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 42
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 42
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was born in Nansemond county, Va., De- cember 10, 1827. He attended the county schools in his youth, completed his edu- cation at Wake Forest college in North Carolina and at the university of Virginia, and was engaged as a teacher in Midway largely interested. He became the
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father of several children, four of whom reached mature age. They were: John, deceased; Mary, deceased wife of Henry Reddick, deceased; Nancy, deceased wife of William Gregory, deceased; and Mrs. Rogers, deceased, of Connecticut. John Brewer died about the year 1813.
ROBERT ALONZO BROCK,
eldest son and child of Robert King and Elizabeth Mildred (Ragland) Brock, was born in Richmond, Va., March 9, 1839. His parents were both natives of Hanover county, Va., and his ancestors were among the early settlers of the colony, although in him is intermingled the blood of sev- eral nationalities. His father, long a re- spected merchant of Richmond, was the son of John Philip and Elizabeth (daugh- ter of Alexander King) Brock, and his mother the daughter of Fendall and Sarah general advancement of intelligence, he (Nelson) Ragland, the granddaughter of has cheerfully met inquiry until his ex-
Pettus and Elizabeth (daughter of John Davis, from Wales) Ragland, and great- granddaughter of John and Anne ( Beau- fort) Ragland, from Glamorgan, Wales. The latter, with sons and daughter, set- tled in that portion of New Kent which was subsequently Hanover county, about 1720, and patented several thousand acres of land, which descended to his children.
Standard, a select family paper, with de- partments of science, history, genealogy, etc., from 1879 to 1882; has edited eleven volumes of the new series of the "Virginia Historical Collections," published by the Virginia Historical society, and five vol- umes of the "Papers" of the Southern Historical society (of which he has been the secretary since July, 1887), and other historical, antiquarian and genealogical works, besides contributing to standard works, and preparing various statistical and historical papers for the United States government, and his native state and city. The labors of Mr. Brock have met grati- fying recognition in accorded member- ship in many learned bodies in the United States, Canada and Europe- about three score in number. Solicitous to aid, as far as his ability has admitted, in the
tended correspondence, although a great pleasure, has become an onerous tax upon his time.
He married, April 29, 1869, Sallie Kidd, daughter of Richardson Tyree and Mar- garet Mills (Watt, said to be of the family of the celebrated James Watt) Haw, of Hanover county. She died February 6, 1887, leaving two daughters, Elizabeth R. A. Brock, although possessed of an- tiquarian tastes from childhood, was bred Carrington and Anne Beaufort. He married, secondly, October 16, 1889, Miss to mercantile pursuits, and, following the Lucy Anna Peters of Cumberland county, conclusion of the late war between the Va., and has issue by this marriage a states, was so engaged until August, 1881 son, Robert Alonzo, born September 20, when he disposed of his interests to give 1890. more attention to the Virginia Historical society, of which he has been correspond- ing secretary and librarian since Febru- ary, 1875.
In the late deplorable war between the states of our Union, Mr. Brock served in defense of his section, entering the serv- ice of the Confederate states with "F"
He has been a frequent contributor to company, a select body from Richmond, the press and magazines since boyhood; which shared the fortunes of the army of was one of the editors of the Richmond northern Virginia to the surrender at
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Appomattox C. H., April 9, 1865, and and now holds the office. Before his elec- whose ranks furnished it many officers tion to the bench he took an active in- from the grade of subaltern to that of terest in political matters, making general.
numerous speeches in behalf of the A few survivors are banded together democratic party, and engaging actively as "F" company association, of which in every canvass. He was married April 7, Mr. Brock is the secretary and historiog- 1880, to Lucy Borland Higgins, daughter rapher. He is also a member of several of Ignatius Higgins, of Norfolk, Va., secret and benevolent orders, among whose death occurred in 1855. To this them that of the Ancient Free and Ac- marriage were born five children, as fol- cepted Masons. His lodge, Richmond lows: Lucy Drummond, Eloise Minor, lodge, No. 10 (of which he is historiog- Henry Laurence, Mary Walton and Eve- lina Randolph Brooke.
