USA > Virginia > Prince Edward County > Prince Edward County > A history of Prince Edward County, Virginia: from its formation in 1753, to the present > Part 20
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History of Prince Edward County
JAMES NELSON, D.D., LL.D. Born, August 23, 1841; Died, November 13, 1921.
Although Doctor Nelson was not a native of Prince Ed- ward County, so much of his labor was done in, and for, the county, that it is fitting that this notice shall be taken of him here.
He was born in Louisa county, Virginia, on August 23, 1841. The War between the States began when he was still at school. He joined the Confederate Army and was for four years Chaplain of the Forty-fourth Virginia Regiment. What was known as "the great revival" began in the bri- gade to which young Nelson was attached, and it is said that hundreds of Confederate soldiers were converted through his labors.
With the close of the war he entered Columbian Col- lege, Washington, and graduated at the head of his class. He then served as pastor of a church in that city, and later became general evangelist for the Baptists of Maryland. In 1875 he accepted the pastorate of the Farmville Baptist Church and began at once to establish a Normal School for women there. He repeatedly appeared before the Legisla- ture and the Governor and finally won out in his project and the Female Normal School of Farmville, the progenitor of like schools at Radford, Fredericksburg, and Harrisonburg, came into being.
In 1881 he went to London, England, as a delegate to the World's Sunday School Convention, and while in that city, preached in the church of the famous Charles Haddon Spurgeon.
In 1885 he left Farmville to accept the pastorate of the Baptist Church at Staunton, Virginia, where he lectured be- fore the Staunton Female Seminary and other schools in addition to his duties as pastor of the Staunton Church.
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After leaving Staunton, he was for nearly thirty years President of the Woman's College of Richmond. The school, when he took charge of it, was near extinction. Its long history, its old prestige, and its multitude of alumnae alike seemed unable to save it. Dr. Nelson, in a few brief years, re-established it on a sure footing, made it for many sessions a most useful agency and, at the proper time, most generously stood aside and closed the college that West- hampton College might be opened.
In choosing his teachers, Dr. Nelson was guided by a sure instinct that even he could not explain. Dr. J. A. C. Chandler, now President of the College of William and Mary, was picked by Dr. Nelson while still a very young man, as one of his teachers. Among other of his teachers, were Hiss Lenora Duke, later Mrs. Chandler; Dr. M. A. Martin; Dr. W. A. Shepherd; Dr. F. C. Woodward; Dr. Emory Hill; Christopher Garnett; Miss Mary Carter An- derson, now Mrs. Charles S. Gardner; Miss Marian Forbes; Miss Addie Garlick; and Miss Catherine Ryland, now Mrs. Garnett.
Dr. Nelson was the despair of every college executive, for it was said of him that he could do more work with less money than any college president in Virginia. He had a marked spiritual influence over the student body of the col- lege.
Dr. Nelson died on Sunday, November 13, 1921, at 904 Grace Street West, Richmond, Virginia, and was buried at Hollywood Cemetery in that city.
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DR. WILLIAM HENRY RUFFNER.
He was the son of Dr. Henry Ruffner, a distinguished Presbyterian preacher, who was, for many years President of Washington College, now Washington and Lee Univer- sity. Thus, the subject of this sketch was reared in a home of culture. From the college of which his father was Presi- dent he, in 1845, received the degree of M.A. He afterward studied theology at Union Theological Seminary, and at Princeton, New Jersey. He was at one time Chaplain of the University of Virginia, and later became pastor of Seventh Presbyterian Church, Philadelphia. In 1853, on account of broken health, he withdrew from the ministry.
He wrote much on educational and agricultural sub- jects, and was at one time editor of the Virginia School Journal, and of the New England Journal of Education. He was State Superintendent of Public Instruction in Virginia, from 1870 to 1882. This office had just been created and he was the first to occupy it. His difficulties were multiplied from the fact that he had to provide for two distinct races of people at a time when feelings were apt to run high; moreover the War between the States, that presented that problem, had left his constituency almost too poor to be taxed for education. · In founding the new system he wrote, trav- eled, lectured, visited schools, held meetings, and organized teachers' institutes, until 1882, when a change in the politics of the Administration brought about his retirement. It was from this retirement and with his vast experience behind him, that he was called in 1884 to undertake a new pioneer work, and he became the first head of the State Female Nor- mal School of Virginia, located at Farmville. He was also helpful in founding the Agricultural and Mechanical Col- lege, and Miller School, and was at one time a member of the Board of Hampton Institute (Colored).
