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 20
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Mr. Stearnes is of New England ancestry. His emigrant ancestor in America was Charles Stearnes, who came from Eng- land with Governor Winthrop in the "Arabella " in 1630, and settled in Salem, Massachusetts. Mr. Stearnes is ninth in descent from this Puritan ancestor, of whose descendants an account is given in a family history, entitled "The Stearnes Genealogy and Memoirs."
L. P. Stearnes grew up in the country, working from the time he was ten years of age in the corn and tobacco fields of his father's farm, and attending school during the winter months. After the death of his father, which occurred when he was about twelve years of age, he was cared for by his uncle, Dr. John L. Stearnes, of Pulaski county, Georgia, until he was sixteen, when he left school to earn his own living and to assist in the support of his mother, sister, and brother.
Mr. Stearnes began the activities of life in 1867 at Dublin, Virginia, in a subordinate position in the railroad service; and in a few months he was made assistant depot agent and agent of the Southern Express company at that point. In the meantime, he had learned telegraphy, and a year later he became the agent and telegraph operator at Salem, Virginia. For twenty years he followed the business of railroading, filling a number of important positions in various Southern cities, including Roanoke and Norfolk, Virginia; and Macon, Georgia. From 1882 to 1884, he temporarily retired from the railroad service and engaged in the hotel business at Kanawha Falls, Huntington and Charleston,
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West Virginia, and Georgetown, Kentucky. In 1890, Mr. Stearnes retired permanently from the railroad business, to which he had again returned, and engaged in the business of handling the coal shipped by the Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad company to Newport News. With the single exception of the shipbuilding company at Newport News, Mr. Stearnes is said to employ a greater number of men, to disburse a larger amount of money in wages, and to handle a product of greater tonnage and value than any business company in the York River Peninsula.
Mr. Stearnes is a Democrat in politics, and has never bolted the party ticket and never scratched a party nominee. His first vote was cast in 1872, in Macon, Georgia, for Horace Greeley for president, James H. Blount for congressman, and A. O. Bacon for the state legislature. He has been no office-seeker, and yet he has been repeatedly honored with public position by his fellow citizens. From 1890 to 1892, he was a member of the Democratic state committee, from the second congressional district. He has served as chairman of the Democratic city committee of New- port News. In 1901 he was elected a member of the house of delegates in the general assembly of Virginia, representing the city of Newport News, and the counties of Warwick, New Kent, Charles City, James City and York. He was reelected in 1903 without opposition, and has served on some of the most important committees of the house, including those on finance, immigration and federal relations. One of the most important public positions ever held by Mr. Stearnes was that of collector of customs of the district of which Newport News is the chief port, to which office he was appointed by President Cleveland in 1893. During his four years' tenure of this position, Newport News was just enter- ing upon its era of prosperity as a shipping center, and his system and method in the management of the office were dis- tinguished.
Mr. Stearnes is a member of the Methodist Episcopal church, and a director of the Newport News General hospital. He is a stockholder and director in the Newport News and Old Point Railway and Electric company ; is president of the Newport News Publishing company, publishers of the " Evening Times-Herald,"
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the leading afternoon paper of his section of the state; and he is a director in one national and two state banks of Newport News.
Mr. Stearnes married in Dublin, Virginia, October 7, 1874, Bently King, of Pulaski county; and of their marriage have been born five children, of whom three are now (1906) living. His address is Newport News, Virginia.
FREDERIC STERRY
S TERRY, FREDERIC, hotel director, business promoter, was born in Lansingburg, New York, April 14, 1866, son of Edwin S. and Mary E. (Scollay) Sterry. His father was an accomplished photographer, of Scotch lineage, whose direct ancestors settled in Connecticut at a very early period, and subsequently removed to the state of New York. He passed his early life in the country in Saratoga county, New York, and was educated chiefly in the Boys' academy, at Albany, New York.
After leaving school, Mr. Sterry secured a position as clerk in the Delavan house, Albany, New York, where he remained five years. Following this he was cashier of the United States hotel, at Saratoga Springs, New York, for three years, and then became manager of the Lakewood hotel, Lakewood, New Jersey, which he conducted for five years. From the management of this hotel he went to the Bryn Mawr hotel, at Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, where he held a similar position for three years, after which he identified himself with the large hotels of the South. In 1892, he undertook the management of the Virginia Hot Springs prop- erties, where he has continued with notable success for fourteen years; while for a period of twelve years he has also been the director of the Royal Poinciana, and The Breakers hotels, at Palm Beach, Florida.
