Eminent and representative men of Virginia and the District of Columbia in the nineteenth century. With a concise historical sketch of Virginia, Part 43

Author: Henry, William Wirt, 1831-1900; Spofford, Ainsworth Rand, 1825-1908; Brant & Fuller, Madison, Wis., pub
Publication date: 1893
Publisher: Madison, Wis., Brant & Fuller
Number of Pages: 700


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 43
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 43


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Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65


Mr. Camp's father was William Green Camp, who was born in Gloucester county, Va. His wife's father, Caleb Bonsall, was born in Memington, Dela., in 1777. Caleb Bonsall belonged to the Society of Friends, or Quakers, and was a stationer by occupation. When a young man he located at Norfolk, and engaged in business, remaining there until his death in 1851. He was a member of the Norfolk city council for many years. In 1813 he was married to Miss Sarah Danby, daughter of Dennis Danby, of Princess Anne county, Va., and to them were born seven children, of whom one, Catharine, died in infancy. The remaining six were John Bonsall, of Atlanta, Ga., who was a member of Gen. Pemberton's staff; Ellen Harrison, widow of James I. Bloodgood,


Dr. Burton has been twice married. His first wife was Miss Bettie Smith, whom he met at Charleston, W. Va., dur- ing the. John Brown excitement and whom he married in 1860. She died in 1862, leaving an only daughter, who is now the wife of Clarence L. Hilleary of | of Baltimore, Md .; Caleb, deceased in


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1856; Mary Eliza; Sarah, widow of Hiram | and triumphantly elected for the term of Hunt, of Rochester, Me., and Stephen Bonsall, of Baltimore. The father of this family died in 1851, and the mother in 1871. Caleb Bonsall's father was born in Wilmington, Dela., and there spent his life.


JAMES EDWIN CARRUTHERS,


the popular treasurer of Loudoun county, Va., is a descendant of an old family which settled in the same county in an early day-one of the ancestors being William Carruthers, who was born near Leesburg in the year 1752. James E. Carruthers was born January 18, 1848' and received a good education in the academies of Leesburg and Hillsboro, after which, in 1868, he accepted a clerical position in a store at the latter place and continued in that capacity until 1871. In the latter year he entered the store of W. W. Burdett, Washington, D. C., with whom he remained a short time and afterward became salesman in the same city for Perry Brothers, in whose employ he continued for a period of three years' acquiring a very thorough knowledge of the business in the meantime. Owing to failing health he was obliged to abandon mercantile pursuits and return to his old home, but in the spring of 1874 he again accepted his former position at Hillsboro, where he remained about one year, removing to Leesburg at the end of that time. In October, 1874, he was made deputy sheriff for Jefferson mag- terial district, Loudoun county, and as such served very acceptably for a period of four years, or until 1879, acting as deputy for the county treas- WILLIAM WILSON CHAMBERLAINE, urer in connection with his other offi- was born in Norfolk, Va., October 16, 1836. He was educated in his native city, cial duties in the meantime. In 1879 he was nominated for the office of sheriff and at Hampden-Sidney college, leaving


four years, and such was the confidence reposed in him by his fellow-citizens that at the ensuing election he was chosen to be his own successor without opposition. In 1887 he was a candidate for treasurer of the county, but failing of an election he accepted the position of deputy sheriff for his old district, in which capacity he served four years, when his name was again placed before the people for treas- urer, this time with more success, having been elected in 1891. As an officer, Mr. Carruthers is painstaking and obliging, and the interest he has always taken in the people's welfare makes him one of the most popular public servants the county has ever had. He is a wide awake, in- telligent man of affairs, fully alive to every movement having for its object the public good, and the ability with which he has discharged every trust is proof sufficient that the confidence of his fel- low-citizens has in no wise been mis- placed. Mr. Carruthers and Miss Lutie Gregg, only daughter of G. G. Gregg, of Round Hill, Loudoun county, were united in marriage on the 15th day of Decem- ber, 1886, a union to which one child. James Guilford Carruthers, was born November 25, 1889. John Carruthers, father of James E., was born in Loudoun county in 1813, and married Malinda E. Nixon, who bore him five children, Thomas N., John E., Joel, James E., and Ruth H., two of whom, Thomas N. and John E., served with distinction in the late war as members of Confederate regiments.


