, member
of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and is a deacon in the
Baptist Church at Wise.
Doctor Hix married, February 9, 1908, Miss Ethel Mae Ful-
ton, daughter of Judge Elbert and Sophronia (Dotson) Fulton.
Mrs. Hix was educated in Randolph-Macon Woman's College at
Lynchburg. They have three daughters, Elizabeth Jacquelin,
Margaret Fulton and Ethel Mae.
Eugene P. Cox, physician and surgeon at Norton, is a na-
tive Virginian, was a medical officer overseas during the World
war, and had had a very interesting range of service and expe-
rience since getting his medical degree.
He was born in Scott County, Virginia, September 27, 1887.
His great-grandfather, David L. Cocke, settled at Foi't Black-
more during the time of Daniel Boone. Doctor Cox's grand-
father, Robert K. Cocke, was born at Fort Blackmore, became a
physician and surgeon, doing a great deal of country practice in
the early days around Fort Blackmore, where he lived until his
death in April, 1887. His wife, Nancy Buster, died in 1896. Jo-
seph N. Cox, father of Doctor Cox, was born at Fort Blackmore
December 8, 1854, grew up and married there, and in 1887 moved
to Wood, Scott County, where he was a farmer and stock raiser
until his death on December 19, 1913. He served three terms as
county supervisor. He was a Mason and member of the Free
Will Baptist Church. His wife was Victoria McClelland, a native
of Scott County, born October 1, 1854.
Eugene P. Cox was one of a large family of children and
grew up with his brothers and sisters on the home farm at Wood.
He attended public school there, and in 1911 graduated with the
A. B. degree from Emory and Henry College. With a substan-
tial literary education he entered the University College of Medi-
cine at Richmond. This college two years later was combined
with the Medical College of Virginia, and in 1915 he was given
his M. D. degree by this institution, completing four years work.
He is a member of the Kappa Psi medical fraternity. Doctor Cox
312 VIRGINIA
spent most of the year 1915 as an interne in the Lewis Gale
Hospital at Roanoke. He began practice at Clinchport, soon lo-
cating at Rye Cove, Virginia, and was there at the time of the
World war.
Doctor Cox volunteered in October, 1917, was commissioned
a first lieutenant in the Medical Corps December 8, and in Jan-
uary, 1918, was called to the colors at Fort Oglethorpe and six
weeks later was transferred to Camp Wadsworth, Spartanburg,
South Carolina. In August, 1918, he went overseas as assistant
regimental surgeon of the Fifty-fourth Pioneer Infantry. He
landed at Brest September 12, was sent to the Argonne sector
in the same month and remained there until after the armistice.
During several months after the armistice he was with the Amer-
ican forces at Coblentz, Germany. On June 26, 1919, he re-
turned home, and received his honorable discharge at Camp
Lee July 18, 1919.
Doctor Cox resumed his practice at Rye Cove, remaining
there until September, 1922, when he removed to Norton, and
has become one of the recognized leaders of his profession in that
community of Wise County. He has his office in the Kemmerer
Building. Doctor Cox is a member of the Wise County, Virginia
State and American Medical Associations. He is a Democrat in
politics, and a member of Norton Post No. 143, American Legion.
He married, February 8, 1916, Miss Myrtelle Mitchell, daugh-
ter of William and Venus (Fugate) Mitchell. Her father was a
farmer and Hereford cattle breeder. Mrs. Cox finished her edu-
cation in Sullins College at Bristol, Virginia. Thev have a son,
.Joe Mitchell Cox, born April 28, 1918.
William R. Culbertson, M. D., was for a number of years
successfully engaged in the general practice of medicine in
Southwestern Virginia. Then came the World war, he became
a medical officer, and at its close he entered the United States
Public Health Service, and as county health officer of Wise Coun-
ty he has for sevei-al years devoted all his professional expe-
rience and ability to the tasks and responsibilities of leadership
in one of the broadest and most salutary movements in our na-
tion's history.
Doctor Culbertson was born in Scott County, Virginia, July
21, 1879, son of Joseph and Mary (McConnell) Culbertson. His
father spent his active life as a merchant in Western Virginia.
Doctor Culbertson grew up in the home of a business man, had
the advantages of the public schools of Scott County, and as a
young man taught there for three years. His preparation for a
career in life came as the result of his own earnings and efforts.
Doctor Culbertson for two years attended the Medical College of
Virginia at Richmond and in 1904 he was graduated from the
Baltimore University College of Medicine at Baltimore, Mary-
land.
After graduating Doctor Culbertson located at Coeburn, Vir-
ginia, and had all the routine service of a village and country
doctor there for a number of years. He was commissioned a first
lieutenant in the Army Medical Corps and in 1918 was sent for
duty to Camp Wadsworth, South Carolina, remaining until after
the armistice.
He was honorably discharged in December, 1918, and was
then assigned under the United States Pubhc Health Service to
duty at Norton, Virginia, having charge of the campaign
against venereal diseases in this section of Virginia. A year
I
ft
VIRGINIA 313
later he was appointed county health officer of Wise County
under the State Board of Health, and at the same time was put
on the reserve list in the United States Public Health Service.
Since becoming county health officer he has totally reorganized
the work of his office, placing it on a basis of efficiency, measured
not only by his individual capacity and zeal in the work, but he
has set in motion the routine of work which coordinates with the
State Public Health Service and affords Wise County a remark-
able degree of protection and at the same time giving the people
the constant influence of health and sanitary propaganda.
Doctor Culbertson is a member and secretary of the Wise
County, Southern, Clinch Valley and American Medical Associa-
tions, the Medical Society of Virginia, is former president of the
County Society, member of the American Public Health Service
Association. He is a Knight Templar Mason and Shriner, mem-
ber of the American Legion and Kiwanis Club, and is a Pres-
byterian.
Doctor Culbertson married Miss Mazela Dingus, of Scott
County, daughter of Philip Dingus, a well known planter. Mrs.
Culbertson finished her education in Sullins College at Bristol.
She is a member of the Civic Club of Norton, the Eastern Star
Chapter, and the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. They have
three children: Joseph, born August 10. 1907, a graduate of
the Norton High School, now attending the University of Vir-
ginia; Leon, born May 14, 1910, member of the class of 1928 in
the Greenbrier Military School at Louisburg, West Virginia ;
and William, born May 16, 1916.
Victor Levin Floyd. One of the few i-etail commercial
houses that have had a continuous existence and service since the
close of the Civil war is the V. L. Floyd Grocery Company of
Richmond, a business that was founded by the late Victor
Levin Floyd, and which remains today a growing concern con-
ducted by members of his family.
Victor Levin Floyd was born in Northampton County, on the
Eastern Shore of Virginia, December 7, 1837, and died at Rich-
mond in February 13, 1911, when in his seventy-third year. This
branch of the Floyd familj' came from England, there being
two brothers who arrived in the seventeenth century, and one of
whom fettled on the Eastern Shore. His father was Captain
Berry Floyd, a plantation owner and sea captain, who owned
and operated a boat from Cape Charles to Boston IMassachu-
setts, making a great number of voyages up and down the coast,
until finally he lost his life at sea. Captain Berry Floyd married
Lavinia Nottingham, of Virginia, and of their seven children
Victor L. was the third.
Victor L. Floyd attended private schools in Accomac County
was a farmer for several years, and before the war owned a
large plantation and a number of slaves. When the War between
the States came on he joined the Hampton Grays, and was in
the war from beginning to end, a period of four years. Twice
he was wounded in battle and once was taken prisoner. He was
finally released after the end of hostilities. Before the war he
had sold his plantation and his slaves and for two years was in
business as a wheelwright. In 186.5 he established a retail
grocery business in Richmond, located on Brook Road, and he
made his store an important institution of a prosperous city
community and gave to it the most active years of his life.
314 VIRGINIA
However, not all his time was taken up with business. He
served two terms, eight years, as a local magistrate, was influen-
tial in the Democratic party, was a member of the Robert E. Lee
Camp of Confederate Veterans, and he and all his family be-
longed to the Episcopal Church. He and his sons became Ma-
sons and the daughters joined the United Daughters of the
Confederacy.
Mr. Floyd married, December 1, 1869, Miss Lucy Dabney
Walton, of Henrico County, Virginia, who was reared and edu-
cated there, attending private schools. Her father, Robert G. W.
Walton, was a land owner in Henrico County and had served
as a soldier in the War of 1812. Her mother was Frances Black-
burn. Mrs. Floyd was the ninth in a family of twelve children.
Mrs. Floyd, whose home is at 5016 New Kent Road in Rich-
mond, is the mother of eight children. Her son James Herbert,
a city employe, married Lulu Harris and had two children. Ruby
Camille, who is the wife of J. N. Bowen, and Henry Page, a
postal employe. Victor Levin, Jr., died in 1905. He married
Inez Vaughan and had two children. Walker Bryan and Victor
Levin III. Harry Lee Floyd and his next younger brother, Gar-
nett Floyd, are merchants at Richmond, being associated in
carrying on the grocery business of V. L. Floyd Grocery Com-
pany, founded by their father in 1865. Harry Lee married
Emma Foster and has three children, Emily Florence, now Mrs.
W. Moore, Harry Lee, Jr., and Lavinia Louise. Garnett mar-
ried Jennie Pyper, and they had six daughters, the oldest, Lil-
lian Frances, being the wife of J. E. Lindsey and the mother
of a daughter, Dorothy Keith, while the other children are
Marion Hope, Vera Belle, Lucy Virginia, Jeanne Garnett and
Elizabeth Keith. Marion Edward Floyd is a city employe at
Richmond, and by his marriage with Mrs. Marie Lystand has
two children, Marion Edward, Jr., and Eleanor Belle. Miss
Lulu Belle Floyd and Miss Winnie Davis Floyd both reside in
Richmond. The youngest of the family is Nannie Estelle, wife
of W. W. Buran, a merchant at White Sulphur Springs, West
Virginia, and they have two children, Wilburn Wright and Lucy
Floyd.
Avery Bryan Graybeal, physician and surgeon, is a resident
of Marion, Smyth County, where he conducts a general practice
and also acts as physician to several industrial organizations in
that section.
Doctor Graybeal was born at Clifton, North Carolina, Decem-
ber 31, 1895, and he grew up and began his professional career
in one of the most interesting of the mountainous districts of
Western North Carolina. His grandfather, John Graybeal, was
a farmer and slave owner in Ashe County, North Carolina. David
Graybeal, father of Doctor Graybeal, was born in Ashe County
September 11, 1845, and was member of a North Carolina Regi-
ment of Infantry during the last three years of the Civil war,
and in after years was affiliated with the United Confederate
Veterans. He spent his active career as a farmer in Ashe Coun-
ty, and died March 8, 1925. He was a Democrat and a member
of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. He married Bethana
Ashley, who was born at Warrensville, North Carolina, May 21,
1853, and died February 9, 1926. They had a large family of
children: Martha, who married Marion F. Miller; Mary Ann,
who married Scott Genry; Joseph, who died in 1897; Evelyn,
who died in infancy; James M., who became an eye, ear, nose
VIRGINIA 315
and throat specialist in Montana; William Reece; Charles E.;
Minnie Ethel, who married Guy Eller; Albert; and Avery B.
Avery B. Graybeal was reared in Ashe County, attended lo-
cal schools and graduated in 1912 from the Appalachian Train-
ing School at Boone. During 1913-14 he was a student at the
North Carolina Medical College at Charlotte and in 1917 took
his medical degree from the Medical College of Virginia at Rich-
mond. Doctor Graybeal practiced at Clifton, North Carolina,
two and a half years, and then two years at Grassy Creek in his
old home neighborhood. During the World war he was medical
examiner of the Draft Board of Ashe County. In 1922 he lo-
cated at Grant in Grayson County, Virginia, and since Septem-
ber, 1925, has practiced at Marion in Smyth County. He is a
well trained physician and surgeon and also has the facilities
for the practice of electro therapy. He acts as examiner for life
insurance companies and is physician to the Virginia Table
Company, the Lincoln Company, Knight Brothers Brick and
Tile Company. Doctor Graybeal is a member of the Southwesi
Virginia Medical Society, the Medical Society of Virginia and
the American Medical Association.
Fraternally he is affiliated with the Lodge and Royal Arch
Chapter of Masonry, is a Democrat and a Methodist, and in the
Kiwanis Club is chairman of the committee on child welfare.
He married at Boone, North Carolina, August 21, 1917, Miss
Mary Frances Payne. Her father. James JI. Payne, was a Bap-
tist minister. Doctor and Mrs. Graybeal have two children :
Averv Brvan, J., born March 8, 1919, and Kent Payne, born May
15, 1922.
Chester Arthur Hutchinson, physician and surgeon at
Appalachia, Wise County, was born in that section of Virginia,
and in his professional career and as a private citizen has done
honor to one of the old and prominent names in the Virginia
Highlands.
The Hutchinson family was transplanted from Ireland to
Virginia in the early Colonial period. Doctor Hutchinson's great-
grandfather, Emanuel Hutchinson, was a native of Scott County,
Virginia, but as a minister of the Protestant Episcopal Church
went about over a large section of Southwestern Virginia, and
died in Wise County. He married Nancy Carter, a native of
Scott County. Their sen, Francis Hutchinson, was born in Scott
County in 1825. in early life was a school teacher, later a farmer,
and was a Union soldier during the Civil war, enlisting in 1861
in Kentucky and saw service under General, after President,
Garfield. He was in the siege of Vicksburg. He died in Wise
County February 14, 1907. His wife, Matilda Howell, was born
in North Carolina in 1837, and died in April. 1887.
They were the grandparents of Doctor Hutchinson. The lat-
'ter's father was Peter F. Hutchinson, who was born in Wise
County May 4, 1860, and throughout his active career was a
farmer and fruit grower. He has voted as a Republican, is a
member of the ^lethodist Episcopal Church and the Independent
Order of Odd Fellows. Peter F. Hutchinson married Jane Free-
man, who was born in Wise County June 26, 1857, and died Octo-
ber 11, 1920. The Freeman family is of German ancestry, was
established in Virginia in Colonial times, and her father, Joseph
Freeman, was born in Wise County in 1832 and died in 1899,
having been a farmer and shoemaker. He was a Confederate
soldier in the last two years of the Civil war. Joseph Freeman
316 VIRGINIA
married Sarah Powers, who was born in 1828 and died in 1906.
Her father, Jeremiah Powers, was one of the prominent old time
citizens of Wise County, a farmer, was the first justice of the
peace and held the first court convened in the county. Peter F.
Hutchinson and wife had the following children: Mary, who
married Stephen Davis ; Elizabeth, who married Calvin B. Stal-
lard; Joseph Francis, who became a minister of the Methodist
Church ; Chester A. ; Charles Wesley ; Julia, wife of Alvin Mul-
lins; Pearl Adeline, who married Stewart Jessee; Ava, wife of
Emory Davis; Maude, who married David Davis; Mrs. Manilla
Davis ; Thomas ; and Troy Howell who graduated from the Uni-
versity of Virginia in Medicine in 1929.
Chester Arthur Hutchinson was born in Wise County, Feb-
ruary 14, 1887, graduated from high school at Clintwood in
1906, spent two years in the University of Chattanooga and in
1912 graduated Doctor of Medicine from the Atlanta College of
Physicians and Surgeons. As a graduate of this school he is an
alumnus of Emory University. Doctor Hutchinson has had a
wide experience in surgery and general medicine, and in addi-
tion to the opportunities presented by his practice he has at-
tended various clinics and post-graduate courses, spending some
time with the Mayo Brothers at Rochester, Minnesota. After
graduating from college he practiced one year at Athens, Ten-
nessee, one year at Pittsburg, Georgia, for four years was sur-
geon for the Stonega Coal & Coke Company in Wise County,
Virginia, and for four years chief surgeon for the Blackwood
Coal & Coke Company at Blackwood. His home and professional
connections have been established at Appalachia since January
1, 1923. He is a member of the Wise County, Virginia State
and American Medical Associations.
Doctor Hutchinson is aflflliated with Appalachia Lodge No.
229, A. F. and A. M., Stevenson Chapter No. 19, Royal Arch
Masons, Cyrene Commandery No. 21, Knights Templar, Acca
Temple of the Mystic Shrine at Richmond, Roanoke Consistory
of the Scottish Rite, and is also a member of the Knights of
Pythias. He is a Republican and member of the First Presby
terian Church at Appalachia.
Doctor Hutchinson married, September 6, 1909, Miss Viola
Hamilton, daughter of J. Hopkins and Sallie Ann (Neal) Hamil-
ton. Mrs. Hutchinson graduated from the Clintwood High
School and for several years taught in Wise County. They have
three children : Joseph Newell, born June 14, 1910, Georgia
Leigh, born October 20, 1915, and Claudia, born July 8, 1919.
Capt. Abel L. Huntley is one of the veterans of the mari-
time transportation interests who have found home and business
connections in the Norfolk section of Virginia. Captain Huntley
is a New Englander, but married his wife in Virginia, and he
represents some of the old and prominent lines of Virginia
descent. Their home is at 714 Reservoir Street in Norfolk.
Captain Huntley was born at Black Hall, Connecticut. His
father was a Connecticut farmer and a veteran of both the Mexi-
can and Civil wars. His mother was Jane (Waters) Huntley.
Captain Huntley was educated in the Black Hall schools and at
the age of fourteen began employment with the Thames Tow
Boat Company, and remained in the service of that organization
forty-four years. Later he joined the Thomas J. Howard Com-
pany of New York City, and is now master and captain of their
tow boat, William G. Howard, which claims Norfolk as its home
V^^^'^K>^^>^K<SJ-JOoO^^SlP
VIRGINIA 317
port. Captain Huntley is a member of the Master Mates and
Pilots Association.
He married, August 23, 1911, at Norfolk, Mrs. Bettie Frances
(Dabney) Johnson. She was born in Albemarle County, Vir-
ginia, daughter of John and Sarah Elizabeth (Proffitt) Dabney.
Both the Proffitt and Dabney families have been in Virginia since
Colonial times. The Proffitts were of French Huguenot origin.
The Dabneys were early settlers around Richmond, and many
of them have been prominent in business and professional life.
Mrs. Hunt'ey was the seventh child in a lai-ge family of twenty-
five children of her father. She was first married, December 27,
1891, to John Walter Johnson, of Louisa County, Virginia. By
that marriage she had three children : Albert Mason Johnson, a
Government employe, married Edna Lee Dobbs, of Norfolk, and
has a son, Albert Mason, Jr. ; Daisy Pleasents is the wife of Dr.
James L. Carmony, of Baltimore, who served as first lieutenant
in the army during the World war ; and Roy Dabney Johnson,
married Virginia Cutler, of Newport News. Mrs. Huntley is a
member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South.
Hon. William Robertson McKenney. A student by nature,
taking an especial interest in educational and political affairs,
Hon. William Robertson McKenney, late of Petersburg, held an
assured position in legal circles, and while a member of Congress
did much to promote the healthy growth of city, county and
state. A son of Robert Armstrong McKenney, he was born
December 2, 1851, in Petersburg, of substantial Scotch and Eng-
lish ancestry. For a few generations prior to locating in Vir-
ginia the McKenney family, it is said, resided in Maryland, and
were citizens of prominence.
Robert Armstrong McKenney married Virginia Robertson, a
great-great-great-granddaughter of Ale.xander Spotswood, who
served as governor of the Colony of Virginia for a number of
years. On the maternal side she was of distinguished lineage,
her father. William Robertson, having married Ann Spotswood,
a daughter of Capt. John and Sallie (Rowzie) Spotswood, and
granddaughter of John and Mary (Dandridge) Spotswood, the
said Mary Dandridge having been a daughter of William Dand-
ridge. who served as a captain in the English navy. After leav-
ing the navy he came to this country, locating in Virginia, where
he was subsequently appointed as one of the commissioners to
locate the boundary lines of Virginia.
Receiving excellent educational advantages when young,
William Robertson McKenney was a pupil in the first class
organized after the establishment of McCabe's Preparatory
School. Entering the University of Virginia in the fall of
1872, he studied there a year, after which he taught for a year
in the McCabe School. Returning then to the university, he
completed the academic cour.se and subsequently entered the
law department of the ITniversity of Virginia, from which he
was graduated with the degree of LL. B. in 1876.
Immediately beginning the practice of his profession in
Petersburg, Mr. McKenney met with good success in his labors,
his practice widening year by year, his counsel being sought
not only in his native city, but in surrounding communities.
Becoming active in public affairs, he served as a member of the
Common Council many years, a part of the time being its presi-
dent, and was also for many terms a member of the local Board
of Education. In 1895 he had the honor of being elected to
318 VIRGINIA
represent the Fourth Virginia Congressional District, and while
there performed the duties devolving upon him most faithfully.
Physically and mentally alert and strong, his sudden death on
January 2, 1916, from that dread disease pneumonia was a
shock to the entire community, and deeply deplored by old and
young.
Mr. McKenney married, December 2, 1878, Miss Clara Jus-
tine Pickrell, who was born in New Orleans, Louisiana, a daugh-
ter of Addison and Justine (Lockett) Pickrell, and granddaugh-
ter of Henry and Amelia (Fontenelle) Lockett. Having been
a young child when her parents died, Mrs. McKenney was
brought up by her paternal grandparents. She is a woman of
culture and refinement, practical and generous in the expenditure
of her money, placing it where it will be of the greatest benefit
to the general public. In 1924 Mrs. McKenney presented the
McKenney home on Sycamore Street to the city, said home to
be used as a Free Libi'ary Building, for which it is admirably
adapted, the library itself being now known as the William
Robertson McKenney Free Library.
At this writing, in 1927, Mrs. McKenney still resides in
Petersburg, where she has the love and respect of the entire
community. Of her marriage with Mr. McKenney five children
were born, namely : Anne Pickrell, William Robertson, Jr., Vir-
ginia Spotswood, Clara Justine and Robert Armstrong, of whom
a brief account appears elsewhere in this volume.
Robert Armstrong McKenney. A man of excellent char-
acter, and a most congenial companion, Robert Armstrong Mc-
Kenney has followed the professional footsteps of his father, the
late William R. McKenney, and is rapidly gaining a stable posi-
tion among the active and able attorneys of Petersburg. He
was born in Petei'sburg, Virginia, August 9, 1893, coming on
both sides of the house of honored ancestry.
His paternal grandfather, Robert A. McKenney I, married
Virginia Robertson, a daughter of Williaim and Ann (Spots-
wood) Robertson. Through this grandmother he is a direct
descendant of William Dandridge, who served for a time
as captain of a vessel belonging to the English Navy, but subse-
quently immigrated to America, becoming a pioneer settler of
Virginia. Taking an active part in the public afi'airs of the new
colony, he was one of the commissioners appointed to establish
the boundary line between Virginia and North Carolina.
Further ancestral history may be found elsewhere in this volume,
in connection with the sketch of the late William R. McKenney.
Fitted for college in Hall and Arrington's Academy in Peters-
burg and in the Woodbury Forest School at Orange, Virginia,
Robert Armstrong McKenney studied for a time at the Uni-
versity of Virginia. He subsequently entered Dartmouth Col-
lege at Hanover, New Hampshire, and was there graduated in
1917, with the degree of A. B. On March 28, 1917, Mr. McKen- '
ney enlisted for service in the World war, and was assigned
to the navy, which was then making strenuous efforts to clear
the ocean of mines and destroyers. Much of his time was there-
fore spent on foreign waters, serving first as a third class
quartermaster, but later being promoted to the first class, a rank
he maintained until his honorable discharge from the service on
June 6, 1919.
Very soon after his return to Petersburg Mr. McKenney be-
came assistant secretary-treasurer of the Banking Trust and
VIRGINIA 319
Mortgage Company, a position he retained until 1924. In that
year, having a decided inclination for legal work, he entered
the law department of the University of Virginia, from which
he was graduated in 1927. Immediately opening an office in
Petersburg, he met with encouraging success from the start, his
unsparing pains and patience in behalf of his clients being sure
to win him an extensive patronage.
Mr. McKenney married, in 1920, Miss Katherine Friend
Jones, who was born in Petersburg, a daughter of William Bland
Pryor and Mary Nowlen (Meacham) Jones. One child, Ann
Pickrell McKenney, has blessed their union. Fraternally Mr.
McKenney belongs to two college fraternities, the Phi Alpha
Delta and the Phi Beta Kappa (honorary). He is also a Mason,
and a member of the American Legion. Both he and his wife
are faithful members of Saint Paul's Episcopal Church.
Joseph B. Wolfe, Jr., physician and surgeon, with home at
Coeburn, Wise County, is an eminent representative of his pro-
fession in Southwestern Virginia. He has practiced over thirty-
five years. He brought to his work a thorough education, natural
gifts, and also the traditions of a family many of whose members
have been doctors in the previous generations.
Doctor Wolfe is a native of Kentucky, but his family has
lived in Virginia for many years. His grandfather, Ezra M.
Wolfe, was a native of Pennsylvania, of German ancestry, and
for many years was in business as a merchant at Chai'lottes-
ville, Virginia. His wife, Lucy Bishop, was a daughter of Dr.
Joe Bishop, a physician at Patrick County, Virginia.
The father of Doctor Wolfe of Coeburn was Joseph B. Wolfe,
Sr., who was bom at Charlottesville, Virginia, February 18,
1832. He took the degree in medicine from the University of
Virginia, practiced in Scott County until 1862, and from that
year until 1870, in Wolfe County. Kentucky. He then resumed
his professional connections with Scott County, Virginia, and
had practiced fully half a century when he retired in 1903. He
lived in Joplin, Missouri, until his death on June 19, 1906. He
was for twelve years superintendent of schools of Scott County,
was a staunch Democrat, member of the Masonic fraternity and
the Christian Baptist Church. Doctor Wolfe, Sr., married Sarah
Horton Wilson, who was born in Russell County, Virginia, De-
cember 25, 1841. There were nine children in the family: Dr.
Thomas J., who graduated from the College of Physicians and
Surgeons of Baltimore ; Lucy, \\ ho married Logan L. Banner, a
physician; Mollie, who married James 0. Kennedy; Ezra M., of
Lebanon, Virginia ; Joseph B., Jr. ; Lindsay C, who became a
Baptist minister; John J., a lawyer at Joplin, Missouri; Dr.
Isaac E.. a physician at Coeburn ; and Annie, who died in child-
hood.
Joseph B. Wolfe, J., was born in Wolfe County. Kentucky,
March 7, 1869. He was reared in Scott County, Virginia, at-
tended a private school in Tennessee for a time, and in 1891
was graduated from the Louisville Medical College. In the same
year he began practice at Coeburn, and for many years that
community has learned to rely upon him for his professional
skill, his rich experience in diagnosis, his resourcefulness in
emergencies, and his boundless sympathy and kindliness. For
many years he has enjoyed a great reputation as a surgeon,
though his practice is of a general nature. He has frequently
absented himself for brief periods of time to come in touch with
320 VIRGINIA
the eminent physicians and surgeons of the great medical cen-
ters. He did post-graduate work at the Philadelphia Polyclinic
in 1908, 1910, 1912 and 1914, and at the New York Polyclinic in
1900. He is a member of the Medical Society of Virginia and
the Southern and American Medical Associations.
Doctor Wolfe is prominent in the Masonic fraternity, being
affiliated with Coeburn Lodge No. 97, A. F. and A. M., Craig
Chapter No. 31, Royal Arch Masons, Cyrene Commandery No.
21, Knights Templar, Acca Temple of the Mystic Shrine at
Richmond. He is a Democrat and a member of the Methodist
Episcopal Church, South.
He married at Coeburn, September 22, 1892, Miss Julia
Carico, daughter of William A. and Sarah (Minton) Carico. Her
father was a Coeburn merchant. Mrs. Wolfe attended Tazewell
College of Virginia. Doctor and Mrs. Wolfe have four children :
Annie, who married Willard Kilgore; William, who became a
druggist; Mary, who married Burney H. Body; and Louise, who
died at the age of two years.
Claude B. Bowyer is an eminent surgeon, and for many
years has specialized in industrial practice for some of the great
coal mining organizations of Southwestern Virginia. His home
is at Stonega in Wise County, where he is surgeon in charge of
the local hospital and the general medical and surgical facilities
of the Stonega Coal & Coke Company.
Doctor Bowyer comes of a long line of professional men, and
his family has been one distinguished by personal attainments
and services in many fields of effort. The Bowyers have been in
Virginia since Colonial times. His grandfather. Dr. Henry Quin-
cy Adams Bowyer, was born in Franklin County, Virginia, was
a graduate in medicine from the University of Pennsylvania at
Philadelphia, and served as a surgeon in the Confederate army.
After the war he practiced at Rural Retreat in Wythe County
until his death at the age of sixty-five.
The father of Dr. Claude Bowyer was Dr. Henry L. Bowyer,
who was born in Franklin County October 8, 1853. He was
reared in Wythe County, attended local schools and after the
war began preparation for the medical profession. He attended
Roanoke College at Salem, graduated Doctor of Medicine from
the University of Louisville, Kentucky, and first practiced in
Grayson County. He subsequently located at Emory, and was an
outstanding member of his profession in that community until
his death on January 28, 1927. For many years he was physi-
cian and surgeon to Emory and Henry College, and during the
World war had charge of the Students Army Training Camp of
the college. He was an active member of the Presbyterian
Church and a Democrat in politics. Dr. Henry L. Bowyer mar-
ried Mary Catherine Painter, a native of Wythe County, Vir-
ginia, where she was born in 1861. There were ten children in
the family, Claude B. being the oldest; Helen M.; Warren H. ;
Clarence P., Henry L. and W. Roscoe were all in service during
the World war, and the latter two died as a result of their serv-
ice; Miranda married Robert M. McKinney; Mamie J.; Thomas;
and Douglas. Thomas Bowyer is a graduate of the Medical Col-
lege of Virginia and is now an interne in St. Agnes Hospital at
Baltimore.
Claude B. Bowyer was born in Grayson County, Virginia,
December 25, 1880. He grew up in a home of culture and re-
finement, and had every incentive for a professional career in
I
VIRGINIA 321
the dignified character and usefulness exemplified by his father.
He was reared in the scholastic atmosphere of Emory and Henry
College, graduated with the A. B. degree from that institution
in 1902, and in 1906 took his degree in medicine at the Medical
College of Virginia at Richmond. He was in New York in 1911
and 1914, in the Post-Graduate Medical School, and specialized
in industrial medicine at Harvard University in 1921 and 1922.
He was an interne in the Memorial Hospital of Richmond during
1909-10. Practically all his professional service has been given
to the community at Stonega, and for several years he acted as
surgeon for the Stonega Coal & Coke Company, for the Inter-
state Railroad Company and the Southern Railroad Company,
and he now has charge of all the collieries operated by the
Stonega Company, and as chief of the medical and surgical serv-
ice has eleven physicians acting under him in Virginia and West
Virginia. He has given the Company Hospital at Stonega an
enviable reputation.
Doctor Bo^^'>'er for six years was secretary of the Wise Coun-
ty Medical Society, is a member of the Southern, Virginia State
and American Medical Associations, and is a charter member of
the Industrial Physicians and Surgeons of the American Medi-
cal Association. Besides his professional connection he is a
stockholder in the Stonega Coal & Coke Company and is a direc-
tor of the First National Bank of Appalachia, president of the
Lonesome Pine Country Club, and on the board of trustees of
Emory and Henry College. On account of the importance of his
connections with the essential coal industries his application for
active military service was declined during the war. Doctor
Bowyer is a Democratic voter, and has served as steward in the
Methodist Episcopal Church, South, at Stonega.
Charles Lee Morriss. No profession to which man can
devote his time, thought and attention requires more dignity,
kindness of spirit and genuine sympathy than that of funeral
director, and with these essential qualities Charles Lee Morriss,
of Petersburg, is amply supplied, his kindly attention to the
minor details of the last services to the dead alleviating in
great measure the sorrow of relatives and friends. A son of
James Tollerson Morriss, Jr., was born in Petersburg, Vir-
ginia, of Welsh ancestry, being a lineal descendant of Charles
Julius Morriss, a native and life long resident of Charles City
County. Virginia.
James Tollerson Morriss, Sr., grandfather of Charles Lee
Morriss, was born January 10, 1797, on a plantation in Charles
City County, Virginia, and there the birth of his son, James
Tollerson Morriss, Jr., occurred on April 7, 1836. James Tol-
lerson Morriss, Sr., owned an extensive plantation, which he
operated with the help of his many slaves. The maiden name
of his first wife, grandmother of Charles Lee Morriss, was
Sarah Ann Howie. She was born in Charles City County, Vir-
ginia, May 12, 1793, a daughter of Charles and Ann Howie. She
died in middle life, and her husband married again.
Quite young when his mother died, James Tollerson Morriss,
Jr., left home after the advent of his stepmother, and from the
age of sixteen years was self-supporting. Going first to Rich-
mond, Virginia, he was employed as a pattern maker in a foun-
dry. Locating in Petersburg in 1848, he served as an apprentice
at the cabinet maker's trade under James Caldwell, in whose
employ he continued until 1856. He then engaged in the furni-
322 VIRGINIA
ture and undertaking business on his own account on Boiling
Street. Subsequently enlarging his operations, Mr. Morriss estab-
lished the business of funeral director, which he continued until
his death, June 8, 1890.
The maiden name of the wife of James Tollerson Morriss, Jr.,
was Parthenia Lee Ladd. She was born in Dinwiddie County,
Virginia. February 9, 1853, a daughter of William LeRoy Ladd,
who was born in New Kent County, Virginia, where his father,
LeRoy Stith Ladd, the son of David Ladd, a Quaker, who owned
a plantation which he managed with slave help. At the out-
break of the Civil war William LeRoy Ladd enlisted in the Con-
federate service and while in camp was stricken with typhoid
fever and there died. To James T. Morriss and his wife, whose
maiden name was Parthenia Lee Ladd, five children were born,
Charles Lee, Ella Gale Humphreys, Martha Lee Bell, Alice Ran-
dolph Hood and Annie Rebecca Guthrie. Ella Gale, the oldest
daughter, is the wife of Charles Gilbert Humphreys, and Martha
Lee is the wife of Dr. Haney Hardy Bell. Alice Randolph was
the wife of W. M. Hood and Annie Rebecca was the wife of
C. L. Guthrie.
Charles Lee Morriss obtained his first knowledge of books
in the Anderson School, afterwards attending the old high school
on North LTnion Street. When seventeen years old he began
working with his father who had established an undertaking
business in 1856, and subsequently succeeded to the business,
which he is carrying on very successfully. He has made rapid
progress in his profession, keeping abreast of the times in every
respect, having one of the most complete, up-to-date funeral
director establishments to be found in all Virginia.
Mr. Morriss married, January 3, 1912, Sarah Grant Triplett,
who was born in Chester County, South Carolina, a daughter
of Grover and Claudia (Grant) Triplett, and granddaughter of
Amzi Triplett of Chester County, South Carolina. Both the
Triplett and Grant ancestors were pioneer settlers of Virginia,
some of them coming from England, settling in South Carolina
rather than in Virginia.
Mr. and Mrs. Morriss have two children, James Tollerson
Morriss IV and Sarah Triplett Morriss. For upwards of a quar-
ter of a century he has served on the Official Board of Trinity
Methodist Episcopal Church, of which he and his family are
active members. Mr. Morriss is a Knight Templar Mason and
a member of the Rotary Club, local Chamber of Commerce and
Country Club.
Samuel H. Yokley, M. D. Standing high in medical science
in Southwest Virginia and foremost among his professional
brethren in Washington County is Dr. Samuel H. Yokley, physi-
cian and surgeon at Meadow View, Virginia, and formerly health
officer. He is a veteran of the World war, and since its close a
captain in the United States Medical Reserve Corps. Doctor
Yokley is of Revolutionary stock. The Patriot soldier and the
founder of his family in America came from France in 1770 and
settled in what was then Rowan County, North Carolina, and
here took part in the battle of Guilford Court House under Gen.
Nathaniel Greene against Lord Cornwallis.
Dr. Samuel H. Yokley was born at Thomasville, North Caro-
lina, October 15, 1879, son of Judge Samuel and Janie Catherine
(Tackett) Yokley, and grandson of Lewis Yokley. The grand-
VIRGINIA 323
father acquired an extensive tract of land in what is now David-
son County, North Carolina, and under the old regime before the
Civil war was a wealthy planter and a local magistrate.
Samuel Yokley, father of Doctor Yokley, justice of the peace
and a member of the County Court, was a prominent man in
North Carolina all his active life. He owned large plantations in
Davidson County, where he reared a family that had many social
connections of worth. He was active in the old Whig party and
was one of the founders of the Republican party in his section,
which many times called him to positions of public responsibil-
ity. Throughout his life he was a faithful member of the German
Reformed Church. He married Miss Janie Catherine Tackett,
who was born in North Carolina, her Irish ancestors having been
early settlers there.
Samuel H. Yokley received his early educational training at
Thomasville and then took a counse in the Yadkin Valley Insti-
tute at Boonville, which prepared him for college, and in 1904
he was graduated from Wake Forest College at Wake Forest,
North Carolina, with his A. B. degree, and in 1905 he won his
A. M. degree. Of versatile talents and well prepared for a pro-
fessional future, Mr. Yokley entered upon the study of law, but
after a year of application and more mature thought he came to
the realization that another profession, medicine, rather than
the law, appealed to him more urgently. Later he completed his
medical course with credit in the University College of Medicine
at Richmond, Virginia, from which he was graduated in 1909,
and spent one and a half years as an interne in the Sheltering
Arms Hospital at Hansford, W'est Virginia.
Doctor Yokley first established himself in medical practice at
Buena Vista, Virginia, but one year later came to Meadow View,
where he has continued active ever since with the exception of
his period of war service, during which he was attached to Base
Hospital at Camp Custer, Michigan, entering as a first lieutenant
and emerging with the rank of captain.
In 1911 Doctor Yokley completed a post-graduate course in
Tulane University, New Orleans, and has attended important
clinics and conventions in many other medical centers. Well read
and experienced in every branch of medical science, he has al-
ways been a general practitioner. For fifteen years he has been
surgeon for the Norfolk & Western Railway, and belongs to this
sy.stem's Railway Surgeons Association, and also to the Southern
Railway Surgeons Association, and is examiner for twenty-three
life insurance companies.
In June, 1922, Doctor Yokley married Miss Marie Layman,
of Botetourt County, Virginia, daughter of George W. and Mary
(Moomaw) Layman, prominent residents of Troutville, Vir-
ginia, ;\Ir. Layman being a retired banker. Mrs. Y'okley was edu-
cated at Daleville College and Brandon Hall, is talented in music
and a member of the Meadow View Music Club, belongs to the
American Legion Auxiliary, and is a leader in the social, club
and cultural movements that promote enjoyment and benefit in
community life. She is active also in the religious body in which
she was reared, the Church of the Brethren.
Doctor Yokley has never been unduly active in political life,
but formerly he served as health officer at ]\Ieadow View. He is a
past commander of American Legion Post No. 12, Abingdon, be-
longs to the Masonic fraternity, leading medical bodies and the
Baptist Church.
324 VIRGINIA
Robert W. Holley, M. D. There is no period in the world's
history which fails to demonstrate that exceptional ability and
knowledge rightly applied are invariably triumphant and last-
ing, and live in further achievement long after poor finite clay
has returned to its original elements. In medicine, that noble
science to which men of the finest and best on earth have de-
voted their lives, wonderful progress has been made, but each
marvelous discovery and surprising achievement have been the
result of the intelligent, scientific study and experiment of the
physicians and surgeons who, each one during his span of life,
added to the sum of knowledge to a greater degree as circum-
stances permitted. Beyond the time of the ancient Egyptians a
knowledge of medicine was considered essential. In the Mosaic
law we find medical and sanitary advice. The Greeks defied JEs-
culapius as the Father of Medicine, and on down through the
ages to the present day there have been men of renown whose
lives and abilities have been given over unselfishly to wresting
from nature the secrets so necessary to the general preserva-
tion of health. A distinguished member of the medical profession
of Virginia, honored and beloved, whose useful and well rounded
life, rich in good deeds and high endeavor, measures up to the
above mentioned standards is Dr. Robert W. Holley, of Appa-
lachia.
Doctor Holley was born in Mendota, Virginia, June 14, 1877,
a son of Henry C. and Martha J. (Hamilton) Holley, natives
of Virginia, he born in Franklin County and she in Mendota, and
she is still living, but he died in 1901. For years he was a farmer
and lumberman, and for a time he was in the Government serv-
ice. During the war between the states he served in the Con-
federate army. The Baptist Church had in him a devout member
and faithful worker. The maternal grandfather, John M. Hamil-
ton, was in the cattle business in Mendota for many years, was
an active Democrat, and postmaster there during several presi-
dential administrations. He was a Mason and a Methodist, and
one of the well known men of his times and locality.
Doctor Holley attended the Mendota High School, the Medi-
cal College of Virginia, Richmond, from which he was gradu-
ated in 1899 with the degree of Doctor of Medicine, and the
New York Lying In Hospital, where in 1925 he took post-gradu-
ate work in obstetrics. For two years after securing his degree
Doctor Holley was engaged in a general practice in Mendota, but
then became contract surgeon for the Virginia Iron and Coal
Company, and was located at Toms Creek, Virginia, for a short
time, but was later sent to Inman, Virginia, where he continued
for fifteen years. When he was elected treasurer of Wise Coun-
ty he resigned his position as surgeon and held his elective office,
to which he had been elected as the regular Republican nominee,
for four years. Upon the completion of his four years he came to
Appalachia, and here he has since remained in private practice,
having become one of the really great men in his profession.
Doctor Holley belongs to the Wise County Medical Society, the
Clinch Valley Medical Society, having been president of the
former at one time, the Virginia State Medical Society, and is
physician for the Standard Oil Company and examiner for all
of the leading insurance companies for this district. He is a
director of the First National Bank, the Appalachia Hotel Cor-
poration, president and director of the Appalachia Realty Cor-
poration, president and director of the Old Dominion Drug
Corporation, a director of the Wise County Mutual Building &
VIRGINIA 325
Loan Association, and a trustee and member of the staff of the
Appalachia Masonic Hosjiital. He is a thirty-second degree and
Shriner Mason, is a past master of the Blue Lodge, and deputy
grand master of Virginia. A staunch Republican, in addition to
the office already mentioned he has been elected to the City
Council, of which he is now a member, and to the office of school
trustee. For two years he was chairman of the Republican
Central Committee of Wise County, and he is a recognized leader
of his party. Reared a Methodist, he has continued in that faith,
and is now a steward of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South,
of Appalachia.
Doctor Holley married Miss Nila Williams, of Cumberland
Gap, Tennessee, a daughter of Marion Williams. Mrs. Holley
was educated in Oberlin College, Ohio, and is a cultured lady of
many social graces, an ardent member of the Baptist Church.
Doctor and Mrs. Holley have two children : Marian, who was
graduated from Interment College, Bristol, Virginia, in 1926,
married J. Frank Richmond, of Gate City, Virginia; and Ruth,
who is also married.
Hon. Luther E. Fuller. In the biographies of men who
have attained merited distinction in American law there are com-
bined charm and force that commend them to every sound think-
er. It is but natural to feel an intei'est in tracing the footsteps
of those who have reached high positions in public confidence,
and who have wielded their influence for public good ; who, lov-
ing truth and integrity for their own sakes, have undeviatingly
followed their dictates, no matter what the personal conse-
quences might be. Records of this character are calculated to
be important factors in the raising of the ministrations of law
in public estimation, and should serve as plain guide posts tor
the_ junior members of the profession in their pursuit of reputa-
tion, position and distinction. Although yet in the very heyday
of life, Hon. Luther E. Fuller, commonwealth's attorney of Rus-
sell County, has already made just such a record, and his life
has been a succession of honors and he may look forward to
many more, for he is not only a very able lawyer, but a popular
man, and the only Republican to be elected to any county office
for twenty years in Russell County.
Luther E. Fuller was born in Council, Buchanan County,
Virginia, January 15, 1897, a son of James M. and Louisa Grace
(Woosley) Fuller, the latter of whom is deceased, but the former
survives, being a retired merchant of Honaker, and one of the
most active Republicans of the county. For years he has been
one of the moving spirits in the Independent Order of Odd Fel-
lows, of which he is a past grand, and he is a valued member
of the Missionary Baptist Church. The paternal grandfather,
James Harvey Fuller was a Russell County planter, an active
Republican, and collector of taxes in his part of Virginia during
the war between the states. His church was the Missionary
Baptist. The Fuller family was established in the American
colonies by Sir Edward Fuller and his wife. Rose, who were
among the passengers of the Mayflower. The maternal grand-
father, Thomas Woosley, although now eighty-three years old,
is still active in the ministry of the Christian Church, resides in
Buchanan, and is beloved by all who know him. From its organ-
ization a member of the Republican party, he has always worked
for its success and is stifl one of its leaders in his home com-
munity. He is of Scotch-Irish descent. Few men have any
326 VIRGINIA
better background than Attorney Fuller, and he is proud of his
forebears, and it has always been his desire to live up to their
standards and prove himself worthy of them.
Luther E. Fuller was educated along very liberal lines, for
after he had completed his high-school work in Buchanan County
he attended the Mission School at Council, Virginia, and later
William and Mary College, and was graduated from the latter.
His law training was taken in the University of Richmond, from
which he was graduated in 1923 with the degree of Bachelor of
Laws. For one year thereafter he was engaged in private
practice by himself at Honaker, but in 1924 he formed a partner-
ship with Hon. A. T. Griffith, and this association continued for
eighteen months, and was then severed, Mr. Griffith going to
Lebanon, and Mr. Fuller continuing alone. He is a member of
the Russell County Bar Association, Virginia Bar Association,
Delta Theta Pi, the Quill and Scimitar, the Commercial Law
League of America and the Civitan Club, of which he is presi-
dent. He is a Blue Lodge Mason and a member of the Missionary
Baptist Church. Like his father and grandfather, he is a zeal-
ous Republican and served for four years as chairman of the
Republican County Central Committee, resigning from that office
when he became the candidate of his party for the office of
commonwealth's attorney in 1927. At the time he was mayor
of Honaker, but resigned to take office January 1, 1928, as com-
monwealth's attorney, to which he was elected in the fall of 1927.
He has also served as a member of the City Council of Honaker.
A speaker of power and eloquence, he has been in great demand
in party campaigns, and is a forceful pleader at the bar and
noted as a criminal lawyer. Mr. Fuller is attorney for the Poto-
mac Joint Land Bank of Washington City, and is also actively
engaged in the insurance business in partnership with his uncle,
owners of the Honaker Insurance Agency. He owns large trjjcts
of coal land in Dickenson County, has large holdings of timber
land in Buchanan County, and owns a big farm in Russell
County, which he has cultivated.
On July 16, 1927, Mr. Fuller married Miss Jennie Wood
Warren, of Lancaster County, Virginia, a daughter of Thomas
F. and Ethel May (Wood) Warren, the latter being a native
of New Jersey and the former of Virginia, he being a member
of one of the very famous families of the Old Dominion. Mr.
Warren is engaged in the furniture and real estate business in
Lancaster County and New Jersey, and is an Odd Fellow and a
Baptist. J. C. Warren, the paternal grandfather of Mrs. Fuller,
was an officer in the Confederate army during the war between
the states, and both before and after the war was a planter
upon an extensive scale. The maternal grandfather, Auley B.
Wood, moved from New Jersey to Virginia, and in the latter
state located at Ottoman, where he was engaged in the practice
of medicine, and was a prominent Odd Fellow and Baptist. The
Warren and Wood families are of English origin.
Mrs. Fuller was educated in the Ottoman High School, White-
stone High School and William and Mary College, and prior to
her marriage she taught in the Honaker public schools. She is
a member of Kappa Kappa Gamma, the Honaker Literary Soci-
ety, Young Woman's Christian Association's Student Council,
R. N. P. Club, and the Baptist Church. In the latter connection
she is a Sunday School teacher and leader in the Baptist Young
People's Union. Both Mr. and Mrs. Fuller are social leaders,
and deservedly popular with all classes. As a man Mr. Fuller
'^ /9r<^.^-.^,9^./9r
VIRGINIA 327
is upright and straightforward in all his transactions in life ;
as a lawyer he is capable, discerning and trustworthy, and a
convincing pleader, gifted with talents that make for success.
In political affairs he depends largely upon his inborn friendli-
ness of nature, being successful without being bitterly partisan,
and strangely and admirably free from that venom which char-
acterizes so many in public life. While he has a just desire for
office and power, he cannot be tempted by the glitter of gold.
In the truest sense of the word Mr. Fuller is a gentleman, just
as he is an able lawyer and honest public official.
Philip D. Stout. M. D. Although one of the younger medi-
cal practioners well established at Bristol, Virginia, Dr. Philip
D. Stout, specialist in internal medicine, and a veteran of the
World war, is recognized as unusually able i^rofessionally, com-
manding the confidence and high regard of many scientific or-
ganizations and other learned bodies. Doctor Stout belongs to
an old Southern family of English extraction, the founder of
which came to the United States very many years ago, and the
Stouts in several adjoining Southern States are direct descen-
dants of his six worthy sons, all men of industry, thrift, religion
and conspicuous good citizenship.
Dr. Philip D. Stout was born October 19, 1894, in Johnson
County, Tennessee, son of David and Martha (Norris) Stout,
third born in their family of seven children, four of whom sur-
vive, his one sister and two brothers being: Emma, who is the
wife of J. Frank Stout, of Mountain City. Tennessee; George
W., who is now operating the family estate in Johnson County,
Tennessee ; and J. Blaine Stout, who is a merchant at Doeville,
Tennessee.
David Stout, father of Doctor Stout, was born in Johnson
County, Tennessee, son of Godfrey Stout, farmer and dealer in
lumber and produce, and grandson of Major Stout, who was an
extensive farmer and stock dealer there. David Stout was both
farmer and merchant during his active years, but now lives com-
fortably retired in Johnson County, Doeville, Tennessee, where
both he and wife have long been faithful members and liberal
supporters of the Baptist Church. The maternal grandfather of
Doctor Stout was a native of North Carolina, but spent the
greater part of his life as a farmer in Eastern Tennessee.
The excellent public schools provided Philip D. Stout's early
educational training preparing him for Wautega Academy at
Butler, Tennessee, and upon completing his academic course he
entered the East Tennessee State Normal College at Johnson
City, where his diligence in study and versatility of talent great-
ly pleased his instructors. It was about this time, perhaps, that
he began to think seriously of a future medical career, although
he determined that decision could wait until after he had won
several coveted college degrees.
Before entering Wake Forest College, Wake Forest, North
Carolina, for more advanced instruction. Doctor Stout found
time to complete a commercial course in Piedmont Business Col-
lege at Lynchburg, Virginia. In due course of time he was grad-
uated from Wake Forest College with his A. B. degree, and sub-
sequently through post-graduate work there earned his A. M.
degree, and had also been exceedingly prominent in the Euze-
lian Literary Society at Wake Forest College.
With intelligence thus quickened and mind broadened. Doc-
tor Stout now turned his attention to what he had decided his
328 VIRGINIA
real business in life, the knowledge and practice of medicine.
Entering Vanderbilt at Nashville, Tennessee, he soon found ab-
sorbing interest in his studies, but this was a memorable period
of change, and as the menacing war clouds came closer and
closer, the change came to himself, the student becoming the
soldier. Early enlisting for service in the World war as a mem-
ber of the Medical Reserve Corps, he enlisted additionally, in
May, 1918, in the Medical Division at Fort Oglethorpe, Camp
Greenleaf, Georgia, w^ere he remained three and a half months,
when he was sent to the non-commissioned officers training
school with the rank of corporal, but shortly afterwards was
recommended for the R. 0. T. C. at Camp Hancock, Augusta,
Georgia, and on completing his training was offered a rating of
second lieutenant or an honorable discharge, and as the war had
ended he accepted the latter, which was made official on Decem-
ber 6, 1918.
In January, 1919, Doctor Stout returned to Vanderbilt Uni-
versity to continue his medical studies, some time later removing
to the University of Maryland at Baltimore, from which he was
graduated with his medical degree in 1922. Then followed one
year of service as interne and house surgeon in St. Thomas
Hospital at Nashville, Tennessee, and a post-graduate course at
Harvard University in internal medicine. Since then he has
been engaged in active practice, first for a few months at Bluff
City, Tennessee, then at Bristol, Tennessee, and since 1927 has
been established at Bristol, Virginia, with convenient offices in
the Reynolds Arcade Building, this city.
The soundness and extent of his professional knowledge has
made Doctor Stout widely acceptable as a medical writer and
speaker. He is attached to Kings Mountain Hospital as clinical
pathologist and lectures on clinical pathology before the Nurses'
Training Class, and belongs to the medical societies of Sulli-
van, Johnson and Carter counties, Tennessee, the Tennessee
State Medical Society, the Southern Medical Society and the
American Medical Association and lesser bodies. He is exam-
iner for many leading life insurance companies and many fra-
ternal organizations, is a member of the local Federal Pension
Examining Board, belongs to the Masonic fraternity and to the
Elks, Kiwanis Club, Chamber of Commerce and is a member of
the Bristol Country Club. He takes a good citizen's interest in
civic affairs and is identified with Republican politics but is not
an active partisan.
Dr. Philip D. Stout was united in marriage June 20, 1928,
with the charming daughter of Mrs. Margaret McAllister Bar-
ron, of Huntsville, Alabama. They lived happily together until
his wife, Elizabeth Barron Stout, was fatally injured in an aero-
plane accident May 31, 1929, while visiting her family at Hunts-
ville, Alabama. No children were boi'n to this union.
Charles N. Davidson. Among the early settlers in South-
west Virginia of pure Irish extraction were the Davidsons, the
McClellans and the McConnells, a vigorous, sturdy group that
proved industrious, reliable and, when occasion arose, intensely
loyal to the state. From such an honorable ancestral background
came one of Wise County's prominent men of today, Hon. Charles
N. Davidson, commander of revenue for Wise County. Although
for a number of years Mr. Davidson has been serving in public
office, he is also an experienced business man and has important
banking interests at Appalachia, Virginia, his home city.
VIRGINIA 329
Charles N. Davidson was born on the old home plantation in
Scott County, Virginia, November 25, 1882, son of William M.
and Mary L. (McClellan) Davidson, both of whom were born
in Scott County and passed their lives there. They were faithful
members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, in which William
M. Davidson was a steward for many years. During the war
between the states he served as a soldier in the Confederate army
as a member of Company C, 25th Virginia Volunteers, of which
organization his father, Hiram Davidson, and his two brothers
were also members.
The maternal grandparents of Commissioner Davidson were
Andrew Jackson and Susanna (McConnell) McClellan, the for-
mer of whom was a soldier in the Confederate army all through
the war. He was a planter and later deputy sheriff of Scott
County, and all his life active in Democratic politics. The father
of his wife was the first sheriff of Scott County, and both of her
two bi'others were distinguished men in their day. Major S. P.
and Dr. A. D. McConnell. During the early part of the war be-
tween the states the elder brother served as a major in the Con-
federate army, but later, when urged to accept the office of clerk
of the court of Scott County, resigned his military office and it is
related that shortly afterward, when the near approach of the
Federal troops caused apprehension concerning the safety of the
countyseat, it was through the strategy of Major McConnell that
none of the papers, books or county records were lost or en-
dangered, for he kept guard over them in a mountain fastness.
The other brother. Dr. A. D. McConnell, a prominent physician,
represented Scott County in the Virginia House of Delegates for
two terms.
Charles N. Davidson received his educational training in
the schools of his native county, assisted his father and remained
with his parents until he was twenty-one years old, since which
time he has been a resident of Wise County. Inclined toward a
commercial life, he came to Wise and accepted a clerkship with
the firm of Head and Sloan, changing three years later to the
Stonega Coal and Coke Company, where he filled a responsible
position for seven years, during which time he had become so
well and favorably known to the citizens of Stonega that they
petitioned and in June, 1914, he was appointed postmaster there.
This office he continued to fill until February 1, 1922.
Since early manhood Mr. Davidson has taken a deep and in-
telligent interest in public affairs and has participated in local
politics, seldom accepting political preferment for himself, but
ever loyal to his party and helpful to his friends. Since 1910
he has been recognized as a leader in the Democratic party and
practically ever since has been a member of the Wise County
Democratic Committee. In 1923 he was nominated for the office
of commissioner of revenue from this district, was elected by a
large majority over his opponent, and served in that office for
the next four years, under the old law that provided for four
commissioners. In the meanwhile the law was changed, and
when he was reelected in 1927 and entered upon his duties on
January 1. 1928, it was with heavier responsibilities than before,
for he is now sole commissioner of revenue for Wise County, his
long experience in this office making his services of inestimable
value to the public.
In 1908 Mr. Davidson married Miss Zoie Quillin, who was
born in Scott County, daughter of the late Rev. James M. and
Virginia (Frazier) Quillin, the former of whom for many years
330 VIRGINIA
was a leading minister in the Primitive Baptist Church in South-
west Virginia. Mrs. Davidson is a well educated lady, compan-
ionable, understanding and sympathetic, and, with her husband,
has a wide circle of friends. They both are active members of the
Methodist Episcopal Church, South. Commissioner Davidson
belongs to the Masonic fraternity and other representative or-
ganizations. He has business interests at several points, and a
leading one is the Peoples Bank of Appalachia.
Kenneth Cartright Patty is an attorney and former
mayor of Bluefield, Tazewell County, one of the prominent
younger men in the professional and civic affairs of that impor-
tant industrial locality of Southwest Virginia.
Mr. Patty was born at Parrottsville, Cocke County, Tennes-
see, and some four or five generations of the Patty family have
lived in East Tennessee. William Patty was born there, of Irish
ancestry, and was a pioneer Methodist minister. He was the
father of Rev. Raphael W. Patty, a minister of the same church.
Elbert S. Patty, son of Raphael W., enlisted for service in the
Confederate army and and died of typhoid fever while in the
service. His wife, Mattie Robeson, was born in 1842 and died
in 1918. These were the grandparents of the Bluefield attorney.
The father was Rev. William M. Patty, who was born in Bun-
combe County, North Carolina, July 2, 1862, but was reared in
East Tennessee, and as a young man entered the Methodist
ministry, as a representative of the third generation of the fam-
ily in that calling in East Tennessee. He is now retired. He
married Minnie Bushong, who was born at Knoxville, Tennessee,
January 20, 1866. Their oldest son, Graydon K. Patty, became
a Methodist minister.
Kenneth Cartright Patty received his early schooling under
his aunt, Lena Bushong, and later attended high school at Clint-
wood, Virginia, and Tazewell, graduating from the latter in
1910. For several years he clerked in a store at Tazewell, stud-
ied law, and was a student in the law department of Washington
and Lee University until he answered the call to the colors in
February, 1918. He was licensed to practice law in Virginia
December 27, 1917. He was assigned duty with the University
of Virginia Base Hospital No. 41, spent four months at Camp
Sevier, South Carolina, embarked for overseas July 5, 1918, and
was with the Base Hospital near Paris until after the armistice.
He received an honorable discharge, with the rank of sergeant,
May 1, 1919.
In June, 1919, Mr. Patty began the practice of law at Graham
in Tazewell County. On September 1, 1924, he was elected
mayor of Graham, and served until August, 1926. It was during
his administration and with him as the leader that the campaign
was made to change the name Graham to Bluefield, Virginia.
He also led the fight to annex more territory to the city, increas-
ing the population by over a thousand. More concrete sidewalk
construction is credited to his administration than to all the pre-
vious ones combined in the history of the town. During these
years Mr, Patty has carried on a general law practice, and has
served as officer and director of local industrial and banking cor-
porations.
He is a Democrat, is a member of the Methodist Episcopal
Church, South, is affiliated with Harman Lodge No. 222, A. F.
and A. M., at Bluefield, is a past high priest of the Royal Arch
Chapter No. 28 at Bluefield, and a past district deputy grand
I
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VIRCxINIA 331
high priest of District No. 12. He is also a past chancellor of
Graham Lodge No. 150 of Knights of Pythias. He is a member
of Graham Commandery No. 22, Bluefield, Virginia.
He married at Scottsburg, Halifax County, Virginia, October
15, 1921, Miss Ruth Friend Lacy, daughter of James T. and Ada
(Crews) Lacy. Her father is a retired farmer and banker and
former member of the Virginia State Senate. Mrs. Patty at-
tended the Richmond Woman's College and graduated from the
New England Conservatory of Music at Boston. They have one
daughter, Ann Holman Patty, born March 2, 1928.
Mrs. Judith A. (Riddick) Smith. Left a widow with two
small children to care for, Mrs. Smith bravely faced the problem,
and having selected the educational field as one of promise has
met with such success in the various departments of the public
schools of Petersburg that she eventually became the supervisor
of drawing for all of the schools of that city, serving ably and
creditably until resigning the position.
Mrs. Smith was born in Nottaway County, Virginia. Her
father, the late Rev. James A. Riddick, inherited in a large
measure the characteristics of his thrifty Scotch ancestors. He
acquired a good education, and having been converted in his
youth became a preacher in the Methodist Episcopal Church,
South. Joining the Virginia Conference, he held pastorates in
various places, and during one term served as presiding elder
of the Norfolk District. Subsequently as a circuit rider he
established churches in both Virginia and North Carolina. In
1861 he bought a i-esidence at Stony Creek, Sussex County, where
during the Civil war that section of the state was invaded by
both armies, and all of the houses in the village, with but two
exceptions, were burned. At the close of the conflict he returned
with his family to Petersburg, and there resided until his death
at the ripe old age of nearly ninety years.
Rev. James A. Riddick married Judith A. Gregory, who was
born in Amelia County, Virginia, a sister of Maj. W. F. C. and
Crab Gregory, both of whom served during the Civil war on
the staff of Governor Wise. She died at the comparatively
early age of fifty-nine years, leaving seven children.
Born in 1850, Mrs. Judith A. Smith gleaned her first knowl-
edge of books in private schools, later advancing her education
at Kittrells, near Oxford, North Carolina. In 1872, at the age
of twenty-two years, she became the wife of Dr. Joseph W.
Smith, who was born in 1827 in Chesterfield County, Virginia,
a son of Jabez Sidney Smith, who was a native of New York and
of English ancestry.
As a young man Joseph W. Smith decided to enter the med-
ical profession, and after being graduated from the Jefferson
Medical College in Philadelphia, with the degree of M. D., he
located at Petersburg, Virginia. Meeting with well earned suc-
cess from the first, he continued there until his death, when but
fifty-two years of age. As a physician and surgeon the Doctor
held a position of note, his services both before and after the
Civil war having been in much demand, especially in severe and
critical cases. His brother, Jabez Sidney Smith, was a prom-
inent lawyer and Mason of Washington, D. C. Doctor Smith
was an uncle of Oscar W. Underwood, United States senator
from Alabama. In 1872 Doctor Smith was united in marriage
with Miss Judith A. Riddick, and into their pleasant home two
children were born, Jabez Sidney and Joseph W.
332 VIRGINIA
Left a widow when young, with two small children to care
for, Mrs. Judith A. (Riddick) Smith bravely faced the problem
by entering the educational field, the need therefor having arisen
from the fact that her husband's entire fortune had been swept
away. Securing a position as a teacher in the Petersburg public
schools, she met with such merited success that she was subse-
quently made principal of the Anderson School, which stood on
the site now occupied by the City High School. Her artistic
tastes and ability becoming recognized, she was elected super-
visor of drawing in all of the schools, a position she filled most
acceptably to all concerned until her resignation which she re-
quested at the close of her thirty-three years of service in the
Petersburg schools. She is now living retired from active pur-
suits at her attractive home on West Washington Street. For
fifty years she has been an active member of the Episcopal
Church.
Mrs. Smith's oldest son, Jabez Sidney Smith, who, like his
brother, served in the Spanish-American war, lost his health
while in the army, and for three years prior to his death, when
but twenty-seven years old, was an invalid. The younger son,
Joseph Walworth Smith, is well established in business at
Petersburg. Joseph W. Smith was educated in public schools at
Petersburg. At an early age he became identified with the hard-
ware business, starting at its very bottom. Through industry
and application he has risen to the position of member of the
firm of Charles Leonard Hardware Company, Inc., one of the
largest firms of its kind in the South. He, like his mother, is
a consistent member of the Episcopal Church. He has had nu-
merous opportunities to engage in similar business elsewhere,
but refuses to leave his home and his mother. He served in the
Spanish-American war and is unmarried.
Talented and accomplished, Mrs. Smith is a gifted artist,
noted for her pencil, landscape and portrait work, and having
an excellent command of the English language tells many in-
teresting and thrilling incidents of the Civil war. Although she
has outlived the Psalmist's prescribed three score years and ten,
her physical health and mental faculties are seemingly unim-
paired, a visit with her being a pleasure to both the old and
young.
Benjamin Franklin Buchanan, of Marion, is a lawyer
with the prestige of over forty years of active and successful
practice, and the position of leadership he early acquired in his
home community has been extended over the state at large, par-
ticularly through his many terms in the State Senate and as
former lieutenant governor. In the alignment of political honors
and responsibilities in the year 1928 Senator Buchanan is re-
garded as the next successor to the office of governor of the great
commonwealth of Virginia.
The Buchanan family has lived in Smyth County, Virginia,
since Colonial times. Senator Buchanan is a descendant of James
Buchanan, a native of County Donegal, Ireland, who on coming
to America settled in the Cumberland Valley of Pennsylvania.
Senator Buchanan is a descendant in the fifth generation from
this ancestor. John Buchanan, his son, was born in Pennsyl-
vania, and as a young man moved down to the Valley of Virginia
to the locality known as Rich Valley in Smyth County, where he
acquired and began the development of large holdings. He
married a distant relative, named Martha Buchanan. John Bu-
VIRGINIA 333
chaiuin was killed while serving as captain of a company in the
Continental Army during the Revolution, having previously par-
ticipated in the important battle of Kings Mountain. His son,
Patrick Buchanan, was born in Rich Valley and spent his life
there as a farmer. He married Elizabeth Haytor, a native of
Tazewell County, Virginia.
Their son, Patrick Campbell Buchanan, was born at Rich
Valley December 12, 1818, and died July 7, 1877, having lived
all his life on the same farm, fifteen miles north of Marion. He
was an A. B. graduate of Emory and Henry College, and for five
years was assistant professor of methematics in his alma mater.
During the Civil war he was collector of internal revenue, and
also served as treasurer of Smyth County and for several terms
as sheriff. He was a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church,
South. Patrick Campbell Buchanan married Virginia Copen-
haver, who was born in Smyth County May 21, 1830, and died
July 2, 1871.
Benjamin Franklin Buchanan, the oldest of the children of
Patrick Campbell Buchanan and wife, was born at Rich Valley
October 4, 1859. He attended private schools, and graduated
with the A. B. degree from the University of Virginia in 1880.
He is a member of the honorary scholastic fraternity Phi Beta
Kappa, also the Phi Delta Theta social fraternity. He graduated
with the law degree from the University of Virginia in 1884, and
since 1885 has given attention to an extensive private law prac-
tice.
His first service in the State Senate as representative of the
First Senatorial District was from 1893 to 1897. He was again
elected to the Senate in 1915, and during 1915-17 was one of the
members of the Virginia Tax Commission, revising the tax laws
of the state. He was lieutenant governor of Virginia from 1917
to 1921, and in recognition of his service to the state in that posi-
tion and also his legal scholarship Hampden-Sidney College made
him an honorary Doctor of Laws in 1921. Since the close of his
term as lieutenant governor he has been in the State Senate by
repeated reelections, the last time having been chosen to office
without opposition.
Senator Buchanan owns a farm near Marion, is director of
sevei'al banks, and during the World war was general counsel
for the comptroller of currency at Washington. He is a member
of the Virginia Bar Association, the American Bar Association,
and has long been prominent in Masonic circles, being a past
master of Marion Lodge No. 31, A. F. and A. M., a past high
priest of Marion Chapter No. 54, Royal Arch Masons, a past
commander of Lynn Commandery No. 9, Knights Templar, a
past grand commander of the Grand Commandery of Virginia,
and a member of Kazim Temple of the Mystic Shrine at Roan-
oke. He is a member of the Marion Rotary Club.
He married, March 2, 1887, Miss Eleanor F. Sheffey, daugh-
ter of Judge John Preston and Josephine (Spiller) Sheffey. Her
father was at one time judge of the Circuit Court, a successful
lawyer, merchant and farmer. Mrs. Buchanan is a graduate of
Marian College and of Stonewall Jackson College at Abingdon.
They have five children : John Preston, who was educated in the
Virginia Military Institute, Washington and Lee University and
the University of Virginia, after which he became associated
with his father in law practice ; Josephine, who graduated A. B.
from Hollins College; Virginia Campbell, who became the wife
of Major Guy B. Dent, of the United States Army, a World war
334 VIRGINIA
veteran ; Eleanor Fairman, who graduated with the A. B. de-
gree from Agnes Scott College at Decatur, Georgia ; and David
Haytor, a graduate of the Greenbrier Military School at Lewis-
burg, West Virginia, and West Point Military Academy.
Orrin K. Phlegar, M. D. In these days of wonderful me-
chanical inventions the world at large is learning, as never
before, how brave, courageous and determined a spirit dwells
oftimes beneath a quiet and inconspicuous exterior. This spirit,
however, is not, of itself, either a new or modern development,
although its daily manifestation in a public way has become so
phenomenal. Every individual who has achieved success in life
through his own efforts has possessed this indomitable spirit, a
gift of Nature that he seldom parts with. Such a spirit enabled
one of Tazewell County's prominent men of medical science. Dr.
Orrin K. Phlegar, physician and surgeon at Bluefield, Virginia,
to overcome hindering circumstances in early life, and to finally
reach the goal of his ambition, high standing in the medical
profession.
Orrin K. Phlegar comes of old and substantial families of
German extraction, long settled in Floyd County, Virginia. His
birth took place at Newbern, Virginia, May 5, 1876, son of
Tazewell T. and Flora (Overstreet) Phlegar, and grandson of
Jacob Phlegar and Tillman Overstreet, all natives and life long
residents of Floyd County, the only survivor being the mother of
Doctor Phlegar. His father, the late Tazewell T. Phlegar, was
a cabinetmaker and wheelwright in early business life, having
learned these trades under his father, who was known far and
wide for his mechanical skill, and maintained large shops of his
own at Jacksonville. Later Tazewell T. Phlegar became inter-
ested in telegraphy, and became a skilled telegraph operator, a
position he filled at the time of his death. All his life he was an
industrious, practical man and worthy citizen, a Democrat in
politics and a member of the Lutheran Church.
Orrin K. Phlegar received his early educational training in
the public schools of Pearisburg, Virginia, where he qualified as
a satisfactory student, with talents indicating success in profes-
sional life if properly developed, but just at that time the subject
of higher education could not be considered in the family, and,
taking his father's advice, Mr. Phlegar learned the art of teleg-
raphy, and for thirteen years was a telegraph operator for the
Norfolk & Western Railroad. Although his early hopes of a
medical education had to be given up, they were in no wise aban-
doned, and as soon as practicable, in relation to his other work,
he began the study of medicine by himself, found opportunity to
continue his reading under local practitioners, and at length,
with capital earned and prudently saved, felt free to resign his
telegraphic position and enter the University College of Medicine
at Richmond, and from this institution he was graduated in
1906 with his degree. For one year afterward he was physician
for the Boxley and Carpenter Railroad Contractors at Gladys in
Campbell County and then for nine months in Scott County, and
then embarked in a general medical practice at Crandon in
Bland County, where he remained three years, removing then to
Radford, and one year later, in 1912, to Graham, Virginia, now
the city of. Bluefield.
In 1903 Doctor Phlegar married Miss Bertha May Collins, of
Pearisburg, Virginia, daughter of John Collins, a descendant of
one of the early Colonial families of the state. She was care-
VIRGINIA 335
fully reared and liberally educated, and is active in the Baptist
Church. Doctor and Mrs. Phlegar have one daughter, Thelma,
who is not only known and beloved at Bluefield for her beautiful
character and social graces, but is sincerely admired for her
unusual intellectual achievements. Although she has but just
passed her twenty-fourth birthday, she tills a high position as an
educator in the Concord State Normal School at Athens, West
Virginia, and since childhood has won scholastic honors in every
institution she has attended. She is a graduate of the Graham
High School ; a graduate of Intermont College at Bristol, Vir-
ginia; an A. B. graduate of West Hampton College, Richmond,
Virginia ; and won her A. M. degree at Columbia University.
In the sixteen years that have passed since Doctor Phlegar
came to Bluefield his life has been a busy and beneficent one,
devoted entirely to his profession. He has so demon.strated not
only his scientific knowledge and skill but the other qualities
that belong to a physician that Nature sets apart at birth, that
possibly no other practitioner in the county enjoys greater confi-
dence and personal esteem. He is assistant surgeon for the
Norfolk & Western Railroad and physician for the New York
Life, the Metropolitan, the Jefferson Standard and other leading
insurance companies. He belongs to the Masonic fraternity and
to both State and County Medical Societies. Politically in na-
tional matters he is a Democrat.
Edward A. Bain. Among the enterprising men associated
in some manner with the manufacturing and mercantile interests
of Petersburg the name of Edward A. Bain, bottler of temper-
ance drinks, may well be mentioned. He and his father, James
Bain, were both born in Petersburg, while his paternal grand-
father. Rev. George Bain, was a native of Dinwiddle County,
and a well known Methodist Episcopal minister.
As a young man James Bain was a clerk in William Spots-
wood's drug store, a position he filled until after his marriage.
Settling then on land that had come to his wife by inheritance,
he operated her large plantation with slave labor. During the
period of the Civil war he made a specialty of raising food stuff
for the Confederate army. He continued his agricultural work
until his death, when but sixty-three years of age. His wafe,
whose maiden name was Nannie Greenway, was born on a plan-
tation in Dinwiddle County, a daughter of Dr. Robert Greenway,
a large and prosperous landowner, and a successful physician.
She died ere the infirmities of age overtook her.
One of a family of six children, Edward A. Bain began the
battle of life on his own account as a clerk in the Moore Ware-
house, a position he held some time. Going then to North Caro-
lina, he remained there a year. Returning to Petersburg in 1887,
Mr. Bain established himself in business as a bottler of temper-
ance drinks, beginning in a small way, with a very limited
capital. Succeeding in his venture from the start, he gradually
enlarged his operations, investing his savings in desired improve-
ments. In 1927 at an expense of several thousand dollars, Mr.
Bain installed in his plant the latest improved and approved
machinery for bottling, at the same time making sure that the
sanitary conditions are all that can be desired in any establish-
ment of the kind.
On July 22, 1882, Mr. Bain was united in marriage with
Miss Josephine D'Alton, who was born in Petersburg, Virginia,
a daughter of Henry and Julia (Karney) D'Alton, both of whom
336 VIRGINIA
were born in Ireland, of honored French ancestry. Six children
have been born of the union of Mr. and Mrs. Bain, as follows :
Irene, wife of William P. Atkinson, has one child, Josephine
Nash, by her first marriage to George Templeton ; Edwin, asso-
ciated in business with his father; Theresa June, who married
Webster Whitten, has two sons, James Webster and Edward
Bain ; Charles Leonard married Bess Chick, and they have one
child, Elizabeth Ormond ; Willis Robinson married Susie Chieves
Smith, and their only child, a daughter, is named Anne Green-
way, in honor of her paternal grandmother ; and Eugene Anthony
was recently graduated from the medical department of the
University of Virginia.
Patrick Henry Drewry, Petersburg attorney, is promi-
nently known as an able and successful lawyer all over southern
and eastern Virginia, where he has practiced for over a quarter
of a century, also has one of the names best known over the
state as a public man, chiefly due to his important service in the
Virginia Senate and as representative of the Fourth Virginia
District in Congress.
Mr. Drewry was born at Petersburg May 24, 1875. The
consecutive record of his ancestors goes back unbroken to Sam-
uel Drewry, of Southampton County, living there at the time
Southampton was formed in 1748. In England the Drewry fam-
ily has been distinguished by many honors and achievements
since the first Drewry went over from Normandy, France, with
William the Conqueror in 1066. He was knighted on the battle-
field of Hastings and granted land in the south of England, at
Drakelowe and Thurston, where the Drewrys lived for over six
hundred years. Two members of the Drewry family were char-
ter members of the London Company, to whom Virginia was
originally granted. Mr. Drewry is probably a descendant of
Robert Drewry, who came to Virginia in 1635, when he was
sixteen years of age, settling in York County. Samuel Drewry,
a son of the Samuel named above, was a soldier in the American
Revolution. His son, Humphrey Drewry, a soldier in the War
of 1812, was a great-great-grandfather of the Petersburg
attorney.
His father, Emmett Arrington Drewry, was born in 1837
and died in 1891. His home was at Drewrysville in Southampton
County. He was educated under private tutors, graduated from
Randolph-Macon College, from the Medical College of Virginia,
and Jefferson Medical College of Philadelphia. His medical edu-
cation was completed just before the war between the states,
and he became an oflScer in the Confederate army, at first in the
line and later, after the battle of Gettysburg, in the Medical
Corps. He entered as a lieutenant, coming out with the rank
of major. He practiced medicine at Drewrysville and otherwise
had a prominent part in the affairs of Southampton County,
helping get the Atlantic and Danville Railroad built through
the county, and was at one time superintendent of county
schools. He was a charter member of the Medical Society of
Virginia. Dr. E. A. Drewry married first Miss Laura Roney,
daughter of Major Roney, of Dinwiddie County, by whom he
has one son living. Dr. Herbert R. Drewry, of Norfolk, Virginia.
After her death he married Alta Laughton Booth, by whom he
had two sons, the subject of this sketch and Hunter Leigh
Drewry of Martinsburg, West Virginia. She was the daughter
of P. H. Booth, granddaughter of Col. Samuel Booth, of Surry
VIRGINIA 337
County, whose father, Beverly Booth, was a soldier in the War
of the Revolution and a Baptist minister. Rev. Beverly Booth
was a son of Robert Booth, Jr., and a grandson of Robert Booth,
Sr., who in 1653 represented York County in the House of
Burgesses.
In passing from this brief account of his forefathers there
is no diminution in intellectual vigor, in the spirit of high ideal-
ism, in forceful action and in public spirit as manifested in the
career of Patrick Henry Drewry. He had an excellent ground-
work of preparation in school and the experiences of his young
manhood. He attended McCabe's University School at Peters-
burg, took his A. B. degree at Randolph-Macon College at Ash-
land and for a time held the chair of English and Greek at Cen-
tenary College at Palmyra, Missouri. He was graduated from the
law department of the University of Virginia in 1899, and while
teaching in Missouri passed the bar examination in that state.
Subsequently he (lualified for practice in Virginia, and in 1902
began his individual work as an attorney in Petersburg. In
1907 he became associated with one of the able lawyers of the
city, C. T. Lassiter, in the firm of Lassiter & Drewry. Their
partnership was discontinued in 1921. Since 1923 Mr. Drewry
has practiced with William Old as senior member of the firm
Drewry & Old. These firms in corporation practice as well as
in general practice before courts and juries enjoyed unqualified
leadership and distinction among the law firms in their section
of the state.
Mr. Drewry became a participant in politics when a young
man, not for rewards and honors of office, but through a sincere
conviction that every properly qualified citizen should make his
influence felt in public affairs and government. When he finally
accepted the responsibilities of office he brought to his service
the accomplishments of a successful lawyer and a mature judg-
ment and large familiarity with public men and public interests.
In 1911 he became a candidate for the State Senate, and was
elected and entered that body in 1912, serving continuously until
1920. The outstanding feature of his record in the Senate was
in connection with the change in the financial system of the
state. He originated the measure known as the Budget Bill, a
bill that was largely the product of the Economy and Efficiency
Commission, of which he was chairman, and afterwards by
appointment of the governor he served as chairman of the Ad-
visory Board on the Budget and as chairman of the State
Auditing Committee.
Mr. Drewry was elected April 27, 1920, to fill the unexpired
term in Congress of Walter A. Watson. He was elected for the
regular term in 1920 and has been reelected without opposition
to each succeeding Congress. He represents one of the im-
portant agricultural districts of Virginia, and has interested
himself primarily in matters aff'ecting agriculture, particularly
the agriculture of the southeastern states. He voted for the
cooperative marketing bill, the bill to relieve depression in agri-
cultural sections, the Muscle Shoals legislation, and various other
bills and amendments affecting the farm section of the country.
Mr. Drewry is a member of the Naval Committee and was a
member of the Board of Visitors of the Naval Academy at
Annapolis in 1926. He has also served on such important com-
mittees as insular affairs, territories and naval expenditures.
He succeeded Hal Flood as a member of the Democratic National
Congressional Committee and became a member of the Executive
338 VIRGINIA
Committee of that organization. Mr. Drewy was a delegate to
the National Democratic Convention of 1916 at Saint Louis, and
has been a delegate to all state conventions since 1912, and was
chairman of the Resolution Committee in the State Convention
of 1924.
Mr. Drewry during the World war served on the committee
of preparedness, was director for the Fourth District of the
Minute-Men and worked in behalf of the Liberty Bond, Red
Cross and other campaigns. He was Government appeal agent
for the Petersburg District during the World war. He is a
member of the Board of Stewards of the Washington Street
Methodist Episcopal Church, South, at Petersburg, member of
the Petersburg Country Club, Westmoreland Club of Richmond,
is a Phi Beta Kappa, also belongs to the Sigma Chi fraternity
and the B. P. 0. Elks.
He married at Palmyra, Missouri, April 18, 1906, Miss Mary
E. Metcalf, daughter of Judge J. Q. A. and Harriet (Hanley)
Metcalf, her father a native of Virginia, of a Maryland family,
while her mother was a member of the well known Philadelphia
Hanleys. Mr. and Mrs. Drewry had three children, Patrick
Henry, Jr., John Metcalf and William Emmett. Patrick Henry,
Jr.. was born at Petersburg March 21, 1907, attended high school
there, graduated in 1928 from Randolph-Macon College with the
Bachelor of Science degree, and then entered Johns Hopkins
University at Baltimore for the study of medicine. At Randolph-
Macon he was assistant instructor in biology. The other two
sons are attending the Petersburg High School.
William V. Birchfield, Jr. Only a mind of unusual
strength, persistent grasp and broad sweep of abilities can earn
signal success in a special field already crowded with keen com-
petitors, and at the same time retain fresh and balanced faculties
for the consideration and advancement of public and social prob-
lems. The character of William V. Birchfield, Jr., is cast in no
ordinary mold, for he not only stands among the leading lawyers
of Southwestern Virginia in the construction and application of
corporation law — a legal domain surcharged with countless de-
tails and of such vast importance to the ingenious, practical
American — but has also obtained much more than a local repu-
tation as a clear and broad exponent of the most vital questions
of industrial and social reform.
Mr. Birchfield w^as born August 24, 1884, at Marion, Smyth
County, Virginia, and is a son of William V. and Ollie M. (Bon-
ham) Birchfield, of Marion, the former a native of Washington
County, Virginia, and the latter born in Smyth County. William
V. Birchfield, Sr., died in 1927. He was identified with the Rey-
nolds Tobacco Company, and in his younger days was broadly in-
fluential in Democratic politics. He was a Mason and an active
and generous supporter of the Methodist Episcopal Church. He
and his wife had two sons : William V., Jr., of this review ; and
James F., who is attending the Virginia Military Institute.
