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 64
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 64
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hold communication with his home was soon cut off. The impulse to go back to Virginia was very strong upon him, but was thwarted in various ways. When
His earliest masters were Hubard, whose reproduction in bronze of Houdon's Kiss died, several years after, young Val- statue of Washington are well known, and entine, who was still with him, was among the last to be near him, just before his sudden death, and he alone it was who could comfort the desolate widow. Ma- dame Kiss entreated that the beloved pupil should remain as a son with her, pressed upon him the use, without charge, of the old master's atelier, and finally presented him with many valuable works of art and souvenirs, among the latter all the implements with which Kiss had wrought his great examples of sculpture. Valentine remained four years in the studio of Kiss, meanwhile taking, in con- nection with his studies and work there, a course of drawing under Holbein and
Oswald Heinrich, who had come from the center of Saxon art, Dresden, where his father was private secretary to the picture-loving king. But the ambitious youth panted for the stimulus that could only be found beyond the seas, and con- sequently, after receiving such instruction in drawing and modeling as was obtain- able in Richmond, in 1859 he left Virginia, when he was just twenty years of age, going to Europe for the purpose of com- pleting his studies. His first master abroad was Couture, in whose studio in Paris he remained about a year, drawing from nude figures. He was a favorite pupil of that celebrated artist and was private lessons in art history under Prof. frequently his guest at Senlis. Young Eggers. He was also a student at the Valentine's next course was in Florence, Royal academy of Berlin, and became a
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member of the Kunst verein (Artist un- heads, among others, "The Samaritan ion) of Berlin.
Woman," with its striking face and re-
After the close of the war, in 1865, markable downcast eyes; "The Penitent Thief," a wonderful presentment of agon- izing pain and awful entreaty, belongs to this period. Lee's bust was modeled -a
when return to Virginia became possible, the young student could not resist the longing for home, and, ignoring such offers as would have broken down the very superior piece of bust portraiture - resistant patriotism of many a less ardent and many a well-known Virginian's fol- nature, he came back to his native state. lowed, and then came his "Recumbent figure of General Robert E. Lee."
When he landed in New York he was offered advantages that were most tempt-
The power Valentine has of portraying ing to an ambitious young artist; but he the varied type of the negro has never rather chose to cast in his lot with been equaled. "The Nation's Ward" is matchless in its absolute verity. "Uncle Henry" (the subject being his grand- mother's coachman) will go down to posterity as the only correct type of " de ole Verginny darkey, sah;" while his " Knowledge is Power," a negro boy clothed in tatters, who has fallen asleep with dog-eared book dropping from his humored satire that has ever been mod- eled.
his own people, and therefore established his studio in Richmond. He turned his attention principally to the portraiture department of his art. He produced busts of Beauregard, Stuart, Jackson, Maury, and other Confederate celebri- ties, and was finally given the commission to execute the marble recumbent figure of Gen. Robert E. Lee, now in the limp hand, is the most excellent good-
mausoleum attached to the chapel of Washington and Lee university at Lex- ington, Va. Of that great work, but little need be said. Competent art criticism has
But while laboring upon commissions for portraiture busts and statues and ranked it higher than any ather piece of ideal bust conceptions, Mr. Valentine did sculpture of its character in this country, not neglect a still more ambitious field. and placed it alongside the grandest efforts in that direction in Europe.