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that institution in 1853. He began life | anoke railroad, which position he now for himself as a clerk in Norfolk, and af- ter continuing that occupation for two years went into the banking business, as a member of the firm of R. H. Chamber- laine & Sons. This firm continued to do business until 1861, at which time its af- fairs were wound up, and the partnership disbanded. When the war began Mr. Chamberlaine was a member of company F, third batallion of state infantry, and went with this command into the Confed- erate army. It was assigned to the Sixth Virginia regiment and known as com- pany G. Mr. Chamberlaine took the rank of first sergeant when he went into the service, and two weeks afterward was made lieutenant, and as such served one year. When the army was reorganized he declined a re-election; but he remained out of the service, however, only three weeks, and was then re-elected second lieutenant of his old company and served in that company and on detached service until October, 1863. He was then made assistant adjutant-general of the artillery of the third corps and served as such un- til April 9, 1865, when Lee surrendered at Appomattox. He fought in the following named battles: Charles City Cross Roads, Malvern Hill, Sharpsburg, Fredericks- burg, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, Bris- tow Station, Mine Run, Wilderness, Spottsylvania C. H., siege of Petersburg, and Appomattox. At the close of the war he returned to Norfolk and em- barked in the commission business, which he discontinued at the end of six months, and engaged in banking. Eighteen months later he organized the Citizens' bank of Norfolk, of which he was made cashier, serving in that capac- ity for nine years. In 1877 he was elected treasurer of the Seaboard & Ro-


holds. When the Savings bank of Nor- folk was started in February, 1886, Mr. Chamberlain was elected its president, and is now a member of its board of di- rectors. He has served one term as a member of the Norfolk city council and is now president of the Norfolk Electric Lighting company. Mr. Chamberlaine was married in 1864 to Matilda Hughes Dillard, daughter of Hughes Dillard of Henry county, Va. Three children have been born to this marriage: Mary Wil- son, Ann Dillard, and William Chamber- laine, a graduate of West Point Military academy. Mr. Chamberlaine's father was Richard Henry Chamberlaine, born in Norfolk in 1807 and educated there, where for many years he carried on the banking business. He was cashier of the old Farmers' bank of Virginia for a long period and served several terms as a mem- ber of the Norfolk city council. In 1831 he married Mary Eliza Wilson, daughter of William Wilson of New York city. They had seven children, one of whom died in infancy. Of the remaining six who grew to maturity, two died without issue, Richard and Henry, both of whom served in the Confederate army. The names of those now surviving are George, of Norfolk, who was a captain in the Confederate army; William W., of Nor- folk; Agnes Wilson, and Fanny, wife of Joseph H. Baker of New York city. Mrs. Chamberlaine died in 1847 and in 1851 Mr. Chamberlaine was married to Miss Maria Elizabeth, daughter of William Loney of Baltimore, Md. There were four children born of this union: Rebecca L., wife of Benjamin H. Fabens of Salem, Mass .; Mary Bose of New York city; Charles Frederick of New York city, and Robert L. Chamberlaine of Baltimore


·


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The father died in July, 1879. The name | Va., there marrying and becoming the of Mr. Chamberlaine's grandfather was father of John, Andrew, Cooper and Will- iam Chancellor. From this ancient and highly respected family the name of the town of Chancellorsville, Va., is derived - a town made famous by the sanguinary conflict which took place there during the recent civil war. John Chancellor, men- tioned above as the son of the English officer and immigrant, John Chancellor, was born in Stafford county, Va., in 1755, and married Elizabeth Edwards, daugh- ter of Hayden Edwards, a native of Wales, and to this union were born John, George, William, Sandford (a major in the war of 1812), Elizabeth, Penelope and Jane. Of these children it is necessary to state that George was born in Orange county, Va., in 1787, and was a planter. In 1815 he married Ann Pound, a widow, who bore him six children, named as fol- lows; Melzi, a Baptist minister of Fred- ericksburg, Va .; Lorman, attorney at law of Baltimore, Md .; Susan (deceased), who was married to James P. Chartters, of Spottsylvania county, Va .; George Ed- wards (deceased); Ann Monroe, wife of Jacob E. Appler, of Columbus, Ga .; and Dr. James Edgar, whose name heads this sketch. The father of this family died in 1842, the mother in 1856, leaving be- hind, beside those mentioned above, a child by her first husband, Fannie, widow of Sanford Chancellor, of Spottsylvania county, Va. George. He was also born in Norfolk, in 1780; was a shipbuilder and a veteran of the war of 1812. He died about 1815 of a disease contracted in the service. He married Fannie Lowery Needham of Elizabeth City county, Va., and they had several children, all of whom died in in- fancy except Richard Henry. Mr. Chamberlaine's great-grandfather was George Chamberlaine, born in Warwick county, Va., in 1755. He was a lieutenant in the navy and served in defense of his native state throughout the Revolution. At the close of the war he was an officer in the United States custom house at Norfolk and held this position up to the time of his death, about the year 1790. He married Ann Harlow Lucas of War- wick county, Va., and they had one child, the grandfather of William W. The an- cestors of the Chamberlaine family were two brothers, George and Philip, and their cousin, Byrd Chamberlaine. They came to America on the dethronment of King Charles and settled in the neighbor- hood of Mulberry island in the James river. One of these brothers was cap- tured by the English in the war of the Revolution and taken to England, but made his escape. Mrs. Chamberlaine's ma- ternal great-grandfather was Major Redd, a native of Henry county, Va., and an officer in the Revolutionary war.


