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[Page 344]
      Fitzhugh, Thomas, born at "Longwood," Goochland county, Virginia, October 12, 1852, son of William Henry Fitzhugh, of Fredericksburg, Vriginia, and Mary Anne Harrison, his wife, the latter a member of the distinguished Harrison family. He went to school in Fredericksburg, and was there prepared for the classical department of the University of Virginia, from which he graduated in 1880 with the degree of Bachelor of Arts, and received that of Master of Arts in 1883. He was an instructor in Bingham's school at Hillsboro, North Carolina, in 1881-82, and in 1883 was appointed professor of Latin in Central University, at Richmond, Kentucky. Shortly afterward he became first assistant at the Bellevue high school, Bedford, county, Virginia, filling this position until 1889, when he accepted the chair of Latin in the county of Texas, which he filled ably until 1899. He was then elected professor of Latin at the University of Virginia to succeed Col. William E. Peters, and was granted three years leave of absence to prepare himself for this work. He studied abroad and traveled in Greece and the Orient until September, 1902, when he returned to America and assumed the duties of his chair at the University of Virginia. He is a member of the Modern Language Association of America; the American Philological Association of the Archeological Institute of America; the American Dialect Society; and the Classical Association of England and Wales. From the pen of Mr. Fitzhugh have come valuable contributions to philological and educational literature, and in addition to these treatises he published, in 1897, "The Philosophy of the Humanities," and in 1900, "Outlines of a System of Classical Pedagogy," He married (first), June 23, 1892, Katharine Lefevre, who died at the University of Virginia, February 7, 1901, daughter of Dr. J. A. Lefevre, a distinguished divine of the Presbyterian church in America. He married (second) at The Hague, in Holland, August 24, 1905, Gertrude Goldstuecker, of Berlin, Prussia.

[Pages 344-345]
      Gardner, Helen Hamilton, born near Winchester, Virginia, January 21, 1853, daughter of Rev. Alfred Griffith Chenowith and Katherine A. Peel, his wife; she was a descendant of Oliver Cromwell and Lord Baltimore. In her childhood she associated largely with persons older than herself, and took up books usually beyond those of her age. She was educated in the best schools, and early developed a taste for biological and sociological studies. She first became known to the reading public through a series of monographs on "Vicarious Atonement," "Historical Facts and Theological Fictions," "By Divine Right," "Pulpit, Pew and Cradle," and "Rome or Reason." Her first book, "Men, Women and Gods," was published in 1885. From 1885 to 1890 many of her stories, essays and sketches appeared in the principal magazines. Her first volume of stories, "A Thoughtless Yes," was published in 1890, and was followed by "Pushed by Unseen Hands;" most of these writing were based upon some suggestion or theory of the law of heredity. Her first novel, " Is This Your Son, my Lord," (1891), was followed the next year by "Pray You, Sir, Whose Daughter?" Both dealing with the double standard of morals. In 1893 she brought out "Facts and Fictions of Life," a series of brilliant essays, including one on "Sex in Brain," which attracted wide attention. "An Unofficial Patriot" (1898), is an historical and sociological study of the Civil war, giving many facts which could only be derived from the secret war records in Washington City, and the story was dramatized under the title, "Rev. Griffith Davenport." Many of Miss Gardener's writing have been translated and published in Berlin and Vienna, some have been translated into French, Russian and Japanese, and one into Icelandic; while her scientific essays and stories based on heredity have been reproduced in medical journals in Europe as well as in the United States. She has also been a strong figure on the lecture platform, attacking social abuses with a vehemence strangely impounded of argument and sarcasm. She has visited twenty different countries in making historical sociological and art studies. She married Col. A. C. Smart of New York.

[Page 345]
      Pitt, Robert Healy, born in Middlesex county, Virginia, June 26, 1853, son of Dr. Douglass Pitt, eminent physician of Middlesex; his wife, of French descent, traced to the Worthams and Montagues. The son entered Richmond College, graduated in several courses, but ill health prevented his taking the full degree. He was ordained a minister of the Baptist church, and entered upon pastoral work in Hanover county in 1877. About 1888 he purchased a half interest in the "Religious Herald," the official organ of the Baptist church of Virginia. He is at the head of the Baptist Education Commission. Mercer University, of Georgia, conferred upon him the degree of Doctor of Divinity, and in 1905 Richmond College conferred that of LL. D. He lectures and delivers many addresses.

