USA > Washington DC > Eminent and representative men of Virginia and the District of Columbia in the nineteenth century. With a concise historical sketch of Virginia > Part 11
USA > Virginia > Eminent and representative men of Virginia and the District of Columbia in the nineteenth century. With a concise historical sketch of Virginia > Part 11
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John Gray, father of Jonathan H. Gray, was born in Sussex county, N. J., in 1787, a son of Arthur Gray, and moved on pack horses to Canada with many others, so induced by the promises of large bounties in land by the Canadian authorities, and was living in that country when the war of 1812 borke out. Immediately he and other native Americans and several Irishmen formed a company and offered their services to the United States gov- ernment; their services were readily
Henry E. Davis
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accepted, and they were made scouts the profession wisely selected as that for which he early manifested a strong pre- dilection. His preparatory studies were had at the Everett institute, in Washing- ton, of which the able E. W.Farley was the principal, and at the Emerson institute, of the same city, with Prof. Charles B. Young at its head. He. next entered Princeton (N. J.) college, in 1872, and from this famous institute of learning graduated with the degree of A. B. in 1876 and with the degree of A. M. n 1879. "Between these years, how- ever, he studied at the Harvard law school (1876-7), and later at the law school of the Columbian university, from which he graduated with the degree of LL. B. in 1878, and in 1879 with the degree of LL. M. While at Princeton he particularly distinguished himself before and after entering upon his professional course. In the freshman class he was awarded the second medal for declamation; in the under General Scott. John Gray, during his services with this company, was at the battles of Lundy Lane, Stony Creek, Queenstown Heights, etc., and with the other members was given special land grants by congress in 1816, in recognition of his valuable services, he receiving 320 acres at Vincennes, Indiana. After the war of 1812, John Gray settled at Lewis- ton, N. Y., and went into mercantile busi- ness, hauling his goods from Albany by teams, and continued in business there for some years, and then retired to a farm on the bank of the Niagara river, near Lewiston, and remained there until 1838, when he went to Branch county, Michi- gan, with his son (Jonathan H.), where he farmed for some years and then re- tired to Coldwater, Michigan, where his wife died; he then went with his daughter to Kent county, Mich., where he died at the age of ninety-six. He married Cath- arine Hager, of Hagerstown, Md., and to junior class, as junior orator, he secured them were born eight children, of whom seven grew up and three now survive, as follows: Azuba, widow of Samuel E. Paxon, of Grand Rapids, Michigan; Maria, wife of Crandall S. Burnett, and J. H. Gray, of Washington, D. C.
HENRY EDGAR DAVIS.
One of the most highly educated young attorneys of Washington, D. C., is Henry and was born March 15, 1855 -a son of Henry S. Davis, of Charles county, Md., and Mary E. (Galt) Davis, a native of the city of Alexandria, which city was, at the time of her birth, within the precints of the district, but which was, in 1846, ceded back to Virginia as a part of the county of Alexandria. No expense was spared in preparing young Mr. Davis for
the McLean prize for the best composed and best delivered oration, and the second medal for oratory; from the senior class he graduated with honor and was one of the commencement orators, was a Lynde prize debater, and was presentation orator on class day; he was prize essayist of the Nassau Literary Magazine and editor of the same classical publication. Mr. Davis also represented Princeton in
Edgar Davis, who is a native of that city the Inter-Collegiate oratorical contest at
the Academy of Music, New York, in January, 1876, and in the same year and month, represented Princeton in the Inter-Collegiate Rowing association at New York; as a member of the Univer- sity foot ball team he likewise stood in the van. As a law student in Washington city he had for his preceptor Walter D. Davidge. September 25, 1879, Mr. Davis
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was admitted to practice in the supreme The matrimonial relations of Mr. Davis are exceptionally happy. January 17, 1882, he wedded Miss Harriet W. Riddle, the refined and beautiful daughter of Hon. A. G. Riddle, former member of congress, from Cleveland, Ohio. This lady is possessed of an intellectuality equal to her beauty, and her literary efforts have fully met with the stamp of public approval, one of her latest, pub- lished by the Putnam's, having been "Gilbert Elgar's Son," a highly successful and interesting story of Quaker life in Maryland. Mr. and Mrs. Davis are both members of St. John's Protestant Episco- pal church, and are the associates of the best families of Washington. court of the District of Columbia; October 25, 1879, he was admitted to the court of appeals of Maryland, and in November, 1879, was admitted to the supreme court of appeals of Virginia; to the court of claims of the United States, he was admitted to practice in 1879, and to the supreme court of the United States, October, 1882. From July 1, 1885, to November 1, 1889, Mr. Davis was assist- ant attorney of the District of Columbia, but his professional duties held him aloof