USA > Virginia > City of Norfolk > City of Norfolk > History of Norfolk County, Virginia and representative citizens, V.2 > Part 7
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Robert Edward Bruce Stewart married Lucy Lee West on June 5, 1895, and they have 1896. Mrs. Stewart's father, Leroy M. West, was a gallant Confederate soldier, who surren- dered at Appomattox: he married Marion Hunter, a daughter of Jacob Hunter. who was a son of Josiah Wilson Hunter, who was a son of Jacob Hunter, who was a member of the Princess Anne County Committee of Safety in 1775, in the Revolutionary War. (See James' Antiquary, No. 1, Part 2.)
one child, Nannie Elizabeth, born May 17. : in mercantile business in that village, but has
Mr. Stewart has two brothers,-Colonel William H. Stewart, a prominent lawyer, of Portsmouth, Virginia; and Charles A. Stewart, who is a clerk in the office of the Comptroller of the Currency at Washington, D. C. His sisters, Nannie G. and Sarah Catharine (Etheridge), are deceased.
D R. LEROY LEE SAWYER, a well- known physician, of Great Bridge, Norfolk County. Virginia, whose portrait is herewith shown, was born in Perquimans County, North Caro- lina, July 25, 1863. He is a son of William and Katherine ( Foster ) Sawyer.
William Sawyer was born December to, , 1816, in Camden County, North Carolina, and died January 13, 1892. He was a farmer by occupation and was well known in the com- munity. He married Katherine Foster, a na-
tive of Tennessee. They reared seven children. and those living are John L .; Walter W., a Methodist minister; Charles W., a physician ; Leroy Lee, the subject of this sketch, also a physician; and Willie R., a traveling salesman.
After receiving his primary education Le- roy Lee Sawyer attended the University of Maryland, from which he was graduated Jan- uary 16, 1890. He also passed the medical examinations in Virginia and North Carolina. Dr. Sawyer located in Centreville, where he practiced medicine for eight months, after which he moved to Great Bridge, where he has since resided. For three years he was engaged devoted most of his attention to his profession. In this he has been very successful, becoming well and favorably known in his section of the county. He is modern and progressive in his ideas, and is always interested in any new dis- coveries which pertain to the science of medi- cine.
Dr. Sawyer married Etta H. Hanbury De- cember 23, 1891. She is a daughter of Joseph J. Hanbury, and was born at Great Bridge. Norfolk County, Virginia. They have one child living, Leroy Lee, Jr., who was born De- cember 2, 1899. Another, Maud . Lee, died June 17, 1897, aged five months and 21 days. Dr. Joseph Sawyer and his wife are members of the Methodist Church. Dr. Sawyer is a member of the Knights of Pythias, Masonic order and Seaboard Medical Society. Politi- cally he is a Democrat.
OHN T. KING, who has been identified with the growth and progress of Ports- mouth, Norfolk County, Virginia. for inany years, is engaged in both the wholesale and the retail grocery busi- ness in that city. He was born in Nansemond County, Virginia. in 1838, and at the age of IO years removed to Portsmouth, where he has since resided.
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Mr. King is interested in the large whole- sale grocery business of John J. King & Com- pany, conducted at No. 616 Crawford street, while a retail store under the management of C. W. King, a son of our subject, is carried on at the corner of Fourth and Henry streets. Mr. King is interested in both stores, but does not take an active part in the management of either. He has much cause to be thankful for his suc- cess. He has a thorough knowledge of busi- ness matters and has been interested in many public enterprises. He is vice-president of the Portsmouth Knitting Mills, to which he gives much of his attention.
Mr. King has three sons: John J., C. W. and James E. He has represented his ward in the City Council of Portsmouth.
EORGE T. TILLEY, one of the prom- inent and progressive business men of Berkley. Norfolk County, Vir- ginia, is cashier of the Merchants' & Planters' Bank of Berkley, and also conducts a large fire insurance agency, repre- senting. many of the leading companies of the United States. He is identified with numerous other enterprises and is postmaster of Berkley, taking a deep interest in all that pertains to the welfare and progress of that town. He was born in Princess Anne County, Virginia, in 1868, and is a son of Edward M. and Elizabeth (Hare) Tilley.