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What Horace Mann, thirty-three years before him, had done for Massachusetts, Dr. Ruffner did for Virginia.
He lived to a good old age and died November 24, 1908, beloved and honored by all.
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JUDGE FRANCIS NATHANIEL WATKINS. Born April 14, 1813. Died 1885.
Judge Watkins was born in 1813, and spent his entire life in Prince Edward county. He was a member of the Virginia Legislature in 1867-1868, and Judge of the County Court of Prince Edward for fourteen years. He was Secre- tary and Treasurer of the Board of Union Theological Semi- nary for forty years, of Hampden-Sidney College fourteen years, and of the State Normal School for the first year of its existence, when his valuable and active life was brought to a close in 1885. He was an ardent friend of education, especially of the common school system.
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DOCTOR PETER WINSTON. Born in Richmond, Va., June 5, 1836. Died at Farmville, Virginia, January 30, 1920, and buried at Farmville, Virginia.
Doctor Peter Winston was born at Richmond, Virginia, June 5, 1836. He was graduated from Hampden-Sidney Col- lege, Prince Edward county, with the degree of A.B .; at- tended the University of Virginia for one year, and also the University of New York, where he graduated in Medicine. Then he was for one year a student in Paris at the Univer- sity of France, from whence he returned, in obedience to his country's call, in 1861, to become a surgeon in the Confeder- ate Army, which position he held through the period of the War between the States. He afterwards located in Farm- ville, Virginia, where he practiced medicine to the time of his death in 1920. He was mayor of Farmville in 1873-1874, and was a Delegate to the State Legislature in 1914, 1916, 1918 from Prince Edward County.
He was Moderator of the Appomattox Association of Baptist Churches in 1873 and 1874, and again in 1914 and 1915. He was a prominent and deeply interested member of the Farmville Baptist Church for many years.
He was for twenty-four years physician to the State Female Normal School, at Farmville, Virginia, and was a trustee of Hampden-Sidney College for a great many years, as well as of the State Board of Correction.
He had reached the ripe age of eighty-four when he died.
On September 15, 1868, he married Miss Mollie Emma Rice in Farmville, Va., and she survived him at his death.
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REV. DANIEL WITT, D.D. 1801-1871.
This noted divine was the son of Jesse Witt and Alice Brown, then living in Bedford county, near to what is now. Bedford City, then known as Liberty. He was born, No- vember 8, 1801. As a result of hardships endured during the Revolutionary War, his father was compelled to use crutches and found it ã difficult matter to care for his large family on the small farm that he had managed to purchase. He was a man of vigorous and rather remarkable intellect. Both father and mother were ardent Baptists. Under the circum- stances of the family, the boy Daniel, received but limited edu- cational advantages, his early school days extending but little over three years. Of a rather delicate physique, the outdoor life made necessary by demands of the little farm and the large family, was a most fortunate thing for him, as it gave the needed strength for the work of the after years.
Until the fourth Sunday in August, 1821, nothing par- ticularly striking occurred in the life of the young man. On this day, however, a "section meeting"; a religious gathering much after the fashion of the "protracted meeting" of later days, but conducted by a designated section of the Baptist Association of Churches, held at Hatcher's Meeting House, and at which Elders Davis, Leftwich, Harris, and Dempsey were the preachers, was being held. The meeting lasted all day and resulted, on October 21, 1821, in his avowal of conversion. To get to this meeting he journeyed farther from his home than he had ever before done; some twenty miles.
On the second Sunday in December, 1821, with the ice on the water, the subject of our sketch, and his older brother Jesse, were baptized and received into the fellowship of the Little Otter (now Bedford City) Church. Almost imme- diately he began to preach and met with much acceptance, although it is said that he then possessed but ONE sermon. On April 13, 1822, his Church licensed him to preach. He
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was soon preaching throughout the counties of Henry, Pat- rick, Pittsylvania, and Campbell. Upon the organization of the General Association of Baptist Churches in 1823, young Witt, with Jeremiah B. Jeter, his lifelong friend, were desig- nated its first missionaries and set apart for work in the western part of the State, included in their field being the counties of Franklin, Henry, Patrick, Montgomery, Gray- son, Giles, Wythe, Monroe, Greenbrier, Pocahontas, Alle- ghany, Bath, Rockbridge, and Botetourt.
