USA > Virginia > Virginia and Virginians; eminent Virginians, executives of the colony of Virginia, Vol. II > Part 24
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After the war Major Sully was in the service of the Midland R. R., as . civil engineer. In 1873 he left that company, and was with the Rich- mond & Danville R. R. until 1876, when he came to the Petersburg R. R., as general freight agent. In 1879 he was made general superin- tendent of this road, which office he held until 1881, since which time he has been superintendent of the R. & P. and Petersburg roads.
WILLIAM H. TAPPEY
Is of German birth and parentage, but many years a resident of Vir- ginia. He was born near Bremen, Germany, November 7. 1819, the son of Frank and Henrietta Tappey, both now deceased. He came to the I'nited States, to Richmond, Virginia, in July, 1836, and worked in
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the Shocoe Foundry four years, removing to Petersburg in 1840. At Petersburg he began business in the Iron Works, and until the war was most of the time senior member of the firm of Tappey & Lumsden. He enlisted in Capt. Fisher's Cavalry Company, C. S. A., and was detailed to furnish army equipments. He was captain of the detailed forces, and when Grant took the Petersburg breastworks, was fighting at the front, at the time Mr. Lumsden and others were made prisoners. At the close of the war he resumed business, under the firm name and style of Tappey, Lumsden & Co., later firm was Tappey & Steel, and now (1888), it is Tappey & Delaney. Mr. Tappey has been forty-six years engaged in business on the same spot, and gives fair promise of many years more business activity. The firm are manufacturers of station- ary, portable and hoisting engines, tram road engines and car irons, pumps, presses, mills and mill gearing, elevators, and iron and brass castings, etc.
In Richmond, Virginia, November, 1840, Rev. A. D. Pollock, D.D., officiating, William H. Tappey married Lucy B. Seal, of Caroline county, Virginia, the daughter of James and Judith Seal, both Virginians, and both now deceased. The issue of this marriage is four daughters: Emma E., Mary V., Annie F. and Lucie P. and one son, F. I., now deceased.
CAPTAIN JAMES T. TOSH
Was born in Roanoke county, Virginia, May 16, 1838. He was gradu- ated from the Virginia Military Institute in June, 1860, and attended the sessions of 1860-1 at the University of Virginia. He entered the Confederate service as captain commanding the "Sons of Liberty," a volunteer company composed of students, and thoroughly trained before leaving the University. In this capacity, and as aide de camp to Gen. R. E. Colston, he served until the close of the struggle. He married Ida Ragland, eldest daughter of R. Ragland, of Petersburg, January 5, 1864, and at the close of hostilities settled in that city as a tobacco manufacturer.
W. LAFAYETTE WATKINS.
The families from which Mr. Watkins is descended were Huguenots and in 1700 settled at Manakin Town, Virginia. He was born in Richmond. Virginia, on January 10, 1824, theson of Stephen D. Watkins, who was born in Halifax county, Virginia, JJanuary 27, 1778, and who died on July 13, 1862. Thomas Watkins, father of Stephen D., was born on November 15, 1748, and died July 28, 1816. He married Magdaline Dupuy, daughter of Jno. Bartholomew Dupuy ( Huguenot). The mother of W. Lafayette, was Sarah HI., daughter of Peter Dupuy. She
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was born January 20, 1800, and died on August 14, 1864. Her father was born July 1, 1760, and died August 29, 1826. Her mother was Margaret Martin, born November 6, 1768, died July 18, 1852.
Mr. Watkins received a collegiate education at William and Mary College, whence he was graduated on July 4, 1843. He studied law under Judge Thomas S. Gholson, of Petersburg, and received license to practice in 1846. Since that time he has followed the profession of law continuously, practicing in Dinwiddie and adjoining counties and Court of Appeals. He has been two terms city attorney for Petersburg, and six years a member of the city council. His first wife was Maria S. Hall, born at Fredericksburg, Virginia, June 4, 1833, and died Septem- ber 21, 1864, aged thirty-one years. Their children were seven, of whom there are living two sons: Thomas G. and John D., and one daughter, Sally H., now the wife of Dr. M. L. Wood, of Montgomery, Alabama. Mr. Watkins married secondly, at Petersburg, October 9, 1866, Eliza Stringfellow, daughter of Rev. Horace Stringfellow : she was born at Washington, D. C., on September 19, 1845.