Edward M. Tilley was born in Bristol, Rhode Island, and removed to Norfolk directly after the close of the Confederate War. He was engaged in the lumber business and is con- sidered one of the founders of Berkley, where he has resided for more than 30 years. He conducted the Tilley lumber yard in Berkley until 1895, when he resigned the management of the business to his eldest son. He is a wideawake, energetic, public spirited citizen. and is everywhere held in the highest esteem. He married Elizabeth Hare, who was born in
New York State, and died in 1898. They were parents of the following children : Will- iam M., who is now carrying on the business established by his father; Mary E., wife of Alvah H. Martin, clerk of the County Court; Clara E., wife of John W. Jones, a contractor and builder of South Norfolk; Jennie M., wife of Foster Black, proprietor of the Chesapeake Knitting Mills of South Norfolk; and George T., the subject of this sketch.
George T. Tilley deals in real estate in ad- dition to his fire insurance business, in Berkley and Tidewater, Virginia. His enterprise and straightforward business methods bring him a liberal patronage. He maintains. an office in the Martin Building, and is the local repre- sentative of the Continental Fire Insurance Company of New York, the St. Paul Fire & Marine Insurance Company of St. Paul, Min- nesota, and others equally prominent. He is largely interested in the building and loan busi- ness, being secretary of the Berkley Permanent Building & Loan Association and the Chesa- peake Building Association. He has discharged the duties of cashier of the Merchants' & Planters' Bank of Berkley in a most creditable manner. He was appointed postmaster of Berkley by President Mckinley in 1898, and is now acting in that capacity. He is a man of great popularity, and his business connec- tions have been such as to bring him prominent- ly into public notice.
Mr. Tilley was joined in matrimony with Helen S. Michie, and they are the parents of four children, namely: Thomas C .; William B .; George I .; and Helen E.
ITTLETON WALLER TAZEWELL, one of Norfolk's esteemed citizens, comes of a distinguished family, which will always live in the annals of the history of Virginia. He was born in Norfolk in 1848, and is a son of Edmund and Anne Elizabeth (Tazewell) Bradford.
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His father was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1816, and came of a dis- tinguished family in that State. His paternal ancestor, six generations back, was the cele- brated William Bradford, who, in 1685, intro- duced the art of printing into the Middle Col- onies of America and whose books now sell at fabulous prices. Edmund Bradford was edu- cated in Philadelphia and at the age of 15 en- tered the United States Military Academy at West Point, and upon his graduation was as- signed to the 4th Regiment U. S. Artillery. He served through the Indian wars in Florida and through the Mexican War, and was pre- sented with a sword by his fellow citizens of Philadelphia for conspicuous gallantry at the taking of the city of Monterey. He resigned from the army after the Mexican War, married Anne Elizabeth Tazewell, and settled on an es- tate in Princess Anne County, near Norfolk. At the breaking out of the Confederate War, he entered the Confederate Army, and served until the close of the war as inspector general and as quartermaster with the rank of major. After the war, he was in the commission busi- ness for many years, finally retiring from active business. He died in 1899.
Anne Elizabeth (Tazewell) Bradford, mother of the subject of this sketch, was born in Norfolk in 1817 and died in 1899, her union with Edmund Bradford resulting in the birth of the following children: Littleton Waller; Samuel Sydney, of Fredericksburg, Virginia, who was born in 1853 and married Kate Spots- wood Braxton; Edmund de Vaux, of Norfolk, born in 1856, who married Virginia Cooper; Anne Nivison, who married Richard Walke; Mary Fisher, who married William T. Bur- well, now a captain in the U. S. Navy, and died in 1884; and Ella Tazewell, who after the death of her sister, Mary F., married Capt. William T. Burwell. Mrs. Bradford was a daughter of Hon. Littleton Waller Tazewell, who was descended from William Tazewell, who came to this country from England in 1715.
William Tazewell was born in Dorset County, England, in 1690. He settled on the Eastern Shore of Virginia, and there in 1721 married Sophia Harmanson, a daughter of Littleton Harmanson. William Tazewell was a lawyer, and at the time of his death, in 1752, owned a large estate. He was an Episcopalian and his descendants have clung to that faith. He left the following children : Littleton, who was born in 1728, and died in 1781; John, born in 1834 and died in 1780; Gertrude, born in 1732, who married John Stratton; and Anne, born in 1732, who first married Rev. William Nivison, and secondly, Rev. Arthur Emmerson.
Littleton Tazewell was a lawyer and a prominent man of his day. He married Mary Gray and they had two children: Henry, and a daughter. who died in infancy.
Henry Tazewell, the great-grandfather of our subject, was born in 1753, and was one of the foremost men of his day in Virginia. He was a lawyer, but entered public life when quite young. He was a member of the House of Burgesses in 1775, member of the Virginia Convention of 1776, and was regularly re- turned a member of the House of Delegates under the new Constitution, until his elevation to the bench of the General Court, then became a member of the first Court of Appeals of Virginia and in 1795 was chosen a Senator of the United States, and was elected president of the Senate. He died in 1799 and is buried in Philadelphia, He married Dorothea Elizabeth Waller, a daughter of Benjamin Waller. of Williamsburg, Virginia, and she died about 1776, leaving two children, Littleton Waller and Sophia, who married Benjamin Taliaferro.
