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 62
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 62
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Seventh generation .- Francis Lee Smith married Sarah Gosnelle Vowell, daughter of John C. Vowell of Alexan- dria, Va., April 13, 1836. He was born in Warrenton, Va., November 25, 1808, and died in Alexandria, Va., May 10, 1877. Children: Jaqueline, Margaret Vowell, Clifton Hewitt, Mary Jaqueline (dead), Francis Lee, Alice Corbin, Courtland Hawkins, Sarah Vowell, Robert Wood- leigh ( dead ). "Francis Lee Smith .- The death of this estimable gentleman, of whom it may with truth be spoken, 'none knew him but to love him, none named him but to praise,' created a profound sensa- tion throughout commonwealth so widely was he known and respected. A man of the most distinguished abilities, and of the highest literary and legal attain- ments, of surpassing modesty and most kindly and amiable disposition, his loss will be sensibly felt both by the public and in the extended circle in which he was so bright an ornament. His death occurred in Alexandria, on the roth inst." -- The State, Richmond, Va.
Augustine Warner .-- Among the pro- minent men who took an active part in Revolutionary war, serving with Virginia the public affairs of the colony of Virgi- nia during the last half of the seventeeth century, no name was more conspicuous, socially and politically, than that of Augustine Warner of Gloucester county.
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He was a member of the house of bur- gesses and was seated April 26, 1652, and again March 1, 1658-9; was a member of the council of state, March 13, 1659-60; and was elected speaker of the house of burgesses in March, 1675-6; and again in February, 1676-7. These, with various other offices of public trust, he filled with dignity and intelli- gence. He lived in the stormy days of "Bacon's rebellion." He seems to have been a firm upholder of the government. History records, that he has three beauti- ful daughters, and it is in following the line of descendants from one of them, that we are at present, principally in- terested.
According to Hening's Reports, Augus- tine Warner married Mildred Reade, daughter of George Reade of Gloucester, and left her a widow. Tradition speaks of her three daughters as conspicuously attractive. Mary married Capt. John Smith of Purton, Gloucester county, Va., " ye 17th February, 1680." Mildred married, in 1691, John Washington and was the great-grandmother of Gen. George Washington. Elizabeth married John Lewis.
First generation. -- Col. Augustine Warner of Gloucester county, Va., mar- ried Mildred Reade, daughter of George Reade of Gloucester county, Va. Among their children were Mary, Mildred and Elizabeth, Robert and George.
This estate of Purton (according to Hening) was bequeathed by John Smith by will dated 10th day of May, 1735, to Mary Willis, daughter of Col. Francis Willis. Purton was in the parish of Pets- worth, Gloucester county, Va., was known known by the names of old and new Purton, and contained about two thousand acres. Mildred Warner, relict of Augus- tine Warner, left the estate known as "Cheesecake," in the county of Glouces- ter, so that it finally vested in her brother, Thomas Reade, who married Lucy Gwynne, and whose second son, John, bequeathed it to his daughter, Sarah, who married John Rootes.
Third generation .- Augustine Smith, born "ye 16th June, 1687," married Sarah Carver "ye 9th September, 1711." She died March 12, 1726, aged thirty-one years, two months and seven days. Their children were: Mary, John, Sarah, Mil- dred, Elizabeth, Ann, Susannah and Jane.
Fourth generation .- John Smith, born November 13, 1715, lived in Middlesex county. Va. He married Mary Jaquelin, of Jamestown, Va., November 17, 1737. She died October 4, 1764. Their children were: Augustine, Martha, Sarah, Mary,
Jaquelin, Elizabeth, John, Edward, Mat- thew. Mary Jaquelin was the daughter of Edward Jaquelin. who emigrated from Kent, England, to Virginia, in 1697, and settled in Jamestown, Va. He married for his second wife, in 1706, Martha, daughter of William Carey, gentleman, of Warwick county, Va. Matthew Smith was a soldier in the Revolutionary army. In a letter on file in the department of state, Gen. Hugh Mercer, under date of November 25, 1776, recommended Mat- thew Smith, a lieutenant in the First
.
