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 41
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 41
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institution he left in 1861 to enter the Confederate army. He was a member of Stonewall Jackson's division until dis- charged for disability in 1862, but again enlisted, in 1863, as first sergeant in com- pany K, Twenty-third Virginia cavalry, serving as such until the surrender. He shared the fortunes and vicissitudes of his regiment in a number of campaigns, and bore a gallant part in the following bat- tles: Acquia Creek, Cheat Mountain, Fernstown, Va., Winchester, Malvern Hill, Gaines' Mill, White Oak Swamp, Harrison's Landing, Cedar Run, New- market, New Hope and numerous skir- mishes. He was wounded and captured
HON. GEORGE BLOW
was born in Sussex county, Va., May 5, 1813, and when seven years of age removed to Norfolk to reside with his grandmother, Mrs. Fannie Blow, who reared him to manhood. He was educated at William and Mary college, and after graduating from that institution took a law course at the university of Virginia, and was ad- mitted to the bar in 1833. He located in Norfolk, where he practiced his profes- sion until 1840, at which time he went to at New Hope, and left on the field to die. Texas and was elected to congress from He recovered after four months, and be- ing unfit for military service returned to Portsmouth, where he was employed as a clerk in the office of the Seaboard Air Line railroad until 1875. In 1876 he was elected city treasurer and has been suc-
that state in 1841. At the expiration of his congressional term he returned to Norfolk, where he has since resided. Mr. Blow was a member of the Virginia se- cession convention in 1860, and at the breaking out of hostilities entered the
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service of the state as lieutenant-colonel ment for furnishing supplies. He mar- of the Fourteenth regiment of Virginia ried a Miss Wright, daughter of Stephen state troops, in which capacity he contin- Wright. The great-grandfather, Samuel ued until the command was turned over Blow, was born in Southampton county, to the Confederate government, when he and was a farmer by occupation. resigned. He remained in Norfolk until 1862, in which year he was captured by GEN. STITH BOLLING,
the Federal forces and paroled. After postmaster of Petersburg, Va., was born the war, in 1870, he was elected judge of in Lunenburg county, February 28, 1835. the first judicial court, and served as such He was the son of John Stith Bolling, a native of Nottoway county, Va., born in 1808, and a farmer by occupation; he died in 1888. General Bolling's mother was Mary T. Irby, also a native of Notto- way county, born in 1809 and died in 1885. General Bolling was reared on a farm in Lunenburg county and received an academic education. At the age of nine- teen he went to Richmond, where he was employed as a clerk in a wholesale gro- cery. He continued in this position one year, after which he engaged in a whole- sale grocery and commission business, having associated with him two of his brothers. The firm name was Bolling Brothers and it continued until the break- ing out of the war. In the spring of 1861, General Bolling returned to his native county and entered the Lunenburg cav- two terms, sixteen years. On leaving the bench he returned to the practice of the law for a few years and then abandoned the legal profession, since which time he has been living a life of retirement. Mr. Blow was married, in 1846, to Elizabeth Taylor, daughter of Albert Allamand, of Norfolk, a union blessed with the birth of eight children, as follows: Emma, wife of Arthur C. Freeman, of Norfolk; Mar- garet, wife of W. C. Elliott, president of the Atlantic Coast Line railroad; Eliza, wife of M. A. Atkinson, of Baltimore; Lulu, wife of W. B. Page, of Colorado; Virginia R., wife of Edwin Hoff, of New York; Albert A., of Colorado; George Preston, ensign in the United States navy; and Atala, wife of Lewis Noble, of New York. Mrs. Blow died in 1868. The father of George Blow was also George alry as a private. He was soon promoted, Blow, a native of Norfolk, who married in first to orderly sergeant, then to second Williamsburg, in 1800, Eliza, daughter of lieutenant, then, in 1862, to captain. This Robert Hall Waller. They had eight rank he held until the close of the war, though during much of the time he
children, two of whom are living, viz .: Emma, widow of George Blacknall, of served as acting adjutant-general on Gen- eral William H. Lee's staff. He was wounded six times. At the battle of Morton's Ford he was struck on the head by a cannon shot and was left on the
the United States navy, and George Blow, of Norfolk. George Blow, Sr., was a magistrate in Norfolk county for many years, and served in the war of 1812. He died in 1870, and his wife in 1841. The field. It was three months before he was grandfather of Mr. Blow was a promi- again ready for duty. In the battle of Guinea's Station, he was shot through the left thigh. For a few years after the war closed he was occupied in farming in nent merchant in Norfolk for many years, and served in the war of the Revolution as an accredited agent for the govern-|
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Lunenburg county. In the fall of 1869 he was elected to the lower house of the state legislature; was re-elected in 1871 and served two full terms. He was ap- pointed in 1875, by Governor Kemper, in- spector-general of tobacco at Petersburg. Meanwhile, in 1870, he was appointed to the rank of brigadier-general by Gov- ernor Walker.
