USA > Virginia > City of Lynchburg > City of Lynchburg > Sketches and recollections of Lynchburg > Part 16
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At this time Dr. Humphreys had in his employ- ment a young man by the name of Richardson, who was also by birth a Scotchman, and who professed to be a nephew of Burns' Highland Mary, thereby in- vesting himself with some of the romance which surrounds that sweet and beloved dream of the Ayrshire ploughman's youth.
Dr. Humphreys was a good man and a useful
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citizen, his peculiarities being perfectly harmless. He survived for many years his wife and children ; and truly touching was it in his decline of life to witness his loneliness at his desolate hearth, re- lieved only occasionally by visits from a few grand- children.
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MRS. TALIAFERRO.
This venerable lady resides in Lynchburg, con- tinuing to occupy the same house in which she lived nearly half a century since. Her maiden name was Price, and she was a sister of Mrs. Meredith Lambeth, of the vicinity of Lynchburg. For some years, Mrs. Taliaferro was the wife of Roderick Taliaferro, Esq., an excellent man, who, dying about the year 1819, left her a widow, with the sole charge of a young and helpless family. Con-
scientiously discharging these arduous duties, she has had the comfort and gratification, in her old age, of seeing her children rise and prosper around her ; proving that the good seed, by her sown, had fallen into honest hearts, which, in due season, have brought forth their fruits. She was the mother of the late Judge Norborne Taliaferro, who was reared in Lynchburg, and who studied for the bar under the auspices of the late Christopher Anthony, of that place. Judge Taliaferro was an eminent lawyer, and, when a young man, he married Miss Lucy Jones, an interesting young lady of Lynchburg. Surviving
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for some years his beloved wife, he was appointed Judge of the Henry and Patrick District. Dis- charging with great ability these duties, and whilst in the midst of his vigor and usefulness, Judge Taliaferro died a few years since, leaving his aged mother to mourn the loss of her excellent son.
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In a small wooden house, not far below the old " Cross Keys," lived Mrs. WOODROW. A lovely face, commanding figure, together with fine sense and much suavity of manners, gave to this lady
great influence at one time in Lynchburg. An active member of the Methodist Church, possessing great fluency of speech and a perfect command of her pen, she occupied in that denomination a promi- nent station, and, by her practical skill in nursing and administering medicines, she greatly aided their society, for visiting the sick and indigent. Her maiden name was Fitzhugh, and that of her first husband was Brent, and her daughter, Mary Brent, was a young lady of great beauty and gentleness. Mr. Woodrow, the second husband, was an amiable man, but of a family widely differing from her first aristocratic connection. Her daughter, Henrietta Woodrow, was just expanding into womanhood at the time they left Lynchburg.
Mary Brent married Tipton Harrison, of Lynch-
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burg, and emigrating with her husband and her mother's family to Pensacola, in a brief time, she with her husband, brother and sister, all fell vic- tims to the yellow fever; and the letters of the bereaved mother, written in all the eloquence of woe, were read with great sympathy and interest by many in Lynchburg. Shortly after this time, Mrs. Woodrow removed to New Orleans with her sister, Miss Nancy Fitzhugh.
Many little incidents connected with the latter personage might be here recorded, but as both her- self and her repartees are well remembered by the old inhabitants, it is needless to mention them. The fate both of Mrs. Woodrow and her sister is involved in some obscurity. A few years since, a gentleman of Lynchburg received a long and singu- lar letter from Miss Nancy Fitzhugh, proposing to engage him in a law suit, and laying claim to a considerable property in the town of Lynchburg; and for some time this lady was constantly expected in the city ; but as no subsequent tidings were ever received from her, it may be inferred that Miss Nancy Fitzhugh has long since left this lower world.
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THE TUCKER FAMILY.
MRS. MARIA TUCKER-ROSALIE TUCKER.
" Beneath every domestic roof," says an American writer, " there are more than are counted by the eye of a stranger. Spirits are there which he does not see, but which are never far from the eyes of the household. Steps are on the stairs, but not for common ears, and familiar places and objects restore familiar smiles and tears, and acts of goodness and words of love, which are seen and heard by memory alone."
Mrs. MARIA TUCKER, eldest daughter of Charles Carter, Esq.,* was a native of Culpeper county. She was in early life married to George Tucker, Esq., a native of the Island of Bermuda, and many years since they settled in the town of Lynchburg.
