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[Pages 235-236]
Portner, Robert, born at Rahden, province of Westphalia, Prussia,
March 20, 1837, son of Henry Portner, a German lawyer, judge and officer in the German army, and
Henrietta Gelker, his wife. Having obtained a practical education at the village schools of
Prussia, and the military school of Annaburg, Saxony, he emigrated to the United States, at the
age of sixteen, and for the first eight years was variously employed, then took up his residence
in Alexandria, Virginia, where he was a grocer in partnership with a friend. They established a
small brewing plant, which proved a profitable enterprise. After the civil war the partnership
was dissolved and Mr. Portner retaining the brewing business, formed the Robert Portner Brewing
Company, of which he became president, and he also became interested in artificial refrigeration,
inventing the first successful machine, with the direct ammonia expansion, ver used for that
purpose. In addition to the above undertakings Mr. Portner served as president of three building
and loan associations in Alexandria, which he organized; the Alexandria Ship Yards, which he
originated; the German-American Banking Company, later known as the German American Bank, which
he organized; Capital Construction Company, and German Building Association; vice-president of
the National Capital Brewing Company, of Washington; and director in the American Security and
Trust Company, of Washington; Riggs Fire Insurance Company, of Washington; National Bank of
Washington; Virginia Midland Railway Company; Washington & Ohio Railway Company; National Bank of
Manassas, Virginia; Potner Brown Stone Company; Loula Cotton Mills, and a number of other
enterprises too numerous to mention. He was a member of the board of aldermen of Alexandria. He
took up his residence in Washington, D. C., in 1881, but still retained his citizenship in
Alexandria, and his summer residence, known as "Annaburg," was at Manassas, Virginia. He was a
member of the Masonic order. Mr. Portner married, April 4, 1872, Anna von Valer, daughter of
Johann von Valer, a native of Switzerland. Mr. Portner died at "Annaburg," May 28, 1906.
[Page 236]
Blackford, Launcelot Minor, born in Fredericksburg, Virginia,
February 23, 1837, son of William M. Blackford and Mary Berkeley Minor, his wife. Mr. Blackford's
father was an editor and bank cashier in Lynchburg, and at one time he held an appointment as
chargé d'affaires at Bogota. An American ancestor of Mr. Blackford was John Carter, of
Corotoman, who came from England in 1630, and settled in Virginia. John's third wife, Sarah
Ludlow, was the mother of Robert, familiarly known as "King Carter," who was the direct
progenitor of Mr. Blackford. Launcelot M. Blackford attended the best day schools of Lynchburg.
In 1860 he took the degree of Master of Arts at the University of Virginia. When the civil war
broke out he enlisted as a private in the Rockbridge artillery, composed largely of university
and college graduates and students of theological seminaries, one of the most highly efficient
body of soldiers that ever went from Virginia. Mr. Blackford afterward became clerk to the
military court of Longstreet's corps, and later was adjutant of the Twenty-fourth Virginia
Infantry. After the war he became associate principal of the Norwood School, Nelson county, which
was for many years one of the leading boys' schools of Virginia, serving there from 1865 to 1870.
In the latter year he became principal of the Episcopal high school, and the credit for its high
reputation is largely due to the labors of Mr. Blackford. In 1904 Washington and Lee University
conferred upon him the degree of Doctor of Laws. He is an Episcopalian; for forty years has sat
in the annual councils of the diocese of Virginia; has been three times elected to represent his
diocese in the general convention, and since 1890 has been a member of the standing committee of
the diocese. On August 5, 1884, he married Eliza Chew, daughter of Rev. John ambler. Mr.
Blackford's address is Alexandria, Virginia.