in a great measure from politics, although he was a delegate to the democratic national convention in June, 1892. His office-holding comprises that alone which calls into exercise his abundant abilities and legal knowledge, and the office seeks W. RILEY DEEBLE. him and not he the office. He was assist- This young and enterprising lawyer and business man of Washington city is a native of the District of Columbia, hav- ing been born in Georgetown, April 21, 1860, His father, James William Deeble, was born in Washington city in 1819, and when a boy entered the office of the old National Intelligencer for the purpose of learning to be a printer, but his health was in a condition that precluded his fol- ant professor of practice, judge of moot court, and lecturer on history of law at Columbian university law school from 1888 to 1891, and professor of common law in the last-named year. He is, how- ever, an ardent clubman, and in many of the better class of these social bodies he holds membership, such as the Metro- politan, the University (of which he is governor), Columbia, Athletic, Analostan lowing this business, and consequently he boat club, and the Woodmont rod and gun entered Columbian university with a view club. Mr. Davis, besides his activity in the of studying theology. In this study he progressed with satisfaction and was ap- pointed a preacher on a Methodist Episcopal circuit, but his delicate health compelled him to relinquish the duties of an exhorter, and for awhile he did clerical duty in the department of the interior; he then for a short time was employed in the Farmers' and Mechanics' bank of Georgetown; next, he was ap- pointed to the navy department, where he acted as confidential clerk to Chief-clerk Faxon, under Secretary Gideon Welles various official positions he holds as pro- fessor and lecturer, is constantly engaged in the labor attaching to his legitimate practice in the higher courts, and of late has argued some very interesting and im- portant causes in the supreme court of the District of Columbia, especially when there representing the district itself, as well as in the supreme court of the United States, and the court of appeals of Virginia and Maryland, and his life is altogether a busy and useful one.
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and served during the war, when he left ring to retain his position as manager of the department, in the latter part of 1865, the Washington city branch. Mr. Deeble to accept the secretaryship of the Poto- was married in February, 1888, to Miss mac Insurance company, which position Cora B. Beggs, of Wilmington, Del., and he occupied until his death in 1887. Mr. this happy union has been crowned by the birth of two daughters: Elizabeth and Dorothy. Mr. Deeble is at present connected with the real estate firm of Deeble, Davis & Co., of Washington, D. C. Deeble was married, in 1848, to Miss Nicea P. Fuller, of Baltimore, Md., and of the three children born to them two grew to manhood: Dr. Horace M. Deeble, of the Indian service and stationed in the state of Washington, and W. Riley ANDREW BROWN DUVALL, Deeble, whose name opens this biographi- cal notice. Mrs. Nicea P. Deeble departed this life in 1861, and Mr. Deeble married Miss Cornelia Fuller, sister of the de- ceased lady, but in 1864 she, too, passed away, and Mr. Deeble took for a third wife Ann A. Meem, who survives him. The father of James William Deeble was Edward and was born in 1790. He was a book binder and had charge for many years of the bookbinding department of the National Intelligencer, at that time doing all the bookbinding for the national government. During the latter part of his life he was connected with the govern- ment printing office and died in 1868.
W. Riley Deeble was educated in the schools of his native city and in the Columbian Preparatory school in Wash- ington. On October 10, 1876, he entered the office of the Potomac Insurance company in Georgetown, and while hold- ing this situation devoted his spare hours to the study of the law, and was admitted to the bar of the District of Columbia in 1881. In 1886, after having held the posi- tion of assistant secretary of the Potomac Insurance company of Georgetown some years, he opened a branch office of the company in Washington city; in 1887, on the death. of his father, he was requested to become secretary of the insurance company, but declined the offer, prefer-
an eminent attorney of Washington, D. C., is a native of that city, was born March 20, 1847, and is a descendant of Mareen Duvall, who emigrated from France in the middle of the seventeenth century and settled in Maryland. Andrew B. Duvall was educated at Columbia college, District of Columbia, and took the degree of A. B. in 1867; he then studied in the law department of the same institution and took the degree of LL. B. in 1869, when he was admitted to the bar of the District of Columbia, at which he has ever since been constantly and actively engaged in practice- for several years in partnership with the late Hon. Joseph H. Bradley. Mr. Duvall is the present lecturer on equity, jurispru- dence, and torts, in the law department of Georgetown university, and is a trustee of the American university; he is also president of the Methodist alliance of the District of Columbia and is a member of the Metropolitan Methodist Episcopal church, in which he takes much interest and employs himself assiduously in its work. His law practice reaches through all the courts of the district and the su preme court of the United States.
