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[Page 305]
      Henson, Poindexter Smith, born in Fluvanna county, Virginia, December 7, 1831; graduated at Richmond College in 1848, and at the University of Virginia in 1851. He taught in Milton, North Carolina, for two years, also studying law and editing a weekly paper. He was professor of natural science in the Chowan female College at Murfreesburough, North Carolina, for two years. After beginning the practice of the law in his native county, he was ordained as minister of the Baptist church in Fluvanna, in February, 1856, and he also conducted a female seminary while there. On 17, 2867, he became pastor of the Broad Street Church in Philadelphia, which he left in 1867 to organize the Memorial Church, where he gathered the largest Protestant congregation in that city. Dr. Henson was editor of the "Baptist Teacher." In 1878 he declined the presidency of Lewisburg University.

[Pages 305-307]
      Fishback, William Meade, born in Jeffersonton, Culpeper county, Virginia, November 5, 1831, son of Frederick Fishback and Sophie Yates, his wife. His paternal grandfather, Martin Fishback, a revolutionary soldier, was descended from John Fishback, one of the German miners settled by Gov. Spotswood at Germanna, in Virginia, and from Agnes Haeger, his wife, daughter of Rev. John Henry Haeger, parson of the colony. His maternal grandfather was Col. William Yates, of Petersburg, Virginia. He received his early education at the schools of his native village and vicinity, subsequently entering the University of Virginia. After his graduation in 1855, he studied law in the office of Luther Spellman, of Richmond, and was admitted to the bar in 1858. His first venture in law practice was in 1858, while on an extended visit to Illinois. Here he became acquainted with Abraham Lincoln, who, entrusted to him some important legal business. In 1858 Mr. Fishback took up a permanent residence at Fort Smith, Arkansas, where he engaged in the practice of his profession. Meanwhile Lincoln, with offers of other business, urged him to return to Illinois, which, however, he did not do, preferring the Arkansas climate. In 1861 he was elected delegate to the state convention which passed the ordinance of Secession. although so pronounced a Union man that the secession press of Arkansas denounced him as an abolitionist, he was opposed to the policy of coercion, thinking that it would provoke civil war. Upon President Lincoln's call for troops to coerce South Carolina, Mr. Fishback, by advice of his constituents, voted for secession in the hope that when the north saw the withdrawal of all the southern states, it might be forced into accepting the Crittenden compromise. All efforts at compromise failing, however, when the war broke out he went north, and during the occupation of Little Rock by the Federal troops in 1863, he established a newspaper there called the "Unconditional Union." While editing the paper, he, as commander, was raising the Fourth Arkansas Cavalry for the Federal service. When about nine hundred men had enlisted, he was elected to the United States senate by the Union legislature, and thus was never mustered into service. Under the proclamation of President Lincoln the reorganization of the state had been at length accomplished, Mr. Fishback having such influence with the convention in charge that he was called upon to write the greater part of the constitution of 1864, sometimes called the "Fishback Constitution." He was advised that if the word "white" as a prerequisite to voting was not stricken out, the state would not be received into the Union, and he would not get the seat in the senate to which it was known he would be elected. Believing, however, that it would not be safe to confer the suffrage upon such a large mass of ignorance, he refused to strike it out. His was the first case from the south of an effort to restore representations in congress. President Lincoln's cabinet recognized the senators, but other leaders of the party in power, headed by Summers and Wade, took the ground that as the state had run down like a watch, and could only be wound up by some extraneous power, that power was congress, and that no southern states should be therefore not seated. In 1865 he was appointed treasury agent for Arkansas a position which he refused to accept until told that by so doing he could save the people many millions of money. His conduct of that office added largely to his popularity. In 1874 he was elected to the constitutional convention which framed the present constitution, and in 1877, 1879, and 1885 served in the legislature. He was the author of what is known as the "Fishback Amendment" to the constitution of Arkansas, by which the legislature is forbidden ever to pay certain fraudulent state bonds issued during reconstruction. During the summer of 1892, contrary to the policy of his opponents, he made no canvass for the nomination for governor. His cause was taken up by the people, however, and he received 540 votes out of 628 in the nominating convention, while his plurality at the polls was larger than that received by any other governor since reconstruction times. Immediately after election he accepted the urgent invitation of the national Democratic committee, and coming north, made a number of speeches in New York and Indiana, which met with gratifying success. His administration was marked by continual prosperity. It was at the instigation of Gov. Fishback that the governors of the southern states met in convention at Richmond, Virginia, in April, 1893, one of the most important and distinguished assemblies ever held in America, and of which he was made president. In 1867 he was married to Adelaide, daughter of Joseph Miller, a prominent merchant of Fort Smith, Arkansas, who was robbed and murdered on board a Mississippi river steamboat in 1850. He died at Fort Smith, Arkansas, February 9, 1903.