[Pages 236-237]
Hundley, George Jefferson, born near Mobile, Alabama, March 22,
1838, son of Josiah Hundley and Cornelia Jefferson, his wife. On his father' side he is of mixed
English and Huguenot blood; on his mother's side he is a great-great-grandson of Peter Jefferson,
uncle of Thomas Jefferson. His mother and father died when he was an infant. He had two years
tuition at Fleetwood Academy and a year at Hampden-Sidney College, supplementing his education by
reading standard authors. He entered the private law school of Judge John W. Brockenbrough, in
Lexington, Virginia, 1860; his license was signed by three judges, and he was about to enter upon
practice when Virginia seceded from the Union and he enlisted among the earliest volunteers,
serving to Appomattox Court House. After the war Mr. Hundley taught school, and in 1866 located
at Buckingham Court House, to practice law. In 1898 he was appointed circuit judge of the fifth
judicial circuit. In 1870 he was elected to the state senate, serving for four years; and in 1895
to the house of delegates, where he took especial interest in a reform in the laws relating to
criminal trial, and securing the passage of a bill providing that no mere technicality not
affecting the merits of a case should delay or postpone a criminal trial. He has served on the
board of trustees of the Farmville Normal School, and of the Institution for the Deaf, Dumb and
Blind, at Staunton, Virginia. In politics he is a Democrat. On October 5, 1881, he married Lucy
Waller Boyd, of Nelson county, Virginia. His address is Farmville, Virginia.
[Page 237]
Hurt, John Linn, born in Carroll county, Tennessee, March 10,
1838, but reared in Virginia, son of William Walker Hurt and Nancy Sims, his wife; his early
ancestor came from England about the middle of the eighteenth century. His elementary education
was received in the Samuel Davies Institute, at Halifax Court House, Virginia. In 1854 he was
appointed deputy in the clerk's office of Halifax county, and afterwards became clerk of the
circuit court of Pittsylvania county, which position he filled for twelve years. In 1861 he
entered the army, and in 1863 was captured, but not long afterwards was paroled, and returned to
his farm in Virginia. Mr. Hurt served in the senate of Virginia in 1877, 1881-1882, and was one
of the recognized leaders of the Conservative, or anti-Mahone, Democrats. He married (first)
Nannie Kate Clement, (second) Sallie T. Douglas. His residence was in Pittsylvania county.
[Pages 237-238]
Taylor, Walter Herron, born at Norfolk, Virginia, June 13, 1838,
son of Walter Herron Taylor and Cornelia Wickham, his wife. He was a student in the Norfolk
Academy and the Virginia Military Institute. In 1855 he was railroad clerk in Norfolk, later
became a bank officer, and in the war (1861-1865_ was aide-de-camp to General Lee from 1861 to
1865, adjutant-general of the Army of Northern Virginia, and lieutenant-colonel. After the war in
1877 he became the president of the Marine Bank, of Norfolk. He was one of the pioneers of
building associations in his section of the state, thus enabling wage earners to become the
owners of their own homes. For a period of more than two decades he was an active member of the
board of directors of the Norfolk & Western railroad, in which he was an extensive stockholder.
He was a Conservative state senator, serving from 1869 to 1873, and the most important
legislation of that period, so far as Norfolk was concerned, was the consolidation of the Norfolk
and Petersburg, Southside, and Virginia and Tennessee railroads, making the trunk line of the
Norfolk & Western, running from Norfolk to Bristol. He was also chairman of the senate committee
on roads and internal navigation and led in the senate in the advocacy of Gen. Mahone's scheme
for consolidation. In 1882 he accepted the office of commissioner of the sinking fund of the
city. He is the author of one of the great books of the war, "Four Years with General Lee." Col.
Taylor married, April 3, 1865, Elizabeth Selden Saunders, and they are the parents of eight
children.
[Page 238]
Stubbs, James New, son of Jefferson Washington Stubbs, was born in
Gloucester county, October 17, 1839, was educated at William and Mary College, and studied law
under John W. Brockenbrough in Lexington, Virginia; entered the Confederate army as a member of
the Gloucester artillery ("Red Shirts"); was detailed for duty in the signal corps early in the
war, in which service he remained, rising to the rank of major. He went with General John
Bankhead Magruder to Texas in 1862, and remained with him till the close of the war. After the
war he resumed his law studies, and began to practice in 1866. Elected in 1869 to the house of
delegates, and since that time has remained almost continuously in the senate and house of
delegates. Vice-president of the board of visitors of William and Mary College since 1888; for
some time has remained almost continuously in the senate and house of delegates. Vice-president
of the board of visitors of William and Mary College since 1888; for some time president of the
Blind, Deaf and dumb Asylum at Staunton. He has been state commander of the Confederate Veterans
of Virginia, and is a member of Botetourt Lodge, No. 7, of Virginia, Masonic order. He married,
in 1866, Eliza Medlicott, daughter of Joseph and Hester (Shackelford) Medlicott.
