Encyclopedia of Virginia biography, Volume V, Part 83

Author: Tyler, Lyon Gardiner, 1853-1935, ed. cn
Publication date: 1915
Publisher: New York, Lewis historical publishing company
Number of Pages: 848

USA > Virginia > Encyclopedia of Virginia biography, Volume V > Part 83

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

VIR-64

Beulah Chadwick, born October 14, 1719, daughter of Ebenezer and Abigail (Grant) Chadwick, of Weston. They had twelve children, the second being George Stearns, born April 16, 1741, in Milford. He was an early resident of Conway, Franklin county, Massachusetts, where he died January I, 1812. He married, October 29, 1765, Keziah Palmer, of Mendon, Massachusetts, born March 15, 1747, died November 12, 1819. Of their eleven children, the third (being the second son), was Darius Stearns, born May 12, 1770, in Conway, which town he repre- sented eight years in the state legislature, and died there March 8, 1859. He is styled captain, probably through service in the militia. He married, February 15, 1795, Margaret Broderick, of Conway, born Feb- rnary 5, 1774, died May 18, 1844. Their third child and second son, Lewis Patrick Stearns, was born very early in the nine- teenth century, and settled in Franklin county, Virginia, about 1825. Later he re- moved to Tuscaloosa, Alabama, where he died October 15, 1834. He was a peddler, driving over large sections of the South, shrewd and successful, and acquired some property. He married, about 1826, Sarah Cabiness, who died in Tuscaloosa. They had two children: Orren Darius, of further mention below, and John Lewis, now a noted physician of Salem, Virginia. After the death of the parents, the sons were taken to Franklin county, Virginia, and reared by their maternal grandmother.

Orren Darius Stearnes, eldest son of Lewis Patrick and Sarah (Cabiness) Stearns, was born 1827, in Franklin county, Vir- ginia, and received a limited education under private tutors. After his father's death and his return to Virginia, he was em- ployed, commencing at a very early age, upon a farm, and in due time became its manager, producing large quantities of cot- ton, corn and tobacco. He was a major in the state militia, and when the war between the states began he enlisted in Company D, Fifty-eighth Virginia Infantry, of which he was made orderly sergeant, and later pro- inoted to second lieutenant. After the battle ot McDowell's Station he was stricken with typhoid fever, which caused his death in 1862. He married Temperance Ward, and they had children : 1. Sarah, born 1847, died 1906; married, 1870, B. S. Webb, and was the mother of: i. Robert Bruce, who mar-

IOIO

VIRGINIA BIOGRAPHY

ried Sally Cannaday, and had one child, Tempie. ii. Bessie Beulah, married Theo- dore Cox, and is the mother of Stearnes Cox. iii. Thomas Lewis. iv. Kittie Blanche. v. Jake Henry, became the wife of Charles Bauserman and the mother of Virginia Bauserman. vi. Hannah, married Charles Edward Bush, and has children : Edward, Thomas, Albert, Kitty Blanche, and an infant daughter unnamed. vii. Sally, Mrs. Charles Edward McKemy. 2. Lewis Patrick, of further mention below. 3. Thomas F., mentioned below.

Lewis Patrick Stearnes, senior son of Or- ren Darius and Temperance (Ward) Stearnes, was born December 31, 1849, in Franklin county, Virginia, where his. youth was passed, under the instruction of private tutors. In 1867 he entered the service of the Virginia & Tennessee Railroad, now the Norfolk & Western, beginning as assistant to a station agent, where he gained experi- ence as telegraph operator and express agent, and in 1871 was employed by the Southern Express Company in Georgia. In 1873 he returned to the Norfolk & Western Railroad, with which he continued about seven years. For four years following 1880 he was engaged in the hotel business in West Virginia and Kentucky, and in 1884 became station agent of the Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad, and the following year re- turned to the service of the Norfolk & West- ern. In 1890 he removed to Newport News, where he had charge of the coal business of the Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad, and after twenty-four years retired, in August, 1914. Mr. Stearnes is a man of excellent business capacity, and not long after his arrival in Newport News he became interested in the Citizens Marine Bank, of that city, in which he is now a director, and is also a director of several small corporations. He is a mem- ber of the Methodist Episcopal church, and is ever striving to aid his fellow-man. With broad sympathies and generous impulses, his quiet, charitable actions have assisted many in maintaining a good standard of citizenship. He is a member of the Order of Heptasophs, and was at one time affili- ated with the Masonic fraternity. In 1893 Mr. Stearnes was appointed collector of customs at Newport News by President Cleveland, and served two terms in that office. In 1895 he was a member of the Democratic state committee of Virginia, and