William V. Birchfield, Jr., attended public schools in Marion
County, and was graduated frorfi Marion High School as a mem-
ber of the class of 1910. He then entered Randolph-Macon Acad-
emy, but in 1911 left that institution to enter Emory and Henry
College at Emory, Virginia, where he remained two years. He
became a student of law at Washington and Lee University,
from which he received the degree of Bachelor of Laws as a
member of the class of 1916, and immediately thereafter went
I
mm:
VIRGINIA 339
to Roanoke, where he became identified with the law firm of Hall,
Wingfield & Apperson, with which he continued to be connected
for three years. For the four years that followed he practiced
alone at Roanoke, where he also did a large abstract and loan
business, and in 1924 settled permanently at Marion, where he
now occupies commodious offices on Main Street. Since locating
at Marion Mr. Birchfield has been successful in building up a
large corporation practice and is now accounted one of the
leaders in the field. He represents the Knight Brick and Tile
Company, the Maryland Casualty Company and the Federal
Land Bank of Baltimore, Maryland, and has also done a large
business in loaning money to agriculturists. In addition to great
erudition in his profession Mr. Birchfield is a fine speaker, and
his services are much in demand as an orator during the cam-
paigns of the Democratic party, of which he has been a leader in
Southwest Virginia. In 1927 he was his party's candidate for the
office of commonwealth's attorney of Smyth County and met
with defeat by only a few votes. He belongs to the Roanoke Bar
Association and the Virginia State Bar Association, is promi-
nent in the Kiwanis Club, and also hold membership in the Phi
Kappa Alpha and Phi Alpha Delta fraternities, in which he was
very active while at college.
In 1922 Mr. Birchfield was united in marriage with Miss Vir-
ginia Semple, a member of an old and distinguished Virginia
family, and a daughter of R. B. Semple, of Roanoke. Mrs. Birch-
field was educated in the schools of Roanoke and is one of the
leaders in the club and social life of Marion. Mr. and Mrs.
Birchfield are the parents of one child, Bettie B., who was born
in 1924.
William Henry Frey. A man of sterling integrity and
worth, possessing from early boyhood a decided mechanical in-
clination, probably inherited, William Henry Frey devoted his
talents to the study of medicine and pharmacy. A son of Andrew
Frey, he was born in 1869 at Georgetown in the District of
Columbia, the family home having been located on Washington
Street. Since that time the city limits have been extended, street
names and numbers have been changed, his birthplace now being
found at 1224 Thirtieth Street.
John Jacob Frey, Mr. Frey's paternal grandfather, was a
well known and successful building contractor, working in dif-
ferent cities and spending the later years of his life in the Dis-
trict of Columbia. He reared a large family, and two of his sons,
Andrew and John William, succeeded to his business.
Andrew Frey, in company with his brother, became a suc-
cessful contractor, and at one time owned considerable valuable
real estate in Washington, D. C, where he resided for some time.
He died at the age of sixty-nine years, and his wife, at the age
of forty years, leaving three sons, John J., William H. and
Andrew R.
After graduating from the Western High School in Washing-
ton William Henry Frey spent a year in the medical department
of Columbia University, New York City, after which he com-
pleted a full course in pharmacy, being graduated in 1889. Re-
turning to Washington, he located at the corner of Seventh and
B streets, in a building belonging to his father. Subsequently
removing to the corner of Ninth Street and New York Avenue,
he continued there until the death of his father in 1902, when
he came to Dinwiddle County, settling in Petersburg, on the
340 VIRGINIA
south side of West Washington Street. He soon bought property
on the north side of West Washington Street, remodeled the
buildings, and there built up a prosperous business, which he
conducted until his death, November 28, 1920.
William Henry Frey married Miss Laura Polk Nalle, who
was born on a large plantation located on Bethel Pike, quite near
the Bethel School, and five miles from Warrenton, Fauquier
County, Virginia. Her father, James Polk Nalle, was born in
Culpeper County, Virginia, where he grew to manhood. John
William Nalle, Mrs. Frey's grandfather, operated his plantation
with slave labor, residing upon it until his death, at the vener-
able age of ninety years. His wife, whose name before marriage
was Caroline Jeffress, was a member of one of the old and
honored Virginia families.
James Polk Nalle inherited a plantation, but as a young man
he acquired a wide knowledge of architecture and moved to
Washington, D. C, where he drew plans for and superintended
the erection of many residences, apartment houses and public
buildings, including among others the Evans House. He spent
the later years of his life in Washington, dying there at the age
of sixty-one years. He married Mary Virginia Nalle, who was
born in Fauquier County, Virginia, a daughter of Robert and
Elizabeth (Keyes) Nalle and a very distant relative of John
William Nalle. She died at the age of four score years, her body
being laid to rest in the Blandford Cemetery. To her and her
husband eight children were born, namely: William Walter, who
died in infancy. Norman Nicholas, Laura Polk, John Robert,
Arthur James, Bertha Mary, Lillian Estelle and Leila Grace.
Mr. and Mrs. Frey have two children, William Henry, Jr.,
and Florence Elizabeth Frey. William H. Frey received the
degree of A. B. at Hampden-Sidney College and that of M. A.
at the University of Virginia. He married Elizabeth Sullivan,
and with his wife and two children, Nancy Polk Frey and Betty
Ann, resides at La Jolla, California. Florence E. Frey married
Bernard A. Davey, who died at the early age of thirty years.
Mr. Davey was educated in the Northwestern University, Chi-
cago, where he took a course in journalism, and for a while
was advertising manager for the Washingto7i Times, later being
associated with the Chicago Tribune. Removing from Chicago
to Birmingham, Alabama, he was connected with a leading daily
paper of that city until his death at the age of thirty years.
Mrs. Davey and her son, Bernard Frey Davey, are now living
with her mother, Mrs. Frey. Mrs. Davey, who took lessons in
vocal music at the Baltimore Conservatory of Music, is now an
accompanist at Petersburg, Virginia, and is soloist at Grace
Episcopal Church at Petersburg, Virginia.
Max John Alexander, M. D. Tazewell County, Virginia,
can lay claim to many men of high merit and definite achieve-
ment in both professional and business life, and an interested
visitor is not long left in doubt concerning the confidence and
esteem reposed in Dr. Max John Alexander, physician and sur-
geon at Pocahontas, formerly mayor of this city, and member
of the County Board of Health.
Dr. Max John Alexander was born at Darlington, in Darling-
ton County, South Carolina, March 28, 1887, son of C. and
Minnie Carrie (Hymes) Alexander, the latter of whom still re-
sides at Darlington, where her father, Henry Hymes, was a
leading merchant for many years. The father of Doctor Alex-
VIRGINIA 341
ander was born in the city of New York, where his father,
Henry Alexander, had settled when he had come from Germany,
and continued to make his home there. C. Alexander received
his schooling and early business training in New Yox'k but later
removed to South Carolina, where he was engaged in the mer-
cantile business until his death at Darlington in 1924.
JMax John Alexander grew up in a home of family affection,
plenty and morality, and was afforded liberal educational advan-
tages. After completing his course in the Darlington High
School he continued his studies in St. John's Academy at Dar-
lington, subsequently entering the Medical College of Virginia,
from which he was graduated in 1910 with his degree. After
serving one year as an interne in the Johnston-Willis Hospital
at Richmond he became a member of the Hospital Staff, where
during his service of over two years he made a line record pro-
fessionally.
Doctor Alexander then established himself in medical prac-
tice at Pocahontas, where he has maintained his headquarters
ever since, although he is a licensed practitioner over a large
area, including Virginia, West Virginia and South Carolina. He
is physician for the Pocahontas Fuel Company, which operates
with a labor force of 5,500 employes, an especially responsible
position, not only including his caring for the general health of
this large body, but he also is the absolute authority in cases
of accident when hospital treatment is necessary. Through his
efforts many of the Fuel Company's worthy men, during periods
of illness, have been given an opportunity to recuperate in the
famous sanitarium at Bluefield, West Virginia. Additionally, a
large private practice demands constant attention. He is sur-
geon for the Norfolk & Western Railroad Company, is examiner
for all the leading life insurance companies, and for an extended
period has been a member of the County Board of Health.
In 1910, at Richmond, Virginia, Doctor Alexander married
Miss Margaret Palmer, daughter of Charles and Alice (Cavel)
Palmer, of that city, of a well known family of the Old Dominion.
Mrs. Alexander completed her education in the Virginia State
Normal School at Farmville, and has many social and cultural
interests both at Pocahontas and Richmond. She is a member of
the Episcopal Church. Doctor and Mrs. Alexander have two
sons: Charles Palmer, born May 12, 1914; and John McConnell.
born August 12, 1923.
Doctor Alexander has attended many clinics in leading med-
ical centers, including the Mayo Brothers at Minneapolis, has an
extensive library and occasionally finds time to contribute to
medical literature. He is a member of the Tazewell County, the
Clinch Valley, the Virginia State Medical Societies, being an
official of the Clinch Valley body and of the American Medical
Association. During the World war he was a member of the
United States Medical Reserve Corps, but was never called into
active service. With his versatile talents, both politics and busi-
ness claim some attention, and in 1914, on the Democratic ticket,
he was elected mayor of Pocahontas, in which office he served
with marked efficiency for two years. It has always been his aim
as a loyal and faithful citizen to lend support to substantial local
enterprises, and his influence has not been without result. At
present he is a director of the Citizens Drug Company of Poca-
hontas, and is also one of the directing board of the White Phar-
macy at Bluefield, West Virginia. In addition to belonging to
scientific research bodies that are giving an added interest to
342 VIRGINIA
modern medical science, he has membership in such fraternal
organizations as the Knights of Pythias and the Benevolent and
Protective Order of Elks.
James Clyne Honaker. Anywhere in the district around
Rocky Gap in Bland County the name of Honaker is immediately
identified by the family of that name, which for over a hundred
years, through four generations, has been active in the commer-
cial life of the community as merchants. No other one family
has supplied such a consecutive service in one field of business
in Bland County.
James Clyne Honaker was born near Princeton and Bluefield,
West Virginia, March 2, 1869. The Honakers came at a very
early date to Southwestern Virginia, and his great-grandfather
was Abe Honaker, who moved to Bland County from Pulaski
County. Abe Honaker's son, Peter C. Honaker, was for many
years a merchant at Rocky Gap, and also owned and operated
a farm there. The father of James C. Honaker was James D.
Honaker, who was born at Rocky Gap, attended a private school,
and carried on the family business as a merchant, and was also a
farmer. He represented Bland and Smyth counties in the Lower
House of the State Legislature in 1881, being at that time the
youngest member of the Legislature, and later he was a member
of the session of 1900. He died May 17, 1919, and is buried in the
Rocky Gap Cemetery. He married Sally B. Bailey, who was
born near Princeton, West Virginia, was well educated and
taught school before her marriage. She was a member of the
Methodist Episcopal Church, South. She died August 3, 1903.
Of her four children two died in infancy, and the two now living
are James C. and John D. The latter was for a number of years
in the mercantile business and is now an automobile dealer at
Bluefield, West Virginia. He married Edna Nottingham, of
Cape Charles, Virginia, and their three children are James
Luther, Thomas H. and Clara Belle.
James C. Honaker attended the public schools of Rocky
Gap and was a student in the Virginia Polytechnic Institute until
1887, when at the age of eighteen, he became associated with the
family business at Rocky Gap and has carried it on for forty
years, though much of the active management now devolves upon
his son, representing the fourth generation of this family as
merchants. This son is James Eugene Honaker. They have a
large store, supplying an extensive territory around Rocky Gap.
Mr. Honaker also owns several fine blue grass farms and is ex-
tensively engaged in stock raising in Bland County. He is a
director of the Bank of Rocky Gap and for some years was
director of the First National Bank of Narrows, Virginia. For
five years he was treasurer of Bland County.
Mr. Honaker is a Royal Arch Mason, member of the B. P. 0.
Elks at Bluefield, West Virginia, is a Republican and a trustee
of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South.
He married, April 20, 1890, at Ingleside, West Virginia, Miss
Sallie Jarrell, who was educated in Marion Female College and
taught school for several years before her marriage. She is
active in church and community affairs. Her parents were
George W. and Elizabeth (Harman) Jarrell, of Ingleside. Her
father was a farmer and stock raiser in Augusta County, Vir-
ginia, and Mercer County, West Virginia, and was killed by
lightning in 1881. Her mother subsequently became the wife of
-X^itkjLL ^i^7l^aAA/XL(r>vo
VIRGINIA 343
John B. Hern, who died at Salem, Virginia, in 1927, and she
survives at the age of eighty-three.
Mr. and Mrs. Honaker are the parents of eight children. The
daughter Eula Lee is the wife of H. G. Helvey, of Rocky Gap,
and their eight children are named William, James, Sallie, Vir-
ginia, Henry, Lucille, Dorothy and Wayne. Ga.ston S., the sec-
ond child, was drowned at the age of twelve years in Wolfe
Creek. James E. Honaker, the active associate of his father in
the general mercantile business at Rocky Gap, was educated in
Emory and Henry College, and is a member of the Board of
Supervisors of Bland County. He married Miss Seretna Gra-
ham. Miss Eloise Honaker, living at home, was educated in the
Marion Female College. Miss Mary is also at home. Juanita
is deceased. Elizabeth C. is the wife of Raymond D. Williams,
of Pembroke, Virginia. John B., the youngest, attended the
Rocky Gap schools and is at home.
John Williams Harrison belonged to an active generation
of Richmond business men who broadened and extended the in-
fluence of Richmond as a great wholesale and distributing center
for the Southeast. He was a native Virginian, a descendant of
the famous family of Harrisons whose lives are so intimately
identified with the state in every generation since the founding
of the colony. His great-great-grandfather. Carter Harrison,
was a son of Benjamin Harrison of Berkeley and a brother of
Benjamin Harrison, one of the signers of the Declaration of In-
dependence and later governor of Virginia.
John Williams Harrison was born at Elkora, Cumberland
County, February 13, 1857, and died at Richmond in August,
1918. His father was Maj. Carter Henry Harrison, and his
grandfather, Randolph Harrison, whose home was Clifton Plan-
tation. Randolph Harrison married Janetta Fisher.
Maj. Carter Henry Harrison was a planter and slave owner,
and during the Civil war rose to the rank of major in the Con-
federate army and I'ecruited a company of the Black Hawk In-
fantry. He was mortallv wounded at the battle of Bull Run
July 18. 1861, and died July 19, 1861, aged thirty years. He
married Alice Burwell Williams, of the Orange County family
of that name.
John Williams Harrison was educated by private tutors in
Cumberland County and finished his education in the Virginia
Polytechnic Institute. At the age of sixteen he was working
in the wholesale grocery house of his uncle, Robert F. Williams,
at Richmond, and at Richmond began his independent career
as a coffee broker. After fifteen years in the brokerage business
he became an importer of coffee, and handled a business of
steadily increasing volume year after year, building up an or-
ganization and a trade which are still in existence. He had a
number of traveling salesmen covering all of the southeastern
states.
Not all his life was taken up with business. He enjoyed a
wide association with men of affairs, belonged to the Wholesale
Grocers' Association, the Richmond German Club, was a charter
member of the Commonwealth Club, and belonged to the Country
Club. He and his wife and children were all members of St.
Paul's Episcopal Church.
He married at UniontowTi, Pennsylvania, September 17, 1890,
Miss May Kennedy Willson, who was reared in Pennsylvania
and finished her education at Baltimore, Maryland. Her father,
344 VIRGINIA
Alpheus Evans Willson, was a distinguished Pennsylvania law-
yer and jurist, graduated from Princeton University in 1847,
and in 1873 was appointed judge of the Fourteenth Judicial Dis-
trict of Pennsylvania and served on the bench for twelve years
by appointment and election, and finally refused a seat on the
Supreme bench of the state. Judge Willson married Catherine
Harrison Dawson, of Brownsville, Pennsylvania. They had
three children : Eliza Evans, who married R. H. Lindsey, of
Uniontown, Pennsylvania; Catherine Dawson, who married
Harry W. Hazard, of Elizabeth, New Jersey ; and Mrs. Harrison.
Mrs. Harrison's mother was a lineal descendant of Governor
Stone and Verlinda Cotton, the latter a sister of Rev. William
Cotton of Williamsburg, Virginia, while Governor Stone was
the first Protestant governor of Maryland.
Mr. and Mrs. Harrison had a family of three children. Their
daughter, Eliza (Elsie) Willson, is the wife of Anthony C.
Adams, a Richmond banker, and he has two children, Catherine
Dawson Willson and Anthony Crease, Jr. Randolph Carter
Harrison, vice president of the State Planters Bank of Rich-
mond, married Mary McCaw Hawes, of Richmond, and has two
children, Randolph Carter, Jr., and Mary Anne. Alpheus Evans
Willson Harrison, in the trust office of the First and Merchants
National Bank. He married Anne Sterling Hawes and has two
children, Horace Hawes and Anne Willson.
Randolph Carter Harrison graduated with the A. B. degree
from the University of Virginia in 1916, and during the World
war was a lieutenant of military observation in the Aviation
Corps, at first with French troops and later with the American
forces. He is a member of the Richmond German, Common-
wealth and Country Clubs. The second son, A. E. Willson Har-
rison, was also educated at the University of Virginia and spent
two years with the colors during the war, being captain of a
machine gun company. He is a member of the Commonwealth
Club, German Club and Country Club and the Deep Reed Hunt
Club. Mr. Adams belongs to the Commonwealth Club, German
Club and Country Club. He was a lieutenant, being on duty on
the Mexican border as well as in France during the World war.
Mrs. Randolph Harrison and Mrs. Willson Harrison are members
of the Junior League and of the Country Club. Mrs. Adams
is also a member of the Country Club.
John G. Gillespie. A prominent family of Tazewell County
that can trace its ancestral line many generations back in South-
west Virginia bears the name of Gillespie, for many years a
name familiar in the professions, in military and commercial life
and agriculture, and in the political field. The Gillespies were
people of wealth and importance long before the war between the
states, and today, as of old, they are active in business and public
affairs. A worthy and highly esteemed member of this old Taze-
well County family is found in John G. Gillespie, postmaster at
Bluefield, Virginia.
John G. Gillespie was born in Tazewell County, Virginia, Sep-
tember 5, 1866, son of Rev. James Harrison and Mary E. (Crock-
ett) Gillespie, and grandson of Thomas H. Gillespie and John I.
Crockett, all of whom were born and practically spent their en-
tire lives in Tazewell County. Both grandfathers of Postmaster
Gillespie were men of large possessions before the Civil war.
Grandfather Crockett owning many acres of valuable coal lands.
VIRGINIA 345
and Grandfather Gillespie being a leading banker, but both lost
heavily in the war. Grandfather Gillespie later became a planter,
and subsequently was elected a member of the Virginia Legisla-
ture from Tazewell County.
Rev. James Harrison Gillespie, father of Postma.ster Gilles-
pie, was an exceptional man both in war and peace. It so hap-
pened that he was a vigorous, robust youth of sixteen years when
the war between the states came on, and probably due to his
physical fitness, despite his youth, he was accepted as a soldier
in the Confederate army and served throughout the war under
Capt. D. B. Baldwin, his soldierly qualities bringing him promo-
tion to a first lieutenancy. Later for forty years he served in the
ministry of the Christian Church. He was widely known for his
Christian zeal and benevolence, and was a member of the Mason-
ic fraternity.
Although John G. Gillespie was not reared under circum-
stances that afforded him educational advantages beyond those
of the common schools, these in combination with an alert mind
and natural inclination and interest in public events and business
enterprises have brought him a large measure of business suc-
cess and have made him acceptable and valuable to his fellow
citizens in public positions of responsibility. He remained at
home giving his father assistance until he was twenty-one years
old, and then went into business for himself as a merchant at
Tip Top, Virginia. He continued there until public interests de-
manded his entire time, when he removed his business to Blue-
field, where it is still carried on by his sons, under the style of
R. P. Harman Mercantile Corporation, of which corporation
Mr. Gillespie is vice president.
In 1887 John G. Gillespie married Miss Sallie McMullin,
daughter of James H. McMullin, of an early settled family of
Tazewell County, and Postmaster and Mrs. Gillespie have a fam-
ily of five sons and three daughters, all useful members of society
and highly esteemed in their several communities. The eldest,
James H., who was educated in the public schools of Tazewell
County, and Lynchburg College, is a traveling salesman, with
home at Bluefield ; Jesse S., who, like all his brothers, attended
public schools of Tazewell County and Lynchburg College, is
manager of the Harman Mercantile Corporation at Bluefield ;
Thomas W., who completed his course in pharmacy in Richmond,
is a druggist at Oak Hill, West Virginia ; Robert G., is manager
of the stores of the Leckie Colleries Company at Aflex, Ken-
tucky; Henry B., the youngest son, is a student in Graham
High School; Sallie E., who attended the Graham High School
and the State Teachers College at Lynchburg, is an instructor in
the Bluefield High School ; Elma F., who is a graduate of the
State Teachers College at Lynchburg, is the wife of Robert
Peirle, a druggist at Holden, West Virginia; and Elizabeth is
now a student in the State Teachers College at Harrisonburg,
Virginia. During the World war Jesse S. served one year in the
United States Navy ; Thomas W. spent thirteen months with the
A. E. F. in France ; and Robert G., when the war closed, was in
a military training camp.
For many years Postmaster Gillespie has been active in Re-
publican politics in the Ninth Congressional District. While still
a resident of Tip Top, Virginia, he was elected commissioner of
revenue for the Graham District of Tazewell County, and was
continued in that important oflice twenty years, and it is worthy
of note as indicative of the confidence and personal esteem in
346 VIRGINIA
which he is held that his elections to office have been outside of
partisanship, as his district has been normally and unchangeably
Democratic. In March, 1927, he was appointed postmaster at
Bluefield, and his time is now entirely devoted to the duties of
his office, for Mr. Gillespie is one who regards a public office as
a public trust and acts accordingly. He is a Royal Arch Mason,
and while residing at Tip Top served six terms as master of
Keystone Lodge, A. F. and A. M. He has membership also in
other fraternal bodies, including the Odd Fellows and the
Knights of Pythias, and in civic bodies that work for the sub-
stantial welfare of the city. Both he and wife belong to the
Christian Church, in which he is an elder.
Fred H. King. As far as lies in the power of this age to
trace back into the misty records of the past the manners and
customs of the peoples of all ages have been brought to light,
and in every instance there is to be found definite traces of the
respect paid to the dead. The countries of Asia and Africa show
countless instances of the care taken to preserve the bodies of
the dead, and to hand down to future generations a record of
their deeds ; while in the New World the same evidences prevail.
However, never before in the history of man has such care been
given the dead as that afforded by the modern undertaker. He
is a professional man of skill, carefully trained, licensed under
the state in which he operates, and in many instances he pos-
sesses artistic ability of a high order, and a proper comprehen-
sion of the dignity of the occasion. There are many men of this
high class in Virginia, and one of them worthy of much more
than passing mention is Fred H. King, of Norton, whose funeral
parlors are conveniently located at 927 Virginia Avenue.
Fred H. King was born in Barrackville, West Virginia, Sep-
tember 29, 1884, a son of John W. and Helen (Toothman) King.
The father died January 2, 1929, but the mother is still living and
residing in West Virginia. For years the father was a master
mechanic, but later living retired. He was an active Republican,
and a consistent member of the Methodist Episcopal Church.
The paternal grandfather, William King, was born in Wales, but
he was brought to the United States by his father, William King,
who also brought his eleven other sons, twelve in all. They set-
tled in Virginia, and from them have descended the majority of
those in this country bearing the name of King. When West
Virginia was formed during the war between the states the
Kings found themselves in the new division.
The public schools of West Virginia grounded Fred H. King
in the fundamentals of an education, and when he left the
schoolroom he entered the employ of the Consolidated Coal Com-
pany, and for the following fifteen years was in the mercantile
department of this corporation in West Virginia and Kentucky,
and had charge of their store and undertaking in different places.
Leaving the company, he went with the Seattle Hardware Com-
pany, which he represented in Alaska, and then for a time he
was with the Seattle Mercantile Association. His experience in
undertaking led him to decide to go into that line for himself,
and after he had taken a course in embalming in the Hohenschuh
College of Embalming, Des Moines, Iowa, he came to Norton
and opened his present parlors. Here he has one of the finest
establishments in the state, his equipment being of the latest
design, and motorized. His chapel, parlors and stock of goods
are^such as to enable him to offer the most satisfactory and dig-
»?
I
VIRGINIA 347
nified service. As an embalmer he is accepted as one of the best
in the demo-surgery line, and makes this work one of his spe-
cialties. He has been treasurer of the Virginia State Funeral
Directors Association, is a member of the National Funeral Di-
rectors Association, and is vice president of the Southwest Vir-
ginia Funeral Directors Association, which embraces all the
counties we.st of Roanoke, Virginia. High in Masonry, he has
been advanced through all of the bodies of the York Rite, and is
treasurer of the Blue Lodge, Chapter and Commandery, is a past
high priest of the Chapter and a past commander of the Com-
mandery, and he also belongs to the Mystic Shrine. For two
years he was a director of the Norton Kiwanis Club, of which he
is still a member. Active in politics, he is now a member of the
City Council of Norton. The Christian Church holds his mem-
bership, and his wife also belongs to this church.
On March 29, 1904, Mr. King married Miss Viva Riblett, of
West Virginia, a daughter of Jackson F. and Gertrude (Nay)
Riblett, both of whom are living and residents of Centralia,
Washington, where Mr. Riblett is a ranchman, but they were
born in West Virginia. The paternal grandfather of Mrs. King
was Daniel Riblett, who served in the Union army during the
war between the states. Mrs. King was educated in the high
school of Shinnston, West Virginia. One child, Pauline King,
has been born to Mr. and Mrs. King, and she is now attending
school in Norton.
Margaret Buchanan Jarratt is a resident of 311 South
Jefferson Street, Petersburg, and represents some old and hon-
ored Virginia families, both those from whom she is descended
and those with whom she is related by marriage.
She was born in Greensville County, Virginia, daughter of
John and Richetta (Peter) Cole and granddaughter of William
and Elizabeth (Cocke) Cole. John Cole inherited large tracts
of land in Prince George and Greensville counties, and also
plantations in the State of Mississippi, and it was his practice
once a year to visit these plantations, which were operated by
overseers. He died in Greensville County at the age of seventy-
one. John Cole married Richetta Peter, daughter of John and
Martha Peter. Mrs. Jarratt was one of seven children, the
others being named: William Herbei't, John Peter (who died
when thirteen years old), Richetta P., Thomas Everad, James
Edward and Francis Walter.
Mrs. Jarratt was educated in Saint Marys College at Bur-
lington, New Jersey. At the age of eighteen she was married
to Mr. James Dunlop, a son of David and Anna Mercer (Minge)
Dunlop. Mr. Dunlop was born at Petersburg, and after com-
pleting his education in the Virginia Military Institute engaged
in the tobacco business at Owensboro, Kentucky, and in 1876
removed to Covington, Kentucky. In 1877 he returned to Peters-
burg, Virginia, and died there the same year. Mrs. Jarratt by
her first marriage has one daughter, Anna Mercer, a gifted
artist, who studied under Whistler in Paris. Mrs. Dunlop was
married to Walter Jeflferson Jarratt, who was born at Peters-
burg, son of Thomas Jefferson Jarratt, a feed and produce
dealer in Petersburg, who served six years as mayor of that city.
Walter Jefferson Jarratt succeeded to the business of his father
and conducted it until his death in 1893. The Jarratt family was
in Virginia in Colonial times. Rev. Devereaux Jarratt came
from England and was rector of the Episcopal Church of Bath
348 VIRGINIA
Parish from 1762 to 1801. Tradition is that four of his brothers
also came to Virginia.
Mrs. Jarratt had three children, Walter Jefferson, James
Herbert and Margaret Buchanan. Her son Walter J. married
Ruth Jones. James H. married Rebecca Michie, and their two
children are James Herbert and Emily Norwood. Margaret B.
is the wife of C. Langfitt and has a daughter, Margaret Jarratt.
Both Mr. and Mrs. Jarratt took an active part in St. Paul's
Episcopal Church. Mr. Jarratt was vestryman and lay leader
and superintendent of the Sunday School, and also a member of
the St. Andrews Brotherhood.
Theodore Franklin Kidd. Inheriting the family traits of
industry, economy and thrift that ever win success in worldly
affairs, Theodore Franklin Kidd easily acquired when young a
stable position among the noteworthy citizens of Petersburg,
where he is now living retired from business cares and worries.
He was born August 4, 1854, in Petersburg, coming on the
paternal side of English ancestry. His father, Stith Jones Kidd,
and his grandfather, James Kidd, were both born in Dinwiddle
County, Virginia, on a plantation located in the near vicinity of
Harpers Home.
James Kidd was a successful agriculturist, operating his
well yielding plantation vdth slave labor. He was a man of
magnificent physique, six feet and nine inches in height, well
proportioned, and retained in a remarkable degree his mentality
until his death at the venerable age of one hundred and four
years.
Stith Jones Kidd learned the trade of a coach maker when
young, that having been before the time of railroads and air-
planes, when stage coaches were used for traveling from place
to place, even long journeys being made in them. Quite success-
ful in his business, he carried it on in Petersburg until acci-
dentally killed when but sixty years of age. His wife, whose
maiden name was Minnie H. Clatte, was born in Germany, and
came with her father to America in 1850. Mr. Clatte was a fine
musician, and for a number of years served in that capacity in
the German Army. In a hard fought battle, when the German
troops were on the losing side, he was commanded to sound a
retreat. Explaining that he did not know how to do so, he played
a funeral march. The German soldiers immediately rallied,
charged and won the battle. The quick-witted musician for this
action was subsequently decorated by the Kaiser. Upon retiring
from the army he came to Virginia, in 1850, as above stated, and
after living for a time in Richmond located in Petersburg,
where he spent his remaining years. Mrs. Stith Jones Kidd died
at her home in Petersburg at the age of four score and four
years. To her and her husband ten children were born, and
all were given good educational advantages.
A boy of seven years when the outbreak of the Civil war
occurred, Theodore Franklin Kidd well remembers many inci-
dents connected with the conflict. Plantations were devastated,
live stock taken, contents of the family smoke houses seized, and
people of wealth were stripped of their riches. For several years
thereafter oxen were used in place of horses and mules, produce
often being brought to Petersburg by an ox in shafts. The
people, however, with true Virginian spirit began the reconstruc-
tion, not only of city and state, but of the entire South, and many
VIRGINIA 349
of the events connected with it are still vivid in the mind of
Mr. Kidd.
Until nineteen years of age Theodore Franklin Kidd per-
formed any kind of labor he could secure. Ambitious to estab-
lish himself in a permanent position, he served an apprentice-
ship at the plumber's trade, which he conducted most successfully
until compelled by an unfortunate accident to relinquish that
work. On recovering his health and strength Mr. Kidd was for
several years prosperously engaged in the real estate business,
but is now living retired from active pursuits, devoting his time
and attention to his family and friends, and thoroughly enjoying
his well earned leisure.
In 1884, at the age of thirty years, Mr. Kidd married Lucy J.
Alley, who was born in Prince George County, Virginia, a daugh-
ter of Abram and Cornelia Ann Alley. Mrs. Kidd died January
17, 1926. Seven children were born of the union of Mr. and
Mrs. Kidd, as follows: Robert H.; Flora L., wife of Linwood A.
Andrews, has five children ; Blanche T., wife of Edison P. Phil-
lips, has two children ; Bessie, wife of W. Gray Andrews, has
five children ; Leonard W. ; Willard C. ; and Grace A., the wife
of Rev. J. Ernest Gibson, pastor of Monumental Baptist Church
at Petersburg, Virginia.
Mr. Kidd has always taken an intelligent interest in public
affairs, more especially in local matters. Both as an alderman
and as a member of the City Council, in which he served con-
tinuously for a period of thirty years, he was a strong advocate
of all measures conducive to the advancement of the city's high-
est interests and prosperity. Mr. Kidd from his youth up was
very active in the work of the Wesley Methodist Episcopal
Church, South, was chairman of the Board of Stewards for
many years, and a heavy contributor toward the support of the
church. He was largely instrumental in the erection of the new
church building. He was a strong advocate of prohibition and
contributed largely to the cause in his home city.
George Wright was a Virginian who gave all the years from
early manhood to the close of his life in railroading, and was
honored for length of service and efficiency throughout the
Chesapeake and Ohio System. At the time of his death he was
the oldest conductor of that great transportation system, with
its headquarters at Richmond.
Captain Wright, as he was always known, was born in Essex
County, Virginia, June 6, 1852, and died at Richmond April 13,
1923, at the age of seventy-two. His father was a physician,
and enjoyed an extensive practice in Essex County, where he
lived and worked until his death at the age of forty-five. The
mother of Captain Wright was Mary Anne Jones, a descendant
of Peter Jones, who came to Virginia in 1620.
George Wright was one of ten children, and he grew up in Es-
sex County, getting his education in local schools. He was quite
young when his father died, and for several years he remained
with his mother, assisting on the farm. It was in 1870 that he
moved to Richmond and began his long con.secutive service for
the Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad. His first position was clerk in
the maintenance department. Later he rose to conductor in the
transportation department, and from 1901 to 1913 had the re-
sponsibilities of trainmaster. Ill health compelling him to give
over some of these heavy responsibilities, he once more resumed
his position as a conductor, having a run between Richmond and
Newport News, and when death came to him he had completed
350 VIRGINIA
fifty-two years as a railroad man. He was very popular in rail-
way organizations, was a Royal Arch Mason and Shriner and
a member of the Holy Comforter Episcopal Church at Richmond.
His wife belongs to the Tabernacle Baptist Church.
Mr. Wright first married Lulie Stanard, of Goshen, Indiana,
who died three years after their marriage, the mother of two
sons, Robert, now deceased, and Beverly. Captain Wright on
October 7, 1890, married Loulie Evans, of Middlesex County,
where she was reared and educated, being a graduate of the
Teachers College at Farmville. Mrs. Wright, who resides at
2408 Hanover Street in Richmond, is a daughter of Doctor and
Mrs. J. Mason Evans. Her father graduated in medicine from
the old Columbian University at Washington and spent many
years in practice in Middlesex County. Her mother was Ellen
Bagby, of King and Queen County, the Bagbys being a promi-
nent Virginia family. Mrs. Wright was seventh in a family of
nine children.
Mrs. Wright has two sons and one daughter. Her son,
George Wright, Jr., was educated in the University of Virginia
and married Lorraine Ruffin, of Richmond, of the well known
Ruffin family. Her daughter, Laura M., is the wife of W. S.
Street, assistant cashier of the Commerce and Trust Bank of
Richmond, and has two children, named Walter, Jr., and Lou
Evans. Richard Bagby Wright is a young business man of
Richmond.
John Harrison Lambert is cashier of the Bank of Rocky
Gap in Bland County. He was born and reared in that county,
and his people have lived there since pioneer times.
Mr. Lambert is a son of Thomas S. and Clara G. (Helvey)
Lambert. His father was a great-grandson of one of two broth-
ers who settled at what is Lamberts Point near Norfolk, Vir-
ginia. Thomas S. Lambert was born and reared in Bland Coun-
ty, and followed farming and stock raising until his death on
May 7, 1900. He is buried in the Lambert Cemetery at Round
Bottom. His wife, Clara G. Helvey, was born on Kimberling
Creek in Bland County, and has always been an active worker
in the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. She lives at the old
homestead at Round Bottom. She was the mother of three chil-
dren: John H. ; Ida E., who died April 23, 1907, at the age of
seventeen years ; and James M., a farmer and stock raiser at
Round Bottom who married Linnie Bivens and has one child,
Virgie C.
John Harrison Lambert was born at Round Bottom October
16, 1888, and supplemented his advantages in the public schools
there by attending Emory and Henry College. He left college
in 1913 and for several years his time and energies were fully
taken up with farming and stock raising. During the World
war he was classified and assigned limited military service as a
ship carpenter for the New York Ship Building Corporation in
the yards at Camden, New Jersey.
Mr. Lambert since 1924 has been cashier of the Bank of
Rocky Gap. The bank was organized in 1922, with Mr. John M.
Tuggle as president, and it is an organization that affords ade-
quate banking facilities to a very prosperous farming and cattle
raising section in Bland County. Mr. Lambert has been a direc-
tor of the bank since its organization. He is also a director of
the Valley Park Land Company of Elizabethton, Tennessee,
handling an extensive development project in that locality.
I
EDWARD WILSON GARDNER
VIRGINIA 351
Mr. Lambert is a member of the Masonic fraternity. He
served four years as supervisor of the Rocky Gap District, from
January 1, 1923, to January 1, 1927. He is a Democrat in pol-
itics, a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, and
for several years was superintendent of the Sunday School.
Mr. Lanabert married at Camden, New Jersey, September 9,
1925, Miss Edna Black, who was educated in public schools in
Camden and attended the University of Pennsylvania and was a
teacher up to the time of her marriage, her work having been
done in the public schools at Camden. She is a member of the
Methodist Church and is a daughter of Clinton and Emma
(Peak) Black. Her father for many years was an engineer with
the Pennsylvania Railroad, and died February 22, 1898, being
buried at Camden. Her mother is .still living, a resident of Col-
lingswood, New Jersey.
Edvv^ard Wilson Gardner was for many years identified
with the mechanical department of the Southern Railway Com-
pany, lived at Richmond, and while this service constituted a
valid claim for his consideration among representative Vir-
ginians of his generation, he is also remembered as a man of
popularity among his fellow citizens and a valuable man in the
community of Richmond.
He was born in Richmond October 28, 1864, and died in that
city May 31, 1926, at the age of sixty-two years. He was the
oldest of the ten children of Cornelius and Sarah Gardner, and
as a boy attended schools in his native city. His apprenticeship
as a machinist was served with the John Tolbert Machine Works
in Richmond. From there he went with the Southern Railway
Company and had successive promotions until he was made
foreman of the machine department. He gave an uninterrupted
service until 1917, when with America's entry into the World
war he accepted a position where his experience and skill would
be of greater value to the country, in connection with the New-
port News Ship Building Works. He returned to Richmond in
1925, where he lived in retirement until his death. He completed
a record of twenty-nine years with the Southern Railway, and
that company gave him a medal as a token of twenty-five years
of service.
He was an active Democrat and served for a time as a mem-
ber of the Democratic committee. He was several times elected
president of the Richmond Machinists Union. He belonged to
the Masonic order and Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and
was a member of the First Baptist Church.
Mr. Gardner married in August, 1892, Miss Ellen Bethel, of
Richmond, daughter of Thomas C. and Ellen Bethel. She was
the fifth of eleven children and was reared and educated in
Richmond. Mrs. Gardner resides at Richmond, Virginia. Her
father was in the service of the Confederate government during
the Civil war.
Mr. and Mrs. Gardner had a family of six children : Sarah
Lillian is a teller in the savings department of the State Planters
Bank and Trust Company at Richmond. Thomas Carter, who
married Adele Inge and has a son, Thomas Carter, Jr., is now
in the printing business. During the war he was in France
vdth the One Hundred and Forty-third Company, Signal Corps,
in the First Division, and was gassed at the battle of Cantigny.
Edward Wilson, Jr., is in the plumbing business, and by his
marriage with Ruth Masenberg has a daughter, Ruth Virginia.
352 VIRGINIA
Albert Bethel Gardner is an interior decorator at Richmond.
He married Katherine Brooks, of Richmond. The two youngest
of the family are Francis Ellyson, who married Ruth Evelyn
Darne, of Washington County, and John Stuart.
Benjamin William Beach, Danville business man, has
found the royal road to success one of hard work and close
application. He started life without money or superior educa-
tion, but has long enjoyed a position of marked esteem among
his associates. For a quarter of a century he has been identified
with the Danville Ice Company, of which he is manager.
Mr. Beach was born in Franklin County, Virginia, May 6,
1869, son of Richard Robert and Sallie Ann (Dyer) Beach. His
great-grandfather was one of three brothers who came from
England in the 1700s, two of the brothers locating in Prince
Edward County, Virginia, while the other went out West and
was never heard from again. Mr. Beach's grandfather was
William Branch Beach, who was born and reared in Prince
Edward County, and after his marriage moved to Franklin
County, where he was a farmer. Richard Robert Beach was
born and reared in Franklin County, and served all through the
four years of the Civil war in the regiment commanded by
Colonel Kemper and in Pickett's division. He was wounded
during the famous charge of that division at Gettysburg. After
the war he was a farmer in Franklin and later in Montgomery
County, and died in 1905. He is buried at Christiansburg.
Richard Robert Beach married Sallie Ann (Dyer) Patrick,
widow of John Hughes Patrick, who lost his life as a Confed-
erate soldier at the battle of Antietam. She was born and
reared in Henry County, Virginia, and after the war became
the wife of Richard Robert Beach. She was an invalid several
years before her death, in 1876. She was the mother of two
children, a son, John H. Patrick, by her first marriage, and
Benjamin W. Beach by her second husband. John H. Patrick
was for many years in the wholesale commission business at
Hickory, North Carolina, where he is living retired. He mar-
ried Mattie Bailey, of Halifax County, Virginia, and they have
three children, Grace, a teacher of music ; Sam Bailey Patrick,
a graduate of Columbia University, now practicing law at
Hickory, North Carolina, and Jessie, wife of Edward Hodnett,
professor of English in Columbia University.
Benjamin W. Beach was seven years of age when his mother
died. His advantages were limited to the district schools in
Franklin County and for several years he lived in the home of
an aunt. He was fifteen when he came to Danville and went to
work in the Brown & Stovall tobacco factory for three years.
For six or seven years he was employed by T. B. Fitzgerald, a
contractor and builder. After a course in the Danville Busi-
ness College he became local agent for the Standard Oil Com-
pany in 1895, and represented that business at Danville for
seven years. For two years he resumed work in the building
trade and in 1904 came with the Danville Ice Company, at first
as clerk and bookkeeper and since January, 1919, as manager of
the business and plant.
Mr. Beach is one of the prominent members of the Masonic
fraternity of Southern Virginia. He is an honorary member
of Roman Eagle Lodge No. 122, A. F. and A. M., a member
of Euclid Chapter No. 15, Royal Arch Masons, Dove Com-
mandery No. 7, Knights Templar, and was grand master of
VIRGINIA 353
Virginia from February 26, 1926, to February 26, 1927. He
is also affiliated with Acca Temple of the Mystic Shrine and
the Junior Order United American Mechanics. Mr. Beach is a
Democrat and for two terms was a member of the Danville City
Council. He is on the board of Stewards of Calvary Methodist
Episcopal Church. South.
He married at Pelham, North Carolina, October 10, 1901.
Miss Pattie Moore, of Danville. She was educated in public
schools at Richmond, attended high school and the State Normal
School and was engaged in educational work for thirty-three
years, before and after her marriage. Mrs. Beach is a member
of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, the Home and Mis-
sionary societies of the church, the Eastern Star chapter. Her
parents were Reuben C. and Sallie (Harris) Moore, of Danville.
Her father was a wheelwright and miller.
Hon. Robert Bolling Willcox. Possessing a wide and in-
telligent knowledge of the law and its precedents, Hon. Robert
Boiling Willcox maintains a noteworthy position among the fore-
most attorneys of Petersburg, where he has won an exceedingly
large and lucrative patronage. A native of Prince George County,
Virginia, he was born at Flower de Hundred, which was like-
wise the birthplace of his father, Robert Bolling Willcox, Sr.
He comes of honored Virginian stock, his paternal grandfather,
John P. Willcox, having been a native of Petersburg, while his
great-grandfather, John V. Willcox, was born and reared in
Charles City County, Virginia, on the old home plantation.
John V. Willcox located in early life in Petersburg, Virginia,
where he was for many years profitably engaged in raising
tobacco and exporting it to countries across the sea. There his
son, John P. Willcox, was born, but as a young man he moved
to Flower de Hundred, where he operated a large plantation with
the aid of his slaves, residing there until his death at a venerable
age.
Born at Flower de Hundred October 6, 1847, Robert Bolling
Willco.x, Sr., received excellent educational advantages, and as
a young man was graduated from the law department of the
University of Virginia. Beginning the practice of his profession
in Paducah, Kentucky, he remained there a few years, but pre-
ferring life in the Old Dominion State, he returned to Flow^er de
Hundred, where he managed a large plantation during the
remainder of his years. His wife, whose maiden name was
Martha Theodora Dodson, was born in Petersburg, Virginia, a
daughter of Capt. Daniel Dodson. During the Civil war Capt.
Daniel Dodson commanded the Petersburg Riflemen, a body of
thoroughly organized soldiers. He married Elizabeth Romaine
Mason, who lived to the good old age of seventy-two years.
Seven children were born into their household.
Hon. Robert Boiling Willcox, the special subject of this brief
sketch, was prepared for college under private tutorship. Enter-
ing the law department of the University of Virginia in 1898,
he was there graduated in 1901, and has since been actively
engaged in the practice of his chosen profession, his decisions
being almost invariably just and satisfactory to all concerned.
A Democrat in his political affiliations, Mr. Willcox cast his
first presidential ballot in favor of William J. Bryan, who was
of Virginia ancestry. Mr. Willcox takes an active interest in
local and state affairs, and has served very acceptably as presi-
354 VIRGINIA
dent of the City Council. He was among the first to advocate
the commission form of government for Petersburg, and has
served as city attorney since its adoption in 1921.
Mr. Willcox married, November 3, 1915, Lucy Landon Harri-
son, who was born in Danville, Virginia, a daughter of James
and Mary (Davis) Harrison, and a direct descendant of Dr. John
Staige, of the University of Virginia. Mr. and Mrs. Willcox
have five children, namely: Robert Boiling, James Harrison,
Elizabeth Mason, Donald Skipwith and Lucy Landon. Mr. Will-
cox is a valued member of the Episcopal Church, and has served
as a vestryman therein.
William Goodwin Cosby. There are some men whose
careers are outlined by circumstances and many others who
overcome circumstances and shape their own lives. To the latter
class undoubtedly belonged the late William Goodwin Cosby, of
Richmond. Tens of thousands, starting life as he did dependent
upon his own resources, never emerged from the rut of medioc-
rity. From his parents, however, he inherited the best of
legacies, birth, health, industry and integrity. These, united to
thrift, temperance and native business shrewdness, were the
equipment with which he won his way to a prominent position
among his fellow citizens.
Mr. Cosby was born in Albemarle County, Virginia, Novem-
ber 12, 1851, and was a son of William Harris and Sarah Fran-
ces (Goodwin) Cosby. His father, a native of Virginia, was a
large landowner in Albemarle and Hanover counties. Though
the heir of three fortunes, at the close of the Civil war he was
left practically without property and a family of five children.
He married Sarah Frances Goodwin, a member of the distin-
guished family of that name, and a direct descendant of Col.
George Reade and Elizabeth Martian.
The eldest of the children, William Goodwin Cosby, acquired
a public school education in Albemarle County, and as a young
man took up his residence in Richmond, where he secured a
position with the Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad. While his salary
was small, he exercised thrift and economy, and established a
business of his own. All of the money he could earn, aside from
that which he needed for the bare necessities of life, was put
into this business, and as the years passed his equipment grew
and developed, while his patronage increased in proportion. He
never shirked his duties with the railroad, but his great energy
and industry enabled him to carry on his own enterprise in an
able and expeditious manner. He remained in the employ of
the Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad for twenty-five years, as one
of its valued and trusted men, but by 1900 his own business had
expanded to such a size that he found it necessary to resign. He
continued as president of his warehouse and storage company
until his death, at which time, through his able management,
intelligence and shrewdness, he had developed one of the largest
and most prosperous enterprises of its kind in the capital. Mr.
Cosby was one of Richmond's reliable business citizens, and at
all times took a keen and helpful part in movements which added
to the city's greatness. He was a man of deep religious faith
and feeling, was superintendent of the Overbrook Presbyterian
Church Sunday School for nineteen years, and for twenty-five
years was clerk of the session. In his death Richmond lost a
man who had led a useful and honorable life and contributed not
a little to its business and civic prestige.
(J^oMcdG j^i
OL^i^i-CKf
VIRGINIA 355
On October 20, 1880, Mr. Cosby was united in marriage with
Miss Mary Archer Royall Briggs, who was born in Stafford
County, Virginia, the fifth of eleven children born to James
McDonald and Louise Ann (Smith) Briggs, a granddaughter of
James McDonald Briggs, the elder, and a great-granddaughter
of David Briggs, a native of Scotland, who immigrated to the
United States in young manhood and settled on land in Stafford
County, Virginia, where the family have resided for five genera-
tions, still owning the original property. Mrs. Cosby, who died
on June 5, 1929, received her education at West Middlesex,
Pennsylvania, and was one of the highly respected women of
Richmond, where she had been active for many years in the
work of the Presbyterian Church and the Woman's Club. Mr.
and Mrs. Cosby became the parents of three children : Edith
Marshall Kieth, the wife of John Brown Wintersmith, a leading
manufacturing chemist of Louisville, Kentucky, who has two
children, Edith Cosby and John Brown ; Robert Cullen, an enter-
prising and successful business man of Richmond, who succeeded
his father as president of the storage company and has a num-
ber of other connections; and Wi'Ham Randolph, who attended
Washington and Lee University, took the degree of Bachelor of
Laws at Tallahassee, Florida, mawipri T,orraine Johnson, of Chi-
cago, Illinois, and is now a broker for Halsey, Stuart & Company,
Chicago, at Decatur, Illinois.
Miss Pattie Elizabeth Harris. Talented and cultured, with
an inherent love for good literature, which necessarily includes
the daily newspapers. Miss Pattie E. Harris keeps w^ell informed
on the local, county, state, national and foreign affairs of the
day, and expresses her opinions thereon most clearly and intel-
ligently. A daughter of James Harris, she was born on October
31, 1852, in Southampton County, Virginia, of early Colonial
ancestry.
James Harris, a life long resident of Southampton County,
was born in 1809, and died in 1855, while yet in manhood's prime.
His wife, whose maiden name was Mary Elizabeth Ryland, was
born in Greensville County, Virginia, September 14, 1822, the
descendant of a family of prominence in both public and pri-
vate affairs. Her father, Edward Ryland, was a native of
Brunswick County, Virginia, a son of Iverson Ryland, who was
born and reared in England.
Iverson Ryland immigrated to America when young, settling
in Brunswick County, Virginia, where he bought much land,
which he cultivated with slave labor. He married a Miss Dorch,
and they reared a fine family of boys and girls.
Edward Ryland, the maternal grandfather of Miss Harris,
purchased a tract of land in Greensville County, Virginia, and
was there engaged in agricultural pursuits the remainder of his
life. His wife, whose name before her marriage was Martha
Patsy Williamson, was born in Greensville County, a daughter
of Col. Person Williamson, and granddaughter of Rev. Joseph
Williamson, an Episcopalian minister, who was born in Scotland,
and spent the last years of his life in Sussex County, Virginia.
Col. Person Williamson, the great-grandfather of Miss Har-
ris, on the matei-nal side, who owned and operated a plantation
in Sussex County, married Mary Mason, a daughter of Col.
David Mason, and a granddaughter of George Mason, widely
known as the author of the "Bill of Rights," which consisted of
ten important amendments to the Constitution. During the
356 VIRGINIA
Revolutionary war Col. David Mason had command of the Fif-
teenth Virginia Regiment, which was on the firing line in several
important engagements. He married a Miss Turner.
Mrs. Mary Elizabeth (Ryland) Harris, the mother of Miss
Harris, was left a widow when young, with three children to
care for. She was exceedingly faithful to the duties falling upon
her, administering wisely to their physical needs, and carefully
attending to their mental training. She survived her husband
many long years, passing to the life beyond in November, 1898.
They were the parents of three children, James Edward, Pattie
Elizabeth and Mary Jane. In 1900 they moved to Petersburg,
and there in 1903 James Edward's death occurred, and in 1925
his sister Mary answered death's summons. Thus left without
parents, sister or brother, Miss Pattie E. Harris is busily em-
ployed in looking after her private affairs, bravely facing the
trials and troubles that come to every one, young or old, rich
or poor, in this land of freedom and promise.
John Warwick Rust, attorney and counsellor at law at Fair-
fax, has had a very extensive law practice, and also numerous
business interests for his supervision, and has been an active
participant in the public affairs of his community.
He was born in Warren County, Virginia, November 8, 1881,
and is a descendant of William Rust, an English cavalier who
settled in Westmoreland County, Virginia, in 1650. His wife,
Anne Gray, was a daughter of Francis Gray, who came from
England in 1634, living for a time in Maryland and moving to
Westmoreland County, Virginia, in 1647. For generation after
generation the Rust family lived in Westmoreland and adjoining
counties. John W. Rust is a descendant of Samuel Rust, son of
William, and Matthew, son of Samuel. Matthew was the father
of Benedict Rust, who was born October 25, 1743, and died
September 18, 1829. There is a family tradition that he was a
Revolutionary soldier. There were many other names of the
Rust family who participated in the war for independence, and
the Rusts have done their part in practically every war in which
this country has been engaged. Benedict Rust about the close
of the Revolution established his home in Frederick County.
He married Jane Middleton, and two of their sons, John and
Matthew, were soldiers in the War of 1812. The record of
John is : Member of Capt. Daniel Matthews' Company of Rifle-
men of the McDowell's Flying Camp of Virginia Militia to
September 28, 1813 ; private in Captain Daniel Matthews' Com-
pany of Infantry of the same regiment, attached to the Fourth
Militia from September 29, 1813, to January 10, 1814.
John Rust was born February 8, 1769, and died April 17,
1851. He ovvTied a beautiful manor house on the Shenandoah
River in Warren County, and for many years was judge of the
County Court of Warren, and also senior justice of the peace.
He married Elizabeth Marshall, daughter of William Marshall
and member of the noted Marshall family of Virginia and
Maryland.
Their son, Charles Buckner Carroll Rust, was born Decem-
ber 26, 1816, and died December 17, 1904. He married, Sep-
tember 12, 1839, Mary Ann Ashby, who was born October 19,
1817, and died April 18, 1885. Her grandfather, Benjamin
Ashby, was a lieutenant in the Revolutionary war and the
Ashbys have been noted as military heroes since early Colonial
VIRGINIA 357
times, one member of the family having been the distinguished
Gen. Turner Ashby, of the Confederate Army.
Capt. John Robert Rust, son of Charles Buckner Carroll
Rust, was born June 14, 1840, and died June 2, 1920. He left
Piedmont College at the beginning of the war, joined the com-
mand of his cousin. Gen. Turner Ashby, as a private, enlisting
April 18, 1861, the day after Virginia seceded. He became cap-
tain of Company I, Twelfth Virginia Regiment of Cavalry, and
was in active service except for forty-nine days of imprisonment
at Fort McHenry. He had six horses shot while under him in
battle, was wounded twice, and as a member of Ashby's and
Jackson's cavalry was in almost continuous action and service.
He had seven first cousins in the war, four of them killed in
battle, another cousin being Gen. Albert B. Rust. Capt. John
Robert Rust made his home in his later years at Haymarket,
Prince William County. He married, December 22, 1873, Nan-
nie Antrim McKay, daughter of Joshua and Esther Ann (Hay-
cock) McKay. Her ancestor, Robert McKay, was one of the
grantees with Joist Hite of a great tract of land in Warren
County in 1732, and built the first house in the Valley of Vir-
ginia, at Cedarville, Warren County.
John Warwick Rust, youngest of the four children of Capt.
John Robert Rust, was reared in W^arren County, attended East-
ern College at Front Royal, studied law at Fairfax and was
licensed to practice at Richmond in June, 1907. Besides
responding to the demands upon his time and talents in a general
law practice he has served as attorney for the Federal Land
Bank at Baltimore, has supervised large land and real estate
holdings of his own, has been vice president of the Vienna
National Bank at Vienna, Virginia, and served as mayor of
Fairfax. During the war he was county director of the National
War Savings Committee. He has been a commander of the local
camp of Sons of Confederate Veterans, is a member of the
Presbyterian Church and a Democrat.
He married, September 27, 1911, Miss Anne Hooe, of Long-
wood, Fauquier County. She is a descendant of Rice Hooe, who
was among the first settlers of Virginia and one of the early
burgesses of the colony. His grandson, Rice Hooe, married
Anne Howson, daughter of Robert Howson. Mrs. Rust is a
daughter of Howson and Henrietta (Daniell) Hooe. Her father
was a Confederate soldier, and the Howson and Hooes among
her ancestors furnished many names in the military and civic
affairs of the colony and state of Virginia. The children born
to Mr. and Mrs. Rust are : Katharine Warwick, Eleanor
McLean, John Howson and Anne Hooe.
William Henry Painter, mayor of Radford, has made an
enviable record both as a business man and citizen. He has
been well known in several communities of Southwestern Vir-
ginia, and his chief business activities since locating at Rad-
ford have been as a building contractor and real estate operator.
Mr. Painter was born in Wvthe County, Virginia, September
21, 1869, son of William M. and Sallie (Hatcher) Painter. His
great-grandfather Painter was killed by Indians in the Valley
of Virginia in early pioneer times. His grandfather, Abraham
Painter, was a farmer and stock raiser in Wythe County, and
both he and his wife are buried at Ivanhoe. William M. Painter
was born in Wythe County, was educated in private schools and
was in Confederate service during the Civil war, being detailed
358 VIRGINIA
for work in the lead mines. After the war he followed farming
and general merchandising, and when he died in 1915 was one
of the oldest merchants in Wythe County. His wife, Sallie Hat-
cher, was born and reared in Rockbridge County, Virginia, was
educated in private schools and was a Methodist, while her hus-
band was a Presbyterian. She died in December, 1915. They
had a family of five children : Walter T., deceased ; D. M. Painter,
also deceased; Lula M., wife of S. S. Simmerman, of Wytheville;
Minnie, wife of W. E. Miller, of Herndon, Virginia ; and Wil-
liam H.
William H. Painter attended public schools in Wythe County
and after completing his education in Roanoke College returned
home and became associated with his father in the store at
Ivanhoe and later became a member of the firm W. M. Painter
& Son. After five years he sold out his interest and for three
years was engaged in buying and selling farms in Greenbrier
County, West Virginia, and for a time was also a real estate
operator in the country around Washington, D. C. He returned
to Ivanhoe to take the management of the store there, remain-
ing another five years, and from there came to Radford, where
he has been a contractor and builder, operating largely with his
own property and capital.
The community of Radford has given him repeated evidences
of its esteem for his leadership. For eight years he was a mem-
ber of the City Council, and while living in Wythe County served
on the Board of Education about fifteen years. For one year
he was president of the Radford Chamber of Commerce and in
1928 was elected mayor of the city. He has been a director of
banks and other public enterprises, although in recent years he
has given over many of his connections with business affairs.
In 1928 Mr. Painter erected a beautiful home on the hills above
Radford, at Sixth and Harvey streets, a house corresponding to
its beautiful location in architecture. This home represented
many of the artistic ideals and the plans for convenience and
comfort made by his good wife, who unfortunately did not live
to see the home completed. Mr. Painter was formerly active in
the Kiwanis Club, he is a Democrat and a trustee of the Metho-
dist Episcopal Church, South.
He married at Ivanhoe, Virginia, in October, 1896, Miss
Mattie L. Mitchell. After attending public schools she was edu-
cated in Sullins College at Bristol. She was identified with the
work of the Methodist Episcopal Church and was a member of
the Woman's Club of Radford. Mrs. Painter died August 8,
1928, and is buried in the West View Cemetery at Radford. Her
parents were Rev. W. D. and Mary Rebecca (Burkey) Mitchell.
Her father for half a century was a minister of the Methodist
Episcopal Church, South, and widely known all over the Holston
Conference. He and his wife spent their declining years at
Radford and are buried in the West View Cemetery there. Mr.
and Mrs. Painter were the parents of five children, two of whom
died young. The living daughters are Ruth, Mary and Lois.
Ruth was educated at Ivanhoe, in a private girls school at
Wytheville, and was married to Ernest Bullard, of Radford, who
died leaving two children, William P. and Barbara. Mrs. Bul-
lard subsequently married Blackman Garner, of Dover, North
Carolina, where they reside, and by this marriage there are two
children, Janice Blackman and Jean Carolyn. The daughter
Mary was educated at Radford, graduating from the high school
there in 1916 and also attended the National Business College at
JOHN FREDERICK BLACK
VIRGINIA 359
Roanoke. Lois Painter graduated from the Radford High School
in 1920. spent two years in Martha Washington College, one
year in Randolph-Macon Woman's College and in 1924 gradu-
ated from Emory and Henry College. She taught three and a
half years in the public .schools of Virginia and North Carolina,
and in January, 1928, became the wife of Mr. James E. Dooley,
of Monita. Virginia. Mr. Dooley attended high school at Mon-
ita and Roanoke College, and his business is road construction
work in North Carolina. Mr. and Mrs. Dooley have one son,
James Beverly.
John Frederick Black was a building contractor long and
familiarly known in Richmond, where his individual skill and
the skill of the organization which he built up and directed were
impressed on many of the finer public buildings, as well as
homes.
Mr. Black was born at Petersburg, Virginia, October 19, 1859,
and was a small child when his parents moved to Richmond,
where he lived practically all his life and where he died January
27, 1917. His widow now resides at 3300 Park Avenue. His
father was Maj. B. J. Black, a prominent Virginia architect
who made the designs and supervised the construction of a great
many buildings in Richmond and elsewhere over the state. He
was colonel of Virginia troops in the Civil war. Major Black
married Lettie Hawkins. Their children were : Molly, who mar-
ried Joe Myers ; Katie ; John Frederick, the oldest of three sons ;
Willie ; Agnes, who married William Beattie ; Nellie, whose first
husband was John Murphy and the second Harry Welch ; Annie,
and Wilson.
John Frederick Black attended school at Richmond, and from
school began learning the carpenter's trade. He had a very
thorough training in woodworking and other branches of build-
ing mechanics, and was well equipped when he entered the con-
tracting business. The work he did as a contractor from that
time until his death could not be enumerated in detail. In the
construction of the Sacred Heart Cathedral he made the form for
many of the fine architectural figures, and he did all the special
finishing work on the building. A number of the fine homes on
Monument Avenue were put up by him, and he also erected
several office buildings in the business quarter.
Mr. Black was a Democrat and a member of the Knights
of the Maccabees. The family were members of St. Benedict
Catholic Parish and Mrs. Black is a member of the Catholic
Woman's Club of Richmond.
Mr. Black was twice married. By his first marriage he had
one daughter, Mary, who finished her education in the Sacred
Heart Academy and is now the wife of Joseph Amrhein. Mr.
Amrhein for a number of years was with the First National
Bank of Richmond and is now a state bank examiner. Mr. and
Mrs. Amrhein have three children, Mary Catherine, Joe, Jr., and
John.
On April 3, 1890, at Richmond, John Frederick Black mar-
ried Kate O'Brien, daughter of Thomas and Mary Ann O'Brien.
Her father was for over forty years employed in the locomotive
works at Richmond, now a branch of the American Locomotive
Works. Mrs. Black was one of a family of eight children and
was the oldest of the five that grew up. Her sister Ellen T. mar-
ried J. H. Duggan, of Richmond; Mamie married Tom Carroll,
of South Richmond ; Margaret became the wife of R. T. Collins,
360 VIRGINIA
of St. Petersburg, Florida; and Miss Agnes is a Government
employe.
Mrs. Black was educated in St. Joseph's Academy at Rich-
mond. The following children were born to her marriage:
Joseph F. married Sarah Burnett and had four children, Joseph,
John F., Sarah and Mary; Bernard, the second son is married;
Madeline, deceased, was the wife of L. S. Jewett and left two
children. Jack and Ann ; Katherine is the wife of James Woot-
ton, of Detroit ; Margaret is the fifth in age ; John A. is an em-
ploye of the Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad ; Thomas O'Brien is an
architect; and Wilson is in school. These children were all
educated in the Sacred Heart Academy except Wilson and Mar-
garet, who attended Saint Benedict Academy.
Edward Franklin Cobb, who for many years was in the
service of the Chesapeake & Ohio Railway, was a member of
the Cobb family which settled in Virginia in the eighteenth cen-
tury. The Cobbs were English, and the record of the family in
England runs back into earliest recorded history.
Edward Franklin Cobb was born in Caroline County, Vir-
ginia, April 6, 1869, and died at Richmond March 25, 1919. His
father, Montgomery Terrell Cobb, was a farmer and contractor
in Caroline County, and served in the Confederate army. He
married Margaret Faulkner, of Spotsylvania County. Their
family of children consisted of the following : John L., a con-
ductor with the Chesapeake & Ohio Railway; Mary, deceased;
Edward Franklin; Virginia, deceased; George M., a Chesa-
peake & Ohio Railway conductor; Jesse Thomas, a fai'mer in
Edward Franklin Cobb attended schools in Caroline County,
worked with his father on the home farm, and at the age of
twenty-two moved to Richmond and went to work for the Chesa-
peake & Ohio Railroad. He was then apprenticed one year, then
was transferred to the transportation department, and alto-
gether spent twenty-six years in the railway service, being a
conductor for twelve years. He was a loyal and efficient em-
ploye, and had a widely extended acquaintance among railroad
men over the state.
He was a Democrat, a member of the Knights of Pythias, a
Baptist, and belonged to the Brotherhood of Railway Trainmen.
His wife is a member of the auxiliary of that organization, be-
longs to the Travel Club, and is a member of the Woman's Bene-
ficial Association and the Eastern Star.
Mr. Cobb married at Washington, D. C, October 18, 1899,
Miss Eva A. Terrell. Mrs. Cobb, whose home is at 2908 A. Park
Avenue, Richmond, is a descendant of the Terrell family which
has had many distinguished members in Virginia history, run-
ning back for two centuries or more. Her parents were John T.
and Ella A. (Cobb) Terrell. John T. Terrell was a planter,
lumber mill operator, and for a number of years served as
deputy county tax collector. He and his wife had six children :
Mrs. Eva A. Cobb; Aubin Cobb Terrell, who died while a student
at Richmond University; Mrs. Louise Terrell Campbell, of Caro-
line County, mother of four children, named Durward C, who
married Beatrice Chenault, Aurelett, now Mrs. Crawford Ginn,
of Delaware, Preston Terrell and Leon; John T. Terrell, Jr., an
engineer with the Chesapeake & Ohio Railway, has one daugh-
ter, Grace; Conway Elle Humphries lives in Caroline County;
William L. Terrell married Maude Long, and their children are
VIRGINIA 361
Marion, Kedith, Ravena, Childress, Doris, Cora Lee, Conway
Ella, Maude and John Thomas.
Mrs. Cobb is the mother of three children : Russell Terrell
Cobb, who graduated Bachelor of Science from Richmond Uni-
versity; Aubin Terrell Cobb; and Beatrice Cobb, who is a grad-
uate of the John Marshall High School. Both sons are members
of the Masonic fraternity, and the daughter and mother belong
to the Eastern Star.
Neal Bunts. A resident of Pulaski since 1908, Neal Bunts
has been connected during this entire period with what is now
a part of the General Chemical Company, of the plant of which
he has been general superintendent since 1916. Mr. Bunts has
followed the same line of industry all of his life, but of more
recent years has extended his activities and abilities to various
other concerns and is an official and director of a number of
successful enterprises. He is likewise prominent and active in
civic affairs, and for a number of years has been one of most
energetic members of the City Council.
Mr. Bunts was born May 16, 1877, in Wythe County, Vir-
ginia and is a son of John M. and Lucinda (Carnal) Bunts. The
Bunts family is of German descent, and the paternal grand-
father of Mr. Bunts was a sea captain, being master of a steam-
ship traveling between the United States and Germany. He had
settled his family in old Virginia, and his death occurred at sea
on one of his many voyages. John M. Bunts, the father of Neal
Bunts, was born and reared in Wythe County, Virginia, where
he received his education in a private school. Following his
graduation he embarked upon a career as an educator, and was
thus engaged at the time of the outbreak of the war between the
states, when he espoused the cause of the South and enlisted in
the Confederate army. During the four years that followed he
took part in many of the major engagements of that great strug-
gle, including the great battle of Gettysburg, and toward the
close of the conflict was captured and spent some time in a Fed-
eral war prison. At the close of the war he returned to the
pursuits of peace, resuming his work as an educator, and during
the painful period of reconstruction did much to alleviate the
worries and discomforts of his troubled community. He became
widely know'n for his work as an educator, and was also a man
of the strictest honor and integrity, serving with distinguished
ability as a justice of the peace for a period of twenty-eight
years. In his death, which occurred about 1902, his community
lost a valued citizen, and he was laid to rest in the old family
cemetery in Wythe County. Mr. Bunts married Miss Lucinda
E. Carnal, who was born in North Carolina, and was a child
when brought by her parents to Virginia, where she received
her education in public schools in Wythe County. She and her
husband were always active in the work of the Methodist Epis-
copal Church, South. She died in 1916, and was laid to rest at
the side of her husband. Seven children were born to Mr. and
Mrs. Bunts: Robert, Jr., deceased; Neal, of this review; M. L.,
of Saltville, Virginia; Rev. W. M., of Bristol, this state; J. E..
of the Pulaski Foundry at Pulaski; R. S., also of Pulaski; and
Margaret, who died in 1922. ■
Neal Bunts attended public and private schools in Wythe
County, and afterwai'd became identified with the foundry de-
partment of the New River Mineral Company at Ivanhoe, Vir-
ginia, where he remained four years. He was then connected
362 VIRGINIA
with the Mathieson Alkali Works, of Saltville for about five
years as foundry superintendent, subsequently going to Pitts-
burgh, Pennsylvania, vi^ith the Westinghouse Foundry and Ma-
chine Company, where he was assistant foreman for three years.
Mr. Bunts went then to the Pacific Coast and joined the Union
Iron Works of San Francisco as foreman of the foundry depart-
ment, but after one year returned to Virginia in 1904 and again
was employed by the Mathieson Alkali Works, in charge of the
foundry. He remained at Saltville for four years and in 1908
located at Pulaski, where with his brother, Robert Bunts, Jr., he
organized the Pulaski Foundry and Machine Company, of which
his brother was manager and Neal Bunts, assistant manager
and treasurer. The business was operated under this firm name
until 1916, when it was sold to the General Chemical Company
of New York, and following this sale Robert Bunts, Jr., with
others, organized the Pulaski Foundry Manufacturing Corpora-
tion of Pulaski, but he died in 1925, although the company still
continues in operation. Since the Pulaski Foundry and Machine
Company was sold in 1916 Neal Bunts has continued with the
General Chemical Company of New York in the capacity of
general superintendent, for the duties of which office he is ad-
mirably equipped by nature, training and experience. Mr. Bunts
is also interested in a number of other enterprises, being a
director in the Pulaski Trust Company, president and a dii'ector
of the Pulaski Building and Loan Association, a director in the
Blue Grass Hardware Company, and a stockholder in numerous
other business and financial enterprises. A Democrat in his
political views, he has long been interested in public affairs, and
has served capably in the capacity of councilman. He is a
thirty-second degree Mason and member of Kazim Temple, A. A.
0. N. M. S., and the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks,
and for years was active in the Knights of Pythias and the In-
dependent Order of of Odd Fellows. He is a charter member of
the Pulaski Rotary Club and also a member of the Pulaski
Country Club. Mr. Bunts belongs to the vestry of Christ Epis-
copal Church, of which he is junior warden.
At Saltville, August 29, 1905, Mr. Bunts married Miss Lillie
S. Rodefer, of that place, who was educated in the public schools
of Abingdon and Saltville, in Martha Washington College and
Emory and Henry College. For a few years prior to her mar-
riage she was engaged in teaching school at Saltville, and is an
active member of the Woman's Club, the Episcopal Church
Ladies' Guild and the Garden Club, of which she is secretary.
She is a daughter of J. B. Rodefer, of Saltville, who was for
many years connected with the Mathieson Alkali Works, and
died in 1912, being buried in the Radford (Virginia) Cemetery.
His widow still survives him as a resident of Pulaski.
Raymond Lipscomb Smith had to his credit a veteran's
service as a railroad man, giving practically all of his lifetime
after his education was completed to the Chesapeake & Ohio
System.
He was a native Virginian, born in 1869, and died at Rich-
mond October 17, 1926. His father, George Smith, was one of
the early employes of the Chesapeake & Ohio Railway. George
Smith married a member of the well known Lipscomb family of
Virginia, and Raymond L. was the second of their four children.
The late Mr. Smith had a private school education and then
went to work in the transportation department of the Chesa-
TitTmwrtimi
WILLIAM JORDAN WINSTON
VIRGINIA 363
peake & Ohio. Aft:er various promotions he was made an engi-
neer on the James River Division, and was forty years in the
service, being at the time of his death one of the oldest men in
that department, and as a token of respect for his faithfulness
and his abilities the company draped his locomotive in mourning.
In later years he was called upon for important duties as an
inspector, and was a specialist in all matters connected with the
efficient operation of the large type locomotive introduced by the
Chesapeake & Ohio in recent years. He was a member of the
Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and a member of the
Episcopal Church.
Mr. Smith married, August 17, 1907, Mrs. Louise (Humph-
ries) Barnes. Mrs. Smith, who survives him and resides at 22
South Boulevard in Richmond, by a previous marriage had a
daughter, Louella G. Barnes Smith, who is a registered nurse
and has done work for the health board in connection with the
public schools of Richmond. Mrs. Smith's father, Thomas P.
Humphries, came from Liverpool, England, to Virginia about
1889. Her mother, Fannie E. Baker, was a native of Hamburg,
Germany. Mrs. Smith was the oldest of four living children of
her parents. Her sister Gilmer is the wife of Nicholas Holt, who
is connected with the Duke family of Durham, North Carolina.
Elizabeth is the widow of C. H. Rowland, of Norfolk, Virginia.
Her brother, John T. Humphries, volunteered at the outbreak
of the World war, was assigned to Company K of the Twenty-
ninth Division, Maryland Regiment, becoming a sergeant, and
he married Marie A. Bushman of Baltimore, Maryland.
William Jordan Winston. The Winston family was estab-
lished in Virginia in Colonial times, and through the successive
generations members of the family have appeared worthily iden-
tified with substantial work, and have made honorable records as
patriots and citizens.
The late William Jordan Winston, for many years well known
in the building trades at Richmond, was born in Henrico County
October 12, 1869, and died in the City of Richmond in November,
1918. His great-grandfather was a physician, served in the War
of the Revolution, and was a hard working, kindly and devoted
member of his profession in his rural district. The grandfather
was William Jordan, a Methodist minister. William Patrick
Winston, the father, was a planter in Henrico County, and mar-
ried Louise Binford, of the old Colonial Binford family.
William Jordan Winston was the oldest of seven children
and was educated in public schools at Richmond. As a young
man he served his apprenticeship as a carpenter, and he found
the best means of expressing himself and his talents through
this trade and spent many years in work as a master carpenter
in Richmond. He was a Democrat, a member of the Baptist
Church, and belonged to the Junior Order United American Me-
chanics. His wife is a member of the Daughters of the American
Re\'olution.
Mr. Winston married in April, 1903, Miss Mamie Florence
Tiller, of Richmond, who resides at 2106 Stuart Avenue. She
is a descendant of the Tiller family that came from England to
Virginia before the Revolutionary war. Her parents were
George W. and India Tiller, and her father for many years was
an employe of the City of Richmond. Mrs. Winston was the
fourth in a family of seven children and vras reared and educated
364 VIRGINIA
at Richmond. Her father served in the Confederate army and
was wounded in one battle.
Mr. and Mrs. Winston had a family of five children, and the
four now living are William Alton, Miss Mamie Louise, Margaret
Lucile, wife of John 0. Schaich, and they have a son, William
Winston Schaich, and Miss Dorothy Evelin.
William Donbar Evans. Foremost among the men of
prominence in his profession in Middlesex County stands Wil-
liam Dunbar Evans, ex-member of the Virginia State Legis-
lature, formerly commonwealth's attorney, and for thirty years
a I'ecognized leader at the bar at Saluda, Virginia.
Mr. Evans comes of old Virginia stock, the family ancestral
lines tracing back to early Colonial settlement and notable
achievements. He was born in Middlesex County, Virginia,
March 29, 1875, son of Judge Andrew Browne and Alice (Dew)
Evans, both of whom were born in King and Queen County,
Virginia. Prior to the war between the states Judge Evans
was already eminent at the bar. He served in the office of com-
monwealth's attorney, and later was elected a member of the
Virginia Legislature. After the war period, on completing a
term as circuit judge of Middlesex County, he devoted himself
to his private law practice at Church View, Virginia, until his
death, which occurred in April, 1912. The mother of William
D. Evans was the daughter of John M. Dew, of King and Queen
County, Virginia, and niece of Thomas R. Dew, early president
of William and Mary College at Williamsburg, Virginia. She
passed away in February, 1907. They were lifelong members of
the Baptist Church.
William Dunbar Evans was reared in a home atmosphere
that did much to urge and encourage ambition toward a worth-
while life. He attended local schools during boyhood and then
completed a literary course in Bowling Green Academy in Caro-
line County and in Richmond College. Upon deciding to enter
his father's profession, he took a preliminary course in law at
the University of Virginia, and then entered Richmond College
of Law, now Richmond University, from which institution he
was graduated in the class of 1896, with his degree of LL. B.
In the above year Mr. Evans established himself in law prac-
tice at Saluda, and at the same time centered his permanent
citizenship interests here, which have since, on many occasions,
proved of paramount importance in promoting the welfare of
the county. In the passing years he not only has built up a
substantial business and an enviable local professional reputa-
tion, but is widely known and esteemed over a large territory,
practicing extensively in the courts of Middlesex, Essex,
Gloucester, Mathews and King and Queen counties. In addition
to his professional activity and high standing Mr. Evans for
years has been interested and influential in county and state
Democratic politics, and at times has been his party's choice for
responsible public offices. For eight years he served with the
utmost efficiency as commonwealth's attorney of Middlesex
County, and during his term as a member of the Virginia State
Legislature, 1908-1910, he was honorably identified with impor-
tant legislation.
Mr. Evans married, December 7, 1905, Miss Virginia Mc-
Candlish, daughter of Robert and Nannie M. (Eubank) McCand-
lish, and they have three children: Virginia Montague, born
February 19, 1908; William Dunbar, Jr., born November 20,
VIRGINIA 365
1912; and Robert McCandlish, born July 21, 1916. All have
been given educational advantages, opportunities to develop spe-
cial talents, and a refined home environment that assures happi-
ness and content. Mrs. Evans is an educated, accomplished lady,
an active member of "Old Christ' Church," Episcopal, near
Saluda, and intelligently interested in public affairs. She
belongs to the Daughters of the Confederacy, and to various
social organizations.
For many years Mr. Evans has been attorney for the Bank
of Middlesex, of which he is one of the Board of Directors. In
addition to his pleasantly located private residence at Saluda he
has valuable farm interests in Middlesex County. He has long
been a member of advanced bodies in Masonry, and formerly,
when he had more leisure at command, was identified with sev-
eral other fraternities, and still preserves an interest in his old
Greek letter college society, the Phi Kappa Sigma. He was
reared in the Baptist Church.
Judge Benjamin Wilson Coleman is a native Virginian
who has attained high distinction outside his home state. His
career as a lawyer and jurist has identified him with the far
West, and he is now chief justice of the Supreme Court of the
State of Nevada.
Judge Coleman was born at Ballsville in Powhatan County,
Virginia, July 1, 1869. His first Virginia ancestor was Richard
Coleman, who came from England during the seventeenth cen-
tury and located in the Northern Neck of Virginia. The parents
of Judge Coleman were John and Arabella (Smith) Coleman.
Benjamin Wilson Coleman finished his law course and re-
ceived his Bachelor of Laws degree from Richmond College,
now the University of Richmond, in 1892, and soon afterward
went west. He was admitted to the Colorado bar in 1893, and
for three years practiced at Denver. From 1897 to 1906 his
home was at Cripple Creek, then the throbbing center of the
dent of Nevada since 1906, and first located at Ely. Since 1911
he has been on the bench, at first as judge of the District Court
in the Ninth Nevada District from 1911 to 1915, and since 1915
mining activities of the West. Judge Coleman has been a resi-
on the Supreme bench. He was an associate justice from Janu-
ary, 1915, to 1919, and since the latter year has been chief
justice.
Many of the opinions he has written are expressed not only
with his experience as a western lawyer, but his broad legal
scholarship. His work as a jurist has attracted attention out-
side his home state, and one interesting illustration of this
resulted in Judge Coleman going to Chicago to lecture at the
summer session of the law school of Northwestern University
in 1925. This invitation proceeded from Col. John H. Wigmore,
dean of the Northwestern University Law School, who had be-
come interested in some of the decisions rendered by Judge Cole-
man. Judge Coleman has been a regular attendant at the annual
meetings of the American Law Institute and is a member of the
American Bar Association and has recently been elected to mem-
bership in Pi Gamma Mu. national honor society, of which Dean
William A. Hamilton, of William and Mary College of Williams-
burg, Virginia, is secretary. Judge Coleman is a pa.st sovereign
of Joan of Arc Conclave, Red Cross of Constantine, of which
society George W. Warvelle. LL. D., the learned legal author of
Chicago, is the grand recorder. He is also a life member of the
366 VIRGINIA
Association of Virginia Antiquities. He was honored with the
post of grand master of the Masonic Grand Lodge of Nevada in
1915. He is a Knight Templar Mason and Shriner and a mem-
ber of the Sagebrush Club of Carson City.
Judge Coleman married; June 6, 1906, Miss Martha L. Attle-
ton, of Boston, Massachusetts. They have four children, Eliza-
beth, Virginia, Margaret and John Attleton.
Charles Stuart Habliston was a banker and insurance
man, and in a comparatively brief life span earned a high place
among his Richmond associates, and was a type of business man
and citizen whose example might well be emulated by future
generations.
Mr. Habliston was born at Richmond, May 29, 1874, and died
in that city March 12, 1912. He was reai'ed in a home of modest
wealth and sound culture and had the excellent advantages of
the McGuire Academy for Boys, whei'e he completed his educa-
tion. In 1894 he entered the banking business with his cousin,
William H. Habliston, in the National Bank of Virginia, and
remained with that institution until 1910. He gave up his bank
work on account of ill health, and from that time until his death
looked after a growing insurance business. He was a member
of the Bankers Association, was a Democrat, member of Grace
Trinity Church, and had membership in all the leading social
clubs of Richmond.
His father was Frederick H. Habliston, a Pennsylvanian,
who came to Richmond shortly after the close of the Civil war
and was for many years in the furniture business there. Fred-
erick H. Habliston married Kate Barron, and there were three
children : Sadie married Allen Lyon, now deceased, a lumber
merchant of Richmond ; Frederick married Mattie Turner, of
New Kent County, Virginia, and they have a daughter, Sadie,
who is now Mrs. Charles Shields; and Charles S.
Charles Stuart Habliston married at Richmond, March 16,
1904, Miss Emily Terrell, who survives him and resides at
1118 Grove Avenue. She was reared and educated in Hanover
County, Virginia, attending private schools and finishing her
work in the Woman's College at Waynesboro. In 1895 she grad-
uated as a nurse from Virginia Hospital. Mrs. Habliston is
a member of Grace Holy Trinity Church.
Her grandparents were Dr. Nicholas and Maria (Doswell)
Terrell, whose two chi'dren were Dr. Charles James and Mai.
Lewis Frank Terrell. Major Terrell was educated in the Uni-
versity of Virginia, was a lawyer, and during the Civil war
raised an artillery company, was made lieutenant, afterwards
promoted to captain, and eventually commissioned a major.