While in Europe, Valentine executed an exquisite statuette of Gen. Lee, which at once commanded high admiration. Some London journal had spoken of it in exalted terms, for it had been carried to England and exhibited there. It was a very complete representation of the Con- federate commander, and attracted great and wide attention to the sculptor's work. Mr. Valentine had also won for himself enviable recognition in Berlin by a bust, modeled from life, of Dr. Franz von Holtzendorff; and soon after his return to Virginia he began modeling ideal
The several conceptions of marked beauty and originality, to which we have called attention above, were earnests and prophesies of a grand success just realized in his "Andromache and Astyanax," a classical group now in plaster, and being put in marble, and which, when executed, will be accepted as his masterpiece. It is destined to create a sensation in the art world. At least such is the verdict of the critics of both this country and Europe who have seen it. The moment repre- sented is that after which the sorrowful and anxious wife is bidden by her hus- band to take her place among women and ply the loom, while he, as a man should,
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seeks the field of glory and strife. The the "Statuette of a Blind Girl," which is child leans upon his mother, toying with enchanting. It is full of truly artistic an ornament that is suspended from her beauty, and exquisite feeling. It repre- neck, and his young, sunny child-face, sents a lovely girl standing with hands innocent of all care or trouble-together clasped and blind eyes uplifted in an attitude of prayer, and vividly seeming to entreat -" Oh! when shall I behold Thy face, Thou Majesty divine?" with the terse, elastic figure, is brought into exquisite contrast with the utter re- laxation of Andromache's pose -the neglected distaff across the lap, the droop- The striking statue of Gen. T. J. (Stone- wall) Jackson is another piece of Valentine's handiwork. As a sculptor, Valentine's fame is wide-spread both in this country and abroad, and he has won for himself a reputation that reflects credit upon his country, and will long be cherished by our people as second to that of none in our land. ing head, the limp arm, the expression of apprehension and grief. It tells this beautiful Homeric story as- it never has been told before in plastic art. The ac- cessories are all strict studies from the antique; it is sternly classical throughout. Upon it, Mr. Valentine has spent nearly eight years of study and labor, and it is not only a triumph of genius but a monu- ment to the sculptor's faithfulness and HON. EDWARD CARRINGTON VENABLE, conscientiousness. Unfortunately for him pecuniarily, perhaps, but fortunately for his reputation, Mr. Valentine is not a " slurring" worker, and does not pander to the sensational in art. He throws his whole soul into whatever he undertakes, whether it be a bust or an ideal example, and his work grows on him from the time he first puts up the clay-that is, his models are only imitations of what the complete work will be.
In his exhibition studio or gallery are to be seen, among many other examples, the plaster of the colossal bronze statue of General John C. Breckinridge, which was erected in Lexington, Ky., and un- veiled in November, 1887; statuette of Judas; busts of Commodore Maury, General Beauregard, Colonel John S. Mosby, Robert Burns, Beethoven, Edwin Booth; in the second room, is the recum- bent figure of Gen. R. E. Lee, which has won for Valentine the love of the entire southern people; and in this department, amidst the examples of ideal work, stands ship in the university of Louisiana at
late member of congress, was born at Longwood, Prince Edward county, Va., January 31, 1853. He is the son of Sam- uel W. Venable of Petersburg. He re- ceived his preparatory education at McCabe's university of Petersburg, and then took a full classical course in the university of Virginia, graduating in 1872. The two years following, he spent in teaching in Petersburg and Richmond. In 1874 he went to New Orleans, at the request of the faculty of the university of Virginia, and established the university high school, which was afterwards made a part of the Tulane university of New Orleans. He arrived in that city Sep- tember 10, 1874, and on the 14th day of the same month volunteered as a private soldier in Gen. Fred Ogden's command of White League troops who attacked and overthrew Kellogg's government in Louisiana. He then organized the school and taught it one year, at the end of which time he was offered a professor-
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Baton Rouge, which he declined. His | seated by a vote of the house, was un- father having very extensive business seated at the election in 1890 by a vote of the people of his district. Mr. Venable was married, in 1877, to Miss Helen S., daughter of the late Bishop J. P. B. Wil- mer, of Louisiana. They have two sons and one daughter. Mr. Venable is de- scended from a colonial family that was represented in the house of burgesses as far back as 1750. A sketch of the other members of the Venable family will be found in Appleton's Biographical Cyclo- pedia. In 1792, the same district which Mr. Venable represented in congress was represented by his father's great-uncle, Abram B. Venable, who was the founder interests in Petersburg, he returned to that city and became his father's partner. It had been the intention of Mr. Venable, the younger, to study law, but the death of his father's partner in business affairs changed his purpose. The new partner- ship, formed in 1875, took the firm name of S. W. Venable & Co., and did business under that name for fifteen years there- after. In 