rapher), is the oldest in the city, having been chartered December 29, 1780. Its
Henry Laurence Brooke, father of the membership has comprised some of the Hon. D. T. Brooke, was born in Stafford most illustrious men of Virginia and of the Union. county, Va., in 1807. He was a lawyer, having been addmitted to the practice in Quiet and retiring by nature, and his early manhood, and for a number of simple in his habits, Mr. Brock, occupied with his pursuits, has never sought po- litical station, but his efforts, as in him reasonably lay, have always been earnest in what his judgment deemed best for the sustenance of the interests of Virginia years was commonwealth attorney of Richmond, Va., and held the office of re- ceiver of property of aliens in the Rich- mond district during the war. He was also one of the old captains of the Rich- mond Grays. He was married, in 1836, to and the weal of the nation. He is of Virginia Tucker, daughter of Henry St. robust physique, and six feet in stature.
HON. DAVID TUCKER BROOKE
was born in Richmond, Va., April 28, 1852, and was educated at the university of Virginia in 1870-71. Leaving the univer- sity in the latter year, he taught school in Stafford county, Va., for about a year, and then a year in Jefferson county, W. Va., and in July, 1873, located in Norfolk, Va., where he was similarly employed until 1881, studying law in the meantime. He was admitted to the bar in 1874 and suc- cessfully practiced from that time on, and John Brooke, a Presbyterian preacher in February, 1884, was elected by the of Harrisonburg, Va .; Virginia Tucker legislature to the office of judge of the Brooke ( deceased in 1865, at the early corporation court of the city of Norfolk, age of seventeen years ); Judge David to fill an unexpired term, to which position Tucker Brooke, of Norfolk, whose name he was re-elected in 1888 for six years, heads this sketch; Elizabeth Dallas
George Tucker, of Winchester, Va., who was president of the court of appeals of Virginia, and professor of law, at the university of Virginia, for many years, and to them were born eleven children, of whom nine lived to maturity, as follows: Evelina Tucker Lucas, wife of Daniel B. Lucas, president of the court of appeals of West Virginia; Nannie Selden Mc- Laughlin, wife of James Fairfax Mc- Laughlin, of New York; St. George Tucker Brooke, professor of law at the university of West Virginia; Rev. Francis
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Brooke, Henry Laurence Brooke of created by the death of Capt. John Q. San Fancisco, Cal., and Laura Beverley, Marr, the first Confederate soldier who fell in the war; raised an artillery com- pany in March, 1862, of which he became captain, and which was disbanded at Ap- pomattox, having done good service; was wife of Everett W. Bedinger, of Mid- dletown, Ky. Henry Laurence Brooke was an old line whig, and while he opposed secession he believed in the sovereignty of the states and after the disabled in October of that year by the secession of Virginia, warmly espoused the cause of the south. He died in 1873 and his wife in 1864.
The grandfather.of Hon. D. T. Brooke was John Taliaferro Brooke, twin-brother of Judge Francis T. Brooke of the Vir- ginia court of appeals; brother of Gov. Robert Brooke, governor of Virginia in 1794, also brother of Dr. Laurence Brooke, surgeon of the Bonhomme Richard. J. Taliaferro Brooke was born in Stafford county, Va., was a lawyer and was a very promising man in his profes- sion. In his early manhood he married Miss Selden, daughter of Carey Selden, of Salvington, Va .; this lady died in 1812. Judge Francis T. Brooke, twin brother of J. Taliaferro Brooke, was a lieutenant in the Revolutionary army and served nn- der Gen. Greene. He died in 1821. His grandfather came to America from Eng- land with Gov. Spottswood, and the family has ever been held in the highest esteem throughout the state.