These hotels enjoy so widespread a reputation for luxury, cuisine, location and environment that it is almost superfluous to more than refer to them. The Virginia Hot Springs hotel- known as the New Homestead-is situated in the marvelous Hot Spring valley of Virginia, at an elevation of twenty-five hundred feet, with surrounding mountains rising fifteen hundred feet higher. These springs have a reputation extending over more than a century and afford a most delightful resort for health and pleasure seekers all the year around.
The New Homestead was erected in the fall of 1902, on the most advanced modern lines, and is to-day the representative all the year around resort hotel in the country, capable of
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FREDERIC STERRY
accommodating, in the full meaning of the word, upward of seven hundred guests. Of especial note and beauty are the sun parlor and palm room, which have been recently added; the great white lobby, one of the finest in the country ; and the ball room, one of the most exquisite rooms of the kind imaginable.
Connected with the hotel, and under the same management, are a number of fine shops and bazaars, a golf course and club house, tennis courts, and numerous other facilities for indoor and outdoor sports and amusements, and a spacious bath-house and solarium with appointments of the finest order.
The Hotel Royal Poinciana, situated at Palm Beach, Florida, and owned by Mr. H. M. Flagler, is the largest resort hotel in the world, and has accomodations for seventeen hundred guests, and a corps of fifteen hundred servants. The late lamented Joe Jefferson made it his favorite abode. It is located on a strip of land broken from the mainland, and separated from it by a sheet of water possessing the fascination of an inland wood-bordered lake, while the opposite side is bathed with the waters of the open sea. The Royal Poinciana faces Lake Worth, and the main- land beyond. On the side which looks out upon the Atlantic stands The Breakers, with wide verandas and broad promenades, swept by ocean breezes, tempered to climatic perfection, almost. Connecting these two great hotels is a broad promenade flanked on both sides by the most superb tropical vegetation, and illumi- nated at night by a myriad of electric bulbs. The hotels, together with a perfect climate during the winter and spring months, bring the sojourner as nearly within the pale of physical per- fection as can anywhere be found.
Mr. Sterry is now (1906) building, for his own management, the Plaza hotel, facing Central Park, on Fifth avenue and Fifty- ninth street, New York, which, when completed, will be one of the most luxurious and best equipped hotels in the world. The cost is estimated at $12,000,000 and all that art and ingenuity can devise or money procure in the interest of modern hotel construc- tion will be embodied in this magnificent hostelry.
Mr. Sterry is a member of the New York club; Lambs club, New York; Radnor Hunt club, Philadelphia; Lakewood country club, New Jersey ; member and vice-president of the Hot Springs
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Golf club, Virginia; and is president of the Palm Beach Golf club, Florida. He is an enthusiastic golfer, and also much devoted to horseback riding.
On October 31, 1889, he married Catherine Cleveland, ยท daughter of Frederick and Gertrude Cleveland, of Albany, New York. They have two children.
His address is The New Homestead, Hot Springs, Virginia.
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LEWIS PRESTON SUMMERS
S UMMERS, LEWIS PRESTON, was born four and a half miles west of Abingdon, in Washington county, Virginia, November 2, 1868. His father was John Calhoun Sum- mers, attorney-at-law; captain of the Monroe Invincibles, after- wards Company A, 3rd Virginia regiment; major and lieutenant- colonel of the 60th Virginia infantry, Confederate States army; colonel in the provisional army of the Confederacy in the War between the States; attorney for the commonwealth of Washing- ton county, Virginia, from July 1, 1887 to July 1, 1891 ; and mem- ber of the Virginia Constitutional convention of 1901-1902 from Washington county. Mr. Summers' mother was Nannie Montgom- ery Preston, daughter of John F. Preston, of Locust Glen, Wash- ington county, Virginia, and a sister of the late Dr. Robert J. Preston, for some years superintendent of the Western State hospital.
