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[Pages 21-23]
      George Walter Stevens. Coming upon the active battlefield of life at the beginning of the period of wonderful national prosperity that followed the unhappy war between the states Mr. Stevens has been a part of that development, and an important factor in its continuance. For fifty years identified with the railway service of the country, he has risen from a lowly to a conspicuous place among the veteran railroad men of the nation. Beginning at the age of thirteen years as messenger boy in the office of the station agent of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Company at Utica, Ohio, he rose through merit and loyalty from plane to plane of responsibility, until he reached the president's chair, which he now most capably fills. No favored child of fortune, but the builder of his own fortunes, Mr. Stevens has won every step forward by proving his ability in each position occupied, thereby winning the entire confidence of higher officials through whom promotion must come. His career is not only an example, but an incentive to the American youth, proving as it does the possibilities this country opens to the ambitions, clean living, right-minded, young man.
      George Walter Stevens was born at Utica, Licking United States, Ohio, June 29, 1851, son of James Smith Stevens, a prominent merchant, and his wife, Julia Ann (Penn) Stevens. He is of English ancestry, his paternal forbears settling in Connecticut in the seventeenth century. His maternal ancestors were from Maryland. His early life was spent in Utica, where he attended the public school until thirteen years of age. He then began his long career as a railroad man, a career that now covers half a century of the greatest national progress. On February 1, 1864, he began work in the office of the agent of the Baltimore & Ohio as messenger boy, continuing with that company six years, serving as messenger and agent's clerk and telegraph operator. Those six years were well spent. Not only did they bring well gained information, but valuable experience was gained and a reputation for diligence, carefulness, willingness and trustworthiness firmly established.
      Terminating his connection with the Baltimore & Ohio, he entered the service of the Pittsburgh, Cincinnati & St. Louis Railway, serving as agent, train dispatcher's assistant and train dispatcher, spending three years with this company, and with each year rising in rank and experience. In 1873 he entered the employ of the Wabash, St. Louis & Pacific Railway, continuing with that company and its successors, filling still more and more important positions. For eight years he was train dispatcher, for two years superintendent of the Ohio & Indiana division, for three and a half years superintendent of the Eastern division, and from January 1, 1887, to November 10, 1889, assistant general superintendent. He then transferred his allegiance to the Chesapeake & Ohio Railway Company, accepting the appointment of division superintendent with headquarters at Richmond, Virginia. The years had now added to his strong character qualifications the experience and knowledge necessary to further advancement, which quickly came. On January 1, 1890, he was promoted to the office of general superintendent of the Chesapeake & Ohio, this being followed, July 1, 1891, by his appointment as general manager. Nine years were spent in this position, when again he was called to greater responsibilities. On February 1, 1900, he was elected president of the road. He is also president of the Hocking Valley Railway Company, elected in March, 1910, and of the Chesapeake & Ohio Railway Company, of Indiana, elected July 1, 1910, the latter company being formerly known as the Chicago, Cincinnati & Louisville Railway, the short line between Cincinnati and Chicago.
      Having now reached the highest position a railroad company can bestow, it is interesting to know that this "man from the ranks" has made a forceful, successful commander, repeating in his higher responsibilities the successes of each lower position held. The system he controls is an important one, and with his control directors and patrons are well satisfied. He has built up a large traffic for the system, as he previously built it for division and line by catering to the upbuilding of business of every kind in the territory which the system serves. He is decidedly averse to some of the practice common enough in railway operation, and is old fashioned enough to believe that a railroad can best advance its own interests by loyal service to all the business interests of its territory. This sound business doctrine, loyally worked out by his subordinate officials, has brought prosperity to the road and to its patrons. That a railroad occupies a very intimate relation to the development of the country through which it runs, and that the development of the one means the natural advancement of the other, is well known. Neither the rights nor convenience of the shipper, nor the dividend earning rights of the stockholder are sacrificed to one another, but both are secure by Mr. Stevens' wise, conservative, careful and equitable management. Hence, travel where you will along the lines of the Chesapeake & Ohio system, and you will find im everywhere commended as a public-spirited, progressive executive.
