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[Pages 374-375]
      Alderman, Edwin Anderson, born at Wilmington, North Carolina, May 15, 1861, son of James Alderman and Susan Corbett, his wife; his ancestors were Scotch and English, who came to America about 1740. His early education was obtained in the schools of his native place. From his youth he was a diligent reader, and given to self-imposed study. At the age of fifteen he entered Bethel (Virginia) Military Academy, where he remained two terms; and subsequently attended the University of North Carolina, where he graduated in 1882, with the degree of Bachelor of Philosophy. He at once entered upon an active career as a teacher. He was superintendent of the city schools of Goldsboro, North Carolina, from 1885 to 1889. From 1889 to 1892 he was state institute instructor, and in that capacity was a prime factor in the inauguration of new and systematic methods of popular education. He was professor of history at the North Carolina State Normal and Industrial College at Greensboro, 1892-93; and professor of pedagogy in his alma mater, the University of Virginia of North Carolina, from 1893 to 1896. In the latter year he was called to the presidency of the institution, and served until 1900, when he resigned to become president of Tulane (Louisiana) University. His administration was peculiarly successful — the faculty was greatly strengthened, and the curriculum revised and modernized; the material improvements were notable, including the erection of a fine library building and considerable additions to the income of the university. In 1904 Professor Alderman accepted the presidency of the University of Virginia, and entered upon a most successful work, marked by large additions to the endowment fund of the institution and of appropriations by the legislature, and with large increase in number of students. He is a member of the National Educational Association, of which he was vice-president for two years; and of the Southern Education Board, and its southwestern director He is author of "A School History of North Carolina," "Life of William Hooper, Signer of the Declaration of Independence," and "Life of J. L. M. Curry;" and editor-in-chief of "The Library of Southern Literature." He is an accomplished public speaker, and has delivered various notable addresses. He has received the degree of Doctor of Laws from various universities — Johns Hopkins, Yale, Columbia, Tulane, Sewanee and North Carolina.

[Page 375]
      James, Edward Wilson, son of John James, a prominent merchant of Norfolk and Mary Moseley Hunter, his wife, was born in Norfolk, Virginia, shortly before the civil war. He was descended from early settlers in Virginia, among whom may be mentioned John James, who patented lands in Lower Norfolk county in 1680-1682; Henry Woodhouse, son of Henry Woodhouse, governor of the Bermuda Islands, a son of Sir Henry Woodhouse and Anne Bacon, half-sister of Sir Francis Bacon; James Wilson, Francis Mason and James Dauge (now rendered Dozier), the last a French Huguenot. He was educated at Roanoke College in 1866-1868, and travelled in England and France. He was a member of the Phi Beta Kappa Society of William and Mary College, a member of the executive committee of the Virginia Historical Society, a member of the American Historical Association and of the American Geographic Society. He was a director in the Norfolk Gas Light Company, and a director of the Norfolk City Library. He was devoted to history and literature, and founded the "Lower Norfolk County Antiquary," a small magazine which passed through five volumes and proved a treasure house of information regarding the early days of that section of the state. By his will he left to the Confederate Soldiers' Home at Richmond and to the University of Virginia the bulk of his fortune, amounting to $300,000. He was never married. He died in Norfolk, Virginia, October 11, 1906.

[Pages 375-376]
      Smith, Francis Lee, born in Fauquier county, Virginia, November 25, 1808, son of Hon. John Adams Washington Smith and Maria Love Hawkins, his wife, daughter of Captain John Hawkins, adjutant to Col. Thomas Marshall in the revolution. He studied law under Judge Tucker, of Winchester, practiced for some years, and then removed to Louisville, Kentucky. In 1842 he returned to Virginia and settled in Alexandria; at various times was a member of the legislature and of the city council and city attorney. He opposed secession, but cast his fortunes with his state when she left the Union. He married Sarah Gosnell Vowell, daughter of John C. Vowell, of Alexandria. He died May 10, 1877.