The maternal grandfather of Mr. Du- vall was John Brown, who served in the war of 1812 - while some of his paternal ancestors were in the war of the Revolu-
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tion. Mr. Duvall was married in May, a son named Samuel ( third ), who was 1872, to Miss Mary M. Walker, daughter born in Westmoreland and subsequently of Charles E. Walker, of Washington, and niece of Capt. Samuel H. Walker, of Mexican war fame. resided in Prince William, Stafford, and Fauquier counties, but finally settled in the county of Frederick, Va. The tomb of his first wife- Anna Sorrell, the THE SOUTHERN EARLES. daughter of Thomas and Elizabeth Sor- rell of Westmoreland - yet stands in War- ren ( now ) county, near Greenway court, the former home of Lord Fairfax, on an estate belonging to the family of the late Alexander Earle, one of his descendants.
The Earles, now one of the most numer- ous families of the south, are descended from John and Mary Earle, who, emigrat- ing from England, settled in Westmore- land county, Va., in 1652. John Earle was a descendant of Henry de Earle, lord of Newton, as was also Sir Walter Earle, who, in 1619, was a member of the " Vir- ginia Company of London" and a gen- eral in the parliamentary army, as also Dr. John Earle, tutor and chaplin to Charles II, and bishop of Worcester and Salisbury after the restoration. An inter- esting account of the family is given in Hutchin's History of Dorset County ( Eng- land ) and also in Blomefield's History of Norfolk ( England) .
The Earles were also lords of North Pelherton in county Somerset, and in the reign of Edward II they were lords of the manor of Somerton Parva, called Somer- ton Evleigh. From Somersetshire one branch of the family settled in county Devon.
John Earle of Westmoreland, Va., re- ceived a grant of 1,600 acres for the transportation of a colony of thirty-two persons, which was dated in 1652. His Spartanburg county. On the organiza- descendants reside chiefly in the states
tion of the county he was appointed its of Virginia, Kentucky, South Carolina, first county judge, an office of great re- Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, and sponsibility and importance. He was a Texas. He brought with him three En- man of great mental and physical vigor. glish-born children - Samuel, John, and His children told with pride that in his Mary. Samuel died in 1697, leaving a ninety-fourth year he killed a bear with a son Samuel, who was born in Westmore- rifle "off-hand." He reared fourteen land and who lived there until his death children. His youngest son told the in 1746. His wife Phillis and himself left writer that the only time he ever heard
This Samuel Earle ( third ) was one of the earliest members of the house of burgesses of Frederick county and was the colleague of Lord Fairfax as justice of the county. He was also church-ward- en of the parish, high sheriff, major of militia, and evidently had the fondness for holding office which has been mani- fested by so many of his descendants. His second wife was Elizabeth, the daughter of Randall and Jeanette Hol- brook of Prince William county, Va. Their son Baylis ( also spelled Baylies ) Earle was named for John Baylis of Prince William, the husband of his father's sister Hannah.