      Happy as are his relations with patron, stockholder and director, he is nowhere more highly respected, honored or loved than by his subordinates of the system. Himself a self-taught man, he has the deepest sympathy with every movement tending to increase the opportunities railroad men may have for self-improvement through good books, study and social intercourse. This interest and sympathy has centered in the railroad Young Men's Christian Association, whose work he has grandly furthered in Richmond and at many other places along the line. Many associations have been formed through his efforts, and through his financial aid many suitable buildings have been equipped. Mr. Stevens takes not only the view of the humanitarian in regard to Young Men's Christian Association work among railroad men. He insists that a comfortable room where railroad employees can gather under proper influence, to read and enjoy social intercourse, will promote not only their interests but the interests of the railways by which they are employed. This is another view of the same doctrine of "community of interest," that he believes should exist between railway and shipper. the Railroad Young Men's Christian Association building at Richmond, erected at an expense of $100,000, is one of the results of President Stevens' help and interest in the welfare of the railroad employee. His principle of co-operation between carrier and shipper, employer and employee, is based upon the soundest business principles, and their application has resulted most happily for the corporations over which President Stevens has authority. In a not less degree, have shippers and employees benefitted; which fact leads to the hope that the gospel he preaches and exemplifies may spread until strikes and lockouts with all their attending misery may forever disappear from our fair land.
      President Stevens is a member of the Westmoreland Commonwealth and Country clubs of Richmond and the Railroad Club of New York and everywhere known he is popular, honored and respected. Able and untiring in business, genial and kindly-hearted, he is the ideal leader of men, and while he stands at the head of his particular branch of activity his career is not finished, but the biographer of the future will chronicle many more years of this useful life.
      Mr. Stevens married, December 27, 1881, Virginia, daughter of James S. Wilson, of Logansport, Indiana. Children: Helen, James Paul, Cecil Wade, George Wilson. The family home is at Richmond, Virginia. Mrs. Stevens died on August 28, 1904.

[Pages 23-25]
      Rev. Landon Randolph Mason. "Gunston Hall," on the bank of the Potomac, the ancestral home of this branch of the Masons of Virginia, was built by George Mason, the statesman whom Thomas Jefferson declared "a man of expansive mind, profound judgment, urgent in argument, learned in the lore of our former constitution, and earnest for the republican change on democratic principles." George Mason, the statesman, was the great-grandfather of Rev. Landon R. Mason, who through him descends from Colonel George Mason, a member of the English Parliament in the reign of Charles I. and an officer in the army of Charles II., who, after the defeat at Worcester in 1617 escaped to Virginia in disguise, losing his estate in England. From Colonel George Mason sprang George Mason, the statesman, born in Doeg's, afterwards Mason's Neck, in Stafford (now Fairfax) county, Virginia, in 1726.
      After the marriage of George Mason, the statesman, to Ann, daughter of Colonel William Eilbeck, of Maryland, he built "Gunston Hall" on the bank of the Potomac river, where he took up his permanent residence. "Gunston Hall" continued in the Mason ownership until After the war, 1861-1865 and there George Mason lived on terms of intimacy with his friend as well as neighbor, George Washington, Truro parish including both Mount Vernon and Gunston Hall. It was Masons pen that drew up the non-importation resolutions which were presented by Washington and unanimously adopted by the Virginia legislature in 1769, one of them pledging the planters to buy no slaves imported After November 1 of that year. Against the assertion of the British Parliament of the right to tax the colonies, Mason wrote a tract entitled "Extracts from the Virginia Charters, with some Remarks upon Them." At a meeting of the people of Fairfax county, Virginia,July 17, 1774, he presented a series of twenty-four resolutions which reviewed the whole ground of controversy, advised a congress of the colonies, and urged the policy of non-intercourse with the Mother Country. The Virginia convention sanctioned these resolutions and on October 20, 1774, they were substantially adopted by the First Continental Congress. In 1775 George Mason was a member of the Virginia Convention, but he declined an election to Congress for family reasons and urged Francis Lightfoot Lee to take his place. He, however, served as a member of the Virginia committee of safety and supported open rupture with England. He was the author of the famous "Declaration of Rights" and the plan of government unanimously accepted by the Virginia convention of 1776. His ability in debate, as well as his liberal spirit, was eminently displayed in the first legislature of Virginia when he was striving for the repeal of all disabling acts and for the legalization of all modes of worship, James Madison pronouncing him the finest debater he had ever known. In 1777 George Mason was chosen to the Continental Congress, but declined to serve. In 1787, however, he sat in the convention called to frame the federal constitution. He took a lading part in the convention debates and supported the election of the president of the United States directly by the people for a term of seven years, with subsequent ineligibility. He spoke with greatest force against that clause of the Constitution which prohibited the abolition of the slave trade until 1808, declaring that slavery was a source of national weakness and demoralization and that it was therefore essential that the general government should have power to prevent its increase. Propositions to make slaves equal to freemen as a basis of representation and to require a property qualification from voters were strongly opposed by him. He considered some of the features of the Constitution, as agreed on in the convention, so dangerous that he refused to sign it and afterward in Virginia opposed its ratification, in this aiding Patrick Henry, the two insisting on a bill of rights and about twenty alterations in the Constitution itself. Some of these amendments were subsequently adopted by Congress and are now a part of the Constitution. He was chosen one of the first United States senators from Virginia, but declined the honor and retired to Gunston Hall, where he spent the remainder of his years, dying there October 7, 1792.