[Page 376]
      Mason, Emily Virginia, daughter of Gen. Thomson Mason, was born in 1815. During the civil war she served as military hospital nurse. At the close of the war in 1865 she collected and arranged "Southern Poems of the War." For fifteen years she lived in Paris, where her charm of manner and intellectual attainments made her the leader of the American circle. She wrote a life of Gen. Lee.

[Page 376]
      Washington, Col. John Augustine, born at "Blakeley," Jefferson county, Virginia, May 3, 1820, son of John Augustine Washington and Jane Charlotte Blackburn, his wife, daughter of Captain Richard Scott and Judith (Ball) Blackburn. He inherited the "Mount Vernon" estate by will of his great uncle, Hon. Bushrod Washington, and resided there until he sold it to the Mount Vernon Ladies' Association in 1860, and removed to "Waveland," Fauquier county, He entered the Confederate army as aide-de-camp to Gen. Robert E. Lee, with the rank of lieutenant-colonel, and was killed September 13, 1861, at Cheat Mountain, while scouting. He married, in 1842, Eleanor Love Selden.

[Page 376]
      Galt, Alexander, born at Norfolk, Virginia, June 26, 1827, son of Alexander Galt, and grandson of James Galt, superintendent of the Eastern State Hospital at Williamsburg. He received his literary education in his native city. He early developed a taste and aptitude for art, and went to Italy to prepare as a sculptor, and made rapid progress as a sculptor, and made rapid progress, soon opening his own studio in Florence, where much of his work was performed. He made frequent visits home, and in 1854, while in Virginia, was commissioned by the legislature to make a statue of Thomas Jefferson for the University of Virginia. His creation, carved in his studio in Florence, was of surpassing beauty and dignity, and was placed in the rotunda of the library of the university shortly before the beginning of the civil war. At the time of the great fire of October 27, 1895, the statue was saved by being carried out by a number of the pioneers and students, and was restored to its proper place in the new library building. Mr. Galt returned home about the time the war began and took up his residence in Richmond, where he opened a studio. He was a hearty supporter of the Confederacy and he rendered valuable aid to the new government in the engineering department. He came to an untimely end, dying at the early age of thirty-six years, from smallpox contracted on a visit to Gen. "Stonewall" Jackson's camp to prepare for making a statue of that great commander. Among his best known works, other than that of Thomas Jefferson, previously mentioned, is a bust of Chief Justice Rutledge, in the United States supreme court room in Washington City; and the ideal figures of "The Spirit of the South," "Hope," "Aurora," "Sappho," "Psyche" and "Bacchante."

[Page 377]
      Jones, John William, born at Louisa Court House, in 1836, and graduated from the University of Virginia in 1858, He afterwards entered the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, was ordained in the Baptist ministry in 1860, and soon appointed a missionary to China, but the political disturbances of 1860 delayed him, and finally prevented his departure. When Virginia seceded, he enlisted as a private in Col. A. P. Hill's Thirteenth Virginia Regiment, within a year became chaplain, and in November, 1863, was made missionary chaplain to Hill's corps. He was with the troops from 1861, at Harper's Ferry, to Appomattox, in 1865, sharing the hardships of the men in the ranks and ministering to them on the field and in hospital. He was a leading figure in the great revivals in the army, received the religious professions of thousands of Lee's soldiers, and baptized more than four hundred soldiers. After the war, he was for several years pastor at Lexington, Virginia, and one of the chaplains of Washington College, under the superintendency of Gen. Lee, also laboring in the Virginia Military Institute. He was afterwards agent for the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, and occupied other positions involving constant teaching and preaching. He made much reputation as a writer. As secretary of the Southern Historical Society (1876-1887) he edited many valuable papers and procured a great mass of historical data. He published "Personal Reminiscences of Gen. R. E. Lee," "Christ in the Camp," "Morale of the Confederate Army," "Army of Northern Virginia Memorial Volume," "Memorial Volume of Jefferson Davis," and "/school History of the United States." Washington and Lee University conferred upon him the degree of Doctor of Divinity.