Mr Summer's earliest ancestor on the paternal side in America was George Summers, who settled in Frederick county, afterwards Shenandoah county, near Tom's Brook, in 1766, his family being of Flemish origin; and on the maternal side was Robert Preston, who emigrated from Londonderry, Ireland, and settled in Southwest Virginia as early as 1765.
Mr. Summers was reared in the country. In early youth, he performed all kinds of manual labor, such as plowing, rail- making, attending to horses and cattle, and doing all the duties required about the farm. This constant employment was instru- mental in teaching him the necessity of performing well and faithfully all work that was assigned to him, and in directing his mind, at an early age, towards the accomplishment of what- ever he undertook. He attended the public schools of Washing- ton county, and afterwards the Wytheville Male academy. In the summers of 1890-1891, he studied law in Professor John B. Minor's summer school at the University of Virginia. In 1892- 1893, he pursued the regular law course in the University of Virginia, from which he was graduated in 1893 with the degree
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of Bachelor of Law. During the session of 1894-1895, he attended the Tulane university of Louisiana, and was graduated with the degree of Bachelor of Law in 1895.
The first active work of life done by Mr. Summers, after arriving at years of maturity, was in the capacity of a railway postal clerk, on the route between Lynchburg, Virginia, and Bristol, Tennessee. He was postmaster of Abingdon from March 1, 1890, to March 1, 1894. He was a member of the Republican district committee of the ninth congressional district of Virginia from 1894 to 1904, and commonwealth's attorney for Washington county from January 1, 1904 to May 1, 1905, when he resigned to accept the position of collector of internal revenue. At the same time, and for the same reason, he resigned the office of chair- man of the Republican district committee of his district, to which position he had been elected in April, 1904. Upon his retirement from the office last named, he received the thanks of the Repub- lican party of his district " for the faithful, able and efficient manner " in which he had conducted its affairs.
In March, 1904, he was elected a member of the Republican State executive committee from the 9th Virginia district; and, at the State convention of that party held at Norfolk, Virginia, in the same month and year, he was unanimously nominated, but later declined to serve, as one of the electors-at-large for the state on the presidential ticket.
His work in the campaign of 1904 as organizer and campaign speaker proved so valuable and his success was so conspicuous, that President Roosevelt, on March 20, 1905, named him for the position of collector of internal revenue for the western district of Virginia ; which position he now (1906) holds.
Mr. Summers is the author of a "History of Southwest Virginia from 1746 to 1786, and of Washington county, 1777 to 1870," which was published in 1903 and is considered a very valuable contribution to the local history of his section. Regard- ing this book, Judge Buchanan, of the supreme court of appeals of Virginia, wrote to Mr. Summers: " You have rendered a most valuable service to the people of this section, and they and the descendants of its early settlers, wheresoever living, cannot but
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read your account of the heroic and patriotic actions of their ancestors with pleasure and profit."
Mr. Summers is a member of the Presbyterian church, and belongs to the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, the Woodmen of the World, and the Royal Arcanum.
On February 24, 1897, Mr. Summers married Annie Kather- ine Barbee, daughter of M. A. Barbee, of Giles county, Virginia. They have had five children, of whom four are now (1906) living.
His address is Valley Street, Abingdon, Virginia.
JAMES WILLIAM TANKARD
T ANKARD, JAMES WILLIAM, physician, was born at Hadlock, Northampton county, Virginia, June 9, 1846. His parents were Philip Barraud Tankard, a farmer and merchant of Northampton, and Elizabeth Virginia Tankard. Dr. Tankard's first ancestor in America was, it is believed, William Tancred or Tankard; who came to Virginia from Eng- land in 1607 with Captain John Smith, and settled at Jamestown. His grandfather, Dr. John Tankard, was a surgeon in the Revo- lutionary army, in Muhlenberg's brigade, Lafayette's division, and was present at Cornwallis' surrender at Yorktown.
Dr. Tankard's early life was passed in the country. His academic education was acquired at the Margaret academy, in Accomac county; but the War between the States interrupted his studies; and after its close the duties of life compelled him to direct his energies towards the means of acquiring a livelihood. In 1867 he entered the Washington university school of medicine, now the college of Physicians and Surgeons, at Baltimore, Mary- land; and after remaining there for two years, graduated in 1869, with the degree of Doctor of Medicine. Prior to his begin- ning the study of medicine, he had taught school for two years in Maryland and Virginia. Immediately after his graduation as a physician he begun the practice of his profession in North- ampton county; two years later he moved to Northumberland county, where he has since continued in its active pursuit.