DR. JAMES EDGAR CHANCELLOR,


an eminent physician of Charlottesville, Albermarle county, Va., descends from a long line of Americans of English de- scent, his great-grandfather, John Chan- cellor, having come to this country in his early manhood, as an officer in the British army, settling in Westmoreland county,


Dr. James Edgar Chancellor was born in Chancellorsville, Va., January 26, 1826, and was educated at the classical academy at Fredericksburg, Va., and took a medi- ical course at the university of Virginia and at the Jefferson Medical college of Pennsylvania, graduating from the latter in March, 1848; he then located in his native county (Spottsylvania), where he


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enjoyed a lucrative practice until 1861, served one term as professor to the chair and then at the outbreak of the Civil war of diseases of women and children in the university of Florida at Tallahassee; also filled the chair of anatomy; he resigned both chairs and returned to Virginia, and was appointed by the governor of Virginia a member of the state medical examining board in 1890. He has made frequent contributions to the literature of his profession, among which is named "An exhaustive paper on the origin and use of Natural Mineral Waters of the United States," " Ancient Medicine, its History," etc., " Cremation and Inhumation Com- pared," with papers descriptive of Treat- ment of Ingrowing Toenails; " Uses of Iod- oform in Specific Diseases," " Removal of Fibroid Growth Involving Right Parotid Gland, 1863, with Recovery," " Removal of the Right Clavicle for Osteo-Sarcoma, 1889, with Recovery," and "Subsequent Amputation at The Hip Joint" for recur- rence of same, in "The Shaft of Femur" of same patient, with recovery, 1891. removed to Charlottesville, Va., which has been his home ever since. He entered the Confederate service in 1861 as assist- ant surgeon, was stationed at the general Confederate States hospital in Charlottes- ville for eighteen months, and was then made surgeon and remained at the gen- eral hospital, Charlottesville, Va., until the last of the war, when he was sent to the field, as one of the reserve corps of sur- geons. The cutting off of communications with the army of northern Virginia by Gen. Phil Sheridan in the spring of 1865, closed the general hospital at Char- lottesville, Va. William Chancellor with an ambulance and some medical stores set out to join Gen. J. E. Johnston's com- mand, then in Georgia. The surrender of Gen. R. E. Lee at Appomattox caused the doctor's return to Charlottesville, where he resumed the practice of his pro- fession. He was made demonstrator of anatomy in the medical department of the The doctor was twice married, first in 1853, to Miss Josephine Anderson, daugh- ter of Thomas W. Anderson, of Spottsyl- vania county, Va., and by her had six children, of whom, four grew to maturity as follows: Dr. Eustathius Chancellor, of St. Louis, Mo .; Alexander Clarendon Chancellor, of Columbus, Ga .; Thomas Sebastian Chancellor, of Atlanta, Ga., and Samuel Cleveland Chancellor, of the university of Virginia. Mrs. Josephine (Anderson) Chancellor died in 1862 and the doctor married, in 1867, Gabriella Mays, née Garth, of Albemarle county, Va., who all enjoy to the full the respect and confidence of their neighbors. university of Virginia in October, 1865, which position he filled with credit to him- self and satisfaction to the associate fac- ulty and his pupils until shattered health, from a dissecting wound, necessitated his resignation in 1872. During the summer season for twenty-five years, he has been resident physician to some of the princi- pal mineral springs of Virginia, a promi- nent member of the Medical society of Virginia since 1871, vice-president of same in 1874 and 1880, and its president in 1883 and honorable fellow of same. (It was during his term of office the state board of medical examiners was organ- ized) ; permanent member of the Ameri- can Medical association since 1875, and DR. JOHN HERBERT CLAIBORNE, the American Public Health association an eminent physician of Petersburg, was since 1878. In 1885 he was elected and born in Brunswick county, Va., March 10,