in 1901 was elected to the lower house of the state legislature, in which he served three and one-half terms. He married Cyn- thia Bentley King, daughter of Thomas S. and Matilda (Davidson) King, of Pulaski county, Virginia. Children: Lila Pearl, married Hon. Clarence Welmore Robinson (see Robinson) ; Mary Patton, married Pro- fessor Edwin Feller; Lewis Bentley, mar- ried Patrick Cabell Massie.

Thomas Franklin Stearnes, second son of Orren Darius and Temperance (Ward} Stearnes, was born October 6, 1859, in Franklin county, Virginia, and attended a private school in Dublin, Pulaski county, Virginia, under the tutorship of Professor George W. Walker. In 1873, when in his fourteenth year, he entered mercantile life in a general store at Big Lick, Roanoke, Vir- ginia. In 1881 he went to Lynchburg, Vir- ginia, as corresponding clerk in a commis- sion house, and three years later entered the Commercial Bank at Lynchburg, as book- keeper. His industry, ability and trust- worthy character soon advanced him to the position of teller, and later cashier, in which capacity he continued until 1897. In that year he removed to Newport News, where he became assistant of his brother, Lewis Patrick Stearnes, above mentioned, who had charge of the coal business of the Chesa- peake & Ohio Railroad at that point. Mr. Stearnes is a very energetic, efficient and capable business man, and is today ranked among the wealthiest citizens of Newport News. He is a man of genial nature, wel- comed in every social circle, and a valuable aid to any enterprise with which he becomes associated. He was reared in the Protest- ant Episcopal church, is a member of the Royal Arcanum, and in politics follows the footsteps of his ancestors, who were ever associated in the councils of the Democratic party. He married, November 11, 1890, Fanny Dickerson Tignor, daughter of Thomas W. and Elizabeth Ann (Carter) Tignor, who were married December 4, 1853. Mr. and Mrs. Stearnes had one daugh- ter, Tempe, born March 16, 1893, died May 25, 1898.

Hollis Burke Frissell, D. D. Hollis Burke Frissell, D. D., principal of the Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute, Hamp- ton, Virginia, is descended from one of the early American families, planted originally