Second generation .- Capt. John Smith, of Purton, Gloucester, Va., married Mary Warner, daughter of Augustine Warner, of Gloucester county, Va., "ye 17th Feb- ruary, 1680." He died "ye 14th April, 1698," and Mary, his widow, died "ye 12th of November, 1700." They left seven children: Mildred, Mary, John, Virginia regiment, for preferment in a Augustine, Elizabeth, Philip and Ann. new regiment to be formed. Also, in
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Washington's order book, under date of September 2, 1777, the appointment is made of Matthew Smith, as deputy
THOMAS WASHINGTON SMITH.
Some philosopher has said that he who lives most for others lives best for himself, adjutant-general in the Continental arniy. and "he who bows among the fallen Matthew Smith was killed at the battle of stands erect." Every epoch has brought Germantown, Penn., October 4, 1777, while bearing a flag of truce to the enemy. For his gallant and meritorious conduct he forth its plethoric quota of selfish ingrates and inordinate worshipers of Mammon; so has also every age brought forth a was brevetted general on the field of small but compensatory ratio and a battle.
small but redeeming element of charita- ble humanitarians, and among this class born in 1738, died June 13, 1774. Married, Thomas Washington Smith deserves most
Fifth generation .- Augustine Smith was first, Mildred Rootes, February 14, 1762. She died September 14, 1763, aged twenty- nine years, leaving one child, Mildred. Augustine Smith married, second, Mar- garet Boyd, daughter of David and
conspicuous rank. A son of the south by birth, instinct and education, reared among the ante-bellum luxury of the days that are gone, in which he enjoyed at once the dignity and ancestral rank and
Margaret Boyd, of Northumberland the conveniences of private fortune, he county, Va., on February 25, 1770. Their developed into an ideal southern gentle- children were Mary Jaqueline, Augustine man. He was born in Somerton, Nanse- Jaquelin. Mildred Rootes, named above, mond county, Va., June 1, 1832, and was a daughter of Sarah Reade, who mar- received his early education in Somerton ried John Rootes.
Sixth generation. - Mary Jaqueline Smith, born at Shooter's Hill, Middlesex county, Va., on February 12, 1773; mar- ried, first, Jesse Taylor, of Alexandria, Va., in 1792; child, Jesse. Married, sec- ond, John C. Vowell, of Alexandria, Va., December 10, 1810. She died October 31, 1846, leaving two children, Margaret Boyd and Sarah Gosnelle. Margaret Boyd teenth Virginia infantry, in Mahone's Vowell was born October 13, 1811. On division of Gen. A. P. Hill's corps, and the 20th of October, 1831, she married served as such during the war, a great Edward Daingerfield, and died, October deal of the time commanding the company. Io, without issue. Mr. Smith was engaged in all the battles
and Suffolk. At an early age he embarked in the mercantile business, which he fol- lowed for three or four years, when he removed to North Carolina and engaged in a similar business there. He returned to Suffolk just before the war broke out, and early in the hostilities organized a company of which he was elected second lieutenant, and was assigned to the Six-
Seventh generation .- Sarah Gosnelle in which the army of northern Virginia Vowell, born October 6, 1813, married took part, and was severely wounded at Francis Lee Smith (dead) April 13, 1836. Spottsylvania Court House, Malvern Hill Children: Jaquelin, Margaret Vowell, and Hatcher's Run. Accepting the evil Clifton Hewitt, Mary Jaqueline (de- fortunes which the war had entailed on ceased), Francis Lee, Alice Corbin, Court- the south, Mr. Smith returned to his land Hawkins, Sarah Vowell, Robert home, like thousands of other brave Woodleigh (deceased). southerners, to beat the sword into a
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On the north side:
