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[Pages 177-178]
      Christian, George Llewellyn, born April 13, 1841, in Charles City county, Virginia, son of Edmond Thomas Christian and Tabitha Rebecca Graves, his wife. His father's ancestor, Thomas Christian, settled in Charles City county, Virginia, in 1687, having come from a distinguished family in the Isle of Man. His grandfather was Turner Christian, who was a brother of Henry Christian, who was a captain in the revolutionary war. On his mother's side his ancestors were also English. His early education was obtained at private schools, and in the Northwood and Taylorsville, Academies of Charles City county. In 1861, when twenty years of age, he enlisted in the Confederate army as a private in the Second Company of the Richmond Howitzers, with which he served until May 12, 1864, when he was desperately wounded (near the Bloody Angle) at Spottsylvania Court House. At the time he was a sergeant of the company. He lost one leg and a part of the other foot, and as the result of these wounds was incapacitated for further service in the field, and he entered the University of Virginia, in 1864, where he remained one session. Upon leaving the university, having lost everything by the war, he entered the clerk's office of the circuit court of the city of Richmond, and in 1870 began the practice of his profession. From 1872 until 1878 he was clerk of the court of appeals, and from 1878 to 1883 was judge of the hustings court of the city of Richmond. He has been president of Richmond City Chamber of Commerce, of the city council of Richmond, of the City Bar Association, of the National Bank of Virginia, of which he is now president, and of the Virginia State Insurance Company. Judge Christian is a member of the Grand Camp of Confederate Veterans of Virginia, and has made many contributions to the literature of the war for southern independence. His "Report on the Conduct of the War," October 11, 1900, is a splendid tribute to the humanity of the south. His address on John Tyler and Abraham Lincoln, the "Capitol Disaster," and his "Confederate Experiences" are written with remarkable mastery of the pen. He is a member of the City and State Bar associations, and other special organizations. In politics he is a Democrat. His first wife was Miss Ida Morris, by whom he had three children: Cassie Claudia, Morris H., and George L., Jr. His second wife was Miss Emma Christian, by whom he has three children: Stuart, William, and Frank Christian. His address is Richmond, Virginia.

[Pages 178-179]
      Fbrooke, James Vass, born at Falmouth, Virginia, October 10, 1824, son of William Brooke exporting merchant, and Jeannie Morrison, his wife, half-sister of James Vass, of Fredericksburg. He studied law under Judge R. L. C. Moncure, settled in Warrenton, and began law practice at the early age of nineteen years. He was an ardent Whig. He served as commonwealth attorney, and state secretary of the American party. He was elected to the convention of 1861, and signed the ordinance of secession. In 1862 he organized and took to the field, Brooke's battery, which was attached to Jackson's corps. During the valley campaign, his ankle was broken by the kick of an artillery horse, but he returned on crutches, and took part in the battle of Fredericksburg. His disability forbade further military service, and in 1863 he entered the house of delegates, in which he served until the fall of Richmond. After the war he was a law partner of Hon. R. Taylor Scott, in Warrenton, and his practice covered a period of fifty-five years He canvassed actively for every Democratic presidential nominee from 1868 to 1896, when he supported Palmer and Buckner. He served several times in the house of delegates and senate, and in the latter body, in 1877, labored arduously for the "Brooke bill," providing for an amicable settlement of the state debt. In the next session he was chairman of the judiciary committee, and took a leading part in the revision of the code of Virginia. He served in all important offices, and was largely instrumental in modernizing the pavements, lighting and water supply of Warrenton. He was for forty-five years an elder of the Presbyterian church, and many times a delegate to the general assembly; for two years acceptably filled the pulpit in the absence of the pastor; and was for twenty-five years superintendent of the Sunday school. He died October 9, 1898.

[Page 179]
      Holladay, Lewis L., born in Spottsylvania county, Virginia, February 23, 1832. He was graduated with honor from Hampden-Sidney College in 1853, and was at once appointed a tutor. In 1854-55 he attended the University of Virginia, and in the latter year returned to Hampden-Sidney as professor of physical science, and occupied this chair until his sudden death, July 23, 1891. For a time he was president pro tem. of the college.

