USA > Virginia > Men of mark in Virginia, ideals of American life; a collection of biographies of the leading men in the state, Volume V > Part 25
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JOHN S. WEBB
an algebra, unfitted as he was, was entered a student at the Vir- ginia Military institute-a state cadet. It was a month before he could procure a copy of an algebra; but he overtook his class and was graduated from the institute in 1867. He lost a year and a half by reason of the war. He served with the cadets of the Virginia Military institute, and took part in the battle of New- market. Returning to the institute after the war, (in October, 1866) he overtook the class which was half through the course, and was graduated in July, 1867, having acted as cadet quarter- master. His favorite studies at the institute were mathematics, history and geology. At graduation he received the diploma given by the dialectic society (an honor awarded to but one mem- ber of each class) for " the most useful member of the graduating class."
In June, 1868, he began active railroad work as a "statisti- cal" for the South Side railroad, stationed at Petersburg, Vir- ginia, under General William Mahone. Having organized the statistics of the tonnage business of the road so that a prompt and exact report could be made to the Virginia legislature, he found himself so attracted to the study of railroading and rail- road engineering that he determined to fit himself for the career of a civil and mining engineer.
His first practical railroad work was in surveys for the Cumberland Gap extension of that railroad, under General Mahone's presidency. In 1874 to 1875 he was engaged in con- struction of the Cincinnati and Southern railway, part of this embracing the iron viaduct and iron bridge over the Kentucky river at " The Towers," then the highest railroad bridge in the world, and also the longest single span railroad bridge then in existence-being the bridge across the Ohio River at Cincinnati- with a span of 500 feet.
He served on the Dayton and Southeastern railroad from 1876 to 1877. In 1879 he was nominated city engineer of Dayton, Ohio. In 1878 he was stationed at various points in the con- struction of the Lake Erie and Louisville railway, doing mean- while some work as surveyor for towns in the states of Ohio and Kentucky. As chief engineer of a branch of the Seaboard in 1882; as chief engineer of the A. & D. railway from 1885 to 1886;
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JOHN S. WEBB
as chief engineer of the Great Western Air Line from Charlotte, North Carolina to Norfolk, Virginia, where his work brought him much praise from the press of the state as well as from rail- road experts; and on construction of the Ohio extension of the Norfolk and Western railway under chief engineer, W. W. Coe, Mr. Webb added to his experience and to his professional repu- tation.
Returning to East Virginia, from 1890 to 1893 he was en- gaged in real estate and personal business in the neighborhood of Petersburg and Norfolk. He then became general inspecting engineer of the Richmond, Petersburg and Carolina railroad, ex- tending from Richmond to Ridgway, North Carolina. The next three years were spent in securing and developing a belt of timber for future exploitation. He was appointed in 1905 to take charge of the rebuilding and betterment of the Piedmont middle link of the old east and west railroad, called the Atlanta and Birmingham Air Line division. On returning to his home, he found that the time had come to market the lumber from the timber tracts which he had secured; and he began at once to rea- lize upon that purchase, disposing of a large measure of his hold- ings to advantage, and repeatedly declining propositions to en- gage again in engineering.
Mr. Webb was county surveyor continuously for years while engaged in railway construction in different states, the county refusing to accept his resignation.
During the Spanish American war, the secretary of war designated Mr. Webb for engineer service. As early as 1881, he had been placed in charge of the Cumberland River improve- ments, twenty-five miles below Nashville. He has recently been called to take charge of the electric, or trolly, line survey for con- nection of Norfolk, Portsmouth and interurban lines with Peters- burg, Richmond and suburan lines.
Mr. Webb has compiled a work on " Transportation, Opera- tion and Construction of Railways." He is the inventor of the " Improved Combined Rail-Joint and Chair," making " a contin- uous rail," which was patented March 8, 1905, and on which the inventor holds United States patents, patents in Canada, and in France; while the patent is applied for in Great Britian.
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JOHN S. WEBB
By political conviction Mr. Webb is allied with the Democratic party although his engineering work has made his residence at any point so short in duration that he has seldom voted. He is interested in promoting immigration, principally Bohemian, to the eastern part of Virginia.
