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 50
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 50
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was born on the 21st of April, 1809, in Essex county, Va. His father, James Hunter, was a man of remarkable force, both of intellect and character, and pos- sessed an amount of literary taste and culture unusual among his contempora- ries. His mother, Maria Garnett, a sister of James M. and Robert S. Garnett, who at different times represented the district to which they belonged in the Federal congress, was also a person of extraordi- nary talents and culture. At an early age this son, R. M. T. Hunter, and the youngest but one of eight children, dis- played an ambition and capacity which proved him as no unworthy descendant of such parents. Though enjoying in child- hood little beyond the very moderate school opportunities then common in rural Virginia, he derived great advantage from the early teaching of his sisters, and his precocious taste for reading was grati- stock of books. Characteristically enough, Plutarch was one of his boyish favorites,
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and he has been heard to say in later life | Calhoun, of whom he has been called "the that he was, even at that early period, ablest lieutenant, and most resembling his great chieftain in the unblemished purity of his private and public life, as in his fine endowments and his clear com- prehension of the true principles upon which our political system should rest." Transferred in 1847 to the United States senate, at that period one of the ablest de- liberative bodies that the world had ever seen, Mr. Hunter took his place among the "giants of those days" with an ease and mastery which nothing but conscious strength could have given. A constant ad- vocate of economical government and low taxation, he brought with him from the house a high reputation for financial ability and information, and it is sufficient evidence of the estimation in which he was held by his senatorial associates that he was early placed and long retained at the head of the finance committee. In 1850 he earnestly and ably opposed the so-called compromise measures on the ground that they consisted, solely, of con- cessions on the part of the south, and that they would serve no purpose save that of inviting further aggression. Failing in the effort to defeat the passage of these bills, he was the author of the dignified and impressive protest entered on the journal of the senate against that one of them which provided for the admission of California. Conservative by nature and habit, and devoted heart and soul to the success of the "great American ex- periment," as long as there was a shadow of hope, Mr. Hunter labored unweariedly for the preservation of the Union. Even struck with the philosopher's leaning in his famous parallels toward the side of his countrymen. In his seventeenth year he went to the university of Virginia, where he was a classmate, among others distinguished in after life, of the poet Poe. After remaining there four sessions, the last of them as a law student, he con- tinued his professional studies under . Judge Tucker, at Winchester, Va., and entered upon the practice of law in his native county with excellent prospects of success, to be drawn away from it, how- ever, almost immediately, into the current of political life. In 1834 he was elected to the Virginia house of delegates, where his services proved so acceptable that he was transferred three years later to the Federal house of representatives. The principal subjects of discussion in the legislature during his term of service were the expunging resolutions of the United States senate and the growth of abolition associations in the north. In both cases Mr. Hunter favored a strict construction of the constitution, and a jealous watchfulness alike of the encroachments of the executive upon the other branches of the Federal govern- ment and of the Federal government itself upon the reserved rights of the states. Entering the house of represent- atives for the first time at the extra session in 1837, he so early achieved a high position that in 1839 he was chosen speaker, being at that date both one of the youngest men and one of the youngest members who had ever been called to as late as the winter preceding the fill that important office, second, perhaps, outbreak of hostilities, and after in power and responsibility only to the the secession of several states, he made presidency itself. Here began his close on the 11th of January, 1861, a last most public and private friendship with Mr. eloquent and statesmanlike appeal in be-