IOII

VIRGINIA BIOGRAPHY

in Massachusetts. This name, variously spelled, appears on the records of New Eng- land about the middle of the seventeenth century. The immigrants of this name were all or nearly all of Scotch extraction. James Frissell was of Roxbury, Massachusetts, where a daughter Mary was born May 16, 1656. John Frissell, a native of Scotland. died in Braintree, Massachusetts, January 19, 1664; William, also Scotchman, of Con- cord, married, November 28, 1667, Hannah Clarke. Various others of the name are mentioned later in the century. John and Joseph Frissell were of the original colony of thirty-five persons who received from Roxbury, Massachusetts, the grant of the town of Woodstock, Connecticut, as ap- pears by an ancient deed on file in the office of the town clerk. Joseph Frissell married Abigail Bartholomew, January II, 1691. This is one of the earliest marriages recorded after the settlement of the town of Woodstock. John Frissell, son of Jo- seph Frissell, married, November 10, 1726, Abigail Morris. Lieutenant William Fris- sell, son of John Frissell, was baptized July 9, 1737, in Woodstock, and died in Peru, Massachusetts, December 25, 1824, aged eighty-six years. Sergeant William Frissell's name is on the Lexington alarm list from the town of Woodstock, term of service fifteen days; he was ensign in Sev- enth Company, Third Regiment (Colonel Israel Putnam's), commissioned May I, dis- charged December 16, 1775, and re-entered the service in 1776. Two state battalions under Colonels' Mott and Swift, raised in June and July, 1776, reinforced the conti- nental troops in the northern department, at Fort Ticonderoga and vicinity, served under General Gates, and returned in November of the same year. The commission of first lieutenant given "William Fizle" under the hand of Jonathan Trumbull, Esq., captain general and commander-in-chief of the Eng- lish colony of Connecticut, New England, at Hartford, June 20, 1776, with the public seal of the colony attached, is now in pos- session of Francis W. Rockwell, of Pitts- field, Massachusetts. William Frissell moved from Woodstock, Connecticut, to Partridgefield (now Peru), Massachusetts, about 1784, and represented that town in the legislature in 1800 and for two years there- after. He married Judith Mason, of Wood- stock, Connecticut, who died in Peru, Mas-

sachusetts, August 15, 1831, aged ninety years. Children : Monica, Amasa, Wil- liam, Thomas, Sarah, Lemuel, Walter and John.

Amasa Frissell, son of Lieutenant Wil- liam Frissell, lived in Peru, and is described as "a typical Frissell, uniting perseverance with sagacity, and having with all an un- derlying vein of humor, appreciating a joke, even upon himself." When the discovery of the electric telegraph was announced, he predicted that it would go around the world. By occupation a surveyor, he took great interest in his work, and was for many years a teacher in the Sunday school at Peru. He was married three times and the second wife was probably a Cogswell.

The only son of this marriage, Amasa Cogswell Frissell, became a Congregational clergyman, afterward affiliating with the Presbyterian church, and was a friend of Rev. Dr. Lyman Beecher. He was a secre- tary of the American Tract Society, and active in divinity school work. He married Lavina Barker, granddaughter of Captain William Barker, a soldier of the revolution.

Their son, Algernon Sydney Frissell, is president of the Fifth Avenue Bank of New York City. He married Susan Brinkerhoff Varick. Children: Lavina, deceased, be- came the wife of Jerome Kidder. Lewis Fox Frissell a successful physician of New York. Ezra Reed Frissell, a graduate of Philips' Andover Academy, married Eliza Dodd. Hollis Burke, receives further men- tion below. Collins, deceased. Leila Stiles, active in Young Women's Christian Asso- ciation work, lives in New York.

Hollis Burke Frissell, third son of Amasa Cogswell and Lavina (Barker) Frissell, was born July 14, 1851, in Dutchess county, New York, and attended school at College Hill, Poughkeepsie. He was afterward a student at Dr. Dwight's School on Twenty-sixth street, New York City, following which he attended Philips' Andover Academy, from which he graduated in 1869. and graduated from Yale University in 1874. After gradu- ation he was two years a teacher at De Garmo Institute, at Rhinebeck, Dutchess county, New York. From 1876 to 1879 he was a student of Union Theological Semi- nary, from which he graduated in the latter year. He at once became assistant pastor of the Presbyterian Memorial Church, of New York City, where he continued one year

IO12

VIRGINIA BIOGRAPHY

with Rev. Charles S. Robinson, the pastor. In 1880 he became chaplain of the Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute at Hamp- ton, which then had two hundred and fifty students, and upon the death of General S. C. Armstrong, founder of the school, in 1893, he became principal. Under his able management the school has thrived and grown. Today the one hundred and forty buildings, the 1,000 acres of land, courses in thirteen trades, in teaching and home-mak- ing, in business and farming ; and over eight hundred students training for leadership are the physical growth of Hampton.