[Page 377]
      Garrett, Van Franklin, born in Williamsburg, Virginia, July 31, 1846, son of Dr. Robert Major Garrett, former mayor of Williamsburg and superintendent of the Eastern State Hospital, and Susan Comfort Winder, his wife. He attended a private school and academy in his native place, and then entered the Virginia Military Institute, and with the cadets of that institution took part in the battle of Newmarket, and afterwards serving in Thompson's flying artillery until the end of the war. When peace was restored, he became a medical student at the University of Virginia, and afterwards at Bellevue Hospital College, New York, where he graduated in 1868. He passed the following year as a teacher in Pulaski, Tennessee, then returned home, and practiced his profession and cultivated his farm until 1888. In that year, at the reorganization of William and Mary College, he was elected professor of natural science. Later his chair was divided and he now fills the chair of chemistry. He received the honorary degree of Master of Arts from William and Mary College in 1872. He was for several terms a member of the Williamsburg council, and a vestryman and warden of Bruton Episcopal church. He married, in 1896, Harriet Guion Nicholls, daughter of Governor Francis T. Nicholls, of Louisiana.

[Pages 377-378]
      Hall, John Leslie, born in Richmond, Virginia, March 2, 1856, son of Jacob Hall, Jr., and Emily Glentworth Moore, his wife. His paternal ancestor, Jacob Hall, came from England about 1690 and settled in Pennsylvania, holding lands under William Penn. His maternal ancestor, John Moore, came from London, England, in 1680, and settled in Charleston, South Carolina. J. Leslie Hall attended the University of Virginia School at Richmond and Randolph-Macon College, He became an employee in his father's store. In 1881 he began teaching, and until 1885 taught in city and country schools. From 1885 until 1888 he was a student at Johns Hopkins University, there making a specialty of English and German languages and history, graduating Doctor of Philosophy. In May, 1888, on the reorganization of William and Mary College, he was elected professor of English and general history, a chair which he made one of the most famous in the south. Since 1907 he has been dean of the faculty. He is the author of a "Translation of Beowulf" (1892), pronounced "the best thing yet done in English;" "Old English Idyls (1899); "Judith Phoenix and other Anglo-Saxon Poems" (1902); joint editor of Harrison and Hall's "Anglo-Saxon reader" (1907); "Half Hours in Southern History," and a contributor of literary reviews to several publications. In politics he is a Democrat, and in religion an Episcopalian serving for several years as vestryman of Bruton parish, Williamsburg. He is a member of the Phi Beta Kappa, and for years was secretary of Alpha chapter, William and Mary College. He married, April 30, 1889, Margaret Fenwick Farland, of Tappahannock county, Virginia.

[Page 378]
      Moore, Robert Walton, born at Fairfax, Fairfax county, Virginia, February 26, 2859, son of Thomas Moore, of Virginia, and Hannah Morris Moore, of New York, his wife. He is a descendant on the paternal side of many old Virginia families, including the Lindsays, and on the maternal side of a family distinguished all along the line for more than three centuries, including among others Lewis Morris, who was an eminent New York statesman, lawyer and judge, and signer of the declaration of Independence. He was a student in the village school sin Fairfax, the Episcopal high school near Alexandria, and the University of Virginia. He first taught school and afterwards practiced law, first with his father as partner, and then with Mr. Keith, under the firm name of Moore & Keith. Later the firm name became Moore, Barbour & Keith. The firm has an extensive business and represents several important railroad and steamship lines before the interstate commerce commission and the Federal courts, maintaining an office in Washington City, as well as in Fairfax, Virginia. In 1887 he was state senator, as a Democrat, from the fourteenth senatorial district and served for four years. In 1892 he was a presidential elector in the Cleveland-Harrison campaign; in 1896 his name was urged on the Democratic convention at Alexandria for nomination to the United States house of representatives; in 1898 he was asked to be a candidate for the United States senate, but declined. In 1901, when the constitutional convention of the state for changing the constitution was called to meet in Richmond, Mr. Moore was unanimously elected as a representative, served as chairman of the committee in the legislative department, and member of the finance and revision committees, and was an active factor in the securing of better highways for Virginia, and in extending the operations of the common schools. He is an author of note and an eloquent and forceful speaker.