[Page 345]
      Myers, Barton, born in Norfolk, Virginia, March 29, 1853, son of Moses Myers, of Norfolk, and Julia G. Barton, his wife, daughter of Richard Barton, of Winchester. After receiving his education in Norfolk and Fauquier county, he engaged in mercantile business in Norfolk. In 1877 he was appointed by the British government as vice-consul at Norfolk, and the same year received similar appointments under the Netherlands and Brazilian governments. He was a member of the city council of Norfolk for four years, and was elected mayor in 1886. He is interested in various local corporations. He has in possession the pistols which were used in the Decatur-Barron duel. He married Kate Mackay, daughter of Dr. Robert F. Baldwin, of Winchester, Virginia.

[Page 346]
      Duke, Judge Richard T. W., born in Charlottesville, Virginia, August 27, 1853, son of Col. Richard T. W. Duke (q. v.) and his wife, Elizabeth Scott Eskridge; a descendant of Dr. Thomas Walker (q. v.), of "Castle Hill," Albemarle county, Virginia, who was the guardian of Thomas Jefferson, and also a descendant of George Eskridge (q. v.), guardian of the mother of Washington, who, in gratitude for the services rendered to her, named her son for him. He attended several private schools of his native town, and later went to the academy conducted by Maj. Horace Jones. He studied at the University of Virginia from 1870 to 1874, and received the Magazine Medal in 1873. In the same year he began to study law in the law school of the university. In October, 1874, he began to practice law in Albemarle. He became his father's partner and did a large business. In 1886 he was elected judge of corporation court of Charlottesville, and afterwards was twice re-elected, after which he declined further service on the bench. Judge Duke is a man of versatile talents, has written beautiful verse, and has contributed many articles to leading magazines. His time is, however, greatly taken up with the legal business and he does not have much leisure for literary work. He has been active in the interests of the Masonic fraternity in the United States, and is past grand master of the order in Virginia. His affiliation with other organizations is as deputy governor of the Society of Colonial Wars; member of the Virginia Historical Society, of the Sons of the Revolution, and of the Phi Beta Kappa fraternity of William and Mary College; has been presiding officer of the grand chapter of the Zeta Psi fraternity of North America. He is also a member of the State Library Board. Judge Duke married, October 1, 1884, Edith R. Slaughter, a daughter of John F. Slaughter, Esq.

[Page 346]
      Gravatt, John James, was born in Port Royal, Caroline county, Virginia, May 14, 1853, son of John James Gravatt and Mary Eliza Gravatt, his wife. He graduated from William and Mary College with distinction, afterwards taking the degree of M. D. at the University of Pennsylvania, and practicing at Port Royal. He is descended from Col. Miles Cary, of Warwick county, Virginia; Col. Larkin Smith, of King and Queen county, Virginia; and Col. John Ambler, of Jamestown. He entered the preparatory department of the Virginia Theological Seminary, then the seminary proper, graduated in 1876, was ordained minister by the bishop of Virginia, and accepted a call to St. John's Church, Hampton, Virginia, where he spent seventeen years, also preaching for the veterans of the Soldier's home and the negroes and Indians of Hampton Normal Institute. In 1893 he went to the Bishop Moore Memorial Church in Richmond, now known as Holy Trinity. Mr. Gravatt has also acted as chaplain of militia and of various benevolent orders. On April 29, 1879, he married Indie Wray Jones.

