USA > Virginia > Men of mark in Virginia, ideals of American life; a collection of biographies of the leading men in the state, Volume III > Part 17
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Colonel Poague was a member of the house of delegates of Virginia from Rockbridge county, during the sessions of 1871- 1872, and 1872-1873. He served on the board of directors of the Western State hospital of Virginia, at Staunton, for one term, beginning in 1874. For twenty years, from 1865 to 1885 he was a member of the board of trustees of Washington college and Washington and Lee university; and he was a member of the Lexington school board from 1895 to 1901.
Colonel Poague counts as the best public service which he has rendered since the war, the inauguration of the movement in the Lee and Jackson camp of Confederate veterans to obtain a record of all the soldiers enlisting from each county, and he has the satisfaction of knowing that his county is one of the few that has secured such a record.
He is a Democrat, and has never changed his party alle- giance. He is a member of the Phi Kappa Phi college fraternity ; and in place of his old amusements of hunting and shooting, he now derives recreation and exercise from fishing, and from walk-
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ing to and from his office twice daily-thus going each day a distance of six and a half miles.
Colonel Poague is a member of the Presbyterian church in which he has been an elder for more than thirty-five years. A brief sketch of his life has been published in Volume III. (Vir- ginia) of " Confederate Military History," edited by General Clement A. Evans.
His address is Lexington, Virginia.
JAMES ADDISON QUARLES
Q UARLES, JAMES ADDISON, D. D., LL. D., minister of the Presbyterian church, preacher, pastor, at one time president of a female seminary in Missouri, critic and author, and since 1886 professor of philosophy at the Washington and Lee university at Lexington, Virignia, was born near Boon- ville, Cooper county, Missouri, on the 30th of April, 1837. Colonel James Quarles, who earned his military title in the war against the Mormons in Missouri, was his father; and Sarah Ann Mills, his father's cousin, was his mother; and both were born in Louisa county, Virginia. Both the Quarles and the Mills families are of English descent, their ancestors having emigrated about a generation before the Revolutionary war and settled in eastern Virginia. William Quarles established his home in Spottsylvania county. His son, Charles, was the father of Colonel James Quarles, whose son, James Addison, is the subject of this sketch. Dr. William Mills, the father of Mrs. Sarah Ann (Mills) Quaries, was the grandson of Captain William Mills, of the Revolutionary army. Mrs. Colonel Quarles was a cousin of ex-Senator Roger Quarles Mills.
Inheriting a feeble constitution from parents who were in delicate health, although fond of boyish sports, he never excelled as an athlete. His lifelong victory over constitutional feebleness and threatening disease has seemed to many of his friends deserv- ing of especial record, as an incitement and encouragement to others who start in life without the endowment of vigorous health. At fifteen he nearly died with pneumonia. At thirty-seven he was compelled to relinquish the ministry on account of weakness and disease of the throat. When sixty-five he met with an acci- dent which put him upon crutches for several months, and from which he has never fully recovered. In the spring of 1904 he fell in a faint in the streets of Tazewell, and the physician who examined him pronounced him dead, as his heart had stopped beating. Throughout his life he has had to battle with the sever- est forms of indigestion. But his study of hygenic conditions,
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and his courageous self-discipline in the matter of holding him- self to necessary and vigorous forms of exercise, have enabled him to accomplish more hard professional work in his life than most men who have vigorous health. Since he was sixty years old he has ridden his bicycle over ten thousand miles, and has repeatedly walked twenty miles and preached the same day. At seventy he does most of his reading and writing without glasses. Much of his good health he attributes to " drinking nothing but water, and much of that," although he takes no liquid with his meals; to systematic and " deep breathing which brings the diaphragm into play;" and to a philosophy of health and life which is expressed in the sentence: " Be careful in your habits, keep cheerful, and hold yourself superior to your weaknesses." He believes that the habit of pressing the eyes inward toward the nose when the face is washed and wiped, and the habit of taking much exercise in the the open air, have preserved his vision, which is exceptionally clear and powerful.