In 1875, upon receiving the appoint- ment of inspector, Mr. Bolling removed to Petersburg, where he has since resided. He served as tobacco inspector until 1882. In the latter part of that year he was ap- pointed postmaster of Petersburg, by President Arthur, in which capacity he served four and a half years, six months over the regular time. July 20, 1889 he was reappointed postmaster by President Harrison and is now the incumbant of that office. Between the time of his res- ignation and reappointment as post- master he was engaged in the tobacco business. General Bolling is a member of the Royal Arcanum, the Knights of Honor and the Independent Order of Red Men.
Mr. Bolling is one of the proprietors of the Oaks Tobacco warehouse of Peters- burg, is a member of the chamber of commerce and of the tobacco exchange. He served for several years as president of the board of public school trustees, and is at present a member of the board of gov- ernors of the chamber of commerce. General Bolling was married May 9, 1860, to Cornelia Scott Forrest, of Lunenburg county, by whom he has three daughters and one son. He was a candidate for presidential elector in 1888 and has twice served as state canvasser for his party. He is a member of the republican state executive committee and has been for the past ten years.
HUNTER RUSSELL BOOKER,
merchant of Hampton, Va., was born at Sherwood, the old family estate on the Back river in Elizabeth City county, March 23, 1858. He was educated at home and in the schools of his native county, and in 1873 he went to Baltimore, where he remained a short time and then went to New York, tarrying in that city one year. Returning to Hampton he was a clerk in a drug store for the next four years, and at the end of that period em- barked in business for himself, which he is still actively carrying on. In 1882 he was appointed postmaster by President Arthur and held that office for two years, when he resigned. Mr. Booker was joined in marriage in 1889 with Miss Mattie A., daughter of Samuel Chisman of Hampton. Mr. Booker's father, George Booker, was born at Sherwood, Elizabeth City county, in 1805. He was educated at William and Mary college, graduating from the law class of that in- stitution - but never practiced at the bar, having given his entire attention to planting, which he followed as a life busi- ness. He was elected to the state legis- lature before he had reached the age of twenty-one years and served in that body several terms. He represented his dis- trict in all the democratic national con- ventions to the one held in Charleston. Upon the great issue between the north and south he was originally an anti- secessionist. He was appointed paymaster, in 1861, of the army of the peninsula commanded by Gen. McGruder with the rank of major, and acted in that capacity until the evacuation of the peninsula. His physical condition then became such that he could no longer render active serv- ice, but he retained his rank until the close of the war. In 1833 he was married
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to Ann, daughter of William Massenburg, Howard, of Hampton, and has no chil- of Elizabeth City county. They had dren. Marshal A. Booker, the next in number, was born in 1821, and was married in 1885 to Mollie Beckler of Baltimore, Md. They have two children, Athol and Eleanor. Henry W. Booker was born in 1855, and married in 1886 Fannie Lee, daughter of Baker P. Lee of Elizabeth City county, and to them were born Bes- sie and "Peppie;" Henry R .; Elizabeth, who died in 1870, aged twenty-nine years; Mollie P., deceased wife of Baron von Shilling, a major in the United States army during the war. She left three children; Ilma, Marshall, and Franz von Shilling; Mattie, widow of Edward S. Jones, of Northampton county, and who is the mother of three children; Nannie, Sherwood, and Hunter. Richard Booker was the name of the grandfather of Hunter Russell Booker. He was born in Sherwood, in 1778, and was a planter all his life. For many years he was magis- eleven children, of whom nine grew to maturity. The eldest was Richard M., who enlisted in the Oglethorpe light in- fantry, which was organized in Macon, Ga., and was assigned to the First Georgia regiment; he served as a private until July, 1861, when he was promoted to lieutenant in the regular service and re- mained as such until July, 1862, when he was promoted to a captaincy and made assistant provost-marshal of Richmond, serving in that position two years. He was raised to adjutant of the post at Fort Caswell, N. C., and served there eighteen months. He was then sent to Peters- burg and joined in the surrender of Lee's army at Appomattox. He was mar- ried in 1866 to Miss Emily Wood Wray, daughter of Maj. George Wray, of Eliza- beth City county, and they had four chil- dren, George W., Emily W., Richard M., Jr., and Philip W. George Booker, the trate of the county. In the war of 1812 second son, at the age