pruning hook amid the quiet associations of peace. He again engaged in the mer- With shouts above the cannon's roar They join the legion gone before; They bravely fought, they bravely fell; They wore the Gray, and wore it well. cantile business, and as his brilliant war recorn had made him well known in times that tried men's souls, the same popularity The east side is blank as yet, but the date of the unveiling will be inscribed thereon. followed him in his business to his great profit. He sold out his business two years later, and since that has devoted all The name of Thomas W. Smith's father was Washington Smith, of Nansemond merchant and was a captain in the war his time and energies to the manage- ment of his large estate. He was made county. He was a large planter and president of the Farmers' bank, serving three years, and in 1889 he was made of 1812. president of the National bank. Mr. DR. WILLIAM M. SMITH, Smith has never had any aspirations for public office. He was married in 1869 to a young Virginian, whose enviable reputa- Harriet G. Borland, daughter of Dr. Ros- cius Borland, of North Carolina, and a niece of Senator Borland, of Arkansas, who was a colonel in the Confederate army. He died in 1890 without issue. In 1889 Mr. Smith had erected at his own ex- pense a massive and beautiful monu- mental shaft to the memory of the Confederate dead at Suffolk. Upon the
tion as a physician and surgeon has been acquired within a decade, was born in Winchester, January 13, 1859. His pre- paratory education was received in his native town, and his medical education at the university of Maryland, Baltimore, from which he graduated in March, 1880. He also passed some time in Europe and supplemented his studies by attendance unveiling of this beautiful and patriotic upon lectures at Berlin, Vienna, Paris, and tribute, all the beauty and chivalry of the London, and did not fail of profiting by tide water section of the state was pres- the opportunity. After a residence at ent; some of the ablest speakers of the Baltimore for two years, after the comple- mother of states and statesmen contrib- tion of his professional studies, he located uted their eloquence, and her fairest in Alexandria, where his abilities were soon recognized, and where he still re- mains, being now a surgeon in the marine hospital, port of Alexandria.
daughters their presence and their tears to the honor of its patriotic dead. The following inscription appears upon the beautiful shaft. On the west side: "Erected by Thomas W. Smith in
Memory of his Comrades-Confederate grandfather was John Smith, a native of Dead."
On the south side:
To the Memory of the Confederate Dead. . This shaft, on which we carve no name, Shall guide Virginia's youth - A sign post on the road to fame, To honor and to truth. A silent sentry, it shall stand To guard thro' coming time
Their graves who died for native land And duty most sublime!
The doctor comes from an old colonial family and a patriotic one. His great- Westmoreland county, Va., who served in the distinguished position of general in the Revolutionary war, and who, later, was for many years a representative from his district in the congress of the United States. Gen. Smith married a Miss Bull, a belle of Philadelphia, and by her he be- came the father of an illustrious family of
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children, among whom was a son who was | ington, D. C .; Dr. W. M. Smith, of Alex- killed, at the age of twenty-two, in a duel andria, Va .; Lily Magill, wife of Everard at Shepherdstown, Va., and a daughter, Todd, of Washington, D.C .; Mary Jacque- line Smith, Augusta Louisa Smith, Anna Morgan Smith, and Charles Magill Smith. who married the architect of the Wash- ington monument. The general had two brothers, one of whom, Nathan, was killed by the British at Philadelphia, while bear- COL. LUCIEN DOUGLAS STARKE. ing a flag of truce. The general's eldest
Col. Starke was born near Cold Harbor son was named Augustine Charles Smith, in the county of Hanover, Va., on the 9th who was born in Frederick county, Va., day of February, 1826. A few years and served as a colonel in the war of 1812
thereafter, his father removed to Henrico with great distinction. He married Miss county, Va., at which place Col. Starke resided until the year 1841, when, not quite sixteen years of age, he removed to the city of Richmond, and was assigned a
Mary Magill, and to this union were born fifteen children, of whom ten grew to be useful members of society and bore the following names: John Augustine, Charles position in the office of the Richmona Magill, Rebecca, Elizabeth, Augustine Equirer, the most influential democratic Jacquelin, Archibald Magill, Josepha, paper of that time in the United States. Mary, Augusta, and Alfrida. The father He remained with the Enquirer during of this family lived until 1852, when he seven years. On December 25th, 1847, passed from earth, leaving behind an un- he received and accepted an invitation to tarnished name to a loving family.