JAMES V. BROOKE,
fracture of his ankle, and relieved of ac- tive duty, but remained with his company, sharing its hardships, and commanding it at the battle of Fredericksburg. His disa- bility continuing, he was, in the summer of 1863, elected to represent Fauquier county in the house of delegates, and so continued until the evacuation of Rich- mond. To this position he was again chosen in 1871-3, and to the senate of Virginia in 1877-9.
On the 23d of May, 1844, he intermar- ried with Mary E., daughter of Thaddeus Norris, deceased. She died on the 18th of April, 1879, leaving her husband and the following children to mourn her loss, viz: William Throckmorton, formerly deputy consul at Hong-Hong, and now city engineer of Norfolk, Va., who inter- married with Mary G., daughter of Hon. John Goode; Richard Norris, formerly consul at La Rochelle, France, and now an artist of recognized ability; Jeannie Morrison, widow of C. E. F. Payne; James Vass, Jr., lawyer of North Dakota and recently a representative in her legis- lature; and Frank Calvert, by vocation a merchant. Another daughter, Nan- nie A., died before her mother.
a prominent lawyer of Warrenton, Va., was born at Falmouth, Va., October 10, 1824; was educated at Fredericksburg and studied law under R. C. L. Moncure, William Brooke, Jr., father of James V. Brooke, was born in Rappahannock county, Va., about the year 1786, and set- tled in Falmouth when a young man; was a wheat merchant, and manufacturer with Jeannie Morrison, a native of Forres, afterward president of the supreme court of appeals of Virginia; was admitted to the bar in his nineteenth year, and located in Warrenton, where he has since been engaged in the practice of his profession; and exporter of flour, and intermarried was elected a member of the secession convention of 1861, filling the vacancy Scotland, a woman of eminent christian
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Very truly yours Bedford Brown
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worth, and granddaughter of James Cum- ming, laird of "Sluie." She was half- sister of James Vass, a Scotch merchant of Falmouth, famed for the sterling qualities that marked his character. Of this marriage there were born six chil- dren, of whom Mrs. Isabella R. Chilton, widow of Hon. Samuel Chilton, and the subject of this sketch are the only sur- vivors. The father died in 1842 and the mother in 1866.
William Brooke, the grandfather of James V. Brooke, was born in the county of Westmoreland, Va., but removed after his marriage to the county of Rappahan- nock, where he became a large landed proprietor; served with rank of captain in the Revolutionary war; was a mem- ber of the family of Brookes who came from England early in the seventeeth century, and settled in lower Virginia. The name has been historic, having been connected with the gov- ernorship of the state and other important trusts. One of them "rode with Gov. Spottswood" and received a golden horse-shoe. About the year 1771, William Brooke, Sr., intermarried with Mary, daughter of William Beale of Chest- nut Hill, Richmond county, Va., and a lineal descendant of Charles Beale, who came to this country about 1650, and set- tled at Chestnut Hill, where his tomb may still be seen.
DR. BEDFORD BROWN.