Dr. Charles James Terrell, father of Mrs. Habliston, was
also a Confederate soldier. He was born on a large plantation
in Hanover County, Virginia. 1834, was educated in the Uni-
versity of Virginia, graduated from Jefferson Medical College
at Philadelphia, and at the age of twenty-seven located in Han-
over County, where he carried on an extensive practice until
1887. He died in 1891. At the outbreak of the war he organ-
ized the Ashland Artillery, was a lieutenant for two years and
then served as a surgeon until the end of the war. He was
active in the United Confedei^ate Veterans and at one time held
the rank of brigadier-general. Doctor Terrell married Betty
Trevillion Anderson, of Hanover County. They were the par-
ents of eight children : Lewis Nicholas, now deceased, married
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Florence V. Dandridge and had two children, Lewis Frank and
Bessie Dandridge ; Dr. Edmond Anderson Terrell married Lulu
Atkinson, who died leaving three children, Edmond Anderson,
William Amonett and Louise, and he afterward married her
sister, Eva Atkinson, and had one daughter, Marjory Terrell;
Maria Doswell Terrell married William H. Walker and was the
mother of a son, Terrell H. ; Charles James Terrell is deceased ;
Alice Lee is the wife of Andrew Lewis, her four sons being
George F., Charles T., Allen Leslie and Terrell; Frank is de-
ceased ; Mrs. Habliston was the seventh child ; Elizabeth Walker
married Rev. Thomas Green Faulkner, and had two sons,
Thomas Green and Donald Terrell.
Bertrand Gordon Benton. It has been the fortune of Bert-
rand G. Benton during an active and varied career to have been
identified with a number of lines of activity and to have demon-
strated his versatility by making a success of each of his opera-
tions. Not satisfied with gaining prosperity along one line of
enterprise, he has extended his operations to include several
vocations, but of more recent years has applied himself princi-
pally to a real estate and general brokerage business at Claren-
don, operating under the name of the B. G. Benton Realty Com-
pany. This concern has grown to large proportions, and one
of its latest developments is the charming subdivision known as
Waverly Hills, adjoining Clarendon, where the concern is build-
ing and developing, and establishing one of the most pleasant
residential districts of the community.
Mr. Benton was born in Loudoun County, Virginia, Decem-
ber 19, 1883, and is a son of William H. and Nannie B. (Gordon)
Benton. His father was born in Loudoun County, where he was
reared to agricultural pursuits, and during his young manhood
and for some years thereafter followed the vocation of tilling
the soil in Loudoun and Clarke counties, this state. Subse-
quently he turned his attention to contracting and building, and
for about fifteen years the family home was located at Charles
Town, West Virginia, but eventually he returned to Virginia,
where his death occurred in July, 1926. Mrs. Benton, who was
born in Clarke County, survives her husband and is one of the
highlv esteemed residents of Hyattsville, Maryland.
Bertrand G. Benton was a child when taken to Charles Town,
West Virginia, where he was reared and received his education
in public schools. Upon his graduation from high school as a
member of the class of 1906 he secured a position with the Page
Fence Company of Adrian, Michigan, as a traveling salesman in
the territory which included Maryland, Virginia and the District
of Columbia. He was successful in his salesmanship and at the
end of three years had accumulated sufficient means to buy a
grocery store at Washington, D. C, of which he continued to be
the proprietor for two years. Disposing of his holdings, he
turned his attention to farming in Loudoun County, where he
still has farm interests, these being carried on by tenants. Sub-
sequently Mr. Benton again engaged in the grocery business,
this time at Pleasant Valley, adjoining his farm, and this he
carried on for four years. In 1921 he established his family at
Clarendon and embarked in the real estate business at Washing-
ton, D. C, in partnership with Dave E. Berry, but at the end
of one year this business was dissolved and Mr. Benton became
sales manager for Ruby Lee Minar, a position which he retained
two years. His next connection was as manager for the Lyon
368 VIRGINIA
Park Realty Corporation, with which he remained one year, and
then, with R. P. Hutchison, organized the Lyon Park Realty
Company, the name of which was changed to its present style,
the B. G. Benton Realty Company, in October, 1927. Mr. R. P.
Hutchison died in October, 1927, and Mr. S. F. Hutchison is
now a member of the firm. This firm, with headquarters in the
Jones Building at Clarendon, owns Waverly Hills subdivision
adjoining Clarendon, where they are building and selling
homes, and also carry on a successful brokerage business. In
addition to his realty business Mr. Benton still operates his farm
of 175 acres, and has a modern dairy, with up-to-date machinery
and a large patronage. Fraternally Mr. Benton is affiliated with
the Masonic fraternity. He holds membership in the Chamber
of Commerce and the Business Men's Club and has an excellent
reputation in business circles as a man of integrity and ability.
Politically he is a Democrat, and his religious faith is that of the
Methodist Episcopal Church.
In October, 1908, Mr. Benton was united in marriage with
Miss Bessie Hutchison, of Fairfax, Virginia, daughter of Joshua
and Mattie (Mankin) Hutchison, natives of Fairfax County.
Mr. Hutchison has spent his entire life in Fairfax County, where
he is now living in comfortable retirement after a long, active,
useful and honorable life passed in agricultural pursuits. Al-
though he is now eighty years of age he is in remarkable health,
and is one of the greatly respected men of his community. He
enlisted in the Confederate army during the war between the
states, in which he saw much active service. Mrs. Benton is
active in the work of the Methodist Episcopal Church at Claren-
don, and the pleasant family home, 505 Oak Street, is the scene
of frequent social activities.
John Llewellyn Tucker, who is head of the largest tobacco
warehousing organization in this country, is a native Virginian,
and has been in the tobacco business practically all his life.
His father for many years was a successful figure in the tobacco
industry of Southern Virginia.
Mr. Tucker was born in Lunenburg County, Virginia, August
29, 1880, and is descended from a long line of Tucker ancestors.
This family has been in the state since the early years of the
1600s. The earliest historic figure of the name was William
Tucker, who came to Virginia in 1610, was one of the sub-
scribers of the Charter of 1612, and sat in the first House of
Burgesses, in 1619. In subsequent generations there were other
Tuckers who were elected burgesses and were otherwise promi-
nent in Colonial affairs. From tidewater Virginia George
Tucker, an ancestor of John Llewellyn Tucker, moved to Lunen-
burg County as one of the first settlers. He was the father of
Llewellyn Tucker and grandfather of Henry Tucker, who was
the grandfather of John Llewellyn Tucker.
Mr. Tucker's father was the late Henry Williamson Tucker
oldest son of Henry Tucker and Selina Skipwith Burwell,
who was born and reared in Mecklenburg County, was edu-
cated in private schools and business college at Richmond,
and was in business as a merchant and farmer until 1891, when
he moved from Brunswick County, where he then lived, to
Danville and became associated with the leaf tobacco warehouse
business, and was after that a prominent factor in the tobacco
industry of South Virginia until his death. He passed away
December 11, 1914, and is buried in Green Hill Cemetery at
VIRGINIA 369
Danville. For upwards of a quarter of a century he was one
of the best known members of the tobacco interests in this part
of the state. His wife was Louisa Scott Nelson, a daughter of
Ur. Robert Carter Nelson, of Mecklenburg County, Virginia, a
direct descendant of "Secretary" Thomas Nelson, Colonial sec-
retary for Virginia and also for many terms secretary of the
House of Burgesses; also a direct descendant of Robert
("King") Carter, of Corotoman, from whom he derived his
name. Mrs. Tucker's mother was Mary Scott Watkins, a daugh-
ter of Samuel Venable Watkins, of Petersburg, and a grand-
daughter of William Morton Watkins, whose ancestral home,
"Do-Well," is still standing in Charlotte County, Virginia, and
is still occupied by direct descendants. Mrs. Tucker was edu-
cated in private schools at Petersburg, Virginia, and was always
active in church and social life. She died October 27, 1915, and
is buried beside her husband in Green Hill Cemetery at Danville
Henry William.son Tucker and Louisa Scott Nelson, his wife,
were the parents of six children. One, a girl, died in infancy.
Their oldest son, Robert Henry Tucker, was born in Lunenburg
County. September 27, 1875, is professor of business administra-
tion at Washington and Lee University, and one of the ablest
educators in the state. In 1918 he married Miss Evelyn Page
Edmunds. He is chairman of the tax committee of the State
Chamber of Commerce, and his work along lines of political
economy and government has attracted much attention. The
next child, Mary Louise Nelson Tucker, is the wife of Harry C.
Ficklen, of Danville, at the present time (1928-30) representing
the city of Danville in the State Legislature. The fourth child
is John Llewellyn Tucker, the subject of this sketch. The
daughter Page Estelle, who died in 1912, was married in 1907
to Frank B. McFall. of Anderson. South Carolina, and is sur-
vived by one child, Henry Tucker McFall, a 1929 graduate of
Virginia Military Institute and now engaged in business in
Washington. D. C.
Their sixth and youngest child, Miss Annie Ursula Tucker.
was a teacher in the public schools of Danville for a number of
years, and recently engaged in missionary work under the
auspices of the Episcopal Church for the western diocese of Vir-
ginia.
John Llewellyn Tucker as a boy attended public school in
Brunswick County, also at Danville, and finished his education
in William and Mary College. After his college career he went
west and for fifteen years was a traveling salesman over an
extensive territory. On returning to Danville he became associ-
ated with his father in the warehouse business, and has been
a prominent factor as a tobacconist since that time. He suc-
ceeded his father in business and since 1925 has been president
and general manager of the Danville Warehouse (Company.
This company, operating four large tobacco warehouses, has the
distinction of being the largest tobacco warehousing concern
anywhere.
Mr. Tucker is a director of the Chamber of Commerce, is a
past president of the Tuscarora Club, for several years was
active in Rotary Club work, is a Democrat and a former vestry-
man in the Episcopal Church.
He married at Louisville, Kentucky, December 26, 1918, Miss
Florence McCallum. of that city, where she was reared and edu-
cated, graduating from the University of Louisville. Before
her marriage she taught in public schools in Fredericksburg and
370 VIRGINIA
Danville, Virginia. Mrs. Tucker has found many duties in the
Episcopal Church work and the guilds. She is a member of the
Shakespeare Club. Her father, Harry McCallum, was active in
business in Louisville, Kentucky, until his death in July, 1929.
Her mother, Minnie (Smith) McCallum, died some years ago.
Both are buried in Cave Hill Cemetery at Louisville.
John Llewellyn Tucker and his wife, Florence McCallum
Tucker, have four children : Louisa Nelson, Margaret McCal-
lum, Nancy Burwell and Harry McCallum Tucker.
Otway Giles Bailey, Jr., division superintendent of schools
of Cumberland County, has had several variations of experience
since boyhood, having for a time been identified with mercan-
tile pursuits, and then came the World war, in which he
answered the call to the colors, and the greater part of the time
since the war has been spent in educational work.
Mr. Bailey was born at Pedlar Mills, Amherst County, Vir-
ginia, January 20, 1895, son of Otway Giles and Ellen B. (Pres-
ton) Bailey. His father was born in Amherst and his mother
in Washington County, Virginia. His father was a graduate of
the Virginia Military Institute and spent many years in the
profession of civil engineering. In 1910 he was made collector
of internal revenue at Lynchburg, served four years, and now,
at the age of seventy-six, lives retired at Waugh, Virginia. In
1875 he was elected and served four years as superintendent of
schools of Amherst County. His wife died March 3, 1923, at
the age of sixty-seven.
Otway Giles Bailey, Jr., was reared in Amherst County,
attended the elementary schools of Amherst and the secondary
schools of Lynchburg, after which he was a student for two
years in the Virginia Christian College, at Lynchburg, now
known as Lynchburg College. After his college career he was
employed for two years in a wholesale dry goods house at Lynch-
burg.
He enlisted in 1917 for service in the navy, and for a term
of four years. He was made a petty officer, and part of the
time was in the Medical Corps, having taken a course in Phila-
delphia in a school of pharmacy and serving as pharmacist mate.
He was released from service May 19, 1919, and after returning
home pursued a course in the Virginia Polytechnic Institute,
where he was graduated with the Bachelor of Science degree
in 1923. He has also attended several summer sessions at the
University of Virginia. Mr. Bailey with this preparation be-
came agricultural instructor in the Cumberland High School,
and on June 20, 1924, was made division superintendent of
schools for the county, an office which he has filled with credit
to the present time.
He married, September 5, 1928, Miss Ella DeFord. of Nor-
folk, Virginia, daughter of Willoughby C. and Emma (Halstead)
DeFord, natives of Norfolk County. Her father is a retired
lumber man living at 3014 McLemore Street in Norfolk. Mr.
and Mrs. Bailey have two children : Otway Giles III, born Sep-
tember 5, 1924, and Ellen Olivia, born October 10, 1926.
Mr. Bailey is a member of the Masonic fraternity, belongs
to the Virginia Education Association and the National Educa-
tion Association, the American Legion, is a Democrat, and
teaches a class of men in the Presbyterian Sunday School. He
is also a member of the Jefferson Graveyard Association, made
up of the descendants of Thomas Jefferson.
VIRGINIA 371
Augustus James Pyle. The name Pyle has had many years
of honorable connection with the business and civic life of Rich-
mond. Augustus James Pyle, Sr., a native of Richmond, where
he w'as reared and educated, became an extensive land owner in
Virginia. He married Mary Courtney. There were two children
by that marriage, Sarah Frances and Augustus James, Jr. After
the death of Mr. Pyle, Mrs. Pyle married Mr. Robinson and they
had one son. Jefferson Davis Robinson, who is now prominent
at Toledo, Ohio, being a partner and manager of the Libby
Glass Works of that city. He married Mamie Hahn, of Toledo,
and has two children, Joseph and Jefferson. The daughter
Sarah, now deceased, was the wife of Joseph B. McKinney, and
had eight children.
Augustus James Pyle, Jr., was also reared and educated in
Richmond, and after leaving school at the age of seventeen en-
tered the Confederate army. After the war he became identi-
fied with the Religious Herald and finally gave up his connection
with that Richmond publication to engage in the dyeing and
cleaning business, which he followed until his death.
He married Loretta Alice Adrienne Jones, a daughter of
Charles Edmond and Martha Anne (Smith) Jones, and grand-
daughter of William Jones, also a native of Virginia. Mrs. Pyle
since the death of her husband has continued to reside at Rich-
mond and owns a business of her own at 213 East Grace Street.
Mrs. Pyle is a descendant of the famous Terrell family of Vir-
ginia, a family that has been here since early Colonial times
and whose descendants have been people of distinction in many
other states. The Terrell family history has been fully recorded,
and the connections run back into medieval times in France and
England, where they were inter-married with royal lines, and
many of them were people of rank, able soldiers and statesmen.
The Terrells had their coat-of-arms and other insignia of their
high rank. The parents of Mrs. Pyle had the following children :
James Buckner Jones, who became a circuit judge in Missouri,
married Kate Lupton ; Mrs. Loretta Pyle ; Martha Susan mar-
ried Benjamin Crenshaw and they had a family of tw'elve chil-
dren ; Charles Henry and Emma Lee Jones are both deceased ;
Cortez Valesco; and Edna Terrell is now Mrs. John B. Mac-
Dowall and has five children, named Loretta, Mary Elizabeth,
John, Martha and Douglas.
Mrs. Pyle is the mother of four children. Her daughter
Martha Augusta is the widow of Sydney Putnam Owens, a
native of Virginia, who for many years w-as in the service of the
R. G. Dun Company, later conducted a business in women's
ready-to-wear garments and conducted that until his death. Mr.
and Mrs. Owens had two children. Dr. William Irving, a grad-
uate of the Medical College of Virginia, who completed his train-
ing in the Lenox Hill Hospital at New York and now practicing
at Pulaski, Virginia, married Gertrude Emberson, daughter of
Dr. W. S. Emberson, of New Rochelle, New York, and has one
son, William Emberson ; and Sydney Willard Owens, who grad-
uated from Columbia University, New York, married Ruth
Pulliam. He is connected with the American Audit Company
of Richmond. Wade Hampton Pyle, the oldest son of Mrs. Pyle,
married a Miss Slaughter, of Richmond, and subsequently Miss
Laura Crenshaw, of Albemarle County, having one child by his
first wife, Robert Augustus, who married Ruth Farr, and is in
business at Richmond. Robert E. Lee Pyle, a business man of
Washington, D. C, married Mrs. Mae Kinney, and Ashbv Barnes
372 VIRGINIA
Pyle, a Richmond business man, married Miss Nannie Pittman,
of Richmond.
Mrs. Pyle had two grandsons in the World war. William
Irving Owens was first lieutenant in the Fifteenth Machine Gun
Battalion and saw active service in the Meuse-Argonne sector
and the St. Mihiel. He later served in the Army of Occupation
after the armistice was signed. Sydney Willard was an ensign
in tne ivaval Aviation Service and had the hnor of being in the
convoy of plains escorting the George Washington with Presi-
dent vVilson a passenger on each of his two visits to France,
both grandsons received diplomas from the Virginia Military
Institute upon their return irom the war.
Mrs. Pyie is a member of the Baptist Church and takes a
prominent part in the missionary circle of the Grace Baptist
Ohurcn. She is the oldest memoer of the Richmond Board for
Neeuy Goniederate Women.
JOHN Thomas West, who made a long and honorable service
recoru in tne United btates navy, was a resident of Portsmouth,
ana was born m that city November 6, 1852. He died at Nor-
toiK dune 14, lalY.
ixis lather, John Thomas West, Sr., was a farmer and mer-
chant, fie entered the Confederate army and in tne early part
of the war was captured and held a prisoner until the final sur-
render. His iirst marriage was with Eliza Ann Weatherley, and
John Thomas West was the only child by this marriage.
John 'f homas West attended school at Portsmouth, had sev-
eral years of clerical experience, and learned the trade of ma-
chinist in the Norfolk Navy Yard. He was twenty-five years of
age when he entered the Government service as a machinist's
mate, and was in the navy a quarter of a century, until he was
put on the retired list in 1903. During the last fourteen years
he was a warrant officer. During his first enlistment he went
to the African coast on the U. S. S. Concord, and was also in
Cnmese waters beiore the Spanish-American war. He was on
tne battleship Texas in the war with Spain, and participated in
the great running encounter with the Spanish fleet off" Santiago,
which was the outstanding naval battle of the war. Later he
was on the Puritan and the Ampherite. He was awarded a
medal for his part in the naval campaign of 1898, and in 1889
was given a medal for his service on the U. S. S. Kearsarge.
On July 15, 1896, he and Miss Mary Mallory Dye were mar-
ried by Rev. Robert Gatewood in St. Paul's Episcopal Church
at Berkeley, Virginia. Mrs. West is a daughter of James Dye,
of Hampton, Virginia, a brick contractor, who also studied law.
He entered the Confederate army early in the war, and was
killed in action at Sharpsburg, Maryland, in September, 1862,
while serving as captain of cavalry under General McGruder.
Mrs. West's mother was Jean Sinclair Armistead, member of
the distinguished Armistead family of Virginia. Mrs. West is
a member of the Episcopal Church and the United Daughters
of the Confederacy. The late Mr. West served as a vestryman
in St. Paul's Church at Berkeley. He was a Democrat, a mem-
ber of the Masonic fraternity and Knights of Pythias.
Mr. and Mrs. West had two children: Phillip Bevington
West and Jean Sinclair Weatherley West, who graduated from
the Virginia Teachers College at Farmville in 1925, and who
now resides in Norfolk.
VIRGINIA 373
Charles Wade Crush, the present commonwealth's attorney
of Montgomery County, is a World war veteran, and has had
an experience in business, in his profession and as a soldier
that has taken him a great deal about the world.
However, his present home is the progressive town of South-
west Virginia where he was born, April 14, 1893, and his people
have been in Southwest Virginia for several generations. His
grandfather. James E. Crush, was born near Fincastle, Virginia,
and during the Civil war served as a member of Capt. John C.
Wade's Company G in the Fourth Virginia Regiment, his com-
pany being known as the Montgomery Fencibles. After the war
he was sheriff, jailer and deputy for a number of years, and
prior to his death in 1908 had been a clerk in the treasury
department at Washington. He is buried at Christiansburg.
Charles H. Crush, father of the commonwealth's attorney, was
born and reared in Montgomery County, attended public school,
was a merchant in West Virginia, and prior to that had lived
in Texas and Arkansas for a time. He was deputy sheriff at
Dallas, Texas, in the crude and primitive times of that city.
After returning to Christiansburg he resumed a business career
and was a merchant at Coopers, West Virginia, for two years.
He died shortly after his return to Christiansburg, in July, 1893.
His wife, Mary Wade, was born and reared at Christiansburg.
attended public schools and the Montgomery Female College,
and she acted as deputy clerk under her father before her mar-
riage, and after the death of her husband carried on a mercan-
tile business with a great deal of skill and energy at Christians-
burg from 1895 to 1915. She is now living retired and is an
active worker in the Presbyterian Church. She is a daughter
of Capt. John C. and Jane (Edie) Wade. Capt. John C. Wade
was the captain of Company G of the Fourth Virginia Regiment
of Volunteers, and after the war was agent for the railroad, and
held the oflice of county clerk until a short time before his death.
Captain Wade was a son of William Wade, who for years rep-
resented his county in the Lower House of the Virginia Legis-
lature. Mrs. Mary Crush is also a granddaughter of Dr. Joseph
S. Edie, a pioneer of Christiansburg and one of the first physi-
cians to practice in that community. Doctor Edie married Eliz-
abeth Randolph White, a cousin of the famous John Randolph
of Roanoke.
Charles Wade Crush was the only child of his parents. He
attended public school at Christiansburg, Washington and Lee
University, and in January, 1915, was admitted to the bar. He
carried on a law practice at Christiansburg and Roanoke until
November, 1917, when he joined the colors, going for training
to Camp Lee, Virginia. On May 26, 1918, he was sent overseas
in Company A of the Three Hundred and Fourteenth Machine
Gun Battalion, Eightieth Division. This was known as the
Suicide Battalion, and he held the rank of corporal. He was in
service in the Artois Sector, at St. Mihiel and the Meuse-
Argonne, and his Victor medal shows four bars, indicating his
participation in four major engagements. He returned to the
United States June 7, 1919, and received his honorable discharge
June 19, 1919, at Camp Lee.
After his release from military service Mr. Crush was for
some months in the advertising business at Oklahoma City and
then moved to Garland, Dallas County, Texas, where he prac-
ticed law and handled real estate. He also attended the Univer-
sity of Texas, and was admitted to the bar of that state. He
374 VIRGINIA
was secretary of the Garland City Council during the two years
he was located there.
In November, 1921, he returned to Christiansburg and was
assistant postmaster until the spring of 1923, when he made
the successful race for the office of commonwealth's attorney.
By reelection he holds that office at the present time. Mr, Crush
is also a second lieutenant with the Two Hundred and Forty-
sixth Coast Artillery Corps, Virginia National Guard. He was
invited to attend the staff of former Gov. E. Lee Trinkle at the
inauguration of President Coolidge, and was with Governor
Byrd at the Hoover inauguration in 1929.
Mr. Crush is vice president and trustee of the Cohee Country
Club, is a Knight Templar Mason, being affihated with McDaniel
Lodge No. 86, A. F. and A. M., Kazim Temple of the Mystic
Shrine, is treasurer of John Gardner Post of the Veterans of
Foreign Wars, and member of Montgomery County Post No. 59,
American Legion, of which he is vice commander. He is a
member of the Modern Woodmen of America, the Patriotic
Order Sons of America, the University Club of the Virginia
Polytechnic Institute and the University Club of Richmond. He
also belongs to the B. P. 0. Elks, is a Democrat and a Presby-
terian.
Mr. Crush married at Christiansburg, May 1, 1924, Miss
Eliza Clay Allen, formerly of White Gate, Bland County. She
attended school in Bland County and the Montgomery County
High School at Christiansburg, and also had a business college
course. For several years before her marriage she was in
stenographic and clerical work for the Phoenix Furniture Cor-
poration at Christiansburg. She is a Presbyterian, member of
the United Daughters of the Confederacy and Daughters of the
American Revolution. Her parents are J. C. and Florence (Rich-
ardson) Allen. The Aliens are an old family of Southwest Vir-
ginia. Her father formerly lived in Bland County and is now
retired at Christiansburg. He carried on farming and stock
raising on a large scale in Bland County, and was also in the
lumber business with the Ritter Lumber Company until retiring
in 1928. Her mother died several years ago and is buried in
Bland County. Mr. and Mrs. Crush have one daughter, Jane
Allen Crush.
Stephen L. Farrar, clerk of the Circuit Court of Amelia
County, is a lawyer by profession, and his work has continued
the traditional association of his family name with the bench
and bar and public affairs of Amelia County through a long
period of years.
He was born at Mohican, Amelia County, December 13, 1862,
son of Judge F. R. and Nannie (Austin) Farrar, his father a
native of Prince Edward County and his mother of Cumberland
County. His father was a captain in the Confederate army, was
liberally educated, having attended Hampden-Sidney College,
and was a student of law at the University of Virginia and also
attended Princeton University. He was an able lawyer, and
served as judge of the County Court of Amelia County for
twenty-seven years, practicing law at the same time. He was
also widely known as a teacher and lecturer, and was called to
many distant localities for special addresses. He died in August,
1898, at the age of seventy-one, while his wife passed away in
1870, at the age of forty-five.
VIRGINIA 375
The son Stephen L. Farrar was reared and educated in
Amelia County, and had steadily before him from boyhood the
life and ideals of his honest father. He attended private schools,
the Worsham Academy, took his law course at the University
of Virginia and was admitted to the bar in 1883. Judge Farrar
has had a professional and public career of forty-fi\e years. He
practiced law at Amelia Court House, and when his father died
succeeded him as county judge, holding the office seven years. In
1906 he was appointed circuit clerk to fill an unexpired term, and
has been continued in that office by regular election for twenty-
three years. No other man at the courthouse has enjoyed such
honors, responsibilities and mai'ks of esteem as Judge Farrar.
He married in November, 1908, Miss Clay Holland, daugh-
ter of Rev. J. L. T. and Emma (Walton) Holland, her father a
native of Fluvanna County, Virginia, ancf her mother of Prince
Edward County. Her father gave his active life to the ministry
of the Christian Church, and was a Confederate soldier. He
died in 1897. Judge and Mrs. Farrar have three children :
Stephen L., Jr., born August 30, 1909, now deputy clerk of the
Circuit Court of Amelia County; Clay H., born in October, 1911,
a student in Intermont College at Bristol, Tennessee; and Lilly
Virginia, born in October, 1915. Judge Farrar is a member
and a past master of Amelia Lodge No. 101, A. F. and A. M.,
is a Democrat, is lay leader in the Methodist Episcopal Church
and teaches a Bible class in Sunday School.
Joseph Anthony Peters during a residence at Richmond
of more than forty years gained a wide acquaintance in the city
and over the state, and for a quarter of a century was prominent
in the insurance business.
He was born in Bedford County, Virginia, in December, 1859,
and died at his home in Richmond November 22, 1927. He was
the second of nine children born to Robert Henry and Ann
Elizabeth Peters. His father was a tobacco grower in Bedford
County. The surviving sisters and brothers of the late Mr.
Peters were: E. E. Peters, of Washington, D. C. ; Mrs. A. F.
Crenshaw and Mrs. Lynwood Peters, of Saint Louis, Missouri ;
H. D. Peters, of Keysville, Virginia ; Mr. John C. Williams, of
Dillw^'n, Virginia; Mrs. W. 0. Saunders and R. L. Peters, of
Richmond.
Mr. Peters was reared on his father's farm in Bedford
County, w'as educated in private schools, and for several years
had employment with an uncle who was a leading building con-
tractor in Prince George County. In 1886 he located at Rich-
mond, for several years was with a grocery house, and left that
to take up insurance work. He was in the active service of the
Metropolitan Life Insurance Company a quarter of a century,
finally being retired on the pension roll of that corporation in
1923. During the World war he had spent much of his time
.doing work under the auspices of the Y. M. C. A. in the great
munition plant in Hopewell, Virginia. Mr. Peters during the
last three years of his life also had employment with the First
and Merchants National Bank of Richmond. He was a member
of the Junior Order United American Mechanics and the Second
Presbji;erian Church.
He married, October 25, 1887, Miss Missouri Pearman,
who was educated at Charles City, Virginia, where her father
was a planter. She was next to the youngest in a fam-
ily of eight daughters, her parents being William H. and
376 VIRGINIA
Elizabeth (Gill) Pearman. Mrs. Peters continues to reside at
3100 Stuart Avenue in Richmond. Mr. and Mrs. Peters
had six children : William Malcolm, connected with the freight
department of the Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad, married
Gertrude Brothers, and has two children, named Margaret
Lois and Grace Ann; Leroy Edward, assistant auditor
and paymaster for the Packard Automobile Company at
the factory at Detroit, married May Tolbert, of Pennsylvania,
and has an adopted daughter, Ilene ; Joseph Anthony, Jr., a
business man of Kansas City, Missouri, married Cordia Wigle;
Linwood McCray ; Robert Eugene, with the Chesapeake & Ohio
Railway ; and Miss Idella Ann. The son Joseph Anthony, Jr.,
was a sergeant with the One Hundred and Fifty-fourth Infantry
during the World war and spent eleven months on the battle
front in France, wherS he was gassed.
Alfred Washington Drinkard, Jr., director of the Agri-
cultural Experiment Station at the Virginia Polytechnic Insti-
tute, has been an important contributor to the advancement of
horticulture and agriculture in Virginia, has served on numer-
ous boards and commissions, and is an alumnus of the Virginia
Polytechnic Institute, his Doctor of Philosophy degree coming
from Cornell University.
He is a member of one of the old families of Virginia and
was born in Appomatox County, January 10, 1883. He is a de-
scendant of John Drinkard, a planter and slave owner of Halifax
County, who in the years immediately following the close of the
Revolutionary war purchased upwards of 1,000 acres of land in
Halifax County. This land he developed into a great plantation,
worked by his numerous slaves, and the plantation provided a
home and opportunity for his family of ten children. A son
of John Drinkard was Archibald Drinkard, who served as a
soldier in the Revolution and was a farmer and planter in Appo-
mattox County. He married Judith Pendleton about 1818. Their
son, James Drinkard, the grandfather of Dr. Alfred W., was a
soldier in the Confederate army and devoted his life after the
war to a farm in Campbell County, Virginia. He and his wife
are buried in the Drinkard family cemetery eight miles from
Lynchburg.
Charles M. Drinkard, the father of Doctor Drinkard, was
born and reared in Campbell County, attended private schools,
was a farmer and stock raiser in Appomattox County, and for
eight years served as county supervisor. He died December 2,
1925. His wife, Mary Ann Martin, was a daughter of Capt.
John Wellington and Amanda Harriet (Neighbors) Martin.
Captain Martin was an officer in the Confederate army and a
farmer in Campbell County. Mary Ann Martin was educated
in a private school conducted by Major Evans, who is still
livino: at the age of more than ninety years. Mary Ann Drink-
ard is now seventy-six years of age and lives in Appomattox. .
She was the mother of eleven children : Lucy, wife of C. W.
Beasley, of Williamson, West Virginia; Lawrence M., who occu-
pies the old homestead in Appomattox County ; Dr. Alfred Wash-
ington ; Hattie Aleen, wife of D. E. Turnes, of Appomattox ; Lula
Belle, wife of W. J. LeGrand of Appomattox ; Charles Milton, Jr.,
who was drowned at the age of two years; Sallie Wellington,
wife of D. R. Green, of Raleigh, North Carolina; Miss Mary
Estelle, a high school teacher at Roanoke; Judith Lobelia, de-
ceased, the wife of M. P. McNeely, of Monroe, North Carolina;
VIRGINIA 377
Mattie Cathleen, wife of Owen Carson, of Appomattox County ;
and Miss Nettie Fiorene, of Appomattox.
Alfred Washington Urinkard attended public schools in
Appomattox County and in 1902 entered Virginia Polytechnic
Institute, where he was graduated Bachelor of Science in 1906.
He remained as a graduate student, taking his Master of Science
degree in 1908. From 1910 until 1912 he continued studying in
Cornell University at Ithaca, New York, and was awarded his
Doctor's degree in 1913.
In the same year he returned to the Virginia Polytechnic
Institute as associate horticulturist in the Agricultural Experi-
ment Station, and since 1916 has been director of the experi-
ment station. He also has a farm of his own in Appomattox
County. Doctor Drinkard is a member of the honorary frater-
nity Phi Kappa Phi, is a Sigma Xi, fellow of the American
Association for the Advancement of Science, member of the
American Society for Horticultural Science, and was director
of the Virginia State Horticultural Society for the years 1917-
1918-1919-1920-1922-1923. He is a member of the Farmers
Union, the Farm Bureau and the Grange, and was president of
the Virginia Polytechnic Institute Science Club in 1919-20.
Doctor Drinkard is affiliated with Hunters Lodge No. 156.
A. F. and A. M., Royal Arch Chapter No. 65 at Blacksburg,
Knights Templar Commandery No. 32, and Kazim Temple of
the Mystic Shrine at Roanoke. He also belongs to the Indepen-
dent Order of Odd Fellows and Improved Order of Red Men,
and in politics is a Democrat.
In 1924 Gov. E. Lee Trinkle appointed him a member of the
Virginia Water Power and Development Commission and he
was reappointed by Governor Byrd in 1926, serving until this
commission was merged with the State Conservation and Devel-
opment Commission. Doctor Drinkard was president of the
Blacksburg Board of Trade 1916-1919. He is a deacon and
chairman of the finance committee in the Baptist Church.
Frank B. Beazley is an attorney at law, formerly engaged
in practice at Richmond, now at Bowling Green, and he divides
his time between his law offices and his farm in Caroline County,
where he has gained .something out of the ordinary distinction as
a pure bred cattle and poultry man.
Mr. Beazley was born at Sparta. Caroline County, Septem-
ber 3, 1897, son of William F. and Emma (Alsop) Beazley, who
were also natives of Caroline County. His mother resides with
her son on the home farm. The father died August 11, 1925.
Mr. Beazley through his mother is descended from an old family
which runs back in English history to the time of King
Henry III. The Beazleys were also an old English family, and
among other well known names in the early generations was a
dean of Oxford University. The first Beazleys in America set-
tled on Beazley's Island in North Carolina.
Frank B. Beazley grew up on the home farm in Caroline
County, graduated from the Sparta High School in 1916, and
he took the course of the liberal arts department at Richmond
College, now the University of Richmond. He graduated in law
at Washington and Lee University in 1923. He passed the bar
examination in June, 1923, and in the same year began practice
at Richmond, forming a partnershio with his brother. J. Henry
Beazley. The firm was Beazley & Beazley for three years, and
after they dissolved partnership Mr. Beazley continued an indi-
378 VIRGINIA
vidual practice in the city until 1927, when he opened his law
office at Bowling Green and has concentrated his attention on
his law practice.
The farm which he operates comprises four hundred acres
and is situated ten miles southeast of Bowling Green. He makes
his home on the farm and specializes in pure bred Jersey cattle
and pure bred Barred Plymouth Rock chickens.
Mr. Beazley married, September 25, 1927, Miss Kate Rucker,
daughter of D. Henry and Lulu (Harrison) Rucker. She is a
great-granddaughter of President Henry H. Harrison. Her
father was born in Fauquier County, Virginia, and her mother
at Richmond. Her father is a professor in the William Fox
School at Richmond.
During the World war Mr. Beazley was a member of the
Students Army Training Corps at Richmond. He is a member
of the Delta Theta Phi legal fraternity, and Theta Chi, social
fraternity, the Caroline County and Richmond Bar Association,
and was affiliated with the American Legion at Richmond. He
is eligible to membership in the Sons of the American Revolu-
tion, is a Democrat in politics, a member of the Caroline County
Democratic Committee, and a member of the Baptist Church.
Mrs. Beazley is a member of the Richmond Woman's Club and
the Country Club of Virginia. Mr. Beazley's brothers and sis-
ters all graduated from college with degrees. His brother Wil-
liam Oswald died October 20, 1918. His brother J. Henry is
still practicing law at Richmond. Lura Beazley married War-
ren Wright, a resident of Alexandria, Virginia, and West Palm
Beach, Florida. Blanche E. Beazley married John Rhodes and
lives in Baltimore.
Thomas Nathaniel White was a Confedei-ate soldier, and
after the war for many years was prominent in the business life
of Weldon, North Carolina.
Descended from the Masons and the Trotters of Brunswick
County, Virginia, he was born at Danville. Virginia, in 1841,
died at Richmond, Virginia, in February, 1894, and was buried
at Weldon, North Carolina. His father, George White, from
Tyrone County. Ireland, married Anne Mason, a daughter of
Col. Nathaniel Mason, in 1830. The four children of this mar-
riage were : Mary, who married Claiborne Sturdivant ; Anne,
w^ho married Dr. Thomas Yandell Green Wynn ; Capt. George
D., who married Delia Pope ; and Thomas N., who married
Laura Parker.
Thomas was educated in private schools and in Red Oak
Academy in Brunswick County. At nineteen he entered the Con-
federate army, and served bravely in the cavalry under his
brother, Capt. George D. White, of Company A, Third Virginia
Regiment, Stuart's Brigade, until the end of the war.
After the war he located at Weldon, North Carolina, where
he was engaged in the mercantile business with his brother. He
developed one of the largest general merchandise stores in the
state, and handled a great deal of raw cotton. In 1891 he moved
to Richmond, Virginia. He was a Democrat in his political
affiliations and a member of the Episcopal Church.
On October 25, 1871, Thomas Nathaniel White married
Laura A. Parker, who is a descendant of the Bishop family,
which was established in North Carolina in Colonial times. She
finished her education at Warrenton College under the Greens-
boro College faculty, the latter school having been burned by the
4V/t.-*-^-
VIRGINIA 379
Union army. Her father, Richard Bishop Parker, was a very-
able and scholarly man, an educator, editor and newspaper man,
and served as a magistrate and was a special member of Hali-
fax County Court. He was identified with the Methodist Epis-
copal Church. The mother of Mrs. White was Sarah Ann Pris-
cilla Sledge.
Born of the union of Thomas N. and Laura A. White were
six children. Thomas N., Jr., died in infancy. Anne Mason
married Blake W. Corson, of Cumberland County, Virginia, a
civil engineer. They have three children, named Blake W., Jr.,
Judith Parker and Georgia White. Richard Trotter White is an
inventor. David Meade White is an attorney practicing at the
Richmond bar. He married Bessie Turner, who is descended
from the Eppeses and the Randolphs of Virginia. They have
one son, David Meade, Jr. Thomas Obed White is in the coal
business at Richmond. George Bonner White is an attorney,
also practicing at the Richmond bar. He married Martha Four-
qurean, a descendant of William Byrd I, the founder of Rich-
mond.
Vernon Meredith Geddy is a native son and grew up in the
classic environs of the old Town of Williamsburg, and has made
a notable record there during the past ten years as a member
of the bar, commonwealth attorney and judge.
Judge Geddy, who has his offices in the Peninsula Bank and
Trust Company Building, was born at Williamsburg November
11, 1897, son of Thomas Henley and Mattie (Piggott) Geddy,
and grandson of Capt. George E. Geddy. His grandfather or-
ganized a company of militia in James City County and became
its captain, and during his service was captured and during the
last two years of the war between the states was held a prisoner.
Thomas Henley Geddy was born in James City County and for
several years was a merchant at Toano. In July, 1893, he was
elected County and Circuit Court clerk of James City County,
being the first Democrat chosen to that office since reconstruc-
tion. He gave thirty-five years and the most loyal and efficient
service to that office, remaining by election and reelections until
his death, which occurred May 9. 1928, at the age of seventy-
one. His widow still resides at Williamsburg and is a member
of the Daughters of the Confederacy.
Vernon M. Geddy attended William and Mary Academy with
the class of 1913 and graduated A. B. from William and Mary
College in 1917. He also attended the University of Chicago
and for one year taught in the Woodberry Forest School for
Boys in Orange County. In the spring of 1918 he enlisted, was
trained at Fortress Monroe, and was discharged November 22,
1918, eleven days after the armistice, with the rank of second
lieutenant. During 1919 Mr. Geddy was director of athletics
at the College of William and Mary. He took his law course at
the University of Virginia and passed the bar examination in
June, 1920. Since that date he has been a busy attorney at
Williamsburg. He was appointed and served as judge of the
Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court in 1923. From January,
1924, to December 31, 1927, he was commonwealth attorney of
James City County. In January, 1928, he was again appointed
judge of the Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court.
Judge Geddy married, October 24, 1923, Carrie Cole Lane,
daughter of Col. L. W. and Lizzie (Jordan) Lane, her father a
native of James City County and her mother of Smithfield. Her
380 VIRGINIA
father for several years has been treasurer of William and Mary
College. Mr. and Mrs. Geddy have one son, Vernon Meredith,
Jr., born April 12, 1926.
Judge Geddy is also a member of the WiUiamsburg City
Council. He is a director of the Peninsula Bank & Trust Com-
pany, member of the Virginia State and American Bar Associa-
tions, belongs to the Masonic fraternity, the American Legion,
the Kappa Sigma, is secretary of the Rotary Club, member of the
Williamsburg- Cotillion Club. His home is on Scotland Street at
Williamsburg. He is active in one of the historic churches of
Virginia, Bruton Parish Church, Episcopal, and is a trustee of
the church and superintendent of its Sunday School.
Julius Dreher Willis, M. D. An unobtrusive man has
been for years one of the forceful figures in the medical pro-
fession of Roanoke. Early training fitted him for a busy life,
and he knows but little of idle waste. He firmly believes that
expression of sympathy for the misfortunes of others is right
and proper, and he also believes that a practical demonstration
of that sympathy calls for material assistance at a time when it
is needed. This phase of his character manifests itself in the
many charitable acts which he performs.
Doctor Willis was born in Hylton, now Willis, Virginia,
August 10, 1886, a son of George Augustus and Venie Anna
(Brumbaugh) Willis, both of whom are natives of Virginia, and
now residing in Bel Air, Maryland. For a number of years his
father served as superintendent of public instruction in Floyd
County, Virginia. He was also engaged in merchandising and
farming. A man of education, educated at Roanoke College, he
has always been a leader among his associates. Five children
were born to him and his wife: Eula, who is married to John
M. Bell, who operates a telephone company and lives at Chester,
South Carolina ; Doctor Willis, who was the second in order of
birth ; Peter Archer, who is a tobacco buyer for Liggett & Myers
Tobacco Company, and resides in Reidsville, North Carolina;
George Armand, who is a dental surgeon at Havre de Grace,
Maryland ; and Lena F., who married J. S. McDonald, a farmer
of Rocks, Maryland. The parents belong to the Lutheran
Church, in which they are active, and the father is a Democrat.
Doctor Willis attended both the public and private schools
of his native county and Roanoke College, and he took his pro-
fessional training at the Medical College of Virginia, Richmond,
from which he was graduated in 1909, with the degree of Doctor
of Medicine. He interned in the Johnson-Willis Hospital of
Richmond, and has the distinction of being the first man to serve
the hospital in that capacity. He was also supply interne in the
Roosevelt Hospital, New York City, for six months. From 1912
to 1918 he was internist to the Lewis-Gale Hospital, Roanoke,
and since that time has been internist to the Shenandoah Hos-
pital. He is also a member of the staff of the Roanoke Hospital.
Doctor Willis belongs to Pi Mu, medical Greek letter fraternity,
the Shenandoah Club, the Country Club, the Roanoke County
Medical Society, the Southwest Virginia Medical Society, the
Virginia State Medical Society, the Southern Medical Associa-
tion, the American Medical Association, and is a fellow of the
American College of Physicians. His practice is confined to
internal medicine, in which branch he is a recognized expert.
During the World war he served as a first lieutenant in the
Medical Corps of the United States army.
VIRGINIA 381
In 1915 Doctor Willis married Miss Mary Butler Evans, a
native of South Carolina, but educated in the public schools of
Roanoke and National Park Seminary, Washington, D. C. Doc-
tor and Mrs. Willis have two children : Margaret Evans Willis
and Jean Dreher Willis. Doctor Willis is a Lutheran and his
wife is an Episcopalian.
Sylvester A. Ratcliffe. Perhaps no public official in Wise
County commands more confidence and respect or enjoys greater
personal esteem than Sylvester A. Ratcliffe, postmaster at Nor-
ton, Virginia. This important office he has so efficiently tilled
for the past seven years that irrespective of partisan political
sentiment his administration has met with universal public
approval.
Postmaster Ratcliffe belongs to an old Virginia family that
has branches in different sections of the state, and for many
years identified with its agricultural and business development
as well as public affairs. He was born at Shacks Mill, Buchanan
County, Virginia, May 9, 1871, son of Capt. M. S. and Lucinda
(Ratcliffe) Ratcliffe, the latter of whom was born in Tazewell
County, Virginia, where her father. Shade Ratcliffe, was an
extensive planter before the war between the states.
Capt. M. S. Ratcliffe, father of Postmaster Ratcliffe, was
born and reared in Russell County, Virginia, and acquired his
title as an officer in the Confederate army during the Civil war.
A planter previously, he afterward became interested in politics
and was elected a member of the Virginia Legislature, on the
Republican ticket, and so great was his personal popularity that
but one vote was registered against him in the entire county.
Sylvester A. Ratcliffe's boyhood was spent in Tazewell
County, where he received his early schooling, which was sup-
plemented by two years in Abingdon Academy at Abingdon,
Virginia, and one year in Milligan College at Milligan, Tennes-
see. He then embarked in the mercantile business at Richlands,
Virginia, his mother's old home, where he continued for about
eight years, when he removed to Saint Paul in Wise County,
where he remained in the mercantile line for almost two years.
He came then to Norton to enter the employ of the Norton Hard-
ware Company, and remained with that business house for thir-
teen years, retiring then to accept a position as salesman with
the big packing firm of Swift & Company, where he continued
for four years.
In the meanwhile Mr. Ratcliffe's marked business efficiency
and fidelity to the interests with which he was concerned did by
no means go unnoticed, and the appreciative word of comment,
trustworthy, was often heard, and on many occasions tenders
of favorable business opportunities came to him. His circle of
friends grew with the passing years, and the time came when
in his stalwart qualities they saw just the qualifications that are
so essential in public life but not always found there, and then
followed the movement that brought about his appointment on
November 1, 1921, as acting postmaster of Norton. This was
followed on April 10, 1922, by his appointment as postmaster of
this city, which was endorsed by all of his fellow citizens prac-
tically, for whatever fault his Democratic neighbors might have
found with President Harding's appointments, Republicans and
Democrats were united in approving of this one, and the same
public sentiment prevailed when on April 8, 1926, he was re-
appointed by President Coolidge, it being a tribute to the man
382 VIRGINIA
irrespective of party. His fellow citizens realize that however
strong his personal political convictions may be, and he has
always been an outspoken Republican, he considers himself as
an official, at the service of the entire public, and faithfully,
tirelessly and unselfishly performs his duties, maintaining a
high degree of efficiency and courtesy in every departmt nt, and
carefully guarding the public revenues.
Mr. Ratcliffe married on September 29, 1892, Miss Helen
McGuire, of Cedar Bluff, Virginia, who was educated at Martha
Washington College, Abingdon, Virginia. Her family is an old
and substantial one of Tazewell County, and her father, the late
J. Marion McGuire, was for many years a prominent merchant
and woolen manufacturer there. During the war between the
states he served in the Sixteenth Cavalry, Brackenridge having
been his general, Ferguson his colonel, W. L. Graham his lieu-
tenant-colonel and Jonathan Hawkins his captain. Mr. and
Mrs. Ratcliff e's family include two daughters and one son :
Irene, who, like her mother, enjoyed superior educational ad-
vantages at Martha Washington College and later at Millersburg
College, is the wife of E. M. Patton, civil engineer at Norton,
and they have two children, Billie Lois and Anna Lowery. Virgil
Allen, who was educated at Emory and Henry College, filled a
position as auditor in the Treasury Department at Washington,
D. C, for six years, served in a similar capacity at Miami,
Florida, and is now back in Washington. He married Miss
Mattie Effinger, of Blacksburg, and they have one son, Virgil
Allen, Jr. Marion is a student in the Norton High School.
Virgil Allen Ratcliffe, only son of Postmaster Ratcliffe, is an
overseas veteran of the World war. He enlisted in the navy at
an early date and was a member of that courageous body of
American Marines that by their bravery and sacrifice won vic-
tory on the French battlefields, in the memorable offensives at
Belleau Woods, Argonne Forest and St. Mihiel. Although Mr.
Ratcliffe survived through his two years of war zone and battle
exposure, it was only because of a strong constitution and his
sturdy Virginia spirit, for after being gassed at Belleau Woods
and confined for two months in a hospital at Paris, he returned
to his command only to receive the five wounds at St. Mihiel that
kept him in a Bordeaux hospital long after he should have had
his face happily turned toward home.
Postmaster Ratcliffe is a Knight Templar Mason and belongs
to the Blue Lodge at Norton. Both he and wife are active mem-
bers of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, and the entire
family gives earnest attention to those sterling community in-
terests that promote social welfare.
Robert Emory Blackwell has a distinction due not only to
the length but to the importance of his service as an educator,
having for over half a century been identified with one of the
chief institutions for the higher education of men in Virginia,
the Randolph-Macon College.
Doctor Blackwell was born in Warrenton, Virginia, Novem-
ber 14, 1854, son of Rev. Dr. John Davenport and Julia Anna
(Butts) Blackwell. He is an alumnus of Randolph-Macon Col-
lege, where he took the A. M. degree in 1874. He has studied
abroad, having attended the University of Leipsic during
1875-76. In recognition of his scholastic attainments and serv-
ices as an educator several institutions have conferred upon him
the Doctor of Laws degree, including Washington and Lee Uni-
(J.V/e^
^tv
VIRGINIA 383
versity. Doctor Blackwell in 1876 became a professor in the
faculty of Randolph-Macon College. He was vice president and
acting president from 1900 to 1902, and since 1902 has filled the
office of president. He is author of several text books, is a mem-
ber of the Modern Language Association of America, and is a
Phi Beta Kappa.
Doctor Blackwell has long been a prominent figure in the
Methodist Episcopal Church, South, and represented the church
in the joint commission working for unification of the northern
and southern branches of the church. He has also served as
state chairman of the Virginia Inter-Racial Commission from its
organization in 1919, and for twelve years has been a member
of the General Educational Board of the church. Doctor Black-
well married, August 28, 1877, Theela Epia Duncan, of Ashland,
Virginia. They have one daughter, Epie Duncan, who married
J. F. Messick.
Oscar Netll Wev was a Virginian, had a brief and heroic
career, and was with the United States Navy for fourteen years.
He was born at Lynchburg, Virginia, August 18, 1877, and
died November 18, 1907. His parents were Walter and Eliza-
beth (Neill) Wev. His mother was born in Virginia. Oscar
Neill Wev attended public schools at Lynchburg, and as a youth
enlisted for service in the United States Navy. He was with that
branch of the American military establishment fourteen years,
and was raised to the grade of chief petty officer. A high mark
in his career while afloat came while on the cruiser Olympia, the
flagship of Admiral Dewey, in the great naval battle in Manila
Bay in May, 1898. Later he was transferred to the navy yard at
Norfolk, Virginia, and met his death by accident at Bremerton
Navy Yard, Washington.
At Washington, D. C, January 9, 1902, he married Miss
Nellie Bosquet, a native Virginian, who now resides at Rich-
mond at 1639 West Grace Street. She was reared and educated
in Virginia. Her father, Michael Bosquet, came from Bordeau,
France, to America, and was a merchant at Richmond for many
years. He married Kate Baughn, of Louisa. Virginia, and of
an old Virginia family. The children in the Bosquet family
were: F. M., deceased; Mrs. Nellie Wev; Bessie, Mable and
Felix, all deceased ; and Katherine. Michael Bosquet served
under Napoleon III in the Franco-Prussian war of 1870-71. Mrs.
Wev's mother was a descendant of Dr. Thomas Triplett and Rev.
Thomas Neill.
The two sons of Mrs. Wev are Basquet Neill and Oscar C. B.
These boys are the great-grandson of Dr. Thomas Triplett, who
was a surgeon in the United States Navy under Commodore
Decatur when that great American made war against the Bar-
bary pirates, and he distinguished himself for heroism at Tunis
and Algiers. Mrs. Wev's sons are also great-grandsons of Rev.
Doctor Thomas Neill, of Cooperstown, New York, who was
president of Dickinson College of that state, and also president
of the Presbyterian Board of Publications, and was minister and
pastor of a large Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia in 1865.
Mrs. Wev's son Bosquet Neill was educated at Richmond, is a
graduate of the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis,
and is now an ensign in the navy. He married Miss Elizabeth
Robinson, of Baltimore. The other son, Oscar, spent two years
in the University of Virginia. He joined the U. S. Army to
obtain an appointment to the U. S. Military Academy at West
18— VOL. 3
384 VIRGINIA
Point as a candidate-at-large. He passed the entrance examina-
tion, but was barred from entrance to West Point due to age
limitation. He is now a cadet at the United States Coast Guard
Academy at New London, Connecticut.
Levin Nock Davis is practicing law, performing the duties
of commissioner of accounts, and representing other business
interests at his home town of Accomac, and on the 6th of August,
1929, in the Democratic primaries, was nominated to the House
of Delegates from Accomac County. Mr. Davis was born on the
Eastern Shore of Virginia, and has exhibited a high degree of
sagacity and fidelity in all the relationships of a very busy and
useful career.
He was born in Accomac County, October 3, 1887, son of
George Edward and Maggie (Nock) Davis, who were also born
in that section of the Eastern Shore. His father was a carpenter
and wheelwright by trade, and followed those occupations all
his life, together with farming. He died December 1, 1911, and
the mother died in Baltimore, Maryland, March 15, 1929.
Levin Nock Davis was reared and educated in Accomac
County, graduating from the high school at Painter in 1906,
and then attended a business college at Baltimore, and in June,
1917, took his law degree from the University of Maryland. He
was admitted to the Maryland bar in July, 1917, and remained in
Baltimore until April, 1918.
Then came his military experience during the World war.
By appointment of secretary of war he was made an army field
clerk, stationed at the Port of Embarkation at Hoboken, New
Jersey, and later at Camp Merritt, New Jersey. He was with
the colors about a year, getting his honorable discharge April
19, 1919. He then remained in the Government service at Wash-
ington as a claim examiner, and from October, 1921, to October,
1923, was district manager in charge of the Norfolk office of the
United States Veterans Bureau.
Mr. Davis resigned this position to resume the practice of
law in his home county of Accomac. He has a large volume of
business both as a counselor and trial attorney, is filling the
office of commissioner of accounts for Accomac County and is
local representative for the Fidelity & Deposit Company of Bal-
timore and the United States Fidelity and Guaranty Company.
For a year and a half he was auditor and adjuster for the Fidel-
ity & Deposit Company at Baltimore.
Mr. Davis married, April 24, 1918, Miss Lela Ames, daugh-
ter of the late John S. and Lottie (Downing) Ames. Her par-
ents were born in Accomac County, where her father spent his
life as a farmer. He died in November, 1926, and her mother
now resides with Mr. and Mrs. Davis. The latter have two chil-
dren : Eleanor Ames, born November 8, 1920, and Levin Frank-
lin, born March 10, 1923.
Mr. Davis is adjutant of the Accomac Post of the American
Legion. He owns some farming properties on the Eastern Shore.
He is a member of the Accomac County, Maryland State and
Virginia State Bar Associations, is affiliated with Ocean Lodge
No. 116, A. F. and A. M., the Royal Arch Chapter at Onancock,
Virginia, is a Democrat, is charge lay leader and trustee of the
Drummondtown Methodist Episcopal Church and president of
the Men's Bible Class. While at Baltimore he was for two years
superintendent of the Sunday School. Mrs. Davis is a member
of the Accomac Woman's Club.
VIRGINIA
385
S. Vernon Strickler, whose people were among the
earliest settlers of the Valley of Virginia, is a doctor of dental
surgery who first practiced in the Valley, and since 1916 has
been a prominent representative of his profession at Charlottes-
ville.
He was born in Rockingham County, Virginia, July 10, 1884,
son of B. F. and Susan Virginia (Cline) Strickler. His grand-
father, Benjamin Strickler, was born in Shenandoah County,
and his maternal grandfather, David Cline, in Rockingham
County. B. F. Strickler was born in Shenandoah County, spent
his active life as a farmer, and was a Confederate soldier in the
Civil war. On account of wounds he was out of service for some
time, but returned and was one of the troops under Lee at the
final surrender at Appomattox. After the war he became a Re-
publican in politics, and both he and his wife were members of
the Church of the Brethren. On his paternal side Doctor
Strickler is a direct descendant of the Massanutton family of
Stricklers, Massanutton being the first settlement in the Valley
of Virginia, near Luray, Virginia.
S. Vernon Strickler was the youngest in a family of seven
boys. He attended public schools and the West Central Acad-
emy, the Bridgewater College at Bridgewater, Virginia, and in
1910 took the degree of Doctor of Dental Surgery at the Uni-
versity of Maryland at Baltimore. Doctor Strickler practiced
for six years at Shenandoah and in 1916 removed to Charlottes-
ville, where he performed the general service of a capable den-
tist. He is a member of the Charlottesville, Shenandoah Valley,
Virginia State and American Dental societies.
Doctor Strickler married in 1914 Miss Beatrice Frances
Elliott, who was born in Rockingham County and attended high
school at Shenandoah. Her father, Benjamin M. Elliott, was
in the railroad service for many years. Doctor and Mrs. Strick-
ler have one son, Elliott LeRoy, born in 1916, now attending
school at Charlottesville. Doctor Strickler is a deacon in the
First Baptist Church, member of the Independent Order of Odd
Fellows, and the Young Men's Business Club.
Gilbert Raymond Repass, clerk of courts of Bland County,
followed his father in that office, and the office has not been out
of the family since the beginning of the present century.
Mr. Repass was born in Bland County April 12, 1893, son of
R. C. and Julia E. (Kitts) Repass, and a descendant of Rev.
Stephen Repass, who came to America from. Germany and was
one of the early German settlers in Western Virginia. His
grandfather, Elias Repass, was from an early date identified
with Bland County, where he was a farmer, stock raiser and
merchant. Both he and his wife are buried at Ceres in Bland
County.
The late R. C. Repass was born in Wythe County, Virginia,
had a private school education, and was a man of sound knowl-
edge and varied accomplishments. For a number of years he
held the office of county surveyor. For six years he was deputy
county clerk and served twenty-eight years as clerk of the courts.
During the last year of his life he was elected without opposition
for another term. He died February 19. 1928. His widow is
still living at Bland, and she was reared in Bland County. She
is an active member of the Methodist Episcopal Church." South.
There w^ere six children : Gilbert R. ; Bessie, wife of M. Muncey,
of Bland; Robert G., of Bland; Stella, wife of J. M. Honeycutt,
n&j
386 . VIRGINIA
of Charlotte, North Carolina; Catherine C, a teacher in the
public schools of Richmond; and James C, of Bland.
Gilbert Raymond Repass was educated in public schools, in-
cluding the Bland High School, attended the National Business
College at Roanoke until 1913, in which year he went to work
under his father in the office of the clerk of courts. He helped
his father four years, then spent three years in farming and
stock raising, and for seven years was a rural mail carrier. In
February, 1928, he was appointed to fill out the unexpired term
of his father, and has brought to the office the same care and
systematic attention which distinguished the administration of
the elder Repass in handling the records of the county. He is
a member of the Masonic fraternity and the Eastern Star, is a
Republican and a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church,
South.
He married at Bland, May 6, 1916, Miss Hazel Bruce, of
Bland County. She was educated in the county and in Sullina
College, and is an active worker in the Methodist Episcopal
Church, South, and the Eastern Star. She is a daughter of
Rev. J. E. and Edna (Harris) Bruce. Her father gave the
greater part of his life to his duties as a minister of the Gospel
in the Holston Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church,
South. He died in 1915 and is buried in Bland County. Mrs.
Repass' mother, who now lives in the Repass home at Bland, is
a sister of former Governor Nathaniel Harris, of Georgia, who
was born in Tennessee, member of an old and distinguished
family of that name. Mr. and Mrs. Repass have two children,
David Edward and Edna Elizabeth, both attending school at
Bland.
Dr. Heath A. Dalton, physician and surgeon, now prac-
ticing at Bland, was born and reared in Southwest Virginia,
and his people have lived in Carroll and adjacent counties since
about the time of the Revolution.
The founder of the family was the great-grandfather, John
Dalton, who came with three brothers to America. Two of these
brothers settled in North Carolina and another in Eastern Vir-
ginia. One brother sought a home in the western wilderness,
in what is now Carroll County. He settled down on a farm,
cleared some land and like many other pioneers supplied much
of his meat from wild game. He and his wife are buried at
Hillsville. His son, Martin Dalton, owned 3,200 acres of land
in Carroll County, and was one of its outstanding citizens. He
represented the county in the Legislature for two terms in the
early '80s. He died in 1893 and is buried at Hillsville.
The parents of Doctor Dalton were James and Hannah
(Gardner) Dalton. His father was born and reared at Hillsville,
attended private schools and was a soldier in the Confederate
army, seeing active service at Saltville and as far east as Lynch-
burg the last year of the war. He was active as a farmer and
stock raiser until he retired, and he died February 12, 1929, aged
eighty-three years. He is buried at Hillsville. His wife was
born and reared at Hillsville, attended school there, and she was
an active member of the Primitive Baptist Church. She died
in 1908. There were nine children : Tabitha, now Mrs. G. G.
Montgomery, of Hillsville ; Laura, who died in 1926, at the age
of fifty-five; Ada, who died in 1918, at the age of forty-six; Dr.
Martin L., a practicing physician at Floyd, Virginia ; Miss Alice,
of Hillsville; Lulu, who died in 1915, the wife of T. L. Cox;
Q^^U^ d^ ^rX).
VIRGINIA 387
Berta, now Mrs. Walter Stillwell, of Wytheville; Dr. James B.,
of Richmond ; and Dr. Heath A.
Dr. Heath A. Dalton was born at Hillsville. April 21, 1889,
attended public schools, including the Hillsville High School,
and continued his education in the Virginia Polytechnic Insti-
tute. He was graduated from the Medical College of Virginia
in the class of 1914, having his interne experience in The Re-
treat for the Sick at Richmond. Doctor Dalton in 1914 opened
an office at Galax, and was in practice there until 1928, when
he removed to Bland and established his office in the Newberry
Building. He has a large professional business, and is a man
who enjoys friendships not only in Bland County but over Car-
roll and Grayson counties and other sections of Virginia. He
has an interest in his father's farming properties at Hillsville.
He is a member of the Medical Society of Virginia, the Carroll
and Gray.son Counties Medical Society and is affiliated with Old
Town Lodge No. 72. A. F. and A. M., Kazim Temple of the
Mystic Shrine at Roanoke, is a Democrat and a Presbyterian.
He married at Washington, D. C, September 27, 1913, Miss
Hattie Burnette, of Willis, Virginia. She was educated in public
schools, in Sullins College at Bristol, Tennessee, and Marion Col-
lege in Virginia. She is a Presb>'terian. Her parents were
Abram and Lina (Cox) Burnette. Her father was a farmer and
cattle buyer in Floyd County, owning a large amount of land
and being regarded as one of the wealthy and influential resi-
dents of that community. He died in 1907 and her mother in
1899. Doctor and Mrs. Dalton have two children. Heath A., Jr.,
and Harold C, both attending school at Bland.
John Bl.\ir Fitts, M. D., is well fortified for the special
branch of his profession to which he gives his major attention,
that of orthopedic surgery, and is established in the successful
practice of his profession in the City of Richmond, with office
headquarters at 917 West Franklin Street.
Doctor Fitts was born at Blacksburg, Montgomery County,
Virginia, in 1890, and is a son of James H. and Mary (Blair)
Fitts. James H. Fitts, whose death occurred in 1893, was a rep-
resentative of an old and honored Southern family, and the fam-
ily name has appeared as one of special prominence in the
hi.story of North Carolina and also that of Alabama. James H.
Fitts was graduated from the United States Naval Academy,
Annapolis, and thereafter gave several years of service as an
officer in the United States Navy. He gained distinction also in
educational work, he having been for some time a member of
the faculty of the Virginia Polytechnic Institute at Blacksburg,
and having subsequently established a school of his own at Hop-
kinsville, Kentucky. His death occurred when his son John B.,
of this review, was a child of about three years. Doctor Fitts
was named in honor of his maternal grandfather, John Blair,
and the annals of Virginia show that the Blair family has here
been one of prominence and influence for many generations,
especially in professional and public life.
The public schools of Richmond aflForded Doctor Fitts the
major part of his preliminary education, and thereafter he con-
tinued his studies in historic old Hampden-Sidney College. In
the Medical College at Richmond he was graduated as a member
of the class of 1914, and after this received his degree of Doctor
of Medicine he engaged in the general practice of his profession
in Richmond. He eventually turned his attenion to orthopedic
388 VIRGINIA
surgery as a specialty, and in this interesting field of practice
he has since gained marked success and prestige. The Doctor
was pursuing a post-graduate course in orthopedic surgery in
leading institution in the City of Boston, Massachusetts, at the
time the nation became formally involved in the World war, and
soon thereafter he volunteered for service in the Medical Corps
of the United States Army. After receiving preliminary train-
ing at Camp Greenleaf, Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia, he was as-
signed with his unit to overseas service. For several months he
was stationed at Base Hospital No. 114 in France, and there
gave special service in orthopedic surgery. He remained over-
seas for some time after the armistice brought the war to a close,
returned to the United States in March, 1919, and after receiving
his honorable discharge resumed his professional activities in
Richmond as a specialist in orthopedic surgery. He is a popular
member of the Richmond Academy of Medicine, and has mem-
bership also in the Virginia State Medical Society and the Ameri-
can Medical Association and is a fellow of the American College
of Surgeons. He continues his deep interest in the national
military organization, and in the Virginia National Guard he is
surgeon of the First Regiment Infantry, with the rank of major.
In March, 1919, he married Miss Marion Mantius, of Fairhaven,
Massachusetts. The following children were born to the union :
Marietta Moylan, John Blair, Jr., Ruth Morton and James Henry.
Wythe G. Waddle, whose home is near Ceres in Bland
County, has had an experience covering six decades in farming
and the live stock business in this section of Virginia, and he
probably ranks as the oldest active trader in live stock in this
part of the state. He has bought and sold cattle all over the
southwestern counties, and is familiar with the market and
other conditions in the live stock industry since nearly the close
of the Civil war.
Mr. Waddle was born near Bland Court House August 16,
1848, son of James and Nancy (Steel) Waddle. His grandfather,
James Waddle, came from Ireland and was an early settler on
Walker's Creek, near Bland Court House, and he and his wife
are buried in the old family cemetery there. Mr. Waddle's
father, James Waddle, was born and reared in Bland County,
had his education in private schools, was a farmer and stock
man, and died in 1854. His wife, Nancy Steel, was born and
reared on a farm adjoining the Waddle farm on Walker's Creek.
She was a very devout Methodist. Her death occurred in Feb-
ruary, 1880. These parents had nine children : Elcain, Rosana,
Cosby, Pemelia, Charlotte, Newton, Kate, James and Wythe G.
Three of the sons, Elcain, Newton and James, were soldiers in
the Civil war.
Wythe G. Waddle attended private schools in Bland County,
but had little education after the Civil war broke out. No one
has a better knowledge of live stock than this veteran grower,
shipper and trader, and it has been his constant occupation and
business since he was twenty-one years of age. Mr. Waddle is
still active on his farm near Ceres. His farm is improved with
one of the most attractive country homes in that vicinity. He
is a Democrat and for two years was commissioner of revenue
for Bland County. He is a member of the Presbyterian Church.
He married at Clear Fork in Bland County, August 29, 1894,
Miss Bettie Stowers, of Bland County, where she was educated.
VIRGINIA 389
She is an active member of the Methodist Episcopal Church,
South, and is a daughter of Russell and Arminta (Robinette)
Stowers. Her father was a well-to-do farmer and stock man of
Bland County, and both her parents are buried in the family
cemetery in Bland County. Mr. and Mrs. Waddle had five chil-
dren. William Wayne, the oldest, now living in Kentucky, mar-
ried Nellie Davis, of Bland County, and of their five children
four are living. Rosalee became the wife of Walter Mergler, of
Carmel County, Virginia, and has two children, William W. and
Clara E. Gilbert C. Waddle is married and lives in Detroit,
Michigan. Gobel Waddle, connected with the Firestone Rubber
Company at Akron and now city policeman, married Golda
Smith, of Smyth County, Virginia. Charles Waddle, the young-
est child, associated with his father on the farm and stock ranch
near Ceres, married Alees Wilson, of Bland County.
Kenneth Howe Farrier is one of the younger group of
agricultural leaders in Southw^estern Virginia, being manager of
the Farmers Exchange at Pembroke, and is a graduate of the
Virginia Polytechnic Institute at Blacksburg.
He is a son of Robert Henry Farrier, county superintendent
of schools of Giles County. Robert Henry Farrier was born in
Craig County, Virginia, son of Jacob and Harriet (Pence) Far-
rier. Both the Fences and Farriers represent the older families
and older traditions of Virginia. Jacob Farrier was born in
Craig County, was a soldier in the Confederate army and after-
wards a merchant and farmer. He finally moved to the vicinity
of Newnort in Giles County, and lived there until his death in
1889. He is buried in Clover Hollow Cemetery. His widow sur-
vived him until 1914. Robert Henry Farrier was educated in
the public schools of Ci'aig County, in Roanoke College at Salem,
and began teaching as a young man. His work has brought him
active relations with the schools of Giles County for mqny years,
and since 1912 he has been county superintendent of schools. He
lives on his farm near Newport, owning a beautiful nlace there,
where he specializes in orcharding. He is active in the Virginia
Education Association and is a loyal mini.ster of the Methodist
Episcopal Church, South. Robert Henry Farrier married Min-
nie Howe Porterfield, who was born near Newport on a farm,
attended a girls' school at Princeton. We.st Virginia, and has
always taken an active part in church and missionary work.
One of her daughters, Helen Mae, is now a missionary in the
Congo of Africa. In all there were eight children, two of whom
died in infancy. Kenneth Howe is the oldest ; Paul Henry lives
at Winchester, Kentucky : Nancy Lou is the wife of W. M.
Phipps, of Honewell, Virginia; Harriet Pence died when twelve
years old ; Helen Mae is the missionary previou.sly mentioned ;,
and Robert Henry. Jr., lives at Newport.
Kenneth Howe Farrier attended grade and high schools at
Newnort. had two years in Roanoke College, and two years in.
the Virginia Polytechnic Institute, where he completed a special
course in agriculture in 1912. After leaving the institute he
was for two years eneaged in work with the Bureau of Forestry
and Plant Life in Virginia, for two years engaged in farming
and orcharding and was in the rural mail service, following
which he gave his full time and energies to his farm and
orchards until 1926, in which year he joined the Farmers Ex-
change of Giles County as manager of the Pembroke store. He
390 VIRGINIA
is also interested in the home farm and orchard, his youngest
brother, Robert Henry, now having active control there.
Mr. Farrier is a member of Newport Lodge No. 261, A. F.
and A. M. He is a Democrat, a Methodist, and a man who is
keenly interested in the development of a wholesome community
program.
He married at Grundy, Virginia, September 19, 1917, Miss
Josephine Hamilton, who was educated in public schools in Wise
County, is a graduate of the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music,
and before her marriage taught music in high schools in Giles
County, and has continued keen interest in musical affairs, doing
some teaching and also taking her part in musical organizations.
She is a member of the United Daughters of the Confederacy.
Mrs. Farrier is a daughter of Harve and Mary Caroline
(Smyth) Hamilton. She is a descendant of that branch of the
old Smyth family of Virginia which gave its name to Smyth
County. Her father was one of the leading attorneys of South-
western Virginia, practicing for many years at Mendota in
Wise County, where he died in 1914. Her mother passed away
in 1916, and both are buried at Mendota.
Mr. and Mrs. Farrier are the parents of two children, Gra-
ham Hamilton and Kenneth Howe, Jr., the former a pupil in the
public schools at Newport.
Elmer E. Conner, principal of the Pembroke schools, is a
native of Southwestern Virginia, and one of the prominent
younger leaders in the educational affairs of the state.
He was born at Simpsons in Floyd County February 11,
1897, son of George B. and Wilmoth Jane (Martin) Conner.
His great-grandfather was one of three brothers who came to
America from Ireland. The original spelling of the name was
O'Conner. Mr. Conner's grandfather, Nathan Conner, was born
and reared in Floyd County, combined farming with school
teaching, and died about 1877. George B. Conner was born and
reared in Floyd County, was educated in public schools, and has
spent his active life as a farmer and stock raiser. He resides
on his farm near Simpsons. He has been twice married. His
first wife was Ellen Iddings, and the children of that marriage
were : Annie, Waller, Elbert L., Guy, and a daughter Mary who
died in infancy. His second wife, Wilmoth Jane Martin, was
born and reared in Floyd County, and she and her family are
members of the Baptist Church. Her parents were John W.
and Cynthia (Martin) Martin, farmers and stock raisers. Her
father died in 1899 and her mother still lives at the old Martin
home in Floyd County. George B. Conner and his second wife
had a family of ten children : Elmer E.. Mamie, Willard A.,
Ernest R., Bessie, Clarence M., Carl N., Claude S., Vergie and
Posie.
Elmer E. Conner attended public schools in Floyd County,
the high school at Floyd Court House, after which he was a
student for one year in William and Mary Academy, and fol-
lowed that with the four years classical course in the College of
William and Mary, from which he was graduated in 1921 with
the Bachelor of Science degree. Since then he has had one year
of post-graduate work in the George Peabody Normal College at
Nashville, Tennessee. Mr. Conner taught for one year as prin-
cipal of the high school at Chick. Virginia, for three years was
principal of the high school at Denby and one year at Peters-
town. He took charge of the Pembroke schools in 1924, being
'i^^^yjZ^^r^
VIRGINIA 391
principal of the high school and also has supervision over the
grade school. Mr. Conner is a member of Warwick Lodge
No. 336, A. F. and A. M., belongs to the County Teachers and
State Education As.sociations, is a Democrat in politics and has
always been active in the Baptist Church, interesting himself in
the Sundav School work.
He married at Talcott, West Virginia, August 29, 1925, Miss
Jenia Johnson McGhee, of Peterstown, West Virginia. She
attended public schools in Giles County and high school at
Homer City. Pennsylvania, and for several years before her
marriage was assistant cashier of the Bank of Peterstown. For
several years she was a steward of the Methodist Episcopal
Church, South, and teaches a class in the Sunday School. She
has membership in the Parent-Teachers Association and is
deeply interested in the professional and community work of
Mr. Conner. She is a daughter of L. J. and Roberta Pendelton
(French) McGhee, of Penvir, Virginia, where her father is still
carrying on his work as a farmer and stock raiser. Mr. and
Mrs. Conner have one son, Wayne Johnson Conner.
Since Mr. Conner took charge of the schools at Pembroke a
great advance has been made in the educational program and in
the material equipment for the schools. The new Pembroke
High School Building of brick and stone was completed in 1926.
There is a large auditorium, with thirteen class rooms and
library, and nearby is the grade school building, a stucco and
concrete structure affording seven class rooms and library. The
total enrollment of scholars in the grade and high schools is
453, and the staff of teachers under the direction of Mr. Conner
are fifteen. Mr. Conner enlisted for service in the World war
September 5, 1918, and was in training at Camp Lee, later was
transferred to General Hospital No. 41 on Staten Island, rank-
ing as a private of the first class. He spent nine months at
Camp Lee and seven months on Staten Island, and was honor-
ably discharged December 13, 1919.
Alexander Cameron was a Virginia tobacco manufacturer,
and his name is one that held a high importance in the old days
of individual management in the tobacco industry, when the
master and the worker were on close terms of relationship, and
when the owner of the factory came into daily contact with not
only the personnel of the operating force, but with the producers
of the leaf.
He was born at Grantown, Scotland, in November, 1832,
and was a small child when his parents came to America. His
father died in Scotland, and subsequently the widowed mother
moved to Virginia and located in Petersburg, Virginia.
Alexander Cameron had most of his educational advantages
in public schools in Petersburg. He was only thirteen when
he came up from Petersburg to Richmond to go to work in a
tobacco firm. He learned the business from the ground up, and
came to know every process of tobacco manufacture. When
the Civil war came on his business as a shipper was utilized for
the direct benefit of the Confederate government, and he did a
great deal of blockade running through the Federal fleet. Mr.
Cameron in 1866 entered the tobacco business for himself under
his individual name, and for many years that name was known
in both the domestic and foreign tobacco markets. Like many
others, the business he developed as Alexander Cameron even-
tually was consolidated. It was in 1906 that he sold his industry
392 VIRGINIA
to the British Australian Company, and at that time he retired,
being then seventy-four years of age. He died at Richmond
in 1915.
Mr. Cameron was a member of the Presbyterian Church.
For many years he was known as Colonel Cameron because of
his service on the staff of a Virginia governor. He was a mem-
ber of the Westmoreland Club and the Tobacco Association. As
a prominent American business man he and his wife while tour-
ing abroad were presented at the Court of St. James before
Queen Victoria.
Colonel Cameron married in 1868 Miss Mary Haxall, of
Richmond. Her father, Richard Barton Haxall, came to Rich-
mond from Petersburg, where his father, Phillip, had lived, and
engaged in the flour mill business. He was one of the early
leaders in the flour mill industry at Richmond, building up one
of the largest milling plants in the state, and from these mills
flour was shipped to all parts of the world, especially to South
America. The mills were known as the Haxall Mills. Richard
Barton Haxall was one of the bondsmen of Jefferson Davis after
the Civil war.
Colonel and Mrs. Cameron had eleven children, and the eight
now living are : Mary Haxall, Alexander, Barton Haxall, Eliza-
beth Grant, Janet Gordon, Flora MacDonald, James Blackwood
and Ewan Donald.
John W. Miller is a member of the firm Miller Brothers,
merchants at Newport, carrying on a business that was estab-
lished many years ago by their father and has been under their
direction for over a quarter of a century.
John W. Miller was born at New^jort June 25, 1871, son of
Adam P. and Martha Ann (Reynolds) Miller. His grandfather
was John Miller, of Midway, Craig County, Virginia, a farmer.
Adam P. Miller was born in Craig County, attended private
schools, and after his marriage moved to Newport, buying a
farm near that town, and also carried on merchandising. In
1892 he founded the firm of A. P. Miller & Sons, general mer-
chants, and was active in the business until his death on March
13, 1900. His wife, Martha Ann Reynolds, was born and reared
at Midway in Craig County, was also educated in private schools,
and she and her husband were members of the Methodist Episco-
pal Church, South. She died in July, 1920. They were the par-
ents of eight children : Laura V., deceased, was the wife of
A. H. Price, of Newport ; Anna M. is the wife of L. D. Snapp,
of Burkes Garden, Virginia ; Mason J. and John W. comprise
the firm of Miller Brothers; Sallie is the wife of C. P. Logan,
of Blacksburg ; Dr. W. P. Miller, who married Frances Easley, of
Pearisburg, Virginia, practiced medicine for many years at
Newport, where he died in September, 1910: J. D. Miller is a
farmer and stock raiser at Newport; and Dr. Frank B., who
married Maud C. Prichett, of Newport, Virginia, was a dentist,
and died in Pearisburg in September, 1928.
John W. Miller grew up at Newport, attended public schools
there, and after leaving school had two years of experience clerk-
ing in a store at Blacksburg, Virginia, for the firm of Black &
Payne. For two years he was with Johnson & Moseby of Chris-
tiansburg, and then returned to Newport to take his place as a
member of his father's mercantile firm. In 1902 he and his
brother took over the business as Miller Brothers. Theirs is one
of the largest stores in this section of Giles County. They are
VIRGINIA 393
also partners in the ownership of some farming land. Mr. Miller
is a director of the Sinking Creek Valley Bank. He is a member
of Newport Lodge No. 261, A. F. and A. M., is a Democrat and
a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, and on its
Board of Stewards.
He married near Norton, Virginia, June 19, 1919, Mrs. Bet-
tie Irene (Fowlkes) Roberts. She was educated in high school
at Roanoke and taught school before her marriage. Two chil-
dren were born to their marriage, one dying in infancy, and the
other is John Williams Miller, Jr., born April 6, 1923.
Leitch L. Miller is a member of a well known and promi-
nent family of the Newport section of Giles County, and has
been a leading merchant of that community for over twenty
years.
Mr. Miller was born at Newport August 25, 1879, son of
John C. and Lizzie (Vermillion) Miller, and grandson of John B.
and Susan (Sibold) Miller. His grandfather moved from Ro-
anoke County to Giles County, and was a farmer and stock
raiser near Newport. He and his wife are buried in the old
family cemetery at Clover Hollow near Newport. John C. Miller
was born and reared in Giles County, attended private schools,
and spent his active life as a farmer and stock man. He died
November 27, 1916, and is also buried in the Clover Hollow
Cemetery. His widow, Lizzie (Vermillion) Miller, lived to the
age of seventy-two years, making her home at Roanoke, and
she died April 6, 1929. She was born in Washington County,
daughter of Capt. John Vermillion, a Confederate soldier and
officer who lost his life at the battle of Gettysburg. Mrs. Miller
finished her education in Martha Washington College at Abing-
don. She is a member of the Lutheran Church. Of her ten chil-
dren one died in infancy, and the others are : Leitch L. ; Kate,
wife of E. T. Cook, of Idaho; Rose, wife of I. A. Dillard, of
Roanoke; Paul M., of Idaho; George, of Salem, Virginia; Fan-
nie, wife of L. M. Dunham, of Roanoke; John K., who entered
the World war, went overseas, was wounded at Chateau Thierry
and died in France in December, 1918, his body still resting on
Fi-ench soil; Trigg Miller, of Roanoke; and Bertha Sue, who
married N. C. Dillard and died in April, 1920.
Leitch L. Miller had the advantages of the public schools of
Giles County, and after completing a course in the Roanoke Busi-
ness College took up farming and the lumber business. These
were the lines he followed until 1908, when he started a general
store at Newport, and has built that up to be one of the chief
trading centers of the county. He carries a large stock of
goods, meeting all the requirements and demands of the terri-
tory which he serves.
Mr. Miller has been deputy treasurer of Giles County since
1924. He is affiliated with Newport Lodge No. 261, A. F. and
A. M., is a Democrat and a Lutheran.
He married at Newport in January, 1902, Miss Belle Puckett,
of Newport, where she was educated in the public schools. She
is a member of the Lutheran Church. Her parents were P. R.
and Elizabeth (Barnett) Puckett, of Montgomery County. Her
father was a merchant. He was born December 29. 1847, and
died January 10, 1911, while her mother was born July 30, 1846,
and died March 30, 1914. Mr. and Mrs. Miller have a family of
three children. Mary Elizabeth, born February 26, 1903, was
educated at Newport and in Martha Washington College at
394 VIRGINIA
Abingdon, and is now the wife of V. E. Deering, an employe of
the Norfolk and Western Railway Company, living at Roanoke,
Margaret C, born August 20, 1904, was educated in the Rad-
ford State Teachers College and is now teaching in the public
schools of Glenlyn, Virginia. Annabel Miller, born July 13,
1909, attended public schools in Newport, spent two years in
Virginia Intermont College at Bristol, and is now attending the
State Teachers College at Harrisonburg.