* The wife of this gentleman was a lady of great goodness, refinement and elegance. Her maiden name was " Betsy Lewis," the favorite niece of General Washington. Mrs. Eleanor Brown, wife of the late Henry Brown, Esq., and Mrs. Otwayanna Owens, the second wife of Dr. William Owens, were likewise her daugh- ters. These two last ladies will long be most affectionately remembered in Lynchburg. They were highly gifted with moral qualities, and remarkable for most sprightly imagina- tions and minds of the highest order.
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Posssessing a very lovely face, beautiful form, a mind highly cultivated, perfect command of lan- guage, united to most enthusiastic eloquence, Mrs. Tucker adorned the polished circle in which she moved, contributing to its gayety and cheerfulness, by the most refined wit, perfectly tempered with good humor. For some years the family resided in the house owned by George Whitelocke, Esq., in the vicinity of the Rev. William S. Reid's resi- dence, the daughters a lovely household band, till death claimed for its own, ROSALIE, the fairest and loveliest of the sisterhood.
This remarkable young person was born in Cul- peper on the 8th of May, 1804; and, from the earliest stage of her existence, her mother had formed the most favorable presages of her future excellence; and, though naturally sanguine, Mrs. Tucker seems, on this occasion, to have been inspired with more than her ordinary enthusiasm.
Extracts from a Memoir of ROSALIE, written by her Father.
" From her earliest infancy she was distinguished for a feeling, generous heart; as she grew up, it exhibited itself in a thousand amiable forms of affection, kindness, humanity and benevolence. The tenderness of her na- ture was not confined to her relations. She was all kindness and sympathy to her young companions-to the poor, to the servants, of whom there is not one who cannot bear testimony to her beneficence and generosity."
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"Even in her last illness, worn down as she was by weakness and pain, there was not a day, and scarcely an hour, in which she did not form some plan, or make some request, which showed that she was often insensible of her own suffering in her affectionate solicitude for the happiness of others."
"Warm hearts are apt to be united with irritable tempers. They both seem to be the natural effects of a more than ordinary sensibility. It was not so with Rosalie : she had the temper of an angel. One eternal sunshine of good humor and placidity beamed from her brow. She was never seen angry, and the meekness and patience with which she bore the sufferings of her last illness, have never been surpassed. The fact is, a happy nature, aided by good precepts and good habits, had so subdued all selfish feelings, that they seemed to be sub- ordinate to her sympathy for others, and their ease and accommodation constituted her chief pleasure-it might be said, her ruling passion. Hence it was, that this generous disinterestedness did not wait for great occa- sions to show itself, or require the stimulus of applause for its support, but was excited in the little concerns and privacy of domestic life, when the character is seen in its true colors without affectation or disguise."
This gifted young person* died in Lynchburg, December, 1819, in the fifteenth year of her age ;
* About the time of her death, many young children were called after this lovely girl, and the name Rosalie, has since then become quite common in the vicinity of Lynchburg.
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and, though little more than four years old at the time, a perfect recollection of her lovely appear- ance is preserved-and would that the tender feel- ings of childish admiration could be eloquently penned as they are felt. The memory of Rosalie Tucker is sacredly cherished by her class-mates, as well as by the oldest inhabitants of Lynchburg ; and, in her early death, we have a striking exem- plification of the broken alabaster box, whose oint- ment, though so precious, was unhesitatingly yielded to the Saviour ; and whose perfume, though at first confined to that humble Hebrew abode, has now gone forth to the world, conveying a lesson both practical and beautiful. So, after the lapse of thirty-nine years, may the present generation be instructed and stimulated to press onwards, to " be ye therefore perfect"-as much by the tranquil death, as by the exemplary life, of this young girl.
She was very beautiful in person-and a portrait of her, taken after death, serves in a measure to recall those angelic features. Though much younger than Clementina Cuvier, a striking parallel exists between Rosalie and this exemplary young French- woman, not only in rich mental gifts and perfect loveliness of character, but in the peculiar devotion cherished towards Rosalie by her gifted father- which, in its intensity, resembled the affection cherished by Baron Cuvier to his daughter, Clem- entina. A few years subsequent to this mournful
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event, Mrs. Tucker was, during the absence of her husband, suddenly called hence, leaving her house lonely and her young family desolate ; and, without doubt, in that solemn hour, she could appropriate to herself the truth of our Saviour's words : "What I do, thou knowest not now; but thou shalt know hereafter ;" for she could not but be assured that her beloved daughter, the angelic Rosalie, was waiting to receive her on the shores of Eternity.