      Dr. Richard Chichester Mason, grandson of George Mason and his wife, Ann (Eilbeck) Mason, was born at Gunston Hall, Fairfax county, Virginia, and died at Alexandria, Virginia, in 1868, aged seventy-five years. He was for many years a physician of Alexandria, a devoted follower of his profession, but retired to live on his estate near Mount Vernon when about forty-five years of age, and in his later years suffered with the other citizens of that place from the ravages of war. Dr. Richard Chichester Mason married Lucy Bolling Randolph, daughter of William Randolph, a member of the noted Virginia family first founded in the colony on Turkey Island. (See record in this work). Dr. Mason and his wife were the parents of sixteen children, of whom four are living at this time: Pinckney, a teacher of Washington, District of Columbia; John Stevens, a farmer of Fauquier county, Virginia; Eva, married a Mr. Heth, deceased, and resides in Washington, District of Columbia, and Landon Randolph, of whom further.
      Rev. Landon Randolph Mason, son of Dr. Richard Chichester and Lucy Bolling (Randolph) Mason, was born in Fairfax county, Virginia January 1, 1842. He lived in this district, engaged in preparatory study, until the beginning of the war between the states, when he left school to enlist in the Seventeenth Virginia Regiment, serving throughout the entire conflict. During the last year of the war he was in Colonel Mosby's command, and one month before the restoration of peace was taken prisoner and was confined in Fort Warren, as a guerilla captive not subject to exchange. For three years after the close of the war he followed the sea as secretary to a high naval officer, and was then for one year a school teacher, in 1870 entering the Theological Seminary at Alexandria, Virginia. He was graduated in divinity in 1873 and soon afterward was regularly ordained a clergyman of the Episcopal church. The first eight years of his ministry were passed in Charlotte county, Virginia, where he served churches at Charlotte Court House, Keesville, and Chase City, as well as superintending active work in mission throughout the county. For a term of nine years he was pastor of the church at Shepherdstown, Jefferson county, West Virginia, whence, after a most successful and agreeable stay, he went to Marietta, Georgia. In this latter place he remained for but six months, in 1891 accepting his present charge in this city, the Grace Church. It is now nearly a quarter of a century since Rev. Mason took his place in the religious life of Richmond, and each passing year has served but to seat him more firmly in the love and regard of his people, and to heighten the universal respect in which he is held in the city. He has devoted himself with zealous consecration to his church and congregation, and has taught in his works the great lesson of service to such good effect that new spirit has entered the church, rousing the congregation to greater activity and renewed efforts in the Great Cause. His personality has pervaded and enveloped all branches of the activity of the church, its organizations have felt his aid and influence, and with but little of its work has he been unidentified. Rev. Mason has been true to the highest ideals of the Christian ministry, has literally spent himself lavishly, and in so doping has won the unquestioning co-operation, the firm support of officers and people of his church.
      He married, at Alexandria, Virginia, in 1875, Lucy Mason Ambler, born in Fauquier county, Virginia, and has had six children: Anna, died aged three years; Randolph Fitzhugh, a teacher and clay modeler of Richmond; John Ambler, an engineer of Baltimore, Maryland; Lucy Randolph, unmarried, connected with the Richmond Young Woman's Christian Association; Landon Randolph (2), a concrete dealer of Portland Oregon; Ida Oswald, married Taylor burke, a banker of Alexandria, Virginia.