Harvey B. Shelton is easily identified in Giles County as
the head of the H. B. Shelton Company, one of the oldest and
largest mercantile organizations at Pearisburg. He has been in
business since early manhood, and his business career has
steadily reflected his personal integrity and a public spirit that
has been characteristic of the family in Southwest Virginia.
Mr. Shelton was born at White Gate, Virginia, February 21,
1862, son of Langston C. and Elizabeth (Bane) Shelton. The
Sheltons are English and settled in Virginia in Colonial times.
His grandfather, William Shelton, was a soldier of the American
Revolution, and the daughters of Harvey B. Shelton are mem-
bers of the Daughters of the American Revolution. William
Shelton was a private in Capt. William Sanford's Company,
Second Virginia Regiment, commanded by Col. Alexander
Spotswood.
Langston C. Shelton was born in. Pittsylvania County, Vir-
ginia, in 1810, was educated in private schools, taught school in
early life, and was a soldier in the Confederate army, his oldest
son, William J. Shelton, being with him in the war. They were
through the four years of fighting, were soldiers in Stonewall
Jackson's Brigade, and took part in the battle of Cloyd's Moun-
tain as well as many other engagements. After the war Lang-
ston C. Shelton lived on a farm and also followed the business of
Brick mason and building contractor, putting up a number of
the brick houses at Pulaski and in other towns of Southwest
Virginia. He died in 1882 and is buried at White Gate.
Langston C. Shelton married, January 21, 1841, Elizabeth
Bane, member of another notable family in the Valley of Vir-
ginia. She was born October 11, 1820, daughter of Jesse and
Anna (Carr) Bane. Jesse Bane was born November 23, 1791,
and his wife, October 24, 1796, and they were married Octo-
ber 24, 1819, their daughter Elizabeth Havens being the oldest
of ten children. Jesse Bane was a son of James and Elizabeth
(Havens) Bane, and James was a son of James Bane, who
settled in the Virginia Valley about 1748 and married in 1754
Rebecca McDonald, a granddaughter of Bryan and Mary
(Combs) McDonald. There is a lai-ge relationship of the Bane
family in Southwestern Virginia.
Elizabeth (Bane) Shelton was born at White Gate, was edu-
cated in private schools, was a member of the Baptist Church
and died in 1889. She was the mother of nine children : Ann,
who married George Surface ; William J., who married Jennie
Surface ; Eliza Jane, who married Sam Williams ; Adolphus ;
Mary, who died in early life ; Sallie, who married John Johnston ;
Mrs. Emma Broyles; Hattie, who married Joe Surface; and
Harvey Bane.
Harvey Bane Shelton attended private schools and White
Gate Academy, and in the fall of 1889 moved to Bluefield, West
Virginia, where for nineteen years he was in the mercantile busi-
ness. In 1907 he located at Pearisburg and for twenty-one years
MRS. WM. E. BARRETT
JAMES ALBERT ROBERTSON MRS. MARY L. BRAY
FRANCES LIGHTFOOT BARRETT DOROTHY LEE BARRETT
FOUR GENERATIONS
VIRGINIA 395
has been a business man of that community. For two years he
was associated in partnership with Will Strader and about 1916
the H. B. Shelton Company was incorporated with Mr. Shelton
as president, A. D. Gerberich, secretary and treasurer, and
John H. Givens, vice president. The company owns a large and
well stocked department store. Mr. Shelton for a number of
years has also been active in the lumber business.
He o\\Tis one of the beautiful homes of Pearisburg, located
on the hill above the town. He is a Knight Templar Mason,
formerly was active in the B. P. O. Elks, is a Democrat, and
while living at Bluefield was treasurer of the Baptist Church.
He married at Bane in Giles County, July 3, 1889, Miss Sallie
Ann Strader, who was educated in the old Pearisburg Academy
and taught for two years in the public schools before her mar-
riage. She is a member of the Methodist Church and the
United Daughters of the Confederacy. Her parents were Josiah
and Barbara (Johnston) Strader. Her father was a farmer
and cattle raiser. The Strader family came into Southwest Vir-
ginia from North Carolina. Mr. and Mrs. Shelton had seven
children : Harriett, died aged eight years ; Frederick, died when
one year old ; Elizabeth Havens is the wife of Dr. L. D. Whita-
ker, of Farmville, Virginia, and has two children, Lloyd Durham
and Harvey Shelton; Mary Barbara married F. N. Chisholm,
of San Francisco, California, and their two children are Rachael
Barbara and Patricia Ann ; Sallie Catherine is the wife of
Martin Williams, Jr., of Washington, D. C, and has a son,
Martin Shelton ; Eva Frances is Mrs. D. H. Matson, of Miami,
Florida, and they have a daughter, Sallie Ann ; Miss Willie Mae,
the youngest child, is a graduate of the Pearisburg High School
and also attended the Farmville State Teachers College.
Robert T. Bray during an all too brief lifetime was a dis-
tinguished teacher of engineering, and in later years was a resi-
dent of Danville as a merchant.
He was born in Virginia November 6, 1861, and lacked two
months of being forty years of age when he died September 6,
1901. He was a small child when his parents, John Bray and
wife, died. His father was a native of Halifax County. Robert
T. Bray attended the old Agricultural and Mechanical College
at Blacksburg, now the Virginia Polytechnic Institute. He grad-
uated in mechanical engineering and then for several years
remained at the college as an instructor on the subject. The
college sent him for post-graduate work to the Stevens Institute
in New York, and after completing several courses he returned
to Blacksburg and resumed his teaching for two years. He
then accepted a call to the Texas Agricultural and Mechanical
College at College Station, where he held the chair of mechanical
engineering two years. Mr. Bray then gave up teaching and
returning to Danville, Virginia, was in the mercantile business
until his death. He was a Democrat and a member of the Blacks-
burg Christian Church. He also belonged to the Masonic fra-
ternity. His wife is a Methodist.
Mr. Bray married, September 5, 1894, Miss Mary L. Robert-
son. She was born and educated in Halifax County, attending
the College for Women at Greensburg. Her father, James
Albert Robertson, was a farmer in Halifax County and one of
the best known and most respected citizens of that locality be-
cause of his public service. He was for thirty years a school
trustee in the county, serving without pay, and for twenty years
396 VIRGINIA
was a county magistrate. He married Frances Lightfoot Mason,
a native of Halifax County, whose father was a large land owner
and planter before the war. James A. Robertson and wife had
five children : Mary, now Mrs. Bray ; Sue J., a graduate of the
Averett School for Girls, who has been a teacher in Halifax
County for thirty years ; Lucy ; Sally, now Mrs. Sally F. Thomp-
son ; and Caleb J. Caleb J. Robertson was educated in Halifax
and became one of the foremost business men of Danville. At
the age of twenty-one he became a general merchant at Christie,
later was a bank director and president of the Farmers Mutual
Insurance Company of Danville and held the office of magis-
trate. He never married, and at his death his sisters were called
upon to act as executors of his large estate.
Mrs. Bray since the death of her husband has established
her home in Richmond, residing at 2203 West Grace Street.
She is the mother of one daughter, Evelyn Lightfoot. Evelyn
married William Evans Barrett, a business man at Richmond,
and has two children, Frances Lightfoot and Dorothy Lee.
Charles William Shannon. The history of the Shannon
family in Giles County, where Charles William Shannon, one of
its representatives, a prominent farmer and stock raiser at
Poplar Hill, began before the War of the Revolution.
The Shannons came originally from Ireland. They were
settlers during the early Colonial period in Amherst County,
Virginia. The founder of the family in the New River Valley
was Samuel Shannon, who moved his family over the Alle-
ghanies in 1774 and located at what is now Poplar Hill. This
was then part of Fincastle County, now Giles County. After
a residence there of ten years and after the marriage of his
oldest son, Thomas, Samuel Shannon in the spring of 1784
moved with the other members of his family to the new colony
known as Nashville, Tennessee.
Thomas Shannon, the representative of the family who re-
mained at the old Poplar Hill locality, married Agnes Crowe.
The property acquired more than a century and a half ago is
still in the possession of the descendants of Thomas Shannon
and wife. He became a man of much prominence during and
after the Revolutionary peiiod. He was magistrate and sheriff
of Giles County, also represented his district in the State Legis-
lature. In the month of February, 1781, the British army
started its last advance northward through the Carolinas toward
Virginia. Col. William Pi'eston, military commandant of the
Montgomery troops, with Joseph Cloyd, his major, called out
the local forces to go to the aid of the Americans under General
Greene. Thomas Shannon became captain of the New River
company, with Alexander Mars, lieutenant, and other members
of the company were Thomas Farley, Isaac Cole, Mathew
French, John French, Joseph Hare, Edward Hale, the Clays and
others. Captain Shannon and his company joined the battalion
at the New River Lead Mines about the middle of February,
and on the eighteenth day of the same month the command
under Colonel Preston and Major Cloyd, 350 strong, marched
to the Haw River section of North Carolina, and being in a
strange country and not advised of the positions of the opposing
armies they camped between the American and British forces.
On the next day ensued a sharp skirmish between Preston's
battalion and Tarleton's British cavalry, and on March 6th
occurred a similar engagement at Wetzel's Mills between Pickens
VIRGINIA 397
command, inehuliiiK Preston's forces, and the British advance.
General Piclcens retreated toward Guilford Court House, and
the troops commanded by Preston were located on the American
left wing in the Rreat battle of Guilford Court House, which
ended the British invasion of the Carolinas and marked the
beginning of the withdrawal and loss of most of the British
posts in the South, and l)efore the end of the year the surrender
of Cornwallis himself and the virtual conclusion of the war.
After Guilford Court House the Virginia troops under Preston
inflicted severe damage on Colonel Tarleton's men. Captain
Shannon lived to be ninety years of age. His son Thomas mar-
ried Julia Allen, and their children were Thomas, Joseph,
James R., William R., Nancy, who married John Henderson
Bane, Eliza, who married James B. Miller, and Samuel B., who
lived for many years at the old homestead. The second Thomas
Shannon served as a magistrate in his county and also as a
member of the County Court for many years, and several times
was elected to the Virginia Legislature. At the beginning of
the War of 1861 he was said to have been the wealthiest man in
Giles County. His sons proved brave and faithful soldiers of
the Confedei-acy. He was the grandfather of Charles William
Shannon.
Charles William Shannon was born at Poplar Hill in Giles
County February 9, 1869, son of William Reed and Lucy (Bush)
Shannon. William Reed Shannon was also born at Poplar Hill,
was educated in private schools, and was a soldier of the Con-
federacy, acting as courier and dispatch bearer. After the war
he followed farming and stock raisin?, and died in November,
1904, being buried at Poplar Hill. His wife, Lucy Bush, was
born in P^ranklin County, Virginia, and died in November, 1916.
Both are i: resbyterians. Their three children were T. B. Shan-
non, of Roanoke, C. W. Shannon, and Juliet Allen, who is the
wife of F. C. Whaling, living in Harford County, Maryland.
Charles William Shannon attended private schools, and from
the time he finished his studies his time and energies have been
taken up with farming and stock raising. He has about 700
acres of blue grass land, including part of the property acquired
by his ancestor before the Revolutionary war. He and his
family enjoy the beauties and comforts of a country home near
Poplar Hill. Mr. Shannon is a director of the Peoples Bank of
Giles County and is a member of the school advisoi-y board. He
was formerly active in the Independent Order of Odd Fellows,
is a Democrat, a deacon in the Presbyterian Church and a
worker in the Sunday School.
He married at Washington, D. C, October 21, 1916, Miss
Roberta Frances Weaver, of Poplar Hill. She was educated in
private schools and the Tazewell Seminary for Girls at Tazewell
Court House. She is a Presbyterian. Her parents were Z. T.
and Harriet Arminta (McDonald) Weaver, her father for many
years a farmer and stock raiser and for eight years sergeant at
arms of the Virginia State Senate. He served in the Confed-
erate army with General Mosby's troops during the last three
years of the war. He died September 1, 1926, and Mrs. Shan-
non's mother, in August, 1904. Mr. and Mrs. Shannon have no
children of their own, but they took into their home E. Richard
Sibley at the age of seven years, who had recently lost his
mother, and this adopted boy was given the advantages of the
high school at Eggleston and has come to the promise of a most
useful career.
398 VIRGINIA
Rev. Charles Albert Brown has been an ordained minister
of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, for a great many
years, but the outstanding service of his life has been as an
educator. A number of educational institutions, both public
and denominational, in Southwestern Virginia and in West
Virginia have had the benefit of his active guidance and control.
Since retiring from the main work of his life Mr. Brown has
lived at Narrows in Giles County. He was born in Monroe
County, West Virginia, January 31, 1858, son of Lewis and
Malinda (Shiers) Brown. His grandfather, Anderson Brown,
was a pioneer of Monroe County, where he combined farming
with hunting. Lewis Brown was born and reared in Monroe
County, and served four years in the Confederate army in the
Civil war, and after the war was a farmer and stock man until
his death on May 5, 1919, when eighty-seven years of age. His
wife, Malinda Shiers, was born and reared in Monroe County,
and was a very devout Methodist. She died September 17, 1903.
Of their twelve children one died in infancy, and the others
were : Rev. H. A. Brown, who for many years was a minister of
the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, died in 1927 ; Minerva
C, deceased ; Rev. Charles A. ; Madora J. ; Floyd J., deceased ;
Lewis Allen, deceased ; Flora A. ; Robert L., deceased ; Minnie
B. ; Hugh. B. ; John E., deceased.
Charles Albert Brown grew up in Monroe, Mercer and Giles
counties, had the advantages of public and private schools, and
in 1890 was graduated from Emory and Henry College. He
soon afterward was ordained to the ministry and entered the
Holston Conference of the Methodist Church. He has also been
a member of the Baltimore Conference, and has carried on work
as a minister locally in the different communities where he has
been a teacher. For three years he taught in public schools
and for six years was principal of the Hillsboro Female
Academy in West Virginia, for three years was principal of the
Alleghany Collegiate Institute, was associate principal of Ran-
dolph-Macon Academy at Front Royal two years, for five years
was principal of the Princeton Collegiate Institute, four years
principal of the Jonesville Collegiate Institute of Lee County,
Virginia, and five years principal of the high school at Narrows.
Virginia. Mr. Brown retired from the work of teaching in 1914,
and since then has given his attention to his property at Nar-
rows and answers calls for preaching in different pulpits. He
has been an encouraging presence in many educational gather-
ings. Mr. Brown owns a beautiful home located on the hiii over-
looking Narrows and has a small farm near the town. For
several years he was a member of the Town Council, is a Demo-
crat and is a deacon in the local Methodist Church.
Rev. Mr. Brown married at Hillsboro, West Virginia,
August 6, 1890, Miss Lillian M. Overholt, of Hillsboro. daughter
of William H. and ]Mary (McNeal) Overholt. Her father was a
merchant, lumberman and farmer at Hillsboro. and died there
in 1927. His wife passed away in 1912, and both are buried in
Princeton. Mrs. Brown attended public schools in West Vir-
ginia and the Valley Female College of Winchester, Virginia,
and was constant in her response to service in the Methodist
Episcopal Church, South. Mrs. Brown died July 21, 1928, and
is buried in Fairview Cemetery in Narrows. She was the
mother of two children, Edna Gertrude and William H. Edna
Gertrude Brown attended private and public schools, Sullins
I
I
^ aI' X<^i9-Ky
VIRGINIA 399
College, the New York Musical Institute, and has been very suc-
cessful as a music teacher, having a private studio at Roanoke.
The son, William H. Brown, was liberally educated, is a
graduate of Emory and Henry College, and in 1917 joined the
colors, being in training with the Artillery Corps, later was
transferred to the Medical Corps, went overseas with Colonel
McGuire's command, with a commission as second lieutenant,
and while in France served with the heavy artillery until the
armistice. He received his honorable discharge late in the fall
of 1918, and then continued his graduate studies at the Uni-
versity of Virginia until he won his Bachelor of Philosophy
degree. He was an instructor in West Virginia University and
in Lafayette College of Pennsylvania, and is now professor of
economics in the University of Southern California at Los
Angeles.
Col. Elvin Seth Ligon is president and owner of Black-
stone, a Military School for Boys, an institution that has given
training to hundreds of youths not only from Virginia but from
many other states, and has a well earned prestige among the
boys' preparatory schools of the South.
Its owner. Colonel Ligon, is a native Virginian, born in
Appomattox County June 4, 1878, son of Willis H. and Nannie
M. (Cunningham) Ligon. His father was born in Appomattox
County and his mother in Prince Edward County. His father
was a farmer, merchant, for thirty years county supervisor and
for two terms a member of the State Legislature and in many
ways an outstanding citizen of his county. He died February 4,
1925, at the age of seventy-five and the widowed mother now
resides in Pamplin, Virginia.
Elvin S. Ligon was reared and received his early education
in Appomattox County. For one year he attended an academy
at Chase City and in 1898 was graduated with the A. B. degree
from the University of Richmond and took the M. A. degree
at the same school in 1899. He took post-graduate work at the
University of Chicago in 1902. He has been a teacher and en-
gaged in educational administration for over a quarter of a cen-
tury. He spent one year at Dothan, Alabama, one year at Hali-
fax, Virginia, one year at Blakely, Georgia, for five years was
principal of the Newport News Academy, Virginia, was a mem-
ber of the faculty of instruction at the University of Richmond
two years and three years head master with the Fork Union
Military Academy.
Colonel Ligon purchased the Blackstone Military Academy
in 1912. He continued under the old name until in recent years
he has changed the name to Blackstone, a Military School for
Boys. aflFording a general academic, commercial and preparatory
curriculum, combined with the wholesale discipline of militry
regulations. The school has a wonderful plant, including twenty-
one acres of ground. There is a faculty of twelve instructors
and the regular enrollment is 125 boys.
Colonel Ligon married August 18, 1907, Miss Virginia Dickey,
daughter of Dr. John R. and Sarah E. (James) Dickey. Her
parents were born in Grayson County, Virginia, and her father
was a manufacturing druggist at Bristol. Virginia. He died
October 12. 1923, and her mother on June 12, 1892. Colonel
and Mrs. Ligon have three children : William Arthur, born Au-
gust 18, 1908, is a member of the class of 1930 in the University
400 VIRGINIA
of Richmond; Elvin Seth, Jr., born January 9, 1911, is a student
at the University of Richmond, and in July, 1930, enters West
Point Military Academy as a cadet; and John Dickey, born
January 29, 1913, is attending the Blackstone School.
Colonel Ligon is a member and at one time was treasurer
of the Co-operative Teachers Association, is a member of South-
ern Association of Schools and Colleges, of the Association of
Military Schools and Colleges of the United States. He is a
Mason, member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and
Owls, the Blackstone Golf Club and the University Club of
Richmond. Colonel Ligon is a Democrat. He is a deacon in the
Baptist Church at Blackstone and assistant superintendent of
the Sunday School, teaching the Men's Bible Class. Mrs. Ligon
is a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution and
the United Daughters of the Confederacy.
Hon. Percy M. Moir. One of the most forceful citizens of
Roanoke, Hon. Percy M. Moir has always used his fine legal
talents in the furtherance of what he has conceived to be for the
best interests of his country, merging the two characters of
citizen and lawyer into a high personal combination which,
despite differences of intellectual opinion, has been generally
recognized as an example well worthy of emulation. Honors of
a high class have been bestowed upon him, and he has discharged
the responsibilities connected with them with dignified capabil-
ity. His record as a district judge and as a justice of the
Supreme Court of Virginia alone entitles him to the lasting
gratitude of the people of this state, but he has accomplished
even more, for he served the Government in the Philippines, and
he has made valuable contributions to agriculture, to legal liter-
ature, and to the advancement of his home city.
Judge Moir was born in Stuart, Patrick County, Virginia,
February 24, 1870, a son of William W. and Caroline Virginia
(Martin) Moir, both of whom were born in Virginia, and are
now deceased. For forty years the father served as deputy
county clerk of Patrick County, and during the war between
the states he served as superintendent of iron mines. In political
faith he was a Democrat. While both he and his wife belonged
to the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, only she was active
in church work. Of the nine children born to the parents seven
are living, and Judge Moir was the seventh child in order of
birth. The paternal grandparents were Alex A. and Mary Moir,
he being a native of Scotland who was brought to Virginia in
childhood by his parents. The maternal grandfather was a
native of Virginia, so that on both sides of the house Judge Moir
has the distinction of coming from families long established in
the Old Dominion.
Judge Moir was educated in the Virginia Polytechnic Insti-
tute and Washington and Lee University, and was admitted to
the bar in 1892, and from then until 1898, was engaged in a
general practice of his profession in Roanoke. With the declara-
tion of war with Spain he enlisted in the Second Virginia In-
fantry, and remained in the army for nine months, when he was
honorably discharged. He was then appointed to the Census
Bureau, Washington, under civil service, and was sent to the
Philippines, where for two years he served as treasurer of the
Cavite Province. In all he was in the Census Bureau for nine-
teen years, during that period serving as district attorney for
three and one-half years. From 1906 to 1918 he was judge of
VIRGINIA 401
the District Court, and from 1918 to 1920 he was on the Supreme
bench of Virginia, but resigned to resume private practice in
Roanoke.
In March, 1902, Judge Moir married Miss Maude Kirtland,
born in Saint Louis, Missouri, who died in 1925, leaving no chil-
dren. Judge Moir is a Scottish-Rite Mason, and belongs to the
Shenandoah Club. He owns a valuable farm near Roanoke and
resides on it, but manitains his office in the MacBain Building,
Roanoke. Always a strong Democrat, he was the alternate dele-
gate from the Philippines to the national convention of his party,
and he was a delegate to the one held in New York City in 1924.
As a lawyer Judge Moir has few equals, his sound judgment, his
profound knowledge of the law, and his wide experience making
him well fitted to handle the most intricate cases, and his practice
is a large and very important one, his clients coming to him
from a wide territory. The people of Roanoke are very proud
of him, and feel that his selection of the city as a permanent
place of residence confers an honor upon the community and hia
fellow citizens.
Hon. Nicholas P. Oglesby. The name of Oglesby is a well
known one in Wythe County, and is associated with much of
its history, both past and present, and those bearing it have
always displayed those homely traits of character, rugged hon-
esty, faithful industry and thoughtful economy which make for
good citizenship, combined with business ability and in some
cases statesmanship as well. One of those who bore the name
with dignity and added to its distinction was the late Hon.
Nicholas P. Oglesby, born in Wythe County, Virginia, September
12, 1837, a son of N. P. and Jane C. (Sayers) Oglesby, and
grandson of John Thompson Sayers, of Revolutionary war fame.
On June 19, 1867, Nicholas P. Oglesby married Miss Sallie
A. Crockett, a daughter of Thomas S. and Rachael L. (Cecil)
Crockett, also of Wythe County, and they had eight children:
John T., who was born April 4, 1868; Samuel C, who was born
April 1, 1870; Jennie L., who was born September 13, 1872;
N. P., who was born September 2, 1874 ; Mary S., who was boro
April 16, 1876; Albert C, who was born February 25, 1878;
Frank S., who was born July 14, 1880 ; and William B., who was
born September 12, 1883.
It is interesting to note that Nicholas P. Oglesby's maternal
grandfather, already mentioned, John Thompson Sayers, during
his service in the American Revolution was wounded in the
lungs at the battle of Guilford Court House, it was thought
fatally, but owing to his most remarkable constitution he re-
covered and lived to reach the age of sixty years. His brother,
Robert Sayers, held a colonel's commission in the same great
war, and was several times elected to represent his county in
the State Legislature. Col. Robert Sayers was a man of great
business ability, and owned the Anchor and Hope estate in
Wythe County, and a large estate in Burkes Garden, Tazewell
County, Virginia. The father of these two brothers, William
Sayers, the great-grandfather of Hon. Nicholas P. Oglesby, was
one of the early and very prominent settlers of Wythe County.
Hon. Nicholas P. Oglesby enlisted for service in the Southern
army during the war between the states, and was with the Army
of Northern Virginia. He participated in the battles of Spotsyl-
vania Court House, the Wilderness and those about Richmond,
including that of Mine Run. After the close of the war he
402 VIRGINIA
resumed his peaceful occupations, and in 1877 and 1878 repre-
sented Wythe County in the State Legislature. He owned one
of the largest blue grass farms, the old ancestral homestead,
where for many years he was active in the raising of Shorthorn
cattle. While a member of the Legislature he was greatly in-
terested in legislative work in behalf of the public school system
of Virginia, and was prominent in framing the bill for the
system. On his homestead is the old John Thompson Sayers
orchard farm, from which the Old Dominion Nurseries obtained
their first grafts of the Virginia Beauty apple. These nurseries
were first known as the Franklin-Davis Nursery. While the
now famous Virginia Beauty apple is indigenous to Grayson
County, it was introduced to the public under its present name
from the Sayers orchard.
The death of Hon. Nicholas P. Oglesby occurred on his estate,
Elmwood, in Fort Chiswill District, February 15, 1892, and he
is buried in the old Sayers family cemetery, now known as the
Oglesby Cemetery. His widow survives him, although now
eighty years old, residing near Max Meadows, with her son,
William Bowen Oglesby, and her daughter, Mary S. Oglesby.
They are interested in cattle and sheep raising upon an extensive
scale. To complete the military service of the Oglesby family
it must be added that Dr. Nicholas P. Oglesby, son of Hon.
Nicholas P. Oglesby, now deceased, served in the Spanish-
American war; and that Nicholas E. Oglesby and Richard B.
Simmerman, grandsons of Hon. Nicholas P. Oglesby, served in
the World war, the former in the Chemical Warfare Corps and
the latter with the Third Division, A. E. F., in which he volun-
teered, was sent to France and participated in the Chateau
Thierry off'ensive and that of Argonne Forest.
The Oglesby family has in its possession the original grants
for the land on which they live, and a receipt from Daniel Boone
to Major Quirk for surveying the place for Maj. Thomas Quirk,
dated June 11, 1785. Another valuable family document in the
Oglesby collection is a plat of the place drawn by Ezekiel Cal-
houn, grandfather of John C. Calhoun, which bears the date of
"April ye 2nd., 1754;" autographs of John Montgomery and
Col. Joseph Crockett witnessing a deed of one Will Rogers td
William Sayers of that period ; and another paper, dated October
8, 1771, issued during a court held for Botetourt County.
That some of the talents of the older Oglesbys have been
transmitted to the rising generation is shown in the following
poem written by Miss Jenny Lou Oglesby, granddaughter of
Hon. Nicholas P. Oglesby:
"The Call of the Alleghanies."
"Come ye West to the Alleghanies,
Where the towering mountains rise,
Like the billows of the ocean.
Towering upward toward the skies.
Where the earth comes nearest Heaven ;
And God's handiwork is seen
In the crimson pall of sunset
O'er the valleys cool and green.
Where the crystal river surges
Westward, westward to the sea.
Foaming at the reefs and rapids.
Or moving deep and silently.
VIRGINIA 403
Stand ye in the purple shadows
Of the lofty mountain peaks.
In the stillness learn the language
That the God of Wisdom speaks.
Here the thoughts of men are lifted
By the stable mountain range,
What'er skies may bend above them,
They, the mountains, never change.
But like truth are ever standing,
Though oft hid in mist or clouds,
They emerge in radiant sunshine
From the false, deceiving shrouds.
Enter ye this Hall of learning,
Where ideals are great and pure.
Modeled after majestic mountains
Full of beauty and power secure.
Here learn the worth that is in life.
Of things that are not bought or sold.
Join ye not in selfish yearnings,
Nor struggle after tarnished gold.
But come, oh come ye to that Virginia
Where the light and shadows meet.
Mingled with the laughing waters
At the Alleghanies' feet."
Henry Gibson Houston was a physician and surgeon, ex-
ceptionally gifted, and whose career as a man of medicine came
to a close long before he had attained the prominence and suc-
cess his talents and industry would have enabled him to realize.
He was born in Rockbridge County, Virginia, July 29, 1855,
and died at Richmond, March 16, 1884. He was a descendant
of Scotch ancestors, the Houstons having come from Scotland
and settled in Virginia in the Colonial period. For a number
of generations Rockbridge County has been the home of the
Houstons of Virginia. The father of Doctor Houston was a
cousin to Gen. Sam Houston, the Tennessee governor, whose
greatest fame, however, was gained as leader of the Texas army
in the war for independence from Mexico. Doctor Houston was
a son of Dr. Mathew Hale Houston, who throughout the war be-
tween the states was in the service of the Confederate army as
a surgeon, and who practiced his profession at Wheeling, West
Virginia, and at Richmond. He lived in Richmond after the
war, but his home was at Ashland when he died. Mathew Hale
Houston was twice married, and the mother of Henry Gibson
Houston was Eleanora Gibson. By this union eight children
were born, Henry Gibson Houston being the oldest son. Of
the fir.st marriage. Rev. William Houston and Rev. Mathew
Hale Houston were born. Harry Houston, a cousin, is present
commissioner of fisheries of Virginia, appointed by Governor
Byrd.
Henry Gibson Houston attended private schools and gradu-
ated in medicine from the University of Maryland in 1880. In
the same year he engaged in practice at Richmond, and con-
tinued the work until his death. He was a member of the Vir-
ginia State and American Medical Associations. He was at one
time editor of the Atlantic Journal of Medicine.
He married at Richmond in June, 1882, Miss Josephine
Dooley, who attended the St. Joseph School in Richmond and fin-
ished her education in the Mount de Chantal Academy of Wheel-
404 VIRGINIA
ing, West Virginia. Mrs. Houston is a daughter of John and
Sarah Dooley, who came from Limerick, Ireland, and settled in
Alexandria, Virginia, in 1833, and at Richmond in 1836. John
Dooley was a hat manufacturer, and during the Civil war served
in the Confederate army with the rank of captain and later as
major. Mrs. Houston's brother, Major James H. Dooley, was at
one time a member of the Virginia Legislature, and has been
prominent in Richmond financial circles. Mrs. Houston was
the youngest of nine children. She has one daughter, Eleanora
Clare Houston, and their home in Richmond is at 416 West
Franklin Street. Miss Houston is a very capable artist, and is
finance chairman of the League of Women Voters, of which
both she and her mother are members. They belong to the
Catholic Woman's Club. Doctor and Mrs. Houston and their
daughter. Miss Eleanora, were members of the St. Peters Catho-
lic Church, which was the first cathedral at Richmond.
Claude W. Hopper, regional director of the National Relief
Organization, with jurisdiction comprising the Southern States,
maintains his executive headquarters in the fine old capital city
of Virginia, and in his official capacity he has achieved a note-
worthy service in providing consistent relief and care for those
suffering from their service in foreign wars. In the World
war he was in active overseas service for some time. He now has
the rank of captain in the Virginia National Guard, and he is
serving as aide-de-camp on the military staff of Governor Byrd.
Captain Hopper was born at Evansville, Indiana, in the year
1892, and was still a mere boy when his parents died, he having
soon become almost entirely on his own resources and his sin-
cerity of purpose having been shown in the advancement he
has since won through his own ability and efforts. His father,
the late William F. Hopper, was born in Virginia, and was a
resident of the city of Evansville, Indiana, at the time of his
death.
As a boy, after the death of his parents. Captain Hopper
made his way to Missouri, and the public schools of that state
afforded him the greater part of his youthful education. Later
he was for two years a student in Ouachita College in the State
of Arkansas, he having subsequently become superintendent of a
large lumber mill at Helena, that state. In that state also he
initiated his military career, as a private in the Arkansas
National Guard. In the summer of 1916 his command enlisted
for service on the Mexican border and became a part of the
One Hundred and Fifty-third United States Infantry, attached
to the Thirty-ninth Division. He was mustered out a few days
prior to the nation's formal entrance into the World war. and
with his regiment was forthwith called back to active service,
he having at this juncture won commission as second lieutenant.
His regiment was stationed in turn at Camp Pike, Camp Gordon
and Camp Beauregard, and he served as an instructor in the
Officers' Training School at Camp Gordon. From Camp
Beauregard, Louisiana, in the summer of 1917, Captain Hopper
was sent to Paris, France, in an important secretarial capacity,
and he remained overseas during a period of five months, he
having thereafter served as an instructor at Camp Gordon.
Georgia, as previously noted, and having there been advanced
to the office of captain of his company. He received his honor-
able discharge March 31, 1919, and it was shortly before this
that he was tendered a position with the National Relief
VIRGINIA 405
Organization for foreign war sufferers. He was made an
organizer in this connection and later was made regional
director for the Southern States, the position of which he has
since continued the loyal and efficient incumbent. In 1921 the
National Relief Organization honored him with membership
in the commission sent into the Near East for the purpo.se of
studying conditions and making thereafter a report to the United
States Congress. On this assignment he visited every country
in the near Orient, including those in both Europe and Asia.
In the national campaign of 1924 Captain Hopper was acting
director of the Democratic national finance campaign in Vir-
ginia, with headquarters in Richmond, and at the conclusion
of that campaign Hon. John W. Davis, the Democratic standard-
bearer, stated that the conducting of the Democratic finance
campaign in Virginia surpassed in efficiency that of any similar
organization in all the states. In the Democratic primaries of
Virginia in 1927 Captain Hopper appeared as candidate for
nomination to the position of representative of the Richmond
district in the House of Delegates of the State Legislature, he
having been at this time assistant secretary of the Democratic
State Central Committee and a member of the City Democratic
Committee of Richmond.
Captain Hopper has completed the circle of York and Scot-
tish Rites in the Masonic fraternity, has received in the latter
the thirty-second degree, and he is also a Noble of the Mystic
Shrine. On the fair old city of Richmond he and his wife have
membership in Ginter Park Methodist Episcopal Church, South.
Since the close of the World war Captain Hopper has main-
tained his residence in Richmond, and here was solemnized his
marriage with Miss Lucy Terrell, a sister of Rev. G. Tyler Ter-
rell, who is here pastor of Immanuel Baptist Church. Captain
and Mrs. Hopper are popular factors in representative social
activities in their home city.
Alexander Bear, M. D., was a native Virginian, saw service
in the Confederate cause, but after the war went west and for
many years was an honored and respected citizen as well as an
indispensable professional man in Nebraska. When he retired
from the work of his profession he returned to Virginia and
established his home in Richmond, where he lived until his death
and where his widow and children still reside. Mrs. Bear's
home is at 2032 Monument Avenue.
Dr. Alexander Bear was. born in Fauquier County, Virginia,
February 4, 1841, and died at Richmond in April, 1924, at the
age of eighty-three. His father, Emanuel Bear, was born in
Germany and settled in Virginia when a young man. He mar-
ried Caroline Bachrach, also a native of Germany, who had
come to Richmond when a child. Ale.xander Bear grew up in
Fauquier County, attended schools there and completed his med-
ical education in the Maryland Medical College at Baltimore.
He was only nineteen years of age when he was granted his
medical diploma. About a year later the war broke out between
the states and he enlisted in Smith Blues Regiment at Marion,
Smith County, Virginia. In the early part of the war he was
assigned duty as a surgeon in the field, but for the last two
years had charge of the Marion Hospital for wounded soldiers
at Marion, Virginia. He was promoted to official rank. After
the war he practiced for a time in Virginia and then went to
Nebraska, living for a time at Fremont and West Point. In
406 VIRGINIA
1872 he located at Norfolk, Nebraska, then a small village, and
for thirty-seven years his time and talents were in demand by
an increasing patronage, and he not only gave the community
the best of his professional service, but in many ways was closely
identified with its material growth and civic upbuilding. Nor-
folk when he left there in 1909 was one of the important cities
of Central Nebraska.
Doctor Bear in 1909 returned to Richmond, and during the
last fifteen years of his life lived in quiet retirement, enjoying
many friendships in his native state. While in Nebraska he
served as mayor of Norfolk, as president of the school board,
was elected and served in the Nebraska State Senate, and was
a member of the United States Pension Board. He was a director
and vice president of the Norfolk National Bank. He was
always a staunch Democrat in politics, and was a member of
the Masonic and Elks fraternities.
Doctor Bear married, September 12, 1887, Miss Amelia Levy,
a native of Virginia, who was reared and educated in Richmond.
Her father, Leopold Levy, was born in Germany and when a
young man came to America and settled at Amelia Court House,
Virginia. He was a merchant in that city, and at the outbreak
of the Civil war enlisted in Stonewall Jackson's Brigade. He
was captured and after a term in prison was exchanged and
rejoined his command. After the war he located at Richmond
and eventually became one of the city's leading commission mer-
chants. Leopold Levy married Rosena Hutzler, who was born
at Richmond, member of an old family of that city. The Levy
children were: Joseph L., of Richmond, who married Lenora
Straus and has three children ; Edwin L., Florence and J. Leo ;
Isaac Levy, of Baltimore, who married Emma Bachrach, and
after her death married again, having one son by his first wife,
named Irving; and Mrs. Amelia Bear.
Doctor and Mrs. Bear have had three children, one of whom
is deceased. The daughter, Robinette, is the wife of Leo Green-
tree, a business man of Richmond, and has two children, named
Jeanette Virginia and Meyer. Alexander L. Bear, the son, is
in business at Richmond.
John W. Daniel left college to learn the printing trade in
the plant of the Northampton Times at Cape Charles. His
father owned the paper at the time, and John W. Daniel has
been actively identified with that newspaper and business for
ten years, is manager of the Times Publishing Company, and
he has been instrumental in making the Times a paper of sub-
stantial circulation and influence throughout Northampton
County.
He was born in Williamsburg, Virginia, February 5, 1894,
son of John T. and Henrietta (Barlow) Daniel, his father a
native of Middlesex County and his mother of Williamsburg.
John T. Daniel is an attorney by profession, has practiced law
and been identified with business and civic affairs at Cape
Charles for many years, and is now the editor of the Northam,p-
ton Times.
John W. Daniel was reared and educated in Cape Charles,
graduated from high school in 1911, and for two years attended
Randolph-Macon College at Ashland. He acquired his knowledge
of printing and the newspaper business by an apprenticeship
in the mechanical department and the business office of the
Northampton Times, and worked there steadily until 1917, when
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VIRGINIA 407
he enlisted in the navy. He was on shore duty at Washington,
D. C, until January 6, 1919, when he was released from active
duty, but was kept on the reserve list until the full four-year
time of his enlistment had expired.
Since the war he has had the business management of the
Times Publishing Company. The company has a plant well
equipped for commercial printing. The Northampton Times
now enjoys a circulation of 2,500 copies.
Mr. Daniel married. June 24, 1918, Martha Fleet, daughter
of Rev. Alexander and Josephine (Jeffries) Fleet, the former
a native of King and Queen County and the latter of Essex
County. Her father, who was a Baptist minister, died in 1911,
and her mother in 1923. Mr. and Mrs. Daniel have one child,
Rawley Fleet, born August 1, 1919.
Mr. Daniel and his father are also engaged in the fire insur-
ance business at Cape Charles. He is a member of the Masonic
fraternity, Junior Order United American Mechanics, the Sigma
Phi Epsiion college fraternity. Cape Charles Rotary Club, North-
ampton Country Club. He is a member of the Sons of Con-
federate Veterans, the American Legion, is a Democrat, is active
in the Baptist Church, and for many years served as secretary
of the Sunday school.
William Edward Hogg, commonwealth's attorney for York
County, has in his career exemplified the qualities and talents
that have long distinguished the Hogg family in Virginia.
Mr. Hogg is a descendant of George Hogg, who with six
brothers came to America from Scotland in 1650. George Hogg
in 1686 located in York County, Virginia, and that has been the
home of one branch of this well known family for more than
two hundred years. William Edward Hogg was born in York
County March 3, 1890, son of William Henry and Frances
Elizabeth (Winder) Hogg. Both his grandfathers, Samuel
Hogg and Edward Thomas Winder, were Confederate soldiers
in the Civil war. His great-great-grandfather, John Hogg,
acquired in 1814 land in York County, a part of which has been
continuously occupied by some of his descendants, a part of said
land being devised to Lewis Hogg, father of Samuel Hogg, and
on a part of which is now the home of William Henry and
Frances Elizabeth Hogg. John Hogg was a son of Richard
Hogg, who as a lieutenant of Marines was present at the sur-
render of Cornwallis at Yorktown at the close of the Revolu-
tionary war. William Henry Hogg has spent his active life
as a farmer and fisherman, and the old homestead where he
resides is five miles from Yorktown. He and his wife were
both born in 1867.
William Edward Hogg grew up and received his education
in York County, completing a high school course under his
cousin and had business training in the seminary at West Point,
Virginia, and in the Smithdeal Business College at Richmond,
where he graduated in June, 1905. For three years he studied
law by correspondence with the Sprague Correspondence School
of Law at Detroit, and he also attended the law department of
Washington and Lee University. He was admitted to the bar
in June, 1915, beginning practice at Hampton, and since Janu-
ary 1, 1920, has had his law offices at Yorktown, where he now
has his home. While getting started in his profession he sup-
plemented his income by work at the carpenter's trade and for
408 VIRGINIA
seven years before entering the law department of Washington
and Lee University assisted his father in the fishing business.
Mr. Hogg was elected commonwealth's attorney of York
County in 1919 and has twice been reelected to that office. At
the present time he is engaged in compiling a digest, to be called
the Virginia Criminal Annotations, a brief, condensed state-
ment of facts with quotations from the opinions beginning with
the latest decisions and working backward. It is a unique legal
hand-book, and will comprise about eleven hundred pages.
Mr. Hogg married. May 12, 1917, Gertrude Virginia, only
daughter of J. J. and Sarah Elizabeth (Sparrer) Ironmonger,
natives of York County. Her father is a farmer living at Sea-
ford. Mr. and Mrs. Hogg have one daughter, Mildred Virginia.
Mrs. Hogg also has a son, Charles James, by a former marriage.
Mr. Hogg is affiliated with the Improved Order of Red Men,
is a Democrat, for several years a steward in the Methodist
Episcopal Church, South, and a substitute teacher in the Sun-
day School.
Thomas E. Simmerman, Jr., cashier and executive officer
of the Bank of Max Meadows, is a native of Wythe County, and
represents one of the younger generations of a family that has
been identified with the agricultural and stock raising industry
in this Blue Grass region of Southwest Virginia for a number
of generations.
Mr. Simmerman was born in Wythe County, May 18, 1896,
son of Thomas E. and Mary (Hanson) Simmerman. His grand-
father was Thomas H. Simmerman, who in turn was a son of
Thomas Q. Simmerman. Thomas E. Simmerman, Sr., was born
and reared in Wythe County, was educated in public schools, in
Hampden-Sydney College, and in the Eastman Business College
at Poughkeepsie, New York. He devoted his active life to farm-
ing and stock raising, was also a dealer in cattle, was a director
in the Bank of Max Meadows and the Farmers Bank of South-
west Virginia at Wytheville, and was otherwise a man of in-
fluence and distinction in his community, serving one term as
supervisor of the Wytheville district. He died in 1926. His
wife, Mary Hanson, was born and reared in Wythe County, and
was likewise descended from an old family of Virginia. She
was a member of Stewart Chapter, Daughters of the American
Revolution. She and her husband were active members of the
Presbyterian Church, in which he served as an elder. She died
in November, 1926, and both are buried at Wytheville. They
were the parents of eight children : Thomas E., Jr. ; Miss Sidney
Major, a resident of Wytheville, a graduate of the Mary Baldwin
Seminary of Staunton, Virginia, and now a teacher at Winston-
Salem, North Carolina; Elbert L., who died in October, 1917, at
the age of seventeen ; William H., assistant cashier of the
Farmers Bank of Southwest Virginia at Wytheville, who fin-
ished his education in Hampden-Sydney College; George B., a
farmer on the old homestead ; Henry P., a farmer and cattle
man ; Mary H., attending the Virginia State Normal School for
Women at Farmville ; and Ellen Virginia, a student at Villa
Maria Convent at Wytheville.
Thomas E. Simmerman, Jr., attended public schools and fin-
ished his education in Hampden-Sydney College with the class
of 1920. In the meantime, in May, 1917, he joined the colors,
spent nine months in training at Fortress Monroe, attended the
Third Officers' Training School at Camp Lee, Virginia, for three
VIRGINIA 409
months, and was commissioned a second lieutenant in the Thirty-
second Field Artillery. Following that he had four months of
intensive training in the School of Fire at Fort Sill, Oklahoma,
and was then transferred to Camp Meade, Maryland, and with
the Eleventh Brigade, Thirty-second Artillery, was in readiness
to go overseas when the armistice was signed. He received his
honorable discharge at Camp Meade December 15, 1918.
For about a year after the war Mr. Simmerman was in the,
garage business. In 1920, on the organization of the Bank of
Max Meadows, he took the post of cashier, and has had the
chief responsibilities of managing that institution, of which
he is also a director. He owns a fine Blue Grass farm near Max
Meadows, specializing in the raising of beef cattle, and he keeps
himself in close touch with the spirit and the enterprise of the
community.
Mr. Simmerman is a Royal Arch Mason, member of the Inde-
pendent Order of Odd Fellows, the Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity,
is a Democrat, is deacon and treasurer of the Presbyterian
Church at Max Meadows and also one of the church trustees.
He married at Max Meadows, June 8, 1923, Miss Miriam
Robinson, daughter of John W. and Nannie (Counselman)
Robinson. Her father for many years has been a leading farmer
and cattle man in Wythe County. The Robinsons have been in
Southwest Virginia since very early times. Mrs. Simmerman
finished her education in Sullins College at Bristol, Tennessee.
She is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South.
They have four children, Thomas E. Ill, John Robinson, Nancy
and Graham Hanson.
Newton Floyd Burge, Jr., is associated with one of the
prominent industrial organizations of the little city of Galax,
on the line between Carroll and Grayson counties. Galax has
become noted as a wholesale and jobbing center and also as a
manufacturing center for the hard wood resources of this section
of Virginia. Mr. Burge is assistant secretary and treasurer of
the Vaughan-Bassett Furniture Company, which is one of the
large furniture manufacturing enterprises of this section of the
state.
Mr. Burge was born at Martinsburg, Virginia, June 26, 1892,
son of Newton F. and Mary Jane (Hundley) Burge. His father,
now living retired at Martinsville at the age of seventy-four,
was born in Henry County, Virginia, in 1854, was educated in
private schools, and spent many years in the mercantile business
at Martinsville, retiring in 1925, after he had passed the age of
three score and ten. His wife was a daughter of Capt. Hiram
B. Hundley, who was born near Martinsville in 1817 and died
in 1905, at the age of eighty-eight. He represented a prominent
family of that section, and though too old for active duty as a
soldier he served as a recruiting and training ofiicer near Dan-
ville, with the rank of captain, in the Confederate army. Newton
F. Burge, Sr., and wife had a family of six daughters and two
sons: Ada, wife of J. F. Floyd, of Martinsville; Etta, wife of
F. R. Brown, of Galax ; Nannie, Mrs. L. H. Shumate, of Johnson
City, Tennessee; William B., in the wholesale bakery business
at Martinsville ; Hepsie, wife of B. C. Vaughan, of Galax ; Fannie,
who died at the age of four years ; Newton F. ; and Jessie, wife
of D. V. Carter, of Clinton, North Carolina.
Newton F. Burge, Jr., attended the grade and high schools
at Martinsville and in 1912 graduated from the Fork Union
410 VIRGINIA
Military School. With this educational training he entered the
mercantile business, and applied all his efforts during the next
five years to his business affairs. In 1917 he enrolled in the
National Guard in Virginia, and on June 28, 1917, was mustered
in at Danville, Virginia. He was assigned duty with the Coast
Artillei'y Corps and spent two years at Fortress Monroe. He
was promoted to sergeant September 1, 1917, to plotter Decem-
ber 2, 1918, and to first-class gunner March 20, 1918. He re-
ceived his honorable discharge December 3, 1918.
After leaving the army he took a course in the Eastman-
Gaines Business College at Poughkeepsie, New York, and was
an accountant for the Banner Grocery Company, a wholesale
business at Martinsville, for one year. He then removed to
Galax, taking charge of the books and as general office manager
for the Vaughan-Bassett Furniture Company, and since 1925
has been assistant secretary and treasurer of that business.
Mr. Burge is a Scottish Rite Mason, member of Kazim
Temple of the Mystic Shrine at Roanoke, is a member of the
Knights of Pythias, Galax Country Club, and the Baptist Church.
He married at Bristol, Tennessee, September .5, 1924, Miss
Maye Roberts, of Old Town, Grayson County, Virginia, daughter
of T. F. and Florence (Cox) Roberts. Her father was a farmer
and stock man. Mrs. Burge was reared a Methodist, but she and
her husband are now active in the Baptist Church at Galax.
She graduated from the Galax High School and the State Normal
at Radford, and was a teacher in the Galax Grammar School
during 1922-23.
Mrs. Charles Davenport, who died January 26, 1928, was
one of the distinguished women of her generation in Richmond.
Her husband, Charles Davenport, was a well known Richmond
merchant, and her own people contributed some of the greatest
names to the medical profession in Virginia.
Her father was Dr. James Brown McCaw, who was born at
Richmond, July 12, 1823. Her ancestor, James Drew McCaw,
was a nephew of Dr. James McClurg. Doctor McCIurg, son of
an English army surgeon, was born in 1747, graduated from
William and Mary College in 1762, and took his degree in medi-
cine at Edinburgh, Scotland. He lived for some years at Wil-
liamsburg, and after the close of the Revolution located at Rich-
mond. Doctor McClurg was chosen a delegate to the Constitu-
tional Convention when Patrick Henry declined that honor, but
the Doctor was not present when the Federal Constitution was
finally voted upon, and did not sign the document. James Drew
McCaw grew up in the home of his uncle, Doctor McClurg, was
sent by him to the University of Edinburgh, where he gradu-
ated in 1792, and on returning he located at Richmond. In
1799 he was pronounced "one of the greatest men of his pro-
fession in America." Dr. James Drew McCaw was the hero
of the famous theater fire of 1811 in Richmond, when he stood
at a window in the theater and passed the frantic women and
children one by one to a negro slave standing just below. This
slave subsequently for his bravery was given his freedom.
William R. McCaw, father of Dr. James Brown McCaw,
v/as also a physician, and married Anne Ludwell Brown, whose
father, James Brown, Jr., was state auditor of Virginia forty
years.
James Brown McCaw graduated in 1844 in medicine from
the University of New York. During the war between the
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VIRGINIA 411
states he was chief surgeon of Chimborazo Hospital, the largest
of all the hospitals on the Southern side, where it was estimated
75,000 patients were treated during the war. He was a pro-
fessor and dean in the Medical College of Virginia and editor
of the Virginia Medical. Journal. Dr. James Brown McCaw
married Delia Patteson, whose father. Dr. William A. Patteson,
was also a prominent Richmond physician. Two of their sons,
brothers of the late Mrs. Davenport, were eminent in the field
of medicine and surgery, David and Walter Drew. Walter Drew
McCaw, who was born at Richmond in 1863, was commissioned
an assistant surgeon of the United States Army in 1884, and on
March 5, 1919, was given the rank of brigadier-general as
assistant surgeon general of the United States Army. He was
with the volunteers during the Spanish-American war, and was
chief surgeon of the American Expeditionary Forces from
October, 1918, to July 15, 1919, and was awarded the distin-
guished service medal by the United States, besides honors from
all the allied governments.
Ellen McCaw Davenport was seventy-four years of age when
she died at her home, 1637 Monument Avenue, in Richmond.
Throughout her life she was a part of the cultured society of
Virginia, and had many activities in Richmond, being a member
of the Colonial Dames of America, the Daughters of the Revo-
lution, the Musicians Club, and was a charter member and
former president of the Woman's Club. She was a member of
St. Paul's Episcopal Church.
Her husband, Charles Davenport, was also a native of Rich-
mond, where he spent his life engaged in the mercantile business.
Mr. and Mrs. Charles Davenport had two daughters: Delia,
now Mrs. Richard Watkins Carrington, of Richmond ; and Ellen,
wife of Dr. Henry Wiseman Cook, of Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Edward Butts Kilby, Ph. G., M. D. James City County is
noted for the skill, learning and high character of the men who
make up its medical practitioners, and the profession here num-
bers some whose attainments are far beyond the ordinary.
Among them one whose career is typical of modern advance-
ment, his being a broad field of medical service, is Dr. Edward
B. Kilby, physician and surgeon of Toano. He was born in
Nansemond County, Virginia, February 28, 1890, a son of Wal-
ter G. and Susannah (Parr) Kilby, natives of the same county
as their son. Walter G. Kilby was a general contractor of New-
port News, Virginia, and a man of considerable consequence.
Doctor Kilby grew up in Newport News, and was graduated
from its academy in 1907. He then entered the Medical College
of Virginia, Richmond, from which he was graduated in phar-
macy in 1909, and in medicine from the same school in 1915.
For the following two years he was attached to Marine Hospital,
Detroit, Michigan, where he gained a very valuable experience,
and when he left that institution he established himself in prac-
tice in Southampton County, Virginia, and remained there for
five years, or until January 6, 1923, when he came to Toano,
James City County, and here he has since remained with en-
viable success.
On January 25, 1917, Doctor Kilby married Miss Jean Camp-
bell Moody, a daughter of Rosser L. and Bertha (Robinson)
Moody, natives of Petersburg, Virginia. Mrs. Moody died in
1920, and Mr. Moody is also deceased. For a good many years
he was a druggist of South Richmond. Doctor and Mrs. Kilby
412 VIRGINIA
have two children: Edward Butts, Junior, who was born August
23, 1918 ; and Patricia Jean, who was born March 16, 1921. The
Doctor is a member of the Virginia State Medical Society, the
Southern Medical Society and the Walter Reed Medical Society.
A strong believer in fraternities, he belongs to a number of
them, is a Mason, and also holds membership in Samis Grotto,
Richmond ; a member of the Junior Order United American Me-
chanics, and others. For several years he has been local surgeon
for the Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad. Doctor Kilby votes the
Democratic ticket, but aside from exercising his right of suf-
frage he takes but little part in politics. The Baptist Church is
his religious home. The personal impression given by Doctor
Kilby is quieting and satisfying, inspiring confidence and com-
manding respect.
J. Edward Williams. Self help has accomplished about all
of the great things in the world, and the door of opportunity
has generally been opened by the men who have found success
awaiting them within. In every city every year there are young
men who cherish ambitions in one direction or the other, but
how few ever reach the top of the ladder. It requires a brave
heart to fight one's way through discouragements, temptations
and momentary failures, but that many have succeeded is proven
by the long list of names honored in the business world through
life and recalled with respect and admiration after their work
in life is over. These remarks are particularly applicable to the
late J. Edward Williams, who was for many years prominently
identified with Government service, whose loss to his depart-
ment, to his city, let alone to his family and friends, is irrepa-
rable.
J. Edward Williams was born in Northwest, Norfolk County,
Virginia, November 11, 1867, and died in Newport News, Vir-
ginia, in December, 1920. When he was but a little child he
had the misfortune to lose his mother, and his father died when
he was eleven years old. His uncle, who was his guardian, also
died when the youth was but sixteen years of age. At this time
Edward was a student of the Gatewood School of Norfolk, Vir-
ginia. From then until his death J. Edward Williams was self-
supporting. His first position was with the Crawford Furniture
Company, which he served for five years, after which he came
to Newport News and entered the furniture business for himself,
conducting it for four years, during that period building up a
large and valuable trade, but owing to a disastrous fire he was
obliged to close his store, and then entered the customs depart-
ment of the Federal Government at the port of Newport News.
Two years later he was appointed first immigration ofiicer of
the Hampton Roads District. At the time of his death he was
inspector in charge of the district embracing the ports of Hamp-
ton Roads. Wilmington, North Carolina, and Charleston, South
Carolina.
In January, 1894, Mr. Williams married, in Portsmouth, Vir-
ginia, Miss Hattie Weaver, of Portsmouth, Virginia, a daughter
of Joseph F. Weaver, a pharmacist, a member of the harbor
commission and of the City Council. J. F. Weaver married
Harriet Morgan, and they became the parents of five children
that are now living, and several who are deceased. Of these
children Mrs. Williams is the second, the others being: J. F.
Weaver, Jr., city engineer of Portsmouth, a brother and two
sisters. Mr. and Mrs. Williams had three children born to their
VIRGINIA 413
marriage : Geraldine, who is deceased ; Dorothy, who is also
deceased; and Gray, who is a practicing attorney of New York
City, married Eleanor Fishburne, a daughter of Judge John W.
Fishburne, of Charlottesville, Virginia. Mr. Williams was a
past exalted ruler of the local lodge of the Benevolent and Pro-
tective Order of Elks, and was its secretary at the time of his
death. In political faith he was a Democrat, and at all times
he was faithful to party precedents. Trinity Methodist Epis-
copal Church, South, was his religious home, but Mrs. Williams
is a Presbyterian. During 1895 and 1896 Mr. Williams was
on the Board of Supervisors of Warwick County, and during
1897 and 1898 he was captain of the Huntington Rifle Club of
Newport News.
The Williams family came from Wales and England, and its
representatives came to the United States not long, after the
organization of the present government, settling in Virginia.
The Weaver family was established in Virginia in a period ante-
dating the American Revolution, in which great struggle it was
represented by patriots bearing the name, one of whom was asso-
ciated with the campaign in the vicinity of Hampton Roads.
Although some years have passed since the death of Captain
Williams, he is remembered as a man who lent his influence to
every good and worthy cause as a citizen, and every enterprise
with which he was connected benefited because of his association
with it. In the conduct of the affairs of his office he was recog-
nized as a just man, honorable, incorruptible and capable, and
he had a wide acquaintance with men of moment throughout
the state and in the national capital.
Ward Martin, M. D. To win the unqualified trust and con-
fidence of his fellowmen is something to live for, and this has
been honorably achieved by one of Tazewell County's well known
physicians. Dr. Ward Martin, chiropractic practitioner at Blue-
field, Virginia. Doctor Martin well illustrates the general char-
acter of that body of noblemen who for ages have devoted them-
selves, often with great unselfishness, to the healing art, a guard
constantly on the defense line protecting humanity from its
subtle disease foes. It may follow diflferent paths and favor
different systems, but the object is ever the same.
Doctor Martin belongs to an old Virginia family, of Scotch
extraction, that has many notable representatives in this and
adjacent Southern states. He was born on the old family home-
stead in Floyd County, Virginia, May 28, 1895, son of J. A. and
Amelia (Moore) Martin, and grandson of William Martin and
Noah Moore, all natives of Virginia. Before the war between
the states both grandfathers were extensive planters in Floyd
County, Grandfather Moore also owning slaves and serving
many years as a justice of the peace. Grandfather Martin
served hrough the above war as a soldier in the Confederate
army. The father of Doctor Martin followed agricultural pur-
suits all his life, was somewhat active in local politics as a.
Republican, and both he and wife were members of the Lutheran
Church. His death occurred in 1915, but the mother of Doctor
Martin survives and makes her home at Wythesville, Virginia,
where she is well known and esteemed.
Ward Martin received his early educational training in the
public schools of his native county, after which he entered the
high school at Christiansburg, in Montgomery County, from
which he was creditably graduated. Ready then to make him-
414 VIRGINIA
self useful and independent, he accepted a clerkship in a local
shoe store, but six months later, seeking wider opportunity, he
went to Chicago, Illinois, where he soon found a position in the
great business house of Montgomery Ward & Company, where,
although he had practically no previous business training, he
gave entire satisfaction in the department to which he was
assigned, and one year later went on the road as a traveling
salesman.
In the meanwhile Doctor Martin had lost his father, and
when the United States entered the World war he hastened back
to Virginia and attempted to enlist for service in the navy, but
was not accepted on account of being under the prescribed
weight. Not discouraged, however, he went on to Washington,
but when he sought to enlist in the aviation service he met with
the same refusal on the same ground. Intensely loyal and deter-
mined to be of use to his country, he then proceeded to Newport
News and went to work in the Government Navy Yard there,
and continued to work there until the close of the war.
Perhaps in his close association with this vast army of
workers germinated that beneficent urge of helpfulness that
inspires every true physician, for Mr. Martin could not help
but be impressed by the many injuries suffered by his fellow
workers in the way of sprains, wrenches and even spine dis-
locations, that were regarded as only temporary, but neverthe-
less in many cases were disfiguring for life if not fatal. He sud-
denly found himself interested as never before, and the more
he observed and the closer he investigated, the greater became
his interest in that medical system known as chiropractic, as
especially adapted to this class of disability.
The proven virtues of this great system, described by one of
its eminent expounders as "a philosophy, science and art of
things natural" are as old as Doctor Martin himself, for it was
in 1895 that the marvelous discovery was made that many of
the diseases from which men suffer can be completely cured by
proper adjustments of the spine. As soon as he was relieved
from duty at Newport News Mr. Martin enrolled as a student
in the Eastern College of Chiropractic at Newark, New .Jersey,
from which he was graduated in 1924, and after a course in
dissecting in Bellevue Hospital, New York, he was ready to enter
into practice. In the meanwhile the science of thirty years ago
is no longer new, but is accepted and practiced in all parts of
the world, Doctor Martin being but one of 8,000 chiropractic
physicians in the United States alone. Before locating at Blue-
field he practiced for a few months at Narrows, in Giles County,
and is now the only chiropractor registered in Tazewell County.
His professional success has been marked and he can number
grateful patients in both large and small communities all through
Southwest Virginia and even beyond.
On August 2, 1924, Doctor Martin married Miss Thelma
Cook, daughter of Earl H. and Daisy Cook, of Wythesville, Vir-
ginia, members of one of the old established families of that
section. Mrs. Martin is a graduate of the Wythesville High
School, and both she and the Doctor are members of the Metho-
dist Episcopal Church, South, at Bluefield, in which she is a
teacher in the Sunday school. Not only as a man of science
but as a good citizen. Doctor Martin endeavors to promote the
social welfare and civic progress of Bluefield, belongs to the
Chamber of Commerce, and is a member of the Masonic frater-
nity and of the Chiropractors Association.
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VIRGINIA 415
Melville Lyle Morrison. From the earliest settlement of
Virginia the great and fertile plantations have been a source
of wealth, and their owners have occupied positions of prom-
inence in whatever community they were located. Prior to the
war between the state these estates were, in many instances,
princely, and the leading men and women of the country were
made welcome with a lavish hospitality never before, or since,
equaled. In spite of changes these plantations are still very
valuable assets, and Southern hospitality lives, although, neces-
sarily, upon a less expansive scale. One of the men of the Old
Dominion, now deceased, who for many years gave his life to
the supervision of the lordly Mount Vernon plantation in King
William County, Melville L. Morrison was typical of the best
element of the South, a thorough gentleman of the old school,
and a man who numbered his warm personal friends by the .
hundreds. He was born on that same plantation July 27, 1874,
and died there in June, 1917.
Mr. Morrison was a son of George B. and Sarah Thornton
Black Morrison, the former of whom, also a Virginia gentleman,
descended from Scotch forebears, but of a family established in
Virginia during its Colonial epoch, owned and operated, with
slave labor, the Mount Vernon estate. With the declaration of
war between the North and the South he cast his lot with the
Confederacy, and continued to serve as a cavalryman until
peace was declared. Returning home, he bravely took up the
problems of the Reconstruction period and brought his planta-
tion back to something of its former value. Seven children were
born to him and his wife, of whom Melville L. Morrison was
the sixth in order of birth.
Following the completion of his educational training in sev-
eral excellent private schools of King William County Melville
L. Morrison assisted his father in the management of Mount
Vernon, which property has been in the family for five genera-
tions. In 1898, in response to President McKinley's call for
troops, he went to Newpoi't News, Virginia, where he was
assigned to service in the shipyards in an official capacity, and
continued there during the Spanish-American war, and for
several months following the declaration of peace, being in
the service for one year. Honorably discharged, he returned
to Mount Vernon, and buying the interests of the other heirs,
gave himself up to the management of the estate, and continued
to reside there until claimed by death while still in the very
prime of life.
On December 17, 1901, Mr. Morrison married Miss Elizabeth
Maude Atkins, a daughter of Alvey V. and Myrtle (Guthridge)
Atkins, and a member of a family established in Virginia after
the close of the American Revolution, and of English origin.
Mrs. Morrison is proud of her family and its long connection
with the history of the state. Her father was a planter, con-
tractor and road supervisor of King William County, where she
was born and reared. Like her husband she was educated in
private schools, and is a lady of unusual mentality and charm.
She is the eldest of the three children born to her parents.
Three children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Morrison : Theresa
Elizabeth, who was educated in the schools of King William
County and Richmond College, is now assistant cashier of the
Home Benefit Insurance Company ; Grace Evelyn, who is the
wife of James L. Prince, of Richmond ; and Ryland Maxey, who
is a student in High School in King William County. After
416 VIRGINIA
the death of Mr. Morrison the family moved to Richmond, and
Mrs. Morrison maintains her home at 617 Bancroft Street. She
and her children are earnest members of the Methodist Episcopal
Church, South, of which Mr. Morrison was long a member, and
to which he always gave an active and generous support.
Although some years have passed since his death Mr. Morrison
still lives in the hearts of his family and friends and his memory
is cherished with tender faithfulness.
Harry D. McWhirt is a native Virginian, and has become
well known in the business and civic affairs of the Milford
community of Caroline County. He is cashier of the Milford
State Bank and one of the stockholders and directors of that
prosperous institution.
Mr. McWhirt was born in Spotsylvania County, Virginia,
October 31, 1886, son of Julian D. and Annie F. (Hicks)
McWhirt, his father a native of Spotsylvania and his mother of
Caroline County. Julian D. McWhirt, a farmer and merchant,
died in July, 1925, and his wife passed away in August, 1911.
Harry D. McWhirt was reared and educated in Spotsylvania
County, attended private school at Fredericksburg, and in the
way of preparation for a commercial career had several years
of employment as a clerk in his father's store. Mr. McWhirt
for about one year was a clerk in the Metropolitan Hotel at
Washington and then took up the life insurance business. For
two years he was located at Ashland, Virginia, and he also held
the office of postmaster of Spotsylvania and for four years was
commissioner of revenue of that county.
Since 1915 his home has been at Milford, in Caroline County,
and he became cashier of the Milford State Bank three years
after it was organized in 1912. The Milford State Bank has
capital of $22,500, surplus of $16,000, and average deposits of
$175,000. The president of the bank is Dr. E. C. Cobb, and
Walter Wilson is the vice president.
Mr. McWhirt married in December, 1911, Bertha E. Mussey.
Her parents, F. C. and Ellen (Reed) Mussey, came from Eng-
land, and her father settled in Virginia and is still operating a
farm in Spotsylvania County. Mr. and Mrs. McWhirt have
three children : Arthur D., born in 1914 ; Harry Marvin, born
in 1916; and Walter Reed, born in 1921. Mr. McWhirt is a
past master of the Masonic Lodge, member of the Modern Wood-
men of America, is an independent voter and takes an active
part with his family in the Baptist Church at Milford, being
church treasurer and a teacher in the Sunday school.
Thomas Letcher Stone was a prominent figure in the com-
mercial life of Richmond for many years. He was a native
Virginian, and his people on both sides have been in the state
for many generations.
He was born in the City of Richmond, May 24, 1859, and
died there November 11, 1922. He was the fifth of the seven
children of Ellis Ware and Lucy Jane (Nunn) Stone. The Nunn
family lived in King and Queen County. Thomas Letcher Stone
was educated at Richmond, and his first business experience
was as an employe of the T. P. Campbell Lumber Company. A
few years later he went with Robert F. William & Company,
and acquired an interest in that business. The enterprise with
which his name and work were most intimately associated, how-
VIRGINIA 417
ever, was the Southern Biscuit Company of Richmond. He
became its general manager in 1900, and during the next twenty-
two years built up a remarkable business for the house, con-
tinuing active therein until his death.
Mr. Stone was a Democrat, a Baptist, and was affiliated with
the Masonic fraternity and Royal Arcanum.
He married, June 13, 1881, Miss Roberta A. Smith, of Rich-
mond, only child of Robert J. and Cornelia A. Smith. Her father
served during the last year of the Civil war in Company R of
the First Virginia Regiment, and was in Pickett's Division.
Mrs. Stone, who resides at 1021 West Main Street, in Richmond,
is the mother of two sons. Robert Ware Stone, who graduated
from the Virginia Polytechnic Institute, married Adela Brooks,
of Chesterfield, and has four children, named Dorothy, Mar-
garet, Joseph and May Frances. John L. Stone, the younger
son, an employe of the City of Richmond, married Blanche
Puryear, and they also have four children, J. Letcher, Thomas
William, Herbert Milton and Eugenia Mariam.
Tyler McCall Frazier, of Wythesville, district chairman of
the Democratic party of the Ninth Virginia District, is a mem-
ber of an old and prominent family of Southwest Virginia.
He was born at Graham, April 30, 1900, son of Dr. Henry
B. and Florence (McCall) Frazier. His grandfather. Rev. Tay-
lor Frazier, is in point of service the oldest member of the
Holston Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South.
He is now eighty-eight years of age and a resident of Chilhowie.
Virginia. He is also one of the two surviving chaplains of the
Confederate army. Dr. Henry B. Frazier was born and reared
at Graham, attended public schools and Emory and Henry Col-
lege, and was educated for the profession of medicine in Vander-
bilt University and the University of Maryland. For several
years he practiced at Bramwell, West Virginia, and for over
thirty years has been a leading physician and surgeon at Graham.
He has interested himself in the life of that community, is a
past master of Harman Lodge No. 222, A. F. and A. M., and
a member of the Mystic Shrine. His wife, Florence McCall.
was born and reared in Tazewell County, Virginia, attended
public and private schools and Martha Washing-ton College. She
and Doctor Frazier have five children : Tyler McCall ; Henry
B., attorney at Bluefield, West Virginia ; Virginia, a public school
teacher; Lucian, twin of Virginia, who died at the age of eleven
years; and Louise, a student in the Graham High School.
Tyler McCall Frazier was educated in the public schools of
Graham, in Roanoke College, and graduated in 1922 from the
University of Virginia. For a young man he has had unusual
opportunities for political experience and service. After leaving
the university he became private secretary to Congressman
George B. Peery, of the Ninth Virginia District, and was with
Mr. Peery at Washington until February 1, 1928, when he was
made chairman of the Ninth District Democratic Committee,
and is also a member of the State Democratic Central Committee.
He is the youngest man ever made a district chairman in Vir-
ginia, and is also the youngest member of the State Central
Committee.
Mr. Frazier is a Royal Arch Mason, member of the B. P. 0.
Elks and the American Legion. He enrolled for service in
Augu.st, 1918, and was on special duty at Roanoke and Salem
418 VIRGINIA
until honorably discharged in December, 1918. He is a mem-
ber of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South.
Mr. Frazier married in Washington, D. C, April 1, 1922,
Miss Lillian Bowman, of Charlottesville, Virginia, where she
was reared and educated, attending public schools and St. Anne's
School for Girls. She is a daughter of Louis M. and Lillian
(Childs) Bowman, of Charlottesville, and her father for many
years has been a wholesale dealer in marble, granite and bronzes,
now making his home at Washington, D. C.
Julian Newton Harris. At New Kent, judicial center of
the county of the same name, Mr. Harris is to be found busily
engaged in his official duties at the courthouse, where there is
ample demand for his time and attention, in that he is serving
not only as county clerk but also as the New Kent County clerk
of the Circuit Court.
Mr. Harris was born at New Kent, January 9, 1905, and is
a son of Thomas Newton Harris and Mamie Perkins (Robert-
son) Harris, of whom more specific mention will be found in
later paragraphs of this review. It is interesting to observe in
connection with the service of Julian N. Harris as county clerk
of his native county that his father had served in this office
during the long period of twenty-seven years, while his grand-
father, the late John N. Harris, held the office about twenty-
seven years, so that the record of the Harris family in this par-
ticular office has now covered a period of about 12.5 years.
After having duly profited by the advantages of the public
schools of New Kent Julian N. Harris continued his studies in
the high school in the city of Richmond until he was graduated
therein as a member of the class of 1920. At the age of eleven
years he began to assist his father in the office of county clerk,
and he gained such proficiency that at the age of sixteen years
he was made deputy county clerk of New Kent County. In June,
1924, he was appointed deputy clerk of Cumberland County,
and in March of the following year he became deputy clerk of
Prince Edward County. Of this latter position he continued
the incumbent until the death of his father in November, 1927,
when he was appointed the latter's successor as county clerk of
New Kent County, he having subsequently been reappointed for
the full term of eight years. In this important office he is well
upholding the prestige and honors of the family name, as is
he also in all other relations of life. Mr. Harris, fortified by
his experience as county clerk and clerk of the Circuit Court,
is giving close attention to the study of law, and the year 1929
will record his examination for admission to the bar of his native
state.
Mr. Harris is a stalwart in the local ranks of the Democratic
party, his religious faith is that of the Baptist Chuixh, he is
affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and he is
a popular and appreciative member of the Holtz Creek Fishing
and Hunting Club. His name still appears on the roster of
eligible young bachelors in his native county.
Thomas Newton Harris, father of the subject of this review,
was one of the most honored citizens of New Kent County at
the time of his death, November 11, 1927, when he was forty-
eight years of age. His widow still resides at New Kent.
Thomas N. Harris had become deputy county clerk in 1896,
and in 1900 became clerk as successor to his father, John N.
Harris. The wife of John N. Harris was Octavia Dandridge
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VIRGINIA 419
Christian, whose father and grandfather, Bartholomew D.
Christian and John D. Christian, respectively, had consecutively
served as county clerk for many years, and the office prior to
that had been held by members of the Dandridge family, includ-
ing Bartholomew Dandridge, father of Mrs. John D. Christian,
and William Clayton, father of Mrs. Bartholomew Dandridge.
Thus this office has been practically in one family since the
period of the Revolutionary war.
Joseph Francis Woodson for over forty years was identified
with Richmond's industrial affairs, his career having been one
of substantial usefulness and service, and bringing him a wide
acquaintance and friendship.
He was born in Richmond January 3, 1855, and- died in that
city in April, 1918. He was the only son of the three children
of Alexander R. and Mary Virginia (Foulkes) Woodson. His
father located at Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and in 1856 perma-
nently settled at Richmond, where for many years he was in
business as a contractor.
Joseph Francis Woodson was educated in schools at Rich-
mond and as a young man took employment in the Palmer Har-
sock Company. He was with that firm twenty years, until it
went out of business, being cashier when he retired. The re-
mainder of his active business career was spent with the great
Tredegan Iron Works and the Portner Brewing Company of
Richmond.
Mr. Woodson was a Democrat, and he and his wife were
members of the Episcopal Church. He married in September,
1880, Miss Magdalena Keller, who was reared and educated in
Richmond. She was one of ten children of Charles and Magda-
lena Keller. Her father was a manufacturer of cabinet work in
Richmond. The Keller family came originally from Frankfort
on the Rhine in Germany.
Mrs. Woodson, who resides at 2106 Lakeview Avenue, was the
mother of four children, and the two now living are : Josephine
Pearl, wife of Robert R. Danforth, of Richmond, and mother of
two sons, named Nicholas Allen and Robert R., Jr., and Robert
A. Woodson, who is connected with the Chesapeake & Potomac
Telephone Company.
Sydna L. Johnson is a Virginia newspaper man, publisher
and owner of the Free State News at Kenbridge, in Lunenburg
County.
Mr. Johnson, who was initiated into the mysteries of the
printing art at a very early age, was born in Brunswick County,
Virginia, December 3, 1887, son of N. E. and Madora E. (Ben-
nett) Johnson, who were also natives of Brunswick County. His
father was in the Confederate army for a short time, and after
the war followed farming until his death in 1907. The mother
passed away in 1915.
Sydna L. Johnson was reared and educated in Brunswick
County, and served a thorough apprenticeship in the printing
trade and in the work of a newspaper office. He has come in
contact with the printing and business departments of a number
of newspapers. Mr. Johnson has been associated with the Free
State Neivs at Kenbridge since 1912, at first as an employe, and
in 1917 he bought the paper.
His personal time and attention have been given to the Netvs
ever since except for eighteen months while he was with the
420 VIRGINIA
colors during the World war. He was overseas and also with
the Army of Occupation in Germany. He received his honorable
discharge in May, 1919, and at once resumed the active manage-
ment of the Free State News. This paper has a circulation of
1,200 copies, and the plant also handles a large volume of job
business.
Mr. Johnson married, November 12, 1919, Miss Lucy May
Andrews, daughter of J. E. and Betty (Smith) Andrews, natives
of Mecklenburg County, where her father is a well-to-do farmer.
Mr. and Mrs. Johnson have two children : Jack Clayton, born
December 12, 1924, and Ann Harris, born September 12, 1926.
Mr. Johnson is town clerk of Kenbridge, is a member of the
Masonic fraternity and the Knights of Pythias, is a Democrat
and a Baptist.
Hon. Vincent L. Sexton. A member of the Virginia bar
for more than thirty-five years, Hon. Vincent L. Sexton, senior
member of the firm of Sexton & Sexton of Bluefield, is the repre-
sentative of large and important interests, and during his long
and distinguished career has been the recipient of a number of
honors, admittedly earning the right to be accorded a position
of leadership among the talented and thoroughly reliable
attorneys of the county of Tazewell.
Mr. Sexton was born in Smyth County, Virginia, September
1, 1868, and is a son of Thomas K. and Freelove Elizabeth
(Thomas) Sexton. He traces his ancestry back to his great-
great-great-great-great-great-grandfather, James Sexton, of
Limerick, Ireland, who moved to Great Britain and there
resided during the rest of his life. The son of James Sexton was
George Sexton, Sr., who was born in Great Britain and came
to this country in 1662, being related to Thomas Sexton, a well
known figure in the early life of Boston, Massachusetts. George
Sexton, Sr., purchased land on the Warranoke River at West-
field, Connecticut, from Thomas Cowper, and the deed, dated
June 10, 1663, is recorded on p. 33, vol. 1, of the records of
deeds at Springfield, Massachusetts. Mr. Sexton, who is called
George Sexton, Sr., of Windsor in the History of the Colonies
of Connecticut, first went to Westfield, Connecticut, but did not
take up his abode there until 1668. His time was divided be-
tween Windsor, Hartford and Boston, and it is thought that his
business was that of a trader. He held the office of "public
viewer," shown by the records February 5, 1677, and again
March 5, 1678-79, and December 9, 1686, was chosen by Select-
man Thomas Noble to appraise the buildings of the town. He
was a good citizen and highly educated man, and died intestate in
1690, his fourth son, Joseph Sexton, being appointed admin-
istrator of his estate. The records show that his wife, Catherine,
was connected with the church in 1690.
George Sexton, Jr., son of George Sexton, Sr., and great-
great-great-great-grandfather of Hon. Vincent L. Sexton, was
born in England in 1656, and was about six years of age when
brought to America by his parents. His wife, Hannah, was
born at Westfield, Connecticut, September 19, 1658. He moved
with his father to Huntington, Long Island, and signed a quit-
claim deed to his father's estate January 25, 1689. It is evident
that he either returned to England or was lost at sea, as he was
never heard from afterward. The great-great-great-grand-
father of Vincent L. Sexton, Charles Sexton, was born Septem-
ber 9, 1680, at Westfield, Connecticut, subsequently moved to
VIRGINIA 421
Huntington, Long Island, and later to Hopewell, New Jersey,
where he became the owner of a very large estate and died in
1752. In his will, made in 1751, he mentions his wife, Sarah,
but her last name is unknown. Their son, Joseph Sexton, the
great-great-grandfather of Vincent L. Sexton, was born at Hunt-
ington, Long Island, January 4, 1730, and February 4, 1754,
married Phebe Campbell, a daughter of Thomas Campbell, of
Long Island. She was born May 5, 1734, and died in Wythe
County, Virginia, February 14, 1830.
The first of the Sexton family to move to Virginia was
Thomas Campbell Sexton. He was born June 8, 1764, in New
Jersey, in which state he married Charity Current, and th^n
settled in Smyth County, Virginia, where he became a successful
planter and reared a family of nine children. Among these was
Aaron Sexton, who was born in that county April 3, 1793, spent
his life as a planter, and died October 16, 1851. On January
11, 1816, he married Mai'garet Ann Feely, of Frederick County,
Virginia, who was born in July, 1795, but the date of whose
death has been lost. Thomas K. Sexton, the father of Vincent
L. Sexton, was born in Frederick County, Virginia, April 11,
1821, and during his career was engaged in general merchandis-
ing and agricultural operations in Frederick and Smyth counties,
in the latter of which he died November 21, 1891. He was a
Democrat in his political convictions, was fraternally affiliated
with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and his religious
connection was with the Presbyterian Church, in which he was
a member of the Board of Elders. On December 15, 1847, Mr.
Sexton married Freelove Elizabeth Thomas, who was born about
1829, and died in January, 1874.
Vincent L. Sexton attended public schools, following which
he became a student in Emory and Henry College. His educa-
tional career was interrupted at this time by the final illness
of his father, and he returned to his home, where he remained
in charge of the elder man's estate until about two years prior
to the Jatter's death. Going then to Marion, he took up the study
of law in the ortice of Capt. Preston Sheft'y, and in 1892 attended
the University of Virginia, where he studied under Hon. John
B. Minor, professor of law at the university. In 1893 he was
admitted to practice after examination before Hon. John A.
Kelly, judge of the Circuit Court at Marion, and Hon. Robert
A. Richardson of the Supi-eme Court of Virginia, and in the
same year took up his residence at Tazewell, where he remained
until 1901. The following two years were passed at Pocahontas,
and he then sent his family back to Tazewell, although con-
tinuing to maintain his office at Pocahontas until 1918. In
1907 he took his nephew into partnership, and in 1907 moved
his family to Graham, this state. Three years later he opened
an office at Bluefield, West Virginia, although continuing his
office at Pocahontas. This latter was changed to Bluefield in
1918, and here he has since been in charge. For a time his
nephew, Mr. Roberts, was in charge of the office at Bluefield,
West Virginia, but in 1926 the partnership was dissolved, and
Mr. Sexton took in his son, Vincent L. Se.xton, Jr., the firm since
having been located at Bluefield, Virginia, engaged in the general
practice of law as Sexton & Sexton.
As one of the strong and capable lawyers of the state Mr.
Sexton has been identified with much important litigation and
is attorney for the Graham Land and Improvement Company,
of which he is also a member of the Board of Directors; the
422 VIRGINIA
Graham Manufacturing Company; and the Bluefield (West Vir-
ginia) Office Building Company, of which he is also vice presi-
dent and a member of the Board of Directors. Since becoming
a member of the Virginia State Bar Association, in 1903, he has
been a member of many important committees, and belongs also
to the American Bar Association, the Sigma Alpha Epsilon and
the Virginia Omicron at the University of Virginia. He has
been a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows since
1895. An active Democrat in his political affiliation, he served
as chairman of the County Central Committee for several years,
in 1897 was elected mayor of Tazewell and in 1910 was elected
mayor of Graham (now Bluefield). With his family he belongs
to the Presbyterian Church.
On April 23, 1895, Mr. Sexton was united in marriage with
Miss Leola Alderson, of Tazewell, a member of one of the oldest
and most distinguished families of Virginia, and a daughter of
Col. Henry C. and Mary (Chapman) Alderson, the former of
whom is deceased. Mrs. Sexton, who was educated in the public
schools of Tazewell and under private instructors, has always
been active in the work of the Presbyterian Church. To Mr. and
Mrs. Sexton there have been born seven children. Henry, the
eldest, is a graduate of the high school at Bluefield. In July,
1918, he enlisted in the Marine Corps at Washington, D. C,
and was sent overseas as a corporal in the Eleventh Regiment,
U. S. M. C, with which he saw service in France and was with
the Army of Occupation in Germany. Upon his return to the
United States he married Miss Margaret Lammers, of Bram-
well. West Virginia, and then studied law at the University of
Richmond, graduated and was admitted to practice. For about
one year he was located at Bluefield, Virginia, and then moved
to Bluefield, West Virginia, where he has since been engaged
successfully in the practice of his profession. Thomas Kennedy
Sexton, the second son, graduated from high school, and volun-
teered for service at the age of eighteen years in the same com-
pany as his brother, Henry A. Sexton. They enlisted about five
days apart and were assigned to different regiments, but their
father was able to get them into the same command through the
aid of U. S. Senator Swanson of Virginia, and the brothers, both
athletes, played on the army football team while in France.