By religious conviction he is a communicant of the Episcopal church. He is a member of " The Elks." He declares himself "by nature a lover of horses, dogs and of all pets; fond of all kinds of shooting, and at times of fishing." To the young people of Virginia he offers this advice: " Speak the truth at all hazards. 'Slow but sure is most secure.' Take the same interest in your employer's work that you would in your own. Hold to your engagement until your work is fully completed; do not leave it partially done in such a way that your sucessor may ruin your work and reflect upon the part that you have already done. Discharge all your duties without fear and without favor."
His address is Disputanta, Prince George County, Virginia.
JAMES LOWERY WHITE
W HITE, JAMES LOWERY, was born May 30, 1833, in Abingdon, Washington county, Virginia. He is the son of James Lowery and Margaret R. White (née Preston). His father was a farmer and merchant. He held no public offices but was highly regarded as a business man. He died in early life.
The earliest known ancestors of the family in America were Scotch-Irish. They included the Prestons who lived in Virginia and the Whites who lived in Pennsylvania.
James L. White attended for a while the Abingdon Male academy. In 1850 he entered the Virginia Military institute, from which he was graduated three years later. In 1853-54 he attended the University of Virginia. He afterwards studied at the Jefferson Medical college, from which institution he received the degree of M. D. in 1855.
He began the active work of life as a physician at Abingdon, Virginia, being drawn by personal preference to enter this pur- suit. He has since followed this profession. He is a member of the Medical society, and in the year 1880-81 he served as its vice- president.
Dr. White has seen military service, having been a volunteer captain in the 37th regiment of Virginia infantry during six months of 1861. He was then commissioned a surgeon of the Confederate States army and served as such until the close of the war.
Dr. White is a Mason, a member of the Royal Arcanum and a Knight of Honor. In politics he is a Democrat and in religion a Presbyterian.
On September 21, 1864, he was married to Miss L. E. Jack- son.
His address is Main Street, Farmville, Virginia.
WILLIAM HETH WHITSITT
W HITSITT, WILLIAM HETH, D. D., LL. D., was born in Davidson county, Tennessee, November 25, 1841. His parents were Reuben Ewing Whitsitt and Eurydice (MacFarland) Whitsitt. His father was a man of sturdy character, industrious, honest, wisely economical and of elevated sentiment. He was honored by his neighbors and friends with various positions of local trust and importance. The Whitsitts, originally known as Whiteside, were Scotch-Irish. William and Elizabeth (Dawson) Whiteside, the American progenitors of the family came to this country from County Antrim in the north of Ireland after the year 1731. William Whiteside patented four hundred acres of land in Albemarle county, Virginia, on March 15, 1741. The name was changed to Whitsitt by William White- side II during his residence in Amherst county, Virginia, from which point he moved to Tennessee, dying in Nashville in 1811. His son, James Whitsitt, the grandfather of the subject of this sketch, was a Baptist minister of distinction in Tennessee.
The early life of the subject of this sketch was spent on his father's farm in which he took much interest, and he attended the district school in the neighborhood. One incident of his boy- hood which deeply impressed him was the building in 1848 of the Nashville and Chattanooga railroad through his father's farm.
While he owed much to the strong and upright father, the mother's influence was controlling, especially in moral and spirit- ual matters, and after his eleventh year he was entirely in her charge. He attended successively the district school on his father's farm, Mt. Juliet academy in Wilson county, Tennessee, and Union university, Murfreesboro, Tennessee. From the last he received the degree of A. M. in 1861. After the war he spent one session at the University of Virginia. He was a student at the Southern Baptist Theological seminary (then located at Greenville, South Carolina ) 1867-69. He then spent a year (1869-70) at the University of Leipsic and a year (1870-71) at the University of Berlin. In Leipsic he came under the influence
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of Professor George Curtins and in Berlin he was greatly in- fluenced by Professors Johann Gustav Droysen, Ernst Curtins and Isaac Augustus Dorner.
In 1873 Mercer university (Georgia) conferred upon him the degree of D. D., and in 1887 three institutions, namely, George- town college, Kentucky; William Jewell college, Missouri; and Southwestern Baptist university, Tennessee, honored him with the degree of LL. D.