1880 it was incorporated under the name of the S. W. Venable Tobacco company, of which Edward C. Venable was made vice-president, which position he still holds. Their business is the largest of the kind in the state. Mr. and first president of the bank of Vir- Edward C. Venable has taken an active ginia, at Richmond. part in politics since 1876. He was a member of the democratic state com- HON. EDMUND WADDILL, JR., mittee several years and was chairman a prominent member of the Virginia bar and a lawyer of well-earned reputation, and now in active practice of his profes- sion at Richmond, was born in Charles City county, Virginia, May 22, 1855. After receiving a liberal education in the county schools, he entered upon clerical work as deputy in the office of the county clerk of his county, and for several years there- after did work of this kind in his and other counties. This form of work gave him good preparation for the study of the law as well as its practice, and when, in 1877, Mr. Waddill began the study of the of the democratic committee of the fourth congressional district for three years, the district at that time having a republican majority of more than 6,000. In 1888, Mr. Venable was nominated for congress on the democratic ticket. The republican party split in that year, one faction nominating R. W. Arnold and the other John M. Longston, a colored man. Mr. Venable received a plurality of 594 votes, and served as representative of his congressional district until September 21, 1890, when he was unseated by the repub- lican majority in the house. In the fall law, he chose a profession in which fame of 1890 the congressional course of Mr. was forshadowed, as is evidenced by the Venable was endorsed by his party, and success that has attended his course as a he was offered a renomination, which he lawyer. He began the study of law in declined on account of his pressing busi- the university of Virginia and in the same ness interests, which required his whole year (1877) was admitted to the bar, and, attention. The democratic candidate in locating in Richmond county in the fol- 1890 was elected by a large majority, the lowing year, entered upon the practice of republican party being rent asunder by his chosen profession. In 1879, he was factional strife. Mr. Longston, who was elected judge of the county court of
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Henrico, and for three years presided | for field duty he took no part in the war, over this court with credit to himself and but in 1864 he was taken prisoner by the Federals, who assigned no cause for do- ing so. In 1847, he married Miss Mary L. Redwood, who bore her husband seven children, and died in 1860. In 1862, he married Miss Anna L. Wight, who bore him seven children also. Such is a brief mention of the family history and outline of the career of Hon. Ed- mund Waddill, whose name introduces this sketch. satisfaction to the people, and then re- signed to accept an appointment, by President Arthur, as United States dis- trict attorney for eastern Virginia, which office he held until 1885, when, in the fall of that year, he was elected to the legis- lature from Henrico county, being re- elected to the legislature in 1887, and in 1888 he became a candidate for congress from the third district of Virginia.
In December of 1878, Mr. Waddill married Miss Alma C. Mitchell, of Han- over county, and to them have been born two sons and three daughters, which con- stitute an interesting family.
Mr. Waddill's father, Edmund Waddill, Sr., was also born and reared in Virginia and married Mary Maylord. The father of Edmund Waddill, Sr., was Samuel Waddill, who married Lucy Christian; he was a native of South Carolina and came to Charles City county, Virginia, awhile before the Revolution. Edmund Wad- dill, Sr., was born May 23, 1814; he re- ceived a common school education, and devoted his early life to farming and later followed merchandising up to 1856, when he was made county clerk of Charles City county; prior to this event in his life he had for several years served his people as one of the presiding justices of his county. With remarkable fitness and satisfaction to his people he held the office of county clerk for over thirty years, relinquishing it when death came to him in 1890, at advanced years in life. In politics he was a whig up to 1840, when he fell in line with the democratic party. When the question of secession came up in 1860, he was in sympathy with the Union, but went with the people of his state in their choice, but being too old
WILLIAM TALBOT WALKE,
of Norfolk, was born in that city, January 31, 1838. He graduated at William and Mary college in 1856, after which he re- turned to Norfolk and engaged in the mercantile trade, which he carried on until April, 1861. In that year he enlisted in a cavalry battalion organized in Princess Anne county, commanded by Maj. Burroughs, and served with the same as a private about eighteen months, when he was made adjutant of the Thirty- ninth Virginia cavalry, with which rank he served until the end of the war, sur- rendering at Greensboro, N. C. During a part of the war he was on detached service. The battalion of which he was a member acted as scouts and couriers for Gen. Lee at headquarters, army of northern Virginia. After the war, Mr. Walke returned to Norfolk and engaged in the mercantile business, which he car- ried on about one year and then retired to his farm in Northampton county, N. C., but two years later again removed to Norfolk and re-engaged in merchandising. He followed this trade until about 1870 and then began the insurance business, which he has ever since carried on. In 1858 Mr. Walke was married to Miss Sallie R. Gary, daughter of Richard
Dewatts.