While there Thomas K. Sexton enjoyed a course of study at
Berne University, and upon his return entered the University
of Virginia, after his graduation from which he married Miss
Nellie Estes, of Roanoke, Virginia, and they now reside at
Cornice, West Virginia, where Mr. Sexton has a position with
the Pocahontas Coal Company. Vincent L. Sexton, Jr., third
son and child, is a graduate of the Graham High School and
took his law degree at the University of Virginia and William
and Mary College. He was admitted to practice July 1, 1925,
and now is junior member of the firm of Sexton & Sexton, with
his father, at Bluefield, Virginia. Miss Mamie Loise, eldest
daughter and fourth child, is a graduate of the high school at
Graham and the State Normal School at Farmville, Virginia,
and is now engaged in teaching school at Rocky Mount, North
Carolina. Miss Nancy Elizabeth Sexton is a graduate of
Graham High School and a member of the senior class at Wil-
liam and Mary College ; and William Chapman Sexton and Free-
love Katheryn Sexton are members, respectively, of the junior
and sophomore classes in high school.
i*?i^V; .t: .V- !jj^^i!'>^i^f^
ma
sa^gM^s^jM^
WILLIAM CHARLES SMITH
VIRGINIA 423
William Charles Smith. From a period before the Civil
war until recent years one of the most important industries of
the city of Richmond was the carriage manufacturing establish-
ment carried on by members of the Smith family.
One of the active men in this business was the late William
C. Smith, who was born at Richmond in 1841 and died in that
city in January. 1917. He was one of the four children of W. C.
and Mary (Scott) Smith. His father was a carriage manufac-
turer, founder and proprietor for many years of the W. C. Smith
Carriage Manufacturing Company, and was also one of the
prominent citizens of Richmond in his time.
William C. Smith, Jr., was educated in private schools at
Richmond before the war, and as a young man became associated
with his father's manufacturing business. After the death of
his father he carried it on individually and subsequently estab-
lished a similar business of his own.
He married, October 12, 1866, Maria Louisa Locknane, of
Richmond, where she was reared and educated. Her parents
were John Marshall and Margaret (McNivin) Locknane, her
father a planter. She had one brother, John Marshall Locknane,
who became a well known Richmond contractor.
Mrs. Smith, who resides at 2515 Fifth Avenue in Richmond,
is the mother of two children. Her son, Howard Marshall, was
educated in Richmond and graduated from the University of
Maryland. He married Edith Damon, of Connecticut, and has
two children. Miss Norma Elizabeth and Miss Edith Marshall.
Mrs. Smith's daughter, Lelia Scott, is the wife of Horace G.
Buchanan, a Richmond attorney. Mr. and Mrs. Buchanan have
two sons: Horace G. II, who married Miss Michaux Frances
and has two sons, Horace G. Ill and William Michaux ; and
William Tazwell, who is now commonwealth attorney of Gooch-
land County, Virginia, secretary of the First Baptist Church and
affiliated with the Masonic fraternity and Knights of Pythias.
Benjamin Thomas Fisher grew up on the Eastern Shore,
learned the printing trade when a boy, and since 1912 has been
editor and publisher of the Eastern Shore Herald at Eastville.
He was born at Locustville, in Accomac County, May 15,
1879, son of James A. and Sue E. (Addison) Fisher, both natives
of Northampton County. His father was a lieutenant in the
Confederate army. He owned and operated a farm in Accomac
County, and for many years was in the lighthouse service in
both Accomac and Northampton counties, and held the office of
commissioner of revenue for Northampton County and also
served as sheriff of the same county. He died April 2, 1892,
and his wife in March, 1924.
Benjamin Thomas Fisher was reared and educated in North-
ampton County, attended public and private schools, and left
school to learn the printing trade. He had a journeyman's
experience on a number of newspapers prior to 1912, when he
acquired the Eastern Shore Herald. The Herald is a member
of the Virginia Press Association, and approximately 2,500
copies of every issue are distributed throughout Northampton
and adjacent counties. Mr. Fisher also does a large amount of
commercial printing.
He married, in June. 1910, Miss Ruth A. Tyler, daughter of
John S. Tyler, who was born in Accomac County and was a
Confederate soldier, and after the war was in business as a
merchant, and at one time was candidate for governor of Vir-
424 VIRGINIA
ginia on the Prohibition ticket. He died in 1924. Mr. and Mrs.
Fisher have four children: Ann Walston, Mary Rose, James
Tyler and Nora.
Mr. Fisher is a citizen who has been alive to his responsi-
bilities in the community. He takes an active part in the Demo-
cratic party, is owner of some farming interests, and for some
time served as commissioner of wrecks. He is a Baptist, and
Mrs. Fisher is a member of the United Daughters of the Con-
federacy.
James Henry Fitts, who died July 24, 1893, was a well
known Virginian. He served as a lieutenant in the United States
Navy, and after resigning from the navy he spent a number of
years as member of the faculty of the Virginia Polytechnic
Institute at Blacksburg.
Mr. Fitts married, June 7, 1883, Mary Mayo Blair, who sur-
vives him and resides in Richmond, at 3216 Hawthorne Avenue.
She is now the widow of Samuel H. Hawes. By her marriage
with Lieutenant Fitts there are two children.
The son, John Blair Fitts, was educated in Richmond schools,
graduated from Hampden-Sidney College, the Medical College
of Virginia, the Boston Children's Hospital and the Massa-
chusetts General Hospital. He is an orthopedic surgeon of high
attainments. He was a first lieutenant in France for twenty-
two months during the World war. Doctor Fitts married Marion
E. Manthius, of Massachusetts, and has four children, Maryetta.
John Blair Jr., Ruth Morton and James Henry V.
The second son, Francis Moylan Fitts, was educated in
Hampden-Sidney College, the Richmond School of Medicine,
spent some time in the Roosevelt Hospital at New York, and
in 1916 enlisted in a French Ambulance Corps. In 1917, on
returning home, he joined the Regular Army with the rank of
first lieutenant in the Medical Corps and subsequently was
promoted to major and remained in the service until 1922. He
was sent to Poland on typhus relief and for a time was with the
Army of Occupation at Coblentz, Germany. He married, April
11, 1922, at Nancy, France, Marie Janet Crousier.
John H. Cole commonwealth's attorney of Sussex County,
is a member of the law firm Cocke & Cole at Stony Creek. His
partner is his uncle, William B. Cocke, former state senator
and member of a family that has been prominent in the legal
profession in Virginia for several generations.
John H. Cole was born at Norfolk, Virginia, August 25,
1895, son of Frank W. and Sue (Cocke) Cole, his father a
native of Greenville County and his mother of Sussex County.
Both the Cocke and Cole families came to Virginia about 1732.
His grandfather, John Cole, operated the first hotel at Peters-
burg, Virginia, known as the old Jarratt Hotel. This hotel
occupied part of the site of the present Atlantic Coast Line
Railway Station. John Cole also conducted a stage coach line
between Petersburg and Richmond. Frank W. Cole was in the
insurance business at Richmond for a number of years, he died
in November, 1917, and his wife passed away in December,
1907. She was a daughter of Judge Charles L. Cocke, of Sus-
sex County.
John H. Cole was reared and educated in Sussex County,
graduating from high school in 1914. In order to support him-
self while preparing for the law he learned stenography and
VIRGINIA 425
was employed in an office at Richmond while atending night
classes in law. He also studied at the University of Virginia
and also had instruction in law from his grandfather. Judge
Cocke, and his uncle, Senator William Cocke. Mr. Cole was
admitted to the bar in December, 1920, and since that date has
been in practice at Stony Creek. The firm has a very extensive
practice in all the courts.
Mr. Cole was elected commonwealth's attorney for Sussex
County August 2, 1927. For several years he was judge of the
Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court of Sussex and Surry
counties and for several years was recorder and treasurer for
the town of Stony Creek. During the World war period he was
deputy clerk of court in Surry County. He enlisted for service
during the war but was rejected on account of weight and
heighth.
Mr. Cole married, October 9, 1925, Miss Louise T. Clements,
daughter of Rev. P. H. and Cora (Coffee) Clements, both natives
of Amherst County, Virginia. Her father is a mini.ster of the
Methodist Episcopal Church, South, and has completed a four
year pastorate at Stony Creek Church. Mr. and Mrs. Cole have
one daughter, Harriett Louise, born November 12, 1926. Mr.
Cole is worshipful master of Edwards Lodge No. 308, A. F. and
A. M., at Stony Creek and a member of the Modern Woodmen
of America, is a Democrat in politics and belongs to the Episco-
pal Church.
James Noah Greear, physician and surgeon at Saint Paul,
has been in that community of Wise County nearly all his life.
His diploma as a doctor of medicine was not merely a key to
unlock the door of material prosperity, but did unlock a door
of gi'eat service to his fellow men, and the riches and honors
of service have been more important than material rewards
with this good and kindly doctor, who at the age of sixty-nine is
still constant and diligent in his chosen woi-k. He is going and
coming night and day in the performance of his duties through-
out the country around Saint Paul.
Doctor Greear was born near Coeburn, Wise County, Feb-
ruary 27, 1859, and is a descendant of William Greear, an
Englishman who settled in Loudoun County, Virginia, in Colonial
times. He was named for his grandfather, Noah Greear, a
native of Grayson County, Virginia, a farmer in that county and
in Scott County. Doctor Greear's father, Francis B. Greear,
was born in Grayson County, June 22, 1819, and as a youth
came under the influence of a famous educator, James Hagan.
He himself became a teacher, working in private schools in
Scott and Grayson counties until 1851, and then took up farm-
ing. For many years he lived in the Coeburn community, divid-
ing his time between his farm and a school. During the Civil
war he was a Union Democrat, and afterwards became a Repub-
lican. For many years he held the oflice of magistrate. Francis
B. Greear died February 21, 1908. He married, in 1851, Miss
Sarah Mullens, who died in 1852, and in 1854 he married Pris-
cilla Stallard. She was born in Scott County in 1828, and died
March 31, 1905.
James Noah Greear was one of a family of eight children.
He grew up on the homestead farm near Coeburn, attended
private and public schools, graduated from the Abingdon Dis-
trict High School in 1880 and pursuvd his medical studies at
the University of Virginia. He was graduated with the class
426 VIRGINIA
of 1883, and during 1884-85 continued his training in the New
York Polyclinic School of Medicine, to which he later returned
as a student in 1890-91. Doctor Greear first practiced at Bickley
Mills, later known as Castlewood, from 1892 to 1895 had his
home at Toms Creek in Wise County, and since 1895 has been
at Saint Paul. He has conducted a general practice, and in point
of continuous service is now one of the oldest physicians in this
section of Virginia. He is a member of the Medical Society
of Virginia.
Doctor Greear is a Democrat, has been a trustee of the
Methodist Episcopal Church, and is affiliated with the Masonic
fraternity. He married, June 17, 1886, Miss Bessie E. Earnest,
daughter of Isaac and Victoria (Burts) Earnest. She was
educated in Martha Washington College at Abingdon and the
Asheville Female College at Asheville, North Carolina. Doctor
and Mrs. Greear had ten children, and two of the sons were with
the colors at the time of the World war. Gertrude Gerster, the
oldest child, married Howard Martin, a civil engineer. Dora
Cabell married N. D. Spinedon, an electrical engineer. Ashby
Virginia became the wife of Clifford McCall, a cotton buyer.
Frances Norvell married Berkeley S. Gillespie, a civil engineer
and road contractor. James Noah, Jr., the oldest son, graduated
from the University of Virginia School of Medicine in 1920,
during the World war was in the Medical Reserve Corps while
a student at the university, and has specialized in eye, ear, nose
and throat practice. Helen Louise, the sixth child, died at the
age of two years and one month. Frederick Bonham volunteered
in April, 1918, was in training with the Tank Corps, went to
France in August, 1918, and received his honorable discharge
in May, 1919. He took the law course at the University of
Virginia. The younger children are: Lynn Earnest, Burton
Mayre and Mary Elizabeth.
Hon. Richard Mason McCarty, commissioner of revenue of
Fauquier County, had an honorable business record behind him
when he was elected to his present office which showed earnest
effort, useful endeavor and constructive accomplishment. A
man of stainless character, upright and able, he is well fitted
to handle the problems of his present position, and the interests
of his constituents are in safe hands. He was born in Loudoun
County, Virginia, February 19, 1879, a son of Richard C. and
Martha (Megeath) McCarty, both of whom were born in
Loudoun County. During the war between the states the father
served in Company K, Sixth Virginia Cavalry, and when peace
was declared he returned home and patiently took up the burdens
of the reconstruction period, and was engaged in farming the
remainder of his useful and honorable life, dying in Fauquier
County, to which section he had moved in 1881, the date of his
death being April, 1921. The mother died many years before
him, passing away in 1897.
Given the advantages offered by the local schools of Fauquier
County and the Cleveland High School, a private institution
where he spent two years, Richard Mason McCarty is well edu-
cated, and has added to this early training by close observation
and contact with men of affairs. Until he was of age he re-
mained on the farm with his parents, but after he reached his
majority he went to Delaplane, Virginia, and for seven years
was bookkeeper for Delaplane Brothers, and when he left their
employ he remained in the place for seventeen years more,
I
I
VIRGINIA 427
engaged in the mercantile business. In 1920 he came to Warren-
ton, and for seven years thereafter successfully conducted a
flourishing automobile business, but when he was elected in
November, 1927, commissioner of revenue for Fauquier County,
for a term of four years, he disposed of those interests so as
to devote all of his time to the duties of his office.
On October 20, 1917, Mr. McCarty married Miss Katherine
McCarty, a daughter of Dennis and Katherine (Blackmore)
McCarty, natives of Fauquier County. Dennis McCarty was a
life long farmer of Farquier County until his retirement, since
which time he has lived at Delaplane. His wife died in 1917.
Mr. and Mrs. McCarty of this review have one child, Katherine,
who was born March 19, 1919. While at Delaplane Mr. McCarty
served on the school board, having been elected to it on the
Democratic ticket, and he was a regular candidate of his party
when he was elected to his present office. He belongs to Ashby
Lodge No. 232, A. F. and A. M., Markham, Virginia; Fauquier
Chapter No. 25, R. A. M. ; Piedmont Commandery No. 26, K. T.,
the last two connections being maintained at The Plains, Vir-
ginia ; and Acca Temple, A. A. 0. N. M. S., Richmond. Through
his father's gallant service in the cavalry he holds membership
in the Sons of Confederate Veterans. In religious faith he is
an Episcopalian. The McCarty residence in Warrenton is one
of the most desirable homes of the city, and here Mr. and Mrs.
McCarty entertain their many friends with true Southern
hospitality.
Edward Warren Powell was a successful business man of
Richmond who began taking an active part in the commercial
affairs of the city about the close of the war and recon-struction
era, and gave the city its business leadership during the last
quarter of the past century.
He was born in Henrico County. February 23, 1851, and died
at Richmond, November 5, 1901, a son of George Warren and
Mary (Allen) Powell.
The late Mr. Powell attended school in Henrico County, and
his first training in commercial lines was in the grocery business.
He was identified with the grocery business more or less actively
the greater part of his life, and also for many years was inter-
ested in the ice, wood and coal business. He became prosperous,
but did not give all his time exclusively to trade. He was much
interested in local politics as a Democrat and served three term.?
as county supervisor. Mr. Powell was for forty-three years a
member of the Grace Sti'eet Baptist Church at Richmond. He
was a charter member of the Chosen Friends, and belonged to
the Knights of Honor.
His first wife was Woody C. Walton, and by that union there
were eight children. On February 10, 1886, he married Mary
Hood Joynes, of Richmond, where she was educated in the Miss
Griffin's School. Mrs. Powell, who survives him and resides at
2016 West Main Street, is a daughter of John L. and Catherine
S. (Floyd) Joynes. Her father, John L. Joynes, served four
years in General Lee's army during the war between the states,
and died in 1871. For many years he was in business as a
grocer. Mrs. Powell's uncle, Joseph Walker Floyd, was a South
Carolina planter, and during the war lost his right arm in action.
After the war he became a lieutenant governor of South Caro-
lina and lived at Liberty Hill, South Carolina. J. Walker Floyd
married Hattie Pittis and had five children. Mrs. Powell is a
20— VOL. 3
428 VIRGINIA
sister of William Henry Joynes, chief of the fire department of
Richmond, and another brother is Joseph Berry Floyd Joynes, a
merchant at Newport News. Mrs. Powell has six children:
Bessie L. is the wife of G. F. Burton, of Richmond, and has two
children, named G. F., Jr., and Mary Elizabeth ; the second
daughter is Miss Ruby B. ; Margarette F. married Robert C.
Toler, and has a son, Robert Warren ; Louis Ayres Powell, con-
nected with the Western Union Telegraph Company, is married
and has two sons, Louis A., Jr., and Joseph Mann ; Violet E.
Powell married Arthur E. Christian, and their children are
Arthur E., Jr., and Nell Winfry; Grace Elizabeth, the youngest
of the family, is the wife of Terry V. Snow.
Cora Stanwood Darden. Darden's Preparatory School in
Portsmouth has for its principal a woman who has given her
life to educational work — Cora Stanwood Darden. Mrs. Darden
has had remarkable success in preparing youth for higher insti-
tutions of learning.
Her father, Robert Stanwood, a beloved and honored citizen
of Portsmouth, was the grandson of Deacon Samuel Stanwood,
of Brunswick, Maine.
Samuel Stanwood, the son of Deacon Samuel Stanwood and
father of Robert Stanwood, was a navigator and captain of
merchant vessels which sailed to all parts of the world.
Sophie Anne Edwards, the mother of Robert Stanwood, was
the daughter of Oney Edwards, of Portsmouth.
Ephraim Stanwood, a great-great-uncle, of Brunswick,
Maine, was a veteran of the War of 1812.
Mrs. Darden's mother, Martha Vaughan, was the daughter
of Jack Vaughan and Martha Lee, of Nansemond County. The
Vaughans were among the early Colonial settlers. Martha Lee
was the daughter of Henry Lee and Betsy Pipkin, of Gates
County, North Carolina. Henry Lee was a soldier of the Revo-
lutionary war.
The twelve sons and daughters of this family grew to be
men and women of outstanding ability.
No descendant of more real worth came from the Lee family
than the granddaughter, Martha Vaughan Stanwood, who lived
to honor her family until her eighty-fifth year. A woman of
magnificent spirit and courage ! A real heritage to her descend-
ants is the life of this splendid woman.
Samuel James Stanwood, the only surviving son of Robert
and Martha Vaughan Stanwood, is a veteran of the Spanish-
American war.
Mrs. Darden was educated in Mrs. Jenkins' Classical School
in Portsmouth. She has taken extension work from Harvard
University, Wake Forest College, William and Mary College
and the University of Virginia. She taught in the public schools
of Nansemond and Norfolk counties, Virginia, and Hertford
County, North Carolina. Later she taught mathematics in the
following schools : Franklin Seminary, Virginia ; Martin Col-
lege, Tennessee ; Logan College, Kentucky ; Grenada College,
Mississippi.
Paul Fisher Darden and Cora Lee Stanwood were married at
the home of her brother-in-law and sister, Mr. and Mrs. Richard
Beaman, in Nansemond County June 28, 1905.
The Dardens came in Colonial times and settled in the forks
of the Nottoway and Blackwater rivers, now a part of South-
ampton County.
VIRGINIA 429
Paul Fisher Darden, who was born near Murfreesboro, North
Carolina, in 1865, was a great-grandson of Jacob Darden, one
of the pioneer Baptist preachers of Virginia. Jacob Darden
represented his people as a member of the Virginia Assembly
and was the founder of two Baptist Churches — prosperous
churches today — the Meherrin and the Murfreesboro churches.
Paul Darden was the grandson of William Darden and Jane
Jenkins and the son of George Darden and Missouri Eley, of
Hertford County, North Carolina. George Darden was a Con-
federate veteran.
Paul Darden was educated at Coal Spring Academy, Hertford
County. He worked for the Camp Manufacturing Company for
many years. He received his training in civil engineering in
North Cai-olina State College. As an engineer his work for
the Camp Manufacturing Company continued throughout his
life. He served as city engineer of Suffolk and county engineer
of Southampton.
During the World war Paul Darden served his country
loyally by the work he performed daily in the Norfolk Navy
Yard. He died in San Angelo, Texas, in December, 1920.
After her marriage Mrs. Darden retired from formal edu-
cational work but later she began individual instruction in
mathematics and English.
During the World war Mrs. Darden instructed two hundred
young men in mathematics — these men, who represented twenty-
three states, were enlisted in the United States Navy. Because
of the skill shown in training these men Mrs. Darden received
the highest commendation from the secretary of the navy.
Mrs. Darden has splendid success in training young men for
the annual entrance examinations to the United States Naval
Academy at Annapolis, Maryland.
Mrs. Darden is a member of the City School Board, the Bus-
iness and Professional Woman's Club, League of Women Voters,
Housewives League, National Education Association, League of
Administrative Women in Education, Park View W. C. T. U.
and Court Street Baptist Church.
A. Berkeley Carrington, an outstanding representative of
the gi'eat tobacco interests centered at Danville, is a descendant
of the distinguished Carrington family, which in various
branches and through the services of individuals has exerted a
continuous influence in the aff"airs of the state since early
Colonial times.
He was born in Farmville, Virginia, January 27, 1862, son
of Rev. A. B. and Fannie (Venable) Carrington, and grandson
of Paul S. Carrington, all native Virginians. His father was
educated at Washington College ; served four years as chaplain
in Gen. Stonewall Jackson's Corps ; gave almost a lifetime to the
service of the Presbyterian Church ; and died in 1912, at the age
of seventy-seven.
A. Berkeley Carrington lived in Charlotte County Virginia,
from his infancy until he was sixteen years of age, obtaining a
public school education.
In 1878, at the age of sixteen, he came to Danville to live
with his uncle, the late Paul C. Venable, who was engaged in
the tobacco business at that time. He has made a notable suc-
cess in business through his industry and persevering attention
to a rising scale of responsibilities. Since 1890 he has been with
Dibrell Brothers, Inc., and president of that corporation since
430 VIRGINIA
1915. This is one of the largest of Virginia's great tobacco
companies. Colonel Carrington is president of the Tobacco
Association of the United States.
He is a director of the First National Bank of Danville, is a
former president of the Chamber of Commerce and of the City
Council of Danville, is a member of the Board of Trustees of
Hampden-Sidney College, is a York and Scottish Rite Mason
and Shriner, and was president of the Masonic Building Cor-
poration when the Masonic Temple was erected at Danville. He
is a Presbyterian.
He married, in 1891, Mary Taylor, daughter of Albert G.
and Eliza (Burks) Taylor. They have three children, A. Berke-
ley Jr., Charles Venable and Mary Taylor. Colonel Carrington
held the rank of colonel on the staff of Governor Montague.
Harry Burns Trundle, general manager of the Danville
Register and Bee, has been a newspaper man practically all his
life and has had thirty years of active connection with the daily
press of Danville.
He was born in Frederick County, Maryland, December 26,
1875, and is descended from a family that came to America from
England during the 1700s, settling on the eastern shore of Mary-
land, but chiefly at Carroll's Manor, in Frederick County, Mary-
land. Mr. Trundle's great-grandmother was Mary Burns, a
niece of the Scotch poet, Robert Burns. Mr. Trundle is a son
of Joseph H. and Emily Baker (Thomas) Trundle. His father
was reared and educated in Frederick County, was a soldier of
the Confederacy with the Thirty-fifth Virginia Cavalry and Col.
Elijah B. White of Loudoun County, and participated in battles
in the Valley of Virginia, at Gettysburg and elsewhere during
the last three years of the war. After the war he became a
Maryland farmer and subsequently was in the passenger service
of the Baltimore & Ohio Railway Company until he retired. He
died in August, 1925, and his widow is now seventy-six and
resides at Frederick. He was born and reared in that county,
attended private schools and has been a lifelong member of the
Episcopal Church. Her parents were Charles Edward and Eliza-
beth (Dutrow) Thomas. Harry Burns Trundle was the second
in a family of three children. Her sister Emily Maud is the
widow of John Wood, Jr., who was an attorney at Frederick,
Maryland. The other sister. Miss Bertha Thomas Trundle, lives
in Frederick.
Harry Burns Trundle was educated in public and private
schools at Frederick, and immediately after leaving school took
up newspaper work, spending several years with the Frederick
Daily News. In 1899, when he was twenty-four years of age,
he ioined the office of the Daily Bee at Danville, then published
by Col. Al Fairbrother. In May, 1900, the late R. A. James
acquired the Bee, having previously acquired the Register, and
since that date Mr. Trundle has been associated with these two
publications, and for many years has been general manager.
The only intervals to his service with these papers, the only
daily publications in Danville, was one year while he was in the
advertising business at Atlanta, Georgia, and six months while
he was publishing the Journal at Manassas, Virginia.
Mr. Trundle is a director of the Danville Chamber of Com-
merce, is a director of the Mutual Building & Loan Association
and is a past exalted ruler of the Danville Lodge of Elks and a
member of the Grand Lodge. For several years he was also
»
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VIRGINIA 431
much interested in the work of the Kiwanis Club. In Masonry
he is afHliated with Marotock Lodge No. 210, A. F. and A. M.,
and Euclid Chapter of Royal Arch Masons. He is a director
from the Fifth Congressional District to the Virginia Press As-
sociation and is a member of the Southern Newspaper Pub-
lishers Association. Mr. Trundle is a Democrat, and for a
number of years was a member of the vestry of the Episcopal
Church and a teacher in Sunday school.
He married at Danville, September 19, 1900, Miss Eloise
Redd Arrington. She attended public school at Danville and
Chatham Episcopal Institute. She has an active part in church
work, is a member of the Virginia Society of Colonial Dames
and the Daughters of the American Revolution and is former
historian of the local chapter of the United Daughters of the
Confederacy. Her father, Christopher Arrington, was a mer-
chant in Danville, where he died at a comparatively early age.
Her mother, Ann Marshall (Dillard) Arrington, resides at Dan-
ville. Mr. and Mrs. Trundle had four children: Wilson Burns,
Dillard Arrington (who died in infancy), Joseph White and
Ann Dillard Trundle. Wilson Burns Trundle was educated at
Danville and in 1923 graduated from the United States Naval
Academy at Annapolis, was commissioned a lieutenant in the
Marine Corps and later was attached to the Aviation Corps.
In January, 1929, he resigned to become chief pilot of the United
States Air Transport at Washington. Joseph White Trundle
attended private and public schools at Danville, and is now
taking the pre-law course at the University of Virginia. The
only daughter is a senior in the George Washington High School
at Danville.
Mr. Trundle was elected president of the Virginia Press As-
sociation at the forty-first annual convention held at Danville
July 18-20, 1929.
Thomas Overton Moss is one of the representative younger
members of the bar of Richmond, the fair old capital city of
his native state, has the rank of lieutenant commander of the
Reserve Corps of the United 'States Navy, was in overseas
service in the World war, and is now an aide-de-camp on the
military staff of the governor of Virginia.
Mr. Moss was born in Hanover County, Virginia, in 1893,
and in this state likewise were born his parents, Thomas 0.
and Nina (Wood) Moss. After having completed higher aca-
demic studies in Hampden-Sidney College, Mr. Moss became a
student in the law department of Richmond College, in which
he was graduated as a member of the Virginia bar. After
receiving his degree of Bachelor of Laws he was engaged in the
practice of his profession in Richmond until the nation entered
the World war, in the spring of 1917. He forthwith volunteered
for service in the Lhiited States Navy, in which he rose from the
rank of seaman to that of ensign and finally won promotion to
a junior lieutenancy. He was in active service on the French
coast, and after i-emaining overseas nine months he was assigned
to the United States Naval Academy as a student. After the
close of the war he received his honorable discharge and was
made a reserve officer of the United States Navy, in which he
now has the rank of lieutenant commander, he having been the
youngest officer of this rank in the reserve body of the navy
at the time he was advanced to the office. By appointment by
Governor Byrd he is now a member of the military staff of
432 VIRGINIA
Virginia's chief executive. After receiving his honorable dis-
charge Mr. Moss resumed his law practice in Richmond, and
his ability and personal popularity have enabled him to build
up a very substantial and representative law business in the
capital city.
Mr. Moss has received the thirty-second degree of the Scottish
Rite of the Masonic fraternity, besides being a Noble of the
Mystic Shrine, and he is a popular member of the University
Club in his home city, besides which he is a member of the
Virginia State Board of Accountancy. He married Miss Vir-
ginia Johnson, of Halifax County, this state, and they reside
at 205 South Boulevard. The law office of Mr. Moss is main-
tained in the building of the State-Planters Bank.
Rev. William Jackson Morton, D. D., has for twenty-
seven years been pastor of the church at Alexandria in which
George Washington worshiped, and which for this and many
other associations has become one of the patriotic shrines in
the district around Washington. Doctor Morton is admirably
qualified for this pastorate, a man of thorough learning, a
zealous church man, and descended from and related to some
of the oldest and most distinguished families of Northern Vir-
ginia.
He was born at "Soldier's Rest," in Orange County, Vir-
ginia, May 8, 1867, only son of Dr. Charles Bruce and Caroline
May (Dickenson) Morton. His grandfather. Dr. George Morton,
was one of four brothers, all of whom achieved more than
ordinary distinction, William Morton serving for many years in
the Virginia Legislature, Jackson Morton, one of the outstanding
men of Florida in the territorial and statehood periods, repre-
senting Florida in the United States Senate, and Jeremiah
Morton represented Virginia in Congress and was a member of
the Secession Convention of Virginia. Dr. George Morton grad-
uated from William and Mary College, from the University of
Pennsylvania School of Medicine in 1823, and practiced his pro-
fession in Orange County, where he married Elizabeth Williams,
whose ancestry included the Bruces of Orange.
Their son. Dr. Charles Bruce Morton, was born in Orange
County September 3, 1835, and is now in his ninety-third year.
He was educated at the University of Virginia, graduated from
the Jefferson Medical College of Philadelphia in March, 1860,
and during the war was senior surgeon of Kemper's Brigade,
Pickett's Division. He practiced his profession for many years
after the war, and then retired to his farm, "Nottingham Farm,"
near Fredericksburg, where he resides today.
Dr. Charles Bruce Morton married, in 1866, Caroline May
Dickenson. She was born May 19, 1840, daughter of William I.
and Jane Richard (Buckner) Dickenson, granddaughter of
James and Sallie Dickenson, and through her mother a descend-
ant of John Buckner, whose descendants have been distinguished
in the history of the Colony and State of Virginia and in several
southern and western states.
William Jackson Morton was prepared for college by private
tutors, attended Richmond College in 1882-84, for two years
assisted his father on the farm, and then entered the Theological
Seminary of Virginia, near Alexandria, graduating in 1891. He
was ordained a deacon June 26, 1891, and to the priesthood June
24, 1892. For nine months he was rector of St. George's Chapel
at North Danville, was assistant rector of St. James at Rich-
VIRGINIA 433
mond from June, 1892, to February, 1894, was rector of Epi-
phany Church at Knoxville, Tennessee, until October 1, 1896,
rector of South Farnham Parish in Essex County, Virginia,
1896-1900, and rector of Emanuel Church at Harrisonburg until
1902. Doctor Morton accepted the call to the historic Christ
Church at Alexandria in 1902, and to the service of his parish
and its people he has given the best years of his life.
Outside of his home parish he has acted as a trustee of Stuart
Hall at Staunton, trustee of the Protestant Episcopal Education
Society of Virginia, trustee of the Diocesan Missionaiy Society,
chaplain of the National George Washington Memorial Asso-
ciation. He has been chaplain of Alexandria-Washington Lodge
No. 22, A. F. and A. M., and Mount Vernon Chapter, Koyal Arch
Masons. He is a member of the Sons of the Revolution, is a
Phi Delta Theta and a Democrat.
He married, April 11, 1893, Dorothea Ashby Moncure, daugh-
ter of Powhatan and Dorothea (Ashby) Moncure, of Stafford
County, Virginia, and a niece of Gen. Turner Ashby, a famous
Confederate cavalryman who was killed June 6, 1862, and whose
brother. Col. Richard Ashby, also gave up his life for the South-
ern cause. Mrs. Morton is a descendant of Capt. Thomas Ashby,
who settled in Fauquier County in the early seventeen hundreds.
Doctor and Mrs. Morton had five children. Charles Bruce
Morton, born January 10, 1900, is now assistant professor of
surgery in the University of Virginia. William Jackson Morton,
Jr., born September 2, 1902, graduated from West Point Mili-
tary Academy in 1923, is now first lieutenant of the Field Artil-
lery and assigned duty as an instructor in the military academy
at West Point. Powhatan Moncure, born December 10, 1903,
graduated from West Point Military Academy in June, 1928.
The two daughters are Dorothea Ashby, born November 22,
1905, and Caroline Fitzhugh, born April 11, 1910. Dorothea
attended Stuart Hall at Staunton and is now the wife of John
Armistead Deming, of Baltimore, a Baltimore realtor. Mr. and
Mrs. Deming were married December 3, 1927. Caroline Fitz-
hugh was educated in Saint Catherine's School at Richmond.
Henry S. Grogan. It is no mere idle, flippant curiosity that
prompts men to wish to learn the private as well as the public
lives of their fellows. It is true, rather, that such anxiety tends
to prove universal brotherhood, and the interest in biography
is not confined to men of any particular vocation or caste. The
roll of those whose lot it is to play a conspicuous part in the
dramas of national or civic life is comparatively short. Yet
communities are made up of individuals, and the aggregate of
achievements, no less than the sum total of human happiness, is
made up of the deeds of those men and women whose primary
aim through life is faithfully to perform the duty nearest at
hand. Individual influence upon human affairs will be con-
sidered potent or insignificant according to the standpoint from
which it is viewed. The lives of some men are so intimately
connected with important affairs that a faithful narrative of
their acts might furnish the recital of much that is valuable in
the history of their country during a particular period, and in
this connection there is herewith set forth the salient points in
the career of Henry S. Grogan, a native Virginian, who left
the estate of his birth to achieve prominence and success in the
real estate business in Washington, D. C.
• 434 VIRGINIA
'.Henry S. Grogan was bom on his father's farm, located near
Efnory, in Washington County, Virginia, July 23, 1891, and is
a son '(if Isaac Clifton and Rhoda Ellen (Rhoton) Grogan, the
former of whom died in September, 1926, and the latter in 1916.
The parents were born in Scott County, Virginia, and both were
descended from first families of the Old Dominion. Isaac Clifton
Grogan was a farmer by natural vocation and a skilled tiller of
thfe' soil, but was a man of versatile talents and for some years
foll^'wed the business of building contractor, erecting a number
of fitie'liomes in Washington County. He was a member of the
Baptist Church, as was his worthy wife, and both were active
workers in the church, lived their faith daily and had the love
and esteem of those who knew and appreciated their many ster-
ling qualities of heart and mind. They were the parents of the
following children : Effie, educated in Emory High School and
Schttemaker College, Gate City, Virginia, who married John G.
Montgomery, one of the wealthy planters of Washington County,
and resides on a beautiful country estate near Meadow View,
Virginia; Abner, a trusted employe of the Norfolk & Western
Railway, who makes his home at Bluefield, West Virginia;
Lake G., educated in Emory and Henry College and Martha
Washington College, who married Branch Worsham, a wealthy
hardware merchant of Bluefield, West Virginia; Henry S., of
this review; Maurice E., who was in the World war and saw
eighteen months of overseas service and is now a prominent
optician of Tampa, Florida ; Gael, a trusted employe of the
Washington Street Railroad Company, who makes his home in
Washington, D. C. ; and Miss Lollie M., educated in Emory and
Henry College and Martha Washington College, who has been
in the employ of the United States Government at Washington
for several years.
Henry S. Grogan was reared in the midst of agricultural
surroundings and under the influence of people of breeding, and
those who know him will unite in bearing testimony that he
never has departed from the gentleness, the simplicity of life
and character and the truthful habits which were inculcated in
the earliest lessons of his home. As in the case of so many
farmers' sons, his boyhood was divided between attendance at
the district school and working on the home farm in summer,
but subsequently he was sent to Emory and Henry College at
Emory,' Virginia, and then, expressing a desire for a business
career, supplemented his education by attendance at the Na-
tional Business College. After his graduation from the latter
institution he was for two years connected with the Shenandoah
Hotel of Roanoke, Virginia, and then accepted a call to the
Jefferson Hotel at Richmond, where he- served as bookkeeper
and auditor for about eig^hteen- months, i' He was-then asked to
become connected with the Raleigh HoKifel, Washihgton,. D. C, in
the capacity of bookkeeper, and'<his next step upward was to the
assistant managership of the Lafayette Hotel, Washington.
About one year later he severed ^this connection to go to the Con-
gress Hotel as auditor and bookkeeper for three years, and then
left Ihfe hotel business to becdriie an accountant for the Unitesd
States Shipping Fleet Corporation, with which he was identified
for two and one-half years. •• ' ' '■ ""'; <;H
M'ri Grogan at this time decided to enter upon an imJepen-
dent career of his own, and accordingly embarked in the real
estate business at Washington, flarstr^as general manager of the
Apartment and Room-Seekers' Aid. Subsequently he established
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VIRGINIA 435
the Grogan Realty Company, of which he is now the sole pro-
prietor. He has since built up an extensive business and has a
large clientage among the wealthy and prominent residents of
Washington, where he maintains offices at 201 McGill Build-
ing. Without being its slave, Mr. Grogan has been diligent in
business, which has prospered under his hand. One of his most
marked characteristics has been his detestation of whatever is
base or ignoble. He has an intuitive perception of character
and will have nothing to do with those whom he regards as
deficient in integrity. Mr. Grogan is an enthusiastic citizen who
has studied his community and its resources and has unbounded
faith in its future. Throughout his career he has been highly
reputed for honesty, integrity and ability, — virtues which, how-
ever homely, bring a higher reward than wealth or civic honor.
Mr. Grogan is alert to the welfare of his home town of Falls
Church, Virginia, where he owns a beautiful home and stands
high in the esteem of his fellow citizens, and is also the owner
of considerable property at the capital. Fraternally he is affili-
ated with the Loyal Order of Moose and the Junior Order United
American Mechanics. Mr. Grogan is a Christian Scientist.
On July 16, 1916, Mr. Grogan was united in marriage with
Miss Anne Catherine Swetnam, of Burke, Fairfax County.
Virginia, a daughter of Charles and Jennie Swetnam, the former
a well known merchant of Fairfax and a first cousin of Daniel
Willard, the family being an old and distinguished one. Mrs.
Grogan was educated in the Alexandria High School and the
State Normal School at Farmville, Virginia, is a member of
the Daughters of the American Revolution and the Order of
the Eastern Star, and a leader in club and social circles of Wash-
ington and Falls Church. Mr. and Mrs. Grogan are the parents
of two children : Charles Henry, born July 3, 1918 ; and Edward
Berry Swetnam, born July 30, 1925.
TA2EWELL Taylor Hubard was an attorney and public offi-
cial, lived most of his life at Norfolk, and enjoyed a reputation
for fine social qualities and a cultured mind, as well as abilities
in his profession.
He was born at Norfolk, October 20, 1867, and died in that
citj' February 15, 1918. He was a son of Rev. James R. and
Sallie (Taylor) Hubard. His grandfather, James R. Hubard,
Sr., was a prominent early lawyer of Norfolk. Rev. James R.
Hubard was a minister of the Episcopal Church. The Hubards
were of French-Huguenot stock, and on coming to Virginia first
settled in Gloucester County. His grandfather on the maternal
side, Tazewell Taylor, was also a noted lawyer of Norfolk,
Virginia.
Tazewell Taylor Hubard was educated in private schools,
in the Shenandoah Academy at Winchester, graduated in 1887
from the Virginia Military Institute, and then remained at
the institute two years as an instructor in French language
and as a tactical officer. In 1890 he graduated from the law
department of the University of Virginia, after which he
returned to Norfolk and throughout his professional career was
associated with his brother, James Leighton Hubard. This was
a firm which handled a large volume of general practice, but
Mr. Hubard also gave a great deal of his time to his duties as
commissioner of accounts for the city of Norfolk.
Mr. Hubard while in college became a member of the Kappa
Alpha fraternity and for twenty years served as its grand
436 VIRGINIA
historian. He was elected a Knight of its Council of Honor in
1893, and in 1915 the Richmond Convention of the fraternity
elected him Chief Alumnus, but he was unable to accept the
honor. He was a staunch Democrat, and he and his family
were members of the Episcopal Church. He was on the staff
for a numbers of years of the Norfolk Blues.
Mr. Hubard married at Norfolk, November 12, 1895, Miss
Elizabeth Mallory Cannon, who was born in Norfolk, daughter
of Dr. Douglas C. and Elizabeth Mallory (King) Cannon. Her
ancestors, the Cannons, were of French Huguenot stock. Her
mother was a descendant of the Boutwell and Curie families,
early and prominent settlers around Hampton, Virginia. Mrs.
Hubard's father served as a first lieutenant in the Signal Corps
in the Confederate army, after the war took up the study of
medicine, was graduated at the University of Virginia with the
degree of Doctor of Medicine and Master of Arts and was the
youngest graduate in the M. A. degree up to the time he grad-
uated. He spent two years at Bellevue Hospital in New York,
and then practiced for many years at Norfolk. Mrs. Hubard
was the fifth in a family of twelve children. She was educated
in the Leachwood Female Seminary and in the Philip West Acad-
emy. Mrs. Hubard, whose home is at 17 Pelham Place in
Norfolk, has two sons. The older, Tazewell Taylor, Jr., was
educated in the Norfolk Academy, the Episcopal High School at
Alexandria, graduated in the electrical engineer course from
the Virginia Military Institute in 1922, and is now associated
with the Chesapeake & Potomac Telephone Company. The
second son, James Douglas, is a student in the Episcopal High
School at Alexandria.
Elijah Monroe Webb was a Prince George County farmer,
and while a soldier in the Confederate army married Sarah
Jane Shands, who with her mother was a refugee at Petersburg.
The home of the Shands family is the historic "Hickory
Hill" homestead in Dinwiddle County. Sarah Jane Shands'
father, grandfather and great-grandfather all bore the name
William. Her great-grandparents, William and Priscilla
Shands, wei'e the first of the family in Virginia, settling in
Sussex County. Her grandfather, William, married Lucy Oliver,
daughter of William Oliver. Her father, William Shands, mar-
ried Sarah Bee Rives, of the distinguished Rives family connec-
tions in Virginia, and their five children were named Aurelias
Rives, Elverton Adolphus, William Briggs, Cordelia Oliver and
Sarah Jane Cureton, who became the wife of Elijah Monroe
Webb. Mr. and Mrs. Webb have five children : Annie and Willie,
both of whom died in infancy ; Sarah Isabelle, Julia Amanda,
wife of B. Thomas Meacham, and Mary C.
Mrs. Webb's grandfather, William Shands, was a farmer,
and at one time represented Prince George County in the Gen-
eral Assembly. He owned a large farm in Prince George County
and on it erected a house which was destroyed during the Civil
war. This farm, "Hickory Hill," comprised a hundred-fifty
acres of land. Near the center is the simple white cottage which
was erected after the war and in which Mrs. Webb lived for
many years and where her daughters. Miss Belle and Miss Mary,
now spend their summers. Hickory Hill farm adjoins Fort
Stedman, scene of one of the great battles in connection with
the siege of Petersburg during 1864-65. To the rear of the cot-
tage is a famous spring, marking the site of the encampment
VIRGINIA 437
of the 209th Regiment of Pennsylvania Volunteers during the
siege of Petersburg. It is further memorable for the fact that
nearby President Lincoln sat on his horse watching the prog-
ress of General Grant's army in the battle of Fort Stedman.
Mrs. Webb was living in the old house there when the siege
of Petersburg started, but in time the place became untenant-
able and the family had to seek refuge in Petersburg, where her
mother and one of the other daughters died. After the war,
when the family went back to Hickory Hill, the barren land was
left, and many years were required in replanting and making
possible the beauty which now adorns the spot.
Mrs. Webb outlived her husband many years. During the
World war she saw Camp Lee constructed around her property,
and part of her land was rented to the Government for use as
a Veterinary Training School. Her home was a favorite ren-
dezvous for soldiers from the cantonment, and Mrs. Webb was
fond of relating Civil war scenes to these youthful soldiers, some
of whom were descendants of the veterans of the Civil war.
While the Eightieth Division was at Camp Lee she kept open
house for officers and enlisted men, and almost daily she could
be seen on the porch of her little home surrounded by men from
the camp as she described the fighting she had witnessed fifty
years before. A young corporal of the Eightieth Division
erected a rustic bridge across the ravine in which the spring is
located in order that the present day military establishment
might be linked up with the older history. Mrs. Webb during
her lifetime gave permission to a commision of veterans of the
Civil war to make improvements for the spring as a memorial
to the members of the 209th Pennsylvania who had died during
the siege of Petersburg. Concrete steps were erected down to
the level of the spring, and the spring itself was incased in
concrete. A bronze plate on the slab covering the spring con-
tains the following inscription : "Spring used by the 209th
Pennsylvania Regiment during the Siege of Petersburg, 1864-65.
Erected by M. A. Embick, F. H. Barker, Seward Jones." Both
Captain Barker and Colonel Embick fought in the Civil war,
and the father of Seward Jones was killed in the battle of Fort
Stedman. During the World war a loving cup was presented
to the spring by Captain Boher, son of a Confederate veteran
and an officer in the Medical Corps of the United States Army.
Hickory Hill is now owned by Mrs. Webb's three daughters,
Miss Belle Webb, who is principal of the Rives School in Din-
widdle County; Miss Mary Webb, a talented musician, and Mrs.
Thomas Meacham.
Caleb W. Williams was born in the City of Norfolk, Vir-
ginia, July 17, 1849, and in this city his death occurred May 15,
1917, about two years after he had retired from active business,
with rank as the oldest and most influential contractor in brick
construction work in his native community. He made his life
count in large and effective achievement, was unassumingly
loyal and progressive as a citizen and business man, and his
kindliness and human helpfulness brought to him the fullest
measure of popular confidence and esteem.
Mr. Williams was the youngest of the three children of Caleb
and Lydia (Connor) Williams, and his brother, John James,
was killed at the battle of the Wilderness while serving as a
gallant young soldier of the Confederacy in the Civil war. Caleb
Williams, father of the subject of this memoir, was bom in
438 VIRGINIA
Princess Anne County, Virginia, where he was reared to adult
age, and he was for many years in Government service in Vir-
ginia, after which he engaged in the wheelwright business in
Norfolk, where he and his wife passed the closing years of
their lives.
As a boy and youth Caleb W. Williams attended private
school in Norfolk, and thereafter he profited by the advantages
of the old Norfolk Academy. He was a young man when, after
learning the trade of brick mason, he engaged independently in
the contracting business along this line. He continued to center
his activities in Norfolk until 1873, when he went to Philadel-
phia as a contractor on buildings there erected for the great
Centennial Exposition, and he in due course resumed his con-
tracting business in Norfolk, where he continued his successful
and important operations nearly forty years thereafter — until
his retirement in 1915, as the dean of brick contractors in this
section of the state. He was concerned in the erection of many
of the leading business blocks of Norfolk, and was the brick
contractor in the construction of many of the finest residences
in the Ghent district and other sections of the city.
Mr. Williams had no desire for political activity or public
office, but was a loyal supporter of the cause of the Democratic
party, and his civic progressiveness was never known to fail.
In a quiet way he was instant in works of charity and benevo-
lence, and he was a zealous member of the First Methodist Epis-
copal Church, South, as is also his widow. Mr. Williams served
three terms as president of the Bricklayers Association of Nor-
folk, and he was affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd
Fellows, the Improved Order of Red Men and the Junior Order
United American Mechanics.
October 27, 1881, recorded the marriage of Mr. Williams and
Miss Emily Katharine Douglas, who was born at Elizabeth City,
North Carolina, the third of the six children of Smith Cox
and Sophia (Seeley) Douglas. Mr. Douglas was a skilled
ship carpenter, and served as a foreman in the Joseph
Lawrence shipyards at Elizabeth City, North Carolina. Prior
to this he had owned and operated the steamboats Eagle and
John C. Calhoun, which were in active commission in advancing
Confederate interests in the Civil war, both having been sunk in
Roanoke harbor to block the entrance of enemy vessels into the
river and thence attacking Elizabeth City. A. B. Seeley, ma-
ternal uncle of Mrs. Williams, was three times wounded while in
service as a soldier of the Confederacy. The Seeley family was
founded in the eastern part of North Carolina within a short
time after the close of the war of the Revolution.
Since the death of her husband Mrs. Williams has continued
her residence in Norfolk, where her attractive home is at 703
West Princess Anne Road. Of the children of Mr. and Mrs.
Williams the eldest is Annie Seeley, who is the wife of John
Dod Ward, a retired business man of Norfolk. Mr. and Mrs.
Ward have two children : Margaret, who is the wife of Eugene
Scott and who has one child, Margaret Ward Scott ; and John
Frederick, who is active in business in Norfolk. Caleb W. Wil-
liams, Jr., is the successor of his father in the brick contracting
business in Norfolk. He married Miss Nellie Minor, of Niagara
Falls, New York, and they have six children : Marion M., Caleb
W. Ill and John Randolph (twins), Carroll, Beverly and Jane.
John A., next younger of the children of the subject of this
memoir, likewise resides in his native city. Hazel G. remains
I
VIRGINIA 439
w'iffi'her widowed mother and is a popular figure iti educational
service in her native city. Grace May likewise remains with her
mother, and is in the employ of the Pender Company. Helen,
youngest of the children, is the wife of Livingston Trump, who
resides at Crewe, Nottaway County, and is in the employ of
the United States Government.
Claude Jenkins Ives. The entire absence of competition
in his line of activity at Clarendon does not explain the success
of Claude J. Ives, who since August, 1911, has been the pi'opri-
etor of a well established and perfectly equii)ped funeral direct-
ing and undertaking business. Mr. Ives was only a lad when
he started out to make his own way in life, and what he has
accomplished in the way of success has been gained entirely
through his own initiative, resource and natural ability. From
small beginnings he has built up a solid business structure and
a secure reputation, and few men of his community are more
greatly entitled to the esteem in which they are held.
Mr. Ives was born at Falls Church, Virginia, December 19,
1874, and is a son of Albert H. and Theodora (Jenkins) Ives.
His father, a native of the State of Connecticut, left his New
England home in youth and came to Prince William County,
Virginia, and later to Fairfax County, where he met and married
a native of that state. In his youth Mr. Ives had learned the
old established trade of wagon-making, and following his mar-
riage he set himself up in business at Falls Church, where he
carried on a wagon-making factory until the time of his death
in June, 1920. Mrs. Ives passed away at the same place in
1887.
Claude J. Ives was reared at Falls Church, where he attended
the public schools, and was only sixteen years of age when he
graduated from high school. Shortly thereafter he secured
employment in the undertaking establishment of John R. Wright
at Washington, D. C, and remained with him for eight years,
during which time he learned the business in all its details.
During this period he attended the Prof. F. A. Sullivan's Col-
lege of Embalming at Washington, D. C. He then resigned and
went to Sunbury, Pennsylvania, in the capacity of manager of
the E. S. Weimer Funeral Home, where he worked at the same
line of business for eight years, and eventually established him-
self in the furniture and undertaking business at Sunbury, where
he conducted a successful establishment for five years. During
the time he was located at Sunbury he had attended the Massa-
chusetts College of Embalming, from which he was graduated
in 1899. During this course he was one of the instructors at
the College, under Professor Dodge. In August, 1911, Mr. Ives'
wife's health failed and her physician advised her to seek a
different climate. Accordingly the family came to Clarendon,
where Mr. Ives established himself in the hardware and under-
taking business, but at the end of five years disposed of the
former business in order to give his entire time to his activities
as a funeral director and mortician. He now has a beautiful
funeral home, office and chapel, situated at the corner of Wilson
Boulevard and Spruce Street, and as the only undertaker at
Clarendon has every modern facility for the proper and dignified
care of the dead. He is a man of infinite judgment and has
made himself a friend in countless homes which have been
visited by the grim reaper. Mr. Ives is a past vice president and
one of the directors of the Arlington Hall Association of Arling-
440 VIRGINIA
ton, the Chamber of Commerce, the Monarch Club, the Masons,
the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the Junior Order
United American Mechanics. He maintains an independent
stand in politics, and although a good citizen of public spirit,
has had no desire for the honors of office. He is a Presbyterian
in his religious faith, while Mrs. Ives belongs to the Methodist
Episcopal Church.
In January, 1898, Mr. Ives was united in marriage with Miss
Annie Elizabeth Pearson, daughter of John S. and Virginia
Catherine (Sanders) Pearson. Her father, who was a sub-
stantial agriculturist of Fairfax County, this state, served in
the capacity of member of the Board of County Supervisors for
twenty-five or thirty years, and wielded much influence in his
community, where his death occurred in 1919, Mrs. Pearson pass-
ing away August 21, 1925. Four children have been born to
Mr. and Mrs. Ives : Amy Gertrude, born in 1900, who is now the
wife of W. H. Jordan, a resident of Clarendon ; William, who
died when two weeks old ; Claude Pearson, born in 1904, who
was in the employ of the local telephone company at Clarendon
and is now associated with his father in business ; and Gladys
Elizabeth, born in 1915, who is attending high school.
Horatio C. Woodhouse, who had a highly successful career
and became one of the outstanding citizens of Norfolk, achiev-
ing prominence and distinction in a brief lifetime of less than
forty-eight vears, was born in Princess Anne County, Virginia,
September 23, 1879, and died at Norfolk. April 8, 1926.
Nine generations of the Woodhouse family have lived in
Princess Anne County, and for over two centuries consecutively
his ancestors were vestrymen in Eastern Shore Chapel. That
famous church edifice, still standing, was erected in 1754. One
of his ancestors was Henry Woodhouse, a governor of the Ber-
mudas. His great-great-grandfather, Jonathan Woodhouse,
fought in the Revolutionary war. His father, Jonathan Wood-
house, who served as a member of the Constitutional Conven-
tion of Virginia in 1901, has for many years been a prominent
business man of Norfolk. Jonathan Woodhouse married Clara
Cornick, and of their six children H. Cornick was the oldest.
The late Mr. Woodhouse at the age of fourteen was sent to
the Delaplane School in Fauquier County. Later he graduated
from Randolph-Macon College. When he was a young man of
twenty years he went out to Cripple Creek, Colorado, with his
cousin, Harry Shepherd, and had two years of experience in that
then most famous mining district of the West. After returning
to Virginia he was secretary and treasurer of the Princess Anne
Telephone Company, spent a few years in the Norfolk office of
Swift & Company, meat packers, then was with the Hardy
Wholesale Merchandise Compan.y and for about five years was
associated with his father in the electrical business.
Mr. Woodhouse in 1909, with his father and his brother
John, established the Woodhouse Electrical Company on Com-
mercial Place. Two years later they removed to a new three-
story building on Bank Street. During the war boom this build-
ing was sold and a large and more ornate structure was then
built on Court Street. Mr. Woodhouse was secretary, ti-easurer
and active head of this successful business, which since his death
has been continued by his father, Jonathan, and his brother,
Thomas L. Woodhouse. Mrs. Woodhouse still retains an interest
in the business.
VIRGINIA 441
Mr. Woodhouse was a member of the Electrical Club, the
Chamber of Commerce, the Old Colony Club, the Rotary Club,
and as a Mason was affiliated with Ruth Lodge No. 89 of Nor-
folk. He was a Democrat and a member of St. Andrews Epis-
copal Church. He had a great many friends, who admired him
for his business success and his personal integrity.
He m.arried, April 19, 1910, Miss Virginia May Macon. She
was educated in the old Norfolk High School. Mrs. Woodhouse
is a member of the Norfolk Society of Arts and St. Andrews
Episcopal Church. Her father, James Barbour Macon, was for
thirty-five years in the railway and steamship business of the
Norfolk & Western Railroad and the Old Dominion Steamship
Company. He married May Fanny Malbon, whose father,
David Malbon, was a large plantation holder in Princess Anne
County. Mrs. Woodhouse's grandfather was Edgar Barbour
Macon, a quartermaster in the 64th Virginia Regiment in the
Civil war. She is a descendant of the famous Macon family,
including one of North Carolina's greatest statesmen in the
Colonial period, Nathaniel Macon, also Gideon Macon of New
Kent County, Virginia. Mrs. Woodhouse is a great-great-great-
great-niece of James Madison, the fourth president of the United
States. This comes through her descent from Rev. James Madi-
son (1749-1812), who was president of William and Mary Col-
lege and the first Episcopal bishop of Virginia. Bishop Madison
was a son of John Madison.
Mrs. Woodhouse is the mother of four children : Horatio
Cornick, Jr., Frances Macon, and Mary Conway and Barbara
Know, twins. All are being given the advantages of a liberal
education. They are all members of the Children of the Ameri-
can Revolution, and the three daughters are members of Hope
Maury Chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy, of
which Miss Frances is president. Mrs. Woodhouse resides at
709 W. Princess Anne Road in Norfolk.
George J. Oliver, educator, at present division superintend-
ent of schools of Northampton County, was born at Berryville,
Clarke County, Virginia, April 26, 1898, the son of Dr. George H.
and Kate (Cunningham) Oliver, and third of a family of four
children.
His grandfather, Capt. William A. Oliver, of Essex County,
was a physician, having received his training in medicine at the
Jeflferson Medical College, Philadelphia. Captain Oliver mar-
ried Ellen Douglas Jeffries, a daughter of a prominent family in
Virginia. In the war between the states Captain Oliver was in
command of the Essex County Cavalry, part of the Fifth Vir-
ginia Cavalry, and was killed in the fighting around Amelia
Courthouse during the third year of the war.
Mr. Oliver's father. Dr. George Hansford Oliver, was born in
Essex County, and was educated for the profession of dentistry
at the Baltimore College of Dental Surgery. He practised his
profession for forty years, until he entered the ministry, an
ambition with him of long standing. At the age of sixty-two
he entered the Baptist Theological Seminary at Louisville, Ken-
tucky, and began the study of theology. He was later ordained
a minister of the Baptist Church, and preached at Newsoms,
Virginia, until his death on September 22, 1928, at the age of
sixty-six. His wife, Kate Cunningham, was born in Frederick
County, Maryland, of a family well known and of distinguished
44? VIRGINIA
record in that state. Mrs. Oliver now resides at Irvi^i^ton,
Virginia.
George J. Oliver was reaped and educated at Irvington, the
family having moved to that place in May, 1904, when he was six
years old. He at first attended private school, later entered the
high school, and graduated in 1913, when fifteen years of age.
For two years he worked in the local newspaper office and in
1916 entered Richmond College. At the conclusion of his second
year in college he went to Penniman, near Williamsburg, and
for about two months was employed in the munitions plants
there as a government inspector. While there he was selected
as one of ten students of Richmond College to enter the First
Students Army Training Camp at Plattsburg Barracks, New
York. He remained there until September, 1918, when he was
commissioned second lieutenant of field artillery,, being only
nineteen years and ten months of age when thus commissioned,
becoming thereby one of the youngest men ever to hold a com-
mission in the army. He was sent to the Field Artillery Central
Ofiicers Training School at Camp Zachary Taylor, Louisville,
Kentucky, and was held on duty there until December 19, 1918,
when he was honorably discharged.
After returning to Virginia he became principal of the Stev-
ensville High School in King and Queen County, finishing the re-
mainder of the school year 1918-19 and remaining for another
year. In 1920 he became principal of the high school at Capeville,
remaining there until 1927, when he was made acting division su-
perintendent of schools. In May, 1928, he was appointed divi-
sion superintendent. His offices are at Cape Charles and his
residence at Capeville. During the past eight years his efforts
on behalf of the school ^f which he was principal and of the
schools of Northampton County have met with unusual success.
He married, February 3, 1923, Miss Clara Ellen Bell, daugh-
ter of Theron P. and Nellie (Mapp) Bell, both natives of North-
ampton County. Her father, who resides at Machipongo, is one
of the leading farmers and business men of the Eastern Shore.
Mr. and Mrs. Oliver have one child, George J., Jr., born Novem-
tjer 10, 1923. Mr. Oliver is a member of the Cape Charles Ro-
t|ary Club, belongs to the Pi Kappa Alpha social fraternity, and
to the Northampton Country Club. He has attended summer
sessions of the University of Virginia, the University of Rich-
mond and the College of William and Mary. He is a Democrat, a
baptist, and teaches a class of young women in the Baptist Sun-
(iay School. Mrs. Oliver is a member of the Mothers' Club of
P'r^jikton, Virginia, the Woman's Club of the Eastern Shore, and
isjprq^jdent of- the Hollins College Alumnae Association.
Carver V. Williams is one of the younger members of the
Viifginia bar, and has made a promising beginning of his pro-
fessiojial career. at South Hill, where he first established his
office. ' i..; -la : '.i
n Mr,, Williams Was born at Chase City, Virginia, November, 5,
1901, son 0$ H..kT. and M^ry (Savage) Williaras.( His parents
are natives of North, Cajiolina, his father born in Gates County
fend his mother in Hertford County. H. T. Williams has given
his. active life tofthe ministry of, the Baptist Church and is now
pastor of- the ctiurch of that denomination at Ghase City.
>!• Carver V. : Williams was reared and educated in Chase- Cite
graduating from .high; school in 1920V and took:;hJs BachelorKOf
%
.r
^
A
VIRGINIA 443
Science degree at Wake Forest College in North Carolina in
1924. His law studies were pursued at the University of Vir-
ginia, and he was admitted to the bar in June, 1928, at once
locating at South Hill.
Mr. Williams is unmarried. He is a member of the Virginia
Bar Association, is a Democrat, a member of the Baptist Church
and teaches a class in Sunday School.
Thomas Somerville Southgate gave his name and enter-
prise to some of the most noteworthy of the commercial organi-
zations of the city of Norfolk. In business he was always thor-
oughly constructive, in citizenship enlightened and broad
minded, and there were few Virginians who did not know- some-
thing of the activities associated with his name.
He was born at Richmond, February 7, 1868, and died Sep-
tember 27, 1928, when in his sixty-first year. He was a son of
Capt. Thomas M. and Mary E. Southgate. His father, master
of a steamer of the Old Dominion Line, took the boy at the
age of four aboard ship, and that was his home for some five
years. At the age of nine he entered the elementary schools,
but three years later entered upon his business career as a
messenger boy at twelve dollars a month. His important edu-
cation came to him in the intervals of work and was perhaps
the more valuable for that reason. He attended night school
for five years. Ships, railways and manufacturing were phases
of industry in which he was most keenly interested, and he made
a study of those activities at every successive point of his con-
tact with commercial afi'airs. He was first in the commission
business, and on October 10, 1892, in a small oflice room with
one desk and one chair started T. S. Southgate & Company,
which at the time of his death, with its subsidiaries and allied
corporations, constituted one of the largest industrial establish-
ments of its kind in the country. As a result of the tireless
energy of the promoter the Southgate business by 1898 had its
own oflSce building, and three years later was constructed the
first unit of what are now the great Southgate Terminals, the
original structure being a warehouse affording 24,000 square
feet. These terminals today have 400,000 square feet of floor
space, with frontage of 900 feet on water and over 1,000 feet
on land, representing a total investment of over a million dollars
and affording facilities for thirty-six firms.
In addition to being president of T. S. Southgate & Company
the late Mr. Southgate from 1915 had been president of the
Southgate Terminal Corporation, president of the Southgate
Packing Company, president of the Southgate Export Coal Com-
pany, the Southgate Produce Company, Southgate Molasses
Company, Southgate Import and Export Company. He was a
member of the executive board of the Norfolk National Bank
of Commerce & Trust, a director of the Industrial Finance Cor-
poration of New York, a director of the Norfolk & Western
Railway Company, and financially interested in a number of
other enterprises.
Throughout his business career he was actuated by a strong
faith in the potentialities of Norfolk and in Hampton Roads.
The president of the Norfolk & Western Railway Company in
deploring his death referred to his wide and complete experience
and knowledge of transportation and maritime aflfairs, and
called him a great constructive force in the progress and develop-
ment of Hampton Koads. For a number of years he was vice
444 VIRGINIA
president of the Norfolk Chamber of Commerce, for eight years
was a member of the Norfolk Common Council, and president
of that body four years of the time. He served as a member
of the City Port Commission and was a member of the com-
mission which revised the city charter and worked out the plan
under which Norfolk is operating its government. He was a
member and first vice president of the Southern Commercial
Congress, and in 1913 was vice president of the American com-
mission which went to Europe to study rural credits. A report
of this commission was the basis for the present Farm Loan
Bank System. Governor Byrd in a tribute referred to some of
his public activities, particularly the work he did as a member
of the commission on simplification of Virginia's government.
He had, said Governor Byrd, "a thorough grasp of the relation-
ship which the state should bear toward business, and vice versa.
It was my privilege to rely upon him for advice and counsel in
recommendations affecting the business and transportation
interests of Virginia."
Mr. Southgate was from 1904 to 1907 one of the four men
who built and operated the Jamestown Exposition. He served
as director of the campaign in Norfolk for the purchase of the
Shenandoah National Park. He was one of the prominent lay-
men of the Methodist Church, for nineteen years being lay leader
of the Virginia Methodist Conference, was president of the
Southern Methodist Laymen's Association, and from early man-
hood had been a consistent worker in his church. He was a plat-
form speaker of ability and personality, and appeared many
times before audiences in behalf of religious and civic enter-
prises. He was much interested in the cause of Christian Mis-
sions and education, and was state chairman for Virginia in
the campaign of his church to raise $3,500,000 for missions and
over a million dollars for Christian education.
Mr. Southgate married Miss Nettie D. Norsworthy, who
survives him. The three children are Nettie Virginia, Mary
Portlock and Herbert Somerville Southgate, all of Norfolk.
The Norsworthy family, of which Mrs. Southgate is a de-
scendant, is, as the name indicates, derived from the stock of
Norsemen who settled in England. Representatives of the family
were in Virginia soon after the establishment of Jamestown.
The pioneer, Tristram Norswoi'thy, settled in about 1610 across
the river from Newport News, having a land grant to that
section of marsh land and small islands known as "Ye Ragged
Islands." Early records show the family to have been planters,
chiefly tobacco growers. Many of their homes were in Nanse-
mond and Isle of Wight counties, where county records fre-
quently have been destroyed by fire, and fire and time have
also reduced many of their homes to ashes. Tristram Nors-
worthy and his son. Major (afterwards colonel) George Nors-
worthy, were both members of the First and Second House of
Burgesses from Upper Norfolk County. A later descendant
was Tristram Norsworthy, captain and afterwards colonel in
the Revolution. The old residence of the family burned many
years ago. Early in the nineteenth century the foundation of
the house and the well were several feet under water and some
distance from the shore, showing the inroads the water had
made on the southern bank of the river.
The Revolutionary soldier, Tristram Norsworthy, was the
father of Joseph Norsworthy, born in 1777. Joseph Norsworthy
built his home on land deeded him bv his father. He deeded land
VIRGINIA 445
east of his own i)lantation to his son, 'Nathaniel W., who was
born in 1804. NathanieF W. had a l&rge family, but only three
sons and one dauy:hter married. One son, Joseph Chapman.
Norsworthy, born in 1881, was a valiant soldier in the Confed-
erate army. His children consisted of one son and two daugh-
ters, one of whom is Mrs. Nettie Norsworthy Southgate. The
lands of the Norsworthys passed entirely out of the family
about the time of the Civil war, when &\\ of the sons moved to
Norfolk. In crossing from Isle of AVight County to Newport
News the road approaching the James River Bridge pa'^ses
within a hundred feet of the burying ground of the family of
Joseph Norsworthy, son of the Revolutionary ancestor, Tristram.
Robert Carson Gilmer, member of a family widely and
prominently connected in Southwest Virginia, is a resident of
Pembroke, where he is local agent for the Norfolk & Western
Railway Company and owns and conducts the Gilmer Hotel, one
of the most popular hotels in Giles County for commercial
travelers and tourists.
He was born at Abingdon, Virginia, September 23, 1885, son
of W. R. and Maggie C. (Cecil) Gilmer, and grandson of George
Gilmer, an early farmer and cattle raiser of Russell County, who
is buried in the cemetery near Hansonville in that county. W. R.
Gilmer was born in Hansonville, served as a soldier in the Con-
federate army, and was wounded in a skirmish near Richmond
about two hours before the surrender at Appomattox. He rode
a mule into Richmond, then got on a train for Abingdon, and
from there went to his home in Russell County, where he recov-
ered from his wound and entered with courage and indomitable
energy into the tasks of farming under the new conditions after
the war. After his marriage he moved to Washington County,
and lived there the rest of his life. He was a justice of the peace
and road commissioner and road supervisor, and for several
years bail commissioner. He held the post of steward in the
Methodist Episcopal Church, South, and was accounted one of
the best loved citizens of his community. He died April 10,
1916, and is buried at Bristol. His wife, Maggie C. Cecil, was
born and reared in Pulaski County, attending public school
there and the Martha Washington College at Abingdon. She
was a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. Her
death occurred November 1, 1928, and both she and her husband
are buried at Bristol. Her parents were Thomas and Priscilla
(Buckingham) Cecil. The Cecils have been in Virginia from
Colonial times. W. R. Gilmer and wife had five children : How-
ard C. Gilmer, a prominent attorney at Pulaski ; Bessie G., wife
of Mr. Nicar, of Bristol ; Margaret C., wife of G. H. Gilmer, who
is president of the Interstate Railway Company at Big Stone
Gap, Virginia; Robert Carson Gilmer; and A. Gray Gilmer, a
leading member of the bar of Oklahoma City.
Robert Carson Gilmer attended public schools and Abingdon
Academy, and from the time he left school down to the present
time has been with the Norfolk & Western Railway Company,
at first as a telegraph operator, in which capacitv he worked
from October 4. 1903, until February 7, 1912. On February 7,
1912, he became station agent at Pembroke, and has given a
continuous and efficient service in that capacity for seventeen
years. It was in 1922 that he built the Gilmer Hotel.
Mr. Gilmer is a trustee and member of the Board of Stew-
ards of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. A Republican,
446 VIRGINIA
he was candidate for the Lower House of the Legislature from
Bland and Giles counties in 1925, being defeated by a margin of
215 votes by George T. Bird, of Bland County. Mr. Gilmer is
one of the able representatives of his party in this section of the
state. He is affiliated with Castle Rock Lodge No. 334 A. F. and
A. M., and is a member of the Order of Railway Telegraphers.
He married at Pembroke, September 19, 1905, Miss Virginia
Catherine Price, who was educated in the public schools of Giles
County. She is a member of the Ladies Aid Society and its
secretary in the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. Her par-
ents were Henry D. and Nannie (Albert) Price, her father a
farmer and stock raiser near Pembroke, and both her parents
are members of the Christian Church. Mr. and Mrs. Gilmer
have two sons : Eugene Hoge, born in 1909, a member of the
class of 1929 in the Pembroke High School ; and Robert C, Jr.,
born in 1913, a member of the class of 1930 in the Pembroke
High School.
Winston Oneida Martin. The late Winston Oneida Mar-
tin, of Richmond, a direct descendant of Alexander Hamilton,
set an example in his frugal, painstaking, useful career that the
rising generation would do well to follow, and it is well to give
a brief review of his life and character in these days of abun-
dance, free expenditure of money, and the too prevalent neglect
of the prosaic tasks of local government. Comparatively speak-
ing, he was a young man when he died, for he was born in Pow-
hatan County, Virginia, September 24, 1887, and died in Rich-
mond February 25, 1926, but he left behind him a record of self-
denial, self-control, thrift and practical idealism, and the warm
friendship of the man with whom he was associated in the
American Locomotive Works for so many years.
The private schools of his native county gave Winston Oneida
Martin his educational training, and when he had completed
his schooldays he went into a saw-mill for a year or two, leaving
that employment in Powhatan County for similar work in
Lunenburg, Virginia. In 1909 he came to Richmond and en-
tered the locomotive works, rising' during fifteen years to the
position of assistant manager of the locomotive tank department,
and he was holding it when death claimed him. A stalwart
Democrat, he suppoi'ted his party, but never sought office him-
self, his work occupying him to the exclusion of outside matters.
He was a sincere member of the Baptist Church, but his family
are Methodists. In fraternal life he formed connections with
the Junior Order United American Mechanics and the Knights
of Pythias, and both organizations mourned his loss, as did all
who knew him.
In March, 1911, Mr. Martin married Matie Poulson, who
was educated in Wisconsin. She is a daughter of James and
Kristine (Jacobson) Poulson, and one in a family of five chil-
dren. Mr. Poulson was born in Denmark, but came to the
United States and settled in Wisconsin in 1870, and there be-
came a successful farmer and prominent citizen. He married
in Chicago, and his wife was also a native of Denmark. Two
children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Martin, Woodley Kristine,
a graduate of John Marshall High School and of Mrs. L. E.
Spencer's School of Music, and Blanche Oneida, a student in the
public schools of Richmond.
Mr. Martin belonged to the type of men who have built this
nation. In everything he did he lived up to American tradi-
VIRGINIA 447
tions. He was a plain-spoken, law-abiding, hard-working, up-
right man, with common sense and character. Practicing as
he did the elementary virtues, it never occurred to him that
success worthy the name could be achieved by speculation. As
a faithful and devoted husband and watchful father he provided
for the needs of his family through his own industry and fru-
gality, and in such homes as his have been reared some of the
finest people this country has produced. The nation cannot
afford to forget such men as he or belittle their influence and
the social and political atmosphere they created — an atmosphere
of austere thinking, rational living and faithful performance of
private duty.
William Philip Mathews, M. D. From 1891 until his
death the late Dr. William Philip Mathews was engaged in
the practice of medicine and sm-gery at Richmond and in the
more important work of medical education. His specialty was
orthopedic surgery, and his knowledge and skill were such as
to put him in the lead among his professional brethren, and to
manifest the beneficent influence which professional acquire-
ments, guided by high motives, have and exert upon the welfare
of the community.
Doctor Mathews was born in Prince Edward County, Vir-
ginia, June 30, 1868, a son of Dr. Thomas Philip and Bettie
Boiling (Marshall) Mathews, and a descendant of an ancient
Virginia family who were among the first settlers of that county.
His great-grandfather was Rev. Philip Mathews, a minister of
the Baptist faith, who passed the entire ninety years of his
life in that section, and his grandfather was Capt. William
Mathews, a valiant officer of the War of 1812. Dr. Thomas
Philip Mathews was born in Prince Edward County, August
21, 1835, and completed his medical education at Jefferson
Medical College, Philadelphia, from which he was graduated
with the degree of Doctor of Medicine as a member of the
class of 1855. He immediately returned to the community of
his birth and was engaged in practice there until the outbreak
of the war between the states, when he promptly enlisted i-n
the Confederate army and became captain of Company H, Four-
teenth Regiment, Virginia Infantry, with which he served gal-
lantly until the second battle of Manassas, in which he was
severely wounded. When he recovered he was placed in charge
of a hospital at Farmville, Prince Edward County, and subse-
quently became a surgeon under the great Gen. A. P. Hill,
serving in that capacity until the close of the war. He then
returned to his private practice, and in 1874 located at Rich-
mond, where he became a leader in his profession and continued
as such until his death January 12, 1905, interment being made
in Hollywood Cemetery. On December 24, 1856, Doctor Mathews
married Miss Bettie Boiling, daughter of Thomas R. Marshall,
of Hampden-Sidney College, and they had the following cliil-
dren: John D., Thomas Gibson, Col. W. Kirk and Dr. William
and five other children who are deceased.
After attending the public schools of Richmond, including
high school, William Philip Mathews pursued a course at Rich-
mond College, and then spent some time studying medicine
under the able preceptorship of his distinguished father. In
1890 he graduated from the Medical College of Virginia with
the degree of Doctor of Medicine and subsequently served his
interneship at Charity Hospital, New York City. Returning
448 VIRGINIA
to Richmond in 1891, from that time forward until his death,
July 25, 1918, he was engaged in the practice of his profession,
specializing in orthopedic surgery. He was professionally con-
nected with the Medical College of Virginia for many years.
In 1891 he was elected adjunct professor of surgery, in which
capacity he served four years ; in 1895 was elected professor of
anatomy and in 1905 professor of orthopedic surgery. He
served as president of the Board of Health at Manchester (Rich-
mond) for one year, and was a director of the Manchester
Light, Heat and Power Company. Doctor Mathews was a mem-
ber of the Henrico County Medical Society, the Virginia State
Medical Society, the American Medical Association and was a
fellow of the American College of Surgeons. He was identified
with every important movement which interested the medical
and surgical faculty or concerned the public health. In spite
of the onerous and never-ending duties of his profession. Doctor
Mathews found the time and inclination to engage with great
activity and usefulness in religious matters. He was one of
the pillars of the Second Baptist Church of Richmond, president
of the Inter-Denominational Sunday School Association for five
years, president of the Baptist Sunday School Association, and
a member for many years of the Board of Foreign Missions
of the General Baptist Convention and chairman of the com-
mittee on appointments thereof, a position which had been held
by his father for twenty-one years prior to the latter's death.
Fraternally Doctor Mathews was a member and an honored past
master of Meridian Lodge No. 284, A. F. and A. M.
On October 17, 1893, Doctor Mathews married at Cincinnati,
Ohio, Miss Annie Sanborn Graham, who was born at Burning
Springs, West Virginia, August 21, 1869, and is a daughter of
David L. and Martha Jane (Watt) Graham, of Scotch and Irish
parentage, formerly of the State of Pennsylvania. He enlisted
and served as a soldier of the Union army during the war between
the states. Four children were born to Doctor and Mrs. Math-
ews : Margaret Spencer, a graduate of the Woman's College,
class of 1913, and the Richmond Normal School, class of 1917,
who has been a teacher in the public schools of Richmond for
eleven years, and is popular and distinguished as an educator ;
David Graham, of Richmond, who entered the United States
Army for the World war as a member of the famous Richmond
Blues, was later transferred to the Munitions Corps, saw active
service in France and attained the rank of second lieutenant,
and, returning to the United States, married, October 9, 1919,
Miss Ada Long, of Richmond ; Thomas Philip, Jr., who volun-
teered for service when the United States entered the World
war, was first in training with the Ambulance Corps at Camp
Lee and subsequently at Camp Meade, whence he went to Camp
Worgert, England, where he finished training, saw active serv-
ice on the battlefields of France, where he was wounded, was
made a sergeant at the age of seventeen years, and, returning
to the United States, married, October 17, 1922, Miss Elizabeth
Bagby, and they have two children, Elizabeth Bagby and
Thomas Philip III. ; and William Watt, a graduate of John Mar-
shall High School, who has a position in the offices of the Loril-
lard Tobacco Company of Richmond. Mrs. Mathews, who sur-
vives her husband and resides at 3115 Edgewood Avenue, is a
graduate of Richmond Female Institute. She is active in the
work of the Baptist Church and of the American Legion
Auxiliary.
VIRGINIA 449
James Basil Keesling was a newspaper man in Tennessee
for a number of years, but eventually returned to his ancestral
home in Southwest Virginia, where he has been a farmer and
pure-bred stock breeder, and more recently has become identified
as cashier with the Peoples Bank of Rural Retreat in Blythe
County.
Mr. Keesling owns the Meadow Brook Farm, comprising
part of a grant of land made to his ancestor, his great-grand-
father, George Kisling, as the family name was spelled up to
1850. This George Kisling acquired an extensive area of land
in the vicinity of Cedar Springs, Virginia, from William Bus-
tard, who in turn had received it as a grant in 1785. The old
grant was signed by Governor Patrick Henry, and James B.
Keesling has in his possession the old document with the signa-
ture of the great Virginia orator and statesman, and has all
the other transfers that have been made since the time of his
great-grandfather, George Kisling.
James Basil Keesling was born at Cedar Springs in Smyth
County, Virginia, January 17, 1869, son of Emory Sullins and
Emeline Francis (Button) Keesling. His father was born and
reared in the same house, was educated in private schools, and
entered the Confederate army and was a soldier during the last
year of the war. He was a miller both before and after the war.
Part of the old homestead comprises the Keesling Mill. Henry S.
Keesling died April 29, 1916, and is buried in the old Asbury
Church Cemetery near the old Asbury camp ground. His wife
was born near Blue Spring, Virginia. Both were active mem-
bers of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. She died in
1907. Of the six children born to them two died in infancy, and
the other four are : Peter P. ; Clara Virginia, wife of J. W.
Lantz; James B., of Cedar Springs, Virginia; and Minnie Sul-
lins, wife of Leon C. Cornett, of Fresno, California.
James B. Keesling after public schools continued his educa-
tion in Emory and Henry College, graduated from the Knoxville
Business College in 1891, and for fifteen years gave his full time
to newspaper work, the first three years with the Knoxville
Tribune, and for about twelve years with the Knoxville Sentinel.
The death of his father caused him to return to Southwest-
ern Virginia in order to take charge of Meadow Brook Farm,
his fine property, comprising a great deal of blue grass land, an
ideal spot for cattle raising. His home is one of the beauty
spots of this section of Southwestern Virginia.
On July 1, 1927, Mr. Keesling became cashier of the Peoples
Bank at Rural Retreat. He is also a director and stockholder
of the same, and vice president and director of the Marion
Handle Mills at Marion. He is a director of the Smyth County
National Farm Loan Association and a member of the Smyth
County School Board. He takes an active interest in public
affairs, and none of his people have ever sought political office.
He is a member of the Masonic fraternity and the Knights of
Pvthias, is a Democrat, and belongs to the Methodist Episcopal
Church, South.
Mr. Keesling married at Moberly, Missouri, November 7,
1894, Miss Jessie Lee Briney, of Moberly. Her father. Rev. John
Benton Briney, was one of the outstanding ministers, writers
and debaters of the Christian Church, and died in 1927 at Cedar
Springs, being buried in Cave Hill Cemetery in Louisville, Ken-
tucky, beside his wife. Mrs. Keesling was educated at Memphis
and at Louisville, and since early girlhood has been a leader in
21— VOL. .3
450 VIRGINIA
her church, being an accomplished singer and a choir worker.
Mr. and Mrs. Keesling had two children, one son, Emory Basil,
dying at the age of thirteen months. The daughter, Edith
Holbert, was educated in public schools at Knoxville, in the
Randolph-Macon Woman's College, and the Mary Baldwin Semi-
nary. She is now the wife of Lee M. Cole, a resident of Marion,
where he is president and manager of the Marion Handle Mills.
Mr. and Mrs. Cole have a son, Lee Marion, Jr., attending public
school.
Norman Clarence Smith, commonwealth's attorney of
Tazewell County, has achieved a great reputation in South-
western Virginia as a brilliant lawyer, excelling in the resource-
fulness which characterizes the successful man in criminal prac-
tice. He is a resident of Pocahontas, and has practiced there
since the close of the World war, in which he took an honorable
part.