The teacher who began to prepare him for college was Fred- erick T. Kemper, a brother of General James L. Kemper. For nine years he was a pupil in the Kemper School at Boonville, Missouri. The classics, and the Yale courses in natural philos- ophy and astronomy, together with the Cambridge series of mathematics as far as the calculus, he pursued here. He was graduated from Westminster college, Fulton, Missouri, with the degree of A. B., in 1858, under the presidency of Rev. S. S. Laws, M. D., LL. B., D. D., LL. D., later the successful president of the State university of Missouri. Two years of study at the Univer- sity of Virginia were interrupted by poor health. He passed two years in the study of theology at Princeton seminary, Princeton, New Jersey, with the class of 1860. Westminster college con- ferred on him the degree of A. M. in 1861, and the honorary degree of D. D. in 1883. In 1891 Central university, Kentucky, gave him the honorary degree of LL. D.
Licensed by the Presbytery of Missouri, April 9th, 1859, and ordained February 15th, 1860, he has been pastor at Glasgow (1859-65) ; at Lexington (1866-73) ; and at St. Louis, Missouri (1873-74) ; and stated supply at Lexington, Virginia, (1895-6). He has preached in nineteen different states; and preaching is the
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work he best likes to do. During the last twenty years,-the period of his residence in Virginia, he has preached in twelve states beside the District of Columbia, eleven hundred and sixty- two times, and in one hundred and sixty-seven different churches. He is a Presbyterian, but is in cordial sympathy with other churches.
As a teacher, he was an assistant in the Kemper school, 1853-54, teaching Latin and Greek, and analytical geometry. In 1864-65 he was principal of the Glasgow, Missouri, high school; from 1870-73 and again from 1877 to 1886, he was president of the Elizabeth Aull Female seminary, at Lexington, Missouri. The range of his scholarship is indicated in the fact that in the institutions of higher education with which he has been con- nected, he has taught psychology, ethics, natural theology, evidences of Christianity, Latin, Greek, Hebrew, Italian, Spanish, French, German, Anglo-Saxon, Rhetoric, English literature, economics, logic, comparative religions, apologetics, epistemology, ontology, and history of philosophy.
Dr. Quarles is the author of " The Life of F. T. Kemper," the venerated teacher of his youth. His articles have been exten- sively published in the daily, weekly, monthly and quarterly press of the country; and he has written on political, economic, educa- tional, philosophic, scientific and religious subjects.
Perhaps the literary work of Dr. Quarles which has attracted the widest public attention was his exposure of the frauds of the Rev. W. D. Mahan, of Missouri, who published " Hebrew History of Baptism, " " Acta Pilati," and " Archaeological Writ- ings," all of which, although they had been widely accepted and quoted from, were demonstrated by Dr. Quarles to be plagiarisms or forgeries, and full of anachronisms. The last named book " created a stir," from New York to Texas, attracting the notice of both Protestant and Catholic divines, and receiving much attention by way of reviews in many city dailies, especially in those of New York. As a result of Dr. Quarles's criticisms and exposures, Mr. Mahan was suspended from the ministry.
When he was fifty years old, as a teacher of rhetoric, Dr. Quarles began to write verse, in order to familiarize himself with versification in theory and in practice. His verse has been pub-
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lished in the "Richmond Times," the "Baltimore Sun," the Louisville " Courier-Journal," the "Southern Collegian," the " Christian Observer," the " Religious Herald," and the " Central Presbyterian."
Dr. Quarles has been in demand as a speaker outside the pulpit and lecture room, on various occasions and on many topics. Since he took the chair of Philosophy at Washington and Lee university, he has a record of more than one hundred and fifty such addresses.
On October 11, 1859, he married Miss Caroline Wallace Field, daughter of William Hill Field, Esq., who was a cousin of General A. P. Hill, a native of Culpeper county, Virginia, and a prominent lawyer of Louisville, Kentucky. Of their ten children, two daughters and three sons have survived their mother, who died in 1901, and are living in 1907.
On April 27, 1905, he was again married to Mrs. Eleanor Lansing Morehouse, of Washington, District of Columbia.
Dr. Quarles is one of the original members of the Confer- ence for Education in the South, and of the Southern Society for Philosophy and Psychology. He is a member of the American Institute of Civics, of the National Geographic society, of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and of the Phi Kappa Psi fraternity, chapter of the University of Virginia. He was appointed by President Cleve- land a member of the Assay commission for the Philadelphia Mint.