[Page 179]
      Newton, William Brockenbrough, born in Richmond, Virginia, April 15, 1832, son of Hon. Willoughby Newton, of westmoreland county, Virginia, who served as a delegate to the legislature, and a grandson of Judge William Brockenbrough; educated by private tutors, attended the Episcopal High School near Alexandria, which he entered in 1848, remained for two years, and received the medal; entered the University of Virginia, in 1850, graduated with degree of Bachelor of Law in 1852, and delivered the valedictory address before the Washington Literary Society in same year; settled in Hanover county, Virginia, and soon established himself as a lawyer of ability; was elected to the legislature upon the Democratic ticket, without opposition, in 1859; upon the formation of a military company, he was elected lieutenant, this company becoming famous as the Hanover Troop, which constituted a part of the Fourth Virginia Regiment of Cavalry, and in all its actions he bore a conspicuous part; he was killed in the fight at Morton's Ford, near Raccoon Ford, October 11, 1863, in the charge made by the Fourth Regiment; his death was the occasion of a special message to the legislature by Gov. Letcher, which concluded with these words, "When such men die it is proper that their names and services should be held in grateful remembrance;" he married Mary Mann Page, who survived him with two children: Willoughby Newton, Esq., and Mrs. Walker Christian, of Richmond, Virginia.

[Pages 179-180]
      Conway, Moncure Daniel, born in Stafford county, Virginia, March 17, 1832. His father was a member of the Virginia legislature, and for thirty-five years presiding justice of Stafford county. His mother was a daughter of John Moncure Daniel, surgeon-general, U. S. A., in the war of 1812, and granddaughter of Thomas Stone, a signer of the Declaration of Independence. Mr. Conway passed from the Fredericksburg (Virginia) Academy to Dickinson College, from which he received B. A. (1849) and A. M. (1852). He studied law at Warrenton, Virginia, and wrote for the "Richmond Examiner," edited by his cousin, John Moncure Daniel. He also wrote a pamphlet, "Free Schools in Virginia" (1850), of which T. Davidson, in his "Eminent Radicals out of Parliament," says: "I have read this plan for free schools, and can only wonder that a lad of eighteen should have the ability or patience to produce so masterly an appeal." He abandoned the law for the ministry, and was appointed by the Baltimore Methodist conference to a circuit in Montgomery county, Maryland, where he made the acquaintance of the cultivated Hicksite Quakers, and his faith in both Methodism and slavery was somewhat impaired. He also became a student of the works of Emerson, with whom he corresponded. In 1852 he was appointed to a circuit in Frederick county, Maryland, but soon resigned to enter the Unitarian Divinity School at Cambridge, Massachusetts, from which he received his B. D. degree (1854). He was a minister of the Unitarian church at Washington, D. C., from 1854 to 1857, when his anti-slavery discourses caused a division in the society. For a time he preached to those who adhered to him, but finding the two sides willing to unite on Mr. Channing as a successor, he accepted an invitation from the First Congregational Church in Cincinnati. Here his first book appeared, "Tracts for To-day" (1858). In 1860 he founded the "Dial" in Cincinnati, to which Emerson contributed. On the breaking out of the civil war, Mr. Conway went through Ohio, delivering addresses in favor of emancipation as the true weapon of liberty and union, and meeting, at times, rough opposition. In 1861 he published his views in a little book, "The Rejected Stone," which gained a wide circulation. It was followed (1862) by "The Golden Hour." Mr. Conway was invited to give a lecture on the subject at the Smithsonian Institution, and he also delivered a sermon in the senate chamber. About this same time, his father's slaves being within the lines of the Federal army of the Potomac, he gathered them together and colonized them in Ohio. In 1863 he was chosen editor of the Boston "Commonwealth," established in the interest of emancipation. He visited England in 1863, and there gave many addresses on the issue in America, wrote papers in "Fraser" and the "Fort-nightly," and published his "Testimonies Concerning Slavery" (1864). Under instructions from the abolitionists of America he made overtures to James M. Mason, the Confederate commissioner, to effect the independence of the south on condition of its abolishing slavery. Accepting an invitation to the South Place chapel, London, he was its minister until 1884, but always retained his American citizenship. Mr. Conway was a member of several learned societies in London, and lectured occasionally at the Royal Institution. In 1885 he returned to the United States, and became a resident of New York City. Besides many printed discourses, a large number of magazine articles and letters to the New York "Tribune" and the Cincinnati "Commercial," of which papers he was successively the London correspondent, Mr. Conway has published the following works in England and America; "The Earthward Pilgrimage" (1870); "Republican Superstitions" (1872); "The Sacred Anthology" (1876); "Idols and Ideals" (1877); "Demonology and Devil-Lore" (1879); "A Necklace of Stories" (1880); "Thomas Carlyle" (1881); "The Wandering Jew" (1881); "Travels in South Kensington" (1882); "Emerson at Home and Abroad" (1882); "Pine and Palm. A Novel" (18887); "Life of Edmund Randolph" (1888); "George Washington and Mount Vernon" (1889); "Life of Hawthorne" (1890); "Prisons of Air. A Novel" (1891); "Life of Thomas Paine" (1892), and many later works. In 1858 Mr. Conway married Miss Ellen Davis Dana. He died in Paris, France, November 15, 1907.