He was a member of the State medical examining board from 1888 to 1894; and has been a member of the Northumber- land county board of health from its foundation in 1896 to the present time (1906). He is a member of the Medical society of Virginia, and is president of the Northern Neck Medical asso- ciation. He represents, as medical examiner, many of the lead- ing life insurance companies of the country; and was a public school trustee of his county for twenty-one years, resigning in 1903.
He is a Democrat, who has never changed his politics or his
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party; and has been for many years, and still is, a member of the Northumberland county Democratic committee. He is a Methodist, has been a steward of his church for thirty-four years, and was a representative in his annual church conference in 1902, 1903, and 1905. Dr. Tankard has been a frequent contributor to the medical journals of the country; one of his most notable articles being an essay on Tetanus, which was published in 1880, in the " Virginia Medical Monthly."
He is a member of the Masonic fraternity, and has served as master of Heathsville lodge; and he is also a Pythian, and has held all the honors in the subordinate lodge of that order.
Dr. Tankard married March 19, 1873, Olivia E. Covington ; and of their marriage was born one child, now dead.
His address is Lilian, Northumberland County, Virginia.
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WILLIAM HENRY TAYLOR
T AYLOR, WILLIAM HENRY, M. D., was born in Richmond, Virginia, May 17, 1835. His father was William Taylor, a well-known and highly esteemed mer- chant of Richmond whose ancestors were of Danish extraction and settled in New York state. His mother, before her marriage, was Emeline Pearson, who was of English descent and whose ancestors settled at an early date in Virginia. The father, Wil- liam Taylor of Richmond, held various public offices, at one time being recorder of the city of Richmond, and at later periods a member of the city council, a member of the state legislature and treasurer of Henrico county.
Dr. William Henry Taylor, the subject of this sketch, ob- tained his early education at various schools in Richmond. From his earliest days he showed an aptitude for reading of a sub- stantial nature, and experimenting along physical and chemical lines. This taste led him to adopt medicine as his profession, and accordingly he entered the Medical College of Virginia, in 1854, and was graduated in 1856 with the degree of M. D. Upon his graduation Doctor Taylor began the practice of medicine in Richmond. At the outbreak of the Civil war he entered the service of the Confederate States army as assistant surgeon of the 8th regiment of Virginia infantry, and was later made surgeon of the 19th regiment of Virginia infantry, with which regiment he remained until the surrender at Appomattox. The war being ended, Doctor Taylor returned to Richmond and resumed the practice of medicine. His natural taste and talent for the sciences, however, soon led him to abandon the general practice of medicine for the practice of chemistry, in which he has since continued. When the office of state chemist for Virginia was established, Doctor Taylor was chosen for that position, which he ably filled till the office was abolished in 1906. He was also for a time the official chemist of the state department of agriculture for Virginia. As an expert chemist he has had occasion to give his opinions in nearly every trial for criminal poisoning which
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has been held in the state during the past thirty-five years. For about twenty years he was a member of the Richmond board of health and has been coroner of the city of Richmond since 1872. Doctor Taylor is possessed of much talent in imparting his gen- erous store of information to others, and has taught from time to time in private schools in Richmond. From 1868 he has been a lecturer and professor in the Medical College of Virginia, having filled with marked success the chair of chemistry, toxi- cology, and medical jurisprudence; and having served as chair- man of the faculty in that well-known institution. When the Richmond high school was opened he was selected as the teacher of physics and chemistry, and that position he filled with pe- culiar success for a period of some twenty-eight years till the close of the session in June, 1901. Doctor Taylor has written various monographs of scientific value. He is also the author of "The Book of Travels of a Doctor of Physic," published in 1871, soon after his return from Europe, and of " Outlines of Physics " (1895) ; " Outlines of Every-day Chemistry " (1899) ; "Fundamental Facts and Principles of Chemistry " (1901) ; and " Outlines of Medical Jurisprudence " (1904). At one time he was one of the department editors of "The Old Dominion Journal of Medicine and Surgery."