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CHARLES D. WITHERSPOON
Was born at "Evergreen" (the home of his Ruffin ancestors for one hundred and fifty years), on James river, Prince George county, Vir- ginia. He spent his early life in Greensboro. Hale county, Alabama, until August, 1871, when he came to Virginia, and concluded his educa- tion at Williamsburg in the following year. He began business with Win. Cameron & Bro., tobacco manufacturers, of Petersburg, Virginia, in March 1873, and severed his connection with them the following October by their discontinning business during the financial panie of that year. After farming for one year he entered the employ of D. B. Tennant & Co., tobacco manufacturers, of Petersburg, in February, 1875, and he has continued with them, and their successor, Mr. David Dunlop, in the capacity of book-keeper, to the present time.
Mr. Witherspoon is a son of Win. Alfred Witherspoon (a hardware merchant of Mobile, Alabama, who died in his thirty-second year) and Tariffa Cocke. He is grandson of Dr. John R. Witherspoon, of Hale county, Alabama. who married Sophia, daughter of Gen. Joseph Gra- ham, of Lincoln county, North Carolina, and Isabella Davidson of the same county. He is great grandson of Robert Witherspoon and Isa- bella Heatly; great, great grandson of James Witherspoon and Eliza- beth MeQnoid; great, great, great grandson of John Witherspoon, of Paisley (near Glasgow) Scotland, who settled in Williamsbug, South Carolina, in December, 1734.
On his mother's side Mr. Witherspoon is grandson of Commodore Henry Harrison Cocke, U. S. N., who married Elizabeth, danghter of
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George Ruffin, of " Evergreen," and Jane Skipwith. Commodore Cocke was born at " Montpelier." Surry county, Virginia, May 5, 1794. He entered the U. S. Navy at the age of fifteen years, and was engaged in the war of 1812 with Great Britain; was commissioned commodore in July 1851, the then highest rank in the navy. In April, 1861, on the secession of Virginia, he retired from the navy, then in his sixty-eighth year; and was appointed under the Confederate government com- inander of the defences of James river, where he erected five forts.
Mr. Witherspoon is a great grandson of Walter Cocke and Ann Car- ter Harrison; great, great grandson of John Cocke and Rebecca Starke, who were married in 1740.
NANSEMOND COUNTY.
JAMES H. BEDELL.
The subject of this sketch, now a resident of Suffolk, Nansemond county, Virginia, was born in Dutchess county, New York, on Angust 12, 1836. He is a son of James H. and Alfina A. (Ada) Bedell, both now deceased, and his wife is Sarah W., daughter of Thomas E. and Julia Webb, formerly of Brooklyn, New York, now dead. They were married in Brooklyn on December 31, 1855, and have six living children : William T., Julia B., James H., Fannie A., Alve A. and Samuel W. They have lost four children : Richard G., Sarah W., George W. and Harry S.
Mr. Bedell went to school in Brooklyn, New York, then learned the engravers trade. In 1854 he went into the business of kindling-wood manufacturer, in which he has been engaged ever since, as follows: 1854-5, in New York City; 1856, Baltimore; 1857, in Washington, D. C .; later went to Clermont, Virginia, and in business there until he returned to Baltimore in 1859, remaining there ten years. From 1869 to 1874 at Salisbury, Maryland; in Philadelphia 1874-9; then in Wil- liamsport, Pennsylvania, until 1886, when he came to Suffolk. Here he has put up a kindling-wood factory at a cost of $32,000, which he super- intends, at the same time connected with kindling mills in Williamsport, Pennsylvania.
EDWARD EVERETT HOLLAND)
Is a son of Z. E. Holland, of Nansemond county, Virginia, and Ann S. Holland, nee Pretlow, who died October 21, 1883, aged sixty-for years. He was born in Nansemond county, on February 27, 1860. After four years study at Richmond College, he took the law course in
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the same college, then at the University of Virginia. He was admitted to the Bar in 1881, and has been in practice since that time in Nanse- mond and adjoining counties. Mr. Holland was mayor of Suffolk, from July 1, 1885 to July 1, 1887. He is now commonwealth attorney for Nansemond county, for the term beginning July 1, 1887, ending July 1, 1891.
He married in this county, on November 26, 1884, Sarah Othelia, daughter of P. H. Lee and Joanna Lee, nee Rawles, of Nansemond county. They have one son, Lee Pretlow Holland, born September 2, 1885.
ROBERT E. JONES.
Mr. Jones has been a resident of Suffolk since 1884, engaged in busi- ness with a brother there, the firm name and style, Jones & Bro., wholesale and retail dealers in coal, ice, hay, grain, and agricultural lime. He was born in Charlton county, Georgia, March 16, 1864, but is of a Virginia family.
His father, William Henry Jones, born in Nansemond county, Vir- ginia, and now again a resident in the county, was in service in the Confederate States Army during the late war. His mother, whose maiden name was Emma C. Copeland, died in 1883.