[Page 25]
      Edward Everett Holland, M. C. The Holland family has been identified with the county of Nansemond for many generations. Bishop Meade mentions Henry Holland as a vestryman of the Upper parish of Nansemond in 1748 when the erection of a new church at Suffolk was ordered. The progenitors of Edward E. Holland were planters of the county and men of high standing. He is a great-grandson of Job, grandson of Zachariah, and son of Zachariah E. and Ann Scott (Pretlow) Holland.
      Edward Everett Holland was born in Nansemond county, Virginia, February 26, 1861. He was educated in Richmond College and the University of Virginia, obtaining his professional education in the law department of the latter institution. He was admitted to practice at the Virginia bar in 1882 and at once located in Suffolk, Virginia, where he has since continuously practiced his profession in the county, state and federal courts of the district. He has gained distinction in his profession, has been also one of the active business men of his city, and has devoted much of his time and ability to the public service of his city, county, state and nation. Since 1892 he has been president of the Farmers' Bank, of Nansemond, Suffolk; is a director in several local companies, and has other interests of importance.
      A Democrat in politics, his public service began with his election to the chairmanship of the executive committee of the Nansemond County Democratic Committee in 1883. Later he was elected a member of the state executive committee. In 1885 he was elected mayor of Suffolk, serving two years. In 1887 he was elected commonwealth's attorney for Nansemond county, holding that important position continuously through successive re-elections until 1908. As commonwealth's attorney he added to his fame as a lawyer and rendered valuable service in the administration of justice. In 1908 he was elected state senator, serving until called higher by his election as a representative from the Second Virginia Congressional District to the Sixty-second Congress of the United States. He took his seat in that body March 4, 1911, serving his term with acceptability to his constituents, who returned him to the Sixty-third Congress by a large vote. The forgoing shows a continuous public service of thirty years, but does little more than indicate the value of this service. He has met every circumstance and condition of his public career openly and creditably, has given his best thought and action for the public good and sunk personal feelings and desires in the welfare of all. Strong in debate, eloquent in speech and of tireless energy he is one of the useful. reliable member of Congress, respected alike by friend and opponent.
      Mr. Holland is a member of the County, State and American Law associations, trustee of Elon (North Carolina) College; a member of the Masonic Order and also of the Knights of Pythias and Independent Order of Odd Fellows. His college fraternity is Beta Tau Pi, his clubs, Westmoreland, of Richmond, and Virginia Club, of Norfolk, Virginia.
      In religious connection he is a member of the Christian church. He married November 26, 1884, S. Otelia Lee. daughter of Patrick Henry and Joanna (Rawles) Lee, of the ancient and honorable Lee family, of Virginia. She died in 1894, leaving two children: Lee Pretlow, born September 2, 1885, and Elizabeth Otelia Lee.

[Pages 25-26]
      Captain Carter Braxton. Captain Carter Braxton, like so m any of the rising men of Virginia today, is a member of an eminent family of the "Old Dominion," which suffered such reverses in the civil war that its sons have had to begin life anew on the same basis with the humblest members of society. He is descended from George Braxton, a wealthy and honorable settler at Chericoke, King William county, Virginia, in 1690, and of Hon. Carter Braxton, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence. His paternal grandparents were Dr. Corbin and Mary (Tomlin) Braxton, of King William county, and his father, Dr. Tomlin Braxton, who married Mary Caperton, a daughter of the late United States Senator Allen T. Caperton, of West Virginia. Dr. Tomlin Braxton was a graduate of the medical department of the University of Virginia, and was engaged in the practice of medicine all his life.