[Page 307]
      Ambler, James Markham, son of Dr. Richard Cary Ambler and Susan Marshall, his wife, was born in Fauquier county, Virginia, December 30, 1848. Attended Washington College in 1865-67 and graduated in medicine at the University of Maryland in March, 1869; entered the county naval service, as assistant surgeon, April 1, 1874; served in the naval hospital at Norfolk, and volunteered for duty on the Jeannette, sent to the northern seas in 1881. He might have saved himself by leaving his companions, but this he would not do. He died in the cause of science and humanity. He and his companions perished on the banks of the Lena river about October 30, 1881, in the retreat of Capt. De Long's company from the steamer. He appears to have been the last to die. His frozen body was recovered, and in February, 1884, interred at Leed's church. His fellow surgeons placed in the church a brass tablet to h is memory and the professors, officers and students of Washington and Lee University, unveiled a tablet there also in his honor, June, 1885.

[Pages 307-308]
      Green, William, descended from Robert Green, who emigrated with his uncle William Duff, a Quaker, to Virginia in 1710, was a son of John Williams Green, judge of the Virginia supreme court of appeals, and was born at Fredericksburg, November 10, 1806. He was self taught, with the exception of brief terms at the school of Goolrick, in Fredericksburg, and Mr. John Lewis, a famous teacher in Spotsylvania county. Nevertheless, by intense application, aided by the great powers of his mind, he became the most learned lawyer and scholar in Virginia. For six months at a time he would speak scarcely a word to any human being, absorbed entirely with his books. He came to the bar in his twenty-first year and practiced in Culpeper and the surrounding counties, and soon acquired a reputation for profound knowledge of the law. In 1855 he removed to Richmond, and practiced with great success. His most notable forensic effort was made in the case of Moon vs. Stone, involving the operation of the famous rule in Shelly's case. The supreme court was so impressed with it that they directed its publication in their reports. It fills one hundred and twenty-seven pages of the nineteenth volume of "Grattan's Reports." It elicited high praise from several of the judges of the English courts. Baron Bramwell declared that "it showed a prodigious amount of industry and well directed upon very difficult questions." Mr. J. W. Wallace inscribed his work "The Reports" to him, and wrote of Mr. Green that "his knowledge of law books exceeded that of all the men I have ever known in England or America." He was as familiar with the ancient legal works as he was with the modern. His love of literary study was as great as his love of the law. He was an accomplished Greek and Latin scholar and a close student of history. During the war he filled a post in the Confederate treasury department. After the war he was appointed to succeed Judge Lucas on the bench of the "court of conciliation" extemporized by military authority while the life of the state was in a condition of suspended animation. In 1870 he was elected professor of law in Richmond College, but declined the position on account of his health. His library contained a splendid collection of rare and ancient books, many of them in black letter. He died July 29, 1880. Although Mr. green left behind him copious notes of intended compilations, legal and historical, nothing that might be called a "work" was ever completed by him. Among his known published results were: "An Essay on Lapse, Joint Tenants and Tenants in Common," "Articles in Res Judicata," "Power of a Partner," a paper on "The Editions of the Code," published in the "Virginia Law Journal;" another paper on "Stare Decisis," published in the "American Law Journal;" of September, 1880., A manuscript on the "Genesis" of the old counties of Virginia, presented by Mr. Green to Rev. Philip slaughter, was published in 1883 by the latter in connection with a "Memoir" of Mr. Green. This disquisition gives a good idea of the closeness of Mr. Green's historical researches. On his death, and burial in Hollywood Cemetery, tributes of high praise were rendered by the bars of Culpeper and Richmond and by the Virginia Historical Society, of which he was vice-president Mr. Green married, April 6, 1837, Columbia E. daughter of Samuel Slaughter, of Western View, Culpeper county. He had two children: John Williams Green, born March 13, 1838, who was in the Confederate cavalry. and was killed September 22, 1863, and Elizabeth Travers Green, who married James Hayes, a merchant of Fredericksburg.