[Page 238]
Duncan, William Wallace, born at Randolph-Macon College, Boydton,
Virginia, December 20, 1839, son of David Duncan, who was of Irish birth, graduate of the
University of Glasgow, Scotland, saw service in the British navy, came to America, taught a
classical school in Norfolk, Virginia, when Randolph-Macon College was founded, was called to the
chair of ancient languages, and later took a chair in Wofford College, Spartanburg, South
Carolina. William Wallace Duncan was educated at Randolph-Macon College, and Wofford College,
where he was graduated in 1858. He was prepared for the ministry by his brother, Rev. James A.
Duncan, president of Randolph-Macon College, an in 1859 was received into the Virginia
conference, and under which he served appointments until 1875, when he was called to the chair of
mental and moral science at Wofford College. While there was made a delegate to the ecumenical
conference in London, England; Emory (Georgia) College and Central (Missouri) College conferred
upon him the degree of Doctor of Divinity. In 1886 he was elected bishop of the Methodist
Episcopal church South. He died in 1908.
[Pages 238-239]
Ryan, Abram Joseph, born in Norfolk, Virginia, August 15, 1839. He
was ordained in the Roman Catholic priesthood in 1861, and was a chaplain in the Confederate army
throughout the war. He was given a charge in New Orleans, Louisiana, after the war, and edited
the "Star,* a religious weekly; was transferred to Knoxville, Tennessee, and then to augusta,
Georgia, where he founded and edited the "Banner of the South." He was pastor of St. Mary's
Mobile, Alabama, 1868-80, and traveled and lectured to raise money for the Mobile Cathedral. In
1880 he removed to Baltimore, Maryland, intending to make a lecture tour. He delivered his first
lecture in Baltimore, on "Some Aspects of Modern Civilization," and gave to the Jesuit Fathers
$300 to found a medal for poetry. His lecture tour was unsuccessful, and, in feeble health, he
retired from ministerial work and settled in Biloxi, Mississippi, giving himself to literary
work. among his various volumes the one most regarded is "Poems Patriotic, Religious and
Miscellaneous" (1880), containing"The Sword of lee," "The Lost Cause," and the world-famous
"Conquered Banner." He died in Louisville, Kentucky, April 22, 1886.
[Page 239]
Davies, Samuel D., born near Petersburg, Virginia, March 21, 1839,
son of Col. William Davies and grandson of Samuel Davies, president of Princeton College; was
educated at William and Mary College, Institute, and was known as an enthusiastic student of
languages. During the civil war he served as lieutenant on the staff of Gens. Pettigrew and
Archer. After the war he was a constant contributor of both poetry and prose to the "Southern
Literary Messenger," of Richmond; the "Crescent Monthly," of New Orleans, and other periodicals.
His published works include "Fine Arts of the South," "Satirical Romances," "Novels, and Novel
Writing," "Subjective and Objective Poets," "Literary Ambition," and "Review of Tannhauser." His
poem, "An Evening visit to the Lines Around Petersburg," written in 1865, won for him highest
praise. At the time of his death he was a member of the board of visitors of William and Mary
College.