He was born at Joliett, Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania,
April 15, 1891. His grandfather, William Smith, a native of
England, spent the greater part of his active life as a miner in
Schuylkill County. He married in Pennsylvania Esther Bowles,
also a native of England. George B. Smith, father of the Poca-
hontas attorney, was born at Tremont, Pennsylvania, December
23, 1869, and devoted many years to the mining industry, start-
ing as a miner underground. In 1890 he located at Keystone,
West Virginia, was superintendent of the Keystone Coal & Coke
Company, and in 1912 became superintendent of the Big Vein
Pocahontas Coal & Coke Company at Pocahontas, Virginia. He
retired from active business in 1921. He was prominent in fra-
ternal affairs, being a member of the various York Rite bodies
of Masonry, the Beni Kedem Temple of the Mystic Shrine at
Charleston, West Virginia, and was a member of the Knights of
Pythias, and Independent Order of Odd Fellows. He was a
Republican. George B. Smith married at Tremont, Pennsylvania,
Elizabeth Roberts, who was born January 9, 1872. They had
two sons, Norman Clarence and George Emmerson.
Norman Clarence Smith was educated in public schools at
Tremont, Pennsylvania, and Keystone, West Virginia, gradu-
ating from high school at the latter place in 1906. In 1908 he
graduated from Emory and Henry Academy and in 1912 took
the A. B. degree at Emory and Henry College. Mr. Smith com-
pleted his law course at Columbia University, New York, in
1915, was admitted to the Virginia bar in June of that year,
and for two years practiced at Grundy in Buchanan County,
Virginia.
In August, 1917, he volunteered and attended the Second
Officers Training Camp at Fort Myer, Virginia, where he was
commissioned first lieutenant of infantry December 15, 1917.
His first assignment of duty was with the Forty-eighth Infantry
at Camp Hill, Newport News. On August 15, 1918, he was pro-
moted to captain, became acting adjutant of the Fortieth Brig-
ade, Twentieth Division, Camp Sevier, South Carolina, and was
under orders to go overseas when the armistice was signed. He
received his honorable discharge April 23, 1919.
On leaving the army Captain Smith established his law
offices at Pocahontas.
Few men achieve more of the substantial honors of real
accomplishment than Mr. Smith has attained in less than ten
years. He has had a crowded program of general practice and
/^^^ze-ti^
VIRGINIA 451
has been remarkably successful in the criminal cases he has
handled. He has defended a number of men on trial for murder.
He was attorney for and instrumental in securing the largest
award ever given in a damage suit in Tazewell County. This
was the case of Lumpkins versus the Norfolk and Western Rail-
road. The judgment was for $25,000.
Mr. Smith has served as attorney for the City of Pocahontas.
He has been a leader in the Democratic party of the county
since beginning practice, and his sterling merits as a lawyer and
his character as a citizen, together with his convincing powers
as a public speaker, have brought him a most exceptional dis-
tinction in being the first Democrat elected commonwealth's
attorney in Tazewell County in forty years. Also he broke a cus-
tom in that no other attorney has been elected to this office who
lived outside the county seat of Tazewell. In 1923 he was a
candidate for the office and was defeated by 894 votes. In Novem-
ber, 1927, he was elected on the Democratic ticket by a margin
of 353 votes. Mr. Smith is a member of the County Democratic
Central Committee and has done much effective campaign work
for the party in the Ninth Congressional District.
Mr. Smith is a lay leader of the Methodist Episcopal Church,
South, at Pocahontas, and assistant district lay leader of the
church for the Tazewell district. He teaches a class of boys in
the Sunday School. He is junior warden of Pocahontas Lodge
No. 240, A. F. and A. M., member of W. G. Bottimore Chapter
No. 28, Royal Arch Masons, at Bluefield, Bluefield Commandery
No. 22, Knights Templar, Kazim Temple of the Mystic Shrine at
Roanoke, and a member of Pocahontas Lodge No. 60, Knights of
Pythias.
He married at Crockett, Virginia, June 17, 1917, Miss Bessie
Wampler, who was a graduate of Emory and Henry College and
of Columbia University. She died January 31, 1919. Her par-
ents were Lefrich P. and Tabitha (Fielder) Wampler. On June
16, 1922, Mr. Smith married Miss Lucille Hanna, daughter of
William and Mollie (Bennett) Hanna. They have two children,
Bess Lucille, born June 13, 1923, and Robert Norman, born
December 10, 1925.
Junius Edgar West, lieutenant governor of the common-
wealth of Virginia from 1922 to 1930, has for many years been
a Suffolk business man, and was born at Waverly, Sussex
County, July 12, 1866, son of Henry T. and Sue T. (Cox) West.
His father was a Virginia planter and farmer.
Mr. West's first active contacts with his home state were as
a teacher. He attended public schools, was a student in the Suf-
folk Collegiate Institute, the University of North Carolina, and
studied law in Washington and Lee University and the Univer-
sity of Virginia. However, most of his business career has been
devoted to insurance rather than the law. For nearly two years
he was county superintendent of schools for Sussex County.
His home has been in the city of Suffolk since 1890, when he
became a member of the firm of Harper West, general insurance,
and since that time he has expended much time and effort in the
development of proper commercial facilities, in the raising of the
standards of education and in directing the attention of Virginia
and the nation at large to the proper utilization of the great
advantages and resources of Tidewater Virginia. He was at one
time one of the owners of the Suffolk Herald, and since 1906 has
been head of the general insurance firm of West & Withers.
452 VIRGINIA
His friends have referred to him as Colonel West, since he
served as a member of the staff of Governor Swanson. He was
elected to the House of Delegates in 1909, and after one term in
the House served two and a half consecutive terms in the senate.
Colonel West was author of the West Fee Bill, and author of the
act providing for medical and dental inspection of school chil-
dren, known as West Health Law. He was a patron of the State
Purchasing Act, and he has been one of the constructive advo-
cates of tax reform, health and educational legislation.
It was largely on the basis of his known constructive attitude
in legislative and public affairs that he was chosen lieutenant
governor in 1921. As presiding officer of the Senate he was dis-
tinguished by his parliamentary skill, and was always dignified
and fair in directing the deliberations of the body. During 1928
he was looked upon as a leading candidate of the Democratic
party for the office of governor, but withdrew his candidacy in
1929. Colonel West was at one time chairman of the Democratic
committee of Nansemond County, has been a member of the
State Central Committee and State Democratic Executive Com-
mittee, president of the Democratic clubs of Suffolk, and was a
delegate to the National Democratic Convention of 1896. He
has served as president of the Suffolk City Council.
He is a trustee of Elon College of North Carolina, was on
the Board of Trustees of the State Teachers College at Farmville,
and during the World war was chairman of the United War
Work campaign in Suffolk and Nansemond counties and a four
minute speaker. He is a past president of the Suffolk Rotary
Club, is a Mason, a member of the Sons of the American Revo-
lution and is also affiliated with the B. P. 0. Elks. He is a promi-
nent layman of the Christian Church, having served for many
years as chairman of the mission board of the Eastern Virginia
Conference and chairman of the mission board of the Southern
Christian Convention, and has long taught a class of women in
the Suffolk Christian Church Sunday School. Colonel West has
been honored with the office of vice president of the Virginia
Insurance Agents Association, and is a member of the West-
moreland Club of Richmond.
He married, February 17, 1903, Miss Ollie Beale, of Suffolk.
They have one daughter, Margaret Beale West.
Francis R. Payne is a member of a firm of brothers prom-
inently identified with the business life of Newport in Giles
County, and he has lived in that locality most of his life.
He was born at Newport December 7, 1895, son of R. Y. and
Flora C. (Puckett) Payne, and grandson of John R. Payne and
great-grandson of Charles Payne. Charles Payne was a pioneer
of Southwest Virginia, a farmer and hunter in the early days of
Giles County. The Payne family have been in Virginia since
early Colonial times. R. Y. Payne was born and reared in Giles
County, received advantages in private schools and spent his
early years as a farmer. In 1908 he moved to the coal fields of
West Virginia, but in 1929 returned to Newport, where he and
his wafe reside. He has always voted the Republican ticket, and
is a member of the Masonic fraternity. His wife. Flora C. Puck-
ett, was born in Giles County, grew up at Newport, where she at-
tended public school, and for about twenty years held the office of
postmaster there, serving until the advent of the Wilson admin-
istration. She is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church,
South. These parents had a family of seven children : W. C.
^A-^-^-iMzyHT'^, y/<^-^»t.e^ ^^^T"
VIRGINIA 453
Payne, now in the lumber business at Welch, West Virginia,
was in training at Camp Lee during the World war, getting his
honorable discharge December 1, 1918; ?''rancis R., of Newport;
Harry W., of Widemouth, West Virginia; James M., of Newport;
Helen, who died at the age of nine years; Miss Grace, a teacher
in the public schools of Narrows, Virginia; and Miss Tootsie,
who is attending the State Teachers College at Harrisonburg.
Francis R. Payne attended public schools in Newport, getting
his high school work there. When he left school he went to Kay-
ford, West Virginia, and for eight years clerked in stores in that
vicinity, and for several years was postmaster of a West Vir-
ginia community. During the World war Mr. Payne joined the
colors at Fort Hamilton, New York, where he was in training
with the Motor Transport Corps until honorably discharged on
December 15, 1919.
Mr. Payne in 1924 returned to Newport and has since been
associated with his brother in the automobile and garage bus-
iness. They operate the Newport Service Station, are distributing
agents for the Standard Oil Company products, and handle the
Chevrolet cars. Mr. Payne has always interested himself in
community affairs and is very public spirited. He is affiliated
with Newport Lodge No. 261, A. F. and A. M. He is a Repub-
lican and a member of the Board of Stewards of the Methodist
Episcopal Chui'ch, South.
He married at Buchanan, Virginia, April 10, 1918, Miss Dora
Ellen Kelly. She attended public schools in Pulaski and the
Harrisonburg State Teachers College, and was a teacher for
several years before her marriage, being thus engaged at New-
port and also in Russell County and Smyth County. Mrs. Payne
is active in the work of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South.
She is a daughter of John P. and Mary (Groseclose) Kelly, of
Marion. Her father is now living on a farm at White Gate,
Virginia. Mr. and Mrs. Payne have two children, Frank R. and
Mary Camelia, both attending the Newport public schools.
Andrew F. Horne, M. D. When in 1884 Dr. Andrew F.
Home located at Glade Springs he was newly graduated from a
medical college, and was contented to take his place among the
citizens of a growing community and to accept such opportun-
ities for professional advancement that came his way. He was en-
terprising and ambitious, and his skill in diagnosis and success-
ful treatment of several complicated cases of long standing al-
most immediately created a gratifying demand for his services,
thus laying the foundation for what has been a career of ex-
ceptional breadth and usefulness. During the more than forty-
four years that have followed he has risen to acknowledged lead-
ership in his community, not alone along the lines and duties of
his profession, but in every avenue of advancement. Today he is
one of the most influential and best beloved citizens of his part
of Washington County.
Doctor Horne was born in November, 1856, near Emory,
Washington County, Virginia, and is a son of John E. and Mary
Buchannon (Fullen) Horne, natives of Virginia, both of whom
are now deceased. His father, who was of German descent, was
a farmer in Washington County, where he passed his entire ca-
reer, and was a man of influence and prominence, serving for
many years as justice of the peace and member of the Board of
County Supervisors. He and his worthy wife were devout mem-
454 VIRGINIA
bers of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, and did much for
the betterment of their community.
The boyhood and youth of Andrew F. Home were passed on
his father's farm in Washington County, where he assisted the
elder man in his operations while acquiring his primary educa-
tion in the country schools. The finding of a groove in life in
which one's heart and mind are emphatically enlisted assures
success to nine out of ten of the toilers of the earth. The farm is
the largest and most beneficent camping ground for the survey
of life's possibilities, and it was among these fortunate if not
congenial surroundings that Doctor Home determined upon his
humanitarian career. After completing his public school educa-
tion he entered Emory and Henry College at Emory, where he
obtained the degree of Master of Arts, following which he en-
rolled as a student in the medical department of the University
of Virginia. This course was supplemented by attendance at the
College of Physicians and Surgeons at Baltimore, Maryland,
from which he was graduated with the degree of Doctor of Medi-
cine as a member of the class of 1884.
In the same year Doctor Home settled at Glade Springs,
where he has since been located, and which community has
watched with sincere interest his constantly growing fortune.
He early won the confidence of the people by his skill in diagnosis
and his successful treatment of disorders of all kinds, and he has
always been a student who has recognized no end to the road of
science and who forges ahead patiently and conscientiously. At
an age when most men are content to retire upon their laurels
he continues to go about his daily round of duties, just as he did
in the early years when it was a necessity for him to work con-
stantly to keep body and soul together. During the World war he
offered his services to his country as a member of the Medical
Corps and served as a volunteer in that body, and at present is
acting in the capacity of health officer of Glade Springs. He be-
longs to the Southwest Virginia Medical Society, the Virginia
Medical Society and the American Medical Association. He is a
Democrat, and while not active in politics, is a man of great in-
fluence in his community and active in all of its affairs. He be-
longs to the Masonic Blue Lodge and to the Board of Stewards of
the Methodist Episcopal Church, South.
Doctor Home married Miss Laura M. Lincoln, of Marion,
Virginia, daughter of the late Charles Lincoln, who was en-
gaged in manufacturing at Marion until his death. She was edu-
cated at Marion Female College and is a consistent member of
the Presbyterian Church. To Doctor and Mrs. Home there have
been born the following children: Charles Lincoln, educated at
Emory and Henry College, and now engaged in the automobile
and radio business at Glade Springs ; Mary, a graduate of Sullins
College, Bristol, Virginia, and now a teacher in the public schools
of Sparta, North Carolina. Andrew, a graduate in electrical
engineering of the Virginia Polytechnic Institute, who is identi-
fied with the Appalachia Power Company of Bluefield, West Vir-
ginia; H. A., a student at Emory and Henry College; Margaret,
a graduate of Marion Female College, Marion, who took special
courses in music at Martha Washington College, Abingdon, and
the Chicago Conservatory of Music,, Chicago, Illinois, and is now^
teaching music in the schools of Sparta, North Carolina; and
John, who attended the Glade Springs High School and is a
graduate of the Bliss Electrical College of Washington, D. C,
class of 1929.
VIRGINIA 455
John Baker Roller is principal of the high school at Pear-
isbiirg, and is a director of vocational agricultural education for
all the high schools of Giles County. Mr. Roller, who was with
the Coast Artillery Corps during the World war, has had a very
interesting experience and career as an educator.
His people have been Virginians for a number of genera-
tions, but he was himself born at Oxford, North Carolina, May
8, 1895, son of John B. and Sallie (Easley) Roller. The Rollers
are of remote German ancestry, and some of them served as
burgomasters of their home town in Prussia. The family came
to America at an early date, and one of the relics in the family
carefully preserved is a rolling pin made from the limb of the
tree under which the Rollers camped the first day they were on
American shores. In Germany the family had a coat of arms.
John B. Roller was born and reared in Ohio and as a young
man moved to Virginia where his father owned a large interest
in the Mecklenburg Hotel. He attended a private school in Ohio
and the Virginia Agricultural and Mechanical College, now the
Virginia Polytechnic Institute. After his marriage he moved to
Oxford, North Carolina, and engaged in the insurance business,
establishing what is still known and operated as the J. B. Roller
& Son Company. He was a man of prominence in that locality,
a deacon in the Baptist Church, and at one time secretary and
treasurer of the Taylor-Cannady Buggy Company and later the
Oxford Buggy Company. He died in 1909 and is buried at Oxford.
His wife, Sallie Easley, born and reared in Halifax County, Vir-
ginia, and educated at Hollins College, taught school for several
years before her marriage, is a resident of Richmond with her
only daughter, and for years has been active in the Baptist
Church. The Easleys are a family readily identified with prom-
inent connections in old Virginia, particularly in Halifax and
other eastern counties. Among other descendants of the family
is John W. Craddock, a prominent shoe manufacturer. John B.
Roller and wife had five childi'en. Frank, the youngest, died in
infancy. Joseph Rose is an operator with the Western Union
Telegraph Company, a resident of Ontario, Canada, and is mar-
ried, but his only child died in infancy. Charles Easley Roller
is in the tobacco sales and manufacturing business at Oxford,
North Carolina, married Louie Mitchell, a widow with a son,
John, by her first husband, and two children have been born
to them, William and Charles, Jr. Miss Hallie Hall Roller, the
only daughter, is connected with the Virginia Industrial Com-
mission at Richmond.
John Baker Roller attended public schools at Oxford, North
Carolina, the Cluster Springs Academy in Virginia, and in 1916
graduated with the Bachelor of Science degree from the Virginia
Polytechnic Institute. In 1924 advance credits gave him the
Master of Science degree. For one year after leaving the insti-
tute he taught in the Appomattox High School.
In June, 1917, he joined the colors, in the Regular Army, in
training with the Coast Artillery Corps on Chesapeake Bay,
and later was commissioned a provisional second lieutenant. He
went overseas with the rank of first lieutenant in the Seventy-
fifth Regiment, Coast Artillery Corps, in October, 1918, and was
at St. Nazaire and was moving up with the artillery at the
headquarters at Mailly Le Camp at the time of the armistice. He
remained with the Army of Supply until June, 1919, and came
back in charge of a company of casuals, discharging them at
Camp Mills, New York, and then reported to Fort Scriven,
456 VIRGINIA
Georgia, where his resignation was accepted and he was honor-
ably discharged with the rank of first lieutenant. He is now a
captain in the Field Artillery Officers Reserve Corps.
Captain Roller after being relieved of military duty became
teacher of agricultui-e and for three years was principal of the
Apple Grove High School in Virginia. While he was there the
efficiency of the school was improved to a point where the school
was placed on the accredited list. Mr. Roller came to Pearis-
burg in 1923 as principal of the high school. He takes deserved
pride in the fine physical plant and the personnel of the teaching
and student body. The high school is a large two-story brick and
concrete building with basement and six rooms, providing quar-
ters for the agricultural class, while on the second floor is an
auditorium with seating capacity of about six hundred. He has
fourteen teachers under his supervision and about 350 students.
The Pearisburg High School is held in high respect in this part
of Virginia for the achievements of its athletic and other repre-
sentative teams. It has won many trophies in competition, in
basketball, baseball, and other sports. In 1925 the basketball
team won the championship of District E, and in the state con-
test at the University of Virginia stood fourth in its class. In
1924, 25 and 26 the school won the county silver cup for best
literary and athletic work. In 1927 a new cup was provided by
the county, and it is now held by the Pearisburg High School,
which has won one leg on that cup, three years of winning being
necessary for permanent possession. Near the high school build-
ing is the elementary school, a brick Colonial building, with ac-
commodations for seven grades and three rooms for domestic
science department. The eight teachers there are under the grade
supervisor. Miss Annie Brotherton. Captain Roller, in charge
of the insti-uction in vocational agi'iculture for the county, has
supervision of departments in the high schools at Newport,
Eggleston and White Gate, his assistant in this work being W. L.
Hargis, one of the teachers in the Pearisburg High School.
Captain Roller owns his home at Pearisburg and is inter-
ested in the Pearisburg Hatchery. He is a member of the Pi
Gamma Mu fraternity, is a Royal Arch Mason, member of the
Chamber of Commerce, a Democrat, and is active in the Baptist
Church, being superintendent of the Sunday School and a leader
in the Baptist Young People's Union.
He married at Fort Moultrie, South Carolina, September
10, 1918, Miss Mai-garet Boiling Atkinson, of McKinney, Vir-
ginia, where she attended public schools. She graduated in 1916
from the Randolph-Macon Woman's College at Lynchburg and
taught for several years, being assistant principal of the high
school at Waverly, Virginia. She is a Presbyterian and a member
of the Alpha Omicron Pi sorority. Her parents were John Pryor
and Sallie (Jones) Atkinson. Her father was a farmer in Din-
widdle County and died in 1909. Her mother, who still occupies
the old homestead near McKinney, has had much to do with com-
munity aflfairs there. She is a sister of Dr. J. Boiling Jones, a
prominent physician and surgeon of Petersburg, Virginia. Her
father was a Presbyterian minister, and the Jones family has
had many representatives in educational work. They deeded the
land and were instrumental in the foundation of the Sunnyside
High School, an accredited high school near McKinney. Captain
and Mrs. Roller have three children: John Baker, Jr., and Sallie
Jones, both attending public schools at Pearisburg, and Roger
Pryor.
diT, loUu<iMi U ulua /5?,^
VIRGINIA 457
William B. Peters, M. D. One of the widely known medical
men of Wise County, who has long contributed, both profession-
ally and personally, to the prestige of Southwest Virginia, is Dr.
William B. Peters, prominent citizen of Appalachia, Virginia,
eminent surgeon, health officer for fifteen years, house surgeon
of the Appalachia Masonic Hospital, a veteran officer of the
World war, and a past post commander of the American Le-
gion.
Dr. William B. Peters belongs to an old Virginia family of
German descent that many years ago was established here by
one Jacob P. Peters, who settled first in Shenandoah County but
later removed to Scott County, where he is recorded as a large
planter and citizen of local importance. Doctor Peters genera-
tions later, in 1882 was born in Scott County, Virginia, son of
Rev. William B. and Elizabeth (Templeton) Peters, and grand-
son of William Peters and W. F. Templeton, all natives of Scott
County. The Templetons were of English ancestry and, like the
Peters came early to Virginia, and both grandfathers were ex-
tensive planters before the war between the states. In this war
two uncles of Doctor Peters, Joseph and Abel Peters, were sol-
diers in the Confederate army. His father, however, was a man
of peace, a minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church, filling
many important charges during his eminently useful life.
William B. Peters' early schooldays were passed in Scott
County, Virginia, and at Bristol, Tennessee. He then entered
Shoemaker College at Gate City, Virginia, where he completed
the prescribed course and in 1904 was graduated with the degree
of A. B. His medical education followed as an alert and ambi-
tious student in the Central University of Kentucky at Louis-
ville, from which institution he was graduated in 1907 with the
degree of M. D. Subsequently he took an exhaustive course on
surgery, a branch of his profession in which he has become dis-
tinguished, in the New York City Post-Graduate School, and
throughout his professional life has continued to take advantage
of opportunities for further study in many other leading medical
centers.
Upon entering medical practice Doctor Peters selected Appa-
lachia, Virginia, as his home and field of professional eflfort, and
has never found reason to change his first favorable impressions,
while the hearty welcome he then received would, today, be of
still greater emphasis, as his fellow citizens now recognize his
worth and accord him universal confidence and esteem. He early
began to show an interest in civic matters, and through this spir-
it of general helpfulness became so well and favorably known
that general approval was expressed when President Taft ap-
pointed him to the office of postmaster. He served with complete
efficiency for one year and then retired, as by that time his prac-
tice was demanding all of his attention, particularly as he had
been appointed health officer, in which office he has continued
ever since.
Like many another medical man. Doctor Peters at the begin-
ning of the World war found himself so heavily engaged profes-
sionally in work at home that he could not feel free to set aside
his work, but later, when the Government's call became urgent
for experienced medical aid, he hesitated no longer but enlisted
in December, 1917, for either home or foreign service, in the
United States Medical Corps. For five weeks he was under mili-
tary training at Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia, and for eight weeks
at the Mitchell Aviation Field, New York, and then was assigned
458 VIRGINIA
to Manhattan Camp as camp surgeon, where he remained until
the close of the war. That his professional services were faith-
ful and appreciated is indicated by his promotion in rank from
a lieutenancy to a captaincy, the signing of the armistice taking
place before his recommendation for major had passed through
the necessary official channels. He was honorably discharged in
December, 1918.
As house surgeon of the Appalachia Masonic Hospital Doctor
Peters fills a most responsible position, being practically at the
head of this thoroughly eciuipped institution. It was established
in 1906, has fourteen beds and also conducts a training school for
nurses, its maintenance being provided for by the Masonic fi'a-
ternity, Doctor Peters himself being a Knight Templar and a
Shriner. He is physician for the Louisville & Nashville Rail-
road, and examiner for all the leading life insurance companies,
a pleasing natural personality, inspiring trust and confidence in
young and old, always having been a professional asset.
Doctor Peters married in 1911 Miss Georgia Harmon, who
was born in North Carolin-a, where her father, Rev. George Har-
mon, was a prominent minister in the Baptist Church. She was
mainly educated at Bristol, Tennessee, is a member and a past
worthy matron of the Eastern Star, and president of the Ladies
Auxilliary to the American Legion. Doctor and Mrs. Peters have
four sons: Carl, Herbert, William B., Jr., and George, aged re-
spectively, fifteen, thirteen, six and one year. The family home
is very pleasantly located with congenial friends all about them,
and they are members of the Episcopal Church.
Doctor Peters is a member of the Wise County Medical So-
ciety and its secretary in 1917; the Clinch Valley Medical Soci-
ety; the Virginia State Medical Society; and the American Medi-
cal Association. He still preserves membership in his old college
Greek letter fraternity, the Phi Chi, belongs to the American Le-
gion at Appalachia Post, of which he is a past commander, and
additionally is Legion state executive for the Ninth District of
Virginia. He has always given encouragement to substantial lo-
cal enterprises, frequently has consented to lecture before civic
bodies, and is on the directing board of the Appalachia Hotel
Corporation.
William Leonard Hargis, professor of agriculture in three
of the high schools of Giles County, is a representative of the
enthusiastic twentieth century generation of Virginians. He is
member of an old well known Russell County family.
He was born at Lebanon in Russell County, November 4,
1903, son of George J. and Henrietta (Buckles) Hargis, and
grandson of Leonard Hargis, also of Russell County, George
Hargis was born and reared in Russell County, attended public
schools and Lebanon Academy, and has made his life work
farming and stock raising. He owns a fine blue grass farm near
Lebanon and was one of the first men in that section to use
improved methods and pure bred livestock. His present hobby is
pure bred Hampshire sheep and he has some of the finest speci-
mens of that strain in Southwest Virginia. He is treasurer of
his Masonic Lodge at Lebanon and has been clerk of the Camp
of the Modern Woodmen since its organization. His wife, Hen-
rietta Buckles, is a daughter of Rev. William and Sallie (Pile)
Buckles. Her father was an early Baptist minister in South-
western Virginia. Henrietta Buckles was born and reared at
Lebanon, attended the Lebanon Academy and taught in public
pa-^ LyjUi
VIRGINIA 459
schools for several years before her marriage. She and her hus-
band are members of the Baptist Church. They had four chil-
dren: Miss Nannie B., who was educated in the Lebanon High
School, in Carson and Newman College, and lives at Lebanon ;
William Leonard ; Miss Margaret Buckles, a graduate of the
Lebanon High School, attended the Radford State Normal Col-
lege and is now a teacher at Wi.se Court House, Virginia ; and
Miss Henrietta, in the third year of the Lebanon High School.
William Leonard Hargis after graduating from the Lebanon
High School in 1922 entered Virginia Polytechnic Institute,
where he completed his work in the class of 1926. His early
training as well as his college work gave him decided qualifica-
tions for his duties as agricultural instructor for the three high
schools at White Gate, Eggleston and Newport in Giles County.
His home is at Pearisburg, from which point he supervises the
work in connection with the high schools.
Mr. Hargis is also associated as a partner with his father in
the cattle and sheep business at Lebanon. He is a member of the
Masonic fraternity, a Democrat, a Missionary Baptist, and has
taken much part in both church and Sunday School work. Mr.
Hargis is well known in college and university athletic circles,
having been the undefeated state champion and the champion
of the South Atlantic and Southern Intercollegiate group in
1926, and was placed on the All Southern wrestling team. He
was also a member of the Virginia Polytechnic football team in
1926.
John L. Crist. The history of chemistry, taken as a whole,
is a decidedly interesting one. The Egyptians, of all nations of
antiquity, appear to have had the greatest amount of chemical
knowledge, although the Chinese were very early acquainted
with the processes of dyeing and the preparation of metallic al-
loys. From the Egyptians the Greeks and Romans derived what
chemical knowledge they possessed, but added little or nothing;
and at the migration of the northern tribes and the overthrow of
the Roman Empire a stop was put for a time to the advancement
of all science in Europe. The first germs of the real science of
chemistry appear about the end of the seventeenth and beginning
of the eighteenth century, and after this chemistry has been con-
tinuous and rapid in its advancement. One of the most important
branches of chemistry is that which has to do with the manu-
facture of dyestuffs, in which connection mention is made of the
Beaver Chemical Corporation of Damascus, the only concern of
its kind in the southern states. This has been developed to large
proportions under the direct supervision and management of
John L. Crist, a practical chemist and capable business man,
who is also an important factor in the civic life of his adopted
community.
Mr. Crist was born at Vesuvius, Rockbridge County, Vir-
ginia, August 30, 1890, and is a son of William McClung and
Nancy (Bryan) Crist. His paternal great-grandfather was a
native of Holland, who immigrated to the American colonies and
settled in Virginia, where the family has since made its home and
has contributed many of its members to leading positions in
business, agricultural, political, military and civil life. John F.
Crist, the grandfather of John L. Crist, was born in Virginia,
where he passed his entire life as a planter. William McClung
Crist was born in the Old Dominion, and spent the greater part
of his life at Vesuvius, where he followed planting and died in
460 VIRGINIA
1904. He enlisted in the Confederate army at the outbreak of
the war between the states, and was assigned to the artillery
division, with which he served valiantly. He received several
minor wounds before being completely disabled at the battle of
Petersburg by the loss of one of his legs, and thus throughout
the remainder of his life was handicapped in his various opera-
tions, although always a man of industry and good judgment.
He was a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and
was devout in his adherence to the faith of the Methodist Epis-
copal Church, South. His widow still survives him. Both great-
grandfather Bryan and wife, who was a Campbell, came to
America from Scotland and located in Augusta County Virginia,
where was born their son, Elisha Bryan, an iron manufacturer,
who was one of the first to open iron furnaces in Augusta Coun-
ty. He was a man who was widely and favorably known in his
community for his high character, integrity and good citizenship.
John L. Crist acquired his early education in the country
schools of Rockbridge County, Virginia, and then pursued a
course at the high school at Woodstock, and graduated in chem-
istry with the degree of Bachelor of Science from Washington
and Lee University as a member of the class of 1912. For three
years thereafter he served as chemist at the plant of the Mathei-
son Alkali Works at Saltsville, leaving this concern to become
identified for six months with the Hooker Electro Chemical
Company of Niagara Falls, New York. His next position was
with the Federal Dye Stuff and Chemical Company of Kingsport,
Tennessee, in the capacity of chemical engineer in charge of the
chlorine department, and retained this important post during
the entire period of the World war in the manufacture of war
supplies and munitions. Late in the fall of 1918 Mr. Crist was
called to Damascus, Virginia, where he supervised the building
the plant of the Beaver Chemical Corporation for the manufac-
ture of dyes, the only concern of its kind in any of the southern
states. This has been carefully developed, step by step, new addi-
tions being constantly made, until it is now an enterprise of large
and important proportions and one that adds considerably to the
manufacturing prestige of the state. Mr. Crist is also president
of a new corporation which has recently been formed under the
corporate name of the Calcium Sulphide Corporation, which is
now engaged in the manufacture and distribution of a new fun-
gicide for the control of fungus diseases on apples, peaches and
kindred fruits, as well as fungus appearing on many plants and
flowers. This is an enterprise which appears to have much prom-
ise of filling a needed place in the industry of the common-
wealth. Mr. Crist is a wide-awake and properly progressive
young man who is thoroughly up to the minute in his knowledge
of his specialty. He is a member of the American Institute of
Chemical Engineers, The American Association of Textile Color-
ists and Chemists, and enjoys a broad and well-merited reputa-
tion in his difficult, complicated and interested calling. In his
political convictions Mr. Crist is a stanch and unwavering Demo-
crat, but has had no time in his busy career to devote to office
seeking. He is president of the Citizens Club of Damascus, an
organization of business men that has the same status as the
Chambers of Commerce in most cities, and his religious con-
nection is with the Episcopal Church.
In 1914 Mr. Crist was united in marriage with Miss Bess
Rector, of Saltville, Virginia, daughter of Leland W. and Linda
VIRGINIA 461
(Branson) Rector, both of whom are now deceased, Mr. Rector
having passed his life as a planter in Washington County. Mrs.
Crist was educated at the grammar and high schools of Salt-
ville, Smyth County, and is an active member of the United
Daughters of the Confederacy, the Community League and the
Episcopal Church. To Mr. and Mrs. Crist there has come one
son, John L., Jr., who was born at Damascus, May 20, 1923.
Gary Laughon. During a long, active and useful career Gary
Laughon has been identified with a number of lines of business
activity, in all of which he has met with success. A man of high
character and strict integi'itj', he has the full confidence of those
who have been associated with him in any line of endeavor, and
it has been his fortune to have surrounded himself with many
close and sincere friends. At present he is devoting his attention
principally to the Pulaski Motor Car Company, of which he is
half owner.
Mr. Laughon was born May 26, 1863, in Bedford County,
Virginia, and is a son of Joshua and Elizabeth (White) Laughon,
and a member of a family of Scotch-Irish origin which was
founded in Virginia by the grandfather of Mr. Laughon, a
Scotchman, who came to America in young manhood and became
a pioneer agriculturist of Bedford County. Joshua Laughon was
born in Bedford County, where he was reared and educated in a
private school and prepared for the vocation of teaching, which
he took up in young manhood. He was thus engaged at the out-
break of the war between the states, when he enlisted in General
Watts' command, which was attached to che Army of Northern
Virginia, commanded by Gen. Robert E. Lee, and rose to a cap-
taincy. During the four years of his service he participated in a
number of major engagements, and at all times showed himself
a brave and faithful soldier. At the close of hostilities he re-
turned to the duties of peace and carried on agricultural pursuits
during the remainder of his life, his death, hastened by the
hardships and privations of army life, occurring in 1877, and he
was buried in the old family cemetery in Bedford County. Mr.
Laughon married Miss Elizabeth White, who was born and
reared in Bedford County, where she received a private school
education. She and her husband were members of the Methodist
Episcopal Church, South, in the faith of which she died and she
was buried in the old family cemetery. There were seven children
in the family : One who died in infancy ; Alonzo, Walter and
Lavenia, who are deceased ; Oscar, of Pulaski, president of the
Laughon Lumber Company, a review of whose career will be
found elsewhere in this work ; Gary, of this review ; Beauregard,
who is engaged in the sand and gravel business at Pulaski, with
offices over the Pulaski Trust Company; and Joshua, who is
deceased.
Gary Laughon attended one of the many private schools that
flourished in the vicinity of his boyhood home, and his first em-
ployment was with the firm of Jones, Watts, Brothers & Com-
pany, as a clerk, at a salary of twenty dollars per month. He
remained with this concern for six years and then came to Pul-
aski, where he joined his brothers, O.scar and Beauregard, in the
hardware business, first in a store near the old depot and then
in the first store built north of Peak Creek, in Pulaski. This
partnership continued for about four years, at the end of which
time Gary Laughon sold his interests to his brothers and em-
462 VIRGINIA
barked in the cattle business and farming, and continued in that
line for twenty years. In 1908 he retui-ned to Pulaski and
embarked in the coal and stone business, with which he was iden-
tified for about fourteen years, or until 1923. In the meantime
his eldest son, Fred J. Laughon, had engaged in the automobile
business, as the Pulaski Motor Car Company, in partnership
with H. W. Steger. When Mr. Laughon's son died he took over
the latter's interest in the business and is now conducting it
with Mr. Steger, who acts as manager. Mr. Laughon is a member
of the Board of Directors of the Peoples National Bank, a direc-
tor of the Pulaski Trust Company and president of the City
Improvement Company, and is also the owner of much valuable
city property. He is a thirty-second degree Mason and belongs
to Marion Chapter, R. A. M., Acca Temple, A. A. 0. N. M. S.,
the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, and the Rotary
Club. He is a Democrat in his political convictions, and his reli-
gious faith is that of the Methodist Church.
On May 27, 1886, in Pulaski County, Mr. Laughon was united
in marriage with Miss Mollie Hage Jordan, of that county, who
was educated in public schools and at Martha Washington Col-
lege, and is active in church and social life, although more a home
maker and home lover. She is a daughter of William T. and
Letitia (Simmerman) Jordan, the former of whom for many
years was a prominent farmer and cattle man of Pulaski County.
Mr. Jordan died in 1890 and his wife, in 1908, and both were
laid to rest in the Thorn Spring Cemetery. Both the Jordan and
Simmerman families are prominent in Virginia, and Mrs.
Laughon is a granddaughter on the maternal side of John P. M.
Simmerman, of Wythe County. To Mr. and Mrs. Laughon there
have been born six children : Fred J., deceased ; Willie J. ; Lettie,
who died at the age of three and one-half years ; Mary Elizabeth,
Gary, Jr., and Lavenia.
Fred J. Laughon received his education at the Virginia Mil-
itary Institute and Emory and Henry College, following which
he returned to Pulaski and embarked in the electrical business,
having a general repair and supply shop at Pulaski for some
time. Recognizing the future of the automobile business, he
formed a partnership with H. W. Steger in organizing the auto-
mobile and garage business, which was conducted as the Pulaski
Motor Car Company. Under the able management of the part-
ners the company soon outgrew its original quarters and moved
to the present establishment near the center of Pulaski's bus-
iness district, but later it was found necessary to add several
additions to the structure, which made it finally a two-story
brick building, 175 by 110 feet. The company handles Ford and
Lincoln automobiles and Fordson trucks, as well as all acces-
sories, and its large repair shop, capable of handling any order,
is said to be one of the best in the state. Fred J. Laughon was
identified with this business until his demise July 16, 1923, when
he was buried in the Pulaski Cemetery. Willie J. Laughon, who
now resides with her father at Pulaski, is the widow of the late
H. W. Thaxton, of Bedford County, who was engaged in the real
estate business until his death in 1918. Mary Elizabeth Laughon
married M. E. Bowman, of Pulaski, treasurer and auditor of the
Pulaski Iron Company, and formerly of Roanoke, this state, and
has two children, M. Edwin and Mary Elizabeth. Gary Laughon,
Jr., a graduate of the public schools, is engaged in the junk bus-
VIRGINIA 463
iness at Pulaski. He married Miss Lois Caldwell, of Pulaski
County, and they are the parents of one child, Peggy.
Sam N. Hurst, of Appalachia, Wise County, is one of the
most versatile and gifted men among his contemporaries. In an
active career of a little more than thirty years he has been teach-
er, preacher, lawyer, author and publisher, and in his career he
has lived up well to his motto of living not for himself alone, but
for his brother, his country and his God.
Mr. Hurst was born in Pulaski County, Virginia, February
16, 1867, one of a large family of children born to Allen and Nan-
cy (Cook) Hurst. Allen Hurst was born in Pulaski County
March 2, 1825, son of Thomas and Jemima (Breeding) Hurst,
Thomas Hurst being a son of John Hurst, who was a son of Ab-
salom Hurst, the pioneer of the family in Pulaski County, Vir-
ginia. In all the generations the Hursts were pioneers, and pion-
eei'ing was the lot of Allen Hurst, who after his marriage went
with his young wife and took up a tract of raw land, cutting
down trees and building a log cabin home, and while he was in
the Confederate army his wife proved herself a heroine by re-
maining at home and looking after her children and at times tak-
ing the youngsters to the field with her, where they would lie on
a blanket-pallet while she herself followed the plow to earn a
living for her family.
Sam N. Hurst has shown much of the spirit and disposition
of the pioneer, possessing an intellectuality of a wide range and
willing to venture into new ways and methods of serving human-
ity. He had a very limited education in the rural community
where he grew up, and was fourteen years old before he began
his real education. He attended Snowville Academy in 1883-84,
the Virginia Polytechnic Institute in 1884-85, won a Peabody
scholarship which enabled him to attend the University of Nash-
ville during 1885-87, concluding with his gi'aduation and a diplo-
ma qualifying him for teaching. In the meantime he had studied
law privately, took a summer course under John B. Minor at the
University of Virginia in 1888, and was admitted to the bar
April 24, 1889. He taught in Snowville Academy, held a chair in
a college at Terrell, Texas, and also taught in the Wytheville Male
Academy in Virginia, and did some teaching in Tennessee and
Kentucky. Soon after beginning the practice of law he discov-
ered the necessity for a magistrate's guide, and that was respon-
sible for the first of his many law books, now comprising nine
works, twenty-five volumes, all well known to the legal profes-
sion throughout Virginia. Some of the better known are : Hurst's
J. P. Guide and Manual, Hurst's Digest of Virginia Decisions,
Hurst's Pocket Code of Virginia, Hurst's Annotated Virginia
Constitution, Hurst's Encyclopedia of Virginia Law. His law
books have been endorsed and have received many high commen-
dations from lawyers, judges of the Supreme Court, governors
and attorney-generals. Mr. Hurst printed and published his
books, and as a publisher was also his own advertising and sales
manager. Mr. Hurst recently published his first novel, "The
Mountains Redeemed," a story of life and love in Southwest Vir-
ginia, a work which is receiving strong reviews by the press of
the country, and is specially sponsored by Southwestern Vir-
ginia, Inc.
From the outset of his career as a lawyer Mr. Hurst was also
deeply interested in religious teaching and preaching. He joined
464 VIRGINIA
the Primitive Baptist Church in 1889, and in 1903 was ordained
to the full work of the Gospel ministry. In June, 1909, he and
his wife united with the First Baptist Church of Roanoke, and
in that year he gave up the law for the ministry. After being
ordained in the Baptist ministry he spent a year at Louisville in
the Southern Baptist Seminary and for fifteen years gave most
of his time to the work of the ministry, serving many pastorates
and circuits. On leaving his last regular charge as a minister he
located at Appalachia, where he has built up a very favorable rep-
utation and connections in the law. While in the ministry he
withdrew from the Baptist Church and became a minister of the
Virginia Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South.
He withdrew from the itinerant ministry November 15, 1926,
and returned to the law.
Mr. Hurst through all the years has continued his literary
work. One of his notable productions was "Biographical
Sketches of all Supreme Court Judges of Virginia from 1779-
1896," and "Lincoln from the Standpoint of the Southern
Lawyer."
Mr. Hurst married, February 18, 1890, Anna Louise Evans,
whom he lost July 23, 1893, leaving one daughter, Virginia L.,
born August 13, 1892. On March 6, 1895, Mr. Hurst married
Ida May Hopson, daughter of J. W. and Nancy D. (Ward) Hop-
son, her father having been a prominent Kentucky attorney. Her
father's mother was a Newberry of the Virginia Newberrys,
while her mother's mother was a Clay of the Kentucky Clays.
The children born to Mr. and Mrs. Hurst were: Erskine, born
July 12, 1897; Elsie and Ressie, twins, born January 31, 1899;
Aubrey, born August 13, 1901; Evangeline, born June 15, 1903;
Vivian, born June 15, 1905 ; Evelyn, born August 26, 1907 ; Sam-
uel N., Jr., born February 8, 1912 ; and Alliene, born September
2, 1918.
Rudolph B. Felthaus. For about fifteen years the late
Rudolph B. Felthaus was engaged in the building and contrac-
ting business at Richmond, and this period, comparatively short
as it was, served to gain him a recognized position among the
leaders of his calling and to establish for him a reputation of
being a material contributor to the development and architectural
beautification of his native city. While his activities were cut
short by death when he was still in the prime of life, he had led
an active and useful career, and the many beautiful residences
and other structures that grew under his skillful direction still
stand as monuments to his ability and substantial workmanship.
Mr. Felthaus was born in Richmond, March 3, 1867, and was
a son of William and Anna (Wotte) Felthaus, natives of Stein-
wild, Germany. His parents were married in their native land
and soon thereafter immigrated to the United States and settled
in Virginia, whence William Felthaus enlisted in the Confed-
erate army during the war between the states. At the close of
that struggle he took up his residence in Richmond, where he
passed the remainder of his life as a merchant tailor. He and
his worthy wife were the parents of seven children, of whom
Rudolph B. was the third in order of birth.
Rudolph B. Felthaus had the advantages of an excellent
educational training, attending the Richmond public schools,
the Mechanics Institute of Richmond and Belmont College of
Belmont, North Carolina. Following his graduation as a young
man he entered the employ of the Montroy Manufacturing Com-
c?S^^^ ^' t^2i-.,,.«^j^
VIRGINIA 465
pany, but after a few years turned his attention to the contract-
ing and building business, with which he was identified until his
death, February 9, 1909. Mr. Felthaus, as before noted, made a
name and reputation in his field of activity and had the esteem
and sincere admiration of his business a.ssociates, who appre-
ciated his high character and sterling integrity no less than his
skill and mastery of his business aff'airs. During his career in
addition to remodeling beautiful St. Mary's Church he contracted
for and built more than one hundred of Richmond's finest homes.
He was one of the city's most public spirited citizens, and at all
times could be depended upon to contribute to worthy enterprises
and movements. Fraternally he was affiliated with the Benevo-
lent and Protective Order of Elks, and also was a member of
St. Mary's Social Club.
On June 5, 1894, Mr. Felthaus married Miss Elizabeth Ryan,
who was educated in private schools at Richmond, and is a
daughter of James and Helen M. (Finigin) Ryan, and a grand-
daughter of Thomas Ryan, a professor at Carlow, Ireland.
James Bryan was born at Carlow, Ireland, whence he came in
young manhood to the United States, prior to the war of seces-
sion, and settled at Richmond, where he carried on merchandis-
ing for many years. His wife was born in Dublin, Ireland, and
they were the parents of twelve children, of whom Elizabeth
was the seventh in order of birth. Mrs. Felthaus, whose mother
was an educator for some years, is a woman of education and
refinement and an active member of St. Mary's Church. She
resides in an attractive home at 1614 Pope Avenue. Of the five
children born to Mr. and Mrs. Felthaus three lived to maturity :
Helen, who was private secretary to one of the oflficials of the
Richmond, Frdericksburg & Potomac Railroad for ten years,
now a social worker for the betterment of the poor of Richmond
in a quiet and unostentatious way, and a member of the Society
of Profession of Faith ; William John, who was educated at
private schools and the Junior Polytechnic Institute at Blacks-
burg, Virginia, enlisted in the World war as a member of the
famous Richmond Blues, saw active service with the Twenty-
ninth Division in France for one year, and is now a member of
the American Legion and successfully engaged in the automobile
business at Richmond ; and Elizabeth, the wife of Ernest L.
Martin, who is identified with the American National Bank of
Richmond.
LoRENZA John Ham mack is senior member of the Lawrence-
ville law firm of Hammack & Harrison. He is one of the strong
and resourceful members of the bar in Southern Virginia, has
to his credit a service record in the World war and is a member
of one of the old families of Brunswick County.
He was born in that county February 16, 1895, son of P. T.
and Alice E. (Palmer) Hammack. His father was born in
Brunswick County and his mother in Northampton County,
North Carolina. P. T. Hammack spent all his active life as a
merchant at Gasburg, Brunswick County, where he died in Sep-
tember, 1923.
Lorenza J. Hammack after the common schools spent three
years in college at Lynchburg, Virginia, and had his law work
at Washington and Lee University. He was graduated with the
LL. B. degree in June, 1917.
He at once located at Lawrenceville, and so far as the dis-
tractions of the war permitted made some attempt to build up
466 VIRGINIA
a practice. Then in January, 1918, he himself joined the colors,
becoming a chief yeoman in the navy, and spent most of his
time in transport duty. He made six round trips to France
before getting his honorable discharge in April, 1918.
After being relieved of service in the navy he returned to
Lawrenceville and started anew to build up a law practice. In
his profession he has enjoyed wonderful success and in June,
1928, he took into partnership Mr. A. S. Harrison, Jr., in order
to handle more expeditiously the large volume of law work of
the firm.
Mr. Hammack married in August, 1921, Miss Mary Heath
Raney, daughter of L. H. and Bessie (Watkins) Raney, natives
of Brunswick County. Her father is a real estate operator and
banker at Lawrenceville. Mr. and Mrs. Hammack have two
children, Lx)renza John, Jr., born October 3, 1922, and Elizabeth
Lewis, born January 6, 1924.
Mr. Hammack in addition to his law practice has farming
interests and is a member of the House of Delegates of the
Virginia Legislature, representing Brunswick County. He is a
member of the Virginia Bar Association, the Masonic fraternity.
Lions Club, American Legion, Knights of Pythias, Delta Theta
Phi legal fraternity. He is a Democrat and a member of the
Methodist Episcopal Church, South.
Paul Vinton Dalton is a native of Southwestern Virginia,
comes of a family of merchants and business men, and at the age
of thirty has become president and general manager of the Dal-
ton Grocery Company at Galax.
He was born near Hillsville in Carroll County, Virginia, Sep-
tember 27, 1897. His great-grandfather, Tom Dalton, came
from England and settled in Southwestern Virginia. The grand-
father, Jonathan Dalton, was born in 1839, and spent all his
active career as a merchant at Dugspur in Carroll County, where
he died in 1926, at the age of eighty-seven. He was a Confed-
erate soldier in the Fourteenth Virginia Regiment of Cavalry,
his name being one of those recorded on the Confederate Monu-
ment at Hillsville. Jonathan Dalton married Anis McGrady,
who came from Wales with her parents. Gordon Dalton, father
of Paul Vinton Dalton, was born at Dugspur, September 10,
1871, attended public school there, and as a young man engaged
in retail merchandising. He was a retail merchant until 1917,
at which time he established a wholesale business at Sylvatus,
Virginia. He closed this out in 1924 and resumed business as a
wholesale merchant at Radford, where he now resides. Gordon
Dalton married Lucy A. Hurst, daughter of G. M. and Jane
(Branscome) Hurst. Her father spent a number of years in
educational work, teaching about twenty terms of school. He is
now living retired at Dugspur. Jane Branscome was a daughter
of Burts Branscome, who owned several thousand acres of land
and many slaves in Carroll County. Gordon Dalton and wife
had a large family of children : Minnie M., wife of Harley Dal-
ton, of East Radford; Claudie H., now Mrs. D. C. Jennings, of
Sylvatus; Paul Vinton; Violet, wife of Ed Jennings, of Foster
Falls, Virginia; Pansy F., wife of Ray Richardson, of East
Radford; Miss Averill, born in 1911, at home; Darrell Willard,
born in 1916, attending school at East Radford; Phyllis, who
died at the age of two years, Clyne, who died when two years
old, and another who died in infancy, all of whom are buried
in the McPeak Cemetery at Dugspur.
^-Cl.^^mi^'
VIRGINIA 467
Paul Vinton Dalton was educated in public schools and as a
boy learned the retail business with his father. He spent three
years in the store at Dugspur, was with his father in the whole-
sale grocery business at Sylvatus until 1924, and in that year
moved to Galax and established the Dalton Grocery Company,
with capital of $100,000. He has built up this business until it
now supplies a large part of the retail trade in Southwestern
Virginia.
Mr. Dalton is a member of the United Commercial Travelers,
is affiliated with Fulton Lodge of Masons at Hillsville, Modern
Woodmen of America, Galax Country Club, and is a Democrat.
He married at Laurel Fork, April 23, 1917, Miss Lula A.
Jett, daughter of Burro Monroe and Lurenda (Short) Jett. Her
father was a merchant at Hillsville and formerly lived at Willis
in Floyd County. Mrs. Dalton attended public school at Hills-
ville. She is a member of the Presbyterian Church and the Dora
Green Chapter of the Eastern Star at Hillsville. Mr. and Mrs.
Dalton have two children, Cecil Vinton, born May 23, 1918, and
Paul Lynton, born April 10, 1923. The older child is in school
at Galax.
Richard Alvin Siewers for about a quarter of a century
before his death, which occurred June 18, 1909, was one of the
outstanding building contractors of the city of Richmond, and
through his business contributed in a large measure to the
constructive progress of the city in its most bustling modern
period.
Born on January 3, 1859, at Hoexter, in the province of
Westphalia, Germany, Richard A. Siewers was the third of five
children of Adolph and Elizabeth Siewers. His father was an
educator, most of whose career was engaged in the duties of
superintendent of a college in his home province.
After pas.sing through the elementary schools Richard A.
Siewers received a liberal education in the Arts and Crafts Col-
lege in his native city, whei-e he graduated with high honors,
being proficient especially in structural designing. Subsequently
he chose the latter for his life's work, combining with it the
practical work of a builder.
A few years after the death of his parents he came to Amer-
ica and settled in Richmond, Virginia, in 1880. For a time he
was employed as an architect in the offices of the Chesapeake &
Ohio Railroad. One of his characteristics was tremendous
energy for work, and in those early years he employed his night
time in studying English and otherwise perfecting himself for
the career of an American citizen and business man. Constant
application and careful thrift soon enabled him to take up the
contracting business in association with Henry Miller, under
the firm name of Siewers & Miller. When, some time afterward,
he acquired the interest of his partner, he continued the busi-
ness, including the mill and lumber department, under the firm
name of R. A. Siewers until his death.
Some of the notable buildings in Richmond and vicinity
which stand today as good examples of the substantial work of
the Siewers contracting firm are the Shenandoah Apartments,
the Bishop's Residence and the Rectory of the Sacred Heart
Cathedral, the Knights of Columbus Home, the Jewish Club,
the Merchants Cold Storage Plant, and a great number of fine
residences besides.
22— VOL. 3
468 VIRGINIA
The late Mr. Siewers was chief fire inspector for the German
American Loan Association, and held an honorary membership
in both the Police Association and Fire Association. He was a
Democrat, a member of the Knights of Columbus, and, with
his wife and children, belonged to the congregation of the Sacred
Heart Cathedral.
Mr. Siewers on February 19, 1885, married Miss Sabina Rup-
pert, the youngest of the four children of John E. and Barbara
Ruppert. She was educated in St. Benedict's Academy at Rich-
mond. Her father was a linen manufacturer in Germany, and
died shortly after settling in Virginia in 1860. Mrs. Siewers'
grandfather was a flour miller in Hessen, Germany, and at one
tim? was burgomaster of that town.
Mrs. Siewers has her home in Richmond, at 609 West Gary
St'-ect, the residence designed and built by her late husband.
Of her family of children one is dead. The oldest son, John
Chvistian, is now manager of the R. A. Siewers Planing Mill
and Lumber Yard, and is affiliated with the Knights of Colum-
bus. Rose Elizabeth Siewers married George J. Hulcher, a
Richmond druggist, and thev have three children, George, Jr.,
Ro3e Elizabeth and Sabina Siewers. Emil Richard Siewers, the
second son, is assistant manager of the R. A. Siewers Mill and
Lumber Comnany, and is a dire-^tor of the Germin-A"^erican
Loan Association. The Mioses Sabina .Tosephi"° and r"pcilia Ida
ar-" unmarried and live with their mother. Helen Julia is the
wife nf James E. Foster, chief clerk in the Richmond offices of
the Chesaneake & Ohio Railwav, and with their three children,
jiotv)':>r| H^len Siewens, Anne Cecilia and Jean Marie, live in
Richmond. Frederick W. Siewers, youngest of the three sons
who carry on the business fonnded bv their father, is office
manager of the R. A. Siewers Mill and Lumber Company.
JoT'N Franklin Calffe renresented one of the old families
of the Draners Valley community, where representatives of the
Calff^a fnmily still reside, owning land and other property in
th^it historic section and keeps up a keen interest in all civic
affairs.
John Franklin Calfee was born at Draners Valley. April 8,
1850. s'^n of James Davis and Nan'^y (Sayers') Calfee. His
father was born and reared in the Draper Valley section, at-
tended p private school and was a farmer and stock raiser until
his death in 188.^. He is buried in the Reed Island Cemetei-y.
He was a fon of John Franklin Calfee, the pioneer of the Calfee
familv i^ Drapers Valley, and who took up and developed land
at Re"d Island.
John Franklin Calfee attended a private school in Wvthe
Countv pnd h^d the distinction of teaching the first nublic school
in the Fort Chiswell District. He married Elizabeth Savers,
a daup^hter of John G. and Rachael Savers, of Draners Valley.
After his marriaee he ens-a'^ed in merchandising, at first as a
hardware merchant and later as a dealer in boots aid shoes at
Pnla'^i-i. where he remained for many vears. He died November
14, 1001. and is brried at Pine, Virginia, where he had served
as postmaster until his death. His widow snrvi^pd him and
pas=!'^d awav September 28, 1917, and is b'iried beside him.
The'-e parents had a lar^re familv of children, a brief record
of them b-^ing as follows: Ma^v Blanche, deceased, who married
W't'^r rv^fkett mavnr of Dublin, Vi'^Tinia. r"en+ioned else-
where in this publication ; Susan Jane, wife of J. H. Koger ; Miss
VIRGINIA 469
Cynthia Helen, of Drapers Valley; Sallie, wife of James Bayless;
Rachael Grayson, who died in infancy ; Nancy Hamilton, wife of
W. T. Laprod, a professor at Duke University, Durham, North
Carolina; Ruby Frances, widow of A. C. Oglesby, of Drapers
Valley, and mother of four children ; Anna Elizabeth, of Drapers
Valley; Ellen Tapscott, of Drapers Valley; John Franklin, who
is secretary with the Brown-Williamson Tobacco Company at
Winston Salem, North Carolina.
William Bane Snidow, of Pearisburg, has probably gained
as many of the substantial elements of professional success as
any of his contemporaries at the bar of Southwestern Virginia.
Mr. Snidow has won an enviable record for himself, and has con-
tributed to the distinctions of one of the oldest families in this
part of the state.
He was born at White Gate in Giles County, Virginia, March
2, 1877, and is a descendant of Christian Snidow, who was one
of the colonists who came from the Palatinate of Germany and
settled in Pennsylvania in 1727. The family lived for a number
of years in Lancaster County. His son, John Snidow, moved
from Lancaster County in 1765 to the Valley of Virginia. John
Snidow was the father of Col. Christian Snidow, a lieutenant
in the Revolutionary forces, and who was a native of Lancaster
County. Col. Christian Snidow was the father of John Snidow,
whose son, James Harvey Snidow, was grandfather of the Pear-
isburg attorney. James Harvey Snidow was a Confederate
soldier in the early years of the war, was at the battle of New
Market, and in the latter part of the war was engaged in the
performance of civil duties as official of the County Coui't. He
was a farmer, land and slave owner, and died in 1883. John D.
Snidow, father of William Bane, was born November 17, 1847,
and was a youthful Confederate soldier in the final year of the
war, being a member of French's Battery, Stark's Battalion.
William B. Snidow, his son, has in his possession his father's
parole signed by Captain Stark. John D. Snidow served for
many years in the office of sheriff of Giles County, was a farmer
by occupation, and died September 29, 1927. He and his wife
are buried at White Gate. His wife, Jane Bane, was a daughter
of Capt. William Bane, granddaughter of Col. James Bane,
whose father and grandfather also bore the name James. The
Banes were early established in the Valley of Virginia, near
Staunton. The first James Bane married Rebecca McDonald, a
granddaughter of Brian McDonald, who was massacred at Glen-
coe, Scotland, in 1680, and who was a lineal descendant of
Donald Bane, who succeeded his brother Malcolm III as King
of Scotland in the eleventh century. Mi-s. (Bane) Snidow was
educated in a private academy at White Gate under Professor
James M. Humphreys. She was a devout Presbyterian. She
died August 9, 1884. There \vere three children. "The son James
H. Snidow enlisted in the Spanish-American war in the Third
Vii'ginia Volunteers, and after it was disbanded joined the
Fourth Virginia Regiment. He spent a winter in Cuba, and
after the disbanding of the Fourth Regiment joined the Third
United States Regular Infantry, was sent to the Philippines, de-
tailed for special service as an aid to Captain Nichols in Com-
pany L of the Third Infantry. After his discharge he returned
to the United States, became a messenger for the Southern
Express Company, and w^as killed in a railroad wreck at Wil-
liamson, West Virginia, November 9, 1902. The only daughter
470 VIRGINIA
of the family, Janie, is the wife of Wharton O'Keefe, an employe
of the Norfolk & Western Railroad at Biuefield, West Virginia.
William Bane Snidow was educated in private schools at
White Gate, attended the College of William and Mary, and
studied law at the University of Virginia. He was admitted to
the Virginia bar in July, 1901, and has had more than a quarter
of a century for working out an unusually successful profes-
sional career. He has offices in the Law Building at Pearisburg.
Mr. Snidow in 1903 was elected commonwealth's attorney of
Giles County, serving four years. In 1911 he was again elected
commonwealth's attorney and reelected in 1915. During 1916 a
case arose involving a contest over taxes on the Union Tanning
Company, which Mr. Snidow for several years had represented
as counsel. There being a conflict between his private clientage
and his official duties he resigned as commonwealth's attorney
and handled the tanning company's litigation through the Court
of Appeals, a case recorded in 123 Va. 610. For his work in that
case he received a fee of five thousand dollars, up to that time
the largest fee ever paid an attorney by any client in Giles
County. About the same time Mr. Snidow was retained by the
Byrnes heirs to recover certain lands in Bland County, these
lands having become very valuable because of the deposits of
manganese ore, a metal that was indispensable during the World
war. In that case he was associated with Senator Roland E.
Chase, of Dickenson County. They won the case, and again he
received a fee of five thousand dollars.
Mr. Snidow in 1919 was elected a member of the Virginia
General Assembly, serving one term. By appointment of Judge
Fulton Kegley he was examiner of records from 1909 to 1916.
Probably the most famous of all the cases in which Attorney
Snidow has participated was that originally known as Johnson
versus Day, involving the construction of the will of John How-
ard Wilburn. Mr. Snidow represented the illegitimate child of
Ada Wilburn, the only daughter of the testator, John Howard
Wilburn. The case will be found in the Supreme Court Report,
145 Va. 721, where it is entitled Snidow versus Day. Mr. Sni-
dow secured a decision favorable to his client, who was awarded
all the Wilburn property. The court fixed the fee of eight
thousand dollars for the services of Mr. Snidow in this instance.
Mr. Snidow is deeply versed in the law and for many years
ha.s been an enthusiastic student. His law library comprises
about three thousand volumes, and he also has a library of equal
size of general and historical work. He is a member of the
Virginia and American Bar Associations, belongs to the Sons
of the American Revolution, is a Knight Templar Mason, and
a Republican in politics.
He married at Barboursville, Orange County, Virginia, Feb-
ruary 28, 1905, Miss Sadie Patton Slaughter, daughter of Dr.
Alfred E. and Eugenia (Taylor) Slaughter. Her great-grand-
father, Capt. Phillip Slaughter, was a captain of the Culpeper
minute men in the Revolution. Her grandfather. Dr. Thomas
Towles Slaughter, married Jane Chapman, daughter of Rey-
nolds Chapman, who married the daughter of Gen. William
Madison, brother of President James Madison. Mrs. Snidow
was educated in Randolph-Macon Woman's College at Lynch-
burg and taught for several years before her marriage. She is
a member of the Episcopal Church. Four children were born
to the marriage of Mr. and Mrs. Snidow: William Bane, Jr.,
was educated in the College of William and Mary, is a Kappa
VIRGINIA 471
Alpha, and is now at Brooks Field, San Antonio, Texas, studying
aviation ; Eugene Tilghman graduated from Stuai't Hall at
Staunton in 1925, later attending Randolph-Macon Woman's
College ; John Temple is in his second year at the College of
William and Mary, and is a member of the Kappa Alpha; and
Carroll is attending the Pearisburg High School.
Levin James Houston, Jr., city manager of the City of
Fredericksburg, has many qualifications for the technical and
administrative duties in connection with that office. He is a
prominent consulting engineer, and has done a vast amount of
work in the field of civil engineering, in connection with railroad
building and maintenance, and has been employed on many proj-
ects involving problems of municipal and sanitary engineering.
Mr. Houston was born at Stockton, Worcester County, Mary-
land, October 22, 1881. Both his paternal and maternal ancestors
have lived in Worcester County, Maryland, for eight generations.
His parents were Levin J. and Sarah (Mezick) Houston. His
father during the Civil war was captain of a Flag of Truce
steamer engaged in the exchange of prisoners between the North
and South. After the war he was in business as a merchant at
Stockton, also operated a mill, oyster plant and two farms. He
was born in 1841 and died in November, 1906. His wife was
born in 1846, and is still living at Stockton.
Levin J. Houston, Jr., was reared and educated in the town
where he was born in Maryland, and had a liberal education.
He graduated with the Bachelor of Arts degree from the Mary-
land Agricultural College of the University of Maryland at Col-
lege Park with the class of 1898. He continued his technical
training in Cornell University of New York, where he took the
degree in civil engineering in 1901.
On leaving Cornell Mr. Houston went with the Canadian
Pacific Railway, beginning as transit man. Within a few months
he was assigned to experimental work in connection with utiliz-
ing the momentum stored in a train in ascending grades, and
subsequently published in the transactions of the Society of Civil
Engineers of Cornell a thesis on the subject "Momentum Grades
on Railroads," and this publication has ever since been used for
textbook purposes at Cornell. During the next two years he had
charge of new construction work and the maintenance of way
from Lake Superior to Winnipeg. He next became division en-
gineer of the Chesapeake & Ohio Railway on the old Kentucky
Division, with headquarters at Ashland, Kentucky, for one year.
Leaving that and going to Baltimore, he was one of the con-
struction engineers for the city's sewerage commission six years,
and during the next year was assistant city engineer and assis-
tant chief engineer of the paving commission.
Mr. Houston since 1913 has had an extensive pi'ivate prac-
tice in engineering, largely of a consulting natui-e. In 1916, in
addition to this practice, he was made chief engineer of the Poto-
mac Ship Building Company at Quantico, Virginia, and in 1917
was made assistant manager as well as engineer. In October,
1918, he accepted his present post as city manager of Freder-
icksburg, and has been the engineering and administrative
authority in practical charge of all the city's business during the
past eleven years. Mr. Houston in 1927 was honored with elec-
tion as president of the League of Virginia Municipalities. In
addition to the heavy routine of his work as city manager Mr.
Houston prepared the interesting pamphlet on "Historical Fred-
472 VIRGINIA
ericksburg," and he also prepared the map of the city showing
the location of its many points of historical interest.
He married, December 17, 1903, Miss Mary Wilmer of Bal-
timore, who was born in that city February 12, 1884, daughter
of Lemuel and Henrietta (Robertson) Wilmer. Her parents
were born in Charles County, Maryland, and her father for many
years was a Government official in Baltimore. He died in 1884,
and her mother is now eighty-nine years of age, residing with
her daughter, Mrs. Houston. Mr. and Mrs. Houston have three
children : Levin James III, born January 30, 1905, who gradu-
ated from the Virginia Military Institute, remained as an in-
structor there one year, and is now an art student in New York.
The second son, Lemuel Wilmer, born February 14, 1909, also
attended Virginia Military Institute and is now engaged in
newspaper work at Fredericksburg. The youngest child is Mary
Wilmer, born December 3, 1911, and now a student attending
Westhampton College, of the University of Richmond at Rich-
mond, Virginia.
Mr. Houston is a Royal Arch Mason, member of the B. P. 0.
Elks, the Mansfield Hall Country Club, is a Democrat and mem-
ber of the Episcopal Church. He is a vestryman in Trinity
Church. He is eligible to membership in the Sons of the Ameri-
can Revolution, and his wife has qualifications for being enrolled
as a daughter of the American Revolution. While at the univer-
sity of Maryland he was manager of the baseball team. Mr.
Houston was a member of the Gamma Alpha fraternity and
president of his Chapter, and was president of the Maryland
Club at Cornell University.
George A. Allen, the chairman of the Bland County Demo-
cratic Committee, is one of the popular native sons of that section
of Virginia, is a member of families that have lived there for
several generations, and his own career has been devoted to the
livestock and farming industry.
He was born at Ceres, Virginia, February 19, 1893, son of
W. B. and Maggie T. (Hudson) Allen. His grandfather was
William Allen, son of the Scotch founder of this branch of the
family in Southwestern Virginia. William Allen was born at
Poplar Hill in Giles County and spent all his life there. W. B.
Allen was a farmer and dealer in livestock, and for a number of
years held the office of commissioner of revenue in Bland County.
He was a member of the Masonic fraternity. He died in 1926
and his wife, on March 8, 1901, and both are buried in the Ceres
Cemetery. His wife was a teacher before her marriage. W. B.
Allen and wife had five children : William, a farmer on the old
homestead at Ceres ; George A. ; Rev. James L., a minister of the
Methodist Episcopal Church, South, at Ceres; A. B. Allen, of
White Gates, Virginia ; and Elizabeth, a teacher in the public
schools at Rocky Gap.
George A. Allen attended public schools in Bland County,
completed a course in the National Business College at Roanoke
in 1916, and immediately thereafterwards joined his father in
the cattle business. In October, 1917, he answered the call to the
colors, going into training at Camp Lee for three months, was
then transferred to the Veterinary Corp of Camp Greene, North
Carolina, and remained until after the armistice. He was hon-
orably discharged at Camp Greene, February 7, 1919.
Mr. Allen after the war followed farming and the business
of livestock dealer at White Gates, Virginia, until February,
1923, when he retui-ned to Bland County and bought a large
JAMES HAYES. I
VIRGINIA 473
blue gi'ass farm of over 800 acres, using- this for general farm-
ing and cattle raising.
Mr. Allen was elected county chairman of the Democratic
partj' in Bland County in February, 1928, and very systematic-
ally organized the county for the campaign of that year. He is a
member of the American Legion and the Methodist Church. At
Bland, Virginia, June 25, 1919, he married Miss Ethel Newberry,
who was educated in public schools in Bland County, in Sullins
College, and is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church.
Her parents were L. M., Sr., and Louise (Bird) Newberry. Mr.
and Mrs. Allen have three children, Donald, George A., Jr., and
Edwin, Donald being a student in public schools.
James Hayes was a business man whose cai-eer was identi-
fied with Fredericksburg, and he represented a family that has
been in Virginia for several generations. He was born at Rich-
mond, and died there in 1908.
His grandfather, a wealthy planter and business man of the
state, also named James Hayes, was born in England in 1760
and died October 6, 1804, at the age of forty-four. This James
Hayes married Mrs. Ann Bent Hardiman, the daughter of a
well-to-do Scotchman, William Black, who had owned the Falls
Plantation or Aberdeen, as it was sometimes called, just below
Manchester. Ihe date of that marriage is not known, as the
family register was destroyed by the British during the Revolu-
tionary war. James Hayes succeeded to the ownership of that
property, and he is also remembered as having been publisher
of the Virginia Gazette. He figured in an episode interesting to
recall as showing the general dread of the recurring epidemics
of smallpox a century or more ago. Such an epidemic broke
out in 1793-94, and James Hayes moved his family into Rich-
mond, but attempted to visit his Falls River Plantation every
day. In doing so he violated the quarantine and the residents
and his neighbors near the plantation objected to his visits, and
for a time he was confined at the Chesterfield courthouse, and
he and his friends gathered a large number of armed men about
them with a view to resisting forcibly the quarantine, but even-
tually the matter was peaceably settled.
William Black, of Scotland, lived at Falls Plantation, which
he called Aberdeen, opposite Richmond, Virginia. He married
Ann Dent, of Maryland. Their daughter, Ann Dent Hardiman
(widow), married James Hayes, of England. James Hayes,
born in 1760, died October 6, 1804. Ann Dent Hardiman Hayes,
his wife, died November 13, 1831. Their son. Dr. John Hayes,
died October 22, 1834. Delia Hayes, daughter of James Hayes,
died August 2, 1842. Dr. John Hayes married Ann Sommer-
ville Knox, of Fredericksbure, Virginia. They left two sons
and two daughters, James Hayes, Mary Ann Hayes, Sarah
Stuart Hayes and John Hayes. Delia Hayes married Herbert
A. Claiborne. They left several sons and one daughter.
Ann Dent Hayes married Alexander McRae, lieutenant gov-
ernor of Virginia and prosecuting attorney in the Aaron Burr
trial. He studied law with Chief Justice John Marshall and
was the devoted friend of President James Monroe. Their chil-
dren were Amanda Pamela, James Hayes, Alexander, Richard
and Ann Dent. The sons never married. Amanda married
John J. Werth. Their children were: John .James Rhodes,
Henry Hobai'd and Ann Dent. James Rhodes married Mary
Herndon Maury, daughter of Commodore Mathew Fontaine
474 VIRGINIA
Maury. Ann Dent married James Dunlop. They left James N.,
Ann Dent, Margaret Carlisle, Richard Alexander II, Amanda
Pamela and Frank Deane.
A son of this wealthy planter and publisher was Dr. John
Hayes, who became a prominent physician. Doctor Hayes mar-
ried Anne Somerville Knox, of Fredericksburg, Virginia, daugh-
ter of Mary McBryde Rieley. The Knox family are direct
descendants of the Earl of Ranfurly, Ireland. Dr. John Hayes
was the father of the late James Hayes, of Fredericksburg.
Doctor Hayes, with his grandmother Hayes, his grandfather
Black, his sisters and a twin brother of Delia Claiborne, are
buried at Falls Plantation. Dr. John Hayes died of Asiatic
cholera October 22, 1834.
James Hayes spent all his active business career in the
wholesale grain trade. He married at Richmond in June, 1861,
Miss Elizabeth Travers Green, member of the distinguished
Green family of Virginia. Mrs. Hayes died May 18, 1929, and
is buried in the Green section, Hollywood Cemetery, Richmond,
Virginia.
Elizabeth Travers Green was a descendant of William Green,
who served as a soldier to King William of Orange. His son,
Robert Green, born in 1695, came to Virginia when about
twenty-two years old with his maternal uncle, William Duff, a
Quaker, and settled in King George County. They were asso-
ciated as partners with Joist Rite and Robert McKay in the
settlement of those wonderfully rich tracts of land in what is
now known as Shenandoah Valley. Lord Fairfax claimed these
lands by nominal grant, and this was the origin of a famous
lawsuit which was contested before the courts for many years
and which was finally settled in 1786 in favor of the Joist Rite
claimants. George Washington was the surveyor who ran the
lines for Lord Fairfax.
Col. John Williams Green, of Green Wood, Culpeper County,
fourth of the seven sons of Robert Green and his wife, Eleanor
Dunn Green, was a soldier of the Revolution, participating in
the battles of Brandywine, Monmouth and Guilford Court
House. He was a member of George Washington's staff and a
friend of General La Fayette, whom he entertained at Green
Wood in 1825. He married Sussana Blackwell, daughter of
William Blackwell. They were the parents of William Green,
who married Lucy Clayton Williams. A son of this marriage
was John Williams Green, born November 9, 1781, and who died
in 1834. He was a soldier in the War of 1812, having risen to
the rank of colonel. He equipped a company in Fredericksburg
and carried them to Norfolk at his own expense. He served as
a chancellor of the commonwealth, member of the Legislature
and as judge of the Supreme Court of Appeals. Judge Green
married in 1805 Mary Browne, a greatniece of Mary Washing-
ton and a direct descendant of Sir Walter Raleigh, and the oldest
of their four sons was William Green. By a second marriage
he was the father of Thomas Claiborne Green, who also had a
long career as a judge and president of the Court of Appeals.
William Green, son of Judge John Williams Green, was born
at Fredericksburg November 10, 1806, and finished his law
studies under his father. He practiced law in Culpeper, Rappa-
hannock, Orange and Louisia counties, and in 1855 moved to
Richmond, there better to look after his extensive business in
the courts of the state. He lived out his life there, dying July 27,
1880, and is buried in Hollywood Cemetery. He became pro-
ELIZABETH TRAVERS GREEN HAYES
VIRGINIA 475
fessor of law in Richmond College in 1870, and he was vice
president of Virginia Historical Society and for a long time
chairman of its executive board. During the Civil war he was
in the treasury department of the Confederate states, and after
the war became judge of the tribunal known as the Court of
Conciliation.
William Green married, April 6, 1837, Columbia Elizabeth
Slaughter, daughter of Samuel and Virginia (Stanard) Slaugh-
ter, of Western View, the latter a daughter of William and Eliza
(Carter) Stanard. Betty Washington Lewis, while visiting
Elizabeth Carter, her daughter, wife of Charles Carter, owner
of Western View, died there in 1797 and is buried there. Slaugh-
ter, Stanard and Carter are all names of distinguished families
of Virginia. William Green by this marriage had two children,
one being Elizabeth Travers Green Hayes and the other, John
Williams Green, a gallant soldier of the Confederacy who was
killed while gallantly leading his chai'ge at the battle of Liberty
Mills in ]\Iadison County, Virginia, September 22, 1863.
Jlr. and Mrs. James Haj'es had a family of eleven children:
John Green Hayes, a tobacco merchant, married Mildred Boyd
and has a son, John Green Hayes, Jr. ; William Green Hayes is
a state department employe at Richmond ; Etta is the widow of
John Hyatt Wight, who was vice president of the Fidelity Trust
Company of Baltimore, and her home is in Richmond, at 817
Floyd Avenue ; Anne Somerville married Ewing Eaches, a stock
and bond broker at Louisville, Kentucky, and had two children,
Katherine Ewing, wife of Robert Coleman Walker, a Philadel-
phia attorney, and mother of two sons, Robert Coleman, Jr., and
James Ewing Walker, and Miss Elizabeth Travers Green
Eaches; Columbia Stanard is the widow of William James
Walker; IMiss Elizabeth Travers Hayes was the fifth child; Mary
Stuart married Axel Gustave IMathiason, a chemist and experi-
mental engineer; Virginia Carter married Frank Wheatley
McCullough, of Norfolk, and has two children, Virginia Carter
and A'an: and Lucy Green is the wife of Thomas Stokes, of Elk
Hill, Virginia.
Rev. H. Guthrie Allen was a soldier overseas during the
World war, is a native son of Virginia, a graduate of old Hamo-
den Svdney College, and after the war he took up study for the
ministry, and his present assignment is as pastor of the Presby-
terian congregation at Max Meadows.
Rev. Mr. Allen was born in Prince Edward County, Virginia.
January 6, 1892, son of Frank E. and Mary Belle (Ander.-on)
Allen, grandson of Joseph Allen, and great-grandson of Sims
Allen. His paternal line goes back to James Allen of Hanover, as
follows: Rev. H. Guthrie Allen; Frank E. Allen; Jos3ph Watson
Allen ; Sims Allen ; John Allen, sergeant in Virginia Conti-
nentals in the Revolutionary war, and died in 1816 ; James Allen,
Sr., Cumberland and Prince Edward Counties; Jamss Allen, of
Hanover County, Virginia. The maternal-paternal ancestry line
includes: Rev. H. Guthrie Allen, Mary (Anderson) Allen,
Charles T. Anderson, Francis Anderson, Thomas Anderson, who
died before 1806, and James Anderson who died before 1782.
Sims Allen was a farmer in Prince Edward County and married
a niece of the famous South Carolina statesman, John C. Cal-
houn. The Allen family has lived in Virginia since early Colonial
times. Joseph Allen was a Confederate soldier, and after the war
lived out his life on his plantation in Prince Edward County. He
476 VIRGINIA
married Letitia McDearmon, and both are buried in the Douglass
Church Cemetery. Frank E. Allen was born and reared in
Prince Edward County, attended public schools there, and up to
the age of thirty-two followed business as a contractor for the
building of bridges with the Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad and
the Yadkin Valley Railroad. Since giving up contracting work
he has been a farmer, and he and his wife now reside at Darling-
ton Heights. His wife was born and reared in Prince Edward
County, was educated in school there, and both she and her hus-
band are members of the Presbyterian Church. Her parents
were Charles T. and Mary Etta (Guthrie) Anderson, well-to-do
Prince Edward County farmers. Charles T. Anderson was a son
of Frank Anderson, grandson of Thomas Anderson and great-
grandson of James Anderson, of Cumberland County, Virginia.
Frank E. Allen and wife had five children ; H. Guthrie ; Charles,
who died in infancy ; Miss Mary Margaret, who is a graduate of
the Farmville State Teachers College with the class of 1920, now
teaching in the public schools at Max Meadows ; Francis
Anderson, who died at the age of nineteen, while a student at
Hampden Sydney College; and Marietta Letitia, who was edu-
cated in public schools and the Farmville Teachers College,
taught a year or two, then took up the work of the Presbyterian
Assembly School at Richmond, in preparation for home mission-
ary work, for about two years, and is now the wife of J. W.
Elliott, a farmer and postal employe at Darlington Heights.
H. Guthrie Allen was educated in public schools in Prince
Edward County, graduated from the Cluster Springs Academy
in 1913, and took his A. B. degree at Hampden-Sydney College
in 1917.
In December, 1917, he joined the colors, receiving his first
training at Fort Thomas, Kentucky, then at Camp Hancock,
Georgia, until April, 1918, was at Camp Greene, at Charlotte,
North Carolina, until July, 1918, when he went overseas with
Company Eighteen of the Fourth Regiment, Motor Mechanics,
in the Aviation Corps. He landed at LeHavre, France, was at
St. Jean De Monts until Christmas, 1918, and then at St. Nazaire,
France, and from March, 1919, to August was a student with the
American Expeditionary Forces at Cambridge University in
England. He enlisted as a private, was promoted to sergeant,
and was a second lieutenant when honorably discharged at Camp
Meade, Maryland, in September, 1919.
Mr. Allen after his return from overseas spent three years
in the Union Theological Seminary at Richmond, graduating in
1922 with the Bachelor of Divinity degree. In June of that year
he was ordained in the Presbyterian ministry and at once ac-
cepted the call to the pastorates at Max Meadows in Wythe
County, and has enjoyed a most profitable relationship with this
community, having a loyal congregation, accepting the oppor-
tunities for disinterested service to the people of his church, and
for four years of this time he has also combined the duties of the
ministry with the principalship of the Max Meadows High
School.
Rev. Mr. Allen is a member of Theta Chi fraternity of Ham-
den Sydney College, is a member of the Max Meadows Business
Men's Club, is a Democrat and a member of the Abingdon Pres-
bytery.
He married at Charlotte Court House, Virginia, June 28,
1922, Miss Carrie Anderson, daughter of Frank and Mary (Car-
son) Anderson, residents of Charlotte Court House. Mrs. Allen
/^^^^In^X^-^Z^^
VIRGINIA 477
was educated in public schools, in the Williamsburg Institute
and the State Teachers College at Farmville, and taught for
about two years before her marriage. She was a very de\out
Presbyterian. Mrs. Allen died November 19, 1927, and is buried
in the Douglas Church Cemetery in Prince Edward County.
Albert Pendleton Strother. With thirty-five counties
under his supervision as division chief of the Internal Revenue
Department, Albert Pendleton Strother, of Roanoke, is one of
the very important figures in governmental work in Virginia,
and is handling the affairs of his office with great capability.
For years prior to his appointment to his present office he had
proved his worth as a business man and good citizen, and his
selection met with the approval of his district. i\Ir. Strother
was born in Giles County, Virginia, in 1873, a son of Philip and
Nannie (Pendleton) Strother, natives of Virginia, he born in
Culpeper County and she in Giles County, both of whom are
deceased, having passed away at a ripe old age. The father
was a distinguished law-yer, educated in Columbia College,
Washington, District of Columbia. During the latter part of his
life he was engaged in practice in West Virginia, where he had
as his clients some of the largest coal operators of that state.
