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 9
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 9
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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
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to abandon his intention of further pursu- Mills; Boydton and White Oak Road; ing his studies at Harvard college, and to Capture of Petersburg; Amelia Springs; enter the Union volunteer service instead. Little Sailor's Creek; Deatonville: High In accordance with this self-sacrificing and Bridge, and finally Appomattox. patriotic resolve, he enlisted August 4, After the close of the war, Captain Cole carried out his ante-bellum deter- 1862, in company I, Seventeenth Maine infantry. April 21, 1864, he was commis- mination to study law at Harvard, and sioned second lieutenant of company E, after passing two years of legal reading Seventeenth Maine infantry, and October at that famous institution of learning he 20, 1864, was promoted to first lieutenant graduated from the law department in July, 1867, but in the meantime, in Octo- ber, 1866, had been admitted to the bar at Portland, Me. After finishing his studies at Harvard, the captain went to West Union, West Va., where he practiced his profession three years. Here, in 1868, he was elected prosecuting attorney of the county ( Doddridge ) and two years later removed to Parkersburg, in the same state, where he served two terms (two years ) as city collector ( 1876-77 ), at the same time conducting his private practice. In February, 1878, he located in Washing- ton, D. C., and soon drew to himself a large clientage. March 3, 1891, Mr. Cole was appointed United States attorney for the District of Columbia and still retains that office, while his private practice has been augmented rather than diminished. In January, 1869, Captain Cole was united in matrimony with Fannie Chisler, and after her decease in 1876, he chose for his second wife, in January, 1887, Eliza- beth Settle. of the same company; January 25, 1865, he was made captain of his old company 1. The rank of captain was retained until the close of hostilities. Captain Cole's military career was a long and dangerous one, in which he performed bravely and dutifully all the services re- quired of him, as his frequent promotions attest. He participated in all of the bat- tles of the army of the Potomac from the battle of Fredericksburg in December, 1862, to Appomattox, in April, 1865. The various corps to which he was attached were frequently in action and were in the following amongst other battles: Freder- icksburg, Va., the Cedars; Chancellors- ville; Gettysburg; Wapping Heights ( Manassas Gap) ; Auburn Mills; Kelly's Ford; Mine Run; Locust Grove; Wil- derness; "Brock and Plank Road;" Po River; Spottsylvania Court House and Hancock's charge on the Salient (Bloody) Angle; Fredericksburg Road; Taylor's Bridge; Tolopotomy Creek; North Anna; Cold Harbor; Assault before Petersburg; David H. Cole, father of Captain C. C. Cole, was born in York county, Me., in 1807, but in later years resided in Hiram, Oxford county, and Naples, Cumberland county, where he now resides. He is a farmer, teacher, and lawyer, and a man of considerable distinction in his commu- nity. He served his fellow-townsmen as township selectman, school supervisor, county commissioner, etc., and in 1865 Hare House; Strawberry - Plains; Mine Explosion at Petersburg; Deep Bottom; from August to October, 1864, in the trenches before Petersburg; Poplar Grove Church; Hatcher's Run; Boydton Plank Road; Weldon Railroad expedi- tion, then back to the trenches before Petersburg, remaining there from Decem- ber 11, 1864 to February 5, 1865; Dabney's
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Chasteleste
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was appointed postmaster of Naples, in Hanover county, Va., he received a dangerous wound through the ankle, capacitating him for further military service.
Me., an office he held for about twenty years, when he was removed under the threatening the loss of his foot, and in- administration of President Cleveland. He was then elected to the. Maine state senate for two successive terms, going into that body when he was more than seventy years old. His father was Edward Cole, who was also a native of York county, Me. His maternal grand- father was Edmund Hammons, a Revo- lutionary soldier.
Captain Cole's mother was Ruth East- man, daughter of Ezekiel Eastman, of Cornish, Maine, who was also a soldier in the Revolutionary war.
GEORGE WYTHE COOK, M. D.,
is a practitioner of medicine of high standing in Washington, D. C. He is a Virginian by birth, having been born in Front Royal, Warren county, October 28, 1846, where he received a substantial academic education, covering Latin and mathematics - the pendency of the war between the states, while he was a strip- ling, precluding him from a collegiate course.