In 1763 Baylis Earle and his own brother John, who had married the Misses Prince ( sisters ), removed to the Pacolet, Baylis settling on the South Carolina side at the beautiful place where his grandson Perry Earle now resides, in what is now
Nr . Parle
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his father use a profane expression was judge in South Carolina. He was born when, being a lad of ten, he was standing January 24, 1795, and in his seventeenth in the yard with him listening to the fight year graduated with the first honor from across the river, where Maj. Wade Hamp- the South Carolina college in the talented ton with a few militia had intercepted a and distinguished class of 1811. While body of tories who were trying to reach studying law he made a campaign of six the ford of the Pacolet, and by having a months against the Creeks in the cavalry few men retreat across an open field in- troop of Capt. Kelly. He was admitted duced the enemy to follow them hur- to the bar in April, 1816, and entered riedly and carelessly, only to get a full upon a successful practice at Greenville. volley at short range on nearing the edge He was elected to the legislature in 1820 of the woods. The yell which followed showed that the militia had won the fight, and in the enthusiasm of his surprise he clapped his hands and exclaimed "By God, Wade has got them!" His wife, Mary Prince, was the daughter of John Prince, who moved from Virginia and and then solicitor of the western circuit in 1822, in which position he distinguished himself as a prosecuting officer. In 1830, when less than thirty-six years of age, he was elected by the legislature a circuit judge, and was regarded as coming fully up to the high standard of that position settled near Mount Zion, in Spartanburg in South Carolina at that period, but it county, and his place was Fort Prince during the Revolution, being stockaded for protection of the people against tories. They raised a large family. His eldest daughter, Sally, married Edward Hamp- ton, who was pursued from Fort Cambridge by tories and killed in his father-in-law's house.
was when the legislature in 1835 abolished the appeal court and devolved its duties on the circuit judges that his merit as a jurist was fully appreciated. For nine years he adorned the highest bench of the state, and his opinions in 3 Hill, Dudley, Rice, Cheves, Spear, and McCullen reports have for half a century been regarded by the profession as models of erudition, ability, and lucidity of style. He died May 24, 1844, being less than fifty years of age, and it is not too much to say that it has not been per- mitted to any one man to make a more lasting impression upon the jurisprudence of his state.
Baylis Earle's son Samuel, on June 11, 1777, entered the service as ensign in Capt. John Bowie's company of South Carolina infantry, and was discharged at Whitehall, South Carolina, June 11, 1780, as a lieutenant, having distinguished him- self at the siege of Augusta and the battle of Blackstock. By authority of Col. Pickens he subsequently raised a com- pány of frontiersmen and operated against the tories. He married a Miss Harrison and was a member of congress from the Pendleton district of South Carolina from 1795 to 1797.
Baylis John Earle, the grandson of Judge Baylis Earle and son of Capt. Samuel Earle, became a distinguished
William E. Earle, a lawyer of promin- ence in Washington, D. C., and a great- grandson of Judge Baylis Earle of Pacolet, was born in Greenville, S. C. At the age of twenty-one he commanded a light battery in the Confederate army, and at twenty-two declined a commission as major of artillery tendered him by President Davis for special services.
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Col. John Earle, the own brother of |years -first from 1805 to 1807, then from Judge Baylis Earle of Pacolet, lived about 1811 to 1815, and also from 1817 to 1821. He left a number of children, among them Dr. Robinson Earle, the grand- father of Senator John L. M. Irby of South Carolina. Dr. Earle was killed in a rencounter with Hon. William L. Yancey. Baylis, Elias, and Samuel Earle of Evergreen, all of Anderson county, were his sons. two miles from him, but on the North Carolina side of the river. His home was on a high hill overlooking the beau- tiful valley of the Pacolet, and here was built Fort Earle as a place of retreat for the families of the whigs. Some of the old logs used for the fort, with loopholes cut in them for a rifle to traverse, are still doing service in outbuildings on the Samuel Earle ( fourth ), another son of Samuel Earle ( third ), of Frederick county and an own brother of Elias Earle of the Poplars, removed to Kentucky and left numerous descendants. place, which was until a few years ago the property of his daughter Lydia and her husband, William Prince, who left a large family of children and grandchil- dren. He married Miss Thomason Another brother - Ezaias - also moved to South Carolina, and lived at Bladens- burg in Greenville county. He never married, but lived with his mother, who was the second wife of his father, first having married a Mr. Burns and then a Mr. Rodgers. Besides these four sons of Samuel ( third ), another - Esias - re- mained in Frederick county, Va., and died there in 1826. He was the father of John B. Earle, who was born in this county in 1787 and died in 1860. Prince, a sister of the wife of his brother Baylis, and reared a large and interest- ing family. One of his sons- Joseph Berry - was a distinguished physician and removed to Mississippi. Washing- ton married Elizabeth, the daughter of his step-uncle, Elias Earle, and was for many years clerk of the court for Green- ville county, S. C. He was the grand- father of Joseph H. Earle of Greenville, late attorney-general of South Carolina. John Baylis, another son of Col. John John B. Earle was the father of Capt. Alexander M. Earle, late of Milidale, Warren county, Va., who was a gallant officer in the Confederate army and has recently died, leaving several children. Earle of Pacolet, moved to Silver Glade in the old Pendleton district of South Carolina, now in Anderson county, and was adjutant and inspector-general of the state for eight terms of two years each, and represented that district in congress from 1803 to 1805.