Mrs. Tucker left an assurance of peace, and met death with great calmness and composure. She had evidently had presentiments of her death, from many little memoranda found, and from particular passages which she had noted and marked in her book of hymns-one of which was sung at her funeral, which took place at the Presbyterian Church, being preached by the Rev. William S. Reid, as soon as Mr. Tucker reached his desolate home :
" My hope, my all, my Saviour thou, To Thee low now my soul I bow : I feel the bliss Thy wounds impart, I find Thee, Saviour, in my heart !
Be Thou my strength, be Thou my stay, Protect me through my life's short day ; And if I would from Thee depart, Then dwell Thou, Saviour, in my heart.
In fierce temptation's darkest hour, Save me from sin and Satan's power : Tear every idol from Thy throne, And reign my Saviour, reign alone.
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My suffering time will soon be o'er, Then shall I sigh and weep no more ; My ransomed soul shall soar away. To sing Thy praise in endless day."
Of the members of this beloved family, Mr. Tucker survives, together with his daughters, Mrs. George Rives, of Sherwood, Albemarle county, and Mrs. Gessner Harrison,* of the University of Vir- ginia. Lelia Tucker, the youngest daughter, died some years since at the residence of her sister, Mrs. Harrison. She was a lady of great goodness, pos- sessing, in an eminent degree, all those qualities of mind and heart, for which the other members of her family were so remarkable. She died as she had lived, the meek, cheerful, devoted Christian ; and she is surely now united in Heaven to her sainted mother and sister.
* The recent death of Mrs. Broadus, the young and lovely daughter of this lady, whilst awakening affectionate sympathy, tenderly recalls the past, blending the excellencies of the young wife and mother, with those of the lovely Rosalie, whose ex- ample had doubtless been held up to her in childhood.
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THE TOWLES FAMILY.
COLONEL OLIVER TOWLES.
" How sleep the brave who sink to rest, By all their country's wishes blest ; When Spring with dewy fingers cold, Returns to deck their hallowed mould, She there shall dress a sweeter sod, Than Fancy's feet have ever trod.
By fairy hands their knell is rung, By forms unseen their dirge is sung ; There Honor comes, a pilgrim gray, To bless the turf that wraps their clay, And Freedom shall awhile repair, To dwell a weeping hermit there."
COLLINS.
The family of TOWLES were originally from Wales-settling first in the Northern Neck of Vir- ginia, where some of their descendants continue to reside. Colonel Towles, the subject of this brief memoir, was, prior to the Revolution, a lawyer of eminence in the county of Orange ; but, as soon as the struggle with England commenced, Colonel Oliver Towles abandoned the law, entering with his
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whole soul into the contest for liberty. He was, indeed, a patriot and a brave officer, taking an ac- tive part from the beginning to the end of our Revolutionary struggle with Great Britain. He was made prisoner at one time, and suffered many hardships as such, on Long Island, where he was for some time kept in captivity.
Colonel Towles* was in several actions, and was taken prisoner at the battle of Germantown, where he received a wound, which was found out by letters from his brother officers to their friends-for he, himself, never alluded to the circumstance. The inhabitants of Philadelphia, particularly the ladies, distinguished themselves by their kind attentions to the prisoners of war. But the British generals behaved very ignobly : they taunted our officers with General Washington's want of military skill in losing the battle, and they spoke of him as " Mr. Washington ;" at which Colonel Towles was greatly incensed, and said that "he knew no such man, and that if they meant the American commander- in-chief, and called him so, he would then answer them." At which one of the British officers re- plied, "These American officers are quite spunky."
Colonel Towles had a son, called HENRY TOWLES,
* Colonel Towles was a member and Secretary of the Cin- cinnati Society.
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who was a Captain in General Wayne's engage- ment with the Indians, and who was killed in the battle. A letter from his commanding officer to his father, shows feelingly in what estimation this brave young man was held; and, amongst the pa- pers left by Colonel Towles, were many letters from General Washington-one of them saying, that "if he was solicited he would take the command of the American forces, but that he would not electioneer for it, and would give it as his opinion that General Andrew Lewis was the fitest man in the country for commander-in-chief." Colonel Towles was pre- sent at the surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown, and he often spoke with enthusiasm of this most imposing scene. He was premoted to Lieutenant- Colonel, which commission he held to the end of the war; and, when Edmund Pendleton* was made Judge, Colonel Towles was solicited to become a candidate for that office, but, owing to his personal friendships, he refused to be put in nomination. Indeed, this venerable patriot was a most remarka- ble man, possessing great conversational powers, and by his wit and vivacity attracting both old and young.