Seven children were born to the parents, those living being:
Hon. James French Strother, who served in the National Con-
gress from the Fifth Congressional District of West Virginia,
and resides in Welch, that state; Mrs. Joseph G. Barnes, who
resides in Tazewell County, Virginia, where her husband is
engaged in farming and merchandising: Elizabeth R., who lives
in Pearisburg, Giles County, Virginia ; Albert Pendleton, whose
name heads this review ; Mrs. Ira C. Hale, who resides in Giles
County, Virginia, Avhere her husband has business interests: and
Lucy, who married G. L. Morris, of Botetourt County, Virginia,
a farmer and cattleman. The father was an Episcopalian and
a Republican. During the war between the states he served in
the Confederate army as a lieutenant, and was very serious'y
injured in the battle of Spotsylvania, May 12, 1864. His father,
James F. Strothers, was also a lawyer, and served in the Vir-
ginia Legislature for many years, and for tw-elve years was
speaker of the House. Subsequently he was a member of the
National Congress for two terms. The paternal great-grand-
father, George French Strother, was still another member of
the fam.ily to go to Washington, he having been a member of
the National Congress in 1817, but resigned the office to go to
Saint Louis, Missouri, in the interests of the Federal Gov-
ernment.
Albert Pendleton Strother attended the public schools in
Tazewell County and Tazewell College at Williamsburg, Vir-
ginia. He began his life career as a farmer, and continued in
that occupation for twenty years, and then relinquished it to
become assistant cashier of the sergeant-at-arms of the House
of Representatives for three years. On July 9, 1921, i\Ir.
Strother came to Roanoke to assume his present duties, and has
remained here ever since, becoming one of the city's highly val-
ued residents.
In 1903 Mr. Strother married Miss Alice Williams, who was
born in Giles County. Virginia, a sister of John W. Williams,
clerk of the House of Delegates. Mr. and Mrs. Strother have
two children : Philio William, who was educated in the schools
of W^ashington, D. C, and is now living at Washington, D. C.;
478 VIRGINIA
and James William, who attended the Roanoke and Washing-
ton, D. C, public schools, the Greenbrier Military School at
Lewisburg, West Virginia, Virginia Military Institute and Wil-
liam and Mary College, and is in the employ of the Virginia
Railroad Company. Mr. Strother is an Episcopalian, while his
wife is a Methodist. He is a Republican, and very active in
party affairs. From 1908 to 1912 he served as a member of
the Virginia Senate; was an elector-at-large on the ticket with
William Howard Taft, and is regarded as one of the very astute
politicians of this part of the state. In spite of the fact that
since he assumed control of his division the business has in-
creased many times over, his administration has been marked by
the promptness and accuracy of its operation, and he is regarded
as the very best man that could be found for the place in
question.
Randolph Marshall Graves. A progressive young business
man and a native son of the busy and beautiful city of Bristol,
Virginia, is found in Randolph Marshall Graves, realtor, mine
manager, veteran of the World war, and officer in the United
States Reserve Corps. Lieutenant Graves is a worthy represen-
tative of old and distinguished Virginia families that for gener-
ations have been identified with the history and substantial
development of this state.
Randolph Marshall Graves was born at Bristol, Washington
County, Virginia, August 30, 1897, son of Herbert Elgin and
Patsy (Cochran) Graves, and has one sister and one brother:
Susie Katherine, who is the wife of Ralph W. Ealand, a mine
operator at Santa Barbara, California; and Benjamin Conway,
who is assistant superintendent of the High Rock Knitting Com-
pany at Bristol.
The late Herbert Elgin Graves was born in 1858 in Halifax
County, Virginia, and came to Bristol in 1878, where his death
occurred on September 17, 1924. He had been a very active
business man here, having large real estate and mine interests
during all this interval with the exception of five years when he
was in the cattle trade in Liverpool, London and Paris as business
representative of his step-father, Col. James Byers, an extensive
dealer at that time. His father, Capt. Henry Vinson Graves,
grandfather of Randolph Marshall Graves, was a noted civil
engineer at Richmond, Virginia, and connected with railroad
construction prior to the Civil war, during which period he
served with distinction as an officer in the Confederate army.
The founder of the Graves family in Virginia was born in Eng-
land and when he came to the United States was accompanied
by two brothers, one of whom settled in Connecticut and the
other in Louisiana. In political sentiment the late Herbert Elgin
Graves was a Republican, and he was a faithful member of the
Presbyterian Church. His marriage with Miss Patsy Cochran
brought the Graves family into kinship with another prominent
old Virginia connection, the Cochrans, of Scotch-Irish extraction,
having come to the American colonies in Colonial days and
many later proving heroic qualities as patriot soldiers in the
Revolutionary war. The maternal grandfather of Randolph
Marshall Graves, Col. James Cochran, was born at Staunton,
Virginia, and became eminent in the law and influential in
Republican politics in the state. For many years he published
a newspaper at Culpeper and also served as postmaster, was
nl«
1
VIRGINIA 479
very active in Masonic affairs and liberal in his support of the
Presbyterian Church.
Randolph Marshall Graves, with his sister and brother, was
afforded exceptional educational advantages. After completing
his course in the Virginia High School at Bristol Mr. Graves
entered Bingham Military School at Mebane, Accomac County,
North Carolina, then moved on to Riverside Military Academy
at Gainesville, Georgia, and then became a student in the Uni-
versity of Virginia. His military school training, without his
knowledge, partly prepared him for a later period of his life, for
in 1917 he enlisted for real soldiering, and with a contingent
from Bristol was sent to Fortress Monroe to be prepared for
overseas service in the World war, but before the unit to which
he was attached was called to activity the need for further
transportation of troops to a foreign land was over, and he
received his honorable discharge November 21, 1918.
Upon his return to Bristol Mr. Graves became interested in
the real estate business, in which his father had so long and
successfully been engaged, and has continued in this line ever
since, and under his wise and intelligent methods and manage-
ment large and desirably situated sections of land have been
developed and highly improved recently, including such choice
residential additions to Bristol as Lee Heights and Highland
Park. Since the death of his father the latter's extensive mining
properties have been under his control, a heavy business respon-
sibility. These Feldstar mines are of great value, providing the
minei'al clay the kaolin, that is the essential element in the
making of fine pottery, an industry of large importance here
and elsewhere.
Earnest and hard-working, every civic interest of Bristol is
dear to him as his native city, and he not only commands the
confidence of his fellow citizen but also their esteem. He is a
member of the Presbyterian Church and belongs to the Bristol
lodge of Elks and to the Country Club.
Harry Eugene Ould. One of the largest and most pros-
perous mercantile establishments in Giles County is the W. T.
Ould Store at Glenlyn, now under the active management of
Harry Eugene Ould, who became associated with the business
at an early age and was well qualified to carry on the active
responsibilities after the death of his father, the late Walter
T. Ould.
Walter T. Ould was a highly regarded citizen of Giles County
and a most capable business man. He was born in Campbell
County, Virginia, November 22, 1860, son of John Thomas Ould,
a native of the same county, and grandson of John Thomas
Ould, who came from Ireland. Walter T. Ould was reared and
educated in Campbell County, and as a young man learned the
trade of shoemaker. He followed that occupation until 1888.
It was in that year, forty years ago, that he moved to Glenlyn
and .started a store carrying a general stock of merchandise.
He kept the business steadily growing and increasing its scope
of service throughout the rest of his life. He was also deeply
.interested in the welfare of his community and was mayor of
Glenlyn at the time of his death, which occurred April 16,
1927. He was buried in the Fairview Cemetery at Narrows.
Walter T. Ould married Lula Tiller, who was born and
reared in Mercer County and was educated in public schools
there. She is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church,
480 VIRGINIA
South, and is affiliated with the Union Church at Glenlyn.
Of her five children one died in infancy. The daughter Etta
Carrene is Mrs. George C. Moore, of Parkersburg, West Vir-
ginia, and has a daughter, Madeline Carrene. Harry Eugene
Ould is the secontl in age. Eula Earline is Mrs. Emory Johnson,
of Pearisburg, Virginia, and has a son, Thomas Eugene. Miss
Blanche Evelyn Ould is a graduate of the Pearisburg High
School and is at home.
Harry Eugene Ould was born at Glenlyn, attended public
schools there and at the age of fourteen was helping his father
in the store. The business is still conducted as the W. T. Ould
Estate, of which he is the active administrator. He is unmar-
ried and is a member of the Knights Templar Masons and Kazim
Temple of the Mystic Shrine at Roanoke. He is a Democrat, a
Methodist and a member of Southwestern Virginia, Incorpo-
rated.
Rev. Clyde Jones Walsh. The clergy of today face prob-
lems more serious than have come before those of their profes-
sion for many years. The latitude of the post-war period and
distractions of modern life, the tendency of the age toward a
disregard of the principles of the older generation, all are grave
matters for anyone to handle, and especially for the men whose
lives are devoted to religious work. That all are not influenced
by the above mentioned conditions is fortunately true, but there
are enough of them to create a serious state of afi'airs, and one
that requires the continued efforts of these "Men of God," if a
betterment is to be looked for in the near future. One of these
men who is accomplishing much in the good cause is Rev. Clyde
Jones Walsh, pastor of the Presbyterian Church of Dublin, Pu-
laski County, and a vital force in his community.
Reverend Walsh was born in Charlotte, North Carolina,
January 17, 1888, a son of Thomas D. and Rose (Williamson)
Walsh. Thomas D. Walsh was born and reared in Charlotte,
and attended several excellent private schools of that city. Later
he entered Andersonville College, and was graduated therefrom.
With the outbreak of war between the states he enlisted in the
Southern army, and served as a brave soldier until peace was
declared. After the close of the war he went on the road as a
traveling salesman, and continued in that line of work until his
death in 1908. He is buried in the cemetery in Charlotte. His
father was Rev. Tracy D. Walsh, one of the pioneer Methodist
ministers of Charlotte and that section of North Carolina, and
for many years served as president of Andersonville College.
The family came to Charlotte, North Carolina, from South Caro-
lina and became prominent in its affairs.
Mrs. Rose (Williamson) Walsh was born and reared at Pine-
ville, North Carolina, and she was educated in its private schools
and those of Statesville, and the Statesville Female College. Her
father. Dr. Eldred Williamson, was a practicisg physician of
Pineville, North Carolina, for many years. Mrs. Walsh is a zeal-
ous member of the Presbyterian Church, and she still resides in
Charlotte. Six children were born to her and her husband who
lived, and two who died in infancy. Those living are : Edna, .
Walter, Tom, Robert, Reverend Walsh and Rose.
Reverend Walsh first attended the public schools of Char-
lotte and later Charlotte Military Institute, and was graduated
therefrom in 1907. For the subsequent eleven years he was in
the hotel business, but during all of that period he cherished the
^^ /V, v^i:^L-c^.^^c.4-t-ot_^>^»^,^^
VIRGINIA 481
hope of entering the ministry, and in iyi6 entered Union Theo-
logical Seminary and was graduated therefrom in 1919. Follow-
ing his graduation he was assigned as pastor of the Presbyterian
Church at Elon, Amherst County, Virginia, and remained there
for six years, during which time he accomplished some very
effective work, and when he left his people were loath to let him
go. In October, 192.5, he came to Dublin, Virginia, as pastor of
the Dublin group of Presbyterian Churches, which includes the
church at Dublin, the one at New Dublin and the one at Bel-
spring. Here he has a splendid field for work, and he is put-
ting into it strength, talent, zeal and consecrated work, with
results that are most encouraging. He is a Master Mason, be-
longing to Henry Clay Lodge, Dublin, Virginia; and he is a mem-
ber of the local lodges of the Modern Woodmen and Independent
Order of Odd Fellows. In 1928 he served as vice president of
the Business Men's Club of Dublin. He is now attached to the
Appalachian Synod of the Presbyterian Church. In political
faith he is a Democrat.
On October 1, 1919, Reverend Walsh married in Greensboro,
North Carolina, Miss Alma Louise Henley, of that city, who
had the misfortune to lose her mother in early childhood, and
she was reared by Judge T. J. Shaw, of Greensboro. Mrs. Walsh
attended the public schools of her native city and Greensboro
College, and is a well educated highly cultured lady, very active
in all church work. Reverend and Mrs. Walsh have one son,
Clyde Jones Walsh, Junior. While he is a scholarly man, deeply
imbued with the doctrines of his church, he is broad-minded
enough to realize that all work for the betterment of humanity
is of value, and so does not neglect his civic responsibilities, but
assumes them and discharges them intelligently and effectively.
It is men like Reverend Walsh who are checking the tide of ir-
religious thoughtlessness and positive crime, and bringing home
to parents the grave necessity for stricter living and religious
observance on their part so that they may in this way influence
for good the children growing up about them.
Sidney Warner Ironmonger, chief of police of the City of
Norfolk, is a World war veteran and is a member of one of the
old and interesting families of Virginia.
The Ironmongers came from England and settled in Virginia
in Colonial times. A brother of Mr. Ironmonger's grandfather
was said to have been the youngest drummer boy in the Con-
federate army. The grandfather owned and occupied a farm
in Norfolk County located eight miles from the courthouse.
Chief Ironmonger's father was Sidney Bailey Ironmonger,
who was born in Norfolk County, inherited part of his father's
estate and spent a number of years as a farmer, but is now living
retired at Norfolk. He married Katherine Elizabeth Warner,
who was born in Baltimore, daughter of Andrew E. and Barbara
Warner. They reared three children, Sidney Warner, Edith
Elizabeth and Charles Grayson.
Sidney Warner Ironmonger was born at Norfolk, attended
the Patrick Henry School and the Maury High School, the Davis
Wagner Business College, and for some years was an accountant
in the offices of the Virginia Electric Power Company.
Mr. Ironmonger as a young man joined Battery B of the
Norfolk Light Artillery Blues and in 1916 went with his battery
to the Mexican border. In 1917 he was trained with the National
Guard, and in July, 1918, went overseas. He was sent to the
482 VIRGINIA
front and later put on detached duty and saw many different
points in France and also in England. He returned to the
United States with his command, and received his honorable
discharge at Newport News May 25, 1919.
Soon after leaving the military service of the Government
he was appointed deputy United States marshal. He was in
the marshal's office until January 26, 1924, when he was
appointed chief of police of the City of Norfolk. Mr. Iron-
monger is commander of Old Dominion Post No. 67 of the
American Legion at Norfolk, Virginia. He is active in the
Masonic fraternity, being affiliated with Atlantic Lodge No. 2,
A. F. and A. M., John Walter Chapter No. 68, Royal Arch
Masons, Grice Commandery No. 16, Knights Templar, and
Khedive Temple of the Mystic Shrine. He and his wife are
members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South.
He married. May 18, 1918, Ruth Mae George, who was born
in Scranton, Pennsylvania, daughter of William and Eliza
George. They have two children, Sidney Warner, Jr., born
August 15, 1920, and Nancy Elizabeth, born March 26, 1927.
J. Paul Campbell. The art of embalming, or preserving
the human body after death, which is one of the chief functions
of the modern mortician, was probably invented by the Egyp-
tians. The custom seems to have originated in the idea that the
preservation of the body was necessary for the return of the
soul to the human form, and is as old as 4000 B. C. Chaussier's
discovery, in 1800, of the preservative power of corrosive sub-
limate introduced new means of embalming, and the discovery
of the action of a mixture of equal parts of acetate and chloride
of alumina, in 1834, by Gannal, and of arsenic by Tranchini,
pyroxilic spirits by Babington and Rees in 1839, and of the
antiseptic nature of chloride of zinc, added much to the sum
total of the knowledge of the art of embalming. Later develop-
ments have made this one of the most difficult of the callings,
and the modern undertaker must undergo a long and careful
training before he can consider himself as fully qualified to prac-
tice. One of the men who has kept himself fully abreast of all
the developments in this difficult and important vocation is J.
Paul Campbell, a substantial business man and respected citi-
zen of Abingdon.
Mr. Campbell was born at Lebanon, Virginia, June 16, 1897,
and is a son of T. W. and Laura (Carpenter) Campbell, natives
of that place, but at present residents of Abingdon. The Camp-
bell familj' has been prominent in Virginia for many years,
and the grandfather of Mr. Campbell, Wesley J. Carpenter, was
likewise a Virginian and served as a soldier of the Confederacy
during the war between the states. T. W. Campbell was en-
gaged in the furniture business at Lebanon for many years, but
when his son's business grew to large proportions at Abingdon
he disposed of his Lebanon business and moved to Abingdon,
where he has since acted as his son's assistant.
J. Paul Campbell attended the public schools of Bristol, and
after his graduation from high school embarked in the under-
taking business as manager for the firm of Sterchi Brothers.
Subsequently he came to Abingdon as manager of the same
concern's establishment at this point, and at the end of about
four and one-h?.lf years he and a Mr. Huff purchased the Sterchi
Brothers' two houses at Bristol and Abingdon, continuing them
under the style of Huff & Campbell. In 1925 Mr. Campbell
c^C^J-^9f(/P^
VIRGINIA 483
bought his partner's interest, disposed of the Bristol establish-
ment, and has since been sole proprietor of the establishment at
Abingdon, which is one of the most complete in Southwestern
Virginia, located opposite the court house. Mr. Campbell main-
tains a beautiful chapel, and his business is motorized through-
out, no detail being overlooked for the proper and dignified
care of the dead. He is a graduate of the Cincinnati College
of Embalming, class of 1920, is very progressive in his views,
and is a member of the Southern Funeral Dii-ectors Association,
the Virginia Funeral Directors Association and the National
Funeral Directors Association, and attends all meetings and con-
ventions of these bodies. Fraternally he is a member of the
Independent Order of Odd Fellows, in which he is a past grand
three times, and is also an active member of the Civitan Club.
In 1915 Mr. Campbell was united in marriage with Miss
Margaret Musgrove, of Bristol, Virginia, daughter of Sam and
Emma Musgrove, both of whom are now living at Clayton, North
Carolina, where Mr. Musgrove is engaged in the livestock busi-
ness. Mrs. Campbell was educated at Pineville, Kentucky, and
is an active member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South.
She is a graduate embalmer, and is of great assistance to her
husband in his business activities. To Mr. and Mrs. Campbell
there have been born two children : Samuel, aged eleven years ;
and June, aged nine years.
Thomas Griffin Hardy, M. D., is a native of Lunenburg
County, and since graduating in medicine has found his oppor-
tunities for useful service in his profession at Farmville, where
he is busy with a surgical and obstetrical practice, and is also
associated with the splendid South Side Community Hospital
there.
Doctor Hardy was born in Lunenburg County December 19,
1889, son of Louis Atkins and Sallie (Matthews) Hardy. His
family has been in Virginia since 1750. His grandfather, Grif-
fin 0. Hardy, was a farmer in Lunenburg County, and died there
in 1898, at the age of seventy-seven. Griffin Hardy married
Lucy Bridgeforth, who died in 1905. Louis Atkins Hardy was
a lawyer by profession, also followed farming, and took a keen
interest in politics, though never seeking public office. He was
a delegate to the Constitutional Convention of Virginia in 1901.
He died in 1915, and is survived by his widow and four of eight
children.
Doctor Hardy was liberally educated, and graduated from
the Medical College of Virginia in 1914. After one year of
hospital training he began practice at Farmville. He is presi-
dent of the Prince Edward County Medical Society, is vice
president of the Virginia State Medical Society and councillor
of the Fourth District of the Medical Council of Virginia.
Doctor Hardy held the rank of captain in the Medical Re-
serve Corps during the World war. He was sent overseas and
attached to the British Army Medical Corps, and was at the
front both in France and Belgium. He returned to the United
States February 11, 1919.
Doctor Hardy is visiting surgeon to the South Side Com-
munity Hospital at Farmville. This hospital was opened No-
vember 9, 1927. Erected at a cost of $200,000, one-third of the
cost being furnished by the Commonwealth Fund of New York
City, it has been pronounced one of the best equipped institu-
tions for its size in the United States. It provides adequate
23— VOL. 3
484 VIRGINIA
hospital care partly on a free and partly on a paid basis. In
addition to this service it has a well developed educational
branch as a health center in Southern Virginia, and is the first
of valuable health and sanitary propaganda. The head of the
institution is Dr. J. L. Jarman. The hospital has equipment of
fifty beds.
Doctor Hardy is a member of the Kappa Sigma social fra-
ternity and Phi Chi medical fraternity, and belongs to the
Methodist Episcopal Church, South. He married, July 28, 1917,
Miss Elizabeth Parker Jarman, of Farmville. Her father is
Dr. J. L. Jarman, president of the State Teachers College of
Farmville. Her mother is Mrs. Mary H. (Wiley) Jarman.
Doctor and Mrs. Hardy have four children : Elizabeth Jarman,
born December 10, 1919; Helen Wiley, born October 19, 1922;
Sarah Matthews, born October 5, 1923; and Thomas Griffin, Jr.,
born February 25, 1927.
Roy W. Sexton is president and manager of a manufac-
turing business at Wytheville, and is one of the native sons of
that section of the state, where the Sextons have lived for several
generations.
Mr. Sexton was born at Wytheville, August 10, 1880, son of
George Stuart and Elizabeth (Williams) Sexton and a grandson
of John Sexton and great-grandson of Joseph Sexton. Joseph
Sexton was born in Ireland and was brought by his parents to
America, his father dying on the way, while the widowed mother
continued with her children to Wythe County, Virginia, where
members of the family have lived ever since. George Stuart
Sexton was born and reared in Wythe County, attended private
schools and gave his active life to the lumber business. For a
number of terms he was mayor of Wytheville. He died in 1925.
His wife, Elizabeth Williams, was a daughter of Thomas Wil-
liams and granddaughter of Thomas Williams. She was born
and reared in Wythe County, attended private schools, and both
she and her husband were active members of the Presbyterian
Church. She died in 1904. In the family were five children:
Annie, wife of Thomas Ford, of Morton, Virginia; J. Garland,
of Wytheville ; Roy W. ; Charles Stuart, with the Westinghouse
Electric Company at Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; and George N.,
of Wytheville.
Roy W. Sexton had private school training at Wytheville and
attended the Virginia Military Institute, entering the class of
1900, and has been one of the most loyal alumni of the school,
being now a member of its Board of Visitors. After completing
his education he traveled for several years. In 1909 he estab-
lished at Wytheville The Initial Company, Inc., manufacturing
dry goods specialties, and has developed it to a veiy valuable
business, occupying a plant with floor space of 7,500 square feet.
The output of the company is sold and distributed all over the
world. Mr. Sexton is president and manager of this business.
He is a life member of the B. P. 0. Elks and is active in the
Presbyterian Church, having served as superintendent of its
Sunday School.
He married at Abingdon, Virginia, December 12, 1905, Miss
Katherine Kahle, who was educated in Martha Washington
College with the class of 1902, and taught for several years
before her marriage. She is a Presbyterian and a member of
the United Daughters of the Confederacy. Her parents were
Rev. E. F. and Eva (Gillette) Kahle, her father a native of
VIRGINIA 485
Virginia and her mother of Texas. Her father spent his active
life as a minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South.
Mr. and Mrs. Sexton have had six children : F'letcher died
when three years old. Elizabeth Gillette, who was educated in
public schools in Wythe County, in the Mary Lyons School at
Swarthmore, Pennsylvania, and the Chatham Episcopal Insti-
tute at Chatham, Virginia, in Sweetbrier College of Virginia,
in May, 1929, married Richard la Cour, of Flushing, Long Island,
New York. Roy W., Jr., who attended school at Wytheville,
the Swarthmore Preparatory School, the Virginia Episcopal
School at Lynchburg and the Virginia Military Institute, since
1927 has been connected with the American Telephone and Tele-
graph Company at New York City. This son married Francis
Clark, of Lynchburg, and has a daughter, Anne Clark. G.
Stewart was educated in public schools in Wytheville and the
Swarthmore Preparatory College, and is now with the American
Telephone and Telegraph Company at New York. Patricia
Alson and Katherine McLean are the two youngest children.
Arthur Kyle Davis is eminent among the present genera-
tion of Virginians for his work in the field of higher education
and also as a literary and historical scholar. In the educational
life of the state it has been well said that no one has exerted an
influence finer in quality and purpose, an influence deriving
from a character of quiet strength, sanity and disinterestedness.
As president of Southern College at Petersburg, a non-sectarian
junior college for women, Mr. Davis is carrying on an institu-
tion that was founded by his father and is still operating under
the charter granted by Virginia when Virginia was one of the
states of the Confederate States of America.
His family record includes many honored Virginia names.
Arthur Kyle Davis was born at Petersburg, Virginia, July 16,
1867, son of Williams Thomas and Carolina Virginia (Robin.son)
Davis. The Davis family came from Wales to Colonial Virginia.
His paternal grandfather. Rev. William Edward Davis, was born
in Gloucester County, Virginia, where he spent the greater part
of his life as a planter and as a clergyman of the Methodist
Episcopal Church. He died in Petersburg and was buried in old
Blandford Cemetery in the family square, where the obelisk
marking his grave was chipped by a Federal shell during the
siege of Petersburg.
Williams Thomas Davis was born in Gloucester County in
1816. He graduated from Randolph-Macon College, then located
at Boydton, Virginia, with the degree of Master of Arts. For
five years he was head of the preparatory department of Ran-
dolph-Macon College, then became professor of mathematics and
Latin in the Petersburg Female College, and was president of
that college until 1863. He then founded and became president
of the Southern Female College, an office he filled until his death
in 1888. The activities of Williams Thomas Davis were not
confined to the school room. He was a member of the City
Council many years, active in all civic aff"airs. In the Washing-
ton Street Methodist Episcopal Church he was a member of the
Board of Stewards and teacher of the Men's Bible Class, and
represented his church in the sessions of the Virginia annual
conference and was prominent in the conference boards of edu-
cation, of Sunday schools, of home and foreign missions. He
was a delegate from Virginia to the Baltimore Centennial Con-
486 VIRGINIA
ference of Methodism in 1884, when he read a special paper on
"The Mission of Methodism to the People," recognized as one
of the ablest papers read before that body and later published
in the Centennial Conference volume.
Williams Thomas Davis was opposed to secession until Vir-
ginia was called on for its quota of troops to force South Caro-
lina back into the Union. Thereupon he became an advocate
of secession, and he and his three sons and two sons-in-law all
volunteered for service in the Confederate army. As an edu-
cator he was exempt by reason of both age and occupation, but
when Petersburg was suddenly besieged on June 9, 1864, he,
as one of the 125 Home Guards, halted 1,300 Federal cavalry
until reinforcements could be sent up by General Lee, thus help-
ing to preserve the Confederacy for ten months longer. Locally
the battle of the 9th of June, when many of the old men and
boys belonging to the leading families of the city were killed
or wounded, and when the ten months' siege of Petersburg prac-
tically began, has become so identified with the sentiments and
recollections of its people that it is annually observed as a
special memorial day.
The first wife of Williams Thomas Davis was Elizabeth
Tayloe Corbin Beale, sister of Gen. Richard Beale, of Westmore-
land County. She died and was buried at Petersburg, leaving
six children. The oldest son, William Hoomes Davis, a college
graduate and a member of the Petersburg Riflemen, Twelfth
Virginia Infantry, Mahone's Brigade, A. P. Hill's Division, in
the Army of Northern Virginia, was in active service from
the beginning of the war, and became captain of infantry, A.
N. V. Shortly after the battle of Chancellorsville he died of
typhoid fever. The oldest daughter, Mattie, married William
Arthur Shepard, of Boston, Massachusetts, a graduate of Har-
vard University, who came to Virginia as professor of chemistry
in the Southern Female College and there met his future wife.
Later he was for many years professor of chemistry in Randolph-
Macon College at Ashland, where he died in the 1890s. Alice
married Maj. Olive Branch Morgan, a veteran of the war be-
tween the states, who afterwards became manager of the bag
department of the Virginia Carolina Chemical Company of
Richmond.
Richard Beale Davis, the second son, graduated from Ran-
dolph-Macon College and the University of Virginia, and served
throughout the entire Civil war in the Petersburg Riflemen,
Twelfth Virginia Infantry, Mahone's Brigade, A. P. Hill's Divi-
sion. With that company he participated in many of the chief
battles, and was wounded twice in the Battle of the Crater.
After the war he practiced law at Petersburg until his death,
about 1900, being associated as a law partner about fifteen years
of the latter part of his life with his youngest half-brother,
Charles Hall Davis. He served repeatedly in the Legislature,
was one of the committee appointed to recommend changes in
the Code in order to make it conform to the Constitution of
1902, and for many years was assistant attorney general of the
state.
Joseph Claiborne Davis, the third son, who continued in
active business at Portsmouth until advanced years, entered the
Confederate army at the age of fourteen, was wounded twice,
was captured and carried to Governor's Island, and was released
VIRGINIA 487
only on the termination of hostilities. He was a member of the
Richmond Howitzers, an organization still in existence.
The daughter Emma became the wife of T. H. H. Young,
who just after the Civil war started a manufacturing plant at
Petersburg. That being unsuccessful, he subsequently went into
the timber business, and in later life moved to North Carolina,
becoming a traveling salesman.
The second wife of Williams Thomas Davis was Carolina
Virginia Robinson, daughter of Clark Robinson, owner of an
extensive plantation on the Roanoke River, North Carolina, on
which plantation she was born. Her mother was Anne Johnson,
a descendant of John Johnson, who came to this country as a
political refugee, and thereby forfeited his claim to the Annan-
dale estates. He built a home on Tanner's Creek, then outside
of Norfolk, but since embraced within the city's limits, where
its avenue of magnolia trees and the family burying ground
give it notable prominence. The old homestead is still occupied
by descendants of John Johnson. Carolina Virginia Robinson
Davis died in Petersburg in 1912, leaving the following children :
Sannie Robinson, who became the wife of Clarence Preston
Ehrman, a retired capitalist of Lynchburg. A second daughter,
Carolina Robinson, died at Petersburg of typhoid fever at the
age of twenty. Arthur Kyle Davis was the oldest son of the
second marriage. Williams Thomas Davis, the second son, was
for many years special attorney for the Atlantic Coast Line Rail-
road at Charleston, South Carolina, Savannah, Georgia, and
Wilmington, North Carolina. Charles Hall Davis, the youngest
member of the family, has practiced law at Petersburg since
he came to the bar in 1893, at the age of twenty-one.
Arthur Kyle Davis was educated during his childhood by his
father, who had the gift of teaching and who recognized the
necessity for thoroughness. As a boy he attended McCabe's
University School in Petersburg — a school conspicuous for its
Honor System and for its insistence upon a thorough knowledge
of Latin and Greek. Leaving McCabe's School, Mr. Davis went
to Randolph-Macon College, Ashland, Virginia, in which his
father had many years before been head of the preparatory
department for five years. From Randolph-Macon College he
graduated with the degrees of Bachelor of Arts and Master of
Arts in the class of 1886, at the age of nineteen. For two years
thereafter he taught in the Southern Female College under the
direction of his father, and in the summer of 1888 went to the
University of Virginia to take the summer law course under
Prof. John B. Minor, with the idea of entering the legal profes-
sion. But the death of his father during that summer ended
these plans, and in the fall of 1888 he was elected president of
the Southern Female College, at the age of twenty-one, and has
held this position ever since.
Doctor Davis had a prominent part in the Junior College
movement in Virginia. The college at Petersburg was one of a
number of institutions, chartered as colleges but without the
equipment and resources to measure up to the strict standards
of modern educational classifications, and Doctor Davis shared
fully in the ideas of prominent educational leaders all over the
country that such institutions should be denominated Junior
colleges, performing the service of a school giving the first two
years of a standard college course. In line with this idea Mr.
Davis changed the name to the Southern College, Junior, of
488 VIRGINIA
Petersburg. The college affords a thorough preparatory and
two years' standard college course, also finishing courses in
music, art, expression, home economics and other subjects.
Doctor Davis was twice honored with election as president
of the Virginia Association of Colleges and Schools for Girls, has
been president of the Virginia Association of Junior Colleges,
is a member of the American Historical Association, Archaeo-
logical Institute of America, Southern Association of Colleges
and Schools, Virginia Classical Association, Southern Socio-
logical Congress, is a member of the Sons of Confederate
Veterans, Kappa Alpha, Westmoreland Club of Richmond, Uni-
versity Club of Richmond, Country Club of Petersburg.
He was founder and for two years lecturer of the Shake-
speare Club of Petersburg and is a member of the Authors Club
of London. For many years he has been well known in literary
circles in Virginia. He has written verse, but is best known
as an historian. A small book which he wrote a number of years
ago has been printed and reprinted, and is one of the most read-
able of concise histories of historic Virginia communities. Its
title is "Three Centuries of an Old Virginia Town," telling the
story of Petersburg. He is also author of "Education in Vir-
ginia," "Virginia and the Methodist," "Virginia's War History,"
and has been editor of quarterly supplements, calendars and
reports in the Virginia Historical Magazine.
During the World war he made an address in which he out-
lines a plan for preserving Virginia's war history. The Vir-
ginia War History Commission was created in 1918, and it
seemed natural that Mr. Davis should be selected to direct the
effort, and accordingly in January, 1919, was appointed by the
governor as chairman of the commission. In that capacity he
brought together a body of distinguished scholars and others
prominent in state and locality to carry out his plan for pre-
serving the war history of Virginia, and gave almost unlimited
time and effort to this patriotic work, a service which, needless
to say, carries with it no compensation in monetary terms.
Doctor Davis is a member of the Phi Beta Kappa and was
awarded tne honorary degree of Doctor of Letters by Hampden
Sydney College in recognition of his decade of work as chairman
of the War History Commission of Virginia and as editor of
the Seven Source Volumes of Virginia War History, including
Virginia's Distinguished Service in the World War, Virginia
War Letters, Diaries ayid Editorials, Virginia War History and
Newspaper Clippings, Virginia War Agencies, Selective Draft
and Volunteers, Virginia Military Organization in the World
War, Virginia Committees in War Times (first and second
series). Doctor Davis is vice president of the National Associa-
tion of State War Historians, and read a paper recounting some
phases of his work at a meeting of the American Historical
Association at Cleveland, Ohio. Ihis paper was later published
by the association in its quarterly.
Doctor Davis married, November 12, 1890, Lucy Pryor Mcll-
waine, daughter of Robert B. and Lucy (Pryor) Mcllwaine,
her mother being the only sister of Gen. Roger A. Pryor, who
for many years was a judge in New York City and who attained
an enviable position at the bar of that city. Mrs. Davis gradu-
ated from St. Paul's School at Petersburg and for six years was
state historian of the Daughters of the American Revolution
of Virginia, and later became state registrar. She is a member
VIRGINIA 489
of the Colonial Dames, formerly one of its Board of Governors,
belongs to the United Daughters of the Confederacy and has
been state historian of the Woman's Auxiliary of the American
Legion of Virginia. Doctor and Mrs. Davis have three children,
Lucy Mclhvaine, Caroline Robinson and Arthur Kyle, Jr. The
daughter Lucy M. married Ralph Harvey Jones, of Cleveland,
Ohio, and has one daughter, Lucy Mcllwaine Jones. Caroline
Robinson is the wife of Dr. Wright Clarkson, X-ray specialist
of Petersburg, and they have a son, Julian Wright Clarkson.
Arthur Kyle Davis, Jr., was born in 1895, attended the Tome
School tor i^oys in Maryland, graduated with the Bachelor of
Arts and Master of Arts degrees from the University of Virginia,
was a Rhodes scholar from Virginia to Oxford, and was awarded
the degree Lift. B. by Balliol College, and later took the Doctor
of Philosophy degree at the University of Virginia. He then
became an associate professor of English at the University of
Virginia. He is author of a volume, Virginia Ballads, issued
by the Harvard Ir'ress. During 192t), with leave of absence from
the Univei-sity of Virginia, he was Sterling Research teilow in
English at lale University, where he prepared for publication
his forthcoming volume on Poets and Politics of the Victorian
Era.
William Wadley Appler. During the comparatively short
career of the late William Wadley Appier, who died when less
than thirty-eight years of age, September 9, 1919, his activities
had invaded varied fields of enterprise, including i-ailroading,
insurance and cigar manufacturing, in all of which he showed
the possession of marked ability, adaptability and great energy.
A resident of Richmond for some years, he had become recog-
nized as one of the rising young men of the community, but at
the time of his sudden death was located at Norfolk, where he
had intended entering business.
Mr. Appier was born at Columbus, Georgia, October 6, 1881,
a son of David Weaver and Emma Rebecca (Thornton) Appier,
the latter being a descendant of the great American statesman,
Henry Clay. The Appier family is of English origin and the
American ancestor came to this country just after the close of
the War of the Revolution, settling at Baltimore, Maryland.
David Weaver Appier was born in Virginia, and during the
war between the states was employed as a train dispatcher in
this state. At the close of the war he went to Georgia, and for
fifty-four years served as freight agent for the Central Rail-
road of Georgia, his home being at Columbus. He and his wife
were the parents of three children.
William Wadley Appier received his education in the public
schools of Atlanta, Georgia, and in young manhood became
cashier and later traveling passenger agent for five years of the
Mexican National Railroad. Subsequently he went to Chicago,
Illinois, where he was chief clerk for the Sun Insurance Com-
pany, and also was identified with his brother in the insurance
agency business. In September, 1914, Mr. Appier came to Rich-
mond, Vii-ginia, where he became connected with the Straus
Cigar Company, but severed his connections therewith in 1919
and went to Norfolk, where he intended embarking in business
on his own account. Not long after his arrival in that city he
was taken ill and died. He was a young man of much promise
and ability and his death caused universal mourning among
490 VIRGINIA
countless friends in all of the communities in which he had re-
sided. He was a member of the Presbyterian Church.
On March 20, 1904, Mr. Appier was united in marriage with
Miss Emily J. Oberweiser, who was educated in Wisconsin and
was a daughter of Pauline and Michael Oberweiser. Mr. Ober-
weiser was a leading contractor and builder of his day, as well
as an architect, and erected the first bridge across the Chicago
River at Chicago. Later he located at Richmond, where he con-
tinued to hold a place among the leaders of his profession until
his death. Five children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Appier:
Florence Estelle, who was educated at a college at Bristol, Ten-
nessee, and is now employed in a secretarial capacity with one
of the large concerns of Richmond ; Misses Marjorie Elizabeth
and Ruth Emily, who reside with their mother ; and David
Weaver and William Howard, who are still attending school.
Mrs. Appier, who resides at 2808 Fendall Avenue, is one of the
highly esteemed ladies of Richmond and has been active in the
work of the Presbyterian Church.
Henry Jackson Rippon. The late Henry Jackson Rippon
was a resident of Richmond from 1889 until 1909, during which
time he formed as large an acquaintance and made as many
friends as any other man in the city. Although he died at the
early age of forty-five years, his career had been a decidedly
successful one, and he was particularly well known to the travel-
ing public, having been for almost all of his residence at Rich-
mond clerk of the Jefferson Hotel. A man of warm impulses
and open-handed generosity, his presence was welcomed in any
circle, and while he passed away in January, 1909, there are still
many who mourn his death.
Mr. Rippon belonged to a family which had its origin in
France and found settlement on the east coast of Virginia dur-
ing the early Colonial period of this country's history. His
father was Thomas Rippon, a sea captain, who traveled on many
waters, and his mother was Elizabeth, there being eight children
in the family, of whom Henry Jackson was the youngest. The
public schools of Brambleton, Norfolk County, furnished Mr.
Rippon with his educational training, he having been born at
that place October 10, 18(:>4. In his boyhood he went to Norfolk,
where he was employed by several firms in various capacities,
and then embarked in the cafe business at Tenth and Broad
streets, Richmond, although he also had five years of experience
as a clerk in the Murphy Hotel. After two years in the cafe
business he was offered the position of clerk in the .Jefferson
Hotel, which had just been completed and was ready to open,
and he accordingly sold his cafe business to accept the post. He
was the first clerk of that establishment, and was holding this
position when it was destroyed by fire. During its rebuilding
he was manager of the Virginia Club for two years, and then
returned to the Jefferson Hotel to resume his old position, which
he held until a few days before his early death. As before noted,
Mr. Rippon was a man of many friendships. He was possessed
of strict integrity and probity and had the confidence and esteem
of all with whom he was connected. He was a member of the
Sacred Heart Cathedral, and in his political views was a Demo-
crat. While he was very public spirited and took an honest
pride in his adopted city, he never cared for the honors of public
life.
VIRGINIA 491
On October 7, 1892, Mr. Rippon was united in marriage with
Miss Katherine Nowlan, who was educated at St. Joseph's
Academy, Richmond, and was a daughter of James and Mar-
guerite (Redmond) >sOwlan, both families having originated in
Ireland. James Nowlan was engaged in the manufacture and
blasting of stone at Richmond for many years, and furnished
the majority of the cut stone for the city hall, the postotiice and
many other public, business and financial structures. During
the war between the states he served as a cavalryman in a Vir-
ginia regiment of the Confederate army, and at one time was
taken prisoner by Northern troops, but made his escape and
returned to his regiment. Of the children born to Mr. and Mrs.
Rippon, four grew to maturity: Ethel Elizabeth, who is now
deceased ; Eileen, the wife of Jackie E. Creery, who is connected
with the Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad; Grace, deceased, who
was the wife of J. Leo O'Brien, and left one child. Jack, Jr. ;
and Nelda, the wife of Lawrence J. DelPaka, who has two chil-
dren, Lawrence, Jr., and Charles. All of the daughters of Mr.
and Mrs. Rippon received their education at Sacred Heart School.
Mrs. Rippon survives her husband and resides at 1407 Clare-
mont Avenue, where she has a wide acquaintance and is held in
high esteem.
Charles Q. Counts. Perhaps the Virginia bar offers no
more interesting example of personal effort abundantly rewarded
than is revealed in the encouraging life story of Charles Q.
Counts, attorney at law at Coeburn, Virginia, an honored citizen
and distinguished lawyer, who for many years has been both
commissioner of accounts and commissioner in chancery for
Wise County. In our great country it is not unusual to discover
self-made men in all walks of life, but not so often is found
one who, entirely through his own efforts, has reached high
place in a professional field in which great qualifications are
essential and competition is strong.
Charles Q. Counts was born on his father's plantation in
Scott County, Virginia, in October, 1862, son of Noah W. and
Harriett (Quillin) Counts, and grandson of James Counts and
Elisha Quillin. The mother of Commissioner Counts spent her
entire life in Scott County, but her father, Elisha Quillin, in
his later years moved to Tennessee. He was a musician and a
well known singing master in his day. The father of Commis-
sioner Counts was born in Russell County, Virginia, where his
father, a native of Eastern Virginia, had settled early, but died
on his own estate in Scott County. They were all Virginia
people of sturdy chai'acter and religious lives, and it is impossible
not to believe that such upbringing had influence in moulding
the character of their children.
Educational opportunities in Scott County were not as they
are today when Charles Quillin Counts began to go to school in
boyhood, and he easily recalls the little old log schoolhouse nearby
in which he received his primary instruction. Later he was able
to attend Holston Institute in Tennessee for a few months, where
he'applied himself closely to his studies and made such headway
that he was accepted as a teacher in the country schools, first
in Scott County and afterward in Tennessee. Although, per-
haps, not generally known, but during this teaching period Mr.
Counts could have undoubtedly won the medal, had any been
offered, for being the most industrious and ambitious of the
492 VIRGINIA
students, for he had undertaken the responsibility of preparing
himself for the law, alone and unaided, this undertaking requir-
ing prodigious mental and physical effort under the circum-
stances.
Later in life courage and determination have been his win-
ning factors in many a legal contest, and Mr. Counts made them
his close companions through the long struggle, and when, at
last, he presented himself before the State Examining Board
he found it all had been well worth while, for he was one of the
twenty accepted petitioners of a class of forty-two. He had
located at Wise in 1894, and after being admitted to the bar in
1898, maintained his law office in the courthouse there for ten
years. He removed then to Coeburn, of which city he has been
a resident ever since.
In 1899 Mr. Counts was made commissioner of accounts for
Wise County, and in 1900 was appointed commissioner in
chancery, and during this long period has had some very im-
portant and difficult cases in chancery, in all of which the Wisdom
shown by his findings have been comirmed by the County Court.
His general practice has been eminently successful, and tie enjoys
an established reputation of being one of the aoiest legists in
Southwestern Virginia and a citizen deserving both profes-
sionally and personally the high esteem in which he is held. In
political sentiment he is a Democrat and to some extent is active
in county and city public matters, and tor a number oi years
was a member of the Coeburn bchool Board, interest in stnoois
and educational matters generally having been urgent since his
youth.
Mr. Counts' first marriage took place October 9, 1895, to
Miss Harriet Carico, daughter of Joseph M. Carico, of a lamily
of prominence in Wise County. Mrs. Counts died March 12,
190^, tne devoted mother of three children: Inez, wno was
educated at Sulims College, Bristol, Virginia, and is talented in
music, teaching the same before her marriage in Scott and Wise
counties, Virginia, and at Blueheld, West Virginia, is the wife
of i. hi. JenKins, of Klizabethtown, 'lennessee, and they have
a daughter, Dorothy Ann; Ada, who died when two years old;
and Joseph Bruce, who is an employe of the Virginia State High-
way Department. Mr. Counts married, on October 5, 1902, Miss
Luia Bruce, of Big Stone Gap, Virginia, daughter of Hoge Bruce.
Like the tormer Mrs. Counts, she was a sincere member of the
Methodist Episcopal Church, South, and served as district secre-
tary of the I3ig Stone Gap Woman s Missionary Society. Jrrior
to her marriage she was highly esteemed as a school teacher
in Wise County. She passed away on January 27, iyz3, survived
by all but two of her eleven children : Lenette, who was educated
in the Coeburn High School and Hiawassee College, 'lennessee,
is the wife of Pearson Clark, of Coeburn, and they have one
daughter, Virginia Lee; Robert Carl, who completed his educa-
tion at Emory and Henry College, is now a traveling salesman
in Georgia and Florida for large business houses ; Bernice, who
is a graduate of the Coeburn High School, fills the office 'of
assistant postmaster at Wilder, in Russell County, Virginia;
Ruth, who on completing her high school education entered a
hospital at Louisville, Kentucky, for training as a nurse ; Glenn,
Louise and Gean, all of whom are in school at Coeburn ; Christie
and Christine, twins, who died in infancy; and Ralph and
Charles Q., Jr., who are at home. Mr. Counts' third marriage
lA^. (L.AJIJ
VIRGINIA 493
took place October 25, 1925. to Mrs. Nellie G. (Richmond)
Carico, widow of James Carico, and daughter of David and Jane
Richmond, a lady of education and social prominence, a member
of the local lodge of Rebekahs, and very active in the work of
the Methodist Episcopal Church, South.
No record of Commissioner Counts' life of worth-while
achievement would be complete without dwelling on his con-
tinuous devotion to the interests of the great religious bo:ly, the
faith of which was instilled in childhood. For the greater part
of thirty years he has served as steward and church trustee;
formerly was district lay leader for the Big Stone Gap District;
for thirteen successive years has attended the annual church
conferences and was a member of the General Conference which
met at Oklahoma City in 1914; for many years has been a mem-
ber of either the Finance, Commissions or Sunday School Con-
ference Board, of which general board he is now vice president.
He has always been foremost in promoting the many charitable
movements of this great Christian organization, and his sound,
practical advice concerning chui'ch policy in relation to many
modern public questions has been acceptable and acted upon.
He is a member of the Wise County Bar Association, and belongs
to the Kiwanis Club and the fraternal order of Modern Wood-
men of America.
Walter Cleveland Caudill is a physician and surgeon who
has gained distinction and rank in his profession and has made
his skill a source of comfort and indispensable service to hun-
dreds of people and families in Giles and adjacent counties. He
is president of St. Elizabeth's Hospital at Pearisburg and is
also vice president of Elizabeth's Hospital at Elizabethton,
Tennessee.
Doctor Caudill was born in Ashe County, North Carolina,
June 9. 1888, and represents some of the sturdy and sterling peo-
ple of the mountain country of Western North Carolina. His
parents were Tyrell R. and Caroline (Fender) Caudill, and his
grandfather, Jesse Caudill, was a prominent land owner, planter
and stock man in Alleghany County, North Carolina, where he
died and is buried. Jesse Caudill was twice married, and had
eleven children by each wife, twenty-two in all. Tyrell R.
Caudill was born and reared in Western North Carolina, at-
tended private schools, was a farmer and stock man, and widely
known for his strength of character and sound judgment. He
held the office of justice of the peace for over twenty years, and
in all that time never had one of his decisions reversed by a
higher court. He died in 1919 and is buried at Whitehead, North
Carolina. His wife, Caroline Fender, was born and reared in
Alleghany County, North Carolina, attended private schools,
and is still living at the old homestead at Whitehead. For many
years she has been a member of the Primitive Baptist Church.
She was the mother of thirteen children. Two of them died in
infancy and one at the age of nineteen. Those to grow up were :
Rev. Shade G. Caudill, an elder in the Baptist Church, Mrs.
Nannie C. Waddell, Mrs. Mattie C. Greene, Mrs. Candace Ed-
wards, Mrs. Florence C. Edwards, Oscar Caudill, Dr. Walter C.
Dr. E. L. Caudill, Muncy Edwin Caudill and Mrs. Blanche
Edwards.
Walter Cleveland Caudill was educated in public schools in
Alleghany County, North Carolina, attended the Appalachian
494 VIRGINIA
Training School at Boone, that state, and the Elk Creek Training
School at Elk Creek, Virginia. He completed his professional
preparation at the Medical College of Virginia, graduating M. D.
in 1913, and was an interne in the Lewis Gale Hospital at Roan-
oke and in St. Elizabeth's Hospital in Richmond. Doctor Caudill
in 1914 located at Pearisburg, and soon established a promising
general practice in medicine and surgery. He opened his office
in the Law Building. His work as a local physician came to a
temporary interruption when in 1917 he enlisted for service in
the Army Medical Corps, and in September, 1917, was assigned
immediate service at Newport News, and on December 1, 1917,
left for France with the Three Hundred and Second Stevedore
Regiment. On arriving in France he was detached and put in
Camp Hospital No. 2 near Bordeaux. On October 1, 1918, he
was again transferred, to the Twenty-third Engineers, and
accompanied that famous regiment to the Verdun Sector, and
was in the drive through the Argonne Forest to Stenay. After
the armistice he was sent home and received his honorable dis-
charge at Camp Lee, Virginia, with the rank of captain, in July,
1919. He was in the service nearly two years, going in with the
rank of first lieutenant.
After the war he resumed his work at Pearisburg, and he
and his brother, Dr. Estill L. Caudill, founded St. Elizabeth's
Hospital, a twenty-bed general hospital with excellent equip-
ment and well planned for service to the growing community.
In January, 1928, his brother. Dr. E. L. Caudill, moved to
Elizabethton, Tennessee, and subsequently he and his brother
Walter and Dr. J. 0. Woods, of Elizabethton, formed a partner-
ship and founded St. Elizabeth's Hospital there. They put up
a building costing $60,000, of brick and stone construction and
of Colonial architecture, a very handsome and attractive build-
ing and affording the facilities of a high class hospital. There
are fifty-five rooms. Dr. W. C. Caudill is a third owner of this
hospital and serves as vice president. He is a director in the
First National Bank of Pearisburg and is a member of the
County, State, Tri-State, Southern and American Medical
Associations.
Doctor Caudill during 1928 was chairman of the Giles County
Democratic Committee. He is a member of the Primitive Bap-
tist Church, the American Legion, is a member of the Masonic
fraternity and Kazim Temple of the Mystic Shrine at Roanoke.
He married at Bluefield, West Virginia, June 30, 1920, Miss
Mary Ring Cornett, of Bluefield. She was reared in Grayson
County, Virginia, attended public schools there and the Elk*
Creek 'Training School, and graduated in 1911 from the State
Teachers College at Farmville, Virginia. She taught in grade
and high schools for several years before her marriage, and has
always taken part in the working organizations of the Methodist
Episcopal Church. She is a daughter of F. A. and Hester
(Ring) Cornett, of Grayson County, Virginia, who later moved
to Bluefield. Her father was a farmer and stock man, owning
a farm four miles from Bluefield, toward Princeton, and after
selling that lived at Graham, Virginia, and finally at Pearisburg,
Virginia, where he died in September, 1927, and her mother died
in June of the same year. Both are buried in Elk Creek Ceme-
tery in Grayson County. Doctor and Mrs. Caudill had two sons.
Carrel Mayo and Walter C, Jr. The latter died at the age of
five months and the older is attending school at Pearisburg.
VIRGINIA 495
Prof. Zelma Talmage Kyle. Looking backward through
the records of many generations, the family name of Kyle is
found a familiar and respected one in Southwest Virginia, at
all times representing a substantial group in which thrift and
industry prevail, and education and morality encouraged. A
prominent member of this old Virginia family who is now
claimed by Tazewell County is Prof. Zelma T. Kyle, superin-
tending principal of the schools of Bluefield, Virginia, a man of
marked personality, great executive ability and widely and
favorably known.
The Kyle family is of Irish extraction and was founded in
America by two brothers, both of whom settled in the South,
one in Georgia and the other in Tennessee, and of the latter,
his great-great-grandfather, Professor Kyle is a direct descend-
ant. He was born at Woodlawn, in Carroll County, Virginia, in
1892, son of Henry F. and Sallie Jane (Walker) Kyle, both of
whom still reside at Woodlawn, his father owning a valuable
farm in Carroll County. He was born in Carroll County, son of
James Madison Kyle, a prominent farmer and Democratic politi-
cian in Botetourt County, and died in 1901, a brother of Judge
William Kyle, who served many years on the county bench. The
great-grandfather of Professor Kyle, James Kyle, was born after
his parents moved from Tennessee to Virginia. He lived and
died on his estate in Botetourt County, near Fincastle. Both he
and his sons were active members of the Methodist Episcopal
Church, South, conscientious men in both public and private life.
Henry F. Kyle, father of Professor Kyle, is a leading citizen
of Carroll County, where he has served on the election board
and the school board, a trustworthy man in every capacity. In
his religious belief he is a Quaker, a member of the Friends
Church at Woodlawn, and one of its Board of Overseers. The
mother of Professor Kyle was also born in Carroll County, Vir-
ginia, daughter of John Walker, and great-granddaughter of
John Walker, who was born in Ireland. He founded the Walker
family in Kentucky, and the maternal grandfather of Professor
Kyle was born in Boone County. About the time of the war
between the states he came to Carroll County, Virginia, where
he engaged in farming until he was accidentally killed by a
falling tree. In politics he was a Republican, and in religious
faith was identified with the Primitive Baptist body, in which
he was a deacon and moderator and frequently served as a local
preacher.
Zelma Talmage Kyle can easily call to memoiy the one-room
log schoolhouse near .his father's farm in which he received his
early educational training, but, to one like himself, eager to
learn, his surroundings were more or less immaterial, as he
had an earnest and competent teacher who soon prepared him
for the Woodlawn High School, from which he was creditably
graduated in 1911. He then entered William and Mary College
for a preparatory course, after which he taught school for a
time and then returned to William and Mary College, from
which he was graduated in 1917, as president of his class, with
the degree of A. B. Since then he has attended Peabody Normal
College, Nashville, Tennessee, preparing for his A. M. degree.
Upon his graduation from William and Mary College Pro-
fessor Kyle became principal of the Woodlawn High School, and
during the two years he continued there gave evidence of the
progressive spirit that has since assisted him in the accomplish-
496 VIRGINIA
ment of so much for higher education in the communities with
which he has been identified. While at Woodlawn he established
there the first Smith Hughes Agricultural School in Virginia,
which was the first to receive an appropriation from the Federal
funds. On retiring from the Woodlawn High School he went
to Appalachia, Virginia, as principal of its city schools, and
during the six years he remained there brought about remark-
able changes. He found one eieven-room school building and
about 500 pupils in attendance. When he left one building had
been erected at a cost of $75,000; a new high school building,
costing $750,000; an athletic field secured tor $15,000; and had
further oDtained a bond issue of another $150,000 for the schools.
Professor Kyle then accepted the call to Ulueiield, Virginia,
as supervising school principal. He has here four buildings
under his direction: ihe Graham High School, witn twem,/
teachers; the Logan Street School, with live teachers; the West
Graham School, with one teacher ; and the colored school, with
five teachers. Since taking charge he has caused a fine gym-
nasium to be built and many large and desirable improvement
propositions are being considered. His heart is in his woi'k, and
seemingly no details can weary him or obstacles discourage him.
At Woodlawn, Virginia, on February 15, 1919, Professor
Kyle married Miss Mary Elizabeth Kenny, of that city, daughter
of John A. and Florence (Beamer) Kenny. The late John A.
Kenny was a prominent and substantial citizen of Carroll County,
a farmer and lumber dealer. He was a justice of the peace and
active in Democratic politics, served many years on important
county boards, and in the Methodist Episcopal Church, South,
at Woodlawn, was a steward, church treasurer and superin-
tendent of the Sunday school. Mr. Kenny was born in Carroll
County, son of William Kenny, a native of Grayson County,
Virginia, but later a farmer in Carroll County, and a grandson
of William Kenny, who was born in Ireland. The mother of
Mrs. Kyle was born in Carroll County, and still resides at Wood-
lawn. Her father, Harden Beamer, was born in Carroll County,
of Tennessee parentage and Irish extraction. He was a very
prominent man in Carroll County, a member of the school board
for twenty years and deputy county treasurer. He was engaged
in farming all his life, was a Democrat in politics, and a faithful
member and liberal supporter of the Methodist Episcopal Church,
South.
Mrs. Kyle, an educated, accomplished lady, who is fully in
sympathy with her husband in his aim to further educational
opportunities and advantages in the public schools, was gradu-
ated from the Woodlawn High School in 1916, attended Leesburg
College for two years, and was graduated from Radford State
Teachers College in 1925. She received her teacher's diploma
in 1923 from this college and then took a course in the Peabody
Normal School at Nashville, Tennessee. For two years she was
an instructor in the Appalachia High School, and for the past
three years has been teacher of home economics in the Bluefield
schools. She is a member of the State Teachers Association
and of the American Home Economics Association, is active in
the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, and belongs to the
Eastern Star.
A man of Professor Kyle's sterling character, inspiring
energy and agreeable personality finds confidence and esteem
VIRGINIA 497
awaiting him in many important lines of community life. He is
active as a member of the Bluefield Chamber of Commerce and
is interested in all worthwhile public movements here. A Demo-
crat in politics, he has frequently attended state conventions of
his party as a delegate and is considered a wise and safe party
adviser. He is a Chapter Mason and was senior warden of the
Masonic Lodge at Appalachia, is worthy patron in the Order of
the Eastern Star, and belongs to the State Teachers Association
and the National Education Association, as well as to the old
fraternal organizations in which he took a deep interest while
in William and Mary College. He frequently lectures on educa-
tional subjects. Like his father, he is a member of the Friends
Church, never having departed from the simple faith in which
he was reared.
William George Waring with the exception of one year
since he left college has been engaged in bankmg. He is cashier
of the Farmers and Mechanics Bank of West Point, one of the
prosperous and successful banking institutions of King William
County. The bank operates on capital and surplus of over fifty
thousand dollars and has total resources of over $350,000.
Mr. Waring was born in King William County, April 11,
1894, son of Thomas Bromley and Elmira Gertrude (Hill) War-
ing. His father was born at Liberty Hall in King William
County, and his mother was born in the house where history
states George Washington and his bride first met at Poplar
Grove, in New Kent County. Thomas B. Waring served as a
Confederate soldier, running away from home at the age of
sixteen to join the army. In one battle he was shot from his
saddle. After the war he engaged in farming in King William
County, was also a county otiicial, and died in January, 1900,
as the result of being thrown from his horse. His widow sur-
vived him until February 16, 1914. They had a family of nine
children, and after the death of the father the oldest son, Rob-
ert Payne Waring, assumed the responsibility of rearing the
younger children, and performed that duty with a high degree
of credit for a young man.
William George Waring was reared and educated in King
William County, attended college at Lynchburg three years, and
after leaving college spent a year with Lane Brothers, con-
tractors, while this firm was engaged in the construction of the
disposal plant at Baltimore, Maryland. Mr. Waring in 1915 be-
came bookkeeper in the State Bank of West Point and in 1920
was chosen cashier. He was in charge of the executive details
of the bank until January 31, 1927, when it was sold to the
Farmers and Mechanics Bank, and he became cashier in the
latter institution.
Mr. Waring married April 26, 1924, Jessie Carter Lewis,
daughter of Herbert Iverson and Mattie (Parks) Lewis. Her
mother is living at West Point. She was born at Norfolk, Vir-
ginia. Herbert R. Lewis, a native of King William County, was
a distinguished member of the bar at West Point and held the
oftice of commonwealth attorney of the county forty-three and
a half years, until his death on May 5, 1928. Mr. and Mrs. War-
ing have three children, Betty Carter, Burnet Lewis and Robert
Lawrence. Mr. Waring is affiliated with the Knights of Pythias,
Junior Order United American ilechanics, Kiwanis Club,
Cypress Park Club, is a Democrat and a member of the Epis-
copal Church.
498 VIRGINIA
Hon. Joseph Graham, ex-sheriff of Pulaski County, and a
farmer upon an extensive scale, is one of the best examples of
the modern farmer the county possesses. His home farm is a
model one, and his experiments are watched with great interest
by his neighbors. In his office of sheriff he gave to Pulaski a
clean administration, entirely free from graft or sinister influ-
ences, and succeeded in driving out and keeping out of his domain
those who would not conform to the laws, both Federal and local.
Mr. Graham was born in Pulaski County, Virginia, December
9, 1870, a son of Dr. Joseph D. and Mary (Currin) Graham, the
former of whom was born and reared in Pulaski County. He
first attended the private schools of this locality, and later took
his medical training in a college of Baltimore, Maryland. Enlist-
ing at the outbreak of the war between the states, he served
with the Pulaski Guards, Fifty-fourth Virginia Infantry, and
was a brave soldier of the Confederacy. During his service he
participated in a number of the major engagements, and was
wounded in action in the battle of Gettysburg. After the close
of the war he was engaged in the practice of his profession, and
was an active practitioner at the time of his death, May 1, 1896.
He was one of the old-time physicians, traveling over long dis-
tances, in all kinds of weather, giving of his skill, his time and
his sympathy without thought of remuneration, and was long
held to be the "beloved physician." His remains are interred
in Oglesby Cemetery, Pulaski County. His father was Joseph
Graham, a native of Wythe County, Virginia, a farmer by occu-
pation, a calling he followed all his life. Both he and his wife
are deceased, and they lie side by side in the Oglesby Cemetery.
Robert Graham, father of Joseph Graham, and great-grand-
father of former Sheriff Graham, was born in Scotland and came
to this country at an early day, settling in Wythe County, where
he was a farmer and stockman, and he and his wife are also
buried in Oglesby Cemetery. During the years that have fol-
lowed the settlement in Virginia of Robert Graham those bear-
ing the name have taken a prominent part in the history of the
state and have been law-abiding, self-respecting men and women
worthy of the confidence and esteem they have always inspired.
Mrs. Mary (Currin) Graham, mother of Joseph Graham,
was born February 7, 1844, in Montgomery County, Virginia,
but early in life was taken to Newburn, Virginia, by her parents,
Lynch A. and Elizabeth (Haller) Currin. Mr. Currin was
county clerk during the war between the states. Mrs. Graham
was educated in Mrs. McGavock's School for Young Ladies,
Wytheville, Virginia. She was a devout member of the Presby-
terian Church, and until her death July 17, 1929, at the age of
eighty-five years, she made her home with Mr. Graham and a
married daughter, Mrs. Painter, of Draper, Virginia. There
were five children born to her and her husband : C. S. Graham,
a farmer, who is now deceased ; Elizabeth, who married A. S.
Painter, lives at Draper; Joseph Graham, who is the third in
order of birth ; C. F. Graham, who died when one year old ; and
Wilhe Sue, who married B. T. Gilmer, a rural mail carrier of
Draper.
Growing up in Pulaski County, Joseph Graham attended
public schools and a private school, and when old enough began
farming. From then on until the present he has been engaged
in farming and stock raising, owning the old Graham homestead
VIRGINIA 499
of 200 acres of fine blueKrass land. Part of the house is over
100 years old, and is in splendid condition, so well was it built
in the beginning-. Upright, honorable, knowing the people of
Pulaski County as he does, Mr. Graham was honored by his
fellow citizens by election to the office of sheriff in 1906, and he
continued in it from May of that year to December 31, 1915. He
is an active Democrat, and one of the local leaders of his party.
Fraternally he is a Royal Arch Ma.son, and he belongs to the
Benevolent and Pi-otective Order of Elks and the Modern Wood-
men of America. He is a Presbyterian, and is serving the local
church as deacon.
On November 11, 1889, Mr. Graham first married at Bristol,
Tennessee, Miss Berta L. Graham, of Draper, Virginia, a daugh-
ter of Thompson and Ellen (Grills) Graham, first of Mercer
County, West Virginia, but later of Draper. Seven children were
born to this marriage : Mary Ellen ; Lucy Jane, who is the wife
of A. F. Clark; Joseph Thompson; Virginia Berta, who died at
the age of twenty-one years; Elizabeth, who is the wife of John
T. Sayre, of Roanoke, Virginia; Nell M., who is the wife of 0.
H. Buchanan, of Tazewell, Virginia ; and Gertrude, who lives at
home.
On April 3, 1916, Mr. Graham married in Draper's Valley
Miss Janie H. Draper, of Draper's Valley. An extensive account
of the Draper family is given elsewhere in this work. Mrs.
Graham was educated in a orivate school, Montgomery Hall,
Christiansburg, Virginia. While she is a member of the Epis-
copal Church, she is active in the work of the Presbyterian
Church of Draper's Valley. Sheriff and Mrs. Graham have had
two children born to them: Joseph, Jr., and Jane Draper, both
of whom are attending the Di'aper's Valley public school.
Chester Claude- Shelburne, countv suoerintendent of
schools of Montgomery County, has been prominentlv identified
with educational work in Virginia for a number of years and
has won a verv favorable renutation as a school man.
He was t-orn at Riner, Virginia. Mav 14, 1891. ;;on of Wil-
liam J. and Milinda J. (Altizer) Shelburne. The Shelbu^'ne
familv came to America from Wales in Colonial ti-nes, first
settlinp- in Lunenburg County. Mr. Shelburne's grandfather,
John Thomas Shelburne, was a Confederate soldier all through
the four vears of the war and afterwards follon'ed farming and
stock i-aising. He and his wife are buried in the Shelburne
family cemeterv. William J. Shelburne was born and reared in
Montgomery County, and is a farmer and .stock rai'^er. His
wife. Milinda J. Altizer, was born and reared in Floyd County.
She is a member of the Christian Church. Of their three chil-
dren one di^d in infancv. Mr. Shelburne has a sister, Juanita,
wife of W. B. Whitt. a farmer and stock man at East Radford.
Chester Claude Shelburne attended public schools in Mont-
gomerv Countv. and in the intervals of teaching and other work
continued his higher education through Milligan College in Ten-
nessee, Daleville College, and in 1927 graduated Bachelor of
Science from the Lhiiversity of Virginia. While he owns a farm
and is engaged in farming and stock raising in Montgomerv
Countv. his chief hobby for many years has been teaching and
educational work.
An interruption to his career as an educator came when he
joined the colors on September 21, 1917, for service in the World
500 VIRGINIA
war. He was in training at Camp Lee until May, 1918, and went
overseas with Company H of the ol7th Infantry in the Eightieth
Division. He was on duty in the Artois Sector, in the St. Mihiel
and Meuse Argonne campaigns, and after returning home fol-
lowing the armistice received his honorable discharge at Camp
Lee June 13, 1919. After the armistice he was assigned duty
for three months as an inspector in a post school at Planay,
France, and he also had the opportunity of attending the Uni-
versity of Beaune in France for one term.
Mr. Shelburne was principal of the Showsville High School
in Montgomery County for nine years and was principal of the
high school at Blacksburg during 1927-29. On March 9, 1929,
he was elected superintendent of schools for Montgomery
County. He is well qualified for the responsibilities of this office,
his teaching experience having given him a thorough familiarity
with school conditions in the county.
Mr. Shelburne is a member of the State Education Associa-
tion, the Lions Club, the Phi Delta Kappa and Pi Gamma Mu
fraternities, the American Legion and Veterans of Foreign
Wars.
Moses P. Lawrence is an electrical engineer with a wide
experience in public utility management, and is now superin-
tendent of the Electric Power Plant at Glenlyn, in Giles County.
He comes of an old Virginia family but is a native of North
Carolina, born at Tarboro, February 12, 1882, son of Louis H.
and Carrie C. (Knight) Lawrence. His great-grandfather, Rev.
Joshua Lawrence, was the son of a colonel in the Revolutionary
war, and at that time the Lawrence family lived in Virginia.
The grandfather of Mr. Lawrence also bore the name of Joshua,
and lived at Tarboro, North Carolina. Louis H. Lawrence was
born at Tarboro, attended Oxford College, in North Carolina,
and served four years in the Confederate army, in Company C,
Thirty-third North Carolina Regiment. After the war he was
a farmer and cotton planter until 1908, and is now retired at
the age of eighty-seven, living with his son in Glenlyn. His
wife, Carrie C. Knight, is a daughter of John C. and Martha
(Cromwell) Knight, and her grandfather, Elisha Cromwell, was
a colonel in the Revolutionary war. Mrs. Carrie C. Lawrence
died November 20, 1920. Of her eleven children, two died in
infancy. Those now living are Bessie, Joshua, Carrie, Moses
P., Cleveland, Harvey, Rosa and Douglas.
Moses P. Lawrence was educated in North Carolina public
schools, and was on his father's farm until the age of sixteen.
In 1898 he went with the Norfolk & Ocean View Railway Com-
pany, spending two years with that electric line and then four
years was located at Norfolk for the same company. For one
year he was connected with the Trenton & New Brunswick Rail-
way Company at Princeton, New Jersey, and the same interests
sent him out to Erie, Pennsylvania, for one year as power house
engineer. In 1904 he was located at Hampton, Virginia, in
the service of the Newport News and Old Point Railway &
Electric Company, remaining there until 1907, and was then
transferred to the new plant of the company at Norfolk. From
1909 to 1918 he was chief engineer of the power house at Chatta-
nooga, Tennessee, for the Tennessee Power Company.
Mr. Lawrence has been plant superintendent at Glenlyn
for the Appalachian Power Company since April, 1918. He is
a director of the First National Bank of Narrows and is a stock-
n
-WS'
VIRGINIA 501
holder in a number of business corporations in this part of
Southwest Virginia. He is a Knight Templar Mason and
Shriner, member of the American Society of Mechanical En-
gineers, is a Democrat and an Episcopalian.
He married at Chattanooga, Tennessee, January 17, 1912,
Miss Ella Risley, who was reared and educated at Cincinnati,
Ohio. She is a daughter of Henry Risley, who was prominent
in business and politics in Chattanooga, and at the time of his
death was sheriff of Hamilton County, Tennessee. Her mother
is still living at Chattanooga.
Creed Columbus Semones, commissioner of revenue of Car-
roll County, has given nearly all his active years to public service
in his home county or to the banking business.
Mr. Semones was born at Hillsville, Virginia, in 1872, son of
Louis Pleasant and Martha (Pendleton) Semones. This family
has been in Southwest Virginia for several generations. His
father was born near Hillsville January 1, 1839, was educated
in private schools and saw four years of service in the Confed-
erate army. He was in Pickett's famous division at the battle
of Gettysburg. After the war he returned to Hillsville, and
became a stock raiser and farmer on his father's land, and later
bought part of the Semones estate, where he lived until his death
in February, 1926. The Semones family came originally from
Ireland. His wife, Martha Pendleton, was a daughter of John
Pendleton, who was born in Patrick County, Virginia, where
his father settled on coming from England. Martha Pendleton
was born in Patrick County, near Meadows of Dan Post Office,
in 1843, and was educated in private schools, and was a member
of the Baptist Church.
Louis P. and Martha (Pendleton) Semones had a family of
eight sons, the eldest, John, dying at the age of three years.
The second, Joel Wilson, born in 1869, now a retired teacher
living at Hillsville, married Mary Karris, and they have four
children : Harney Forest, an attorney at Indianapolis, Indiana,
married Miss Blankenship, of Carroll County ; Mrs. Rosa Hoskin
lives at War, West Virginia; Mrs. Eppie Brewster is also a
resident of War ; and Claude, unmarried, is a civil engineer
living in Wyoming. Noah Burton Semones, the fourth child,
born in 1875, whose home is three miles from Hillsville, married
Elva Bolen and has two sons. Ray, born in 1907, and Buster,
born in 1905. Wiley Albert Semones, born in 1878, a teacher in
the Hillsville High School, married Ida Beamer, and their sons
are Marlie, born in 1906, and Carlos, born in 1910. Armstead
Ellis Semones, boim in 1881, a resident on the old homestead,
married Ada Horton. George E. Semones, born in 1884, a
merchant three miles southeast of Hillsville, is the seventh son
in the family. The youngest, Norman Ernest, died when three
years old.
Creed Columbus Semones was educated in public schools, and
life has brought him a sound training in business, farming and
public administration. In 1903 he was elected county treasurer
of Carroll County, and served in that office eight years, retiring
in 1912. Following that he was cashier of the Farmers Bank
of Hillsville until 1917. For several years he was in business
as a brick manufacturer at Galax, Virginia, selling his interest
in the business in 1926 to B. C. Lineberry. He then resumed
his residence at Hillsville and in 1927 was elected commissioner
of revenue for a term of four years, ending in 1932. Mr.
502 VIRGINIA
Semones is a member of the Masonic fraternity at Hillsville and
is a Baptist.
He married in February, 1897, Miss Hattie C. Webb. Her
father was L. F. Webb, sheriff of Carroll County, one of the
county officials who were killed in the well remembered Hills-
ville tragedy in 1912. The second wife of Mr. Semones was
Miss Lillian Reeves. Her father, Horton Reeves, moved from
Alleghany County, North Carolina, to Llano, Texas, where he
was a merchant. Miss Lillian Reeves met Mr. Semones while
visiting in Carroll County, Virginia. To Mr. Semones first
marriage were born six children. Ila, born December 5, 1900,
graduated from the Hillsville High School in 1920, and in 1925
completed the work of the State Teachers College at Radford.
She taught at Red Bank in Patrick County. Virginia, in 1920,
at Shelton, North Carolina, in 1921, at Brim, North Carolina,
1922-23, in the Mills school of Patrick County in 1924, at Amelia
Court House in 1925-27. She was married, April 6, 1922, at
Hillsville, to Mr. Edgar T. Anderson, and since their marriage
they have carried on their educational work together. Mr.
Anderson is a graduate of the Red Bank High School and also
attended the State Teachers College at Radford. He is a son
of Robert Marion and Eva Frances (Thompson) Anderson, of
Patrick County.
Mr. Semones second child, Lewis Raymond, born April 21,
1903, graduated from the Hillsville High School in 1919 and
from the dental department of the Medical College of Richmond
in 1924, and is now practicing at East Radford, Virginia. He
is a member of Fulton Lodge No. 93 of Masons at Hillsville.
Howard Everett Semones, born in July, 1905, is a graduate of
the Hillsville High School, and for the past six years has been
employed as a machinist in Illinois. Norman Ernest Semones,
born February 4, 1907, is a graduate of the high school at Galax,
and now deputy commissioner of revenue, Carroll County, Vir-
ginia. Lena, born July 1, 1909, graduated from the Galax High
School, and is the wife of Ernest Kirby, who is employed in the
office of the Vaughn Furniture Company, Galax. Mrs. Kirby
is now taking the nurses training course at Galax Hospital.
Hallie, the youngest child, born August 21, 1911, is a graduate
of the Galax High School and is in training in the Jackson
Memorial Hospital at Lexington, Virginia. She is the wife of
James C. Hutton, of Lexington, who is in the oil business.
Bentley Hite, one of the active younger members of the bar
at Christiansburg, is a descendant of that historic character Joise
Hite, who left Pennsylvania and went down into the Valley of
Virginia about 1732, squatting on lands that were claimed by
Lord Fairfax, and it was largely to protect these claims against
the sturdy settlers led by George Hite that George Washington
went out to the West as a land surveyor.
Bentlev Hite was born in Montgomery County, Virginia, De-
cember 26, 1900, a son of W. B. and Martha Jane (Scott) Hite,
and a grandson of William Ballard Preston Hite, who moved
from the Valley of Virginia to Montgomery County about 1832,
settling at Price's Fork. He was overseer of the Ballard Plan-
tation there and a farmer and stock raiser for many years.
W. B. Hite was born and reared at Price's Fork, near Blacks-
burg, attended public schools, and has given his life to the farm
and stock ranch. His wife was born and reared at Charlottes-
ville. She is a Methodist, while he is a member of the Christian
VIRGINIA 503
Church. There were five children, the daughter Bessie dying at
the age of eight years. The others are : Shirley, a Radford busi-
ness man, married Lena Talbert and has two children,
Shirley, Jr., and Margaret; Guy, a farmer in Pulaski County,
married Stella Hedge and has three children. Merle, Gwendolyn
and an infant ; Maggie is Mrs. R. D. Weeks, wife of a merchant
at Snowville, Virginia, and has three children, Earlynn, Ray-
mond and Billy Van; and Bentley.
Bentley Rite attended public schools in Montgomery County,
had his high school course in Milligan Academy at Milligan Col-
lege, Tennessee, was graduated with the A. B. degree from
Roanoke College in 1923, and pursued his law studies in the
University of Virginia. He was graduated in 1928, was ad-
mitted to the bar that year, and soon afterward opened his law
office in the First National Bank Building of Christiansburg and
has come into very favorable recognition and a successful busi-
ness as a lawyer.
Mr. Hite is unmarried. He was a member of the Students
Army Training Corps while at Milligan College during the war.
He is a member of the firm Hite & Weeks, general merchants at
Snowville. Mr. Hite is affiliated with Snowville Lodge No. 159,
A. F. and A. M. After graduating from Roanoke College he was
principal of the high school at Bowling Green, Virginia, for the
.year 1923-24, and principal of the high school at Willis in 1924-
25. He is a Republican and a member of the Christian Church.
Andrew Jackson White was for a quarter of a century a
prominent business man of Richmond. He was a native Vir-
ginian, was a boy soldier of the Confederacy, and lived a life
in keeping with the high standards of citizenship of the Old
Dominion.
Mr. White was born in Lunenburg County, Virginia, March
12, 1847, and died at Richmond, January 25, 1912, at the age
of sixty-five. His parents were Cephas Allen and Mary (Winn)
White, the former of Lunenburg County and the latter of Meck-
lenburg. Their children were: Ann; Richard, who was killed
in battle in the Confederate army ; Maiy, Alice, Andrew Jackson
and Fanny.
Andrew Jackson White had the advantages offered by the
schools of Lunenburg County. He was only fourteen v/hen the
war broke out, and before it was ended he was in the ranks
doing what he could as a soldier of the Confederacy. After the
war he assisted his father, who was a brick contractor, and
among other w^ork he helped build the Lunenburg County court-
house. Following that he moved to Richmond and from 1886
until his death was engaged in business as a brick contractor.
In that capacity he and his organization had a reputation among
the best for finished work, and there are some buildings in Rich-
mond today which exemplify his skill, some of them being the
Jefferson Hotel, the brick work on the Chamber of Commerce
Building and the Richmond City Hall.
Mr. White was a member of the Independent Order of Odd
Fellows, Knights of Pythias and Junior Order United American
Mechanics. He was a Baptist and a Democrat.
He married, November 19, 1876, Miss Josephine Cornelia
Marable. She was reared and educated in Lunenburg County,
where her people were among the first settlers. Mrs. White
attended the first public school in Lunenburg County, a school
that was opened March 6, 1871. Her father. Champion Marable,
504 VIRGINIA
was a saddler by trade and in later years was a traveling sales-
man for saddlery and harness. Her mother, Cornelia Ann Kee-
ton, of Lunenburg County, had four children : Isabella, John,
Martha Lucretia and Cornelia. Champion Marable was a Con-
federate soldier throughout the four years of the war, and in
one battle was severely wounded.
Mrs. White, whose home is at 3311 Grove Avenue, at Rich-
mond, had a family of six children, and she also has several
grandchildren. Her oldest child, Eldon Sanders, died in 1923.
Andrew Eugene is a traveling salesman. The third is Miss
Isabella, and the fourth, Lumlie Lee. Josephine is the wife of
George R. Langston, of Richmond, and has a daughter, Frances
Josephine. Cephas Alexander White married Abdiel Linebeek,
of North Carolina, and their three children are Isabelle May,
Louise and Nancy.
Stuart C. Cottrell is superintendent of public schools for
Goochland County, an office he has held for the past seven years,
and in that time has accomplished some important results in
the advancement of the county's facilities and standards of
public education.
Mr. Cottrell was born at Cardwell, in Goochland County,
August 21, 1890, and is a descendant of Richard Cottrell, who
arrived in Goochland County in 1697 and acquired a lai'ge tract
of land on both sides of the James River. The successive genera-
tions of the family have continued to live in that community for
over two centuries. Mr. Cottrell's grandfather, John W. Cot-
trell, was a Confederate soldier and developed and operated one
of the early gold mines in Goochland County. Mr. Cottrell's
father, S. H. Cottrell, has given his life to the farming industry.
He married Harriet Bowles, who was born in Goochland County
and died in November, 1910.
Stuart C. Cottrell was well educated in schools in Virginia,
and has carried on advanced work in intervals of his teaching,
having taken an extension course with William and Mary College
at Williamsburg, and during the summer of 1928 was in the
School of Business Administration at Columbia University, New
York. He began teaching in 1913, and was principal of schools
at Carrollton in Isle of Wight County. He served fourteen
months with the colors during the World war and was wounded
in battle while overseas. Before returning home he took a
special course in Bordeaux University. He was honorably dis-
charged in August, 1919.
He has been county superintendent of schools since Septem-
ber 19, 1922. At that time the county had only one high school,
with a total enrollment of only thirty-five students, while there
are now three high schools for Avhite pupils and one training
school for colored, and the enrollment in the high schools are
three hundred white students and fifty colored. The enrollment
of scholars in the public schools of the entire county is 2,900.
Mr. Cottrell married Miss Edna Kent, daughter of George
Henry and Florence (Wood) Kent, natives of Fluvanna County.
Her father is a druggist at Kent Store, Virginia. Mr. and Mrs.
Cottrell reside in the Crozier community, Lee Post Office. They
have one son, Stuart Guy, born March 28, 1921.
Mr. Cottrell is affiliated with the Masonic fraternity, in which
he has attained the thirty-second degree of the Scottish Rite,
with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, Woodmen of the
VIRGINIA 505
World, American Legion, is a member of the Virginia State Edu-
cation Association and the National Education Association, and
is a director of the Goochland Chamber of Commerce. At his
home he has thirty acres of fine land and uses this country estate
to specialize in purebred Plymouth Rock chickens. He is a
stockholder in the Morris Plan Bank. Mrs. Cottrell is a member
of the United Daughters of the Confederacy and of the local
Woman's Club and the Community Welfare Association. She
was a teacher before her marriage. Mr. Cottrell was appointed
by Governor Trinkle delegate from Goochland County to the
National Literary Council at Washington, D. C, where Governor
Byrd appointed him a delegate to the National Institute of
Public Affairs.
Seth G. Hobart holds the ofiice of district forester for South-
western Virginia, his jurisdiction covering seventeen counties.
Mr. Hobart is well qualified for his official duties. He was
born at Friendship, New York, June 8, 1892, son of Manley W.
and Mary E. (Guilford) Hobart. The Hobart family came from
England about 1640, settling in New England and afterwards
moving to New York. His father, Manley Hobart, was born
and reared at Friendship, New York, was a farmer and dairy-
man and for a number of years supervisor of his township. He
is now living retired at Friendship. His wife, Mary E. Guilford,
represented the Guilford family that came from England and
settled in Massachusetts about 1660. Mary E. Guilford was
born in Belfa.st Township, New York, and both she and her
husband attended the old Friendship Academy and both of them
taught school before their marriage. They have been devout
Baptists. Seth G. Hobart is one of three children. His sister,
Miss Lotta Hobart, is supervisor of English in the Olean High
School, New York, and his other sister, Ruth E., is the wife of
Clarence R. Martin, of Detroit, Michigan.