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half of peace and reconciliation. But it | During the absence of the vice-president was to the Union as framed by the " fath- he was the presiding officer of this body, and at all times one of the most active, prominent and influential members. Toward the close of the struggle Mr. Hunter acted as one of the Confederate commissioners at the famous Hampton Roads conference, where he strove earn- estly but vainly to effect a pacification, and avert the catastrophe which has since proved so injurious to both sections. After the fall of the Confederacy he was arrested and detained in confinement for some time at Fort Pulaski. On his return, disappointed in all his hopes, and deeply wounded in spirit as he was, he neverthe- less refused to yield to despondency and exerted every effort to revive and sustain the spirit of his suffering countrymen, crushed beneath the weight of their al- most unparalleled misfortunes. Blow af- ter blow of various kinds fell thick and fast upon him in his declining years, but he bore them with fortitude and patience above praise, and the pressure of private trials and griefs never made him indiffer- ers," a constitutional Federal union of co-equal and sovereign states, with a gov- ernment of strictly defined and limited powers, to which he felt that his devotion was due, and was so deeply imbued with the doctrines of Jefferson and the spirit of 1775 to doubt for an instant where his duty lay, when his native state, while still standing between the contending parties, and pleading for peace, was peremptorily ordered by the Federal government, or rather by its executive branch, to take one side or the other, to fight against her sisters who were but asserting their right of peaceable withdrawal and self-govern- ment, or with them. The states' rights · doctrine, indeed, to which he was so strongly attached, was only a form of that wider theory of human society, which, whether it be called individualism, de- centralization, or the enlargement of the sphere of liberty and the contraction of that of authority, has been, whatever the name, the creed of the world's most pro- found and liberal political philosophers. ent to public welfare. In spite of an inex- pressible shrinking from entering again, under such sadly changed circumstances, the arena of his former triumphs, he took an active part in the organization of the conservative party in Virginia, urged in more than one speech on the hustings the election of Greeley to the presidency in 1872, and on repeated occasions brought forward and advocated through the press his very ingenious and skillfully contrived plan of a currency consisting of treasury notes interconvertible with government bonds. He also served as state treasurer of Virginia for several years after the war, and in 1874 (though steadily refusing to take any personal part in the canvass), However unpopular and discredited at present, to expound and defend this prin- cipal will be the future task of the party of progress, nor can society be safe from the tyranny of numeral majorities until in one shape or another it is recognized and admitted. Immediately on the se- cession of Virginia, Mr. Hunter was ap- pointed one of her representatives in the provisional congress of the Confederate states, and soon afterward was called to the department of state in Mr. Davis' cabinet. In executive office, however, he did not long remain, being called by his state, on the organization of the perma- nent government of the Confederacy, to represent her in the Confederate senate. was warmly supported by his friends for
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his former seat in the United States sen- | ate, a position to which, however, Col. R. E. Withas was elected. The remain- der of his life after the close of his serv- ices as treasurer was passed in domestic retirement. In 1831 he had married Miss Dandridge of Jefferson county, Va., and the singularly happy union thus formed became the chief consolation and support of his after life. Under Cleveland's ad- ministration he was appointed collector of the port of Tappahannock, in his native county, resigning this office only a few months before his death, which occurred on the 18th of July, 1887. Mr. Hunter possessed the fundamental condition of excellence as a political leader in an ele- vated conception of the nature and the responsibilities of the statesman's office. He viewed with a sentiment approaching awe the paramount dignity, and import- ance pertaining to the task of guiding a great society in its onward march toward the goal of indefinite improvement. His mind was eminently conservative, judicial, unbiased by a passion or prejudice. His patriotism was ardent, his sense of public duty elevated. When going to address a mass meeting in Poughkeepsie, N. Y., dur- ing the canvass of 1856, it was suggested to him that he could advance his own po- of his intended speech. His reply in sub- stance was that no possible prospect of personal advancement could tempt him to swerve from the course he had marked out for himself as most conducive to the public interests. Even his strongest op- ponent admitted the spotless integrity
number, that he was "the most accom - plished, wisest, most disinterested, best, and gentlest of all the men that I knew that were his contemporaries."