      Captain Carter Braxton was born March 14, 1870, at Chericoke, King William county, Virginia, and obtained the elementary portion of his education at the private school of Colonel Thomas H. Carter. He later entered the law department of the University of Virginia and took a two years course, 1890 and 1891. In the latter year he was admitted to the Virginia bar and since that time has been continuous practice of his profession at Staunton, Virginia. Mr. Braxton is a Democrat in politics and very active in state affairs. His eldest brother, Allan Caperton Braxton, who has since distinguished himself greatly through his participation in the Virginia Constitutional Convention of 1901 and 1902, held between the years 1885 and 1889 the position of commonwealth attorney for the city of Staunton, and to this same office Carter Braxton was elected in 1898, where he acquitted himself so brilliantly that he has been re-elected at each election since. Upon the outbreak of the war with Spain, Mr. Braxton entered the service as a lieutenant in Company K, Second Regiment of Virginia Volunteers. He did not see active service, however, as his regiment got no farther than Jacksonville, Florida He was appointed staff aide to General Henry T. Douglas and occupied this office until, at the cessation of hostilities he was mustered out of service. After the Spanish war he was elected captain of Company K, Seventieth Virginia Volunteers. Resigned from this and became regimental adjutant, with rank of captain. Besides his many private and public activities, Mr. Braxton finds time to identify himself prominently with a number of fraternal organizations, and is a member of the Protective and Benevolent Order of Elks and the Fraternal Order of Eagles.
      Mr. Braxton married, August 30, 1898, Estanola T. V. Menefee, a daughter of Thomas K. and Lucy (Hammond) Menefee, of Staunton, Virginia, and to them has been born one daughter, Mar Caperton Braxton, at present a student at the Stuart Hall Seminary, Staunton, Virginia.

[Pages 26-27]
      James Nalle Boyd. Boyd, the "fair haired" Scotchman, founded a family that was prominent in Scotch history and one that is now found in all parts of the United States. The ancestors of James Nalle Boyd, of Richmond, Virginia, were of the Glasgow, Scotland, branch. He is a grandson of John H. Boyd, of Virginia, who married Elizabeth Foushee, and died in 1866, advanced in years. He was a veteran of the war of 1812, and located in Richmond after the war.
      (II) John W. Boyd, son of John H. and Elizabeth (Foushee) Boyd, was a dry goods merchant of Baltimore, Maryland, later of Richmond, Virginia. He was a man of promience and one of the oldest of the Richmond Light Infantry Blues. He married Virginia Nalle, a maternal granddaughter of James and Eliza Howlett.
      (III) James Nalle Boyd, son of John W. and Virginia (Nalle) Boyd, was born at Richmond, Virginia, May 28, 1850. His father died when he was about six years of age, and his school years was ended by the war between the states. He was privately taught until 1859 when he became a student at the old Roger Martin Academy, an institution located in Richmond and then numbering about two hundred boys as pupils. He attended this school until 1863 and on April 1, 1864, he enlisted in Company F, Twenty-first Virginia Regiment of Infantry, the Confederate army marching through Amelia county, Virginia, firing his boyish patriotism, he then being not quite fourteen years of age. His military career was a short one, as a few days later at the fierce battle of Sailor's Creek he was taken prisoner. This battle was fought near Farmville, Virginia, and on the confederate side the troops were mostly young men and boys. After the war the lad in years, but a veteran in experience, returned to Richmond and there began a business career that has been a most successful and important one. He worked for four years for Thomas & Oliver, tobacco manufacturers and dealers of, 1866 to 1870, then formed the firm of James N. Boyd & Company and engaged in business for himself as dealers in leaf tobacco, buying and exporting. this firm is still an important factor in the tobacco trade, Mr. Boyd having always retained his interest, and since the incorporation of the firm in 1896 he has been its efficient president. As he increased in business experience and power he extended his activities and has become one of the leading business men of this city. He is president of the Planters National Bank of Richmond, director of the Virginia Trust Company and the Southern Biscuit Works of Richmond, and formerly a director of the Virginia-Carolina Chemical Company of Richmond and the Southern Cotton Oil Company of New York and has unofficial connection with many Richmond and Virginia enterprises. He is well known and highly regarded in business circles, and in club life is equally prominent. while his parents were both members of Centenary Methodist Episcopal Church, of Richmond, Mr. Boyd and his immediate family are members of All Saints Protestant Episcopal Church, of which he is a vestryman.
      Following his early war experience of 1865, Mr. Boyd, in 1870, enlisted in Company F, First Regiment Virginia Militia, serving for four years. He is a member of the First Regiment Association, the Business Men's Club of Richmond, a director of the Police Benevolent Association, member of the Westmoreland and Commonwealth clubs of Richmond, the Country Club of Virginia and Richmond Chamber of Commerce. A Democrat in politics, Mr. Boyd, although deeply interested in all that pertains to the public good, has never accepted public office.