of seventeen was a he served his country as a soldier. He was married in 1804 to Elizabeth Slaugh- ter, of York county. He died in 1823. His father, George Booker, was born in Amelia county, in 1732, and was a planter, politician and lawyer. He came to Elizabeth city county at the age of county in the state legislature for twenty years. He was the contemporary and neighbor to Chancellor Wythe, the cele- brated statesman and jurist. In St. John's church, at Hampton, Mr. Booker served as a vestryman for many years and was one of the most prominent and influential citizens in that section of Virginia. He private in the Second Virginia howitzers, engaging in the service in May, 1863, was wounded eight times, in the first battle of Gettysburg, and was laid up over a year at Baltimore as a prisoner. He was then exchanged and assigned to the transpor- tation office at Petersburg, where he eighteen years and represented that served until the close of the war. He was married in 1870 to Laura Winder, daughter of Richard Garrett of York county, and they have had six children, as follows: George, Louise, Ann, Hilda, Flor- ence, and Winder. The third brother, John Booker, went into the Confederate service in 1863 and served first on the staff of Gen. Henry A. Wise for six months, and married Miss Moon, of Elizabeth City then went into the signal service, where county, and died in 1822. He was a he remained until the surrender. He Revolutionary patriot and was the intimate was married in 1879 to Susan Holt, née and personal friend of Gen. Washington.
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Richard Booker, the great-great-grand- |he had three children, only one, Armistead father of Mr. Booker, was a native of Amelia county and was born about the year 1700, and followed planting. The Booker family were originally from Wales.
THOMAS ROSCIUS BORLAND.
Thomas R. Borland, one of the eminent lawyers of Norfolk, was born in Murfrees- boro, N. C., March 3, 1844. He was at- tending school in Albemarle county when the war broke out, and his youthful pa- triotism overcoming his discretion he ran away from home and joined company K, of the Ninth Virginia infantry, as a pri- vate, and followed the fortunes and vicis- situdes of that company throughout the war, surrendering with Lee at Appomat- tox. He was engaged in the following battles: Seven Pines, Malvern Hill, Gaines Mill, siege of Suffolk, Bermuda Hundreds, Five Forks, Sailor's Creek, and Gettys- burg, where he was severely wounded in the left shoulder. After the war, Mr. Borland attended the law department of the university of Virginia, from which he graduated in 1866. He came to Norfolk in 1869, and commenced the practice of the law and is still engaged in his profes- sion, being at this time one of the most successful attorneys of the Norfolk bar. In 1870 he was appointed city attorney of Norfolk, and in 1873 represented the city in the legislature.
Borland, now living. His first wife dying in 1878, he subsequently married Miss Carrie Barney, to which union were born three children: Ramsey, Charles, and Carrie. Mr. Borland's father's name was Roscius Borland, a native of Nansemond county, born in 1810. He was educated Philinadelphia and earned the reputation of being one of the ablest lawyers of his day. He located in Suffolk, practicing in the courts of Virginia and North Carolina, and was a member of the North Carolina legislature in 1832-3. He was married in 1837 to Miss Temple Ramsey, daughter of David Ramsey, and to them were born four children, of whom two reached ma- turity: Harriet Goodwin Borland (de- ceased) wife, first, of Phocin A. Borland, and second of Colonel Thomas W. Smith, of Suffolk, Va.,; and Thomas R. Borland, who still survives. Roscius Borland died in 1846, and his wife in 1844. Mr. Bor- land's grandfather was Thomas Wood Borland, born in Scotland, and came to America with his father, Robert Borland, when a child, settling first in Charleston, S. C., and afterward in Nansemond county, Va. He was a physician and a graduate of the old Pennsylvania college. He lo- cated in Nansemond county, which he represented in the legislature several terms and was for many years a member of the county court and presiding magis- trate of the same. He married a Miss Harriet Goodwin, and died in about 1830. He was at one time a surgeon in the British navy. The great-grandfather, Robert Borland, was born in Scotland, and when young came to America, settling in Nansemond county, Va. He was an ex-
In 1878 Mr. T. R. Borland was elected commonwealth's attorney, which impor- tant office he held for four consecutive terms, and in May, 1889, he was appointed by President Harrison district attorney for the eastern district of Virginia, which position he still holds. He was married tensive contractor and built the Marine in 1879 to Miss Mary L. Camp, daughter hospital in Norfolk. His death occurred of George W. Camp, of Norfolk, by whom | in the year 1805.