Dr. Whitsitt's life work has been teaching. In 1861 he was made principal of Forest Hill academy in Williamson county, Tennessee. In 1862 he enlisted as a private soldier in the 4th Tennessee cavalry, Confederate States army, and was later elected chaplain in which capacity he served until May 11, 1865. After spending several years in special studies in this country and abroad he was elected in 1872 professor in the Southern Baptist Theological seminary, then located at Greenville, South Carolina but later moved to Louisville, Kentucky. In this position he served with eminent success until 1895 when he was elected presi- dent of the institution, succeeding Dr. John A. Broadus. This position he resigned in May, 1899. In June, 1901, he was elected professor of philosophy in Richmond college, which post he now (1908) holds.
In his long and useful career as teacher Dr. Whitsitt has been remarkably useful. Serving in the Southern Baptist Theo- logical seminary for twenty-seven years he had a large share in the training of a great multitude of ministers of the Gospel who have held and many of whom still hold important pulpits all over our own land, while not a few are missionaries to other lands. In his more recent career at Richmond college he has powerfully influenced the lives and characters of hundreds of young men.
He has been so absorbed in the work of teaching that he has found little time for writing, though the religious press and other periodicals have been frequently enriched by his quaint and graceful pen. Among the books he has given to the public are "Life and Times of Judge Caleb Wallace," published in 1888, " Question in Baptist History " (1896), "Annals of a Scotch-Irish Family; the Whitsitts of Tennessee " (1904).
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WILLIAM HETH WHITSITT
Dr. Whitsitt is a man of scholarly temperament and tastes, a lover of old books, and is never happier than when reading in their own tongues the classic authors. At the same time he keeps fully abreast of modern literature, reading the great books and the great reviews, not only of America and England but of Ger- many, for which people and language he has a strong attach- ment.
In politics he has been usually identified with the Democratic party, though he holds himself free from blind partisanship and has on occasions exercised his freedom in voting for the candidate of some other party.
His genial and lovable character has endeared him not only to thousands of old pupils who think and speak of him with affectionate reverence but has won and tenaciously holds for him the sincere friendship of colleagues and acquaintances.
Dr. Whitsitt was married October 4, 1881, to Miss Florence Wallace of Woodford county, Kentucky. Of their two children both are now (1908) living.
The address of Dr. Whitsitt is Richmond, Virginia.
HAZAEL JOSEPH WILLIAMS
W ILLIAMS, HAZAEL JOSEPH, contractor, soldier and farmer, was born at Williamsville, Bath county, Vir- ginia, April 28, 1830. His father was Hazael Wil- liams, a blacksmith and master mechanic; and his mother was Nancy McKee.
Mr. Williams' ancestry was Welsh; and his progenitors are believed to have been of the Williamses of the Rhode Island and Providence plantations, of whom the famous Roger Williams of the colonial period was one.
He was reared in a country village, and assisted his father as a youth in his work at the blacksmith shop. His opportunities of obtaining an education were of the most meagre kind; and the whole period of his school attendance was included in a session of nine months.
Having determined for himself upon following a trade, he learned the business of carpentry; and began his active career in life at the age of sixteen years at Rockbridge Alum Springs, Vir- ginia, in May, 1848, as a carpenter. As his business developed he became also a contractor; and he pursued successively for thirty years the occupation of builder and contractor. At the end of that time, having acquired a competency, he purchased a farm in Augusta county ; and for more than thirty years past he has been engaged in the business of farming.
When the War between the States began in 1861, Colonel Williams entered the service of the Confederacy as a captain. He served through the war, and rose from the rank of captain to that of colonel of the 5th Virginia regiment, Stonewall brigade, receiving during that period four wounds in battle, from one of which he lost the partial use of his left arm.
In 1875, Colonel Williams offered in a county convention in Augusta county a series of resolutions in favor of the readjust- ment of the state debt of Virginia. This was some years in ad- vance of the political movement in the state which ultimately resulted in the readjustment of the debt; and he affiliated with the
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HAZAEL JOSEPH WILLIAMS
Readjuster party until that end was accomplished. In 1891-1892, he served in the house of delegates of the general assembly as a delegate from Augusta county, and was a member of several im- portant committees. While a member of the house, he introduced a bill requiring railroad companies to furnish separate accommo- dations for the white and black races; which, though failing of enactment at the time, has since become a law of the common- wealth, and is popularly known as " the Jim Crow Law."