[Pages 346-347]
      Price, Thomas Randolph, born in Richmond, Virginia; in 1856 became a student in the University of Virginia, and two years later graduated with the degree of Master of Arts; the following three years were spent in travel and study in Berlin, Kiel, Paris and Athens; only the outbreak of the civil war prevented the completion of his studies and attainment of the doctor's degree; he ran the blockade and arrived at his home in 1862; he at once volunteered for service, and was assigned to duty as lieutenant on Jeb Stuart's staff; a little later he was transferred to the corps of engineers, and served as captain until the close of the war. In the fall of 1865 he opened in Richmond, in company with his old schoolmate, John M. Strother, a classical school for boys, and there taught until 1868, in which year he was called to a c hair in Randolph-Macon College, where he spent eight years, which were not the least effective in his career; he possessed the art of stimulating in his pupils a love of learning, of planting deep and strong the roots of life-long devotion to scholarship, and within a few years his graduates, with college culture broadened and deepened by university studies in Germany, were filling chairs of English in southern and southwestern schools; in 1876 the opening of the Johns Hopkins University called his old master, Gildersleeve, away to Baltimore, and Mr. Price was invited to fill his chair and for the following six years he served his alma mater as professor of Greek; his lecture room was crowded with earnest students, warmed by the fire of his enthusiasm and stimulated by his eager passion for learning, and his renown as a teacher grew apace; the call to Columbia was the reward of his success, and to Mr. 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 at the time of his death 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; in Columbia as in Virginia his art was to mould and stimulate and inspire men; he was not a prolific writer, and his writings are few in number and slender in volume; his "Teaching of the Mother Tongue," "Shakespear's Verse Construction," and monographs of "King Lear" and other plays go far to exhaust the list; his work as a scholar must be judged therefore less from the volume or the quality of his writings than from the testimony of the men who worked under him and with him; his art as a teacher was to make learning lovable. "His learning," writes his colleague Woodberry, "was great in range and exact in detail. His thirst for knowledge was insatiable and few fields of thought or literature were unvisited y him. In the conversation of daily life he surprised both by his brilliancy and light touch. He had the faculty of making learning a social thing. He blended deference with dignity and grace with strength, and he had uncommon sweetness of nature. There was no man whom it was so simple to love;" he died at his home in New York City, May 7, 1903.

[Pages 347-348]
      Moore, Charles Lee, born October 22, 1862, at Orange Court House, Virginia son of Charles Catlett Moore and Virginia Anne Boulware, his wife. He graduated at Potomac Academy, Alexandria City, Virginia; studied law and was admitted to the bar in the fall of 1883, in the corporation court of the city of Alexandria, He accepted, January 17, 1884, a position in the office of the auditor of public accounts of the commonwealth of Virginia; in a few years was appointed first clerk in that office, and was elected auditor of public accounts of the commonwealth of Virginia by the general assembly in January, 1912. He entered upon his duties as auditor, March 1, 1912, for a term of four years from that date, and now holds the office.

[Page 348]
      Wayland, John Walter, born in Shenandoah county, Virginia, December 8, 1872, son of John Wesley Wayland and Anna Kagay, his wife. He received elementary education at home and in the public schools; taught several sessions in the public schools of Shenandoah county; Bachelor of Arts of Bridgewater College, 1899; Doctor of Philosophy of University of Virginia, 1907; secretary of Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools of Virginia, 1909-1911; member of board of judges, American School Peace League, 1914-1915; president of History Branch, State Teachers' Association of Virginia, 1914-15. He has taught in Bridgewater College, Jefferson School for boys, the University of Virginia, and elsewhere, and since 1909 has been professor of history and social science in the State Normal School, Harrisonburg, Virginia; is a member of the Phi Beta Kappa, Delta Sigma Rho, the Raven Society, etc. He has published: "Paul, The Herald of the cross," 1901; "The Twelve Apostles," 9105; "The German Element of the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia," 1907, (second edition in preparation); "The Political Opinions of Thomas Jefferson," 1907; "Sidney Lanier at Rockingham Springs," 1912; "A History of Rockingham County, Virginia," 1912; "How to Teach American History," 1914. He has edited and complies: "History of Bridgewater College," 1905; "The Raven Book," 1905. He is the author of magazine articles, bulletins, etc. — "Samuel M. Janney" and "Joseph Salyards" (both in "Library of Southern Literature," 1908-1909); "Two Elements of a Literary Atmosphere, and Virginia's Title to Them," 1901; "The Virginia Literary Museum," 1902; "The Progress and Character of Democracy," 1908; "Poe's Student Days at the University of Virginia," 1909; "One of John Brown's Men," 1909; "The Poetical Tastes of Thomas Jefferson," 1910; "Joseph Funk, Father of Song in Northern Virginia," 1911; "Some Southern Poets," twelve papers, 1912; "Scientific Book-Marketing," 1913; "Leisure for Farm Women," 1913; "Best things from Best Communities," 1913; "The Shenandoah Valley in History and Literature," 1915. He wrote the very popular song, "Old Virginia," about 1909.