[Page 379]
      Willcox, Thomas Hamlin, born in Amherst county, Virginia, October 4, 1859, son of Captain Thomas W. Willcox and Martha A. R. Claiborne, his wife. He attended the schools of Charles City county, and the Virginia Polytechnic Institute, from which he graduated in 1877. His first employment was as deputy in the clerk's office in Charles City county, and he afterwards served in a similar capacity in Norfolk. In 1884 he began the practice of law, being highly successful therein. He was elected commonwealth's attorney in 1886, reëlected for three successive terms, and in 1894 was elected judge of the corporation court, but resigned after one years' ser vice in order to devote his entire time to his profession — law. He represents large business interests, and is regarded as one of the most successful lawyers in the state. Mr. Willcox married, October 14, 1885, Mary Cary Ambler.

[Page 379]
      Byrd, Richard Evelyn, born at Austin, Texas, August 13, 1860, son of Colonel William Byrd and Jennie Rivers, his wife. His family is the ancient Virginia one of Westover, and in the war between the states, Colonel William Byrd was adjutant-general of Texas. At the close of the war, he made his home in Winchester, Virginia, and practiced law. /Richard Evelyn Byrd obtained his preparatory training in the Shenandoah Valley Academy, and then entered the University of Virginia. After a classical course he studied law at the University of Maryland, at Baltimore, and graduated in 1882. He practiced at the Winchester bar, and was elected commonwealth attorney of Frederick county, and was also commissioner of accounts for the circuit court of Frederick county, master commissioner in chancery, and special examiner of records for Frederick, Clarke, Warren, Page and Shenandoah counties, and for the city of Winchester. He was state committeeman of the Democrat party, and served in the legislature, where his brilliant talents made him speaker of the house of delegates. For the last few years he has practiced law in Richmond. He is a deep student and a learned scholar and is held in general high regard. Mr. Byrd married, September 15, 1886, Elinor Bolling Flood, sister of Hon. H. D. Flood.

[Pages 379-380]
      Braxton, Allen Caperton, born at Union, Monroe county, West Virginia, February 6, 1862, son of Dr. Tomlin Braxton and Mary Caperton, his wife, of King William county, Virginia, and a grandson of the Hon. Allen T. Caperton, United States senator from West Virginia; a descendant of George Braxton, Esq., who settled at Chericoke, King William county, in 1690. His education began with private instruction at his own home, after which he was a student at Pampatike Academy. At the age of sixteen years he commenced to be self-supporting as a teacher in the family of Judge Patton, of the supreme court of West Virginia. He also worked on a railroad for a time, and then became a civil engineer and bookkeeper. He then studied law and was admitted to practice at Staunton in 1883, and two years later was elected commonwealth's attorney and city attorney of Staunton, two successive terms, 1885-1889. In 1901 he was elected to the Virginia constitutional convention, was chairman of the committee on corporations, and member of the judiciary and final revision committees. He particularly distinguished himself for the ability which he displayed. Among the efforts of his pen may be mentioned: "The Fifteenth Amendment — An Account of its Enactment;" "The Legitimate Functions and Powers of Constitutional Conventions;" and an article on the meaning, force and effect of "The Article of Corporations in the Constitution of 1902."