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1828. His father was Rev. John G. Clai- | rear for the organization and establish- borne, who was first a lawyer and finally ment of hospitals. During the last year of the war he was chief surgeon and ex- ecutive officer in charge of all general military hospitals at Petersburg. He was wounded during the siege of Petersburg, but was not so severely disabled as to compel him to retire from active duty. On April 2, 1865, he left Petersburg with General Lee's army and was captured by GeneralDevens'command at Appomattox, on April 9th, one hour before Lee's sur- render. After being paroled he returned to Petersburg, where he has practiced his profession ever since. In this profession he has acquired a proud eminence and holds an enviable position among his pro- fessional brethren. He is a general prac- titioner; is ex-president and honorary fellow of the Virginia State Medical so- ciety, and a fellow of the American Med- ical association, a member of the National Health association and a fellow of the Southern Surgical and Gynecological as- sociation, a fellow of the Gynecological society of Boston and a member elect of the Victoria Institute of Great Britain. Dr. Claiborne has been a frequent and constant contributor to the Medical Jour- nal of America, and is the author of a work entitled Clinical Reports from Pri- vate Practice. He is an ex-president of the state board of health. In politics he is democratic; is a member of the Masonic order and is surgeon of the Veteran corps, A. P. Hill camp, of Petersburg, Dr. Clai- borne has been twice married. His first wife was Miss Sarah J. Alston, whom he married in 1863. She died in 1869. In 1887 he married Miss Annie L., daughter of Robert L. Watson, of Petersburg. He had one son and four daughters by his first wife and one son and one daughter a clergyman. He was born in Dinwiddie county in 1798 and died in Petersburg in 1887. He was the son of Captain Herbert Claiborne, a member of Lee's legion in the Revolutionary war, belonging to what was known as the Surrey troop. Herbert was the son of Colonel Augustine Clai- borne, secretary of the county of Surrey under George III. He was a great grand- son of William Claiborne of Maryland. The mother of Dr. Claiborne was Mary E., the daughter of Daniel Weldon of Roan- oke, N. C. The wife of Daniel Weldon was Polly Frazer. Dr. Claiborne's mother died in 1857. He was educated at the Ebenezer academy of Brunswick county, at an academy in Leesburg, N. C., and at Randolph-Macon college and the univer- sity of Virginia, from which he graduated as an M. D .; from Randolph-Macon col- lege as A. M. in 1848, from the university of Virginia in 1849. He then entered Jefferson Medical college at Philadelphia and graduated from that institution in 1850. In 1851 he graduated from the Pennsylvania hospital of Philadelphia and from the Philadelphia Obstetrical institute the same year. He located immediately at Petersburg and entered upon the prac- tice of his profession. In 1855, he was elected a member of the lower house of the state legislature and served one term of two years. At the close of this term he was elected to the state senate and there served for four years. He was re-elected in 1861 for another term of four years, but, after taking his seat, he resigned to enter the Confederate army. April 19, 1861, he was appointed surgeon of the Twelfth Virginia regi- ment and served as such for eight months. He was then ordered to the by his present wife. His eldest son, John


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Herbert Claiborne, Jr., is the celebrated |judge of Chesterfield county in the fall of eye, ear and throat specialist of New York city. According to Browning's history of the families of noble descent in Virginia, Dr. Claiborne is a direct descendant of Duncan, king of Scotland.


JUDGE WILLIAM IZARD CLOPTON,


1873 and in the same fall was elected judge of the corporation court of the city of Manchester. He served in that dual capacity for a term of six years. In 1884, Judge Clopton was re-elected city at- torney of Manchester and has held the position ever since, being the present in- cumbent. In 1885 he was re-elected judge