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Gary. They have had nine children, deceased; and Calvert, deceased. Mr. two of whom died in infancy. The names Walke's grandfather died in 1886. His of those who survive are: William T., Jr., great-grandfather, William Walke, was Richard G., James N., Mary D., wife of born in Princess Anne county in 1761. James P. Higginson of New York city; In that county he carried on farming as Sallie W., Isaac T., and Herbert N. Mr. his life work. He married Mary Calvert Walke has always manifested a lively and they had four children, as follows: interest in matters educational and was Thomas William, Mrs. McIntosh, Mrs. for many years connected with the Nor-| Williamson and Mrs. Curtis.
folk school board. Richard Walke, his father, was born in Norfolk in 1813. He LEGH R. WATTS, was educated in his native city, and when attorney and counselor at law, was born in Portsmouth, Va., December 12, 1843. He attended the best schools in that city and in Norfolk, including the Virginia Collegiate institute, Prof. N. B. Webster, and the Norfolk academy, Prof. W. R. Galt. Early in the war he enlisted as a private in the "signal corps," but was dis- charged from military service in the spring of 1862 on account of physical he reached manhood's estate was engaged as the cashier of the Norfolk Savings bank, which post he filled for many years. After that he acted several years as treas- urer of the Seaboard & Roanoke railroad company. In 1837 he was married to Mary D., daughter of Isaac Talbot of Norfolk, and they have had nine children, as follows: William T., of Norfolk; Rich- ard; Isaac T., killed at Woodstock, Va., disability. After the evacuation of Ports- while serving in the Confederate army. mouth by the Confederate forces, he He was ordnance officer of Fitzhugh escaped from the city by running "the Lee's division. Mary C., widow of Com- blockade," and upon reaching the Con- modore WV. T. Truxtun, United States federate lines, at once re-entered the
navy; Henry of Norfolk; Sallie W., wife of Thomas Pinckney of Morristown,
service, and was assigned by the state medical examining board to duty as as- N. J .; BettieN., wife of Lieutenant-Com- sistant to Major George W. Grice, chief mander Walter Goodwin, United States of forage department of the states of navy; Louisa, wife of L. W. Tazewell of South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida, Norfolk, and Willoughby, lieutenant of with headquarters in Columbia, S. C. From Richmond he went to that city and remained until its capture by General Sherman. He then removed to Chester, S. C. He surrendered with General Greensboro.
the Second artillery of the regular army. The father of this family died in 1876 and the mother in 1859. William Walke, the grandfather of William T. Walke, was born in Princess Anne county in 1791. Johnston's army and was paroled at He was city tax-collector in Norfolk and agent for the old Mutual Insurance society
In the fall of 1865 he entered the uni- of Virginia for many years, and served as a versity of Virginia, and, in addition to a soldier in the war of 1812. He married portion of the law course, took several of Elizabeth Nash of Norfolk and they had the academic tickets. In 1866 he grad- four children, as follows: Richard, died in uated in the academic schools, and in 1876; William, deceased; Rev. Lewis, 1867 finished the law course and received 60
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the degree of B. L. Upon his return ginia of the American Bankers' associa- home, he commenced the practice of the tion. He served until February, 1892, as a member of the board of visitors of the university of Virginia, to which position he was appointed by Governor Fitzhugh law, associating himself with the well- known firm of Holladay & Gayle, and continued with them until April, 1870, when he was elected judge of the county Lee. He also served as a member of the court of Norfolk county by the general board of directors of the Eastern Lunatic assembly of Virginia. He was re-elected without opposition for a second term of six years and continued in the position until February, 1880, when he resumed the practice of his profession, and in 1884
asylum. In 1889 he was elected supreme regent of the Royal Arcanum, and re- elected in 1890 for a second term. He has always taken a great interest. in all enterprises. looking to the prosperity and formed a partnership with G. Hatton, development of his state and section, and Esq., under the firm name of Watts & Hatton.
is identified with many schemes of public improvement.
Though always declining political office, In his profession Judge Watts has given much attention to corporation law he has taken an active part in the politics of his state, especially in the campaign and enjoys a large corporation practice, against Mahone. In 1880 he was the being counsel for many of the principal elector on the regular democratic ticket joint stock companies in Portsmouth and and participated actively in the campaign, vicinity. He is also general counsel for and though Mahone had an independent the Seaboard Air line, composed of the electoral ticket in the field, supposed to railroads forming the great trunk line be in favor of the election of General from Portsmouth, Va., to Atlanta, Ga. Hancock, the regular ticket was elected He is one of the vice-presidents of the by a large majority, Judge Watts receiv- Virginia Bar association.