At Tarboro, North Carolina, October 12, 1887, Robert E. Jones married Sne W., daughter of Frank S. Wilkinson and Annie Wilkinson, nee Stronach, of Charlton.
JUDGE WILBUR J. KILBY
Was born in Suffolk, Virginia, on April 18, 1850. His early education was received in the town schools of Suffolk, and in 1867 he entered Ran- dolph-Macon College, at Boydtown, Virginia, attending one session there, after which, in 1868, the college was removed to Ashland, Vir- ginia, where he remained two sessions, graduating in various schools. He then entered the law school of the University of Virginia, in the fall of 1870, and spent two sessions there .. In August, 1872, he began to practice law in Suffolk, where he has remained ever since. He was a member of the law firm of Kilby & Son, and thus privileged to asso- ciate himself at the beginning of his career with his eminent father, whose name was known and honored throughout Virginia. On the death of his father he continued to carry on the business of the firm. He has been a member of the council of Suffolk, and is now ably filling the office of judge of the county court.
His father, the late Hon. John Richardson Kilby, was born in Hanover county, Virginia, on December 31, 1819, the son of Turpin Kilby, who was a son of John Kilby, who was born in Vienna, Dorchester county,
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Maryland, and settled in Hanover county in colonial days. The Hon. John R. Kilby began his business life at the age of fourteen years, as assistant to the clerk of court, Nansemond county ; later was deputy sheriff of the county. While faithfully discharging the duties of these positions, he gave his leisure time to the study of law, and in 1845 was admitted to the Bar. He was soon recognized as one of the leading members of his profession in Tidewater Virginia, a result due no less to his high moral worth than to his ability and his unsurpassed command of legal lore. Among the public offices he filled were: Representative from Nansemond county to the General Assembly of Virginia, 1851-2-3; elector for the State; and delegate to various State and National con- ventions. He was president of the Commercial Bank of Suffolk some years, also. In 1843 he became a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, from which time he devoted his means and his abilities to the cause of Christianity in every way that presented itself. His charities were unbounded, and he gave his services in many offices, church stew- ard, church trustee, trustee of church college, president of society for the relief of disabled ministers, Sunday-school superintendent, delegate to General and Annual Conferences. This honorable and useful career closed with his death in Suffolk, December 5, 1878, at the age of fifty- nine years. One mourning this loss in his death then wrote: "Let this epitaph be graven on the granite which shall mark his resting place : This man served his own generation by the will of God."
The maiden name of Judge Kilby's mother was Martha Jane Louisa Smith. She was born in the old mansion of her father, Arthur Smith, corner Main and Second streets, Suffolk, where she lived seventy-one years, until her death on February 7, 1888. Her father was forty years postmaster in Suffolk, keeping the office at his residence.
Judge Kilby had two brothers in the Confederate States Army : Leroy R., entered as private Company B, 16th Virginia Infantry, was promoted through all grades to captain, and was in command of his regiment at the surrender at Appomattox C. H .; died in Suffolk, October 12, 1883. Wallace, the other brother, was a private in the same company, and served part of the time as courier for General Weisiger; was wounded once in arm, and once in leg; now a merchant of Suffolk.
The wife of Judge Kilby, whom he married at her father's residence, near Newton, King and Queen county, Virginia, September 5, 1876, is Harriet L., daughter of Joseph Brownley, her mother's maiden name, Mary Catharine Howerton. She was born in King and Queen county, as were her parents, both now deceased.
The children of Judge and Mrs. Kilby are three: Bradford, John Richardson and Hilah. They have buried one daughter, Miriam Brown- ley, died September 4, 1881, aged two and a half years.
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WILLIAM H. PIERCE.
Patrick Pierce, born in Isle of Wight county, Virginia, died in 1884, and Lucy (Gay) Pierce, died in 1884, were the parents of the subject of this sketch. He was born in Isle of Wight county, on July 15, 1849.
At the age of seventeen years, in 1866, he began business as a gener- al merchant, a career that has been highly successful. He is now the owner of three general stores in Suffolk, and carries on as a separate business, a general feed store.
In Suffolk, May 14, 1877, Mr. Pierce married Mary E., daughter of Sylvester Oliver, of Suffolk. Her mother, whose maiden name was Mary Fluhart, is no longer living.
Mr. and Mrs. Pierce have one child, Olah, born April 23, 1886. Their first-born was a son, named William H., born April 23, 1879, died December 15, 1884.