In his political relations he is a conservative Democrat, in thorough sympathy with the poor and with working people. His friends would name as his chief characteristics: Versatility, energy, and liberality toward those who differ from him in their views of life and religion. But above all, he would wish to be reckoned a true Christian. He has made truth and duty the watchwords of his life; and at three-score years and ten he writes that he is "trusting for salvation to a Divine Redeemer, and seeking above all to honor Him in an upright and useful life."
Since this sketch was put in type Dr. Quarles died suddenly, April 14, 1907, at his home in Lexington, Virginia. He is mourned by all connected with the university, and by a very large circle of friends in many and widely separated localities.
LINGAN STROTHER RANDOLPH
R ANDOLPH, LINGAN STROTHER, mechanical en- gineer and educator, was born in Martinsburg, Berkeley county, Virginia (now West Virginia), May 13, 1859. His father was James Lingan Randolph, who was by profession a civil engineer, and was the chief engineer of the Baltimore and Ohio railroad; and his mother was Emily Strother.
Mr. Randolph's first ancestor in America was William Ran- dolph, who emigrated from Northumberland county, England, and settled on James Island, Virginia, founding the famous Ran- dolph family of that state.
Mr. Randolph's early life was spent in a village. He evinced in boyhood a taste for mechanics and engineering; and at the age of eighteen he entered the machine shops of the Baltimore and Ohio railroad, and learned the trade of a machinist by prac- tical work. His earlier academic education was acquired at the Shenandoah Valley academy at Winchester, Virginia, and at the Virginia Military institute. His personal preference determined him to pursue the profession of a mechanical engineer; and he entered the Stevens Institute of Technology, at Hoboken, New York, from which he was graduated in 1883 with the degree of Mechanical Engineer.
Beginning the active work of life as an apprentice to the machinist trade, as above stated, he has since filled a number of responsible and important positions in the line of his profession. From 1883 to 1885 he was engineer of tests for the New York, Lake Erie and Western railway; from 1885 to 1887 he was super- intendent of motive power of the Florida Railway and Naviga- tion company; from 1887 to 1889 he occupied the same position on the Cumberland and Pennsylvania railway; from 1890 to 1892 he was engineer of tests for the Baltimore and Ohio railway; and from 1892 to 1893 he was electrical engineer for the Baltimore Electrical Refining company. In 1893 he was elected professor of mechanical engineering in the Virginia Polytechnic institute at Blacksburg, which position he has continuously held to the
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present time (1906). He has furnished plans and specifications for a large number of the buildings erected at that institution and also designed and erected its central light and power plant, while as consulting engineer he has designed and erected a num- ber of electric light and power plants, and constructed water works, and sewage systems in other localities. He is also president of the Brush Mountain Coal company, and vice-president of the Virginia Anthracite Coal company.
Mr. Randolph has contributed numerous articles to scientific periodicals, and has prepared various papers on subjects con- nected with his profession for scientific societies and associations. He is a member of the American Society of Civil Engineers, of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, and of the American Institute of Electrical Engineers. He is also a mem- ber of the American Railway Master Mechanics association; of the Royal Society of Arts and Commerce, of England; of the American Society for the promotion of Engineering education; and of the International Association for Testing Materials.
He is a member of the Presbyterian church; and in politics is a Republican, although he has voted with the Democratic party while resident in the South.
He married on October 15, 1890, Fanny Robbins; and of their marriage have been born four children, all of whom are now (1906) living.
A sketch of Mr. Randolph has been published in " Who's Who in America " for 1906-1907 (A. N. Marquis and Company, Chicago).
His address is Blacksburg, Montgomery County, Virginia.
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FREDERICK WILMER RICHARDSON
R ICHARDSON, FREDERICK WILMER, clerk of the circuit court of Fairfax county, Virginia, was born December 16, 1853, in Fairfax (then Fairfax court- house), Fairfax county, Virginia. His father, Ferdinand Daw- son Richardson, more than fifty years clerk's assistant, and deputy clerk of county and circuit courts, was a man of the highest character, and long enjoyed the reputation of being one of the most popular men in the county. His mother, Mary Posey (Grigsby) Richardson, a woman of refinement and culture, with exalted character and ideals, exerted a strong influence on his intellectual and moral life.