ing the highest vote cast. He was Judge Watts was married November 26, 1868, to Miss Mattie Peters, daughter of Wm. H. Peters, Esq., of Portsmouth Six children have been born to them: Mary R., Ann M., Mattie L., Samuel, Marjorie, and Winnifred W. His father was Dr. Edward M. Watts, son of Col. Dempsey Watts; he was born in Ports- mouth in 1807, graduated at the univer- sity of Pennsylvania, and in 1837 married Ann Maupin, daughter of Dr. George W. Maupin, surgeon United States army; he . selected by Hon. John S. Barbour, chair- man of the democratic state committee, as one of his executive committee, and continued in service during all the mem- orable campaigns conducted . by that great leader. He was president of the democratic state committee in 1884, which elected delegates to the national conven- tion of that year. For many years he served as a member of the common coun- cil of Portsmouth and was, for eight years, president of that body. In 1883 he died in 1849, leaving three children: Mrs. was elected president of the bank of G. M. Holladay, wife of James G. Holla- Portsmouth, one of the oldest and most day, Dr. Edward M. Watts (died in June, prosperous financial institutions in east- 1890), and Legh R. Watts. The paternal ern Virginia. He still continues in the ancestors were English and the maternal position and is vice-president from Vir-
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French Huguenots.
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DR. FRANK PIERCE WEBSTER
was born in Portsmouth, Va., March 4, 1853, and educated in Ottawa, Canada. In 1877 he attended the college of Phy- afterward the Hahnemann Medical col- lege at Philadelphia, Penn., graduating from the first in 1878 and the latter in 1879 (taking a post graduate course), and then located in Norfolk, Va., where he has since practiced, being now a member of the state board of medical examiners.
Answers," published in New Hampshire, during 1882-3, and is the author of " Out- lines of Chemistry."
Prof. Webster was married in Ports-
sicians and Surgeons, at Baltimore, and mouth, Va., in 1845, to Isabella F. Hobday,
daughter of John Hobday; to them were born three children: Ella H., wife of Hon. E. H. Bronson, M. P. P. of Ottawa, Canada; Dr. John N. Webster of Norfolk, Va., and Dr. Frank P. Webster of Norfolk, Va. Doctor Webster's mother died Sep- tember 19, 1885. The paternal grand- father of the doctor, John Webster, was born in Weare, N. H., December 8, 1780,
He was married October 14, 1885, to Helen S. Cassell, daughter of V. O. Cas- sell, of Portsmouth, Va., and to them were and was married, in 1813, to Betsey Burn- born three children: Isabella, Helen, and ham of Dunbarton, N. H., youngest daughter of Capt. Nathan Burnham, of the fifth generation from Thomas Burn- ham (of Ipswich), who came from Eng- land in 1635, in the ship "Angel Gabriel," Captain Andrews (his uncle). This grandfather's father was Joseph Webster, and his father was Iddo Webster, a brother of Ebenezer Webster, who was the grandfather of Daniel Webster. The brothers, Iddo and Ebenezer, were great- grandsons of Thomas Webster, who came from Norfolk, England, about the middle of the seventeenth century, and settled in Kingstown, N. H. These facts were gathered from the town record of East Kingstown by a Mr. Brown and published in an Exeter, N. H., paper about twenty- five years ago. John Webster, grand- father of the doctor, was a farmer. He settled in Portsmouth, Va., in 1844, and died there in 1855. Frank P. Nathan Burnham Webster, the doctor's father, was born in Unity, N. H., in 1821, was educated at Norwich Military university, in Norwich, Vt., and then located in Portsmouth, Va., where he was placed in charge of the military academy established there by Captain Partridge in 1840, retaining the position for several years. He afterward organ- ized the Virginia Collegiate and Military institute in Portsmouth, which became a large and flourishing school, and which, at the outbreak of the Civil war, was closed in 1862. Then he went to Ottawa, Canada, and organized a school, which he carried on for four or five years, and later moved to North Carolina. He next went to Vineland, N. J., where he en- gaged in literary work, and in 1869 located in Norfolk, Va., where he resided up to 1886. In 1889 he removed to Vine- land, N. J., where he now resides, en- gaged in literary work. The professor DR. JOHN S. WELLFORD. invented an automatic meteorological Among the older and more prominent physicians of Virginia, John Spotswood Wellford, M. D., takes appropriate rank. He was born in Fredericksburg, Va., register; has been a member of the American association for the Advance- ment of Science since 1853 and fellow since 1854; edited "Notes, Queries and January 4, 1825, and is a son of Dr. Bev-
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