Colonel Williams was for four years a member of the school board of Augusta county; and he also served for three years on the board of the Western State hospital for the insane, at Staun- ton, Virginia.
Colonel Williams is a member of the Presbyterian church; is a Democrat in his political affiliations; and belongs to the Masonic order. His biography has been published in Hardesty's " Annals."
The address of Colonel Williams is Greenville, Virginia.
CHARLES HENRY WINSTON
W INSTON, CHARLES HENRY, LL. D., professor and lecturer, was born in Henrico county, Virginia, near Richmond, August 21, 1831, and his parents, who re- sided at that time in that city, were Peter Winston and Eliza Ann (Woodward) Winston. The ancestor of the Winston family in America, Isaac Winston, came from England in the latter part of the seventeenth century and settled in Virginia. The Winston family has had an honorable record, and several genealogies have been published in reference to it. The father of the subject of this sketch was Peter Winston, who was a mer- chant remarkable for his energy, enterprise, quickness, piety and reliability.
Charles Henry Winston spent the first ten years of his life in the city, but afterwards lived in Chesterfield county till twenty years of age. He was a sensitive boy, who loved the truth and avoided bad language and preferred girls as playmates to boys, who seemed to him too bad and rough. While in the country he took part in farm work and also did various jobs of mechanical kinds, as he was always fond of working with tools and making things. He had no special difficulties in obtaining an education and after finishing his studies in the elementary schools of Rich- mond and of Chesterfield county, he entered, in 1851, Hampden- Sidney college, and in 1854 was graduated with the degree of Bachelor of Arts, winning also the much coveted "first honor" in his class, after which for a year he held the position of assistant professor of ancient languages and head of the grammar school in the college. In the fall of 1855 he entered the University of Virginia, where two years later he gained the degree of Master of Arts, when to take that honor in two years was deemed an unusual and notable thing. Leaving the university he was elected professor of ancient languages in Transylvania univer- sity, Lexington, Kentucky, where he stayed one year. Then from 1858 to 1873 he was president of the Richmond, Virginia, Female institute (now Woman's college) ; and from 1873 till
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CHARLES HENRY WINSTON
June, 1908, was professor of physics and astronomy in Richmond college, Virginia. At this time he resigned this position, on ac- count of advancing age, and was made professor emeritus of physics, but still retained his position as professor of astronomy. During most of the thirty-five years of his professorship he has had one or more classes in some of the other institutions of the city, mainly in the Woman's college but at times in others. Dur- ing the last two years of the War between the States he was con- nected with the nitre and mining bureau of the Confederate States army, and had charge of the chemical works in Charlotte, North Carolina, with the rank of major of cavalry. While at college he was a member of the Beta Theta Pi, and afterwards was for some time a member of the American Association for the advancement of science. In 1883 Hampden-Sidney college conferred upon him the degree of Doctor of Laws.
Dr. Winston has taken much interest in general educational matters. He was the first editor-in-chief of the "Educational Journal of Virginia" and served as such from November, 1869 to August, 1871. For twenty years from 1884 to 1903 inclusive he had a prominent part in state summer normals-twenty in all, of which fourteen were conducted by him with a corps of assist- ants. In this work he served under four successive superintend- ents of public instruction, and he sets very properly a high value upon this part of his life's work. He has written no books for publication, but several of his public lectures or addresses have been published. Some of these addresses have been on religious, and some on educational subjects, but the most important ones have been scientific. The number would perhaps be a hundred or more, and would include courses of lectures on astronomy, on geology, on electricity, et cetera, and some of these were repeated several times in various cities. He had the honor to be the first to explain to the people of Richmond most of the noted dis- coveries and inventions of the last fifty years, such as the tele- phone, the phonograph, the X-rays, and wireless telegraphy; and of this he feels, and certainly justifiably, proud. For the last ten years he has studied systematic botany, as a recreation, and has founded a club for the study of wild flowers. He also interests himself cultivating flowers in his garden; but perhaps his chief
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CHARLES HENRY WINSTON
recreation is experimental work and constructive work in his physical laboratory. A man of recognized ability, of thorough loyalty to truth, of broad and accurate scholarship, of inborn modesty, of reverent faith, his work in the several positions he has filled has been of inestimable value and his life a benediction to mankind.