Littleton Waller Tazewell was born in 1774 and became a lawyer, was elected a mem- ber of the House of Delegates about 1797. In 1799 he represented the Williamsburg 'dis- trict in Congress. He declined re-election and came to Norfolk in 1802, and soon entered upon a large and important practice. In this year he married Anne Stratton Nivison, a
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daughter of Col. John Nivison, and with the exception of a short time spent in a special ses- sion of the State Legislature, he continued the practice of law with honor and success, and though a resident of a provincial town at the same time was consulted ( 1819) by London merchants on the "Custom of London" and by the priests of Rome on the canon law. He was appointed by President Monroe one of the commissioners under the Florida treaty. In 1825 he was elected a Senator of the United States, and continued a Senator by re-election for a number of years. He was also a promi- nent meniber of the Virginia Convention of 1829-30. He was elected Governor of Vir- ginia in 1834, but resigned before the expira- tion of his term and from that time until his death he continued in private life, having given up his law practice some time before. He died in 1860.
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The children of Littleton Waller Tazewell and Anne Stratton Nivison were: Henry. who died unmarried; Jolin Nivison, who died unmarried; Littleton Waller, who married Sarah Harris and died leaving one daughter, Sarah Nivison, who is unmarried; Louisa Nivison, who died unmarried ; Sarah, who died young; Sarah A., who died unmarried: Anne Elizabeth, who married Edmund Bradford : Mary, who married Mathew Page Waller and had the following children,-Nannie T., who died young, Robert Page, who married Vir- ginia Pelham Stuart, Littleton Waller Taze- well, now major in the U. S. Marine Corps, who married Clara Wynne. William Nivison, who married Anne Duncan, Corbin Griffith, who married Fanny M. Byrd, and Mathew Page, who died young; and Ella Wickham, youngest child of Littleton Waller Tazewell, who died unmarried.
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There being no male heirs of Littleton Waller Tazewell bearing his name, his grand- son, Littleton Waller Tazewell Bradford. son of his daughter. Anne Elizabeth ( Tazewell) Bradford, had his surname changed to Taze- well by order of court.
The subject of this sketch was educated in the Norfolk schools, at the Virginia Military Institute and at the University of Virginia. He was for some years a member of the firm of Evans, Burwell & Tazewell, wholesale grain dealers and extensive importers, but is not now in active business. Mr. Tazewell married Mary Louisa Walke, daughter of Richard Walke and Mary Diana Talbot, his wife, both being descended from old Virginia families. They have three children: Littleton Waller, Jr., Calvert Walke and Edinund Bradford.
APT. GOODSON MILLER, who is the oldest pilot in the service of the Norfolk Company Ferries. was born in Norfolk County. Virginia, De- cember 26, 1842. He is a son of Lindsay and Martha J. (Camp) Miller.
Lindsay Miller was born in Virginia, and his wife was a native of Gloucester County, this State. The husband was a ship-carpenter, and followed that occupation all his life. He died at the age of 50 years. and his wife died. at the age of 68 years. They had six children, three of whom are now living, namely: James W., of Baltimore; Goodson; and George W., of Atlantic City Ward, Norfolk.
Capt. Goodson Miller grew to manhood in Gloucester County, Virginia, and attended the schools of that county. He has devoted his life to the vocation of a mariner. As a boy. he first served as cook on the schooner "John Francis," which was owned by James Arring- ton and John Crittenden. He left their em- ploy to engage in the oyster business in Mary- land, and later in Virginia. When the war began, he enlisted in the Gloucester Greys, a body of infantry under Colonel Page, who had served in the Mexican War. The subject of this sketch enlisted in 1861, in Company F, 26th Regiment Virginia Infantry, and was in the surrender at Appomattox Court House, in 1865. He received a serious wound while at
NATHANIEL BEAMAN.
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Petersburg. At the close of the war, Captain Miller returned to Gloucester, Virginia, where he again engaged in the oyster business. In that he continued until 1868, when he went to Gloucester, Massachusetts, and engaged in mackerel fishing. He continued in that line for four seasons, when he again returned to Gloucester, Virginia. He entered into the ovs- ter business, in which he remained until 1873. He then became master on the steamer "Union," a ferry-boat, which ran between Nor- folk and Berkley. This craft was leased by Berkley and Jackson, and Captain Miller was master on that line until 1875. He next shipped on the ferry-boat "Elizabeth," in the employ of the Norfolk County Ferries, where he has continued up to the present time. He has the distinction of being the oldest pilot in the employ of the company, and has a wide reputation among seafaring men.