[Pages 180-181]
      Darling, James Sands, born in New York City, February 3, 1832, son of Hamilton Darling and Temperance Smith, his wife. He passed his early life in the country, living upon a farm, engaged in farm work, and attending country schools. In his eighteenth year he engaged with an older brother in building pleasure boats, and from the beginning he displayed remarkable mechanical skill. In October, 1866, Mr. Darling went to Hampton, Virginia, where he built up a large planing mill business. He also established a successful business in fertilizers, produced from the menhaden fish. He then took up the enterprise of a street car line for the cities of Newport News and Hampton, which he built and equipped with his own capital; and he established the largest oyster-planting business in the United States. On September 22, 1864, he married Mary Annie Daulman. Mr. Darling was connected with the Protestant Episcopal church, and was a Mason. He died April 18, 1900, at Hampton, Virginia.

[Page 181]
      Blackford, Charles Minor, born in Fredericksburg, Virginia, October 17, 1833, son of William Matthews Blackford, Esq., and Mary Berkeley Minor, daughter of Gen. John Minor, his wife. On both sides of his family he was descended from a long line of distinguished ancestors. His early education was obtained from his own father, and from private schools of his native place and of Lynchburg, to which his father's family moved in 1846. Being very thoroughly prepared, he entered the University of Virginia, and graduated in 1855, with the degree of Bachelor of Law. He soon acquired a successful practice, and established the reputation of being a man of culture and learning in his profession. Upon the outbreak of the civil war he joined the Confederate army, and was promoted to captaincy of Company B, Second Virginia Cavalry. For a time he served upon the staff of Gen. Stonewall Jackson, and at the request of Gen. Longstreet was made judge-advocate of the military court of his corps. After the war he returned to Lynchburg, and formed a partnership with the late Thomas J. Kirkpatrick, a distinguished lawyer of that place. This partnership lasted until within a few years of Capt. Blackford's death, and their names may be found associated with many of the most important cases that have ever occurred in the courts of the commonwealth of Virginia. In addition to his busy professional life, he found time to do much literary work, included his "Memoirs of the War," in which he gave a graphic account of his experience while in active service. His home in Lynchburg was noted for its culture and refinement, and was the scene of much hospitality. He was honored by the State Bar Association with its presidency, and his address made before it was a notable contribution to the literature of that association. In 1900 he delivered a striking historical address on "The Trials and Trial of Jefferson Davis." In this paper he discussed the constitutional questions involving the right of secession. Mr. Blackford was a devoted member of the Protestant Episcopal Church and had for many years prior to his death been a delegate in the diocesan council of that church. He had also represented the southern diocese of Virginia in the general convention of the church. On February 19, 1856, he married Susan Lee Colston, daughter of Thomas M. Colston, Esq., of Fauquier county, Virginia.