Eight thousand men and women have gone out from Hampton to South, North and West, trained for teaching, trained for home-building, trained for the trades. In taking their places in Negro and Indian schools of the South and West, and in hun- dreds of communities, this army of workers has helped to decrease illiteracy and fit Ne- groes and Indians for the responsibility of owning land. Through Hampton outposts and graduates the method of industrial train- ing has become thoroughly established as the educational solution of a race problem. Hampton today has become the headquar- ters of an army of uplift. The graduating classes take positions at strategic points in leading the advance to better schools, better farming and industrial training. The great- est value of Hampton Institute, in addition to the steady constructive work among two races, is in its benefit to America as a com- mon platform where the white man and black man, the Southerner and Northerner, meet each year for social service, with tol- erance and constructive spirit.

In writing of the Hampton Institute and the work of Dr. Frissell, Dean James E. Russell of Teachers' College, New York, said :

I regard Hampton Institute as a great educational experiment station. Its problem is the mental, moral and civic training of the millions of Negroes in this country. The task is the most difficult one that can be put up to any institute because the solu- tion is hampered by race prejudice, scarcity of funds and lack of popular interest. The consequences are of vital importance, not only to those immediately concerned, but to our entire population, whites as well as blacks. Northerners as well as Southern- ers. Any advance however small is a contribution to our national well-being and an asset to our national life. No other school is in a position to render as great service, simply because no other institution commands the united strength of the ablest leaders of both races.

The work that needs doing is a task fit for giants and Hampton has been blessed with leaders of gigantic strength. The pace set originally by General Armstrong has been followed by his suc- cessors and associates. Dr. Frissell is, in my opin- ion, one of the greatest educators of this genera- tion. He has a personality that begets confidence, a vision that sees great ideals and a devotion that brings results. He should be free to give his time and strength to the work which so much needs his personal guidance-a work which no other liv- ing man can do so well. In the nature of things the period of his active service must come to an end in a few years. It is, therefore, the more important that these years, the fruition of many years of preparation, should be made most effective. An investment in Hampton Institute now 'means more than it can ever mean again because the man, the work, and the opportunity are in conjunction.

The possibilities of ten years' unhampered work in Hampton Institute are beyond my powers of imagination. The institution has never had a fair chance, and yet with inadequate support it has effected a revolution in the training of the black race and has profoundly changed our ideals of the training of the white race as well. Given a fair chance, I confidently predict that in ten years Hampton Institute will not stand second to any other educational institution, of any grade what- ever, either in its power for civic righteousness or in its all pervading influence upon American educa- tion.

During the twenty-two years that Dr. Frissell has had charge of this institution it has grown not only in the number of its students, but in the character of its work. In 1878 seventeen Indians were admitted to the institution, their expenses being met by private individuals. The experiment was watched with skeptical eyes, but its success was so pronounced that congress appro- priated funds to start a similar work at Car- lisle, Pennsylvania. There are now more than one thousand Indian graduates and ex- students scattered from Nova Scotia to the Pacific and from Manitoba to Texas who are doing much to advance their people in the arts of civilization. Many are following the professions, and eighty-seven per cent. have shown satisfactory results. Among the trus- tees of this institution are included many of the most prominent citizens of the United States, headed by ex-President William Howard Taft, of New Haven, with whom are associated: Francis G. Peabody, vice- president, Cambridge, Massachusetts ; Clar- ence H. Kelsey, vice-president, New York City; George Foster Peabody, New York City ; Charles E. Bigelow, New York City; Arthur Curtiss James, New York City; William Jay Schieffelin, New York City; Lunsford L. Lewis, Richmond, Virginia ;