[Pages 239-240]
Price, Thomas Randolph, born in Richmond, Virginia, in 1839, and
died at his home in New York City, May 17, 1903. He entered the University of Virginia, and was
graduated with the degree of Master of Arts in 1858. The next three years were ent in travel and
study in Berlin, Kiel, Paris, and Athens. The outbreak of the civil war prevented the completion
of his studies. He ran the blockade, and reached his home in 1862. He at once volunteered for
army service, and was assigned to duty as lieutenant on Gen. J. E. B. Stuart's staff, and later
was transferred to the corps of engineers, and served as captain till the close of the war. IN
the fall of 1865 he opened in Richmond, with his old schoolmate, John M. Strother, a classical
school for boys, and taught there until 1868, when he was called to a chair in Randolph-Macon
College, and was thus at last fairly launched upon the work of his life. In 1876 the opening of
Johns Hopkins University called his old master, Gildersleeve, to Baltimore, and Mr. Price was
called to fill his chair at the University of Virginia, and for the next six years served there
as professor of Greek. A call to Columbia University was the reward of his success. To Price it
seemed rich in beautiful possibilities relief from much of the drudgery of his
professional duties, opportunities for special study, time for original research, the artistic
resources of urban life in a great city, and above all, perhaps, restoration to that work in
English which he particularly loved. He spent twenty-one years in Columbia, saw it grow into a
great university, and when he died was sixth in official rank in that vast faculty. The courses
offered by him covered a wide range from Anglo-Saxon literature down through Chaucer and
Shakespeare, to Tennyson and Browning and Matthew Arnold. He never narrowed his field to that of
the modern specialist. He was not a prolific writer, and the works of his pen are few in number
and slender in volume. His "Teaching of the Mother Tongue," "Shakespeare's Verse Construction,"
and monographs of "King Lear," and other plays go far to exhaust the list. There passed from his
lecture rooms an extraordinary number of men with the impulse and the instinct of the scholar. In
the six years of his professorship in Virginia alone, Dabney and Fitzhugh and Kent, were his
pupils; Kern, of Washington and Lee, Whiting, of Hampden-Sidney, Fry, of North Carolina, Bruce,
of Tennessee, Henneman, of Sewanee, Hall, of William and Mary, Ficklin, of Tulane, Trent, of
Columbia, these and many more. His lifework was his wonderful monument.
[Page 240]
Wright, Thomas Roane Barnes, born at Tappahannock, Virginia, July
4, 1842, son of Capt. William Alfred Wright and Charlotte Barnes, his wife, grandson of Edward
Wright and Mary Pitts, his wife, and of Richard Barnes and Rebecca Roane, his wife, and
great-grandson of William Wright, who emigrated to the New World from Scotland, early in the
seventeenth century. William A. Wright (father) was an eminent lawyer, commonwealth's attorney of
Essex county, Virginia, and served as a private in the war of 1812. Thomas R. B. Wright was
educated at fleetwood Academy, Hanover Academy, and the University of Virginia, which he entered
during the session of 1859-60. Two days after the fall of Fort Sumter, he was one of a company of
university students, known as the "Southern Guard," to march to Harper's Ferry, and shortly after
was a private in the Second Company, Richmond Howitzers, and was later transferred to Company F,
Fifty-fifth Virginia Regiment; was elected lieutenant, Company A of that regiment, and later
promoted for gallantry; was dangerously wounded in charge of Fort McCrae, September 30, 1864.
After the close of the war he studied in the law office of James M. Matthews, Esq., and in 1868
began the practice of law, and two years later was elected commonwealth's attorney of Essex
county; was elected judge of the ninth judicial circuit of Virginia, December 14, 1891. He was
twice re-elected judge. He took an active part in politics, serving as canvasser for the state at
large in many heated campaigns; was presidential elector from the first congressional district on
the Cleveland ticket in 1888; a member of the Democratic state committee, and chairman of the
committee of the first district. He was the first president of the Tidewater Alumni Association
of the University of Virginia, and served as first commander of the Wright-Latané Camp,
Confederate Veterans. In early manhood Judge Wright was baptized in St. John's Episcopal Church,
Tappahannock, Virginia. Judge Wright married, November 29, 1876, Margaret Davidella Preston, of
Lewisburg, West Virginia. She was the first president of the Essex Chapter, United Daughters of
the Confederacy, and was president of the Woman's Monument Association of Essex County
(incorporated) which erected in 1907 a monument to the heroic Confederate dead of Essex county.
[Pages 240-241]
Maury, Richard Launcelot, born in Virginia, October 9, 1840, son
of Commodore Matthew F. Maury and Anne Herndon, his wife. He enlisted as a private in the
Virginia army, April 28, 1861; promoted lieutenant in Virginia State Troops, June, 1861; promoted
major in the Confederate army and assigned to the Twenty-fourth Virginia Infantry; elected April
at the reorganization of the regiment, May, 1862; badly wounded at the battle of Seven Pines, May
31, 1862; promoted lieutenant-colonel, May, 1863; badly wounded through the hips at the battle of
Drewry's Bluff; promoted colonel, May 16, 1864; permanently disabled, but rejoined the army on
the evacuation of Richmond and surrendered at Appomattox April 9, 1865; afterwards a prominent
member of the Richmond bar.