[Page 182]
      White, James Lowery, M. D., born at Abingdon, Virginia, May 30, 1833, son of James Lowery White and Margaret R. Preston, his wife, the former named an agriculturist and merchant, traces his ancestry to Scotch-Irish forebears, early members of the White family settling in Pennsylvania, and those of the Preston family settling in Virginia. James L. White acquired his preliminary education in the Abingdon Male Academy, pursued advanced studies in the Virginia Military Institute, which he entered in 1850 and was graduated from in 1853, the following year, 1853-54, was a student in the University of Virginia, then matriculated at the Jefferson Medical College, from which he received the degree of Doctor of Medicine in 1855. He opened an office for the active practice of his profession at Abingdon, and later removed to Farmville, Virginia, and in addition to attending to the needs of his patients is an active and prominent member of the Virginia Medical Society, which he served as vice-president from 1880 to 1881. He held the rank of captain in the Thirty-seventh Regiment of Virginia Volunteer Infantry during six months of 1861, and was then commissioned a surgeon of the Confederate States army and served in that capacity until the close of hostilities. He is a Presbyterian in religion, a Democrat in politics, and a member of the Order of Free and Accepted Masons, Royal Arcanum and Knights of Honor. Dr. White married, September 21, 1864, Miss L. E. Jackson.

[Page 182]
      Gregory, Roger, born in King William county, Virginia, in 1833, son of Roger Gregory. He had the advantage of the best instruction in his home, and in the best known schools in his part of the state. He studied law two sessions in the University of Virginia, graduating in 1855 with the degree of Bachelor of Law, and was admitted to the bar in 1856. After the war, under the constitution of Virginia 1867-1868, he was first judge of King William county,. Leaving the bench in 1873, he again took up the practice of law. Owing to the general recognition of his manifest fitness for the work, and without any effort on his part, he was chosen to plan for and organize the new law school of Richmond College. Under his management and direction during sixteen sessions this department of the college ranked high among the American schools of law. On his retirement Judge Gregory largely confined his activity to the management of his large estate of "Elsing Green," King William county, Virginia, and other business interests in this and other parts of the state.

[Pages 182-183]
      Southall, Joseph Wells, born in Prince Edward county, Virginia, March 4, 1833, son of Philip Turner Southall and Elizabeth Webster, his wife, the former a physician and planter, a descendant of Major Stephen Southall, of the revolutionary army, and Lucy Henry, sister of Patrick Henry, Joseph W. Southall acquired his early education in a private school conducted by Henry Anderson, then entered Hampden-Sidney College, where he remained on year, the became a student in William and Mary College, graduating in 1855, after which he matriculated at the Virginia Medical College, from which he received the degree of Doctor of Medicine in 1860 and engaged in practice. At the beginning of the war between the states he became a surgeon in Gen. Jackson's valley command, and served at Manassas and elsewhere, later joining the Amelia cavalry, but shortly afterward resigned, owing to defective hearing. He then resumed his former duties. In 1891 he was elected to represent the counties of Amelia, Prince Edward and Cumberland, in the Virginia state senate, holding the office for eight years by reëlections, and in 1898 was elected state superintendent of public instruction, serving from that date until 1906. He was formerly a Whig, later transferred his allegiance to the Democratic party, and his religious belief was that of the Protestant Episcopal church. He was a member of the state medical examining board, and of Phi Beta Kappa Society at William and Mary College. He married, February 17, 1866, Rosa Hatchet.