He was formally ordained to the ministry, in his home Church, Little Otter, on August 7-8, 1824.
In February, 1827, he preached at an Associational meet- ing of the Appomattox Association of Baptist Churches, held at Sandy River, Prince Edward county, in Sharon Bap- tist Church, and this led to his acceptance of a call to that Church. And thus began a ministry, unique in many ways, that was to extend over a term of forty-five years, to he termin- ated only by the death of the devoted pastor. He pur- chased a modest home near to his Church where he spent the rest of his years and in which he died, Novmber 15, 1871.
The honorary degree of D.D. was conferred on Mr. Witt by Columbian College, Washington, D. C. He was the Mod- erator of the Appomattox Association of Baptist Churches for eleven of its sessions, and was President of the General Association, at its Petersburg session in 1861.
He was thrice married. In 1829 he was married to Miss Mary C. Cocke, of Cumberland county, who died in 1834. In 1836 he was married to Miss Mary A Woodfin, who died in 1842. In 1849 he was married to Mrs. Mary Ellen Temple, who survived him.
His family consisted of four sons.
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Upon the wish of his Church, Dr. Witt was buried near the pulpit where for so many years he had proclaimed the message of life eternal. Shortly after his death, a handsome marble shaft, suitably inscribed, was erected by Sharon Church and other friends, and there he sleeps!
JAMES A. DAVIDSON, Mayor of Farmville, Va. See Page 352.
Chapter Fourteen
"Who's Who" in Prince Edward County
1. Robert Kincaid Brock.
2. Edward Taylor Bondurant.
3. James Augustus Davidson.
4. Joseph Dupuy Eggleston.
5. Edgar Graham Gammon.
6. George Jefferson Hundley.
7. Joseph L. Jarman.
8. Asa D. Watkins.
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"WHO'S WHO" IN PRINCE EDWARD
Someone has said that "history is but the lengthened shadow of the human race." That is the reason for this, and the preceding chapter on "Biography."
The men who are cited in this chapter, though still living, have already rendered such service in their respective spheres, for the good of their fellow citizens of Prince Ed- ward county, as to mark them out for distinction.
To the lasting discredit of humanity let is be said that we are all too prone to wait until after the obsequies, be- fore doing justice to those who have served us.
Of course it is not intended to intimate that these alone have served their fellows faithfully and well, but they stand in a representative capacity in their several callings, in that service which every robust citizen feels to be incumbent upon those who enjoy the privileges of our democratic institutions.
And that is the reason for these two chapters. These men have either made, or are making, history.
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ROBERT KINCAID BROCK.
The subject of this sketch was born in Buckingham coun- ty, Virginia, May 29, 1878. His father was Henry C. Brock, for thirty-two years a professor at Hampden-Sidney Col- lege; and his mother, Mary Carter Irving, daughter of the late Robert Kincaid Irving, at one time a member of the Virginia House of Delegates; of the State Senate, and Clerk of the County of Buckingham. He is a nephew of the late Robert A. Brock of Richmond, for many years Secretary of the Virginia Historical Society, and of the Southern His- torical Society.
He graduated from Hampden-Sidney College in 1897 with the degree of A.B. He then taught for one year in Surry County, and for one year in Halifax County. For four years he conducted a private school in Charleston, West Virginia.
He received his legal education at the University of Vir- ginia. Is a member of the Chi Phi Fraternity. Was at one time the president of the Alumni Association of Hamp- den-Sidney College.
He began the practice of law in Farmville in 1904 where he soon formed a partnership with Judge A. D. Watkins, which has continued to the present time.
He was elected to the Senate of Virginia in 1912, where he served for four years as a member of the Committees of Finance; Schools and Colleges; Courts of Justice; and Fish- eries and Game, of that body.
He was a delegate to the State Democratic Convention in 1908, 1912, 1916, and 1920, and was the alternate delegate to the National Democratic Convention in St. Louis in 1916.
He was Chairman of the Prince Edward Chapter of the Red Cross from the time that the Chapter was organized dur- ing the Great War, which office he still holds. He was
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Chairman of the Legal Advisory Board of Prince Edward County during the War.
He is Secretary of the Prince Edward Public Health Association; and of the Electoral Board of the County; Ex- aminer of Records for the Fifth Judicial Circuit since 1918; and Secretary-Auditor of the Virginia Normal School Board since October 1919.