of Manchester, Va., was born in Henrico county, Va., May 27, 1839. He is the of Chesterfield county and has also held son of Judge John Bacon Clopton, a dis- that position ever since. While not act- ing in an official capacity he has practiced law, chiefly in Manchester, during the past twenty years. He is an official member of the Methodist Episcopal church, a democrat in politics, a royal arch Mason, and is deputy grand master of the thirty- first Virginia district. He is attorney for the Mechanics' & Merchants' bank of Manchester and for the Building, Loan & Trust company of that city. He is president of the Land & Development company of North Carolina. Judge Clopton was married April 14, 1868, to Miss Alice Baird, daughter of Douglas Baird of Richmond, Va. On the pater- nal side, Judge Clopton is descended from William Clopton, who came from England to Virginia in the seventeenth century. tinguished lawyer and jurist of Virginia, who died in 1860. William I. Clopton graduated from William and Mary col- lege in 1857. He immediately began the study of law with his father, and at twenty years of age was admitted to the bar and entered upon the practice of his profession in Richmond. In the spring of 1861, April 20, he entered the service of the Confederate army as second lieu- tenant of the Richmond Fayette artillery. He served throughout the whole war and participated in thirty different engage- ment but was not wounded. October, 1861, he was promoted to first lieutenant and to a captaincy in March, 1865. He had, however, commanded his battery almost continuously since April, 1862. He was in the battles of Williamsburg, Seven Pines, Mechanicsville, Gaines Mill, Fra- JOHN LEWIS COCHRAN zier's Farm, Malvern Hill, second was born in Staunton, Va., August 22, 1827, and educated at the university of Virginia. Leaving that institution in 1848 he was admitted to the bar in the follow- ing year, and began practice in Charlottes- ville. He continued his practice there until 1872, when he was elected county judge and administered that office for two terms of six years each. Since his retire- ment from the bench he has not practiced, but has attended to his property interests. Mr. Cochran, in April, 1861, entered the Manassas, Crampton's Gap, Antietam, Sharpsburg, Gettysburg, Plymouth, N. C., second Cold Harbor and Petersburg, also Ream's Station, Hatcher's Run and Fort Harrison. In 1865 he resumed the prac- tice of law in Richmond -his home, how- ever, being in Manchester. He was elected city attorney of Manchester in 1866, and held the office constantly until 1874. In 1871 he was elected a member of the lower house of the state legislature and served one term. He was elected Confederate service as lieutenant of a


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company in the Nineteenth Virginia| of whom came to maturity as follows: regiment and served as such in the same John Lewis, James C., who was in the Confederate service and was colonel of the regiment of militia when it was called out in Augusta, where he now resides; Dr. Henry King, who served as surgeon in the Confederate army throughout the war; Howe Peyton, who was captain of the ordnance department in the field in the Confederate service all through the war, and now living at Charlottesville, superintendent of public schools; William Lynn (deceased in 1883), was a lawyer and at one time mayor of Charlottes- ville; he was also a major in the quarter- master's department in the Confederate service, taking a position in that depart- ment on account of his physical condition, being a cripple; and George Moffett Cochran (deceased in 1886). The last- named was a private in Gen. J. E. B. Stuart's command, entering the service when about sixteen years of age; and Mary Lewis, who married her kinsman, Capt. John M. Preston, and resides at Seven Mile Fork, Smyth county, Va. There were 105 of the Lewis family, in- cluding the subject of this sketch, his brothers, his father's and mother's nephews and grandnephews, in the Con- federate service. John L. Cochran's father died in 1884, and his mother in 1882. His grandfather's name was James Cochran, born in Augusta county in 1768. He was a farmer all his life, though edu- cated for the ministry. He was a presid- ing magistrate in Augusta county twice and succeeded to the office of high sheriff. He married Magdalen Moffett, daughter of George Moffett of Augusta county, a colonel in the Revolutionary war. To them were born four children, named James (deceased) ; George M., deceased in 1890 at the age of ninety-two years; company and regiment until the army was re-organized in the spring of 1862. He was then elected captain of his com- pany and, in the spring of 1863, was appointed captain provost marshal on Longstreet's military court and served in that capacity until the surrender. He was in the following battles: First Ma- nassas, Williamsburg, Sharpsburg, Greens- borough Gap, second Manassas, first Fredericksburg and numerous minor engagements. In 1865 he was elected to the legislature and received his commis- sion while on the retreat from Richmond, but as the legislature then elected was never convened he did not take his seat. In 1861 he was the whig candidate for the legislature from Albemarle county, but the war coming on, he entered the service. He was a delegate to the American con- vention which met in Philadelphia and nominated Fillmore and Donelson on its presidential ticket. Mr. Cochran was married in 1868 to Miss Mary James, daughter of Thomas James of Chillicothe, Ohio, and to them three children, named John Lewis, Mary Massie and William Lynn Cochran, were born. John Cochran was the name of John L. Cochran's father. He was born in Augusta county, Va., in 1793. He was a merchant in early life and in 1826 came to Charlottesville, where he carried on the merchandise trade until 1860, retiring from the business at that date. He was a magistrate and member of the old county court in Albemarle county for several years. In politics he was a Henry Clay whig all his life. In October, 1826, he was married to Miss Margaret Lynn, daughter of Capt. John Lewis of Sweet Springs, W. Va., and eight children were born to them, seven




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