[Page 183]
      Harvey, James Madison, born in Monroe county, Virginia, September 21, 1833; attended the public schools of Indiana, Iowa and Illinois, and acquired an excellent education, and later pursued a course in surveying and civil engineering, which lines of work he followed until 1859, in which year he removed to Kansas, where he devoted his attention to agricultural pursuits; he served as captain in the Fourth and Tenth regiments of Kansas Infantry for three years, from 1861 to 1864; was a member of the lower house of the legislature in 1865-66, and of the state senate in 1867-68; was governor of Kansas from 1869 to 1871, and from 1874 to 1877 was a United States senator, having been chosen as a Republican to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Alexander Caldwell.

[Pages 183-184]
      Boyd, David French, born at Wytheville, Virginia, October 5, 1834. He was educated at private schools and at the University of Virginia, from which he received the degree of Master of Arts in 1856. For three years he taught school in Virginia and in North Louisiana. In 1859, when the Louisiana State Seminary was opened at Alexandria, under the presidency of William Tecumseh Sherman (afterwards General), Boyd was elected professor of ancient languages. When the war between the states began, he enlisted as a private, and rose to the rank of major in three arms of the service — infantry, engineers and cavalry — his first service being with the Ninth Louisiana Regiment, under General "Stonewall" Jackson. In 1863 he resigned, to return to Louisiana and reopen the State Seminary; but finding forbidding war conditions, he entered the engineer service under Gen. Richard Taylor, and built Fort de Russey, on the Red river. Early in 1864 he was captured by marauders, and sold to the Federals for a hundred dollars, but through the friendship of Sherman he was exchanged, and then became major and assistant adjutant-general of Brent's cavalry brigade. In 1865 he became superintendent of the Louisiana State Seminary (later the Louisiana State University), and for nearly thirty years was closely connected with it as president, 1865-80 and 1884-87, and as professor at intervals. In reorganizing it after the war, he kept if from falling under radical control during the carpet-bag negro domination; in 1877 secured the union of the Agricultural and Mechanical College with the university, and procured from the United States government the donation of the grounds and buildings of the historic military post at Baton Rouge. He was a pioneer of public education in the South, especially of industrial and technical education. At intervals, he was president of the Alabama Agricultural and Mechanical College (1883-84); Kentucky Military Academy (1888-93); professor in the Ohio Military Academy (1893-94), and in the Michigan Military Academy (1894-96). In 1885-86 he was Louisiana commissioner of the New Orleans Exposition. The alumni of the Louisiana State University erected a memorial hall to his memory. He died May 27, 1899, at Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

[Page 184]
      Hatcher, William Eldridge, born in Bedford county, Virginia, July 25, 1834, son of Henry Hatcher and Mary Latham, his wife. His early life was spent in the mountains of Virginia, where he acquired a taste for substantial reading. He taught school from seventeen to twenty, then went from Bedford county to Richmond College, graduating in 1858 with the degree of Bachelor of Arts; in 1873 Richmond College conferred on him the degree of Doctor of Divinity; in 1898 he received from Denison University, Ohio, the degree of Doctor of Laws. Leaving Richmond College in 1858, he entered upon the active ministry, taking the following pastorates in the order and for the periods indicated: Bainbridge Street Baptist Church, Manchester, eight years; Franklin Square Baptist Church, Baltimore, nearly two years; First Baptist Church, Petersburg, six and one half years; Grace Street Baptist Church, Richmond, twenty-six years. Two houses of worship were built and paid for under the leadership of Dr. Hatcher. He resigned his pastorate to conduct a campaign for the endowment of Richmond College, and his term of service in this work ended in April, 1906. He has delivered many lectures, addresses and special sermons, and has contributed continuously to the public press as editor and correspondent of various denominational papers. Within the few years prior to 1906, under his wise and inspiring leadership, Fork Union Academy was founded. Dr. Hatcher served as president of the board of trustees of Richmond College, member of the board of trustees of the Southern Baptist Theological seminary, president of the Virginia Baptist orphanage trustees, and president of the education board of the Baptist General Association of Virginia. Among some of his published articles are: "Biography of Dr. J. B. Jeter," acknowledged leader of Virginia Baptists; and a work on John Jasper, the most extraordinary orator of the negro race. Dr. Hatcher married, December 22, 1864, Virginia O. Snead, of Fluvanna county, Virginia.