Chief among the highly accomplished and experienced physicians of Alexandria, Va., is the gentleman whose name stands at the head of this brief biographical record. He was born in Caswell county, N. C., January 1, 1825, was educated in the leading academies of that state and com- menced to study medicine at the age of
twenty-one, at Lexington, Ky., under Dr. Benjamin W. Dudley, one of the most distinguished surgeons in the country at that time; after assiduously reading under him four years he entered and graduated from the medical department of the Transylvania university at Lexington, Ky., in 1848, and also graduated from the Jefferson medical college in Philadelphia, Pa., in 1854, and then practiced in Albe- marle and Fauquier counties, Va., until 1856 when he returned to Caswell county, N. C., and practiced until 1861, at which time he was commissioned a full surgeon in the Confederate service, and assigned to Floyd's brigade in the army of Western Virginia, and was also under General Lee, as surgeon of the Twenty-fourth North Carolina regiment, until December, 1861; he then returned to North Carolina, where he remained until March Ist, 1862, when he was sent to the field a surgeon of the Forty-third North Carolina regiment, and when that regiment was incorporated into Daniel's brigade, the doctor was made brigade surgeon and served as such until February, 1863, under Lee, in the army of Northern Virginia: next he was promoted to the position of medical director of North Carolina, and given a place on the staff of Gen. Gustavus W. Smith, with whom he served until Gen- eral Smith resigned in the spring of 1863; then he was assigned to duty as inspector of hospitals and camps in North Carolina, and served as such until the summer of 1864; then was discharged on account of ill health and returned to his home in Caswell county, N. C., and remained there until soon after the surrender at Appo- mattox; he then located in Alexandria, Va., where he has since remained and suc- cessfully practiced medicine. The doctor is devoted to his art and is a member of
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the medical examining board of the state | elected to the state senate, and served and ex-president of the Medical society of Virginia, ex-vice-president of the Southern Surgical and Gynecological association and member of its judicial council. He is also a member of the American Medical association and vice-president of the section of obstetrics and of diseases of women. For thirty years Dr. Brown was an extensive and liberal contributor to the medical and surgical literature of the country through the various medical associations and the medical press, his articles meeting with universal commen- dation. At the session of the Southern Surgical and Gynecological association, December, 1892, held at Louisville, Ky., Dr. Bedford Brown was elected its presi- dent.
Dr. Brown was married, in 1852, to Mary Elizabeth Simpson, a daughter of Thomas Simpson, of Montgomery county, Md .. originally from Nottinghamshire, Eng- land, and to them were born ten children, of whom seven died in infancy, the sur- vivors being named as follows: Glenn Brown, of Washington, D. C., a prominent architect, who married Mary Ella Chap- man, daughter of Alfred Chapman, who was a nephew of James Madison. Lucy Lennox, wife of Alfred G. Euhler, of Alexandria Va., and Dr. William Bedford Brown.
several terms, and also was elected speaker of the senate; in 1828 he was elected to the United States senate and was re-elected in 1836, serving two terms, . and then he retired to private life, and lived on his plantation in Caswell county, N. C., until 1860, when he was elected a member of the secession convention. He was opposed to secession and steadfastly resisted it until Lincoln called for troops, and then signed the ordinance of seces- sion. He was married in 1818 to Mary Lumpkin Glenn, daughter of James Ander- son Glenn, of Halifax county, Va., and to them were born five children, as follows: William Frederick Brown, who died in 1847; Livingston Brown, of Caswell county, N. C., who married a Miss Gwynn, and was commissary of the state guards of North Carolina during the late war; Dr. Bedford Brown; Laura Glenn Brown, wife of Theodore Winn, of Liberty county, Ga., and Rosalie Brown, who died unmarried. Our subject's father died in 1871 and his mother in 1864. He was a son of Jethro Brown, who was born on the Pedee river, S. C., in 1760, and left there with his father about 1776 and located in Caswell county, N. C., where he resided until his death in 1830. He was a planter and merchant all his life, leaving a large fortune at the time of his death. He married Miss Lucy William- son, of Halifax county, N. C., and to them were born eight children, among them being the following: James Bedford Brown, John Edmunds, Thomas Jefferson, William, and Martha, who married Dr. Foulkes of Virginia; Elizabeth, who married Dr. Bethel, of North Carolina,