GEN. EPPA HUNTON
was born in Fauquier county, Va., Septem- ber 23, 1823, and there educated at an academy. After finishing his literary education, he taught school three years, and while teaching he studied law under Judge Jno. W. Tyler; he was admitted to the bar in June, 1844, and located at Brentsville, Prince William county, Va., and commenced to practice. In 1849 he was elected commonwealth attorney, first by the court and then by the people, and filled that office until June, 1861. In Feb- ruary, 1861, he was elected to the secession convention from Prince William county, as a secessionist, and voted for the ordi- nance, and iminediately upon its passage was placed upon the military committee to prepare the state of Virginia for de- fense, he having been a brigadier-general of militia from 1850, and after the passage of the ordinance he desired to resign that position and enter the Confederate reg- ular army, but at the request of Gov. Letcher he held on a while, but finally re- signed and applied for the position of litical fortunes by changing the character colonel of the Virginia troops, and was recommended by every member of the convention; he was appointed, and was ordered to Leesburg, Va., to organize the Eighth Virginia infantry, composed of six companies from Loudoun, two from Fauquier, one from Prince William and one from Fairfax. He held the position and singular elevation of his public char- of colonel of the Eighth and frequently had acter, while the sentiments of his friends command of the brigade; at Gettysburg can hardly perhaps be better expressed he was promoted to brigadier-general, than in the language of one of the oldest and was there wounded in the famous and most competent to judge among the charge of Gen. Pickett's men on Cemetery
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Heights. His wound caused him to be selected by the house as one of its five absent from his command six weeks, when members of the said commission and he joined the army again in Culpeper served throughout its sessions. county, and served until April 6, 1865, Gen. Eppa Hunton was married, in 1848. to Lucy C. Weir, a daughter of Robert Weir, an old merchant of Tappahannock, who had moved to Prince William county, Va., some years before, and to this union were born two children, namely: Eliza- beth Boothe Hunton, who died at the age when he was captured at Sailor's Creek in defending the artillery in Lee's last re- treat. He was taken to Washington a prisoner, and thence was taken to Fort Warren, leaving Washington the same evening President Lincoln was assas- sinated. From New York to Boston a of fifteen months, and Eppa, a lawyer determined effort was made to mob the now in Warrenton, Va. Eppa Hunton, Confederate prisoners, but it failed, and father of Gen. Eppa Hunton, was born in Gen. Hunton and comrades were confined Fauquier county, January 30, 1789, and at Fort Warren until the latter part of had a common school education. He was July, 1865. His treatment at Fort Warren a farmer all his life, but served two terms he reports was very good. On his release in the legislature. In the war of 1812 he he located in Warrenton, Va., in his native served at Craney Island, and as a staff of- ficer at Bladensburg. He was brigade inspector of the state militia. He was married, about 1812, to Elizabeth Marye Brent, daughter of William Brent, of Dumfries, Va., and to this union were born eleven children, of whom Virginia and Charles Arthur Hunton died in in- county, and resumed the practice of the law and soon acquired a very large practice in Fauquier county, and also in Loudoun and Prince William counties. In 1872 Gen. Hunton was elected to congress and re-elected three consecutive times, serv- ing four terms, but voluntarily retiring. The last time he was proposed for the fancy, and the following named grew to office he was nominated by acclamation, maturity: John Heath Hunton, who mar- ried Amanda M. Butcher, of Loudoun county, Va., and died in 1842; Judith Ann Hunton, widow of Martin O. Butcher, Silas Brown Hunton married Mar- garet A. Rixey (deceased); James Innis Hunton, who married Matilda McNamara, and died in 1875; Gen. Eppa Hunton; Elizabeth Marye Hun- ton, who was the wife of James M. Morehead, of Fauquier county, Va., and died in 1873; Dr. George W. Hun- and ran against a republican and green- backer, carrying every precinct in his dis- trict but three. After leaving congress, Gen. Hunton opened a law office in Wash- ington, D. C., but continued the firm at Warrenton, Va., with his son Eppa in charge. In the forty-third congress the general was a member of the judiciary committee, and chairman of the commit- tee on Revolutionary pensions. He was appointed a member of the committee of the house to draft legislation to prevent ton, of Warrenton, Va., who married, conflict over the disputed presidential first, Virginia Perry, and secondly Re- election of 1876. This resulted in the re-
becca Adams; Mary Brent Hunton, wife port by the house and senate committee of Thomas R. Foster, of Marshall, Va. of a law providing for the famous elec- Eppa Hunton, father of the above, died toral commission, and Gen. Hunton was in 1832, and his widow in 1865. James
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Hunton, grandfather of the general, was born in Fauquier county, Va., on July 31, 1763. He was a farmer all his life, and married twice, first, in February, 1786, Hannah L. Brown, and, second, May 1, 1809, Elizabeth McNish. He had the fol- lowing children: Charles, Eppa, James, Silas, Judith, who married John Hamp- ton; William E., and Margaret, who mar- ried Arthur Blackwell. Another son was Thomas Logan Hunton. John Hunton, father of the above, died March 4, 1806. The great-grandfather of the general was William Hunton, who was born in Lan- caster county, Va., and married Judith Kirk, and had children as follows: John, William, Thomas E., Ann, who married William O. Thomas; Elizabeth, who mar- ried Presley Morehead; Mary, who mar- ried John Brown; Priscilla, who married Isaac Foster, and Frances, who married William Hampton.