[Page 308]
      Lee, Cassius Francis, born at Alexandria, Virginia, May 22, 1808, son of Edmund Jennings Lee and Sarah Lee, his wife. His entire life was passed in the town of his birth. after receiving a liberal education, he served for a time as clerk of the United States courts, meantime studying law. He was admitted to the bar, but never practiced. He was long a member of the mercantile firm of Cazenove & Company, of Alexandria. He was from early days a communicant of Christ Church, of Alexandria; for years he was a member of the annual councils of the church; a lay delegate to general conventions; and for more than a third of a century a member of the standing committee of the diocese. For many years he served as treasurer of the Theological Seminary and of the Virginia Educational Society, and without compensation. He married (first) Hannah Philippa Ludwell Hopkins, daughter of John and Cornelia (Lee) Hopkins; and (second) Anne Eliza, daughter of William Collins and Eliza Frances (Cazenove) Gardner. Mr. Lee died at his residence in Alexandria, January 23, 1890.

[Pages 308-309]
      Cabell, James Alston, born in Richmond, Virginia, son of Col. Henry Coalter Cabell and Jane Alston, his wife. The father was a lawyer when the war of 1861 broke out, and, entering the Confederate army, became chief of artillery of the Army of the Peninsula, and afterwards chief of artillery in McLaw's division of the Army of Northern Virginia. His wife belonged to the distinguished Alston family of South Carolina. James Alston Cabell attended the best private schools of Richmond, and the Norwood school of Nelson county; entered Richmond College; then the University of Virginia, the College de France, and the Sorbonne. Thus fully equipped and bearing the degrees of B. Sc., C. E., and M. E., he accepted a chair in the Central University of Kentucky, where he taught for several years, until 1880, when he removed to Richmond, Virginia, and engaged in the practice of law. In 1885 he was elected to the Richmond city council, and in 1893 to the house of delegates, to represent the city of Richmond. During his four years service in the legislature, he proved himself an earnest and faithful representative, serving as chairman of the committees on library, on general laws, and propositions and grievances. In politics he is a Democrat. He was for seven years president of the Sons of the Revolution, and is a member of the Society of the Cincinnati, and the reorganizer and first president of the Virginia society, a member of the Westmoreland Club, a Mason and a Knight Templar. He is at this time commander of the Military Order of Foreign Wars. He is deeply interested in athletics, and is president of the Richmond Athletic club. He is a leading member of the American, the Southern and the Virginia Historical associations, and scientific and literary societies in this country and abroad. June 12, 1895, Mr. Cabell married Ethel Hoyt Scott, of New York, and had five children. They reside at 410 East Grace street, Richmond, Virginia.

[Page 309]
      Stanton, Frederick Perry, born in Alexandria, Virginia, December 22, 1814. He pursued classical studies and was graduated from Columbian College, Washington, D. C., in 1833; taught school; studied law, admitted to the bar, and began practice in Memphis, Tennessee; elected to the twenty-ninth and to the succeeding four congresses (March 4, 1845-March 3, 1855); governor of Kansas territory, 1856-61; moved to Virginia and subsequently settled in Florida. He died near Ocala, Florida, June 4, 1894.