He volunteered for service in the Great War in the spring of 1918, making application for admission to the Third Offi- cers' Training Camp, but was rejected. He applied again to the Fourth Officers' Training Camp, and received appoint- ment to Camp Lee; was inducted into the service before the local Draft Board; and was ordered to report, Novem- ber 13th, 1918. Through the signing of the Armistice on the 11th of that month, this appointment was cancelled.
Mr. Brock stands high in the estimation of his fellow- citizens of Prince Edward county for his splendid public spirit and devotion to duty.
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History of Prince Edward County
EDWARD TAYLOR BONDURANT.
The subject of this sketch was born in Prince Edward county, near Rice, October 22, 1864, and has lived in the coun- ty all his life.
In 1881 he professed religion and united with the Christ- ian (Disciples of Christ) Church in April of that year.
When sixteen years of age, owing to the death of both father and mother, and being the eldest of the boys of the family, he was forced to leave school and assume the manage- ment of the home farm, which he did so successfully that all the debts against it were paid off, and in 1893, by decree of the Circuit Court, his father's farm was sold to him by the legatees.
He married Agnes Leigh Clark, October 20, 1886. Side by side they have fought the battle of life, with the hope that their children might have a good education and prove a bless- ing to the world.
Having been a tobacco grower practically all his life, he very early became very much interested in the promotion of an organization for securing better prices for that commodity for the growers of it. In 1905 he led in a movement to that end. Failing at that time to secure sufficient strength to accomplish the hoped-for results, that organization went into the loose warehouse business. He was made manager and continued to serve in that capacity for eight years with a marked degree of success. During all these eight years he continued to attend to the managment of his farm as well. In 1913 he was sent by the U. S. Government to Austria, to investigate the conditions under which Virginia tobacco was being bought by foreign governments. The war coming on soon afterwards, his mission proved abortive of results.
In 1920 he was sent to the Legislature in succession to
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the late Dr. Peter Winston. He was re-elected in 1922 with- out opposition.
Mr. Bondurant is deservedly popular amongst all classes of people in the county, but it is amongst the farmers that he enjoys his greatest popularity.
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JAMES AUGUSTUS DAVIDSON.
The subject of this sketch, is the son of William Meade Davidson and Julia Wiltse Davidson, and was born at Farmville, Virginia, May 31st, 1877, and has lived in Farm- ville all his life.
He attended the public schools of his native town, finish- ing his course in February 1892.
On the 28th of October, 1903, he was married to Miss Birdie Waddell Cox, of Richmond, Virginia, and has a fam- ily of three Children: James A., Jr .; Paul William; and Frances Wiltse.
He served two terms as a memberof the Farmville Town Council; from September 1, 1916, to September 1, 1920, when he was elected Mayor for the term of two years; from September 1, 1920, to September 1, 1922, winning by a sub- stantial majority over his fellow-councilor, Mr. E. W. San- ford.
He is the junior member of the firm of Stokes and David-, son, wholesale and retail grocers of Farmville, which firm occupies the finest grocery premises in the town, situated on Main street; a new and handsome structure, erected in 1920.
Mr. and Mrs. Davidson are prominent socially, through- out the county and are deservedly popular amongst the host of their friends, whom they frequently entertain in their beautiful home on Third street.
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History of Prince Edward County
DR. JOSEPH DUPUY EGGLESTON, Junior, A.M., LL.D.
Dr. Eggleston began life as a country boy near Wor- sham, in Prince Edward county. He was graduated from Hampden-Sidney College in 1886, was prepared for college at old Prince Edward Academy at Worsham, Va., under Pro- fessor J. R. Thornton, and, at eighteen, was at work in a one-room school in Missouri, at $15 a month. He was soon promoted to a two-room school in Prince Edward, his native county, and, a little later, to a three-room school in Georgia.
Teaching was then given up temporarily because of ill- health, and he went to work in a drug store. In eighteen months he had worked up from a twenty-five-dollar a week clerk, to the head of the business.
He then returned to the school-room, and for two years taught in a High School in Asheville, N. C., twice during that time declining the office of principal of it. He then succeeded Mr. Claxton as Superintendent of the Asheville schools. He filled this position most successfully for seven years, finding time also to become one of the organizers of the Asheville and Buncombe County Good Roads Associa- tion, and was an active member of the executive committee of the Asheville Business Men's Association. At the end of nine years work in Asheville he returned to Virginia in order to be near his father, who was in failing health.