connect himself with the Southern Argus, Augustine Jacquelin Smith, the third child born to Col. Augustine Charles Smith, was a native of Winchester, Va., and first saw the light in 1826. Although reared to the profession of the law, he has neglected its practice, being a gentleman of ample means. For many years, how- ever, he acted as president of the Agri- cultural college, a position for which he a paper published in the city of Norfolk, Va., and remained with that paper until July 10th, 1850, when he moved to Eliza- beth City, N. C. and established and edited the Democratic Pioneer, the first democratic paper ever published in that section of the country. He continued to edit the Pioncer until 1857, at which time he began the study of the law. In 1853 he was ap- was peculiarly adapted. Being an ardent pointed, by President Pierce, to be col- lover of his native state, he seized the lector of customs for the port of Elizabeth first opportunity, upon the call to arms, to
City, and served in that capacity through- enter the Confederate army, with which he out the administrations of Presidents remained throughout the entire war, serv- ing with credit in various capacities. The marriage of A. J. Smith took place in 1856, Pierce and Buchanan, resigning his posi- tion upon the election to office of Presi- dent Lincoln. In 1858, he was admitted to Miss Elizabeth Beddinger Morgan, by the supreme court of North Carolina daughter of Jacob Morgan, of Alexandria, to practice law in that state, and located Va., and there have been born to this at Elizabeth City, and was engaged in union a family of seven children, named the pursuit of his profession until 1861, as follows: Augustine Jacquelin Smith, when, upon the secession of the state of who married Miss Mary Robins, of Wash-| North Carolina from the United States,
58
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he entered the army of the Confederate by her he had five children, of whom three States. Immediately upon entering the southern service, he was ordered to Hatteras Inlet, to assume control, with the rank of colonel, of the state troops stationed there and retained that com- mission until the troops were turned over to the Confederate States govern- ment, at which time he was appointed commissary of the Seventeenth regiment of North Carolina infantry, which rank he held until the close of the war. Although commissioned as commissary, he acted as inspector-general of Gen. James Martin's brigade, and served in the trenches and in front in all the engagements in which Martin's brigade participated - among the most notable of which were those around Petersburg, the battle of Bermuda Hundred, Shepherdsville, N. C., and that of second Cold Harbor. During the war he also acted at one time by temporary assignment as adjutant-general to Gen. J. Johnston Pettigrew. At the end of the war he was surrendered with Gen Jos. E. Johnston's army, at Greensboro, N. C. After the war Col. Starke moved to Cur- rituck county, N. C., where he practiced law until December 25th, 1867, when he removed to Norfolk, Va., and has since resided there, engaged successfully in the practice of his profession as a lawyer. In 1875 Col. Starke was elected by the people of Norfolk city, Va., to represent them in the house of delegates of .Virginia, and remained with that body during the ses- sions of 1875-1876, 1876-1877. Again, in 1887, he was re-elected to the house of delegates. He has also served as a mem- ber of the common council, and president of the board of Health of Norfolk city, Va. Col. Starke has been twice married; first, in 1855, to Elizabeth F., daughter of Dr. G. C. Marchant of Indiantown, N. C .;