1013

VIRGINIA BIOGRAPHY

James W. Cooper, New York City; Wil- liam M. Frazier, Philadelphia, Pennsyl- vania; Frank W. Darling, Hampton, Vir- ginia; Samuel G. Mitchell, Newark, Dela- ware; Robert Bacon, New York City. To- day Hampton is known as the headquarters of an army of uplift, with nearly eleven hun- dred acres of land, one hundred and forty buildings, and an able and enthusiastic corps of teachers. The number of students in 1913-14 was 1309, of which thirty-eight were Indians, and four hundred and sixty- five colored children in the Whittier Train- ing School. The eight hundred and forty- four boarding pupils provide their own board and clothing, partly in cash and partly in labor at the school. Many Sunday school associations and friends of the red and black races have provided scholarships. More than eight thousand young people have had the benefit of Hampton's ideals and train- ing. The South and West are open fields for tradesmen trained at Hampton, and many are busy in filling this demand. The literature issued from the printing office of the institution is highly creditable to the efficiency of that department. President Frissell is the author of some pamphlets is- sued in its behalf, among the most valuable of which may be mentioned that entitled "Our responsibility to undeveloped races."

Dr. Frissell is a member of various col- lege fraternities, of the Century Club of New York, Yale Club, City Club, Barnard Club, and Cosmos Club of Washington. He is one of the founders and a member of the Southern Educational Board, South Carolina, member of the General Education Board, the Jeanes Fund, president of the Board of Trustees of the Calhoun School, Alabama, and a trustee of Penn School, and other institutions. From Yale University he received the degree of LL. D., from Har- vard University S. T. D., and from Rich- mond University D. D. He is a constant contributor to various periodicals, especially on subjects relating to education and the welfare of the Negro.

He married Julia Frame Dodd, daughter of Amzi Dodd, of Newark, New Jersey, one of the most distinguished citizens of that state, who endeared himself to the citizens of New Jersey by his devotion to duty as a public man and by his many kind acts in private life. He served the state of New Jersey as vice-chancellor on two occasions,

for ten years was a special justice of the court of errors and appeals, and in 1882 be- came the president of the Mutual Benefit Life Insurance Company of Newark. In 1852 he married Jane, daughter of William Frame, formerly of Newark, later of Bloom- field. They were the parents of nine chil- dren, of whom three sons and three daugh- ters were living in 1912. Dr. Frissell and wife have one son, Sydney Dodd Frissell, born March 7, 1885, at Bloomfield, New Jer- sey, studied at the Montclair Academy, Philips' Andover Academy, and graduated from Yale A. B. He is now field secretary of Hampton Institute, and author of articles pertaining to the work of the school, pub- lished in the Survey and Southern Work- man magazines.

George Woodford Brown. As superin- tendent of the Eastern State Hospital for the Insane, at Williamsburg, Virginia, Dr. Brown displays not the skillful knowledge required of a man in that position, but a capacity for hard work that is wonderful. Every patient is known personally to Dr. Brown, and the details of each case come under his supervision. Not that he person- ally treats every patient daily, but that he understands and observes every case. Such devotion to duty is greatly to be commend- ed, particularly when the class of patients is considered, the insane being perhaps the most difficult for a physician to loyally treat.

Dr. Brown traces through a long line of Virginia ancestors to early colonial days, his ancestors being prominent in the war for in- dependence, and later wars with England and Mexico; his father a veteran of the Con- federacy, yet surviving, a resident of Cul- peper county. Dr. Brown's father, James Richard Brown, is a son of John Forshee Brown, born 1783, died 1859, and Susan De- laney Brown, daughter of Dr. Delaney, of Culpeper county, grandson of Thomas Brown, and great-grandson of Thomas Brown. The family seat for many genera- tions has been Culpeper county, Virginia. James Richard Brown, born May 5, 1833, is yet a resident of Culpeper county. He was engaged in farming in that county when the war between the states broke out, and lit- erally leaving the plow in the furrow he joined the Confederate army, enlisting in Company F, Twenty-first Regiment Vir- ginia Infantry. He served until the final