[Page 380]
      Denny, George Hutcheson, born at Hanover Court House, Virginia, December 3, 1870, son of Rev. George H. Denny and Charlotte M. Wright, his wife. He attended school in Amelia county, Virginia, where his father resided, and when seventeen years of age matriculated at Hampden-Sidney College, and graduated in 1892 Bachelor of Arts and the following year as Master of Arts. For four sessions he was an assistant in Pantops Academy, Albemarle county, Virginia, and in 1896 was elected to a full professorship in Latin at Hampden-Sidney College. In 1899 the chair of Latin in Washington and Lee University became vacant and Mr. Denny was elected thereto. Upon the death of the university's honored president, William L. Wilson, the trustees of the university chose Mr. Denny as his successor. Later he was made president of the University of Alabama, a position which he now holds. His success as executive has been marked, and to he rendered the most devoted and high-minded service. He has published "The Subjunctive Sequence after Adjective and Substantive Predicates and Phrases," a clear and learned exposition of that difficult grammatical form, and five years afterward prepared a college edition of "Cicero's Letters." The University of Virginia in 1897 honored President Denny with the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, and in 1902 Furman University, South Carolina, made him Doctor of Laws. He married, June 1, 1899, Janie Junkin Strickler, daughter of Rev. Givens B. Strickler, D. D., professor of the Union Theological Seminary, of Richmond, Virginia.

[Page 380]
      Russell, Edward Hutson, born in Petersburg, Virginia, November 26, 1869, son of Warren Russell and Susan Vincent, his wife. He graduated at the Virginia Military Institute, 1891, and took the course in law at Richmond College, but gave himself to educational pursuits. He was principal of the Pulaski school, 1892-94; commandant of the Fishburne Military School at Waynesboro, 1894-96; principal of private school at Glade Spring, 1896-97; superintendent of public schools at Bristol, 1897-1905; member and secretary of state board of school examiners, eastern section of Virginia, 1905-10. In the latter year he entered upon the presidency of the State Normal and Industrial School for Women at Fredericksburg, and in which position he is still serving. He was president of the Virginia State Teacher's Association, 1914; and is a member of the Southern Educational Association, the National Society for the Promotion of Industrial Education, and the Kappa Alpha fraternity. Ge married Lillian Watson Whitehead, of Farmville, Virginia.

[Pages 380-381]
      Bryan, Corbin Braxton, born at Eagle Point, the home of his father, in Gloucester county, in that state, April 17, 1852, son of John Randolph Bryan, Esq., and Elizabeth Tucker Coalter, his wife. He was educated in the schools of Professor James M. Garnett, and W. C. N. Carl in Charlottesville, Virginia; at Norwood Academy, and at the school of Professor Charles I. Kemper in Louisa county, Virginia. In 1871 he entered the department of engineers in the University of Virginia. Determining while there to enter the ministry, after two years more in the university he entered in 1875 the Theological Seminary of the Protestant Episcopal Church near Alexandria, Virginia. There he graduated, and was ordained deacon in June, 1878, by the Right Rev. F. M. Whittle, D. D., bishop of Virginia, and entered upon the work of the ministry. Since that time he has been actively engaged in the ministry, and has had the following charges: July, 1878-July, 1881, Lynnhaven parish, Princess Anne county, Virginia; July, 1881-April, 1891, Christ Church, Millwood, Clarke county, Virginia; April, 1891-November, 1983, Epiphany Church, Danville, Virginia; and St. John's Church, Hampton, Virginia. He is now rector of Grace Church, Petersburg. Mr. Bryan is fond of literature and is the author of various articles on the history of the state. In 1882, he married Mary Sidney Caldwell Scott, of Lenoir, North Carolina.

[Page 381]
      Ryan, John Franklin, born at the village of Loudoun, county of Loudoun, Virginia, November 9, 1848, son of William T. Ryan. a native of Ireland, a teacher, also engaged in mercantile affairs, and Margaret A. McFarland, his wife, who was a daughter of a Scotch ancestry. He acquired an excellent education in private schools in the vicinity of his home, and later in boarding schools, his studies covering the period of the war between the states and the years immediately following its close. He devoted his attention to farming and grazing, upon arriving at suitable age, and was highly successful. He represented Loudoun in the house of delegates during eleven term, and was one of the leading members, serving for several terms as speaker of the house.