His ancestry is English and Scotch. Both the Richardsons and the Grigsbys were among the early settlers of America, and figured creditably in colonial life and affairs. His uncle, Alex- ander Spottswood Grigsby, represented Fairfax county before the Civil war, and Campbell county since, in the state legislature. He was reared in the country and in the village of Fairfax. His physi- cal condition was generally good, and he was fond of athletics, and of fishing and hunting. He is still fond of the two latter, but seldom finds time for them. As a boy, he had no tasks which involved manual labor, but he frequently aided in the work of the house and garden. From very early in life, it was his ambi- tion to be a court clerk, like his father, a desire which has been fully gratified. He was educated, in the ordinary sense of the word, at local public and private schools, with a short time at Knapp's institute, Baltimore, Maryland; but a large part of his real education was acquired in the clerk's office, where he has been since 1871. Subsequently, he became his father's deputy. He read law, but says that he never had the time to take an examination for admission to the bar. It has been said that " He is always so busy attending to his official duties, or doing a favor for somebody, that he never has time to do anything for himself."
When his father died, October 13, 1880, he was appointed
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FREDERICK WILMER RICHARDSON
clerk of the county and circuit courts. He was elected clerk of the county court in May, 1881, and reelected successively until the county courts passed out of existence, in accordance with the new state constitution. In 1903, he was elected clerk of the circuit court, for a term of eight years. The esteem in which he is held is indicated by the following extract from the Fairfax " Herald :" " His official life is characterized by strict integrity, industry, thorough knowledge of the duties to be discharged, a genial manner, and a courtesy that is unfailing because it comes from the heart. It is not surprising that he is regarded as the most popular man in the county."
He was a notary public, and has for years been secretary of the Cemetery association, and a town hall and a church trustee. He is an officer in the local lodge of Masons, and a member of Mount Vernon Royal Arch chapter of Alexandria, Virginia. In religious preference, he is a Methodist; in politics, a Democrat. Mr. Richardson thinks that the best way for a young man to attain true success is to be temperate in all things, strictly honest, and to attend to his business all the time.
On June 13, 1883, he married Millie Lee Buck, of Warren county, Virginia. Four children have been born to them, three of whom are now (1906) living.
His address is Fairfax, Fairfax County, Virginia.
JAMES BUCHANAN RICHMOND
R ICHMOND, JAMES BUCHANAN, lawyer, legislator, and banker, was born at Turkey Cove, Lee county, Vir- ginia, February 27, 1842. His father was Jonathan Richmond, a prominent merchant and farmer of Southwest Vir- ginia, who was for many years justice of the peace, and presiding officer of the county court, and who served as a member of the state senate and as general of militia. Judge Richmond's mother was, before marriage, Mary Dickinson.
He was reared in the country, and grew up with a vigorous physical constitution, and with natural tastes for riding and hunting. He worked on his father's farm, attended the local country schools, and studied for eight months at Emory and Henry college. At the age of nineteen years he entered as a volunteer the ranks of the Confederate States army in June, 1861. In the War between the States he became captain of Company A, 50th Virginia infantry, a position which he held for one year. Afterwards he was promoted major, and then lieutenant-colonel of the 64th Virginia mounted infantry, in which consecutive positions he served for four years, until the close of the war.
In 1865 he began his career as a merchant at Jonesville, Vir- ginia. This calling he pursued for eight years; when he studied law, without other help than a sixty days' course in the summer law school of the late Professor John B. Minor, at the University of Virginia. He practiced law with success and distinction for twenty-five years. In the meantime, he took an active interest in politics; and in 1873 he was nominated and elected by the Demo- cratic party, of which he is a member, to the legislature of Vir- ginia ; and in 1878 he was elected to the forty-sixth Congress of the United States, in both of which bodies he served with ability and prominence. In 1885 he was elected judge of the county court of Scott county; and he was a member of the Virginia Constitu- tional convention of 1901-1902.
Judge Richmond is the president of the Peoples National
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bank of Gate City, and is a member of the Masonic fraternity, and of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. In 1896, he voted for Palmer and Buckner against William J. Bryan, and in 1900 for William McKinley against the same nominee for the presidency, on the money issue of those campaigns.
He is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church South. His biography has appeared in the Congressional directory of the forty-sixth Congress, and in Summers' " History of South- west Virginia."
Judge Richmond has been twice married. His first wife was Lizzie Duncan, whom he married in 1864; and of this marriage were born two children, a daughter and a son, both of whom are now (1906) living. His second wife, whom he married in 1870, was Kate Morison.