Doctor Taylor has never married. He is a painstaking and zealous student, and one who works early and late at his chosen work. In politics he is a Democrat; and he is a promi- nent member of the Medical Society of Virginia.
His address is Richmond, Virginia.
WILLIAM WILLARD TAYLOR
T AYLOR, WILLIAM WILLARD, furnace-manager, was born at Lapeer, Michigan, on June 30, 1871. His father was the Rev. David H. Taylor, a minister of the Presbyterian church; and his mother was Martha Hill.
Among Mr. Taylor's colonial ancestors were those of the families of Hill, Dickinson and Burr, who were in America at an early date in the seventeenth century.
He grew up in a town of some three or four thousand inhabi- tants, going to school during the school sessions and working on the farm in the summer vacations. From his early boyhood he had been interested in the subject of geology, and as a small lad he had made a collection of stones and specimens of rocks. Determining to follow a scientific career, he entered the Univer- sity of Michigan ; and while a student there he worked on a farm and learned the carpenter's trade during the summer vacations, in order to thus provide means for obtaining a technical training. He remained at the University of Michigan from 1889 to 1893, graduating in the last named year with the degree of Bachelor of Science in mining engineering.
He started to work with the Illinois Steel company as a chemist in 1894, and remained in that position for a year. In 1895 he was chemist for the Missouri Furnace company; and in 1896 he was chemist for the Iron Gate furnace, near Clifton Forge, Virginia. In 1897 he served as superintendent of the Iron Gate furnace for a year; and upon its consolidation with other furnace interests in 1898, he became general superintendent of the consolidated scheme, which position he has since contin- uously held; he is also vice-president of the Victoria Coal and Coke company.
Mr. Taylor has been a contributor to the literature of his profession having written and published technical papers at various times touching blast-furnace practice.
He is a Shriner, a Knight Templar; also a member of the American institute of Mining engineers; and is a member of the
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Piedmont club, of Lynchburg. He is a member of the Protestant Episcopal church; and in national politics he is a Republican. Upon questions of state and local importance, and in elections for local officials he is independent.
Mr. Taylor's life has been one not without adventure. In the winter of 1893-1894 he was engaged in prospecting in the Rainy Lake country of Canada, where his experience was at times severe and trying. On one occasion he was forced to live for two weeks on a bag of meal and a can of grease, which he bought from the Indians. He was successful in finding gold ores of a low grade; but no development of them was ever made.
Mr. Taylor married on June 3, 1897, Ada Beall, of St. Louis, Missouri, a daughter of General W. N. R. Beall, of the Con- federate States army; and of their marriage have been born four children, all of whom are now (1906) living.
His address is Clifton Forge, Alleghany County, Virginia.
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CHRISTOPHER TOMPKINS
T OMPKINS, CHRISTOPHER, M. D., whose father was Christopher Q. Tompkins, a West Point graduate, a captain in the 3rd artillery of the United States army, and later a colonel of the 22nd Virginia regiment, Confederate States army, in the War between the States, and whose mother was Ellen Wilkins, was born in the city of Richmond, Virginia, September 7, 1847. Among Dr. Tompkins's revolutionary ancestors was Judge Gunning Bedford, of New York, who, in addition to other distinctions, was a signer of the Declaration of Independence. The emigrant ancestor of Dr. Christopher Tompkins was Humphrey Tompkins, who came to the colony of Virginia from England in the reign of Charles the First, and settled in York county.
Dr. Tompkins attended as a boy the schools of the city of Richmond, and later was a student in the ancient college of Wil- liam and Mary at Williamsburg, Virginia, from which he was graduated with the degree of Bachelor of Philosophy in 1868. After a year in the academical department of the University of Virginia, he entered the Medical college of Virginia in 1868, from which, in 1780, he was graduated with the degree of Doctor of Medicine. Although too young to enter the regular army of the Confederacy in the War between the States, he saw active service as a Confederate courier when only sixteen years of age, at the time of Dahlgren's raid around Richmond.
In 1871, Dr. Tompkins began the active practice of his profession in Richmond, in which he has continued with distin- guished success up to the present time (1906). Prior to the opening of his office in Richmond, he had spent several months as a substitute interne in Bellevue hospital in New York city.
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