[Pages 348-349]
      Boot, Edward Gilliam, son of Edwin G. Booth, and Sally Tanner Jones, his wife, was born in Nottoway county, Virginia, February 27, 1791. He attended Wingfield Academy, Dinwiddie county, Virginia, and was prepared for college by David Comfort, a Princeton graduate; attended Hampden-Sidney College two years, and afterward spent part of a session at the University of Virginia. He then went to the University of Pennsylvania, and in 1861 graduated Doctor of Medicine; enlisted on the Confederate army, Nottoway cavalry, and was at the battle of Big Bethel; commissioned assistant surgeon in the Confederate navy and was one month on the gunboat Beaufort, commanded by Lieutenant William Harwar Parker. Ordered to report to Admiral Buchanan at Mobile; he was surgeon on the Selma, and participated in the battle of Mobile Bay, in which after a fierce fight, against great odds, the Confederate fleet was defeated, and Dr. Booth, with Admiral Buchanan and other officers, taken prisoners. They were taken to Pensacola and treated very kindly. Dr. Booth was released on parole. He was exchanged and reported to Commodore Farrand, and not long after this the war came to a conclusion. After the war he paid a visit to Europe, and on his return resided at his old home, "Shenstone," in Nottoway county, removing about 1886 to "Carter's Grove," James City county. Dr. Booth's youngest brother A. J. Booth, was killed at Mount Jackson, while a member of the Third Virginia Cavalry. Dr. Booth married, in 1870, Clara H. Thomson, of Jefferson county, West Virginia, whose brother, the young and gallant Major James W. Thomson, of Stuart's Lighthorse Artillery, was killed near Farmville, Virginia, the day before the surrender at Appomattox.

[Page 349]
      Stanton, Richard Henry, born in Alexandria, Virginia, September 9, 1912. He received an academic education, studied law, was admitted to the bar, and practiced in Maysville, Kentucky. Elected to congress as a Democrat, he served from December 3, 1855; was presidential elector on the Buchanan ticket in 1856; state attorney for his judicial district in 1858; a delegate to the national Democratic convention in 1868; and district judge in 1868-74. He edited the "Maysville Monitor" and the "Maysville Express," and published a "Code of Practice" in civil and criminal cases in Kentucky, "Practical Treatises for Justice of the Peace, etc., of Kentucky," and a "Practical Manual for Executors, etc., in Kentucky."

[Page 349]
      Lamb, James Christian, son of Lycurgus Anthony Lamb, of "Rural Shades," Charles City county, Virginia, and Anne Elizabeth Christian, daughter of Rev. James Hendricks Christian, was born at his father's residence, November 18, 1853. He was educated at the county schools, and after an experience in business, studied law at the University of Virginia in 1876-77, and practiced in Richmond with great success. He was editor of the "Law Journal" and after the death of Judge Fitzhugh was elected judge of the chancery court of the city of Richmond. He was well read in English literature and wrote beautiful verse and possessed all the character of an able and discriminating judge. He died in office, cut off in the prime of his life. He was a younger brother of Hon. John Lamb (q. v.).

[Pages 349-350]
      Shackelford, George Scott, born at Warrenton, Fauquier county, Virginia, December 12, 1856, son of Benjamin Howard Shackelford, a lawyer at the Warrenton bar, and during the war between the states captain of the "Warrenton Rifles." Among the early instructors of Mr. Shackelford were William R. Abbott, Chapman Maupin and Horace W. Jones. From his fifteenth to his nineteenth year he was employed in a bank, and while thus engaged he pursued a course of extended reading. From 1876 to 1878 he was a student in the law school of the University of Virginia, conducted by John B. Minor. Fully prepared for professional work, in 1881 he began the practice of law at Orange Court House, Virginia. An important part of his practice was his legal representation of the Southern Railroad Company, whose counsel he was for many years. Mr. Shackelford was in 1888 chosen a member of the house of delegates, succeeding himself as the Orange county representative, and in 1900 was elected to the state senate. later he was elected Judge of the judicial circuit, comprising the counties of Culpeper, Orange, Louisa and Goochland. He married, July 1, 1885, Virginia Randolph, and has children.