He was on the editorial staff of the B. F. Johnson Pub- lishing Company only a short while before he was asked by President Dabney, of the University of Tennessee, to help in organizing the Bureau of Publicity and Information of the Southern Educational Board.
Upon the death of Mr. T. J. Garden, shortly, after, Mr. Eggleston was appointed to fill his unexpired term as County Superintendent of the schools of Prince Edward.
Then he was elected State Superintendent of Public
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Instruction in Virginia, which office he filled with character- istic energy and conspicuous success for seven years.
As State Superintendent of Education, he was ex-officio, a member of the Board of Visitors of the State Normal School for Women, at Farmville. At the request of United States Commissioner of Education, P. P. Claxton, he resigned the State Superintendency in order to become Chief Special- ist in Rural Education for the United States, but in six months, was unanimously called as President of Virginia Polytechnic Institute, where he remained for six years. In that period, 1913-1919, the enrollment of V. P. I. in- creased from 460 to 781.
Asked to take the Presidency of his Alma Mater, Hamp- den-Sidney College, he declined unless it should become the property of the Synod of Virginia. When the College came under the control of the Synod, he accepted the Presidency and assumed office, July 1, 1919.
Dr. Eggleston has written extensively for leading pa- pers in Virginia and North Carolina; is a member of Beta Theta Pi, and Phi Beta Kappa Clubs, and author, with R. W. Bruere, of "The Work of the Rural School."
Farmville and Prince Edward county are greatly hon- ored in the work of this distinguished son of theirs.
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History of Prince Edward County
THE REVEREND EDGAR GRAHAM GAMMON, D.D.
The subject of this sketch is the present Pastor of Col- lege Presbyterian Church, at Hampden-Sidney, Virginia.
His father was the late Rev. James Polk Gammon. His mother's maiden name was Susan Southall Langhorne.
He first saw the light of day, September 10, 1884, at Asheville, North Carolina.
When about two years of age his parents moved to Vir- ginia, where he was reared. He entered Hampden-Sidney College in 1902, and graduated in 1905, with his A.B. degree.
Upon his graduation he taught school for three years, and, in 1908, entered Union Theological. Seminary in Rich- mond, from which institution he graduated in 1911 with his B.D. degree.
His first ministerial labors were at Clarksburg, West Virginia, where he remained for only one year, resigning to take up mission work at Harlington, Texas, on the Mexican border. Here he did aggressive and successful Home Mis- sion work for a period of five years.
From Harlington, in the fall of 1917, he came to his present work at Hampden-Sidney.
During the war he did Y. M. C. A. work at Hampden- Sidney College, with the Student Army Training Corps, and was deservedly popular with the young men with whom he worked.
He received his D.D. degree from Hampden-Sidney Col- lege, which institution takes pride in the splendid work he is doing with the student body of the college, with whom he is extremely popular.
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JUDGE GEORGE JEFFERSON HUNDLEY.
The subject of this sketch was born on the 22nd day of March, 1838. He is the son of Josiah Hundley and Cornelia Jefferson Hundley, both of whom were born and reared in Amelia county, Virginia. His mother died when he was three years old, and his father, when he was ten. After his mother's death George was taken to the home of his grandmother, Mrs. Nancy Jefferson, the widow of John Gar- land Jefferson, and was raised by her. He lived in the coun- ty of Amelia till he grew to manhood. He received his edu- cation in the private schools of that day, in Amelia county. He was put out to business when quite young, but before he was full grown, managed by his own efforts and with the help of his mother's sister, Mrs. Nicholas Carrington, to con- tinue his education at Fleetwood Academy in Nelson county, Va., and at Hampden-Sidney College, and his legal educa- tion at Judge Jno. W. Brockenbrough's Law School in Lex- ington, Va. He had to borrow money to enable him to com- plete his education, but paid it all back by his individual efforts afterwards.
He obtained his license to practice law in April 1861, being examined by Judges R. C. L. Moncure, Wm. J. Robert- son and William Danniel, three Judges of the Court of Ap- peals of Virginia, said court being then in session in Rich- mond. Returning then to the home 'of his cousin, Wm. C. Carrington of Howardsville, Albemarle County, with whom he had read law before going to law school, young Hundley volunteered in the Howardsville Blues, a company then be- ing organized to enter the War between the States, on the side of the south; was elected a Lieutenant in the company and joined our army at Manassas Junction. This com- pany formed a part of the 19th Virginia Regiment and took part in the first battle of Manassas.
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