      Mr. Boyd married, January 20, 1877, Mildred Coles, daughter of John R. and Elizabeth (Coles) Edmunds, of English descent. Children: Elizabeth, residing at home; James R. N., a civil engineer, now residing in California; Virginia Nalle, married Asa E. Phillips, a government engineer of Washington, D. C.; Richard E., a buyer of leaf tobacco, residing in Richmond; Mildred Coles, married John C. Hayes, a tobacco manufacturer associated with the American Tobacco Company in Richmond; John w., secretary and treasurer of the James N. Boyd Company, (incorporated) of Richmond; Mary E., residing at home. The family residence is No. 117 West Grace street, Richmond.

[Pages 27-28]
      William David Bowen, M. D., D. O. There are four distinct branches of the family of Bowen to which Dr. William David Bowen, of Richmond, Virginia, belongs, which were founded in America by four brothers who immigrated to this country from their native land, Wales, settling in Pennsylvania, eastern Virginia, Mississippi and Georgia. For one hundred and forty-seven years the Bowen homestead at Long Acre, Washington county, North Carolina, has been in the possession of the family, the old property now owned by Dr. William D. Bowen. At this place was born his great-grandfather, John Bowen, and the homestead has been the birthplace of the succeeding generations of his line, including himself.
      William Bowen, grandfather of Dr. Bowen, passed his entire life in this community, attaining the age of eighty years. He married Rhoda Respess, and had issue: Henry Hunter, of whom further; Langley, William J.; George W., married Mary Oden; Elizabeth, married Horace Oden; Rhoda, married Giles Cutler; Sallie, died unmarried.
      Henry Hunter Bowen, son of William and Rhoda (Respess) Bowen, was born on the homestead at Long acre, Washington county, North Carolina, February 11, 1823, and died on the eighty-fourth anniversary of his birth, 1907. His lifelong calling was that of farmer, and he was a member of the confederate force that fired the first shots on Fort Sumter, serving from that time until the final surrender at Appomattox, once being taken prisoner by the federal forces. He married Ann Latham Boyd, born at Long Acre, Washington county, North Carolina, in 1824, died in 1892, daughter of Zachary Boyd and his wife, Mary (Latham) Boyd, her father a native of that place, a farmer and physician. Children of Zachary and Mary (Latham) Boyd: Winifred, Ann Latham, of previous mention, married Henry Hunter Bowen, Mary, Elizabeth, Zachary, Thomas and Caswell. Henry Hunter Bowen and his wife were the parents of: Cornelia, married Cleophas B. Latham, of Long Acre North Carolina; Henry C., of Wilmington, North Carolina, since the age of seventeen years a minister of the Christian church; Marietta, married John T. Windley, of Long Acre, North Carolina; Dr. William David, of whom further; Olivia, married John C. Oden, of Hunter's Bridge, North Carolina, was the mother of seven children, and died aged forty-eight years; and two who died in infancy.
      Dr. William David Bowen, son of Henry Hunter and Ann Latham (Boyd) Bowen, was born on the family estate now owned by him at Long Acre, Washington county, North Carolina, January 19, 1868. This place was his home until he was a youth of fourteen years and he there attended school, subsequently becoming a student in numerous institutions, including the academy at Catherine's Lake, North Carolina, and Pantego Academy, Beaufort county, North Carolina, after which he was for nine months employed at Kingston, North Carolina, in the capacity of bookkeeper. He afterward returned to school, attending Janesville Academy, in his native state, Hamilton Academy, and Vinehill Academy, then after teaching school in North Carolina for one year, was in the drug business for about two years at Plymouth, North Carolina. He then began the study of medicine in the College of Physicians and Surgeons, of Baltimore, Maryland, whence he was graduated M. D. in the class of 1893. Beginning the practice of his profession in Bath, North Carolina, he there remained until 1900, when he went to Kirksville, Missouri, in June, 1901, completing a course in osteopathy. Until November, 1901, he was a practitioner of Baltimore, from that date until December, 1903, he was located in Washington, North Carolina, and moved to Richmond, December 14, 1903, continuing practice in this city to the present time. Dr. Bowen's office is at No. 1 West Grace street, and here he practices both medicine and osteopathy, a large clientele testifying to his popularity by their patronage. Dr. Bowen is active in the Virginia Osteopathic Society, is a member of the legislative committee and secretary and treasurer, his fellow officers, Dr. H. H. Bell, of Petersburg, Virginia, president, and Dr. M. L. Richardson, of Norfolk, Virginia, vice-president. His fraternal orders are the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the Masons, and he is a communicant of the Christian church. Dr. Bowen holds advanced professional views, which he vigorously supports, and has enjoyed a career of uninterrupted success, retaining ever the confidence of his patrons and the respect of his professional brethren.