Elias Earle, son of Samuel of Frede- rick, Va., by his first marriage, and a half-brother of Baylis and John, like them was born in Frederick county and moved to South Carolina. He married a Miss Robinson and settled two miles from Greenville on the Rutherford road at "The Poplars." He represented the Greenville district in congress for many
There are three separate families of Earles descended from three different English settlers, but all tracing them- selves directly back to the same English stock. One of these is descended from Ralph Earle and his wife Joan, who set- tled in Rhode Island in 1638. The second ( that whereof we have been writing ) is descended from John Earle and his wife Mary, who settled in Westmoreland county, Va., in 1652; and the third is descended from James and Rhody Earle,
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who settled at Easton, Md., in 1683. Of opened an office here for the practice of this last branch there are still living three sons of Judge Richard Tilghman Earle, viz., Dr. John C. Earle of Easton, Md., Richard Tilghman Earle, residing near Centreville, Md., and George Earle of Washington, D. C., a prominent member of the bar who has held many positions of honor and filled all of them with credit.
his profession. In 1883, he was appointed commissioner of the District of Columbia by President Arthur and for three years filled the position with great credit to himself. He at present is one of the members of the board of directors of the Industrial home in Georgetown, but being in somewhat affluent circumstances gives little or no attention to active business. He was happily married, in 1866, to Lydia Myers, the accomplished daughter of Eli Myers, of Iowa City, Iowa.
JAMES B. EDMONDS.
The maternal great-grandfather of this gentleman was the last survivor of the Dr. Danford Edmonds, father of Jas. B., was born in Saratoga county, N. Y., in 1800, was educated in Vermont, and practiced medicine in Kingsbury, N. Y., for nearly eighteen years preceding his death in 1853; he was also surgeon of a militia regiment at that time. Revolutionary war, and died in 1866, at the advanced age of one hundred and four years, carrying to the grave the beloved and honored name of Samuel Downing. The paternal ancestors of Mr. Edmonds were of English birth and some time late in the seventeenth century settled in Connecticut, and from this WILLIAM EDGAR EDMONSTON, ancient family has descended a numerous the president of "The Columbia Title Insurance company of the District of Columbia," is a native of the city of Washington, D. C., and was born in 1843. He is of Scotch descent, the family name in the old country running back to about I200. That branch of the family that came to this country was directly from Scotland and settled in Prince George's county, Maryland, in the early part of the eighteenth century, and from it descended Archibald Edmonston, the grandfather of William Edgar. Charles Edmonston, the son of Archibald, and father of William, was born in Maryland, in 1816. William Edgar Edmonston progeny, that finds its residence in several portions of the Union. James B. Ed- monds was born in Saratoga county, N. Y., in 1832, and in the northern part of the state and in Vermont he attended school until about twenty years of age, when he began studying law, the result being his admission to the bar, at Elmira, N. Y., in 1853. The same year he entered into a co-partnership with the Hon. John J. Taylor, M. C., his former preceptor, practiced with him two years, and then for a year practiced in partnership with Hon. B. F. Tracey. The next twenty years were passed in Iowa City, Iowa, in partnership with Charles T. Ranson, graduated from Columbia college in the under the firm name of Edmonds & Ran. son, which firm in its day stood in the front rank of the legal profession. In 1876 Mr. Edmonds decided to make the city of Washington his home, but never
class of 1863, studied law under that emi- nent attorney, the late William J. Stone, and was admitted to the bar in 1867. He practiced his profession in Washington with success for about twenty years, or
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until 1887, when he was elected president of that they were two brothers, John and the Columbia Title Insurance company -- a position he has filled with fidelity and ability until the present hour. He is a director in the German-American Fire Insurance company and in the Corcoran Fire Insurance company, and is rerog- nized as a man of legal and executive ability. His marriage took place, in 1875, to Miss Mary Frances Davis, daughter of Evan Davis, of Baltimore county, Md.
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