His address is Gate City, Scott County, Virginia.
EDWARD LIVINGSTON ROBERTS
R OBERTS, EDWARD LIVINGSTON, clerk of the courts, merchant, farmer and legislator, was born at Broadford, Smyth county, Virginia, April 4, 1831. Mr. Roberts' father was John Roberts, a farmer of Smyth county, who for about thirty years held the office of postmaster at Broadford; and his mother's maiden name was Sallie Hamil Scott.
The grandparents of Edward Livingston Roberts were, on the paternal side, Richard Roberts and Catharine Clements Roberts, who came to Virginia from Maryland in 1775, and, on the maternal side, Peter Scott and Rachel Scott (née Poston), who likewise emigrated from Maryland to Virginia, but in the following year.
Mr. Roberts' early life was spent in the country, where, during the summers, he had to work on the farm. He was educated in the common schools and before the war held the posi- tion of superintendent of schools for Smyth county. To his early training, which combined physical labor with the study of books, and a good and religious father, he attributes his habits of industry and frugality. His only opportunities for acquiring knowledge were limited to the education thus obtained, sup- plemented by a course at Liberty academy, in Smyth county ; and in the year 1854 he entered upon the activities of life as deputy clerk of the county and circuit courts of his native county. Since that time he has engaged in merchandising and farming. He has served as notary public and deputy sheriff, and has held the office of clerk of the county and circuit courts of Smyth county, to which position he was elected at the close of the war, serving a term of six years, and is now acting magistrate of his county.
For some fifty years Mr. Roberts has been a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church South. In politics he is, and has always been, identified with the Democratic party. He has been honored by two elections to the house of delegates of Virginia, in which body he represented Smyth and Bland counties in 1885
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and in 1888; and he has served two terms in the senate of Vir- ginia, up to 1892, as senator for the district composed of the counties of Smyth and Washington. In various elective offices held by him, Mr. Roberts was never defeated at the polls.
He has been twice married. His first wife was Susan Columbia Sexton, daughter of Thomas K. Sexton, of Chatham Hill, Smyth county, Virginia, whom he married January 13, 1875; and of this union were born two sons, both of whom are now (1907) living. His second wife was Louisa A. Shannon, daughter of Andrew and Mary Shannon (née Davis), of Smyth county, Virginia, whom he married December 6, 1892.
A short biographical sketch of Mr. Roberts has been pub- lished in the "History of Southwest Virginia," by Lewis Preston Summers.
Mr. Roberts' address is Broadford, Smyth County, Virginia.
ALEXANDER FARISH ROBERTSON
R OBERTSON, ALEXANDER FARISH, was born in Culpeper county, Virginia, February 15, 1853, and is the son of William A. and Sarah Tunstall (Farish) Robertson. His father was a farmer of Culpeper county, who led the life of a country gentleman in a quiet, unobtrusive way, never seeking publicity or public office. Mrs. Sarah Robertson was a noble Christian woman, of many intellectual and moral accomplishments, and wielded a potent influence over her son in his boyhood and youth.
The Robertsons, as their name would indicate, are of Scotch blood. Their first American progenitor was William, who came from Scotland about the close of the Revolutionary war, and settled on a farm in Culpeper which was conveyed to him by deed dated 1784, and on which Alexander F. was born two generations later. The Tunstalls came to Virginia at an earlier period than the Robertsons. In 1775, John Tunstall, great great-grandfather of A. F. Robertson, was on the committee of safety; he was a prominent patriot în " the times that tried men's souls." For several generations, both the Robertsons and the Tunstalls have been prominent in Virginia; and it is but describing " a chip of the old block " when we give a sketch of Alexander F. Robert- son, one of the best living representatives of these two old families.
. After the close of the Civil war, " Aleck " Robertson learned to make himself generally useful around the farm. Like most Virginia country boys of his day, he had to help with the cows, the cattle, the crops, the cord wood, go after mail, and do every- thing that a boy could do to keep the farm going and to keep the family comfortable. In this way, he developed a manly self- reliance and a respect for good, honest work. By knowing how to work he acquired a hearty respect for honest toil, and learned to believe that " a man's a man for a' that." This hard-headed common sense has helped him no little 'in his profession.
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