* On his removal to Lynchburg, Colonel Towles called on " Aunt Martin," who was a niece of his old friend, and he re- marked that "it cost her no effort to be good, as she was so constitutionally and by inheritance,-that all the Pendletons had good blood flowing through their veins."
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He was enthusiastically fond of the British poets ; and his reading of Shakspeare was so superior, that it might have borne comparison with that of Mrs. Siddons or Fanny Kemble Butler. He correspond- ed with most of the leading men of his day, and many of their letters, preserved in the Towles family, will, doubtless, hereafter be valuable as his- torical references.
This venerable man lived to be upwards of eighty years old, retaining to the last his wonderful facul- ties ; and, on the day of his death, which occurred during the winter of 1824, in Lynchburg, he read, without spectacles, a chapter of small print in his Bible. The remains of this brave and good man are interred in Lynchburg, where he was beloved and reverenced by a large circle of friends and relatives.
Major OLIVER TOWLES, a son of Colonel Towles, was a gallant Virginia gentleman, though too young at the time of the Revolutionary war, to take part in the contest with England. He became the hus- band of Agatha Lewis, the name of a family which has adorned the annals of our political and military history, and which is also equally eminent for the more quiet virtues of domestic life. Tall and com- manding in person, Mrs. Towles inherited from her illustrious ancestors all of that beauty and elegance
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of manner for which they were so remarkable. This lady was gifted with a fine mind and excellent heart, and long will her good influence be felt amongst her own descendants and those of the warm friends she so strongly attached to herself during her residence in Lynchburg. She was an ardent, sincere Christian, a devout member of the Presbyterian Church of Lynchburg, and she was most tenderly attached to the beloved pastor of that denomination.
Surviving for many years her affectionate hus- band, she passed through many alternations of fortune, all of which she sustained with the dignity and cheerfulness of a Christian lady. Out of a family of eight children only four survive: Dr. Wil- liam Towles, of Caira, Cumberland county ; Mrs. Caroline Simms, a resident in the vicinity of Caira; Dr. Alfred Towles, of Missouri, and Mrs. John Blair Dabney, of Campbell county, Virginia.
The daughters of Major Towles will ever be remembered with pride and pleasure by those who knew them in Lynchburg. They were queenly looking ladies, gifted with most cordial, affectionate dispositions, which served to endear them to friends, even more than their brilliant minds and great per- sonal beauty. MARIA TOWLES, the oldest, was a very gifted and elegant woman. She became the wife of Dr. Landon Rives, of Nelson county ; and, many years since, with her husband and family, she emi-
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grated to Cincinnati, where, for a length of time, Dr. Rives ably filled a professorship in the Medical College of the Queen City. About seventeen years since, Mrs. Rives was taken suddenly from her de- voted family. A portrait of this lovely lady is at Oak Ridge, the country seat of Miss P. Rives in Nelson county, but it fails to convey to the beholder an idea of her beautiful, ever-varying countenance.
Mrs. JOHN BLAIR DABNEY, the second daughter, was well known and beloved, in Lynchburg, by the sweet name of Bessie Towles. She was a lady of splendid personal appearance, and it was related by one present at the time, that, on one occasion, ap- pearing in Washington City at a Presidential ball, in simple, elegant attire, her beauty and freshness, her unaffected, sprightly and graceful manners, attracted throughout that large assemblage the most unqualified admiration.
About the year 1822, this lady became the wife of John Blair Dabney, Esq., an eminent lawyer of the upper country, and a son of the late Judge Dabney : and the family reside at their country seat, not very distant from Campbell Courthouse.
Colonel WILLIAM LEWIS, of Mount Athos, who married Miss Cabell, was one of the brothers of Mrs. Agatha Towles ; and he was for a length of time a resident at Mount Athos, nine miles below
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Lynchburg. This gentleman was, for many years, a member of Congress from that district-a friend of internal improvement ; and he was a man of great literary taste and acquirements.