Captain Miller was married, November 24, 1869. to Louisiana H. Teagle, who was born in Gloucester County, Virginia, March 7, 1849. She is a daughter of Thomas and Elizabeth Teagle. The Captain and his wife are the parents of the following children, namely : Kenneth G., who was born November 9, 1877; ! Lulu M., born January 30, ISSO; Lindsay E. and Claudius E., deceased ; and Vera L., who died in infancy.
Captain Miller has met with much success in his career as a seaman, and has won much praise from those who are ahove him in office. He has many warm friends in Norfolk and its vicinity,
OHN F. BLACKWELL, A. M. This gentleman is the efficient principal of Norfolk Academy, which is located in Norfolk, Virginia. He was born in Norfolk, and is a son of Rev. John D. Blackwell, who served as pastor of two Methodist churches in Norfolk, and one in Portsmouth.
Mr. Blackwell was reared in Fauquier 33
County, Virginia. After graduating from Bethiel Military Academy in 1877, he entered Randolph-Macon College, from which he was graduated, in 1881, with the degree of A. M. He then taught school for two years, after which he entered the Johns Hopkins Univers- ity, where he took a post-graduate course. He later took up his chosen vocation, that of teach- ing, was made assistant principal of the Nor- folk Academy, and continued thus until 1899. In that year, his splendid ability being recog- nized, Mr. Blackwell was elected to the position of principal of that institution, and has served most efficiently as such ever since. He takes great pride in making this academy the best preparatory school in the State, and it is at- tended by the sons of many of the most prom- inent men of Virginia.
Mr. Blackwell is a man of scholarly attain- ments, a good disciplinarian, and thoroughly competent to take charge of such a large insti- tution. He is considered one of the foremost educators of Virginia, having won an enviable. reputation as such throughout the State.
ATHANIEL BEAMMAN. present may- or of Norfolk, Virginia, whose por- trait is shown on the opposite page, is one of the most substantial and in- fluential business men of the city. He is president of the National Bank of Commerce, and of the Norfolk Storage Company, and is closely identified with many other flourishing enterprises. As mayor, he is giving the city a conservative, business-like ad- ministration, which is meeting wth the hearti- est approval, not only of his constituents, but the citizens in general, regardless of party affili- ations.
Mr. Beaman was born at Murfreesboro, North Carolina, February 10, 1859, and comes of a distinguished Southern family. He ob- tained his intellectual training in the schools of his native town; thinking that the larger
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city of Norfolk afforded greater opportunities for success in business, he moved there in 1879. He established a wholesale grocery house, and was successfully engaged in that line of busi- ness until 1892, when he was made president of the Bank of Commerce, an official position he lias since maintained. Under the manage- ment of Mr. Beaman, the bank, in 1897, in- creased its capital to $200,000, and recently, to $500.000, making it now the largest bank- ing institution in Tidewater Virginia. He :also became president of the Norfolk Storage Company and is interested in a number of other enterprises. Although always having the suc- cess of the Democratic party at heart, he did not take an active part in politics until 1898, when he was importuned to become the party candidate for alderman from the Third Ward, and accepted. His election followed, and ow- ing to his great knowledge of financial mat- ters he was made chairman of the finance com- mittee. The welfare of the city was ever fore- most in his mind, and through the recommend- ations of this committee many reforms were wrought by the City Council. During his chairmanship the bonds of the city were placed on a four per cent. basis, which alone saved Norfolk thousands of dollars annually. With- out increasing its tax rate, the streets of the city were improved and paved, a new filtering plant was added to the City Water Works at a cost of $2,500 and the obnoxious old toll bridges were replaced by substantial iron structures. A number of new free school build- ings were also erected, and marked improve- ments in every way were brought about. His work in the council was duly recognized by the citizens of Norfolk, and at the election held in 1901 Mr. Beaman was chosen mayor unani- mously by the council, upon the resignation of Mr. Johnston in the spring of 1901. He is wisely following out the same policy that he adopted when councilman and is bringing about many desirable changes in the city affairs.
On October 19, 1887, Mr. Beaman was
united in marriage to Katherine Prentis, of Suffolk, the daughter of the late Robert R. Prentis, and a sister of Judge Robert R. Pren- tis. present judge of the Circuit Court of this district. Mr. and Mrs. Beaman have three children: Sallie, Robert P. and Nathaniel, Jr. Mr. and Mrs. Beaman attend Christ Prot- estant Episcopal Church, of which Mrs. Bea- man is a member.