[Page 309]
      Humphreys, Milton Wylie, born in Greenbrier, Virginia, September 15, 1844; was a pupil at Washington College, now Washington and Lee University, but left at the age of seventeen to enlist in the Confederate army; was a gunner in Bryan's battery; after the war re-entered Washington College, was made tutor of Latin, assistant professor of ancient languages, and received the degrees of M. A. in 1869 from Washington and Lee University, and Ph. D. in 1874 from Leipsic University; was called to the chair of Greek in Vanderbilt University at its opening in 1875, and to that of ancient languages in the University of Texas at its opening in 1883; in 1887 was made professor of Greek in the University of Virginia, a position which he held till his retirement in 1912; Vanderbilt University game him the degree of LL. D. in 1883; published numerous papers in the "Transactions of the American Philological Associations," of which he was president in 1882, and editions of the "Clouds" of Aristophanes, the "Antigone" and "Oedipus Tyrannus," of Sophocles, and the second book of Thucydides; he was editor for the United States and Canada of the "Revue de Revues," and correspondent of the "Philologische Wochenschrift."

[Pages 309-310]
      O'Donovan, William Rudolph, born in Preston county, Virginia, March 28, 1844. After serving in the Confederate army during the civil war, he went to New York, where he opened a studio. He was elected an associate of the National Academy in 1878. He has executed portrait-busts and bas-reliefs of John A. Kennedy, William Page, R. Swain Gifford, Arthur Quartley, Bayard Taylor (for the memorial tablet in Cornell University), Winslow Homer, Erminnie A. Smith, and Edmund C. Stedman. His larger works include the Tarrytown monument to the captors of Major André; a statue of Washington for the government of Venezuela; two flags for the soldier's monument at Lawrence, Massachusetts; two bas-reliefs for the monument in Herkimer county, New York, commemorating the battle of Oriskany, and a statue of Washington for the monument at Newburg. Washington is one of his favorite subjects, and he has published a series of papers on his portraits.

[Page 310]
      Van de Vyver, Augustine, born at Haesdonck, Belgium, December 1, 1844. He was ordained to the Roman Catholic priesthood in Brussels, Belgium, in 1870, and was consecrated bishop of Richmond, Virginia, October 20, 1889.

[Pages 310-311]
      Baker, William Washington, born October 20, 1844, near Hallsboro, Chesterfield county, Virginia, son of John Daniel Baker and Ann Elizabeth, daughter of William Howard and Mary Taylor, his wife. He was brought up in the country, but was frail in his youth and did not perform any severe manual labor. His mother died when he was only nine years of age. He attended a private school taught by Dr. R. B. Winfree, and at the age of twelve, in 1856, at his own desire, began his apprenticeship in the office of the Danville "Register." Afterwards he worked on the Richmond "Enquirer," where he had charge of the printing and press rooms, and mailing at night. In the spring of 1863 he enlisted in the privateer service of the Confederate navy under Capt. John Yates Beall. His service was on Chesapeake Bay, crippling the commerce of the enemy and destroying lighthouses. In September, 1873, when sharing with fifteen others in an attempt to surprise a federal gunboat, he was captured and confined in irons in fort McHenry, near Baltimore, for nearly six weeks. To save him and his associates from being shot as privateers, the Confederate authorities held an equal number of Federal prisoners in irons in Charleston, South Carolina, as hostages for their proper treatment as prisoners of war. This had its effect; the irons were removed from Mr. Baker, and he was transferred to Fortress Monroe and afterwards t Fort Norfolk and later to Point Lookout, where in the spring of 1864 he was exchanged, and proceeded to Richmond. There he was placed on light duty as clerk in Provost Marshal Carrington's office, and remained until the evacuation of Richmond, being among the last to leave the city. He then joined Gen. Lee's army at Amelia Court House, and was with the Twenty-fifth Virginia Regiment in the battle of Sailors Creek. He rejoined the army at High Bridge, and connected himself with a Texas regiment with which he served until the surrender at Appomattox Court House. After being paroled, he set out for Richmond, but at Jude's Ferry took work on a farm. Later he formed a partnership with A. T., B. W. and J. H. Martin, under the name of Martin Brothers & Baker, for manufacturing lumber, grinding sumac and tanning leather, at Hallsboro and Manchester, Virginia, and after the death of his partners, he succeeded to the business, which he still conducts. He has served as justice of the peace, and for two terms was supervisor of Midlothian district, Chesterfield county. In 1883-84, he served in the house of delegates, where he secured the passage of bills to prevent the running of trains on Sunday, and to require clerks of courts to certify that bonds should be given by special commissioners before selling property decreed for sale. He was a member again in 1899-1900, and was afterwards re-elected for three more terms. During his service he was a member of the finance committee. At the Virginia Exposition, in 1888, he was commissioner from Chesterfield county, serving as such without compensation. Its exhibit received the first prize as the best county exhibit in the state. at the St. Louis ?Exposition, in 1904, he was assistant commissioners, and it was due, in great measure, to his labors that the Virginia exhibit was made a great success. He was also commissioner from Virginia to the Jamestown Exhibition of 1907. He has been a frequent contributor to the newspapers on religious, social, and political subjects. In 1888, he wrote, at the request of the board of supervisors of Chesterfield county, a pamphlet on the history and resources of the county, and 1892 he produced a fuller edition of the work. He is a trustee of Richmond College. On December 25, 1866, he married Sarah Thomas Martin, and they have six children. His address is Hallsboro, Chesterfield county, Virginia.