[Page 241]
Williams, Charles Urquhart, born at Montrose, Henrico county,
Virginia, December 27, 1840, son of Charles Bruce Williams, editor and farmer, and Ann Mercer
Hackley, his wife; and a descendant of pioneer settlers of Virginia, among whom we find: Philip
Pendleton, of Caroline county; William Williams; Edward Duncanson and James Hackley, of Culpeper
county; and James Bruce and George Stubblefield, of King George county. Charles Urquhart Williams
attended private schools in Richmond and Culpeper county, after which his education was finished
by attendance for one year at the school conducted by David Turner. He read law at the University
of Virginia, but he was interrupted by the outbreak of the civil war, when he at once enlisted in
the Confederate army, and served as a private in the Richmond Howitzers, and later became
lieutenant and drill master. When the army departed from Richmond, Mr. Williams went with
Brig.-Gen. D. R. Jones, as volunteer aide-de-camp, and subsequently became assistant adjutant and
inspector-general. When Gen. Jones died in July, 1863, Lieut. Williams was assigned to the staff
of Gen. M. D. Corse until the close of the war, first as aide-de-camp, then as assistant-adjutant
and inspector-general. He was admitted to the Richmond bar in October, 1865, and practiced his
profession steadily after that time. He was a Democratic member of the Virginia legislature,
1875-77; and served in both branches of the Richmond city council. He was president of the
Westmoreland Club and of the Sons of the American Revolution; commander of R. E. Lee Camp, No. 1.
Confederate Veterans, and a member of the Society of Foreign wars and of the Delta Psi
fraternity. Mr. Williams married, August 27, 1867, Alice Davenport. He died in 1910.
[Pages 241-242]
Garnett, James Mercer, M. A., LL. D., born April 24, 1840, at
"Aldie, "Loudoun county, Virginia, the residence of his great-uncle, Hon. Charles Fenton Mercer;
he is the son of Theodore Stanford Garnett, and Florentina Isidora Moreno, daughter of Francisco
Moreno, of Pensacola, Florida, his wife. His father was a civil engineer, and the early life of
James Mercer Garnett was spent in Virginia, Pennsylvania, Florida, Kentucky, South Carolina and
North Carolina. He was educated for four years at the Episcopal High School of Virginia, and for
three years at the University of Virginia, taking the degree of Master of Arts in 1859. He taught
at Brookland School, Albemarle county, Virginia, the session of 1859-60. When the war broke out,
he enlisted in the Confederate service, July 17, 1861, as a private in the Rockbridge Artillery,
then attached to Jackson's (later the "Stonewall") brigade, under command of Gen. T. J. Jackson.
He was promoted to second lieutenant of infantry, C. S. A., then to first lieutenant of
artillery, P. A. C. S., for ordnance duty; afterwards to captain, and was assigned to the charge
of the general reserve ordnance train of the Army of Northern Virginia. He was paroled at
Appomattox Court House, Virginia, April 9, 1865, being then ordnance officer of Grimes's
(formerly Rodes') Division, Second Corps, Army of Northern Virginia. He taught from 1865 to 1867
at Midway School, Charlottesville, Virginia, as professor of Greek in the Louisiana State
University (1867), and at the Episcopal High School of Virginia (1867-69). He passed the year of
1869-70 at the universities of Berlin and Leipzig, studying classical philology, and on his
return was chosen principal of St. John's College, Annapolis, Maryland, and professor of history
and the English language and literature, where he remained for ten years (1860-80). He resigned
his position at St. John's College in 1880, and conducted for two years a university school at
Ellicott City, North Carolina (1880-82), when he was chosen professor of the English language and
literature in the University of Virginia. He remained for fourteen years, the last three years as
professor of the English language alone, when he resigned, and filled a temporary vacancy in the
chair of English literature at the Woman's College of Baltimore for one year (1896-97), since
which time he has been taking private pupils in the city of Baltimore, and doing literary work.