Seth G. Hobart was educated in Friendship High School,
graduated from the University of Michigan in 1916, and for
several months was employed by the Conservation Commission
of New York State. In December, 1916, he became an employe
of the Gaulav Coal Land Comnany at Rupert, West Virginia, and
remained with that corporation for ten years, until March 31,
1926. At that date he was appointed district forester for South-
west Virginia. His duties at first were in the department of
the State Geological Commission. In November, 1926, that com-
mission was taken over by the State Conservation and Develop-
ment Commission, and since then Mr. Hobart has been respon-
sible to this department of state government. In the seventeen
counties comprising his district about 500 chief or local forest
wardens report to him.
Mr. Hobart is a Mason, is independent in politics, is a mem-
ber of the Society of American Foresters and is a Baptist. He
married at Cuba, New York, August 1, 1917, Miss Hazel B.
Keller, who was educated in the public schools of Friendship and
in Alfred University of New York. She taught school before
her marriage, is active in church, in the Daughters of the Amer-
ican Revolution and the Eastern Star Chapter. She is a daughter
of M. Cicero and Nellie (Blossom) Keller. Her father for many
years was active as a farmer and stock raiser at Cuba, New
York. Her mother died in April. 1917. Mr. and Mrs. Hobart
have four children : Seth G., Jr. ; Keith Keller, Helen Blossom
506 VIRGINIA
and William Lansing. Mr. Hobart has his home at Bristol, Vir-
ginia, and his two older children are attending the public school
of that city.
Junius Booker Mosby was one of "Mosby's Men" in the Con-
federate army, being a youthful follower of his great kinsman.
Gen. John S. Mosby, and after the close of the war he rose to
distinction and success in the mercantile field at Richmond,
being founder of what is today the great department store of
J. B. Mosby Company.
He was born in Powhatan County, Virginia, October 18,
1843, and died at Richmond September 20, 1915. The Mosby
family originated in England, and is widely dispersed in Vir-
ginia, the early Colonial records of four or more counties show-
ing settlements by them. The founder of this branch of the
family was Junius Booker Mosby, who came to America in
1538 and became a man of great landed possessions. One other
member of the family was Edward Mosby, who in 1655 was a
member of the vestry of the Westover Parish of the Episcopal
Church.
Junius Booker Mosby was a son of Benjamin and Rachael
Nevirah (Cardozo) Mosby, being their only child. The Cardozos
were a prominent family of planters in Powhatan County. Ben-
jamin Mosby was also a soldier under General Mosby during the
war.
Junius Booker Mosby attended private schools in Powhatan
County and was seventeen and a half years old when the war
broke out. A large part of "Mosby's Men" were recruited in
Powhatan County, and he enlisted in Company E of the Fourth
Virginia Regiment. He had four years of arduous service,
participating in some of the notable exploits of Mosby's Men.
After the war he returned to Richmond, began his career as a
bookkeeper, later bought an interest in the firm of his employer,
and through many years remained steadfast in close and suc-
cessful application to his work, eventually retiring from bus-
iness in 1913 and leaving a house which continues to this modern
time as one of the great department stores of the city, known as
the J. B. Mosby Company. He was also a director of the Ameri-
can National Bank, the First National Bank and the Virginia
Trust Company.
He married, November 11, 1897, Mrs. Louise (Burwell)
Cardozo. She was the daughter of John Lewis Burwell and Ann
Washington Womack (named for her grandmother, Ann Wash-
ington Stith), and through her mother is connected with the
Washington family, from which descended George Washington.
Mrs. Burwell, mother of Mrs. Mosby, was the daughter of
Louisa Stith and John Pernell Womack, Louisa Stith's sister,
Arianna, was the aunt of George Washington through her mar-
riage with Warner Washington, brother of Augustine, who was
the father of George Washington, the first president of the
United States. Mrs. Mosby's father was John Lewis Burwell,
son of Peyton Randolph Burwell, of Mecklenburg County, and
Jane Sewell, of Gloucester County.
Mrs. Mosby by her first marriage had two children, Lewis
Burwell Cardozo and Randolph Burwell Cardozo. Lewis Bur-
well died at the age of seventeen years. The surviving son,
Randolph Burwell Cardozo, now in the railway supply business,
under the name Fleming and Cardozo, at Richmond, married
VIRGINIA 507
Constance Gooding, of London, England, whom he met while
overseas during the World war. Mr. and Mrs. Cardozo have
four children, Mosby Gooding, Randolph Burwell, Jr., Lewis
Burwell and Thomas Clow Gooding Cardozo. Mrs. Mosby
resides at 1800 West Grace Street, Richmond.
Mack Evans. No profession or calling has ever presented
such opportunities for the really capable man as that of the law,
and from its ranks have come the ablest men of the country.
However, it has always been impossible for any man to rise to
distinction in the law without a thorough preparation, and the
study and thought thus required naturally develop the brain
and character and make it possible to solve the many problems
which arise in the lives of all. Coeburn is proud of the fact it
has assisted in swelling the long list of Virginia's distinguished
lawyers, and especially so of Mack Evans, whose reputation as
a criminal and civil lawyer far outruns local boundaries. He is
a man of delightful personality, pleasing address, and he is not
only learned, but acutely capable, an able speaker and advocate,
and his practice is fast assuming very large proportions.
Mack Evans was born in McDowell County, West Virginia,
February 27, 1887, a son of E. M. and Elizabeth (Puckett)
Evans. The family was established in Virginia by the great-
grandfather of Mack Evans, a native of Wales, and for many
years a very extensive planter and prominent citizen of the Old
Dominion. His son, Hiram Evans, was the grandfather of Mack
Evans, and he was a veteran of the Confederate army, having
served with great valor during the war between the states.
For years he was an active Democrat, holding local offices and
wielding considerable influence. He, too, was a planter, and
went to Welch, Virginia, where he was a pioneer. E. M. Evans
is a noted minister of the Primitive Baptist faith, now living at
Honaker, Virginia, and has been very active in his denomination
in West Virginia and Southwest Virginia. In former years he
was extensively engaged in coal mining as an operator in West
Virginia and Southwest Virginia, but more recently has leased
his mines and is now giving all of his attention to his ministerial
duties. A loyal Republican, he is one of the leaders of the party
in his district, and could, probably, have any office within the
gift of the people did he care to accept nomination. The
maternal grandfather of Mack Evans was Malichi Puckett, and
he lived in McDowell County, West Virginia, where he was a
planter and an active Republican. During the war between the
states he served in the Union army, and because of injuries
received in the service received a pension from the Government
until his death.
• Mack Evans attended the public schools of McDowell County,
and there proved himself an apt and ambitious student. Later
he entered Concord State Normal School, Athens, West Virginia,
from which institution he went to Valparaiso University, Indi-
ana, and was graduated therefrom with the degree of Bachelor
of Arts, and subsequently took the degree of Bachelor of Laws
from the same university. In 1916 he was admitted to practice
at the bar of Indiana, and in the Federal Courts of Indiana that
same year, and later in the Supreme Court. From 1916 to
1917 he was engaged in practice in Hammond, Indiana. With
this country's entry into the World war he returned to the South
and took charge of his father's mines so as to speed up coal pro-
24— VOL. 3
508 VIRGINIA
duction, and continued to serve in that capacity until the close
of the war. He was then admitted to practice in the courts of
Virginia, located in Coeburn, and here he has attained to the
prominence already noted. He is a member of the Wise County
Bar Association. One of the leaders of the Republican party
in Wise County, he has served Coeburn as mayor since June.
1926, and the city has prospered under his able administration.
His fraternal connections are those which he maintains with
the Blue Lodge in Masonry and the Improved Order of Redmen.
The Methodist Episcopal Church, South, holds his membership.
On November 2, 1917, Mr. Evans married Miss Vera Dilley,
of Hebron, Indiana, a daughter of John M. and Cotolia Dilley,
both of whom survive and are living in Hebron, Indiana, being
farming people. The family, however, is of Virginian sto;;k,
and Mrs. Evans is a direct descendant of the forebears of Gov-
ernor Dinwiddle. She was educated in Valparaiso University,
is a member of the Eastern Star, to which her husband also
belongs, and is a social leader, club worker, and a valued member
of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. Doctor and Mrs.
Evans have one of the finest sons in the county, John Mack
Evan^, who v/as awarded the gold medal prize by the Wise
County Fair Association. He was born November 2, 1926, on
the anniversary of his parents' wedding day. Mr. Evans is an
ardent student and owns a very valuable law library, and is
recognized as an authority on all matters pertaining to his
profession and also to cour;ty and state history. It would be
dii'icult, perhaps, to find a man more generally respected or hon-
ored than he. or one who is more representative of the hi.^hest
ideals of his honorable profession.
Fayetta Henry Laighton, who died in New York City
Easter Monday, April 1, 1929, gave the best years of her life
to the noble work of education in her home City of Petersburg,
Virginia. Her life work did not lack appreciation. To quote
from one of the resolutions drawn up by her school workers, "she
showed great wisdom, heartfelt interest and devotion to those
in her care ; holding the position of principal of D. M. Brown
School, she proved her right to lead others of her profession and
won their devotion and respect thereby ; she, the faithful citizen,
served her city, state and nation with great distinction and
honor."
Her grandfather, John Laighton, was a life long resident of
Portsmouth, New Hampshire. He took an active part in civic
affairs, serving as mayor of that city several terms, his ability
and integrity having been recognized and appreciated. Miss
Laighton's father. Octave Laighton, was born and reared in
Portsmouth, New Hampshire, remaining thare until 1849. Suc-
cumbing in that year to a severe attack of the gold fever, he
went in a sailing vessel by way of Cape Horn to San Francisco,
the Golden Gateway to the mines. His quest proving unsuccess-
ful, he returned east by the overland route, crossing mountains,
rivers and plains, almost in daily sight of countless buff'alo and
other wild animals and occasionally coming close to bands of
hostile Indians. After weeks of travel he arrived at Fulton,
Illinois, then a place of considerable importance, and, locating
there, he took up newspaper work, publishing the Fulton
'Advertiser until 1859. Retui'ning then to Dinwiddle County,
Virginia, he located on a farm one mile from Petersburg. At
VIRGINIA 509
the outbreak of the Civil war he was exempt from military
duty on account of ill health and partialblindn.'sS-i. He lived
throu'.'h th3 conflict, passing to the life beyond in 186G.
Octave Laighton married Lucy Dorothea Henry, of very dis-
tinguished, Virginia ancestry. She was born in Charlotte County,
a daughter of Edward Winston Henry and a granddaughter of
the famous Patrick Henry, the inspiring orator of the Revolution
and twice governor of Virginia. Patrick Henry married
Dorothea Dandridge, while his son, Edward Winston Henry,
married Jane Yuille. After the death of her husband Mrs.
Octave Laighton moved to Petersburg, where she lived until her
death in 1899. She was the mother of two children: Fayetta
Henry Laighton and Alberta Winston Laighton. The younger
daughter at the age of seventeen began teaching in one of Peters-
burg's primary schools, later becoming assistant principal in
the high school. She is now living retired at Quaker Hill,
Dutchess County, New York.
Fayetta Henry Laighton was born in Dinwiddie County, on
a farm about a mile from Petersburg. After graduating from
the Petersburg High School she began her career on November
11, 1886 as special teacher of reading. She held this position
until September, 1889, when she became a grade teacher in the
East Ward School (later D. M. Brown School). She continued
as grade teacher until the summer of 1893 when she was
appointed principal, which position she held until her death
in 1929.
She was a member of the Virginia State Educational Associa-
tion and the National Education Association, and in her religious
altiliations was a member of the Episcopal Church.
After being taken ill on October, 1928, she gave up her school
work and went to New York City for medical treatment and to
be near her sister in her winter home. In appreciation of the
great loss her absence meant to the school the superintendent,
Mr. Henry G. Ellis, wrote : "Miss Laighton's work and per-
sonality have made an indelible impression on the school system
of 1 etersburg and on the entire city. It has been a genuine
pleasure to me, personally and professionally, to be associated
with her in recent years and to be helped in my own life and
work by her devotion to the cause of education, by her original
and incisive thinking, and her rich personality."
Her funeral service with the ritual of the Episcopal Church
was held in Old Blandford Church on the afternoon of a lovely
Virginia spring day of the Easter season. The members of
the choir were men and women former pupils of the D. M.
Liown School, the organist was one of Miss Laighton's teachers,
a c ose associate of many years. The church was filled with
her friends and many others flowed out into the sunlit paths
.e.Kiin.; 10 the church. Among them were many children, present
D. M. Brown school pupils, also parents of the children whom
she had taught in more than forty years of educational service.
She was buried in the family plot in Blandford cemetery as a
mockingbird sang its evening song from a nearby cedar tree.
"Never have I witnessed in my long life here," said one of her
friends, "such an outpouring of respectful admiration, sincere
grief and spontaneous aff'ection on the part of so large a group
of all sorts and conditions of people as are here today."
Ihis brief sketch may properly be concluded with some other
quotations from the resolutions passed by the Teachers' Club
and the Parent-Teachers Association.
510 VIRGINIA
"We are truly thankful for the example of her life and for
the privilege of a knowledge of and association with her. Firm
in her friendships, possessing a masterful mind and memory
stored with gems of a lifetime of application, a keen discrimina-
tion in matters of justice and honor, and occupying a position
in which these qualities were daily manifested, it is doubtful
whether any individual has made a more profound impression
upon the present generation of this community. Truly in her
was fulfilled the prophecy of the poet: 'Those about her
From her shall read the perfect ways of honour.' "
"Miss Laighton without thought of self gave all of her
splendid powers of heart and intellect to the upbuilding of the
school whose welfare she sought so zealously; and under whose
guidance and magnetic and forceful personality the highest
ideals of life and conduct were impressed upon all who came
within the sphere of her influence; the memory of her noble
character will remain graven upon the hearts of those to whom
was given the privilege of serving under her leadership, and
who will ever be mindful of her unfailing consideration and
kindly assistance at all times. We, the Faculty of the D. M.
Brown School, deeply regret the death of Miss Laighton, who
'yet speaketh' through her example of an unselfish life of service,
as a principal whose devotion to duty was unsurpassed, whose
ideals were an incentive to the attainment of all that was noble
and good; and as a friend whose love it was a benediction to
serve."
"Nothing is here for tears, nothing to wail
Or knock the breast, no weakness, no contempt
— Nothing but well and fair,
And what may quiet us in a death as noble."
Hugh Goodwin Bonham, general manager of the Pulaski
Foundry & Machine Manufacturing Corporation, is a native of
Virginia, received his technical education at Blacksburg, and
since early manhood has been identified with his profession as
a mechanical engineer.
He was born at Chilhowie, Virginia, October 28, 1884, son
of A. F. and Lina (Goodwin) Bonham. His grandfather, Joseph
Bonham, and his great-grandfather, Hezekiah Bonham, lived in
Smyth County, in Southwest Virginia, and both of them were
wagon and gun smiths. Mr. Hugh Bonham at his home has an
old rifle made by his great-grandfather. Both these ancestors
are buried in the Baptist Church Cemetery at Sinklers Bottom,
in Smyth County. A. F. Bonham was born and reared at Chil-
howie, attended private schools, and for a number of years did
work as a surveyor and civil engineer. He is still living on his
farm near Chilhowie at the age of eighty years. His wife, Lina
Goodwin, was born and reared in Louisa County, attended pri-
vate schools and for a year or two after the Civil war was a
teacher. She was a regular attendant at the services of the
Baptist Church. She died October 26, 1927, and is buried at
Chilhowie. There were five children: Mary, of Chilhowie;
Hugh G. ; Nicie, wife of John Snavely, of Chilhowie ; Joseph, of
-Chilhowie, an employe of the State Road Commission ; and Daisy,
wife of Dr. 0. G. McConnell, a physician at Blair, West Virginia.
Hugh G. Bonham attended public schools in Chilhowie and
was a member of the class of 1908 at the Virginia Polytechnic
Institute. During the following year he was employed in the
VIRGINIA 511
testing department of the General Electric Company, and then
located at Pulaski, where he spent nine years as a mechanical
engineer with the Virginia Iron, Coal & Coke Company. Since
1918 he has been with the Pulaski foundry & Machine Manu-
facturing Corporation, at lirst as mechanical engineer and since
1928 as reneral manager of the plant and business.
Mr. Bonham for a number of years has Leen active in the
B. P. 0. Elks. He is a member of the Rotary Club and a Demo-
crat. At Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, May 12, 1917, he married
Miss Alice Blocksidge, of 1 ulaski. She was educ.ited in a private
school and takes part in the various organizations of tr.e Epis-
copal Church, and is a member of the Garden Club. She is a
daughter of Benjamin and Elizabeth (Simkiss) Blocksidge, who
came to America from Walverhampton, England, about 1880,
locating at Pulaski, where her father for over forty years was
auditor for the Pulaski Iron Company. Her parents still reside
at Jb ulaski. Mr. and Mrs. Bonham have one daughter, Elizabeth,
attending the Pulaski public schools.
Robert Augustus McIntyre. The subject of this sketch is
the oldest son of Colonel Robert Charles Mclntyre, and Martha
Louisa (Murdoch) Mclntyre, his wife, of South Carolina. He
was born February 5, 1862, at Albany, Georgia, while his par-
ents were visiting in that city. Robert Charles Mclntyre was
a son of Captain Archibald J\lclntyre, of Maiion, Soutn Caro-
lina, of Clan ilclntyre, from Argyleshire, Scotland, a Clan
aistinguiched in letters and in war. The Arir.s of tne family
bear testimony to their achievements in the Crusades; the great-
est of Gaelic poets was Duncan Ban Maclntyre. His mother was
of the Cian IMacLachian, descended from Conn of Tne Hundred
Battles Nine Hundred, A. D.
Captain Mclntyre married Sophia Eliza Howard, a daughter
of Colonel Richard Howard, of the Effingham Branch of the
Howard tami y, and lineal descendant of Thomas Howard, Duke
of Norfolk, victor of Flodden Field. Colonel Howard owned a
large estate and many slaves in West Marion, where he lived the
life of an English Gentleman, had his private race track, and ran
his thoroughbreds at Charieston, in the "good old days." This
representative couple of the old aristocracy, had nine children,
five sons in the Confederate Army, four cf whom were severely
wounded, and the fifth killed, at Sharpsburg.
The Mclntyres for generations have placed the highest value
on education, and each of these children received the best edu-
cational advantages. Robert Charles, father of Robert Augus-
tus, was a graduate of Mt. Zion (Military) College, and of South
Carclina College under Dr. Thernweil ; a lawyer by education
and profession, a well kno\vii literatus and classical scholar, and
an eloquent speaker.
Robert Charles Mclntyre married Martha Louisa Murdoch,
daughter of Alexander Murdoch, a son of John JIurdoch of
Beauty Spot, and his wife, Janet MacGreggor. John IMurdoch
was scion of the Murdochs descended from Muredach. King of
Scotland in 7-33. Janet IMacGreggor was of the famous MacGreg-
gor Clan.
Alexander Murdoch, father of Mrs. Robert Charles Mclntyi'e,
married Martha Louisa Wayne, a daughter of Major Francis A.
Wayne, sen of William Wayne, who was a grandson of Captain
Anthony Wayne, distinguished as. a captain of Dragoons under
William of Orange at the battle of The Boyne. Captain An-
512 VIRGINIA
thony Wayne was the grandfather of William Wayne and Gen-
eral Anthony Wayne of Revolutionary fame. General Wayne
was William's Guardian, and carried his ward to South Carolina
during the Revolution, where he remained after the Revolution,
and married Elizabeth Trezevant, a great granddaughter of
Daniel Trezevant, one of the first Huguenots that settled in
Charleston, South Carolina, 1689, after the Revocation of The
Edict of Nantes, Mrs. Mclntyre's father and mother having died
when she was twelve years old. General William Evans, her
uncle, acted as her guardian, and directed her education. She
entered Wesleyan Female College, Macon, Georgia, at thirteen
years of age, where she was known as the "Little Giant," and
afterwards finished her education at LaGrange College, La-
Grange, Georgia. She was a great reader, and had a quick, re-
tentive memory. She was an accomplished writer, and her let-
ters were models of epistolary composition. She was her son's
first teacher and directed his earlier education.
Robert Augustus Mclntyre, the subject of this sketch,
through his father and mother, received an excellent education
independently of the opportunities that were given him in the
schools of the day. It was his father's influence that inspired
in him a life-long love for classic learning. It was contact with
his father and mother that directed him to high aspirations and
purposes in life, and stimulated his ambition.
When young Robert Mclntyre was entered as a cadet in
Bethel Classical and Military Academy, near Warrenton, Vir-
ginia, where many young Southerners were educated, the su-
perintendent paid him the compliment of informing him that
he was the best prepared student that had ever entered the
Academy from the South.
Having finished his academic studies and his full course in
law, he was admitted to the practice of his profession before the
County Court of Fauquier, in the State of Virginia ; but shortly
afterwards returned to Bennettsville, South Carolina, and was
licensed to practice his profession in that state, by the Supreme
Court sitting in Columbia, in 1883. He was successful in prac-
tice from the start ; but having received an offer of a position in
the faculty of Bethel Classical and Military Academy, of which
his father-in-law. Major Albert G. Smith was superintendent
and founder, he accepted and continued to hold the position until
the death of Major Smith, when he was advanced to the position
of superintendent. While connected with the academy he was
at the head of the department engaged in the preparation of
students for the law course at the University of Virginia, which
he conducted with unusual success. While a member of the fac-
ulty, Major Mclntyre wrote a text book on Bookkeeping, on Eng-
lisn Grammar and on English Composition. He also contributed to
the press and wrote other works on different subjects. He was
a very hard student and seized every opportunity to extend his
knowledge by original research in letters, and in the sciences.
His interest in education has never ceased. He was for sev-
eral years chairman of the School Board of Center District, has
been a member of the State Board of Teachers Colleges of Vir-
ginia for almost two terms, having been first appointed by Gov-
ernor Trinkle, and re-appointed by Governor Byrd. He is in
demand as a speaker at commencement exercises, and takes a
lively interest in the local public schools.
Having retired from the position of superintendent of Bethel
Military Academy, he opened an office and resumed the practice
VIRGINIA 513
of his profession in Warrenton, Virginia, in June, 1902. Since
that time he has }?iven his life to the profession to which his
parents had dedicated him upon the day of his birth. He had
practiced but a few months before he had many clients and had
earned a place among the leading members of an able bar. Few
important cases are heard in ths local courts, either criminal or
civil that Mclntyre's name does not appear as counsel on one
side or the other. His practice has grown and spread, until
few lawyers in the Eighth Congressional District are better or
more favorably known. He is counsel for the Peoples National
Bank, The International Harvester Company, Virginia Public
Service Company, Standard Oil Company, The United States
Fidelity and Guaranty Company.
He has been a member of the State Bar Association and held
official position in it, from the second year of its organization.
He has been a member of the American Bar Association for
many years, he is vice president of the local Bar Association,
practices in the Federal Courts, and is a member of the Bar of
the Supreme Court of the United States. A vacancy having oc-
curred on the Circuit Bench in his county in 1929, he received
the unanimous endorsement of the bar for the judgeship, but
declined to consider the honor.
He is a member of the University Club of Richmond, of the
Country Club of Warrenton, is a Royal Arch Mason, a member
of the Patriotic Order Sons of America, lieutenant comman-
der of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, an active supporter
of the Warrenton Horse Show, having presided at its organiza-
tion thirty years ago, has been an active director in the Cham-
ber of Commerce, a director in the Peoples National Bank, and
is a Vestryman of St. James Episcopal Church of Warrenton,
Virginia.
During the World war, Major Mclntyre was chairman of
The Legal Advisory Board, chairman of the United War Work
Campaign, chaiiinan of The Four Minute Men, speaker on the
Propaganda Committee of the Red Cross, and his name is re-
corded in the history of Virginia's part in the World war as one
of the te7i 77iost distinguished uien for service from Fauquier
County.
In public life of his county and state, he has taken an active
part since he was twenty-one years of age. He was generally
endorsed for the Constitutional Convention of 1902, but de-
clined in favor of an old Confederate soldier. He was elected a
member of the State Democratic Committee from the Eighth
Congressional District, and served for twelve years, during
which time he performed a number of most important duties.
He was chairman of the Special Committee named to investi-
gate the Second Congressional District Primary, in the contro-
versy between Maynard and Young, which led to cleaning up
conditions in the politics of Norfolk City. He was named chair-
man of a committee to prepare a Primary' Law for the State
of Virginia, and secure its adoption. He did all of the work,
no other member of the committee having appeared, and the
present Primaiy Law of the State is the result of his service.
He has been one of the speakers in every Presidential Campaign
for the past twenty-five years, for the Democratic Party. When
the historic and supreme effoi-t of the people of Virginia swept
the Commonwealth into the dry column, Mclntyre was chair-
man and led the fight in the Eighth District, including the ten
counties of Northern Virginia, and the City of Alexandria. He
514 VIRGINIA
was a candidate for the nomination as member of the House
of Delegates before the Democratic Primary of August 6, 1929,
and was nominated by an overwhelming majority; while the
Republicans offer no opposition to his election in November.
He has been one of the most active advocates and supporters
of road improvement in his county, and has given of his means
freely. He was attorney for the first Bond Issue in Center Dis-
trict, contributed largely to the building of the Bethel Road,
which was the first example of hard surface road construction
in Fauquier; represented all of the counties from the Potomac
River to the City of Winchester, in securing the adoption by
the Legislative Committee, of the "project" then unnamed, but
now known as the Lee-Jackson Memorial Highway, from the
Key Bridge to Winchester. For his services before the Legisla-
tive Committee in assisting to locate the "project" from Raleigh,
North Carolina, to Frederick, Maryland, he was rewarded by
having the same routed through Fauquier County, and was
elected it's first vice president. He opposed the Fifty Million
Dollar Bond Issue when that question was before the people,
and advocated the Pay As You Go Plan. Few men in Northern
Virginia have taken a livelier interest in a rational road build-
ing and improvement policy, than the subject of this sketch.
Major Robert Augustus Mclntyre, married Elizabeth Black-
well, daughter and only child of Major Albert G. Smith, a son
of Col. William R. Smith of Alton, and member of the dis-
tinguished Smith family of Fauquier. Major Smith was
founder of Bethel Classical and Military Academy, and enjoyed
the well earned reputation of being one of the greatest edu-
cators of his day. He was especiaUy distinguished for his gal-
lantry in the Charge of Pickett's Division at Gettysbui'g, where
he went through the enemy's lines, recovered the colors of his
Regiment, and succeeded in escaping untouched. Mrs. Mcln-
tyre's Mother, was Elizabeth Carter Blackwell, a daughter of
Mr. James Blackwell of The Meadows, and a lineal descendant
of Robert Carter, generally known as "King" Carter. Five
children were born of this union : Albert Galatin, who died in
childhood, Louisa Murdoch, Elizabeth Carter, Robert Charles,
and Agnes Conway.
Major Mclntyre has been from early manhood, one of the
most prominent and successful business men in his county. He
owned and managed Bethel Military Academy with patronage
from twenty-two states and foreign countries, and the Fau-
quier White Sulphur Springs, which brought more foreign cap-
ital into the county than any other enterprises in it. He is one
of the large land owners of his section, among which holdings
are the Bethel Academy property, "Springfield," and "Argyle,"
his home place near Warrenton.
Homer King Bowen, executive secretary of the Southwestern
Virginia, Incorporated, with headquarters at Wytheville, comes
of a family highly connected in this part of the state, and the
Bowens were among the first families of Virginia.
Mr. Bowen was born at Pembroke, in Giles County, Novem-
ber 15, 1897, son of A. M. and Sarah Etta (Scott) Bowen. His
father was born in Alleghany County, Virginia, was educated in
public schools, studied law, and practiced that profession for a
number of years in Allerhany and Giles County. The last ten
or fifteen years of his life were devoted to farming and stock
raising. He died February 28, 1928, and is buried in the Hoge
VIRGINIA 515
Chapel Cemetery in Giles County. His wife, Sarah Etta Scott,
was born and reared in Scott County, Virginia. She is a member
of the Christian Church, and her husband also joined that
church, though reared a Methodist. There were eight children
in the family: R. J. Bowen, of Bluefield, West Virginia; 1'. C.
Bowen, of Christiansburg, Virginia; Alonzo Pembroke; M. M.
Bowen, of Columbus, Ohio; L. B. Bowen, of Narrows, Virginia;
Hallie Payne, wife of R. L. Carico, of Patoaka, West Virginia;
Homer King; and J. Porter Bowen, of Rock, West Virginia.
Homer King Bowen attended public schools in Giles County,
and for several years he used the equipment of a liberal educa-
tion in the profession of teaching. He was graduated Bachelor of
Arts from Roanoke College in 1919, and did post-graduate work
in Cclumliia University of New York and in the George Peabody
Normal College at Nashville, Tennessee, where he received the
Master of Arts degree in 1923. For five years he was with a
private school for boys, the Gallatin Institute, near Nashville.
Mr. Bowen spent two years as an instructor in the Augusta Mili-
tary Academy at Fort Defiance, Virginia, and one year in the
Woodbury Forest School.
In July, 1927, he located at Wytheville as executive secretary
of the Southwestern Virginia, Incorporated. Under this title
is carried on a notable work of publicity and in other lines for
a regional Chamber of Commerce, representing nineteen counties
in Southwest Virginia. Mr. Bowen and one of his brothers
operate the home farm, and he is also owner of the Haynes Motor
Company at Winchester, Tennessee.
He is a member of the Masonic fraternity. Knights of
Pythias, Modern W'oodmen of America, Rotary Club, is an inde-
pendent Republican, and is active in the Christian Church, teach-
ing a class in the Sunday school. Mr. Bowen married at Lynch-
burg, Virginia, September 3, 1927, Miss Beatrice Margaret
Watts, of Sweet Briar College, Virginia, a graduate of that splen-
did woman's college with the class of 1925. She is a daughter
of Robert W. Watts, for many years a leading contractor at
Sweet Briar, where he and his wife still reside.
Frederick Albert Whittaker, who represents a family
with residence in Giles County for four generations, lives at
Eggleston, and has a varied and important connection with the
civic and business afli'airs of that locality.
He was born at Staffordsville, Virginia. March 22, 1888. His
grandfather, Jim Whittaker, was also born and reared in Giles
County, and was a private soldier in the Confederate army. He
and other members of his family are buried in Rye Hollow
Cemetery. David Lewis Whittaker, father of Frederick Albert,
was born and reared at Staffordsville. attended private schools,
and spent his active life as a farmer, cattle raiser and dealer.
He was a member of the Masonic fraternity and the Christian
Church. He died in March, 1928. He married Margaret Jane
Albert, whose father, Riley Albert, was a Confederate soldier, a
farmer and stock raiser in the Rye Hollow communitv. Ihe
farm where she was born and reared is now owned by her son,
Frederick A. She attended public schools, and for manv years
has been a faithful member of the Christian Church. She was
born July 4, 1856. and still lives at the old home. Of her eleven
children, one, Charles, died in infancy ; Cora, deceased, was the
wife of Robert Meadows ; Elliot lives at Trigg, Virginia ; \'ert
516 VIRGINIA
is the wife of A. J. Munsey, of Staff ordsville ; Bent lives at
Staff ordsville ; Ada is at home; Clayton S. is a merchant at
Eggleston ; Frederick Albert is the next in age ; Tracy is a
farmer and cattle raiser at the old home place at Staffordsville ;
Blanche is the wife of Ophus Agee, of New River ; and Clara is
the wife of Reece Ross, of Lynchburg.
Frederick Albert Whittaker attended public schools in Giles
County, and since leaving school his business has been farming,
cattle raising and trading cattle, at first associated with his
father and now independently. He is also a director in the
Peoples Bank of Giles, is a stockholder in the Eggleston Motor
Company, in the State National Bank of Roanoke and in the
Shenandoah Life Insurance Company. For some time he served
as deputy agent of the Internal Revenue Bureau. He is a Re-
pubhcan, member of the Christian Church and a Master Mason.
Mr. Whittaker married at Eggleston, July 14, 1915, Miss
Annie Laurie Walker, of Eggleston. They were married in the
Baptist Church by Rev. H. E. Bailey, a Lutheran minister. Mrs.
Whittaker is a daughter of John F. and Maggie (Jones) Walker.
Her father was a Confederate soldier, and after the war a
farmer and cattle man. More details concerning the Walker
family are published on other pages. Mr. and Mrs. Whittaker
have three children, Frederick Albert Jr., Wilmet Walker and
Margaret Virginia, all attending public school at Eggleston.
J. Horace Luster is a Blacksburg business man, and has
achieved a successful career in that community, where his name
is associated with business success and the public spirited
activities of a citizen of fine integrity and reliability.
Mr. Luster was born in Montgomery County, Virginia, Sep-
tember 26, 1891. His grandfather, Edwin B. Luster, was the
son of an early Baptist minister in Virginia. Edwin B. Luster
spent the greater part of his life as a merchant at Fincastle,
Virginia, where he died in 1910. James 0. Luster, father of
the Blacksburg business man, was born and reared in Botetourt
County, attended school there and for many years conducted a
hardware business at Fincastle. After selling his interests there
he moved to Blacksburg and became interested with his son in
a hardware business in that city. He and his wife reside in
Blacksburg, and are active members of the Baptist Church.
James 0. Luster married Bettie Ross, who was born and reared
in Botetourt County, and attended school there. She is a daugh-
ter of John and Mary Alexander Ross, the former from Scotland
and the latter from Union, West Virginia. J. Horace Luster
was one of four children, two of whom died in infancy. His
sister. Miss Kathleen, was educated in the Virginia Intermont
College and the Peabody Conservatory at Baltimore, and is a
very talented vocalist, well known in concert work and in church
choirs at Richmond.
J. Horace Luster attended public schools at Fincastle, the
West Virginia Wesleyan College, and on leaving school he went
to work for his uncle, A. W. Luster, a hardware merchant at
Blacksburg. He has remained there through the years, and
after the death of his uncle he took over the hardware store
and has given his chief attention to this business. He is also a
director in the National Bank of Blacksburg and a director and
stockholder in a number of other commercial enterprises in that
VIRGINIA 517
part of the state. Mr. Luster is a former president of the Blacks-
burg Rotary Club, is a Democrat and a Methodist.
He married at Blacksburg, December 6, 1916, Miss Mary
Louise Black, who was educated in Hollins College. She was an
adopted daughter of Alexander Black, the well known Blacks-
burg banker and business man. She died November 24, 1918,
and is buried in the Blacksburg Cemetery. On July 21, 1928,
Mr. Luster married at Blacksburg Mrs. Mary (Powell) Burr.
Her father, William Powell, was a leading attorney of Emporia,
Virginia. Mrs. Luster by her first husband, Charles Gilbert
Burr, has two children, Charles Gilbert, Jr., and Sue Macklan
Burr. Mrs. Luster is a church worker, being identified with the
Methodist Episcopal Church, South, and is a member of the
United Daughters of the Confederacy and Daughters of the
American Revolution.
Hon. John C. Smith, A member of the bar of Southwestern
Virginia for thirty-three years, during his long and active career
at Clintwood Hon. John C. Smith has been engaged in work of
the highest professional character, and through the exercise of
native and acquired talent, comprehensive knowledge of legal
lore and great industry has gained and held a position of lead-
ership among his contemporaries. He has likewise been a lead-
ing figure in public and political affairs, and on various occasions
has been the recipient of high honors at the hands of his appre-
ciative fellow citizens in Dickenson County.
Mr. Smith was born November 12, 1870, at Nora, Dickenson
County, Virginia, and is a son of Elexius and Margaret (Counts)
Smith. The Smith family is of English descent and settled early
in Russell County, Virginia, where was born the grandfather
of John C. Smith, George W. Smith. He was a lifelong planter
and stockman, a man of high character and of influence in his
community, an unswerving Democrat and a faithful member of
the Primitive Baptist Church. Elexius Smith was born in Rus-
sell County, and was still a youth when he enlisted in the Con-
federate army for service during the war between the states.
Following that struggle he settled in Dickenson County, where
he passed the rest of his life as a planter. He and his worthy
wife were members of the l^rimitive Baptist Church. The ma-
ternal grandfather of John C. Smith, William Counts, was born
in what was then Wise County, but is now a part of Dickenson
County, where he passed his life to the ripe old age of ninety-
five years as a planter and a pioneer grower of orchids for
the market.
The public schools of Dickenson County furnished John C.
Smith with his early educational training, and like many of the
lawyers who have risen to success in this part of the state entered
upon his career as a school teacher. For four years he instructed
the young, including a term as principal of the institution known
as Clintwood College, and then pursued a course at the Pike
County Academy at Dorton, Kentucky. In 1895 he graduated
from the Northern Indiana Normal School at Valparaiso, Indi-
ana, with th': degree of Bachelor of Laws, and located immedi-
ately at Clintwood to engage in the practice of his profession.
For the f'St two years he was a member of the law firm of
Evans & Smith, but since then has practiced alone and has a
large and lucrative general practice, with offices on Main Street.
Mr. Snath is a Republican in his political views, and served for
518 VIRGINIA
twenty years as a member of the State Republican Executive
Committee, representing the Ninth Congressional District, of
which district he was supervisor of the census in 1910. In
1898 he was elected commonwealth's attorney for a four year
term, being the first Republican ever elected to that office in the
county. He was sent back to that office in 1914 and again in
1918, and established a splendid record for efficiency and con-
scientious attention to dutv. During the World war he was chair-
man of the War Savings Stamp committee of Dickenson County,
and put over the county's quota.
Mr. Smith married Miss Lillie Jane Compton. of Scott
County, Virginia, a daughter of Berry and Susan Compton, the
former a farmer and stockman and of an old and distinguished
Virginia family. She completed her education in Shoemaker
College, Gate City, Virginia, and taught school in Scott and
Dickenson counties for a number of years prior to her marriage.
She is a popular member of the Order of the Eastern Star and
an active worker in the activities of the Missionary Baptist
Church. To Mr. and Mrs. Smith have been born the following
children : Stella Richmond, educated in Clintwood High School,
Virginia Interment College at Bristol and Hollms College, who
took a course in music at Hood College, Maryland, married Law-
rence T. Long, now deceased, a mine inspector for the United
States Coal and Coke Company of Gary, West Virginia, with
headquarters at Dante, Virginia, and has one child, Lucile Tier-
ney; Mamie Fulton, who died in infancy; and Lucile Marrison,
her twin, who lived to be fourteen .\ears of age. This was the
first pair of twins to be born in Dickenson County.
Isaac H. Looney, purchasing agent and commissary manager
of the Virginia Hardwood Lumber Company at Bastian, is repre-
sentative of one of the old families of Southwestern Virginia.
His great-grandfather, Joseph Looney, at a very early time,
accompanied by his brother, moved out of Botetourt County,
where the Looneys had lived for a long time, and settled in
Buchanan County, in Northwestern Virginia, when that di.sti'ict
was well out on the frontier. It was in Buchanan County, near
Grundy, tnat Isaac H. Looney was born September 25, 1898. He
is a son of Rev. Birdine and Rosa C. (Boyd) Looney. His
father was born and reared in the same county, and is a farmer
and local minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South,
still carrying on the work of his farm and church at Leemaster,
Virginia. His wife, Rosa C. Boyd, was a daughter of Rev. Isaac
Newton and Nancy Boyd, her father having been one of the
early Methodist ministers in Southwestern Virginia. She was
reared and educated in Buchanan County, and all her life has
been a devoted worker in the Methodist Church. The six chil-
dren of these parents were : Isaac H., Nancy Rosa, Elihu Hol-
land, Leah, Carl and Webster.
Isaac H. Looney was educated in public schools in Buchanan
County, attending high school, and when he left school his first
work was with I. C. Boyd & Company, a mercantile firm. He
clerked in their establishment until 1918, and then for a few
months was at home. In 1917 he resumed his service with
I. C. Boyd & Company at Putnam, but since 1920 has been with
the Virginia Hardwood Lumber Company as manager of the
commissary, at first at South Clinchfield and in 1927 the company
moved its band mill operations to Bastian in Bland County,
VIRGINIA 519
where Mr. Looney is located as manager of the commissary and
as purchasing agent. He is a stockholder in the Pocahontas Fire
Creek Coal Company.
Mr. Looney is one of the public spirited men of his com-
munity and is active in the Masonic fraternity. He took his first
degree in Masonry at Honaker, Virginia, and is a member of
the Scottish Rite body and Kazim Temple of the Mystic Shrine
at Roanoke. Mr. Looney is a Democrat, is a member of the
Board of Stewards of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South,
and teaches a class of young people in the Sunday School.
He married in Tazewell County, Virginia, June 15, 1921, Miss
Lucille Edith Boyd. She was educated in public schools in
Russell County and in the class of 1918 in the Stonewall Jack-
son College at Abingdon, Virginia, and also attended a business
college in Kentucky. For about a year before her marriage she
was bookkeeper with the I. C. Boyd Mercantile Company, where
Mr. Looney was also employed. She is a member ot the Metho-
dist Episcopal Church, South. Mr. and Mrs. Looney have one
son, William Boyd Looney, now in public school at Bastian.
Mrs. Looney is a daughter of C. W. and Vina (l-hillips) Boyd.
Her mother died a number of years ago at Kichland, Virginia.
C. W. Boyd has for many years been one of the outstanding
lumber operators in Southwestern Virginia. About 1920 he
organized the Virginia Hardwood Lumber Company, and is the
active head of that business, with main offices at Tazewell. This
company has operated mills in a number of hardwood districts,
formerly at Fort Blackmore, then at South Clinchfield, and since
i9zv at Bastian, where the company owns 34,000 acres of timber
land. The business is one that employs about 300 people and
the daily cut is 70,000 feet.
Paul L. Comer is one of the organizers and is cashier of the
Farmei-s & Mercliants Bank of Kicn Creek, Ciles County. He is
a very able and popular business man and citizen, and is well
known through his connections on both sides ot the state line in
West Virginia as well as in Virginia.
He was born at Wikel, West Virginia, Augu.st 17, 1903, son
of J. A. and Minnie (Mann) Comer. His great-great-grand-
iather, Frederick Comer, was one of three brothers who came
from France to America, and he settled in what is now West Vir-
ginia in pioneer times. J. A. Comer was born in 1868, and has
spent his active life in Monroe County, West Virginia. He has
been a farmer and for many years in the lumber business, and
still occupies his homestead at Wikel. He is a member of the
Independent Order of Odd Fellows. His wife, Minnie Mann,
was born and reared in West Virginia, and, like her husband,
had the advantages of public schools, and both are members of
the Baptist Church. She is a member of the Rebekahs. They
were the parents of six sons : Carl A., a lumberman and truck
farmer at Wikel; Samuel H., who died at the age of fifteen;
Paul L. ; Howard E., in the automobile business at Lmdside, Mon-
roe County, West Virginia; Thurman H. and Eugene E., both
attending high school at Greenville.
Paul L. Comer was educated in public schools at W^ikel. For
four years he was a teacher in West Virginia, and he received
one of the first life certificates granted by the State Educational
Department of West Virginia. After giving up teaching he en-
tered the National Business College at Roanoke, and completed
the work required for a diploma in the shortest time of any
520 VIRGINIA
graduate, this being largely due to his exceptional proficiency
in mathematics. After graduating he was bookkeeper for the
American National Bank at Roanoke for a time.
Mr. Comer in 1924 was associated with J. S. Taylor in the
organization of the Farmers & Merchants Bank of Rich Creek,
Mr. Taylor becoming the first cashier and Mr. Comer, book-
keeper and assistant cashier. Since January 1, 1926, Mr. Comer
has performed the duties of cashier of this bank. He is also
secretary, treasurer and promoter of the Rich Creek-Peterstown
Power Company, which buys and sells electric current in the
Rich Creek and Peterstown community. He is a half owner of the
Comer Chevrolet Company at Lindside, West Virginia.
Mr. Comer is an independent Republican, a Baptist, and is
affiliated with Camp No. 10004, Modern Woodmen of America.
He married at Peterstown, West Virginia, May 27, 1925, Miss
Thelma Dickson, who is a graduate of the Peterstown High
School and taught in Monroe County before her marriage. She
is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Her parents
are R. L. and Juda (Dillon) Dickson, who live on a farm near
Lindside. Her father is a farmer and for four years was sheriff
of Monroe County and is now one of the county commissioners.
Mr. and Mrs. Comer have one daughter, Betty Grey.
William H. Newberry, former commissioner of revenue of
Bland County, is a nephew of Senator Samuel H. Newberry, one
of the four members of the Virginia State Senate whose services
in reconstruction times were of such importance that they have
been always referred to as "the Big Four."
Mr. William H. Newberry was born in Bland County, Oc-
tober 26, 1889. This Newberry family has had many prominent
members not only in Virginia but in other states. His great-
grandfather, Samuel Newberry, was one of the early settlers of
Bland County. His grandfather's name was Allen T. Newberry.
William H. Newberry is a son of Dunn B. and Jane (Harmon)
Newberry. Dunn B. Newberry was the youngest son of the dis-
tinguished Senator Samuel H. Newberry. Dunn B. Newberry
was born January 9, 1842, in Bland County, was educated in
private schools, was a Confederate soldier in Company F of the
Forty-fifth Virginia Regiment, and saw active service in twenty-
three battles and skirmishes, including the fight at Cloyd's Moun-
tain and also the great battle of Sharpsburg. After the war he
followed farming and stock raising, and died April 13, 1918,
being buried in the Newberry Cemetery near Bland. His wife,
Jane Harmon, represented another family that has lived from
earliest times in Bland County. She was educated in private
schools, and was an active member of the Methodist Episcopal
Church, South. She died in 1890.
William H. Newberry was the only child of his parents. His
educational opportunities were provided by public schools, and
when he left school he had experience in the mercantile business
as clerk with the firm of Newberry Brothers.
On September 4, 1917, he joined the colors and was in train-
ing at Camp Lee, Virginia, until taken ill with pneumonia, and
was in the hospital for some time, being disabled for further
active service, and received his honorable discharge on July 18,
1918. Mr. Newberry in 1919 was elected commissioner of reve-
nue for Bland County and served two full terms, until January
1, 1928. Since leaving public office he has been an automobile
salesman with the Central Garage Company of Bland.
VIRGINIA 521
Mr. Newberry is affiliated with Lodge No. 206, A. F. and
A. M., Wythe Chapter No. 51, Royal Arch Ma.sons, Lynn Com-
mandery No. 9. Knights Templar, Kazim Temple of the Mystic-
Shrine at Roanoke, and is a msmber of the American Legion
Post and the Methodist Episcopal Church, South.
He married at Bland, July 3, 1920, Miss Bertha Thompson,
of Point Pleasant, Virginia, where she was reared and educated
and also attended the Sidney Lanier School at Baltimore. She
was in service during the World war as a yeomanette in the navy.
Mrs. Newberry is a member of the Presbyterian Church and the
Eastern Star. Her parents were M. H. and Mollie (Ashworth)
Thompson, of Point Pleasant, Virginia, where her father is still
acti\e in business as a merchant, farmer, miller and lumberman.
Up to 1928 he had served fourteen years as democratic chair-
man of Bland County. Mrs. Newberry's mother died in 1922.
The two daughters of Mr. and Mrs. Newberry are ilary Cath-
erine and Harriet Ellen, both attending public school at Bland.
James William B.ane, farmer, stock raiser and banker at
White Gate, is one of the sterling representatives of the Bane
family which traces its descent from Donald McBane, one time
King of Scotland. The family coat-of-arms is a shield, one-
quarter having the figure of a lamb, another a glove, and the
lower quarters contain a sword and ship of commerce. The
motto is "Touch not a cat — but a glove."
The pioneer of the family in Southwest Virginia was James
Bane, who married Betty Haven. James Bane settled at Walkers
Creek, Virginia, in 1793, and acquired a large amount of land
around what is now White Gate, extending up and down the
valley for several miles. The father of James W. Bane was
Lieut. James Edward Bane, who was born and reared at White
Gate, attended private schools, and was a first lieutenant in Com-
pany I of the Thirty-sixth Virginia in General McCausland's
Brigade during the war between the states. After the war he
followed farming and stock raising, and died December 17, 1886,
at the age of fifty-seven. His wife, Mary Olive Miller, was born
and reared at White Gate, attended Walker Creek Academy
there, and she was a Presb\i:erian, while her husband was a
Missionary Baptist. She died January 7, 1916, at the age of
eighty-two, and both are buried in the Bane family cemetery at
White Gate. She was a daughter of Tobias and Betsy (Bane)
Miller. Her father settled at White Gate in 1827 and was a son
of Jacob Miller, who came from Germany and moved from
Franklin County to Montgomery County, settling in the portion
subsequently made into Giles County. James Edward Bane
and wife had a familv of nine children, and those to grow up
were : Rev. Tobias Miller, of Pulaski, Virginia ; Laura Elizabeth,
who died in 1890, at the age of twenty-seven, wife of C. T. ^Moore.
now of Bristol, Tennessee, and left a daughter, Barbara B.
Moore, who is the wife of William T. Allen, of Ceres, Bland
County, Virginia; Miss Annie W. Bane, of White Gate;
James W. ; Mary Jane, who is the wife of Rev. G. H. Broyles, a
Baptist minister at Roanoke, and they were the parents of nine
children, Bessie dying at eleven months and Olive dying at the
age of sixteen and Lacy, at the age of fifteen, while the others
are Annie May, Wilma. James Bane, Paul, Frank and Gordon;
Miss Nannie, of White Gate, who lives with her sister Annie.
James William Bane was educated in public schools at White
Gate, and his father's death made him the head of the family and
522 VIRGINIA
threw upon him unusual responsibilities, so that since an early
age he has been in the full swing of a busy career, engaged in
farming and cattle raising at the old homestead. The place he
occupies is property bought by his father in 1876 and on which
the family have made their home since 1877. The mother of
James W. Bane built a beautiful home there. His farm com-
prises 377 acres, blue grass land, much of it under cultivation.
Mr. Bane is also a director and vice president of the Peoples
Bank of Gile County and in 1925 served as land assessor. He is
a Democrat, a deacon in the Missionary Baptist Church, and for
a number of years superintendent of the Sunday School.
He married at Tazewell, Virginia, December 26, 1908, Miss
Bessie Rose Davidson, who attended the grade and high schools
at TazeweU and was born near Rocky Gap in Bland County.
She taught two years in that Gounty before her marriage. She is
a Methodist. Mrs. Bane is a member of some of the older fami-
lies in Southwest Virginia. Her parents were John A. and Mat-
tie (Harmon) Davidson. Her father was a farmer and stock
raiser in Bland County and for one term represented the county
in the State Legislature. He died in 1896. His father was
James Davidson, a farmer and cattle man of Bland County. The
Davidson family in its various members in this part of Virginia
and West Virginia have a common ancestor, John Goolman Dav-
idson, who was born in Dublin, Ireland, was a cooper by trade,
and came to America about 1755, settling at Beverly Manor,
Augusta County, Virginia. Subsequently he moved with his
family to the famous Drapers Meadows settlement and in 1780
to the head of Beaver Pond Creek, in what is now Mercer
County, West Virginia. During the same year he was joined by
Richard Bailey, and they erected a block house or fort below
the head of Beaver Pond Springs. A portion of the present city
of Bluefield comprises lands originally settled by John Goolman
Davidson, and one of his great-grandsons was the late Hon.
A. C. Davidson of Mercer County.
Mr. and Mrs. Bane had five children : James Edward, born
October 2, 1907, is a graduate of the White Gate High School,
spent two years in Washington and Lee University, taught dur-
ing 1927-28 in the Boys Latin School at Baltimore, and is now
finishing his education in the Columbia University Teachers Col-
lege at New York; John D. Bane, born February 28, 1909,
graduated from the White Gate High School in 1927, and is
associated with his father on the farm ; Eugene M., born Janu-
ary 18th, 1911, is a member of the class of 1929 in the White
Gate High School; Mary Harmon, born June 21, 1917, is in
grade school; and Wilham Doak was born January 19, 1923.
Theodore Willis Knote, founder and head of the School of
Business Administration at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute at
Blacksburg, is a native of Ohio, but is member of an old Virginia
Colonial family in the paternal line.
The Knote family settled in Virginia in the vicinity of Rich-
mond about 1732. Mr. Knote's father, John William Monroe
Knote, was born in Virginia and in 1859 went from there to
what is now Wheeling, West Virginia, and later to the State of
Ohio, and for many years was a merchant at Springfield, where
he died February 19, 1918, and is buried. John William Monroe
Knote married Lillian McBride, who was born in Logan County,
Ohio, and attended private schools in Springfield, and during
the year before her marriage taught in a private seminary at
VIRGINIA ■ 523
Sprinprfiold. She was always active in the Presbyterian Church,
being the daughter of a Presbyterian minister, Rev. Jacob Copen-
haver McBride. John W. M. Knote and wife had three children:
Alice Rosetta, wife of W. K. Shilling; John McBride, deceased;
and Theodore Willis, who was born at Springfield, Ohio, Novem-
ber 22, 1885.
Theodore Willis Knote was educated in private schools at
Springfield and in 1906 graduated from Wittenburg College,
Springfield, Ohio, with the A. B. degree. For a number of years
after leaving college, Mr. Knote was engaged in commercial
work at New York, and for three years his business required
his residence abroad in Europe. He has traveled extensively,
in this country, in Europe, and also in the Orient.
In 1920 Mr. Knote completed a course in the College of Busi-
ness of the University of New York, receiving the degree M. R.
S., and at that time he accepted the invitation to come to Blacks-
burg, Virginia, and establish the Department of Business Ad-
ministration at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute. Since it was
established he has been head of the department.
Mr. Knote is a member of the Beta Theta Pi, Pyramid Lodge
of the Masonic fraternity at New York City, Mecca Temple of
the Mystic Shrine at New York, Roanoke Consistory at Roanoke,
Virginia, the Cohee Country Club at Blacksburg, Virginia, and
the Beta Theta Pi Club of New York City. He is a member of
the American Management Association, the National Economic
League, and the American Association of University Professors.
Mr. Knote is an independent Democrat, a member of the
Lutheran Church, and is unmarried.
James Merritt Thomas has had a very constructive part in
the wholesale commercial activities of Danville for many years.
He has been a factor in the growth of two very prosperous or-
ganizations of the city, one of which is the J. M. Thomas Com-
pany, of which he is president and owner.
Mr. Thomas was born in Halifax County, Virginia, August
22, 1873. His ancestors have been in Virginia for many genera-
tions. His father, W. H. Thomas, was born in the eastern part
of the state, was educated in some of the private schools and
served all through the four years of struggle between the North
and South. He was wounded in the battle of Gettysburg and
participated in many of the great battles of the war. When the
war was over he returned to his farm and followed planting and
agriculture in Halifax County until his death in 1904. He is
buried in the home cemetery at Cluster Springs. His wife,
Patty Merritt, was born and reared near Cluster Springs, was
educated in private .schools and was interested in the Methodist
Episcopal Church, South. She died in 1889. There were six
children : James M. ; J. D. Thomas, of North Carolina ; Fannie,
widow of C. L. Loftus; Miss Maud, of Cluster Springs; Mary,
wife of Robert Loftus ; and J. D. Thomas, who died at the age
of forty-four.
James Merritt Thomas was educated in public schools in
Halifax County, also attended the Danville Business College un-
der Professor Cook, and with this education and with his natural
abilities followed a career that has been one of eminent useful-
ness. For one year he was a clerk in the establishment of
E. S. Arnett, of Danville, following which he spent five years
with Booth Brothers, general merchants. Mr. Thomas has been
524 • VIRGINIA
identified with the wholesale business since 1901. He became
associated with Mr. James R. Tate in the wholesale grocery
business, in what is known as the Tate & Thomas Company,
and he is still president of this corporation. Since 1923, how-
ever, he has given his chief attention to dry goods. In that
year he established a wholesale dry goods house under the name
of J. M. Thomas & Company, specializing in a line of dry goods
and notions, and represented by six traveling salesmen. Both
firms are well established in the wholesale trade and do a splen-
did business over half a dozen or more counties in Virginia and
North Carolina. Mr. Thomas is sole owner and manager of the
dry goods house.
He is a business man with well developed public spirit and
a willingness to do his part. He is a trustee of Averitt College,
for several years was a director of the Y. M. C. A., and is a
former director of the Chamber of Commerce. He is a thirty-
second degree Scottish Rite Mason and Shriner, and has mem-
bership in Roman Eagle Lodge No. 122, A. F. and A. M., Euclid
Chapter, Royal Arch Masons, Dove Commandery, Knights
Templar and Acca Temple of the Mystic Shrine. He is a mem-
ber of the Rotary Club and for several years has been especially
interested in the promulgation of the splendid principles of Ro-
tary. He is a member of the Danville Golf Club, votes for the
Democrats and for about twenty-five years was a deacon of the
First Baptist Church.
Mr. Thomas married at Danville, September 21, 1904, Miss
Florence Swain, of Danville. She was educated in public schools
there, is a member of the Baptist Church and the Daughters of
the American Revolution. Her parents were E. L. and Ada
(Norburn) Swain. Her father for many years was a tobac-
conist in Danville, and served for a time as president of the
City Council and was also a member of the school board. He
died about 1919 and is buried in Green Hill Cemetery. Mrs.
Swain makes her home with Mr. and Mrs. Thomas.
Guy G. Johnson, proprietor of the Alleghany Hotel of East
Radford, was on the road as a traveling salesman for a number
of years, and his associations with the traveling public has given
him unusual qualifications for his present work. Mr. Johnson
is a member of one of the old families of Southwest Virginia.
He was born at East Radford, February 8, 1891, son of
Albert Sidney and Ilia James (Stone) Johnson and grandson
of Dr. Elijah Johnson. His grandfather lived in Campbell and
Tazewell counties, practiced medicine during and after the Civil
war, and spent his later years in Montgomery County. He mar-
ried EHzabeth Holland, and both are buried in the Fairview
Cemetery at Radford. Elizabeth Holland had seven brothers
in the Confederate army under General Lee, and three of them
were killed in Pickett's famous charge at the battle of Gettys-
burg.
Albert Sidney Johnson was born in Tazewell County in 1865,
and was ten years of age when his parents moved to Montgomery
County. He was educated in public schools in both counties,
and for a number of years was a commercial salesman and for
the past fifteen years has conducted a real estate business at
.Radford. He is also financially interested in the Alleghany
Hotel and other Radford property. His wife. Ilia James Stone,
was born at Green Bay, Virginia, attended public schools there
and Holland College. She is a member of the Baptist Church,
VIRGINIA 525
the United Daughters of the Confederacy and the Daughters
of the American Revolution. Her parents were Dr. James L.
and Mattie (Wooten) Stone.
Her father moved from Radford to Roanoke about 1880, being
one of the early physicians in that town, and practiced medicine
and surgery there until his death in 1908. His wife died in
1912. Albert Sidney Johnson and wife had a family of seven
children: Frank Taylor, a merchant at Radford; Miss Maud E.;
Agnes M., wife of R. S. Hopkins, of Radford; Guy G. ; Albert
Sidney, a member of the bar at Radford ; William Thomas, who
was with the colors during the World war, was gassed during
the Argonne oiTensive and after returning to America developed
tuberculosis and died in the Mount Alto Hospital at Washing-
ton in 1922 and is buried at Radford; and James E. Johnson, a
student of medicine in the Medical College at Richmond.
Guy G. Johnson was educated in public schools at Radford,
attended Roanoke College at Salem and on leaving college in
1912 became a commercial representative in the Virginia and
West Virginia territories for John E. Hurst & Company of Bal-
timore. He was on the road for this house seven years and for
six years was with Richardson Brothers & Fickling of New
York, commission agents. Mr. Johnson in 1925 leased the Alle-
ghany Hotel at East Radford, and has made that hotel a good
business and an institution known far and wide to the traveling
public. Mr. Johnson is a member of the Phi Kappa Phi fra-
ternity, is a Democrat and is of Methodist affiliations.
He married at Stewart, Virginia, October 20, 1920, Miss
Caroline Virginia Moir, who was educated in public schools in
Patrick County, Virginia, and the Radford State Teachers Col-
lege, and taught a year in Patrick County before her marriage.
She is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, and
the Radford Music Club. Her parents were Harry M. and
Blanche (Chilton) Moir, of Patrick County, her mother being
a member of the noted family of Chiltons of Lynchburg. Her
father is a farmer and stock raiser, and for twenty years has
been treasurer of Patrick County. Mr. and Mrs. Johnson have
one daughter, Jane Moir Johnson.
James M. Lea, pharmacist, has been a factor in the com-
mercial life of Danville for many years, and is a director and
manager for the Park Place Mercantile Company of that city.
Mr. Lea was born in Caswell County, North Carolina, July
12, 1878. One of the communities of Caswell County is Leas-
burg, named for one of the early members of the Lea family.
John Greenleaf Lea come from England during the 1700s and
secured a land grant of land in North Carolina comprising the
site of the present town of Leasburg. James M. Lea is a son of
Thomas L. and Sallie (King) Lea and a grandson of Thomas L.
Lea, who for many years was sheriff of Caswell County and oth-
erwise prominent in that locality. Thomas L. Lea, Jr., was
born and reared in Caswell County, attended private schools, and
during the Civil war, after completing his military training in
what is now Virginia Polytechnic Institute at Blacksburg, en-
tered the ranks and became captain of Company G in the 71st
North Carolina Infantry, participating in several major en-
gagements and was with the coast defenses in North Carolina.
After the war he followed farming in Caswell County until his
death. He was a member of the Baptist Church. He died in
1904. His wfe, Sallie King Lea, was born and reared in Hali-
526 VIRGINIA
fax County, Virginia, and was reared by her aunt and uncle,
Mr. and Mrs. Sidney S. Lea, in Caswell County, North Carolina.
Her parents died when she was an infant. She attended public
school, the Yancyville School for Girls, Roanoke Female College,
and Averett College, of which her uncle, Sidney Lea, was a
trustee. She died in 1914 and is buried in Green Hill Cemetery
at Danville. These parents had twelve children, three of whom
died in infancy and all the others are still living: Sidney S.,
a tobacconist of Danville ; James M. ; Hunter Y., a Danville
tobacconist ; Alice N., wife of Irley Stokes, of Kentridge ;
Sus'ie K., wife of Dr. William I. Pritchard, of Petersburg, Vir-
ginia; Fay Belle, Mrs. Fred Norton, of East Orange, New
Jersey; Thomas L., a tobacconist at Louisville who has charge
of the Dark Belt Tobacco Market for the Export Leaf Tobacco
Company; Walter Clark, superintendent of the Durham branch
of the American Tobacco Company at Durham, North Carolina;
and Inza, wife of L. C. Manson, of Kansas City, Missouri.
James M. Lea grew up in Caswell County, attended public
schools there, and finished his literary education in Wake Forest
College, North Carolina. In 1898, when he was twenty years of
age, he came to Danville, and for three years was employed as
clerk in the drug store of Thomas G. Moore. In 1902 he gradu-
ated in pharmacy from the University College of Medicine at
Richmond, being an honor member of the Rho Chi fraternity.
The four years following were spent as pharmacist in the drug-
store of Paul Massey at Roanoke, and in 1908 he returned to
Danville and for twenty years has been associated with the busi-
ness known as Park Place Mercantile Company, Inc., as man-
ager of the Park Place Pharmacy and one of the partners and
in the corporation, which operates four stores, the pharmacy,
a market and grocery and the Schoolfield Furniture Company.
Mr. Lea is also a director of the American National Bank of
Danville.
He is affiliated with Roman Eagle Lodge No. 122, A. F. and
A. M., Euclid Chapter. Royal Arch Masons, Dove Commandery,
Knights Templar, is a thirty-second degree Scottish Rite Mason
and Potentate's representative for Danville in the Mystic Shrine.
He also is past exalted ruler of Danville Lodge, B. P. O. Elks,
is president of the Kiwanis Club, a member of the Danville Golf
Club, and Tuscarora Club. He is one of the very popular and
progressive men in the metropolitan community of Danville. In
politics he supports the Democratic ticket, and is a member of
the First Baptist Church.
Thomas Washington Hunter. The time and place of the
career of Thomas Washington Hunter was the quarter of cen-
tury after the Civil war and the locality made famous by the
concluding scene of that war, Appomattox County.
He was born there in January, 1856, and died April 15,
1893. He attended school in Appomattox County, took up teach-
ing as a profession, but at the time of his marriage his father
presented him with a farm as a wedding gift, and from that
time until his death he was occupied with his duties as an agri-
culturist. Outside of his home and farm his chief interest was
in the Reddy Springs Baptist Church in Appomattox County,
and he was not only clerk of the church but superintendent of
the Sunday School.
He married, December 8, 1883, Isabella D. Coleman, of Ap-
pomattox County, where she was reared and educated. Her
VIRGINIA 527
father, Capt. William G. Coleman, served four yeai\s in the Con-
federate army and was wounded in the battle of Petersburg.
After the war he was a merchant, lumberman and farmer. Cap-
tain Coleman married Mary D. W. Abbott, and Mrs. Hunter was
one of nine children.
Mrs. Hunter now resides in Richmond, at 2317 Rosewood
Avenue. She is the mother of four children. Her daughter Miss
Mary W., attended school in Appomattox County, the Normal
School at Charlottesville, and is now an assistant secretary in a
Richmond business house. Miss Mabrie, who was educated in
the same schools as her sister, is assistant secretary with another
Richmond firm. Miss S. Ethel was educated with opportunities
similar to those of her sisters ; John Washington, the only son,
is in business at Richmond, and by his marriage to Louise Sowel
has a son, John Washington, Jr.
Andrew Johnston Francis, representative of Giles and
Bland counties in the Virginia House of Delegates, is a resident
of White Gate. He is a man of college training, and has made
a success of his business as a farmer and stock raiser, being a
recognized leader in one of the most progressive agricultural
communities in Southwest Virginia.
He was born at White Gate June 9, 1873, son of Miles A.
and Cynthia M. (Bane) Francis. The Francis familj' came to
America from Ireland in 1768, settling near Norfolk, and the
family was represented in the American forces in the War of
1812. Miles A. Francis was born and reared at Christiansburg,
Virginia, educated in private schools and the Christiansburg
Academy, and in the Civil war served as color sergeant of Com-
pany F, Eleventh Virginia Infantry, Kemper's Brigade, Long-
street's Division, until seriously wounded in the battle of Seven
Pines. After a long stay in a hospital at Richmond he was made
captain of Company K, Twenty-second Virginia Cavalry, and
later was promoted to colonel but the war ended before he re-
cei\ ed his commission. Captain Francis after the war located
at White Gate, where he bought a farm and married, ana en-
gaged in farming and cattle raising until his death on March 6,
1915. He is buried in White Gate Cemetery. His wife, Cynthia
M. Bane, was born at Pearisburg, was educated in private
schools and the White Gate Academy under Rev. J. M. Hum-
phries. She is now eighty years of age, living with her son, An-
drew J. One of her great interests all her life has been the
Presbyterian Church. She is a daughter of Henderson and
Nancy (Shannon) Bane. Her father was a prominent and
wealthy farmer and stock raiser. He is a descendant of Donald
Bane, a son of Malcolm Bane, one of the early kings of Scotland.
Miles A. Francis and wife had four children: Nannie Shannon,
wife of Dan P. ]\IcMullen, of Cheboygan, Michigan ; Andrew J. ;
T. B., a farmer at White Gate; and Julia Adair, wife of Rev.
Benjamin K. Hay, a minister of the Reformed Church at Wood-
stock, Virginia.
Andrew Johnston Francis was reared at White Gate, attend-
ing private schools and the White Gate Academy, and finished
his education in Roanoke College. While in college he was cap-
tain of the football team during 1895-98. In the thirty years
since he finished his college education Mr. Francis has given his
chief time to cattle raising and is owner of blue grass farms in
the vicinity of White Gate. At the age of twenty-two he per-
formed the duties of tax collector under Jesse Woodrum. He
528 VIRGINIA
is director and vice president of the Bank of Mechanicsburg.
Mr. Francis was elected to the Virginia House of Delegates in
i927, and is the nominee of his party to succeed himself in the
Virginia Legislature, session of 1930. He is a Master Mason,
a Democrat, an elder in the Presbyterian Church, and has been
teacher or superintendent of the Sunday School for many years.
He mai-ried at Poplar Hill, Virginia, March 1, 1904, Miss
Jeanie Shannon, of Poplar Hill. She attended private schools
at Pearisburg and taught school there and at Bluefield, West
Virginia, and Jessamine Institute in Nicholasville, Kentucky.
She is a Presbyterian. Her parents were Samuel B. and Nancy
(King) Shannon, both members of prominent families of Giles
County. Mr. and Mrs. Francis have five children: Mary Fair-
fax, was educated at Stonewall Jackson College, and in Columbia
University, is the wife of Charles Tate Graham, farmer and
cattle man at Grahams Forge, and has one son, Charles Tate, Jr. ;
Samuel M. Francis is a member of the class of 1930 at the Uni-
versity of Virginia; Jean Shannon is in the class of 1929 at
Randolph-Macon Woman's College, Lynchburg; Andrew J., Jr.,
is a member of the class of 1929 in the White Gate High School
and will pursue the electrical engineering course in the Virginia
Military Institute ; and David Woodrum is a student in the grade
school at White Gate.
Plumer Wiseman, an engineer and contractor, has been a
very useful and influential figure in the life of his native City
of Danville for many years.
He was born at Danville September 8, 1881, son of Henry A.
and Willie A. (Yager) Wiseman and grandson of John and
Mary A. (Downs) Wiseman. His great-grandfather came from
England and his great-grandmother from Ireland. John Wise-
man was born and reared at Baltimore, Maryland, and spent his
active career as a planter in Pittsylvania County, Virginia.
Henry A. Wiseman was born and reared, at Danville, attended
private schools and an academy, and during the Civil war was a
soldier in Longstreet's Division and later with the Medical Corps.
He served under Captain Wooding, the venerable mayor of Dan-
ville. Henry A. Wiseman after the war became a pharmacist
and druggist, and for a number of years held the office of city
treasurer. He was one of the highly honored and influential men
of the city, where he died in 1902. His wife, Willie A. Yager,
was born and reared in Orange County, Virginia, and attended
Roanoke College for Girls at Danville. She has been a lifelong
Presbyterian and is now eighty-three years of age. Her great-
great-grandfather, Isaac Davis, was a colonel in the Revolution-
ary war. Henry A. Wiseman and wife had a family of four
children: Mary W., wife of H. E. Kendall, of Shelby, North
Carolina; Dr. H. A. Wiseman, a physician and surgeon at Dan-
ville ; Plumer Wiseman, and Willie A., wife of Lee B. Weathers,
of Shelby, North Carolina.
Plumer Wiseman grew up at Danville, attended public
schools, graduated from the Danville Military Institute in 1899
and completed his engineering course in Purdue University at
Lafayette, Indiana, in 1907. For the past twenty-two years he
has been engaged in engineering and contracting work, and since
1912 has had his permanent business headquarters at Danville.
He has been employed as engineer in designing a number of in-
dustrial and municipal undertakings. He is treasurer of the
Masonic Building Corporation and in charge of the manage-
VIRGINIA 529
ment. He is a director of the First National Bank, a director of
the Hughes Memorial School and a director of the Memorial
Hospital and Jefferson Avenue Improvement Company. He is
also a director of the Mechanics Loan & Savings Company, the
Perpetual Building & Loan Association and the Danville Mili-
tary Institute.
Mr. Wiseman has always enjoyed social contact with his fel-
low men and is a member of a number of organizations that
express the fraternal spirit and give him opportunity for effective
influence as a citizen. He was a Sigma Alpha Epsilon in college,
and in Masonry is senior warden of Roman Eagle Lodge No.
122, A. F. and A. M., member of Euclid Chapter, Royal Arch
Masons, Dove Commandery, Knights Templar, Danville Lodge
of Perfection, Dalcho Consistory of the Scottish Rite at Richmond
and Acca Temple of the Mystic Shrine. He is a past president of
the Danville Rotary Club, is a past senior councellor of the United
Commercial Travelers of America, is an independent voter and
is a deacon of the First Presbyterian Church, and for a number
of years was treasurer of his church.
Mr. Wiseman married at Danville, October 19, 1910, Miss
Nora Mosely, of Danville. She finished her education in Ran-
dolph-Macon Institute at Danville and is a leader in the Presby-
terian Church and Woman's Club. Her parents were Beverly E.
and Florence L. (Millner) Mosely. Her father was a leading
tobacconist. Her mother is still living in Danville. The Moselys
were a prominent Virginia family, whose original seat was in
Buckingham County. Mr. and Mrs. Wiseman had a family of four
children, one of whom, Nora M., died in infancy. The three sons
are: Edward, who graduated from the Danville Military In.sti-
tute in 1929 and is now a student in Davidson College at David-
son, North Carolina ; William Plumer, a student in Danville
Military Institute; and Robert Whitelaw, attending public
school.
ROBY Calvin Thompson. Among the forceful and progres-
sive young lawyers of Washington County who are making their
influence felt in the interests of better citizenship, Roby Calvin
Thompson is deserving of more than passing mention. The ener-
getic city attorney of Abingdon has been engaged in the practice
of his profession since 1922, and during the short space of less
than seven years has built up a large and lucrative practice,
specializing to some extent in corporation law. Although still a
young man in years, he is one of the leaders of the Republican
party in Washington Coianty, and in 1924 made a strong bid for
the oflice of mayor of Abingdon.
Mr. Thompson was born in Washington County, Virginia,
March 30, 1898. and is a son of John Harvey and Minnie Ger-
trude (Moore) Thompson, both of whom ai'e now living at Salt-
ville, this state, where John H. Thompson is master mechanic for
the United States Gypsum Company. He is a member of the In-
dependent Order of Odd Fellows, the Knights of Pythias and the
Improved Order of Red Men, and with his family belongs to the
Methodist Episcopal Church. South. He and Mrs. Thompson have
had the following children : Roby Calvin, of this review ; Thomas
Moore, a machinist in the employ of the United States Gypsum
Company at Saltville ; William P., who is engaged in merchan-
dising at that place ; Lena Gertrude, the wife of Lee Gillenwater,
an electrician employed at the Mathieson Alkali Works at Salt-
ville ; and John Harvey, Jr., who is attending high school at Salt-
530 VIRGINIA
ville. The paternal grandfather of Roby Calvin Thompson, Cal-
vin Thompson, was born in North Carolina, whence he came as
a young man to Virginia and spent the remainder of his life as
a planter in Washington County. The maternal grandfather of
Mr. Thomp:on, James Mcore, was born in Washington County,
and passed his life as a carpenter and building contractor.
The country schools of Washington County furnish 3d John
Calvin Thompson with his early educational training, following
which he attended the Glade Springs High School and the Salt-
ville High School, and graduated from the latter as a member of
the class of 1917. On July 5 of that year he entered the service of
the United States Navy, during the World war, and was sta-
tioned at Newport News until September, when he was sent to
the \Jm\ ersity of Virginia Officers Training School and e /entu-
ally commissioned a seaman of the second class in the United
States Na\ al Re erves. In the meantime he had continued his
education in the University of Virginia, where he received his
degree of Bachelor of Arts in 1920, and in June, 1922, when
twenty-four years of age, received the degree of Bachelor of
Laws from the same institution.
At the time of his graduation Mr. Thompson commenced the
practice of his profession at Abingdon, in partnership with Hon.
H. H. Honaker, which connection was mutually severed one
year later, since which time Mr. Thompson has carried on an
independent practice of a civil and corporation character, his
offices being opposite the courthouse. He has formed a number
of important connections, and is attorney for the Beaver Chem-
ical Corporation of Damascus, Virginia ; attorney and secretary
of the Smithfort Extract Company of Damascus, of which he is
also a msmber of the Board of Directors ; attorney for the Dear-
bow Hassinger Corporation; associate counsel for the Has^jnger
Li^mber Company of Kilmarnock, Virginia ; and attorney for the
Clinchburg (Virginia) Bank. He is acsounted a lawyer of abil-
ity and sound learning, and is a member of the Washington
County Bar Association and the Virginia State Bar Association,
and of the Delta Theta Phi legal fraternity. A Republican in his
political convictions, Mr. Thompson is one of the leaders of his
party, secretary of the County Central Committee and a s:3eaker
of note, force and eloquence during political campaigns. At pres-
ent he is ser\ ing as city attorney of Abingdon, an oiilce in which
he has established an excellent record, and in 1924 was the Re-
publican candidate for the mayoralty. .
Mr. Thom'ison is senior warden of Abingdon Lodge, A. F. and
A. M., and belongs to the Independent Order of Odd Fellow3. He
is adjutant of Washington County Post No. 12, American Legion,
and a member of the Abingdon Chamber of Commerce, in the
work of which he has taken an active and helpful part. Having
joined the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, in his youth, he
is now a steward, and has served as secretary of the board. He
was a charter member of the Civitan Club of Abingdon, and in
1924 was delegate to the National Civitan Convention held at
Miami, Florida. His interests have touched many sides of life,
and for two years he was scoutmaster of Troop No. 1 of Abing-
don, Boy Scouts of America. Mr. Thompson is unmarried.
VIRGINIA 531
Junius Parker Fishbukn is one of the prominent younger
men in the citizenship of Virginia, at the age of thirty-four
engrossed in a broad range of business and public re-
sponsibilities.
A son of Junius Blair and Grace (Parker) Fishburn, he was
born at Roanoke September 30, 1895. He was graduated from
the Mercersburg Academy of Pennsylvania in 1914, took his
Bachelor's of Arts degree at Princeton University in 1919 and
the Master of Arts degree from Columbia University in 1923.
He left college at the time of the World war and in 1917 was
chief petty officer and later ensign with the United States Xaval
Reserve, and was commissioned an ensign in the United States
Navy in 1918.
Mr. Fishburn's chief interest in a business way has been in
the newspaper field. In 1919 he became vice president and since
1923 has been president of the Timss-World Corporation, pub-
lishers of the Roanoke Times and the Roanoke World-Neivs, of
which he has been active editor since 1920. He is also a director
of the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, a director of the
Virginia Bridge & Iron Company and the Old Dominion Fire
Insurance Company, all of Roanoke.
Mr. Fishburn in 1924 became president of the Virginia His-
toric Highway Association. From 1926 to 1929 he was presi-
dent of tne Virginia State Chamber of Commerce. He is a
member of the State Conservation and Development Commission,
Roanoke Chamber of Commerce, and is a member of tha board
of regents of Mercersburg Academy. He was president of the
Rotary Club of Roanoke in 1929, and among other afnliations
belongs to such organizations as the American Newspaper Pub-
lishers Association, American Society of Newspaper Editors,
Southern Newspaper Publishers Association, American Histor-
ical Association, American Economics Association, Amarican
Association of Political Science, the Roanoke Country and Shen-
andoah Club of Roanoke, the Commonwealth and Country of Vir-
ginia Clubs of Richmond, the University and Pre:s Clubs of
Washington, and the Princeton Club of New York and Philadel-
phia. He is a Democrat and a Presbyterian.
Mr. Fishburn married January 14, 1926, Katherine Rodes
Nelson of Roanoke.
Andy S. Lawson, Sheriff of Grayson County, is a public
official whose service has won repeated commendation from the
psople of that county. Mr. Lawfon has distinguished himself by
his promptness and fidelity to duty at all times. He has lived
in Grayson County practically all his life, and for many years
has been a farmer and farm owner there.
He was born in Grayson County in 1870, son of Dotson and
Agnes (Shaffer) Lawson. His grandfather, James Lawson, was
a minister of the Primitive Baptist Church, preaching in North
Carolina for many years. His last years were spent as an invalid
in the home of his son Dotson, near Bayw^ood. Dotson Lawson
was born at Danbury. North Carolina, in 1830, was educated in
private schools, and during the Civil war was in the service of
the Confederate government, detailed on duty at a forge in Vir-
ginia. He married in Wythe County, \urginia, and then settled
on a farm near Baywood, Grayson County, where he engaged
in farming and stock raising until his death in 1884 at the age
of fifty-four. His wife, Agnes Shaffer, was born in Wythe Coun-
ty, near Wji:heville, attended private schools, and was a daughter
532 VIRGINIA
of James Shaffer of Wythe County. Dotson Lawson and wife
had seven children. James Alexander, born in August, 1860, a
farmer and stock man in Colorado, owns a ranch of about a
thousand acres near Telluride; he married Marjorie Ison of
Grayson County, Virginia, who died, and later he married Miss
Hattie Adams of Delta, Colorado, and has a son, Edward, born in
1916. Julia Ann Lawson, born in 1861, is the widow of Wilburn
Wilson and resides near Baywood, and has one son, Jacob, born
in 1902. Joseph Dotson Lawson, born in 1864, a farmer and
stock raiser near Wytheville, married Florence Shaffer, who
died in 1900, and later he married Minerva Blair of Wytheville;
the children of his first marriage are: Edith, wife of John
Poston, near Wytheville ; Mrs. Bertha Blair, near Wytheville ;
Jacob, of Wythe County ; and Charles, in the laundry business in
Tennessee. The children of his second marriage are: Blair, a
student at Emory and Henry College ; James, in high school ;
Annie, a teacher in Wythe County ; and Sam and Nellie, attend-
ing public school. Martha Florence Lawson, born in 1867, is the
widow of Robert Cox and a resident of Alleghany County, North
Carolina. John William Lawson, born in 1874, living near Bay-
wood, Grayson County, married Fannie Robinson and has three
children, Ray, attending high school, Kate and Nellie. Sophrania
Lawson, the youngest of the children, is the wife of Alexander
Austin, of Independence, Virginia, and has a son, Glen, born in
1907, now living at Akron, Ohio, and a daughter. Vera, born in
1917, a pupil in the public school at Independence.
Andy S. Lawson was' educated in public schools near Bay-
wood and for seven years lived with his brother on the ranch in
Colorado, near Telluride. After returning to Virginia he ac-
quired a farm at Baywood in Wythe County, and later bought
a second farm in the same locality. His present place of resi-
dence is a county estate a mile southwest of Galax.
Mr. Lawson's first public service was in the office of justice
of the peace. He was elected in 1904 and served eight years. In
1912 he was chosen county commissioner of revenue and filled
that office eight years, until 1920. This was followed by his
election as sheriff, and he has been the incumbent of that impor-
tant office for two terms.
Mr. Lawson is a Republican in politics. He is a Royal Arch
Mason and member of the Baptist Church. He married in 1900,
Miss Mattie Higgins, of Baywood. Three children were born to
them: Myrtle Ollie, born in 1904, is a graduate of high school
and attended the State Normal College at Radford, is the wife
of T. W. Williams of Galax, and is a teacher in the high school
there. Earl Higgins Lawson, born in 1906, graduated from the
Galax High School, attended a business college, and is now an
employee of the county of Grayson. Andy Jacob Lawson, born
in 1907, graduated fi-om the Galax High School in 1928, and is a
student of medicine at the University of Virginia. The mother
of these children died in 1923 and is buried at Baywood. Subse-
quently Sheriff Lawson married Miss EfRe McGee. daughter of
Richard and Martha (Mabe) McGee, of Galax.
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