Dr. CHARLES LEWIS, a younger brother, was at one time a resident of Lynchburg, living in the next house below the Franklin Hotel. He married Miss Irvine, a daughter of General Irvine, of Phil- adelphia, one of the heroes of the Revolution. Dr. Lewis subsequently, with his family, moved to Phil- adelphia, where many of their descendants now reside-and amongst them, Mrs. Mary Leiper* and Mrs. Elizabeth Campbell, still well-remembered and beloved by friends known during their residence in Lynchburg.
" William Lewis (the father of Mrs. Agatha Towles) was the third son of John Lewis.t He was an active participator in the border wars, and was an officer of the Revolutionary army, in which one of his sons was killed, and another maimed for life. When the British force, under Tarleton, drove the Legislature from Charlottesville to Staunton, the stillness of the Sabbath eve was bro-
* Mrs. Leiper married a near relative of Dr. Kane, and in his " Arctic Explorations" he named a river in honor of her, " The Mary Leiper River."
¿ For a minute and deeply interesting account of the circum- stances, connected with the settlement of Augusta county by the Lewis family, the reader is referred to Howe's History of Virginia, page 181.
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ken, in the latter town, by the beat of the drum, and volunteers were called for to prevent the passage of the British through the mountains at Rockfish Gap. The elder sons of William Lewis, who then resided at the old fort, were absent with the Northern army. Three sons, however, were at home, whose ages were seventeen, fifteen and thirteen years. William Lewis was confined to his bed by sickness; but his wife,* with the firmness of a Roman matron, called them to her, and bade them fly to the defence of their native land. 'Go, my children,' said she-' I spare not my youngest, my fair-haired boy-the comfort of my declining years,-I devote you all to my country ! Keep back the feet of the invader from the soil of Augusta, or see my face no more!' When this incident was related to General Washington, shortly after its occurrence, he enthusiastically exclaimed, 'Leave me but a banner to plant upon the mountains of Augusta, and I will rally around me the men who will lift our bleeding country from the dust and set her free !' "
HOWE's History of Virginia.
WILLIAM LEWIS, mentioned in the above extract, owned a princely estate where Staunton now stands ; and he, with his brothers, Andrew, Thomas, Charles and Samuel, were in Braddock's defeat. They re- ceived their early instruction from the venerable Dr. Waddell, the blind preacher mentioned by Wirt
* This lady was a niece of General Montgomery. She was very proud of her sons-whom, when called upon, she would exhort " to do honor to their cause."
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in his British Spy. The names of these distin- guished men are well known in history, so that only a slight mention of them is here necessary, it being only designed to make a brief record of some of the incidents connected with the family of Mrs. Agatha Towles, some of which we believe have never appeared in print.
William Lewis moved from Staunton to the Sweet Springs, where he died at the age of eighty, re- vered as a patriarch and honored and beloved by the whole community. Charles Lewis, his brother, was interred on the battle-field of Point Pleasant, like Sir John More,
" With his martial cloak around him."
It was said of General ANDREW LEWIS, by the Governor of New-York, when sent by General Washington to that city in some public capacity, " that his appearance was so grand and imposing that the earth seemed to tremble under his tread."
Colonel THOMAS LEWIS, one of the sons of Wil- liam Lewis, and also a brother of Mrs. Agatha Towles, was a noble, brave, spirited officer. He was aid to General Wayne, and, on one occasion, when they were hotly pursued by the Indians, the horse of General Wayne fell, and together with the rider being disabled, Colonel Thomas Lewis took his general in his arms, and put him on his own fleet horse, telling General Wayne to feel no
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uneasiness on his account, as he would seek safety by taking to his heels. Colonel Thomas Lewis and his general were much attached to each other, the latter presented the former with a large body of land in Indiana.
William Lewis left three daughters-Margaret Lynn,* who was married to Mr. McFarland, of Pittsburg; Agatha, the wife of Major Towles, and Elizabeth Montgomery, the wife of Mr. Trent, of Cumberland.
The life of Mrs. McFARLAND, Mrs. Towles' oldest sister, was a very eventful one; she having from early childhood been placed in the midst of peril- ous scenes, from some of which she escaped almost miraculously. Her father built a fort at Staunton, as it was unsafe for families to reside in their own dwellings. On one occasion, Margaret Lynn Lewis had wandered farther than was safe from the fort, and, whilst amusing herself, she saw standing very near to her a large Indian. She was a small child at that time, and, being very agile, she sprang up and ran to the fort, giving the alarm that the In- dians were coming. They were in an instant in an attitude of defence, and they gave her the credit of saving the fort.
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