Although it is thought by many that there is no connection between the Hun- tons of Virginia and those of New Eng- land, or, if any exist, it was formed before the immigration of the families to this country, it may be well to trace the origin of the name, as found in a pamphlet, published in 1881 by D. T. V. Huntoon, of Canton, Mass .:
The word "Hunton" is of Saxon origin and of great antiquity. Hunt or hont signifies a hunter, and is connected with the word hund, a hound or dog. Ton or tun means an inclosure. From the first colonization by the Saxons, innumerable places received the generic name of ton. If a place had a clay soil, it was called Clay- ton, if it occupied an eminence, Hillton, if it was good ground for game, Hunton. The Saxon words ley and ton are synony- mous, and are the most common of family names derived from names of towns, ac- cording to an old saw :--
In ford, in han, in ley, in ton, The most of English surnames run.
The priory of Hunton was situated upon land which had formerly been devoted to hunting, perhaps upon the very site of a hunter's lodge. English heraldry delights in punning devices and tun constantly oc- curs to represent ton in a rebus upon some name ending in that syllable, as a tun, pierced by a bolt, Bolton; a lute on a ton, Luton; a shell on a tun, Shelton, and a "hen sitting in a tun for his priory," Henton. John Huntington, rector of Ashton-under-Lyme, bore for his coat of arms "An huntsman with dogges whereby he thought to expresse the two former syllables of his name Hunting, and on the other side a vessell called tonne." When the Hunton coat of arms was granted, it is evident, from the talbots or hunting dogs and the stags' heads with which it is adorned, that the designer attempted to pun on the name of Hunton. A pun much more to the credit of our family, however, is said to have been perpetrated in later days. In 1830, when a gubernatorial convention in Maine was seeking a candidate and was unable to decide between two candidates, some · one in the audience shouted: Men enough; Hunt on! Hunt on! and Gov. Hunton was nominated.
It is a common error to suppose that in ancient times persons gave names to places; the very reverse is true. Thous- ands of our English surnames are derived from towns, villages and obscure hamlets. At the time of the conquest there were few, if any, surnames, and young men as sumed the names of the land allotted to them, with the prefix de or d'; this also was dropped about the time of Henry VI. There are several parishes in England called Hunton that existed long before the time of William the Conqueror. The priory is called by some authors Hun- ton, bears on its seal the word Hinton, and judging by its arms it should have been pronounced Henton.
It is beyond doubt that the names Hanton, Henton, Hinton, Honton, Hunton and Hynton, if not synonymus, have at least been used indiscriminately by persons bearing either the one or the other surname, and I am corroborated in this opinion by the learned antiquary, Charles Bridger, Esq., of London, author
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of "Index to English Pedigrees." who came a wealthy merchant. He died in says that " these names, all found in Wilt- shire, are probably allied." For instance, in 1558, " Griffith Hinton wills to his son Thomas Hynton." In 1559, " Jane Hynton gave to the children of Richard Hynton." etc., but this Richard, his father, and his grandfather are called, in the visitations in Wiltshire, Hunton. "In 1629, Robert Henton wills to Robert Hinton and Will- iam Hinton, sons of my brother John Hinton, deceased." In 1632, William Henton of Weeke, county Wiltshire, wills "to my brother John Hinton," etc., and
that county while comparatively a young man. Judge Irving's mother was, before her marriage, Elizabeth H. Deane, a native of Cumberland county, the only daughter of Francis Brown Deane, a native of Galway, Ireland. He immi- grated to America in 1788 and settled in Cumberland county. Judge Irving grad- uated from Hampden-Sydney college in his seventeenth year. He went directly appoints him sole executor, and when he to Richmond and for a year and a half proves the will he signs his name "John Henton."
Christopher Hinton, dying in 1647, wills to John Hynton "all my lands in Hynton," and Mr. Bridger informs me He had, however, a strong penchant for that Philip Hunton of Westbury, the celebrated nonconformist divine, some- times wrote his name Hinton; this was about 1680. The biographers of Sir Henry Unton describe him as Unton of Hunton; so much for old England. " Caelum non animum, mutant, qui trans mare currunt?"
In the latter part of May, 1892, General Eppa Hunton was appointed by Governor McKinney, of Virginia, United States senator to fill out the term of Senator John S. Barbour, deceased. Mr. Hunton belongs to the same school of politics as did Mr. Barbour, except that he is not so firm a believer in the absolute necessity of practical politics and the importance of commercial methods in political cam- paigns as was the deceased senator.