AMES H. TOOMER, cashier of the Merchants' & Farmers' Bank, and a prominent citizen of Norfolk. comes of a family well known in Norfolk County, the seat of its activities for many years. Mr. Toomer was born in Ports- mouth and was reared and educated there. Prior to the Confederate War he was an of- ficer in the United States Coast Survey, and during the war, he was a captain in the Corps of Engineers, Confederate States Army. He served throughout the war, and shortly after- ward applied himself to the banking business, to which he has devoted his entire time.
The Merchants' & Farmers' Bank was incorporated under the laws of Virginia, the date of its organization being December I, 1885. The present officers were then elected, as follows: John T. Griffin, president ; James H. Toomer. cashier ; and W. G. Maupin, Jr., assistant cashier. The directors are Jolin T. Griffin, Joseph A. Parker, Wright B. Carney, James T. Borum, George L. Neville, Henry Kirn, R. C. Marshall, T. J. Barlow, S. P. Oast, J. S. Crawford and James H. Toomer. This institution was first located on the corner of High and Crawford streets, but the volume of its business transactions increased with such rapidity that it was forced to seek larger quarters after an existence of but two years, and located in the Kirn Building, on High and Middle streets. The bank remained in this building until it moved into its new building,
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which was begun in 1900, and first occupied by the bank January 19, 1901. The building is of three stories, is built of brick and stone, and is modern in its arrangement and conven- iences. The ground floor is occupied exclusiva- ly by the bank, and the upper floors are devoted to office purposes. The capital stock of the bank is $51,500.00, and the surplus and un- divided profits amount to $107, 141.20. It is one of the most stable financial institutions of the country, by reason of the methods employed by the president and cashier, to whom much credit is given for the conditions that exist.
On the left bank of New Mill Creek, about two miles from where it flows into the South- ern Branch of the Elizabeth River, stands one of the oldest houses in Norfolk County. Over the door, an inscription, which is still remark- ably distinct and legible, shows that the house was built in 1744 by Willis Wilkins. A pic- ture of this house is shown on Page 24 of this book. It is of two stories, with a Dutch roof, and is built, according to traditions, of brick brought from England, laid alternately, one, red and the next, blue. The courses are laid with is called the "Flemish" bond. A wing on the end and a porch on the east side have been added to the house in recent years, but in olden times, it was said, there were two wings, or L's, attached to it. These have long since been torn down and no vestige of them can now be seen. Like all colonial houses, many inter- esting stories and incidents, some sad and pa- thetic, others gay and humorous, are connected with this old house of Willis Wilkins. The grandmother of Captain Toomer, Sally Owens, who was born in this house in 1772. and was the granddaughter of Willis Wilkins, used frequently to speak of it as she remembered it in earlier days. At that time the creek flowed directly in front of the house, about 25 yards distant, with a width of clear water perhaps 150 yards across. After passing the house it changed its course somewhat, so that from the front veranda, a broad expanse of water in front and a stretch of nearly half a mile down
the creek, gave a pleasing variety to the view of oaks, beeches, etc., which bordered it, and almost surrounded the house. Surely it was "beautiful for situation." A magnificent beech still stands in the yard near the house, which, when the sun is at meridian, shades nearly a quarter of an acre of ground. From the yard in the rear of the house, runs a lane about a quarter of a mile long, to the main road from Deep Creek village to Great Bridge. This lane was said to have been lined with cedar trees, all the way from the house to the main road. It was down this lane that Sally Owens, as a wild young girl, started her horse at full gallop, in a race with some of her companions. The horse became unmanageable, and leaping the gate opening into the yard, threw her violently to the ground, and left her senseless for many hours.
It was down this lane too, as a little girl, four or five years of age, that she saw the coming of the red-coats to the house, when this part of the country was occupied by the British during the Revolutionary War. Standing in the door, she was watching, with great curios- ity, the soldiers in their bright uniforms, as they marched down the road. As one of them, proceeding more rapidly than the rest, hastened to the yard gate and raised the latch to open it, her little heart was filled with fear, and, running back, she hid herself in a closet in her room. Following quickly, the tall grenadier flung the door wide open, and seeing the poor. little child crouching and trembling in the corner of the closet, muttered,-"poor little thing."-and left her to recover from her fright as best she could, while he and his comrades proceeded to ransack the house and possess themselves of such valuables as excited their cupidity.
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