[Page 311]
      Edwards, William Emory, born in Prince Edward county, Virginia, June 10, 1842, son of Rev. John Ellis Edwards; graduated from Randolph-Macon College in 1862, and became a clergyman of the Methodist Episcopal church, South, of the Virginia conference; he received the degree of Doctor of Divinity. He is the author of "John Newson; a Tale of College Life," Nashville, 1883.

[Page 311]
      McCarrick, James William, born at Norfolk, Virginia, June 22, 1843, son of Lieutenant-Colonel Patrick McCarrick, C. S. A., and Margaret Collins, his wife. He was a student at Norfolk Military Academy, St. Mary's College and Georgetown College, leaving the latter at the age of nineteen years to enlist as a private in the Twelfth Virginia Regiment, Mahone's brigade, Army of Northern Virginia. Later he entered the naval service of the Confederacy, rose to the rank of master, was in command of a land battery at Shell Bluff Georgia, served under Admiral Franklin Buchanan in Mobile Bay, and for a time was master of the flagship Tennessee. After peace was restored he became wheelman on a steamboat plying between Norfolk and Richmond, became mate, then wharf clerk, and later a sub-agent. He was appointed claim agent of the Seaboard Air Line system of railroad and steamship lines, and later became southern agent for the Clyde Steamship Company, and has continuously held close connection with important business activities of his native city. He was president of the Suburban and City Railway Company, of the Norfolk board of trade, of the board of pilot commissioners of the state of Virginia; first vice-president of the Virginia Navigation Company, and a Virginia commissioner of the Jamestown tercentenary exposition. A Democrat in politics, he at one time served as councilman. In 1908 he joined with the Gold wing of his party and supported its nominees. He married Georgianna Binns Jones.

[Page 312]
      Leake, William Josiah, born in Goochland county, Virginia, September 30, 1843, son of Samuel D. Leake, and Fannie M. Kean, his wife. He attended home schools, and St. George Tucker's school at Ashland, Virginia, leaving the latter at the beginning of the civil war. In July, 1861, he became a non-commissioned officer in the company of artillery commanded by Captain Walter D. Leake, with which he served until 1862, when he was transferred to another company, and again, in 1863, to a battery under Col. J. H. Guy. He served with the latter until the close of the war, taking part in the second battle of Manassas, Fredericksburg, Fort Harrison, and around Richmond. In 1867 he engaged in the practice of law in Richmond and Hanover county. In 1890 he was appointed judge of the chancery court to fill a vacancy, and for a number of years he served as commissioner in chancery, and special master in both Federal and state courts. He afforded valuable aid to the Asylum for the Insane, of which he was a director.