Dr. Bedford Brown's father's name was also Bedford Brown. He was born in Caswell county, N. C., in 1791, and was a lawyer, but early in life ent ered into politics, being an ardent democrat and a warm supporter of Andrew Jackson. He was elected a member of the house of commons of North Carolina, and took his seat when he was but twenty-one; he who migrated to Arkansas; and one served a number of years on the floor and daughter who died in early life, unmarried. twice served as speaker. Ile was then John Edmunds Brown, the paternal uncle
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of the doctor, left five children: Col. and unbending sense of honor fully merit. John E. Brown, Jr., Major Thomas J. Dr. Brown's mother, Mary Lumpkin Brown and Dr. William Brown, all of Glenn, was descended from and connected whom held high positions in the Confed- with some of the wealthiest and most in- fluential families in southern Virginia, among others the Wilsons, Brodnaxs, Hanstons, Garlands, Simms and Clarks, of Dan and Stanton rivers. erate army. His two daughters are Mrs. Sallie C. Hull and Jessie Brown of Salem, N. C. Major Brown also resides in Winston-Salem. Col. John E. Brown re- sides in Charlotte, N. C., and married, soon after the war, Miss Morrison, a JAMES WALTER BROWN,
younger sister of Mrs. General Stonewall the well known auditor of accounts in the Jackson, the Confederate hero. The office of the S. & R. R. R., was born in father of Jethro Brown was John Edmunds Portsmouth, January 22, 1830. He re- Brown, who was born in Prince Edward ceived his collegiate training at the Ports- county, Va., in about 1732. He was a mouth institute, at that time taught by planter and married a Miss Atkins, of the celebrated scholar, N. B. Webster, Prince Edward county, Va .; his death took whence he graduated in 1842, and after- wards engaged in the dry goods business, which he conducted until 1855 with great success. In that year he entered the serv . ice of the Seaboard & Roanoke Railroad as the general freight clerk, and has been in the employ of that company ever since. In 1861 he entered the army as orderly sergeant of the Old Dominion Guards, and was transferred to the Norfolk Light Artillery Blues and served with them one year, being detailed on general hospital duty, in which he continued until the close of the war. After the war he returned to Portsmouth and re-entered the service of the S. & R. R. company. He was au- ditor of the city of Portsmouth from 1874 to 1886, and served two terms as a mem- ber of the common council. Mr. Brown was married February 19, 1851, to Fannie, T. Jobson, daughter of B. W. Jobson, of Princess Anne county, and to them were born three children: Ebbieline, wife of E. W. Maupin; James W., Jr., and one since deceased. James Brown, the father of James Walter, was born in Portsmouth and married, in 1829, Ann Beavens, place soon after the Revolution-about 1789. The father of John Edmunds Brown was born in Bedfordshire, England, about 1700, and when an infant came to America with his parents, who landed at Jamestown, Va., but settled in Prince Edward county, Va. James Anderson Glenn, the maternal grandfather of Dr. Bedford Brown, was born in Glasgow, Scotland. He came to America soon after the Revolution, settling in Petersburg, Va. He was educated for the bar, but went into mercantile trade, which he carried on all his life, and also owned large landed estates. He married Isabella Wilson, the doctor's grandmother. Dr. Brown's maternal great-grandfather's name was Archibald Glenn, who was lord pro- vost of Glasgow, Scotland, for many years, and a leading man. Dr. Bedford Brown is surgeon of the Robert E. Lee camp of Confederate veterans, and as a physician stands at the head of his profession. His long American descent and the merited estimation in which his ancestors were held have secured for him a high social position, which his gentlemanly conductldaughter of John Beavens, by whom he
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had three children: James W., Sarah wife of Henry Allen, and John, deceased. The grandfather, James Brown, was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1745. He was the father of James Brown of Portsmouth; William Brown, deceased, and Ann (de- ceased), who married first William Bran- ham, and second William Graves. He was in the Revolutionary war, and in the French and Indian war he commanded an American merchantman. He was captured by the French and held a pris- oner five years.