[Page 350]
      Wheat, Lewis, born in Rockingham county, Virginia, May 20, 1856, son of Rev. James C. Wheat, D. D., Protestant Episcopal minister of Washington, D. C., and Elizabeth R. Lewis, his wife. He received excellent training from his father, a fine classical scholar and experienced teacher, and early became a teacher himself. For a time he was clerk in a bookstore, and he followed other pursuits. At the age of twenty-one he began medical studies under Dr. William P. McGuire, of Winchester, and in 1881 graduated in medicine at the University of Virginia. He engaged in practice in Richmond, and took surgery as a specialty. He was a member of the board of visitors of the Richmond Medical College, and surgeon of the First Virginia Cavalry Regiment. He married Ella W. Rutherford, of Richmond.

[Page 350]
      Stoddert, William, born in 1824, son of Dr. Thomas Ewell, of Prince William county, Virginia, and Elizabeth Stoddert, his wife, daughter of Hon. Benjamin Stoddert, of Maryland, and Rebecca Loundes, his wife. In early manhood he legally adopted his mother's name, Stoddert, instead of the paternal name, Ewell. He graduated from Hampden-Sidney College, and the Union Theological Seminary of Virginia. He was ordained in the Roman Catholic ministry, and became a most successful preacher, popular lecturer and teacher in Tennessee. He received the degree of Doctor of Divinity from William and Mary College in 1876. He was brother of Gen. Richard S. Ewell, of the Confederate army.

[Page 350]
      Grinnan, Andrew Glassell, born at Fredericksburg, Virginia, August 14, 1827, son of Daniel Grinnan, Jr., and his second wife, Helen Buchan Gassell. He graduated in medicine at the University of Pennsylvania in 1848; practiced his profession at Madison Court House, Virginia, until 1859, then removing to his estate "Brampton," near Rapidan Station, Madison county, Virginia. He married, at "Eagle's Point," Gloucester county, Virginia, June 2, 1859, Georgia Scriven, daughter of John Randolph Bryan and Elizabeth Tucker (Coalter) Bryan, and a niece of John Randolph, of Roanoke. He was very fond of history and literature, and contributed many valuable articles to the newspapers and magazines, being well informed regarding the antiquities of the state. He died May 9, 1902. His son, Daniel Grinnan, is judge of the chancery court of Richmond.

[Pages 350-351]
      Glassell, William Thornton, born at "Fleetwood," Culpeper county, Virginia, January 15, 1831, son of Andrew Glassell and Susanna Thompson Thornton, his wife. In 1848 he entered the United States navy as a midshipman, was made passed midshipman, in 1858; master, September 15, 1855; and the next day promoted to lieutenant. As midshipman he was on the United States ship St. Lawrence when it was sent to the World's Fair at London, where he made the acquaintance of Lord Byron's widow, who entertained him at her home. As lieutenant, he was on duty with Commodore Stribling's fleet in the Chinese seas when the civil war broke out. When the fleet returned to Boston, Lieutenant Glassell, with other officers who would not take the oath of allegiance to the United States, was imprisoned at Fort Warren for about eight months, and there exchanged, as a prisoner of war, on the James river, Virginia. He was commissioned lieutenant in the Confederate States navy, to date from August 5, 1862, the time of his arrest and imprisonment, and was ordered to the Chicora, at Charleston, South Carolina, as deck officer in command of the first division. He fired the first shot, January 30, 1863, at the Keystone State, in the attack on the United States fleet, which killed twenty-one men and wounded fifteen, and obliged Captain Le Roy to haul down his colors, but which he subsequently re-hoisted, and sailed away. At Wilmington, North Carolina, lieutenant Glassell equipped the ironclad North Carolina. He was then sent to Charleston, South Carolina, to aid in the defense of that city, and to that end he devised and constructed the torpedo boat David, and on October 5, 1863, personally exploded his torpedo under the finest ship of the United States navy, New Ironsides, injuring her so greatly that for a time she was useless. Lieutenant Glassell's David was so badly damaged that her crew abandoned her, and he himself was picked up out of the water by the enemy and confined successively in Forts Warren and Lafayette. After twelve months' imprisonment, he was exchanged, late in 1864. He was commissioned commander in the Confederate States navy, to date from the exploit against the New Ironsides. He was sent to the James river, and given command of the ironclad Fredericksburg, which he blew up at the time Richmond was evacuated, to keep her from falling into the hands of the enemy. He subsequently served with the artillery under Gen. Johnston, and surrendered with him and his army. He was offered high rank in the Chilian and Peruvian navies, but declined to leave America. In 1866 he removed to California, and died at Los Angeles, in that state, in 1876.