JUDGE PETER B. PRENTIS,
Born in Suffolk, Virginia, on April 5, 1820, and now the oldest male resident of Suffolk born there. is a son of Joseph Prentis, of Williamsburg, Virginia, who was a son of Judge Joseph Prentis of the District Court, and who was Speaker of the House of Burgesses. (See Hickey's Constitu- tion.) The mother of Judge Prentis was Susan Caroline, daughter of Col. Robert Moore Riddick, of Jericho, Nansemond county. His father was many years surveyor for the port of Suffolk, was commonwealth attorney, and elerk of the cirenit and county courts of Nansemond county from June, 1838, to his death, which occurred on April 30. 1851.
In Isle of Wight county, Virginia. December 23, 1841, Judge Prentis married. Eliza Wrenn, who was born in that county. They have one daughter, Martha J., born March 21, 1845, who married, September 20, 1864, Capt. Charles H. Causey, now of Suffolk.
Judge Prentis' first teacher was a Mrs. Russell; the second was Joel Holleman, who afterwards was Speaker of the House of Delegates and a member of Congress. After studying under several other teachers, all of Suffolk, he went, in Angust. 1836, to the "Amelia Academy." which was condneted by the late William II. Harrison at "The Oaks" and later at " The Wigwam," the former residence of Gov. W. B. Giles. In September, 1838, he entered the University of Virginia, where he remained until July, 1840. In June, 1841, he was admitted to the Bar, and practiced in Isle of Wight, Nansemond and Sonthampton counties np to March court, 1852.
On the death of his father he was appointed deputy clerk of courts, Cireuit and County, and in April, 1852, he was elected to the
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office of clerk for term of six years. He entered on the duties of the office in July, 1852, and served in same until May, 1871. Having remained out of office from that time until June, 1873, he was then appointed Judge of the county court by Governor Walker, and at the succeeding legislature was elected to the office, which he filled until July, 1875, when he again entered on the duties of clerk of the court, having been elected clerk in the May previous. He has held this office continuously since that time.
In May, 1863, he was made prisoner by Federal troops, and held in his office three or four days, then sent to Norfolk city jail, thence to Fortress Monroe, then to Fort Norfolk. From the last he was released when Longstreet invested Suffolk, having been held, as shown in his diary which the Yankees had stolen from him, six weeks and one half hour.
JOHN M. SHEPHERD.
John M., son of James M. and Martha A. (Britt) Shepherd, was born at Suffolk, Virginia, on November 13, 1843. His father, born in Nanse- mond county, died at the age of thirty-five years. His mother is living in Suffolk, now sixty-three years of age.
John M., was in the Confederate States army from the beginning to the close of the War between the States, serving in Company A, 16th Virginia regiment, in Mahone's brigade.
At Smithfield, Virginia, January 9, 1867, he married Carrie Minnie Hall. born in Isle of Wight county, Virginia. They have two daughters, Annie M., Carrie J., and two sons, James T., Fred. W. Mrs. Shepherd was the daughter of Thomas W. Hall, who was born in Isle of Wight county, and died in 1862.
Since February 1, 1873, John M. Shepherd has held positions as railroad agent for the N. & W. R. R., telegraph operator and express agent.
NORFOLK COUNTY.
WILLIAM F. ALLEN.
William F., son of William V. and Laura E. Allen, both now deceased, was born and educated in Norfolk, Virginia. In that city, December 6. 1854, he married Margaret C., daughter of John T. and Margaret E. Griffin, formerly of Norfolk, both now deceased. The children of Mr. and Mrs. Allen were born in the order named: William H., Walter F., James E., Joseph B., Leonora V., Cornelia J., Walter F., Claudia M. The two oldest sons are now deceased.
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For five years after leaving school Mr. Allen served as a sail maker; then went into that business for himself, and followed it until 1856. From 1856 to 1861 he was in the retail grocery business, and since the last-named year he has been in his present business, wholesale grocer. He is now the senior wholesale groceryman in the city of Norfolk, head of the firm of W. F. Allen & Co.
Mr. Allen has served sixteen years as a member of the city council of Norfolk; as superintendent of the Democratic executive committee, as captain of the volunteer fire department. He is a member of the Masonic fraternity and of the I. O. O. F.
HON. RICHARD G. BANKS,
Born at Hampton, Virginia, on September 3, 1840, is a son of Dr. R. G. Banks, who was born in Essex county, Virginia, and who died in 1870, aged sixty-eight years. His mother, who died in 1845, was, before marriage, Matilda Dewees, of Baltimore, Maryland. His wife, whom he married in Goochland county, Virginia, on January 15, 1863, was Nannie M. Argyle of that county.