[Pages 184-185]
      Blair, Lewis Harvie, born at Richmond, Virginia, June 21, 1834, son of John G. Blair, and Sarah Ann Eyre Heron, his wife; and a grandson of Rev. John D. Blair (Parson Blair) and his wife, Mary (Winston) Blair, a lineal descendant of Isaac Winston, a native of Yorkshire, England, who emigrated to America in 1704 and settled near Richmond, Virginia. The Blairs also have been resident in Richmond for more than a hundred years, and both families have distinguished themselves in numerous affairs that have tended to the betterment of the country during the colonial and revolutionary periods, and down to the present time. the education of Lewis Harvie Blair was interrupted at the age of seventeen years by the death of his father, at which time he entered the service of the United States government. Four years later we find him in a mercantile office for a time, then in the light house service of the United States on the Great Lakes. When he left this branch of public service it was to establish himself in business, a fact that he had scarcely accomplished when the outbreak of the civil war interrupted his plans, and, fired by loyalty to the South, he enlisted in the Confederate army and served from 1862 to 1865. Returning to Richmond after the war, Mr. Blair again became identified with business interests, and his progressive, yet to a certain extent conservative, methods, have been the means of building up the business importance of the city. For many years he devoted his entire business time to the grocery trade, but subsequently associated himself with the late Stephen Putney, in the manufacture and sale of shoes, the headquarters of this industry being located in Richmond, with affiliations in various other places. Mr. Blair has earned considerable reputation as an author. His first book, published by the Putnams in 1888, was "Unwise Laws," and contained the expression of his opinions on many questions of national import. To quote from a more recent expression of them: "I believe in the civil equality of every man, regardless of race or pervious condition, and that every man should have a voice in the government under which he lives, and which, when called upon he must defend at the hazard of his life. I believe that laws should bear equality upon all, and that there should be no favoritism or discrimination against the negro because he is a negro. I condemn protection in every guise, even incidental protection, because incidental protection, because incidental protection gives away the whole question of protection; for it is a far cry from part protection, which is incidental protection, to protection in full." In his second book, "The Prosperity of the South Dependent upon the Elevation of the Negro," Mr. Blair utters views that in all probability will never achieve popularity south of the Potomac. He has also very decided opinions in religious matters, opinions which differ radically from those of the majority of his friends and neighbors, but he has the courage of his convictions, and founds his creed upon the "school of Adam Smith, Herbert Spencer and Haeckel." Mr. Blair married (first) Alice Wayles Harrison, of Amelia county, Virginia, (second) Mattie Ruffin Feild, of Mecklenburg county, Virginia. There were seven children by the first marriage, four by the second.

[Pages 185-186]
      McIlwaine, Richard, born at Petersburg, Virginia, May 20, 1834, of Scotch-Irish descent. He was graduated from Hampden-Sidney College in 1853, and was afterward a student at the University of Virginia, Union Theological Seminary and the Free Church College, Edinburgh, Scotland. He was a licentiate of the East Hanover (Virginia) presbytery in 1857, and until 1872 pastor at Farmville and Lynchburg. In 1872 he was elected secretary and treasurer of the home and foreign missions committee of the Southern Presbyterian church, and in 1882-83 was secretary of home missions, which position he resigned to enter upon the presidency of Hampden-Sidney College. He increased the student body from seventy-four to one hundred and fifty-four in 1891-92; the endowment was also largely increased, and a memorial building erected. In 1874 he received from the Southwestern Presbyterian University the degree of Doctor of Divinity. In 1902 he was a member of the state convention called to revise the constitution, and was chairman of the committee on schools. He resigned the presidency of the college not long after and retired to private life.