HON. FRANCIS DEANE IRVING,
judge of the third judicial district of Vir- ginia, was born at Cartersville, Cumber- land county, Va., October 14, 1821. He is a son of Robert Irving, a native of Albermarle county ard a merchant by occupation. Robert Irving was the son of Charles Irving, a native of Scotland, who served as a midshipman in the British navy. He resigned that position, and coming to America located in Albe- marle county, where he married and be- close of the war, being in Richmond the
was engaged as a clerk for his uncle, F. B. Deane, who was then one of the pro- prietors of the Tregedar Iron works.
a professional life, and, in pursuance of that inclination, entered upon the study of medicine under the preceptorship of Dr. John A. Cunningham. His predilec- tions continued for the medical profession, but he did not possess the means neces- sary to take him through a thorough medical course. He therefore abandoned the pursuit of that profession and took up the study of law, which he could carry on at his home. After thoroughly acquaint- ing himself with the principles of law he was admitted to the bar and entered upon the practice of his profession at Cartersville, when about twenty-six years of age. He practiced in Cartersville and the counties adjoining Cumberland until the beginning of the war. Then in May, 1861, he entered the Confederate army as captain of company D, Thirty-first Vir- ginia regiment. He remained in that command for about a year, then declined further service on account of failing health, which prevented his entering into service. In 1863 he was elected a mem- ber of the lower branch of the state legis- lature, and continued a member until the
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night the city was evacuated. For several years after this event he practiced time holding the office of commonwealth's attorney.
DR. MARTIN LUTHER JAMES,
a well known medical practitioner of his profession at Cartersville, much of the Richmond, was born in Goochland county, Va., and is a son of Martin James. The father was born in Goochland county, In November, 1873, Mr. Irving re- moved to Farmville. For a few years prior to and for many years after this, his law partner was P. W. Mckinney, who then resided at Farmville, but who is now June 21, 1789, and was at various times a teacher, merchant and planter. He was the son of William James, a native of England who came to America about 1740. The mother of Dr. James was Eliza- governor of Virginia. The firm under beth T. Key, a daughter of Martin Key. Dr. James on both sides of his ancestral house is of English descent. One of the members of the Key family, in its earlier history in this country, owned a considera- ble portion of Manhattan Island, upon which New York city is now built. His name was Martin James. The father of the doctor served as a member of the county court of Goochland. The mother of the doctor died when the latter was an in- fant and he has no recollection of her. His father died May 28, 1867. Dr. James was reared on his father's plantation, which is known as " Elton," and which is still in possession of the family. Dr. James re- ceived his literary education in Richmond college and the university of Virginia, and his professional training in the Jeffer- son Medical college of Philadelphia. After graduating from the latter he re- mained in Philadelphia two years, still further pursuing his medical studies. He then located in Goochland county, where he practiced his profession until 1867, residing at the old James homestead, Elton. In 1867 he located in Richmond, where he has since resided. Immediately after locating in the latter place, he was made a member of the adjunct faculty of
the name of Irving & Mckinney existed for nearly twenty years and until its dis- solution on account of Mr. Irving's elec- tion to the judgeship of the third judicial circuit to fill out the unexpired term of Judge A. D. Dickenson, who died. Judge Irving was re-elected in 1887 and his present term will not expire until 1895. Before the war he was an old time whig, but since that event he has acted with the democratic party. He has been an elder in the Presbyterian church for more than twenty years, and was for many years a trustee of Hampden-Sidney col- lege, resigning that position when he went upon the judicial bench. Judge Irving has been twice married, his first wife having been Lucy N., daughter of Jonathan P. Cushing, a former president of Hampden-Sidney college. The mar- riage took place in 1849 and Mrs. Irving died in 1853, leaving one son, Lucius Cushing, who became a lawyer and died in 1889. In 1856 Judge Irving married Mary May Page, daughter of Robert Page. She died in 1884, leaving two sons, Dr. Paulus AEmilius Irving of Farmville and Robert Page Irving. As a lawyer and jurist, Judge Irving maintains a high standing, possesing rare legal attainments, the Medical college of Virginia. Later and in private life he holds the character he was elected to the chair of materia of a christian gentleman in the highest medica and therapeutics. Still later he and best sense of the term.
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