Mr. Banks attended the schools of his native town, then took a course at the Columbian College, and after that taught school one year in Alabama. He entered the Confederate States Army in 1861, as cap- tain and quartermaster of the 50th Virginia Infantry, serving in Floyd's brigade until that general was suspended, after the fall of Fort Donelson. He was then commissioned major, on the staff of General Loring, and detached as depot quartermaster at Selma, Alabama, so serving until near the close of the war. After returning home he engaged in merchandizing and farming until, in 1879, he was appointed United States Inspector of Customs at Norfolk, in which capacity he served ably until 1883. In 1883 he was elected to the Virginia legisla- ture, but unseated. In February, 1884, he was again elected to the legislature, and served out the term. He was then made superintendent of the public schools of Norfolk, serving until the election of Governor Lee. In 1887 he was elected mayor of the city of Norfolk, an office he is still (1888) filling.
JAMES E. BARRY.
James E. Barry was born in Savannah, Georgia, on October 14, 1823. His mother, whose maiden name was Elizabeth A. Ahern, died of yellow fever, in Norfolk in 1824. His father was James Barry, son of John Barry, who died December 20, 1871, aged ninety-eight years, and whose father was also named James Barry.
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James E. attended school in Norfolk, and in 1855 succeeded his father in the crockery business in that city, which he carried on until the war. In April, 1861, he entered the Confederate States Army as first lieuten- ant of the Kekill battery, with which he served till the close of the war, commanding the battery through most of the service. After the close of the war, he returned to Norfolk, and, having a large estate, devoted his time to its improvement, which has been his chief occupa- tion ever since. He has served in the council of the city of Norfolk, and is also president of the Bank of Commerce, Norfolk, which position he has filled since 1878.
Mr. Barry married in Norfolk, May 19, 1852, Mary M. Moran, who was born in County Wexford, Ireland, the daughter of Nicholas and Margaret (Cheevers) Moran; both now deceased. Their children are three sons: Thomas Moran, James E., jr., and Robt. Emmett. Thomas M. married, in 1878, Virginia Lovett, of Norfolk, and they have four children : J. C. M., Mary R., James E. and F. J. R. Barry.
CEALY BILLUPS
Is descended from one of the three Billups brothers who emigrated from Wales to the Virginia colony at an early date, and settled in that section of Mathews county which they called Millford Haven. He is a son of John E. Billups of Mathews county, whose wife was Mary Ann Borum and was born in that county, on February 12, 1839.
He married in Norfolk, December 4, 1860, Lizzie A. Summers, of that city, and the record of their children is: Amanda, now married, living at Max Meadows, Virginia; George C .. living in Norfolk ; Eulalie, died in April, 1879, aged fourteen years; Bessie, died in 1869, aged nine months; Bessie the second, Cecil and Annie living at home.
Mrs. Billups is a daughter of E. T. Summers, who came to this country from Scotland with his father, when about one year old, and who was mayor of Norfolk, 1855, serving one term, and was many terms a justice of the peace. Her mother was of Scotch-Irish descent.
Mr. Billups was educated in Mathews county. In 1856 he came to Norfolk, and clerked for the late Seth March until 1858. In that year, he, with Thomas P. Warren, bought out Mr. March and continued the business until the war. They were closed after the first year of the war, until it was ended. In 1865 they resumed business, but a few months later Mr. Billups withdrew from the firm, and started alone in his present business, dealer in agricultural implements, iron, steel, etc.
He was in service in the 12th Virginia regiment, C. S. A., in 1861, but on account of continued ill health was forced to put a substitute in the field, after the first year. He has been two terms a member of the city
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council of Norfolk, and has twice been elected since to the same office but declined to serve. He has also declined to accept other offices of trust and honor tendered by the citizens of Norfolk.
JUDGE GEORGE BLOW,
A resident of Norfolk, Virginia, was born in the county of Sussex, and was the third son of George Blow and Eliza Waller, daughter of Robert Hale Waller, of Williamsburg, Virginia.
Judge Blow received his early education at the private school of George Halson, in the city of Norfolk, and from thence was sent to the college of " William and Mary," where he graduated, and subsequently to the University of Virginia, taking the law course under Prof. Davis.
Whilst engaged in the practice of law in San Antonio, a city in the then Republic of Texas, he was elected a member of Congress for the county of Bexar, and served through the session of 1840.
In consequence of the condition of the country, growing out of diffi- culties with Mexico, preceding annexation, he returned to Virginia in 1841, and resumed the practice of his profession in the city of Norfolk.
In 1860 he was elected a member of the convention called to consider and define the course of the State in the then existing troubles. He was elected as a member of the Union party, and pledged to support all honorable measures for its preservation, save by the means of armed coercion.
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