After the close of the war he resumed his studies at the Front Royal academy for a time, then began the study of medi- cine with Dr. Hanson Dorsey, a local physician of intelligence and skill, and in the fall of 1867 entered the university of Maryland, from which institution he graduated in medicine in 1869. Dr. Cook then began the practice of his pro- fession in his native town, Front Royal, remaining there for two years, when, some special inducements being offered him, he remove, in 1871, to Upperville, in Fau- quier county, Va., where he soon gained the respect and confidence and much of the practice of the community. This field, however, was too narrow to give full scope to Dr. Cook's abilities, and in 1878 he removed to Washington city, hav- ing in the meantime married Miss Rebecca Lloyd, daughter of Richard Lloyd, Esq., of Alexandria county, Va. During the seven years of Dr. Cook's residence in Upperville he enlisted the warm attach- ment of the entire community by his skill, sympathy, and assiduous attentions in the sickroom, and his gentlemanly bear- ing everywhere.
In April, 1864, when the war was known to be a dread reallity and not a pastime, Dr. Cook, though not yet eighteen, and living outside the confederate line, real- ized that Virginia needed even the boys for her defense, and with true and pa- For several years after his removal to Washington, Dr. Cook, being of a modest and retiring disposition, and having no special friends at court, did not come into prominence, but, with as much pa- tience as he could command, he bided triotic devotion he flung himself into the breach that was being made in the line of defenders of his native state, now much weakened by the dire casualties of grim-visaged war. He enlisted in one of the cavalry companies from his native his time, and is now receiving his reward county (company E, Seventh Virginia,
in an increasing and profitable practice, Cavalry, Rosser's brigade), and took part and in a recognition of his skill and abil- with that famous troop in several engage- ity by the profession and the public. He ments in the Wilderness. At Haw's Shop, is now physician to the Louise Home;
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to the Garfield Memorial hospital; and | his patient research and thorough invest . to the Home for Incurables; as well as igation of all legal questions submitted to professor of physiology in the medical him, profound in his knowledge of the department of the National university, and lecturer in the Washington Training School for Nurses. He is a member of the American Medical association; a member of the Medical association of the District of Columbia, and one of the counselors of its standing committee; is secretary of the Washington Obstetrical
law, highly esteemed by his brethren of the bar, and noted for his sterling integrity. He was for years common- wealth's attorney for the county of War- ren; was a member of the Virginia constitutional convention of 1850; and in 1870 was a candidate for judge of the supreme court of Virginia, but and Gynecological society, and is vice- was deferated by two votes. He died in president of the Medical society of the 1891, aged eighty years, one among the District of Columbia. In many other last of the old school of Virginia lawyers. way are his abilities recognized by the His widow, who was Elizabeth Lane, profession as well as the public, he hav-
still lives at a ripe old age - a woman of ing received, in 1890, the degree of LL. great intelligence, strong character and D. from the National university of Wash- ington.
unusual common sense.
Dr. Cook is the author of a number of medical papers, several of which were WILLIAM A. COOK, published in the American Journal of for many years a prominent lawyer of Obstetrics, among them being: "Is Denti- Washington, D. C., was born in Greens- boro, Penn., in 1826. He received his liter- tion a Cause of Disease?" "Some Observ- ations on Lactation," "Do Maternal Im- ary education in the schools of his native pressions Affect the Foetus in Utero," town and by private tutor, and as early as etc.
1844 commenced the study of law under
Dr. Cook's ancestors were English and Albert Marchant, completing his legal German, his paternal grandfather, Will- studies, under Henry D. Foster and be- iam Cook, having removed during the ing admitted to the bar in 1847, and en- last century from Gloucester county, Va., tered upon practice at Greensboro. He entered public life a few years later, and in 1853-54 served in the Pennsylvania legislature as a democrat, but in 1854 aided in organizing the republican party, of which he has ever since been a faith- to Frederick county, Va., where, in 1796, he married Elizabeth Baker, and where for some years he was presiding justice of the county court of Frederick county, and afterwards high sheriff, places of consideration and responsibility. His ful member. In 1857 he opened a second maternal grandfather was William Lane, law office in Mount Pleasant, Iowa, and who married Catherine Vanmeter, both in 1858 married Emma P. Scott, a native of whom at one time owned large landed of West Virginia. .
estates on the Shenandoah river. The In 1861 Mr. Cook visited Washington father of the subject of this sketch was to witness the inauguration of Lincoln Giles Cook, an eminent lawyer of the and was hemmed in. Ile decided to re- lower valley of Virginia, remarkable for main and enlisted in the volunteers of
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PERSONAL SKETCHES - DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA.