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LEWIS C. BOSHER, M. D.
Among the younger physicians of his state, as well as among the most skillful of his profession, Dr. Lewis C. Bosher, of Richmond, Va., sustains appropriate rank. He was born in his resident city, Febru- ary 17, 1860, and was prepared for college in the schools of Richmond; then entered Richmond college, where he graduated, after completing a thorough course. In 1883 he entered the medical college of Virginia, and in the following year grad- uated from that institution, and after spending one year in the Richmond City hospital, he went to New York city, where he took a post-graduate course.
Being now well prepared for the prac- tice of medicine, he returned to Rich- mond, and entered into a co-partnership with Dr. Francis Cunningham, in the practice of medicine. Soon thereafter the death of Dr. Cunningham occurred, and since then Dr. Bosher has continued alone in an active and successful practice; however, much of his time has been oc- cupied as demonstrator of anatomy in the medical college of Virginia during 1887-88, and as professor of anatomy in this institution, having been elected pro- fessor of anatomy in 1889, and since that date he has held this professorship. In this capacity his competency has been manifest and his knowledge of anatomy is thorough. As evidence of his promi- nence in the profession it is only neces- sary to say that Dr. Bosher is an active member of the Virginia State Medical society, of the Richmond Academy of Medicine and Surgery, of the Southern Surgical and Gynecological society.
that high degree of proficiency in the medical profession as has Dr. Bosher. His social relations are quite compliment- ary, and he is also an active member of the Masonic order.
Mention of his parentage and ancestry may fittingly be made, since it would be a mention of an old as well as respected and well known Virginia family. His parents were Robert H. and Elizabeth (Burbank) Bosher. They were both na- tives of Virginia and they had five sons. Robert H. Bosher was a son of Gideon Bosher, also a Virginian by birth, and a son of Charles Bosher, the progenitor of the family in Virginia. The last named was an Englishman, and came to this country about 1730 (or in the thir- ties), and settled in King William county, Va. He was a school teacher by profes- sion, and left six sons. Gideon Bosher was the pioneer of the stage line through Virginia and the Carolinas. He was the father of eight children by his first wife, who lost her life by burning, when, in 1811, the Richmond theatre was destroyed by fire. She dying, her husband married a Mrs. Fox, née Drewry, and she bore to this marriage one son, Robert H. Bosher, who, upon reaching his majority, estab- lished, as early as 1814, carriage and wagon works in Richmond, which he con- ducted till his death, November 21, 1885; two of his sons still operate these works- and his family have become prominent factors of society and business in the city of Richmond, so long his home.
COL. CARTER MOORE BRAXTON.
This distinguished soldier was born in Along with his other professional labors Norfolk, Va., September 5, 1836, and in he officiates as deputy coroner of the city his early youth lived in Richmond, settling of Richmond; and it may justly be said down in Fredericksburg later, where he that few men of his age have attained to lived until 1880. He attended both the
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Fredericksburg and Hanover academies many years, representing Norfolk several terms in the legislature. He was married three times, his last wife being Elizabeth Teagle Mayo, and to them were born nine children, of whom seven lived to maturity: Sallie Moore, deceased wife of John Warren Slaughter, deceased, of Fredericksburg, Va. (their children were in his youth. In 1881 he removed to Newport News as engineer of construction of the C. & C., and is now the engineer of maintenance of the way of the C. & O. system. In 1861 he entered the Con- federate army in the Fredericksburg artillery as third lieutenant, and in May of the same year was made captain; in named Carter Moore, deceased; John Warren, deceased; Harriet, deceased; William F. B., Sally Moore and Lizzie Carter Slaughter) ; Susan Spottswood, de- ceased wife of Rev. George B. Taylor (their children are George B., Spotts- wood T., Mary Argyle and Susan B. Taylor) ; Hester Van Bibber Braxton, de- ceased; Col. Carter Moore Braxton, of Newport News; Elizabeth Carter, de- ceased wife of Rev. Thomas Hume, of Portsmouth; Louisa Mayo, deceased; Fanny Mayo, widow of Maj. J. E. Ficklin, of Culpeper county.