[Page 351]
      Patton, George Smith, born at Fredericksburg, Virginia, June 26, 1833, son of Hon. John Mercer Patton, (q. v.), statesman and jurist. He graduated at the Virginia Military Institute, July 4, 1852; studied law, while engaged as a teacher; and on being admitted to the bar, engaged in practice at Charleston, Virginia. In April, 1861, he was commissioned captain in the Confederate States army, and was in time promoted to major and lieutenant-colonel, Twenty-second Virginia Infantry Regiment. At the battle of Scary, in July, 1861, whole leading his regiment, he was wounded in the shoulder, was afterwards taken prisoner, and was subsequently exchanged. In 1863 he was elected colonel of his regiment. He was wounded at the battle of Giles Court House, in 1864; and in the battle of Winchester, in the same year, he was killed while leading his brigade into action. Gen. Jubal A. Early said of him: "He was a most gallant and efficient officer, and his loss was deeply felt." He married, September 8, 1855, Susan Thornton Glassell, daughter of Andrew Glassell and Susanna Thompson Thornton, his wife.

[Page 352]
      Page, Thomas Nelson, born at "Oakland," in Hanover county, Virginia, April 23, 1853, son of Major John Page, a distinguished graduate of the University of Virginia, and Elizabeth Burwell Nelson, his wife. Both parents were grandchildren of Governor Thomas Nelson, signer of the Declaration of Independence, and commander of the Virginia forces at Yorktown, in 1781. His father was also a grandson of Governor John Page of "Rosewell," the lifelong friend of Thomas Jefferson, between whom and Mr. Jefferson as school boys the well known letters found in the lives of Jefferson passed. The old Page and Nelson homestead in the upper end of Hanover county was a part of the original grant to General Nelson within a few miles of the site of General Nelson's home, so charmingly described in the travels of the Marquis De Chastellux. Mr. Page's early education was obtained at home, his father being an ardent lover of the classics, and devoted to the Latin, Greek and English literatures. Perhaps the most striking part of his life was that spent in his old home as a child during the civil war. This period he has repeatedly described in his stories, which are well known. the absence of his father and uncle from home, and the consequent responsibility, made his life and that of other boys within the track of the armies and the sound of the guns of the bloodiest campaigns of the civil warm strangely exciting. After the war he attended a school five miles from home, taught by his kinsman, the late Dr. Charles L. C. Minor. From this he entered Washington, while it was under the presidency of General Robert E. Lee. Here he was a student several years, living at the home of his uncle by marriage, the Rev. Dr. William N. Pendleton, who had been Gen. Lee's chief of artillery. After leaving Washington and Lee University, he returned home, where he spent a year, and subsequently entered the University of Virginia as a law student, being graduated in 1874 on a special examination given him because of illness, with the degree of Bachelor of Law. He settled in Richmond, Virginia, and began the practice of his profession, which he later abandoned to give himself wholly to literary work. While yet a member of the Richmond bar, he published some of his short stories, which at once established his reputation as a writer. In addition to these, which were under the title "In Old Virginia," he has published numerous other works, among the most popular of which are: "The Old South," "Two Little Confederates," "Marse Chan," and "Robert E. Lee, the Southerner." He settled later in Washington and in 1913 he was appointed by President Wilson minister to Italy. In 1887 he married (first) Anne Sedden Bruce, daughter of Charles Bruce, Esq., of "Staunton Hill," Charlotte county, Virginia; he married (second) in 1893, Mrs. Florence Lathrop Field, of Chicago, a great-granddaughter of Governor James Barbour.