[Pages 312-313]
      Ranson, Thomas Davis, born at "Homestead House," near Charlestown, Jefferson county, Virginia, May 19, 1843, son of James M. Ranson and Mary Eleanor Baldwin, his wife. The Ranson ancestor (Ransone) traces back to Peter Ransone (q. v.), who was the first settler in the present Mathews county, Virginia. He attended Jacob Fuller's classical school, and in 1859 entered Washington College, at Lexington, Virginia. In April, 1861, he was at the capture of Harper's Ferry, then enlisted as a private in Company C, Second Regiment, Virginia Infantry, "Stonewall" Jackson's brigade, was promoted to sergeant-major; later was transferred to Company I, Fifty-second Regiment Virginia Infantry, and was elected lieutenant; he was wounded at Cross Keys, and on recovery joined Baylor's company of the Twelfth Virginia Regiment of Cavalry, serving in 1863-64 in charge of scouts in the secret service department with captain's pay, reporting to Generals Stuart and Lee. He also served Generals Edward Johnson and William L. Jackson as aide. He was captured inside the Union lines, narrowly escaping death as a spy, and spent the last months of the war in military prisons, refusing to take the oath of allegiance, and was held two months after the surrender. From 1865 until 1867 he engaged in farming at the same time pursuing a course of legal study, then entered the law department of the University of Pennsylvania, graduated in 1868, and began practice. In 1873 he was appointed law inspector for the Baltimore & Ohio railroad, and has been counsel for many American and European corporations, including the Tidewater Railway Company, of which he was vice-president. He was visitor to the Institution for the Deaf, Dumb and Blind; a trustee of Washington; trustee of the Virginia Female Institute; president of the Young Men's Christian Association of Staunton; president of the Virginia Young Men's Christian Association; president of Washington and Lee Alumni Association; president of the Staunton and Augusta Alumni Association of the University of Virginia; member of the Staunton common council; president of the Staunton Chamber of Commerce; lieutenant-commander of Grand Camp of Virginia, United Confederate Veterans; commander of the local camp of the same order; and vice-president of the Virginia State Bar Association. He declined a nomination for a federal judgeship, a circuit judgeship, and the state senate. He was a Whig prior to the war, then until 1867 a conservative, but since 1869 has been a Democrat. He is a vestryman of Trinity and Emanuel churches. He is a member of the American Peace Society, was chairman of the state committee on international arbitration. He is a member of the Phi Kappa Psi fraternity and of other prominent societies and clubs. He married (first)April 12, 1871, Mary Fontaine Alexander, of "Walnut Farm," Jefferson county, West Virginia, a lineal descendant of John Augustine Washington, the elder, of Richard Henry Lee, the "Signer." He married (second) January 5, 1887, Janetta Ravenscroft Harrison of West Hill, Augusta county, Virginia. He married (third) February 15, 1900, Margaret Fisher Warren, of Richmond, Virginia.

[Page 313]
      Rinehart, William A., born in Botetourt county, Virginia, April 5, 1846, son of John and Mary A. Rinehart, and great-grandson of Aaron Rinehart, who came from Germany to Botetourt county about 1753. He attended the public schools, and in his sixteenth year enlisted in Company C, Second Regiment Virginia Cavalry, served for three years, and received wound in the arm at Gettysburg. After the war he engaged in the lumber business for five years, and then was superintendent of railroad work for seven years. In 1880 he became a contractor of railroad work of all kinds, and became head of the Rinehart & Dennis Company, a railroad contracting firm. He was vice-president of the First National Bank of Covington, Virginia. A Democrat in politics, he has represented the counties of Alleghany, Bath and Highland in the Virginia legislature. He is a member of the Baptist church. He married, December 20, 1867, Mary Lewis Lipes.