VIRGINIA BIOGRAPHY

surrender, then returned to his farm, where he yet resides. He was twice married ; his first wife, Sarah (Kite) Brown, bore him four sons, two of whom survived, namely : William W., born January 1, 1860, married Alice Majjette, and has children, Lester and Cecil; Rev. James Richard, A. M., Ph. D., born March 25, 1862, married Floy Rinker, and has a daughter, Ruth ; he is an eminent minister of the Baptist church, located at Stanleyton, Page county, Virginia. His sec- ond wife, Sarah Elizabeth (Bickens) Brown, bore him four sons: Abner Franklin, born October II, 1866, a civil engineer, married Martha Matilda Marshall, and has a son, Paul; George Woodford, of further men- tion; Rev. Wade Bickers, born April 28, 1870, died February 28, 1906, was also a minister of the Baptist church, he married Mollie Bruce, and left a daughter, Margaret ; Rev. Lester Alexander, D. D. LL. D., born September 15, 1873, an eminent minister of the Baptist church, and president of Cox College, Atlanta, Georgia, he married Ethel Hardy, and has children, Ethel and Lester Alexander (2).

George Woodford Brown, M. D., of Wil- liamsburg, Virginia, was born in Culpeper county, Virginia, at his father's farm, De- cember 10, 1868. His early education was obtained in the public school, his prepara- tory at Jeffersonton Academy, his collegiate at the University of Virginia. He then taught in Virginia four years, then began the study of medicine. He later entered the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Balti- more, Maryland, whence he was graduated in class of 1893. He spent the following year as interne at the City Hospital, Balti- more, then began private practice in Madi- son county, Virginia. Later he moved to Middlesex county, Virginia, and there be- gan specializing in nervous diseases. He gained notable distinction in treating this class of patients and continued a specialist in Middlesex county until 1911, when his prominence in the care and treatment of the insane brought him forward as a candidate for superintendent of the Eastern State Hos- pital, at Williamsburg, not, however, through any effort of his own. He was ap- pointed in that year and has since devoted all his energy, learning and skill to those un- fortunates temporarily or permanently be- reft of their reason. Under his management the percentage of cures has been raised, and

the wisdom of his appointment is every- where apparent. He delves deep into the causes of insanity, the best methods of care and treatment, bringing to his aid all modern thought or discovery. He is a member of the American Medico-Psychological Asso- ciation ; the Medical Society of Virginia ; the Tide Water Medical Society, and keeps in closest touch with his brethren of the profes- sion through these societies and medical literature devoted to his special class of patients. He is a member of the Masonic Order, the Independent Order of Odd Fel- lows, Knights of Pythias, and in religious faith is a Baptist.

Dr. Brown married, June 19, 1895, Joseph- ine, daughter of M. S. and Susan (Garnett) Watts. Children: Thelma Josephine, born May 26, 1896; Lucille Woodford, April 12, 1901.

John Morton Fultz. Among the sons of Virginia who have gone beyond her borders in pursuit of a chosen career and who, in their adopted homes, have brought honor to their native state, there are many who have made Philadelphia the seat of their activ- ities. Among these is John Morton Fultz, secretary of The Philadelphia Electric Com- pany. While his paternal ancestors settled at an early date in Albemarle and Augusta counties, Virginia, and there bore worthy places in the professions, through his mother he descends from that distinguished Penn- sylvanian whose name he bears, John Mor- ton, a signer of the Declaration of Independ- ence, whose memory is kept green by a tab- let in Independence Hall, Philadelphia.

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

Encyclopedia of Virginia biography, Volume V, Part 83

Author: Tyler, Lyon Gardiner, 1853-1935, ed. cn Publication date: 1915 Publisher: New York, Lewis historical publishing company Number of Pages: 848

Author: Tyler, Lyon Gardiner, 1853-1935, ed. cn
Publication date: 1915
Publisher: New York, Lewis historical publishing company
Number of Pages: 848