DR. WATKINS LEIGH BURTON,
a prominent dentist and inventor of Rich- mond, was born in Henrico county, Feb- ruary 5, 1830. He was the son of Capt. William Burton, also a native of Henrico, and a planter who served as a captain in the state militia. The latter was the grandson of Martin Burton, whose ancestor, a native of England, emi- grated to America about the close of the seventeenth century and located in Hen- rico county, Va., near Richmond. The mother of the doctor was Mary Moseby, also a native of Henrico county. Watkins Leigh Burton was brought up in his native county on a farm, receiving an academic education. At the age of seventeen he became a clerk in the treasurer's office of the Richmond, Fredericksburg & Poto- mac railroad at Richmond. He held that position about two years at the end of which time he entered the employ of L. D. Crenshaw Brothers & Co., a large shipping firm of Richmond. He re- mained in their employ as a clerk about two years. By this time he had deter- mined to fit himself for the dental pro- fession, and, preparatory to this, took a course in anatomy in the medical college of Virginia in 1849 and 1850. At the same of heating. He studied, devised and ex-
time he was a student under Dr. John G. Wayt, a celebrated dentist of Richmond. He entered upon the practice of his pro- fession in Richmond in 1851 and con- tinued without interruption until the breaking out of the war, with the except tion of the trouble with John Brown jus- prior to the war, when he served as a member of company F, First Virginia regiment. During the first year of the war he served as captain and assistant quarter-master and was stationed at Fredericksburg. In 1862 he was detailed for hospital duty by Surgeon-general Moore and served as dentist surgeon in different hospitals until the close of the war. Dr. Burton has contributed to dental literature much valuable informa- tion bearing upon his experience as a dental surgeon. At the close of the war he resumed his profession in Richmond and he has been actively engaged at it ever since, ranking at the present time as one among the foremost men of the profession. Besides reaching a high place in the practice of dentistry, Dr. Burton has in other ways distinguished himself. In 1876 he founded a weekly periodical in Richmond known as the Baton, and which was of a musical and humorous character. He edited and published it six years and its career was a successful one. Its fame and circula- tion grew until its exchange list numbered nearly all of the papers of a similar character in the country. But by far the most important act of his life is his in- vention of an electric heater, which has made him famous throughout the world. As early as 1863 his attention was at- tracted to an item in a newspaper which set him to thinking and wondering why electricity could not be used as a means
W.S. Camp.
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perimented until his labors were finally | Cairo, Ill. In 1866 Dr. Burton married rewarded by success. He obtained a Miss Sue M. Johnson of Richmond, by whom he has four children, three of whom are sons. Their names are Robert M., Mary N., W. Leigh, Jr., and George Ross. patent upon his invention, which is now known to the world as the Burton elec- tric heater, in 1869 This was ten years before the invention of the dynamo, and the use of the heater was impracticable. Since the dynamo has been brought into WILLIAM SEWALL CAMP general use, the use of the heater has was born in Norfolk, Va., in 1808. He was educated at the schools of his native city, but at the age of sixteen years went into the store of Maitland & Bros., import- ers of Norfolk, where he received his early business training. He later entered mercantile business on his own account in Norfolk, and continued the same until 1861, when he permanently retired. Mr. Camp was married in 1848 to Miss Mary Elizabeth, daughter of Caleb Bonsall, of Delaware, and the issue of this marriage was four children, three of whom survive. Their names are Ellen, widow of Henry R. Woodis; William, and James Bloodgood Camp. Caleb died in infancy. been fully established and it is now being rapidly adopted by electric street railway companies of the cities throughout the United States. The first practical test of the heater in connection with the dynamo was in 1882. In 1887 Dr. Burton received a patent upon the heater as it is used to- day. If this invention were the only act of the doctor's life, he would be entitled to a place among the leading inventors of this age. The first practical test of heating a car by electricity was made January 30, 1888, and its practicability was fully established. Dr. Burton has been a frequent contributor to the leading news- papers and periodicals of the day. Dr. Burton is a member of the Sons of Tem- perance of Virginia and he is a past grand worthy patriarch of the state. He is a royal arch Mason, a member of the F company association which is com- posed of the veterans of company F, First Virginia regiment; a member of the board of governors of the Mozart association of Richmond. He has given consider- able attention to music and for a period of six years he was a member of the Mozart orchestra of Richmond.
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