In politics, Dr. Winston is a Democrat who has never changed. In religion he is a Baptist and has been active and prominent in Sunday school and other Christian work; for nearly fifty years he has been a member of the Foreign Mission board of the Southern Baptist convention, and for some years (1895-1902) was its president. In estimating the relative im- portance of the influences which have contributed to his success in life he places that of his mother first, his father having died when he was ten years of age. The influence of school, and pri- vate study come next, and companionship and contact with men in active life had each its share. He tells young men that sound ideals are best promoted by "uprightness and integrity, straight- forwardness and honesty, and industry and perseverance." These words are not merely words but things.
Asked to name the books or special lines of reading which he found most helpful in fitting him for work in life, he writes, " I thought at first I would be a specialist in languages (and did actually teach Latin and Greek for two years) and in prepara- tion for this read much in philology. Later when I gave myself to science, I read and studied all accessible books, magazines, et cetera, bearing on science in general and on physics and as- tronomy in particular.
On March 16, 1858, he married Nannie Steger, daughter of Major John H. Steger, of Amelia county, and eleven children were born to them, of whom three sons and five daughters are now (1908) living.
Sketches of his life have been published in "Who's Who in America," and in the " Baptist Encyclopedia."
His address is Richmond College, Richmond, Virginia.
TIMOTHY WARD WOOD
W OOD, TIMOTHY WARD, was born in the city of Derby, Derbyshire, England, January 5, 1840. His parents were Timothy and Lydia Wood. While a very young man, he engaged in business in Newark, England, the death of his father having imposed responsibilities upon him at an early age. He had been trained in youth to do any kind of work necessary to the business of a grain and seed merchant, in which his father was engaged at the time of his death in 1856; and he followed this pursuit in England with a reasonable degree of success after his father's death. Believing, however, that America offered a wider field for enterprise, he came to Virginia in 1873 and, locating near Richmond, engaged in farming.
After several years' experience as a farmer, Mr. Wood de- termined to reëmbark in the seed business, in which he had had a very considerable previous experience. This, together with the practical knowledge which he had gained in farming, enabled him to start this business in Virginia under favorable conditions. Associating his sons with him, from small beginnings he built up a trade that is now known all over America, and that has ex- tended its reputation to foreign countries.
In addition to his success as a seed merchant, Mr. Wood was well known in other directions in the business life of Richmond. He was for a time president of the Richmond Grain and Cotton exchange, and also owned a controlling interest in the Implement company of which he was president. He was also honored by an election to the presidency of the American Seed Trade asso- ciation at its meeting some years ago at Niagara Falls.
Mr. Wood's interests in life were varied and manifold. He kept in close touch with the horticultural and agricultural move- ments of his section; he took a direct personal interest in his greenhouse and flower beds at his home at Forest Hill, near Richmond; he was largely concerned in the management and success of the Virginia Home for incurables, the Sheltering Arms hospital, and other local charities; and he found time, amid his
your's truly In. Wood .
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TIMOTHY WARD WOOD
other engrossing pursuits, to write a number of books on finan- cial questions. Among other literary productions, he published in 1896, "A Treatise on Monometalism," "The Road to Pros- perity," and " Momentous Issues;" and, a short time before his death, he completed a volume entitled " Christian Love and Unity versus Science and Sectarianism."
Mr. Wood also occasionally turned his attention to inven- tion, and patented many years ago a turbine-engine to utilize tide water, though he did not attempt to develop this invention. He likewise patented Wood's Patent Swing Churn.
Mr. Wood was a devoted churchman, and for several years was a vestryman of Holy Trinity church, Richmond. Later he resigned, to become senior warden of Meade Memorial church, Manchester, Virginia. He was a man of very earnest convictions, which he did not hesitate to express on occasion; and while he never held public office, his voice was outspoken upon matters of public concern.
Mr. Wood was twice married. His first wife was Elizabeth Price, whom he married in 1860. His second marriage was to Mrs. Anna E. Ingram, who was before marriage Anna E. Neblett of Lunenburg county, Virginia. He had five children, of whom four survived him.
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