WILLIAM WILSON CORCORAN,
the District of Columbia, and served several months, and then re-enlisted in late capitalist and philanthropist of Wash- the service of the District of Columbia, ington city, was born in Georgetown, and remained in the service of the United States at Washington, D. C., until the cessation of hostilities. During most of the time he was in secret service under a special commission from Secretary Stanton. D. C., December 27, 1798. His father, Thomas Corcoran, one of the leading citizens of Georgetown, was a native of Ireland and emigrated to America in his youth, settling in Maryland, where, in 1788, he married Hannah Lemmon, of Baltimore. Thomas Corcoran became a prominent business man of Georgetown, was at one time magistrate and also served as member of the levy court, post-
About the close of the war Mr. Cook was appointed military state agent of Pennsylvania with the rank of colonel, and served as such until the close of the agency in 1866. He then entered on the master, and college trustee. William W. practice of law in Washington, D. C. and in 1868-69 he was made attorney for the city, and in 1871 he was made attorney for the District of Columbia and board of public works. Mr. Cook has given much attention to criminal cases. He was appointed by President Garfield to take charge of the Star Route prosecution, but retired on the death of that unfortunate gentleman.
During the Tilden-Hayes contest Mr. Cook was selected by the president to go to Florida but was intercepted by tele- gram and stopped in South Carolina, where he remained until the returns were signed, giving the electoral votes to Hayes, and when the election board were brought up for contempt Mr. Cook pre- pared their answers.
Mr. Cook is descended from a highly respected family. His grandfather was David Cook, who was a native of Eng- land and was a soldier in the war of the Revolution. His father was David Cook, who was for many years associate justice of the court of common please, embrac- ing Westmoreland, Indiana, and Arm- strong counties, Penn., and the "legal mind" seems to have descended to Mr. of his accumulations was the disburse- Cook himself.
Corcoran, after pursuing classical and mathematical studies in private schools and Georgetown college, engaged in busi- ness at the early age of seventeen under the direction of two brothers, who com- bined with the dry goods trade a whole- sale auction and commission business, which was carried on very successfully until 1823, when, on account of the great financial stringency of the time, the firm was compelled to suspend. In 1828 Mr. Corcoran took charge of the large real estate held in the District of Columbia by the United States bank and the bank of the District of Columbia, and after his father's death, in 1830, devoted himself to this responsible trust until 1836. In 1835 he married Louise Amory Morris, who died in 1840 and in honor of whom, and a daughter of the same name, the " Louise Home" was named. In 1837 Mr. Corcoran began the broker business in Washington, which, in connection with banking, he conducted on a large scale and with great success for a number of years, a part of the time in partnership with the late George W. Riggs, Esq. Among the first uses Mr. Corcoran made ments of $46,000 in absolute discharge of
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the debts of which a legal compromise ; a son, who lived but a short time, and a had been made in the failure of 1823.
daughter, Louise, of whom mention has The firm of Cororan & Riggs became the leading financial house of the na- tional capital and at one period was sufficiently strong to take on its own ac- count nearly all the loans of the govern- ment. After the retirement of Mr. Riggs from the firm Mr. Corcoran carried on the business very successfully by himself until 1854, at which time he relinquished banking and turned his attention to the management of his vast wealth and to works of benevolence and the advance- donated to Washington and Lee univers- already been made. She married in 1859 Hon. George Eustis, a representative in congress from Louisana, and after sev- eral years' residence in Paris, died at Cannes, France, December, 1867, leaving three children. Of the many munificent gifts of Mr. Corcoran to Washington city, the most noted are the Louise Home and the Corcoran art gallery. The former is one of the most useful benevolent institutions in the country, the building being complete in all its parts, ment of science, literature and art. He and one of the most beautiful structures in the city. The magnificent gallery, ity a fine library of five thousand volumes which has his name, has given him a and bestowed the first sum of money to world-wide celebrity and will serve as an raise William and Mary college from the enduring monument to his memory.