      Dr. Bowen married (first) at Wilson, North Carolina, January 19, 1899, Orphah Hackney, born in Wilson, North Carolina, died July 29, 1899; (second) at Washington, District of Columbia, November 54, 1913, Lora Mae Parr, born in Missouri, her family one of Missouri, her grandfather at one time mayor of Indianapolis, Indiana.

[Pages 18-30]
      Hon. Richard Evelyn Byrd. A lineal descendant of the old Virginia Byrd family of Westover, founded by William Byrd, a successful man of business, Richard Evelyn Byrd, inheriting the strong traits of a distinguished ancestry, has in his own right achieved a success in law and public life that places him among the leading men of his state.
      The Byrds of Virginia have produced many notable men. The founder, William Byrd, held conspicuous place in the early annals as receiver general of the royal revenues, an office to which he was appointed December 24, 1687, holding it until his death, December 4, 1704. His son, William (2) Byrd, was born March 28, 1674, died August 26, 1747, and filled more important positions, achieving great distinction. The following is the epitaph upon his tomb at his country seat at Westover in Charles City county. (The ancient lettering only is changed).

[Pages 30-31]
      John Wilkins Brodnax, M. D. Himself eminent in his profession, Dr. Brodnax descends from an illustrious Virginia familoy that numbers in its list of sons statesmen, jurists and many eminent physicians. Among the latter may be mentioned Dr. Robert Walker, a graduate of London, Edinburgh and Paris. General W. H. Brodnax was a statesman of high repute. Judge Henry Power Brodnax was a jurist of high standing. Hon. Merriwether Brodnax was a member of the Virginia legislature, and the list could be indefinitely prolonged. The family is early found in Virginia, being descendants of Major John Brodnax, a refugee cavalier officer who came from Kent, England, and whose will is recorded in York county, Virginia, date 1657.
      Dr. John Wilkins Brodnax was born in Petersburg, Virginia, March 21, 1864, son of Dr. Robert Walker Brodnax, and grandson of Hon. Merriwether Bathurst Brodnax. The latter was born 1799, died 1832; married Ann Eliza Walker.
      Dr. Robert Walker Brodnax, son of Hon. Merriwether Brodnax, was born January 12, 1827, and died June 10, 1886. He studied at the University of Virginia and graduated in medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, and became a most eminent scholar and man of deep learning. He was a man possessed of all the graces of character that make "nature's nobleman," yet withal was most modest and unassuming. He married Cornelia A. Batte, daughter of Alexander Watson Batte daughter of Alexander Watson Batte, born 1780, died 1853, an his wife, Elizabeth Spenser.
      Dr. John W. Brodnax was educated in the public schools, McGuire's University School and the Medical College of Virginia, receiving his degree of Doctor of Medicine in 1891. Prior to taking up the study of medicine he had been a student of art, and all his life an ardent student of anatomy. He pursued art studies under the great sculptor, E. V. Valentine, of Richmond, at the Art Students' league and the Academy of Design, New York His love of anatomy led him to the study of medicine, that profession being his personal preference. For over twenty years he has been a teacher of anatomy, having been professor of that branch at the Richmond Art Club, the University College of Medicine, and associate professor of the Medical College of Virginia. Still art has for him a strong attraction, and one of his favorite relaxations is in using the artistic knowledge and skill he possesses. he has actively engaged in practice in Richmond since his graduation and has a clientele of influential patrons. He is a member of the Upsilon Chapter of Phi Rho Sigma, Richmond Academy of Medicine, the Medical Society of Virginia, Chesterfield County Medical Society, the Southern Medical Association, is first vice-president of the Coroner's Association of Virginia, and secretary of the Anatomical Board of Virginia. In 1892 Dr. Brodnax was appointed coroner of Manchester, an office which he still holds. In politics he is a Democrat, and in religion an Episcopalian.