He has served as vice-president of the Modern Language Association of America (1887-88) and of
the Spelling Reform Association, and as president of the American Dialect Society (1890-91), and
of the American Dialect Society (1890-91), and of the American Philological Association
(1893-94). The degree of Doctor of Laws was conferred upon him by St. John's College in 1874.
While a student at the University of Virginia he assisted in organizing the Young Men's Christian
Association, and was its president for one tem; was a member of the Jefferson Society, the Delta
Kappa Epsilon fraternity, the University /cricket Club, and the "Southern Guard," which
organization he accompanied to Harper's Ferry on the secession of Virginia, April 17, 1861. While
a professor in the University of Virginia, he was a member of the vestry of Christ Church,
Charlottesville, for ten years; often represented that church in the Virginia diocesan councils,
and was a delegate from the diocese of Virginia to the Triennial Convention of the Protestant
Episcopal church at Minneapolis in 1895, and in Washington, D. C., in 1898. In 1900 he became, by
invitation, a member of Alpha Chapter, Phi Betta Kappa, William and Mary College,
Virginia, the parent chapter in the United States, from which all other chapters trace their
origin. He is editor of "Selections in English Prose from Elizabeth to Victoria" (1891); "Hayne's
Speech to which Webster Replied" (1894), "Macbeth" (1897), and "Burke's Speech on Conciliation
with America" (1901). He is the author of a translation of "Beowulf" (1882), often reprinted, of
"Elene and other Anglo-Saxon Poems" (1889), reprinted; a "History of the University of Virginia"
prepared in 1899, and of numerous essays and review in various periodicals. He married, April 19,
1871, Kate Huntington Noland, daughter of the late Maj. Burr Powell Noland, of Middleburg,
Loudoun county, Virginia, and had one son, James Mercer Garnett, Jr., a lawyer of Baltimore,
Maryland. He still resides in Baltimore, Maryland.
[Page 243]
Patteson, Camm, born in Amherst county, Virginia, February 21,
1840, a son of David Patteson, a physician of note, and his wife, Elizabeth /camm. He was the
recipient of an excellent preparatory education, which was continued at the University of
Virginia, from which he was graduated with the degree of Bachelor of Laws and a diploma in moral
philosophy. this was just at the time of the outbreak of the civil war, and Mr. Patteson became a
volunteer in the Confederate service early in 1861. He was advanced to the captaincy of Company
D, Fifty-sixth Regiment, Virginia Infantry, and he was in active service until the close of war.
From that time he became identified with the legal profession. He was a member of the Virginia
house of delegates twice; served as senator from the eighteenth senatorial district; was a
delegate to a number of Democratic national conventions; served eight years as a member of the
board of visitors of the University of Virginia. He was a frequent contributor to legal and other
periodicals, and in 1900 published a novel, "The Young Bachelor." Capt. Patteson married, March
3, 1863, Mary Elizabeth Mills. p[Pages 243-244]
Old, William Whitehurst, born in Princess Anne county, Virginia,
November 17, 1840, son of Jonathan Whitehead Old and Anne Elizabeth Whitehurst, his wife. His
ancestors belonged to the early English stock that settled in Virginia; one of them was a member
of the committee of safety of Princess Anne county during the revolutionary war. He was educated
in the public schools of Norfolk, Virginia. He attended Southgate's school, also the Norfolk
Military Academy, and Col. Strange's school and the Albemarle Military Institute at
Charlottesville, Virginia. He entered the University of Virginia in 1858, from which he graduated
with the M. A. degree in July, 1861. Upon the outbreak of the civil war, He enlisted in the
University Volunteers, and was elected second lieutenant of his company. He served with Wise's
Legion until December, 1861, when the company was disbanded by the secretary of war, and he
re-enlisted as a private in the Fourteenth Virginia Regiment, and was wounded at the battle of
Seven Pines. In August, 1861, he was commissioned captain and assistant quartermaster, and was
stationed at battery No. 9, near Richmond. In May, 1863, he received an appointment on the staff
of Maj.-Gen. Edward Johnson, and served until December of that year, when he resigned his
commission as quartermaster and was made aide-de-camp. After Gen. Jackson was
captured, May 12, 1864, he served on the staff of Gen. Ewell, until he was relieved
from command of the Second Corps, in June, 1863. He then served on the staff of Maj. Jubal A.