died in infancy; but Eliza New, the eldest and Elizabeth Marchant, wife of Wm. B. Martin of Norfolk, Va., survive. Col. Starke's first wife died in 1863, and in January, 1868, he maried Talitha Lucretia Pippen, daughter of John Pippen, Esq., and Talitha Pippen (née Mayo) of Edgecombe county, N. C. The children of this marriage were seven, of whom four are now alive, namely, Lucien Douglas, Talitha Pippen, Virginia Lee and William Wallace Starke. His second wife died in 1876. The father of Col. Starke was Col. Bowling Starke, an extensive planter of Hanover county, in which county he was born in 1790. He was for many years pre- siding justice of the county court (under the old system) of Hanover county, and ex-officio sheriff of said county. He married Eliza G., daughter of Hon. Anthony New, who represented, for a number of years, the Caroline, Va., district in congress, and afterward removed to Kentucky, and represented Henry Clay's district in con- gress. Bowling Starke was the father of ten children, of whom eight lived to ma- turity: Joseph Starke, deceased; Bowling Starke, who served throughout the Mex- ican war, and was also in the Confederate service; John Walter Starke. deceased in 1891, who served with the Confederate forces; Col. Lucien Douglas Starke; Ann- wife of Benjamin Gardner, of Troy, Ala .; Alexander Wallace Starke, deceased, who was a member of the Georgia legislature and was also in the Confederate war; Isabella, wife of J. D. Gardner, of Troy, Ala., and Lucy Adelaide, wife of Will- iam H. Morris, of Norfolk, Va. The founder of the house in Virginia, the great-great-grandfather of Col. Lucien Douglas Starke, was named John Starke, a large and wealthy planter of Hanover
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county, who for many years was a mem-| 1883. They had one child, Robert Armi- ber of the state legislature. He married stead, born March 9, 1877. September 20, Anne Wyatt, May 25, 1735. By her he 1888, Mr. Stewart was again married, his had thirteen children, of whom John second wife being Miss Sallie Magruder, Starke, father of Col. Bowling Starke daughter of Col. Benjamin H. Magruder, and grandfather of Col. Lucien Douglas of Albemarle county, Va. Col. Stewart Starke, was born April 27, 1742, being the is a lawyer by profession. He was chosen fourth child of this marriage.
COL. WILLIAM HENRY STEWART.
William Henry Stewart was born in the village of Deep Creek, Norfolk county, Va., September 25, 1838. His family is one of the oldest in the state, his great- grandfather, Charles Stewart, having been one of the early settlers in Norfolk county and a soldier in the Revolutionary war, in which he was an ensign in the Fifteenth Virginia regiment, and was promoted to a lieutenantcy in the Eleventh Virginia position.
attorney of the commonwealth of Nor- folk county, and held that office for two terms, of four years each. He was after- ward appointed commissioner in the chancery hustings court of Portsmouth and of the circuit court of the county of Norfolk. He was two years editor-in- chief of the Portsmouth Daily Times, resigning that position March 6, 1880. He was Portsmouth city editor of The Norfolk Landmark, from its establishment until April 1, 1876, when he also resigned that
regiment. Col. Stewart's grandfather, Colonel Stewart was educated, first, at Wallaceton, in the Pleasant Grove magis- terial district, then at the Union Male academy at Harroldsville, N. C., and completed his education at the university of Virginia. In the John Brown episode at Harper's Ferry, Mr. Stewart was lieu- tenant of a company of cavalry, organized to repel that audacious invasion. When into the service of the state and was de- tailed on picket duty, in which he served two months. He was second lieutenant of the Wise Light Dragoons, state volun- teers, called out April 22, 1861, and en- camped at Denby's church in Norfolk county, to picket the beach, with Doyle's cavalry, from Ocean View to Sewell's Point. After a few weeks' active service, Alexander Stewart, was a soldier in the war of 1812. He was the father of Wil- liam Charles Stewart, who was born September 21, 1811, and was the father of Col. William Henry Stewart. The father died June 30, 1865, leaving a widow, Cath- arine Matilda Stewart, née Garrett. Both parents were natives of Norfolk county. William Charles Stewart was the son of the intersectional war began he was called Alexander Stewart and (Lauretta, née Wallace); Alexander was the son of Charles Stewart and (Martha, née Fore- man) ; Charles was an ensign in the Fif- teenth Virginia regiment and promoted to be second lieutenant in the Eleventh Virginia regiment, colonial army of the American Revolution, and died in Nor- folk county in the year 1801.