March, 1863, he was promoted to a major- ship and assigned to Carter's battalion of artillery, and during the campaign of 1862 he acted as chief of the artillery of Gen. A. P. Hill's division. In the spring of 1864 he was made lieutenant-colonel, and at the close of the war was acting chief of artillery in Gen. R. H. Anderson's army, which surrendered at Appomattox. He took a conspicuous part in the follow- ing important battles: Seven days' fight around Richmond, Slaughter's Mountain, second Manassas, Georgetown, Harper's Ferry, Sharpsburg, Fredericksburg, Chan- cellorsville, Gettysburg, the Wilderness, SAMUEL GORDON BRENT, Spottsylvania Court House, second Cold an attorney of Alexandria, Va., was born at Hot Springs, Va., June 28, 1855. He was educated at St. John's academy in Alexandria and graduated from the law department of Columbia university, Washington, D. C., in June, 1877, and located at Alexandria, where he has ever since remained. He was commonwealth attorney of Alexandria from 1878 to 1882. From 1885 to 1887 he served as council- man and at the latter date was elected corporation attorney, which office he still holds. Mr. Brent was married in Decem- ber, 1882, to Miss Mary L., daughter of D. D. Saunders of Memphis, Tenn. They had one child, Samuel Gordon Brent. Mrs. Brent died in August, 1885, and in November, 1887, Mr. Brent married for his second wife Miss Rebecca L. Tabb, Harbor, Winchester, and in all the battles of the valley under Gen. Jubal Early; battles around Petersburg and around Appomattox. In all this terrific experi- ence he was never wounded, but had seven horses killed under him. Col. Braxton was married, first, in February, 1865, to Miss Fannie Hume, of Orange, who died a couple of months later. He was next married, in 1868, to Nannie Alsop, daughter of Joseph Alsop, of Fredericksburg, and to them were born six daughters: Nannie Mayo, Lizzie Maxwell, Josephine, Susan Taylor, Sallie Moore and Loulie French. The father of the colonel was Carter Braxton, and he was born in King and Queen county in 1785. He was a prominent lawyer and practiced at Richmond and Norfolk for daughter of John P. Tabb of White
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Marsh, Gloucester county. They have academy at Padolus, N. C., during the had two children, Jean and George Will- years 1848-9 and 1850. He taught in the Temperance hall in Suffolk, Va., from 1840 to 1855, remaining in Suffolk after that date. He was elected the first mayor of the city in 1852, and served in that office four years, prior to which time he had also served as magistrate. He iam. George William Brent, the father of Samuel Gordon Brent, was born in Alexandria in 1822. He was a graduate from the university of Virginia and prac- ticed law in his native city up to the breaking out of the war, when he went into the Confederate service in May, early entered the Confederate service, 1861, holding the rank of major of the going with the state militia from Prince Seventeenth Virginia regiment. He
George county, afterward moving to Sur- served until after the first battle at rey, where at Cabin Point he taught one Manassas, then was detailed on Gen. year. He taught in 1867 in Yates lower Beauregard's staff and served with him academy, Nansemond county, remaining until the battle of Shiloh. He was then there until about 1878, and then returned placed on the staff of Gen. Bragg, where to Suffolk and engaged in the jewelry trade, a business still carried on by him. Mr. Brewer was married, in 1859, to Miss
he remained till near the close of the war when he was transferred to Gen. John- ston's staff and surrendered with him. He Judith A. Robinson, of Chesterfield was twice married, first to Miss Cornelia county, and has a family of three chil- Wood of Albemarle county. They had dren, namely: Jennie L., Richard L., and three children, all of whom died in in- fancy. His second wife was Miss Lucy Goode, daughter of Dr. Thomas Goode of Hot Springs, Va., and they had eight children, whose names are Thomas G., Lucy, wife of Robert T. Thorpe of Boy- ton; Samuel G., Mary E., wife of Charles A. Read of Atlanta, Ga .; George G. of Alexandria; Cornelia G., wife of B. B. Owens of Winston, N. C .; Alice Virginia, now Mrs. Woolly of New York, and Jesse I. Brent. The father of this family died January 2, 1872, and the mother February 22, 1881. Mr. Brent's grand- father was George Brent. Annie D. Brewer. Mrs. Brewer died in 1881. During his residence in Suffolk, Mr. Brewer has been called upon to serve in various official capacities, among which was that of member of the city council. His father, John Brewer, was born in Nansemond county in 1785. His life work was that of a cultivator of the soil. In 1821 he was married to Miss Harriet Woodward, who bore him five children, four of whom lived to matuaity, viz: John M., of Wake Forest, N. C .; Will- iam H., deceased about the year 1869; Jesse B., a captain of a company in the Nansemond cavalry, died in 1864; and R. L. Brewer, of Suffolk, Va. The father RICHARD LEWIS BREWER of this family died in 1833. He was a soldier in the war of 1812. Mr. Brewer's grandfather, John Brewer, was born in Nansemond county, and at one time was agent of the Dismal Swamp Land com- pany, in which Gen. Washington was
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