straitened condition into which it had fallen by reason of Civil war. He also made liberal donations to the university
WILLIAM A. COULTER,
an attorney of high reputation at Wash- of Virginia, as well as to the Virginia ington, D. C., was born in Harrisburg, Penn., and is a descendant of the family in whose honor that ancient city was named. He was a student at the Wes- leyan university, Delaware, Ohio, when the revolt of the South took place, but relinquished his studies to take up arms in defense of the integrity of the Union. October 4, 1861, he entered the Eighteenth United States infantry, as acting sergeant- benefactions to churches and large con- major, in which capacity he served for
Military institute, and also made an en- dowment of landed property to Columbia college of Washington. He established and endowed Oak Hill cemetery, crown- ing the picturesque heights of George- town; established the " Louise Home," for the care of impoverished gentlemen; founded the Corcoran gallery of art with a magnificent endowment, beside making tributions to institutions of public two years, winning, during the period, by charity. It is estimated that his his attention and devotion to duty, the charities, including private ones, esteem and approval of his seniors. He exceeded the aggregate amount of was commissioned captain and soon $5,000,000. Mr. Corcoran's elegant and thereafter appointed assistant adjutant- hospitable home in Washington was long general and assigned to duty on the staff a center of social influence and a favorite of General Joseph F. Knipe, commanding meeting place of scholars, artists, states- the Seventh division of Wilson's cavalry men, diplomatists, and distinguished vis- corps, army of the Cumberland. He was itors from all parts of the world. Mr. subsequently transferred, with General Corcoran was the father of two children, Knipe, to a corps of cavalry which oper-
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ated against Mobile. After the capture | idence of two years in Richmond, Major of that city he was assigned to duty as Coulter studied law, was admitted to the assistant adjutant-general of all the cav- bar, represented the government in many alry forces of the department of the gulf, military suits, and was appointed by Gen- and in May, 1865, was transferred to the eral Canby a commissioner in chancery staff of General George H. Thomas, and for the circuit court. In November, 1870, assigned to duty at his headquarters at Major Coulter resigned from the army Nashville, Tenn., as assistant to General and commenced the practice of law as the partner of Hon. W. R. Sapp, at Mount Vernon, Ohio. After several years of active J. M. Brannan, Thomas' chief of artillery. A few months later General Brannan was assigned to the command of the district practice he was chosen a member of the of Savannah, and Captain Coulter accom- county republican central committee and panied him as his assistant adjutant-gen- was also nominated by the republicans eral. Later on Captain Coulter was for prosecuting attorney. Leaving Mount brevetted major for gallant and meritori- Vernon in 1876, Major Coulter passed ous services during the war. In his field of Nashville, Tunnel Hill, Chickamauga,; Buzzard Roost, in the campaign around Mobile and in minor engagements and skirmishes. two years on the Pacific coast; in Novem- service the major took part in the battle ber, 1878, he returned to Washington, and for a year and a half was the able corres- pondent of the Ohio State Journal, the Ohio Farmer, and other papers as well as magazines, and for nearly two years con- tributed to and controlled the editing of the army and navy matter in the Wash- ington Sunday Herald.
In 1866, soon after he was mustered out as assistant adjutant-general, Major Coulter received a commission as lieutenant in the Twelfth United States infantry ( regular army), and in Sep- tember of that year, was assigned to duty on the staff of General W. H.
In April, 1880, Major Coulter entered upon the practice of law in Wash- ington, which he still continues with profitable results. He is a member of Emery, commanding the garrison of Kit Carson post, G. A. R., and of the Washington, D. C., and remained on duty military order of the Loyal Legion, and with him until some time in 1868. He has won many sincere friends in all circles was then placed on duty, by direction of since his residence here. He was mar-
the secretary of war, as assistant adjutant-
general of the Freedmen's bureau for the
state of Virginia, with headquarters at
Richmond, remained on that duty for
about one year, and was then assigned
ried July 15, 1890, to Mrs. Augusta Oakley, of San Jose, Cal., daughter of T. O. Smith (deceased ), formerly president of the First National bank, of Decatur, Ill.