Early, through the valley and Maryland campaigns, until August 12, 1864, when he resumed his
position on Gen. Johnson's staff, who had been exchanged and had been ordered to Hood's army, and
with whom he served until October 31, 1864, when he was disabled by a wound from further service.
After the war he studied law and settled in Norfolk, Virginia, having been for years a partner of
the late Richard Walke, one of the leaders of the Norfolk bar. He was a member of the Norfolk Bar
Association, the Virginia State Bar Association, and of many social organizations. He was a
member of the city council of Norfolk, and was a Democrat in politics. He for years represented
the Episcopal church in the diocesan councils of Virginia and Southern Virginia, and also as a
delegate to the general convention. On June 23, 1870, he married Miss Alice Herbert.
[Page 244]
Petrie, George Laurens, D. D., was born at Cheraw, South Carolina,
February 25, 1840, a son of George H. W. Petrie, and his wife, Mary J. Prince, the former a
minister of the Presbyterian church. Alexander Petrie, the first of the family to settle in
America, came from Elgin, Scotland, in the eighteenth century, and made his home in South
Carolina, where his descendant, George Petrie, grandfather of the subject of this review, was a
lieutenant in the continental army. George Laurens Petrie, D. D., received his classical
education in Charleston, South Carolina, and Marietta, Georgia, then became a student at Davidson
College, North Carolina, and later studied at Oglethorpe University, Georgia, where he graduated
as Bachelor and Master of Arts. He then entered the Columbia Theological Seminary, and studied
for the ministry. In 1862 he commenced his lifework, and became a chaplain in the Confederate
army in 1863, being assigned to the Twenty-second Alabama Regiment. At the close of the war he
conducted a classical school at Montgomery; was professor of Latin at Oakland College,
Mississippi, 1866-69; and he became pastor of the Presbyterian church at Greenville, Alabama, in
1870. He was pastor of the Presbyterian church on Washington street, Petersburg, Virginia,
1872-78; in the last mentioned year was called to the Presbyterian church in Charlottesville,
Virginia. College, Virginia, conferred upon him the honorary degree of Doctor of Divinity in
1887. Dr. Petrie married, November 29, 1864, Mary Cooper.
[Pages 244-245]
Conrad, Holmes, born in Winchester, Virginia, January 31, 1840,
son of Robert Young Conrad and Elizabeth Whiting Powell, his wife; she was a descendant of Col.
Levin Powell, who was a colonel in the Continental army during the revolutionary war and became a
member of the first congress of the United States. Holmes Conrad pursued his early education in
the primary schools, and in the Winchester Academy, at Winchester, Virginia. He was a student in
the University of Virginia from 1858 until 1860, graduated, and read law under a private
preceptor. He continued his reading through the winter, but on April 17, 1861, he enlisted as a
private in a cavalry company from his native county. In 1862 he was commissioned adjutant of his
regiment, and became major and assistant adjutant-general in 1864. He served on the staff of Gen.
Rosser, in a cavalry division, until the close of the war in April, 1865. He resumed his studies
after the cessation of hostilities, and was admitted to the bar in January, 1866, when he joined
his father in the practice of law in Winchester. He was a member of the board of visitors of the
University of Virginia, having been appointed by Gov. Kemper at the beginning of his
administration. He also continued a member of the board under Govs. Fitzhugh Lee and Holliday,
this being the board of which the Hon. A. H. H. Stuart was rector. In 1881-82 he served as a
member of the Virginia legislature; in 1893 was appointed assistant attorney-general of the
United States, and in 1895 became solicitor-general of the United States, filling that position
until July, 1897. In 1892 he was elector-at-large on the Cleveland ticket. He belongs to the
American Bar Association, and to the Virginia State Bar Association. For several years Mr. Conrad
was a member of the Cosmos Club of Washington, and is well known as a leader in Democratic
circles in Virginia. He was married, in 1869, to Georgia Bryan Forman.