[Pages 313-314]
      Henry, Robert Randolph, born at Chester, Chester county, South Carolina, April 26, 1845, a son of William Dickson Henry, a planter and merchant of Chester, and Julia Hall, his wife, who was born in Fredericksburg, Virginia. James Henry the great-great-grandfather of the subject of this sketch, was a native of county Tyrone, Ireland, from whence he came in 1725, and settled near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. He had married a Miss Swan in his native land, and brought her and his children with him, but almost every member of the family was murdered by the Indians not long after they had made their home here. William Henry, son of James Henry, lived for some years in the Cumberland Valley, but after his marriage to Margaret Cowan he removed to York District, South Carolina, settling at the foot of King's Mountain. He was one of the stanchest supporters of the Whig party and fought bravely in the cause of the American revolution; with four of his sons he was active at the battle of King's Mountain, the battle of Ninety-Six, and the engagement at Brattonsville, York county, South Carolina. In Dr. Lyman Draper's "King's Mountain and Its Heroes," we find the following incident: "Two of his (William Henry's) sons followed two of Colonel Ferguson's Tory messengers, who were bearing dispatches to General Cornwallis, requesting reinforcements, and pursued them with such relentless heat that the messengers were compelled to conceal themselves by day and to travel by night by a roundabout course, so that the message did not reach Cornwallis until the morning of the battle, when it was too late to send reinforcements and prevent the disaster." Francis Henry, a younger son of William Henry, was the grandfather of Robert Randolph Henry. He married Margaret Dickson, daughter of Rev. William Dickson, a Scotchman noted as a Presbyterian minister in upper South Carolina, who built Dickson's meeting house, about 1750, the first church erected in York county, and which is now known as "Bethel." In the maternal line the family of Mr. Henry is also an ancient one; Richard Hall, the immigrant ancestor, was born in Warwickshire, England, 1634, arrived in Maryland in 1647, becoming the owner of extensive lands is Cecil county; the family home for generations has been "Mount Welcome," which was erected by him in 1670. Dr. Elisha Hall, great-grandfather of Mr. Henry, was graduated from the School of Medicine conducted by Dr. Benjamin Rush in Philadelphia, and was a first cousin of this gentleman. He married Carolanna Carter, daughter of Charles Carter, of "Cleve," on the Rappahannock, a son of Robert ("King") Carter and his second wife Elizabeth Landon; Charles Carter of "Cleve," married Anne Byrd, daughter of William Byrd, of Westover.
      Robert Randolph Henry passed the first eleven years of his life in Chester, then, his father having died in 1856, he and his mother took up their residence in Fredericksburg and Petersburg, Virginia. He was a student at Bloomfield Academy, which he had entered just prior to the outbreak of the civil war, and although but sixteen years of age, he enlisted in the Confederate army, and served until the close of the war. At first his service was with Company E, Twelfth Virginia Infantry, but during the last two years he was first a member of the staff of Gen. R. H. Anderson, and later that of Gen. William Mahone. He displayed extraordinary bravery on the battlefield, having five horses killed under him, and was wounded three times. Upon the return of peace he engaged in teaching in Rappahannock county, Virginia, but devoted his spare time to the study of law under private tuition; after his admission to the bar he settled at Wise Court House, Virginia, practicing there from 1872 to 1875, and during this period was commonwealth's attorney for the county. He then removed to Tazewell, where he has since been a resident while following his legal practice, being associated with Judge S. C. Graham since July 1, 1881, with whom he had practiced in other courts since 1873. The style of the firm is Henry & Graham, and it is probably the oldest law firm in Virginia. He has always given his political support to the Democratic party, was an elector on the Hancock and English ticket from the ninth congressional district of Virginia in 1880, and was nominated for congress from this district in 1886, but defeated. His religious affiliation is with the Episcopal church. Major Henry married, December 19, 1869, Lucy Strother Ashby, of Culpeper, Virginia.