James R. Coulter, father of Major W
and served on special duty at the head- A. Coulter, was a native of Williamsport, quarters of General E. R. S. Canby in Penn., and was all his life in the news- the same city until the summer of 1870, paper business; the maternal great-grand- having, in the meantime, received a bre- father of the Major, was a valiant soldier vet commission as captain in the regular in the Revolution and was a relative army for gallant and meritorious conduct of John Harris, the founder of Harris- at the battle of Nashville. During this res- burg, Penn.
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PERSONAL SKETCHES-DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA.
WALTER SMITH COX,
judge of the supreme court of the Dis- trict of Columbia, is a native of the dis- trict and was born in Georgetown October 25, 1826. He graduated from George- town college in 1843, and then studied law with his father, Clement Cox. He next attended the Cambridge law school, from which he was graduated in January, 1847, and was admitted to the bar at Washington on his twenty-first birthday. In January. 1848, he succeeded to his father's practice, and was lucratively and actively employed in his vocation and adding luster to his professional name, until March, 1879, when he was appointed to his present eminent position, by Presi- dent Hayes. In the meantime he had served as recorder of Georgetown, and had been president of he board of alder- men of his native city, and later was for several years auditor of the supreme court of the District of Columbia. There were no backward steps taken by Judge Cox froin the day he was admitted to the bar until his appointment to his present high office. He was ever stu- dious and industrious, and since 1874 has been professor of law in Columbian uni- versity, and up to the time he went on the bench was president of the Arlington Fire Insurance company, and a director in the Potomac Insurance company of Georgetown. Institutions of learning have not been niggardly in bestowing upon him scholastic honors, the de- grees of B. A. and M. A. having been received by him from the Georgetown university, of B. L. from Cambridge, and that of L.L. D. from Columbian uni- versity.
the circuit court of the District of Col- umbia. Mrs. Cox died in February, 1887, leaving two children, named Mary and Walter Cox.
Judge Cox descends from a highly re- spectable family of English descent, whose residence in America ante-dates the Revolutionary war, John Cox, great- great-grandfather of the judge, having reached the country some years before the beginning of the struggle for liberty alluded to. He was companied by his brother Lawrence, an officer in the British army, but this gentleman returned to England when a disruption between the colonies and the mother country became inevitable, while John remained, married, and had born to him several children. One of his grand-children, also named John, after his grandfather, was reared in Baltimore, Md., but before 1800 removed to Georgetown, D. C., where for many years he carried on an extensive mer- cantile business, and became one of the most honored and popular citizens of the city. For twenty-four years he served as mayor, having been elected to no less than twelve consecutive terms of two years each. He was also a gentleman of strong patriotic instincts, and in 1814 took up arms in defense of the capital. and was a colonel of volunteer troops. Col. Cox was first married to Miss Matilda Smith, and to this union were born three child- ren, viz: Clement (father of Judge Cox) ; Matilda, deceased wife of Thomas Pur- sell, and Sallie, deceased wife of John A. Smith, who was for many years clerk of the old circuit court of the District of Columbia. Mrs. Matilda Cox, who was a daughter of Dr. Walter Smith, a surgeon
Judge Cox was married in October, in the Revolutionary army, died a few 1866, to Margaret, daughter of the late years, and for his second wife Col. Cox James Dunlop, formerly chief-justice of married Jane Threlkeld, who bore him
Malkens. Cox
CFPUT & FULLEF =JES
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seven children, of whom but two survive, is a thirty-second degree Mason, and viz: Robert, of Kentucky, and Mary stands high socially as well as profes- Jane, widow of Watkins Addison, of sionally. Georgetown. Col. Cox, after a long life. Mottram Cralle, father of Jefferson B., was born at Heathsville, Va., in 1836, was was called to his final rest in 1852.
Clement Cox, father of Judge Cox, educated at Northumberland academy, was born in Georgetown, D. C., in 1803. and served as clerk of the courts of his His preparatory education was received native county for many years. He was in his native city, and was supplemented by a full collegiate course at Princeton, from which college he graduated in due course of time. He then pursued a course of law studies under William Wirt, form- erly United States attorney general, and later under Judge Dorsey of Maryland, and was quite young when admitted to the bar. He opened his office in his native city and immediately secured an extensive clientage, and was also honored with several official positions as a recog- nition of his legal abilities and learning, among them those of recorder of George-
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