[Pages 352-353]
      Downing, Henry Hawkins, born in Fauquier county, Virginia, April 20, 1853, son of John H. Downing and Fannie Scott, his wife. He received a practical and thorough training in farm life. He received his classical education partly from private tutors, and partly at Bethel Academy. In 1874 he matriculated at the University of Virginia and studied law under John B. Minor. He graduated in 1876, and not long afterwards began to practice his profession at Front Royal, Virginia. He was elected commonwealth's attorney in 1879 for Warren county, and has continued in the practice of law uninterruptedly up to the present time. He has been identified with a great deal of very important litigation, and has acted as counsel for the Norfolk & Western Railroad Company, and the Southern Railroad Company. He was chosen to represent his county in the house of delegates three terms, and took an active part in the counsels of that body. He has been a member of the board of visitors of the University of Virginia since 1898, and he and his colleagues have introduced many innovations which have improved the institution in many respects. he is a Mason of high rank. Mr. Downing married (first) Nannie T. Byrne, daughter of John S. Byrne, clerk of Fauquier county circuit thirty-one years; he married (second) Caroline E. Long, daughter of Michael and Susan Long.

[Page 353]
      Couper, William, born at Norfolk, Virginia, September 20, 1853. He received an academical education in his native city, and he made his professional preparation as a sculptor at Cooper Institute, New York. In 1874 he went to Munich, and entered the Academy of Fine Arts and the Royal College of Surgery. Ill health obliged him to go to Italy, where he was given by Thomas Ball, the sculptor, a place in his studio, and with whom he worked some years. While in Florence, Mr. Couper's time was devoted principally to portraiture and works of an ideal nature, among the latter being "Mother Love;" "Psyche;" "Coming Spring;" "Falconer," a portrait statue of Governor Routt (Denver, Col.); and "Beauty's Wreath for Valor's Brow." Returning to the United States in 1897, Mr. Couper established himself in New York. His works since the opening of his studio in that city include an allegorical relief, "Repose," in bronze; heroic statue, "Moses," in marble, in the cemetery in Norfolk, Virginia; "Angel of the Resurrection," marble, in Chicago; heroic portrait bust, President McKinley; "Te Deum laudamus," and portraits of William Hubble, Hunter McGuire, and Henry Maurer. Among his latest creations are a memorial to Colonel Hawkins, erected in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and "John Smith," at Jamestown, Virginia.

[Pages 353-354]
      Blackwell, Robert Emory, born at Warrenton, Virginia, November 14, 1854, son of Rev. John Davenport Blackwell and Julia Anna Butts, his wife. The father was a minister in the Methodist Episcopal Church South, who held charges in important southern cities, and served as chaplain in the Confederate army. Joseph Blackwell, the founder of the family in Virginia, was a native of England, and when he came to this country made his home in Northumberland county. One of his descendants, also named Joseph, received the first land grant ever recorded in Fauquier county, and later served as a major in the revolutionary war; he was the great-grandfather of the subject of this sketch. The early years of Mr. Blackwell were for the most part spent in the country. His education was commenced at Bethel Academy, Fauquier county, Virginia, from whence he went to Randolph-Macon College, and there received the degree of Master of Arts in 1874. Two semesters were then spent in study at the University in Leipsic, and he received the honorary degree of Doctor of Laws from Washington and from Wofford College, South Carolina. In 1871 he entered upon his duties as a teacher at Randolph-Macon College, his branches being Latin, German and French. He has been identified with the profession of teaching continuously since that time. In 1899 he was elected vice-president of Randolph-Macon College, and in 1902, president, but retained his professorship. From 1903 to 1905 he served on a commission appointed by the Bishops to prepare a ritual and catechism to be used in common by the Methodist Episcopal church and the Methodist Episcopal Church South. In the field of literature he is well and widely known, and has collaborated with Dr. James A. Harrison in preparing "Easy Lessons in French," and with Dr. W. W. Smith in "Parallel Syntax Chart of Latin, Greek, English, German and French." While a student at college, Dr. Blackwell distinguished himself as a pitcher, and was captain of the baseball team. His fondness for outdoor sports and recreations has never deserted him, and he still spends considerable time in hunting, bicycling, tennis, golf, etc. His home is at Ashland, Virginia. Dr. Blackwell married, August 28, 1877, Theela Epia Duncan, daughter of Dr. James A. Duncan, the distinguished president of Randolph-Macon College; they have one child.