William Henry Stewart was united in it having insufficient numbers to muster marriage with Miss Annie Wright Stubbs, into the Confederate service, it was dis- daughter of John S. and Stella L. H. banded, and the Jackson Grays were re- Stubbs, née Armistead. Mrs. Stewart was cruited and mustered into the Confederate born June 30, 1848, and died November 28, army, July 12, 1861. Its first service was
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at Fort Nelson, heavy artillery, Ports- & Warrenton railroad, August 18, 1864' mouth, Va., from thence to rifle gun bat- at Ream's station, commanding regiment, August 25, 1864; at Burgess mill, com- manding regiment, October 29, 1864; at Hicksford, commanding regiment, De- cember 9 and 10, 1864; at Hatcher's Run, commanding regiment, February 6, 1865; at Petersburg evacution (Bermuda Hun- dred line), April 1, 1865; at Amelia court house, April 5, 1865; at Cumberland church, commanding division picket line, April 7, 1865, and surrendered at Appo- mattox court house, April 8, 9 and 10, 1865, and paroled. tery at Sewell's Point, Norfolk county, Va. Capt. William H. Stewart, Jackson Grays, commanding this battery, was en- gaged March 8, 1862, with United States frigate " Minnesota" and with United States fleet bombarding Sewell's Point, May 8, 1862. On the evacuation of Nor- folk,he was ordered to Petersburg,his com- pany assigned to the Sixty-first Virginia regiment infantry, as company A, and was elected major of this regiment; he was in the engagement at Rappahannock rail- road bridge, November 7, 1862; at Fred- Col. Stewart through all these series of sanguinary battles, escaped with but two slight wounds, first at Chancellorsville, when he was struck on the thigh by a piece of shell, and again at Spottsylvania, when a minie-ball wounded him in the right arm. ericksburg, December 11th, 12th and 13th, 1862; at McCarty's farm or Chancellors- ville, wounded, May Ist, 1863; at Chancel- lorsville, May 2nd, and 3rd, 1863; at Gettysburg, July 2nd and 3rd, 1863; at Hagerstown, commanding brigade picket line July 6th to 11th, 1863; at Culpeper, or Brandy Station, August Ist, 1863; at Mine DR. HUGH STOCKDELL, Run, December 2nd, 1863, at Wilderness, a prominent physician of Petersburg, Va., was born in that city August 28, 1835. He is the son of Dr. John Y. Stockdell, born in Hanover county, Va. During the later years of his life, the father was a resident in Petersburg, where he oper- ated a flouring-mill. For several years he was president of the bank of Virginia. He died in 1840, at the age of forty-eight years. The mother of Dr. Stockdell was Charlotte Meade, a native of Henrico county, born at Curles Neck, on the James river. She died in Petersburg in 1878, aged eighty years. Dr. Stockdell received his literary education at the Petersburg schools, and, during the winter of 1857-8, was a student in the medical department of the university of Virginia. In the winter of 1858-9, he took a second course of lectures at the Jefferson Medical college of Philadelphia, May 6th, 1864; at Shady Grove, May 8th, 1864; at Spottsylvania C. H., wounded, May 12th, 1864, promoted to lieutenant- colonel; at North Anna River, command- ing regiment, May 21st and 23rd, 1864; at Hanover C. H., commanding regi- ment, May 28th and 29th, 1864; at Atlee's Station, commanding regiment, June Ist, 1864; at Cold Harbor, command- ing regiment, June Ist, 2nd, and 3rd, 1864; at Turkey Ridge, commanding regiment, skirmishing, June 4th to 13th, 1864; at Fra- zier's farm, commanding regiment, skir- mishing, June 13th, 1864; at Wilcox farm (Petersburg), commanding regiment, June 22, 1864; at Gurley house, command- ing regiment, June 23, 1864; at Ream's station, commanding regiment, June 27, 1864; at Crater, commanding regiment, July 30, 1864; at Davis farm, Petersburg
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