Charlotte-Danville City-Pittsylvania County Virginia USGenWeb Archives Biographies.....Edmunds, Joseph Littleton 1857 - 1910
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Joy Fisher http://www.rootsweb.com/~archreg/vols/00001.html#0000031 February 15, 2008, 8:35 pm

Author: Leonard Wilson  (1916)

JOSEPH LITTLETON EDMUNDS

EDMONDS is an old Anglo-Saxon name, coming down from the period of Saxon
supremacy in England prior to the Norman conquest. The old form of the name was
"Eadmund," and the meaning of it was "happy protector." The final "s" was added
to show that a given man was the son of Edmund, and this in time became a family
name when surnames were adopted. In dealing with this name, one is always
confronted with the difficulty that, on all the old records for centuries past
down to a hundred years ago, the name was spelled indifferently "Edmonds" or
"Edmunds"—in some cases, one individual's name being spelled both ways in
different places. This makes it difficult to properly identify men in the past
generations, because in these more modern times the two families have become
distinct and separate—though in numerous cases, many of them using different
spellings have a common ancestor.

    The records show that Robert Edmunds came to Virginia in 1G19 on the ship
"Marigold," and in 1623 was living on the Eastern Shore. He was evidently the
founder of the family which has since been identified with that part of the
State. John and Richard Edmunds also came about the same period, but both of
them perished in the Indian Massacre of 1622. The next of these early immigrants
was another John Edmunds, who came over in the ship "Bonaventure," which sailed
from London or Southampton on January 2, 1634. He was then a youth of sixteen.
It cannot be stated with certaintly, but it is probable, that this young man was
the progenitor of those Edmunds families settled in southeastern Virginia, since
those of the name who located in the Northern Neck ranging up to Fauquier and
Culpeper Counties were descended from men who came later.

    Bishop Meade says that they were among the most prominent families of
eastern Virginia, and were partly of English and partly of Welsh origin. In this
mater of Welsh origin, he was probably mistaken, as Edmunds is distinctly not a
Welsh name, and it is a fair inference that he was led into the error by the
fact that someone by the name of Edmunds came from Wales to Virginia. In the old
records, we come upon the marriage of the Rev. Clement Read, a distinguished
Presbyterian minister after the Revolutionary period. He married Miss Edmunds,
of Brunswick, whom it is stated was a descendant of Pocahontas. In other places,
one comes upon records of marriages which show clearly the standing of the
family. Elias Edmunds married Sallie Battaile Fitz Hugh, of the very prominent
Fitz Hugh family. In another case, we find that Moore Fauntleroy Carter, fifth
in line from the ancestor of the distinguished Carter family, married Judith
Edmunds. In another case, at the very beginning of the Colony, there appears to
have been a marriage between the West and Edmunds families. When the old St.
Andrew's Parish was organized in Brunswick County, in 1720. within its
boundaries lived some of these Edmunds families, and between 1732 and 1786, the
record of the vestry shows the names of Nicholas, Henry and Thomas Edmunds as
having served as vestrymen. Apparently, the movement of this family was from
Norfolk westward—for on February 22, 172S, we find that John Edmunds married
Sarah Kussell in Norfolk County; and in that same year, John Edmunds took up
three hundred and thirty acres of land in Brunswick County. He had been preceded
in Brunswick one year by Howel Edmunds, who took up nine hundred and ninety
acres. Twenty-five years later, to be exact, in 1754, Nicholas Edmunds took up a
grant of twenty-four hundred and thirty-five acres in Halifax County. Henry
Edmunds, one of the vestrymen of St. Andrew's Parish iu Brunswick County. above
referred to, moved to Halifax County in 1S09. where he married, on February 3,
of that year, Martha TV. Morton, and his son, Joseph Nicholas, moved to
Charlotte County in 1S45. Nicholas Edmunds, the father of Thomas and grandfather
of Henry, was the patentee of a large estate in Halifax, and a conspicuous
figure in his section during his life; and Thomas Edmunds, of Brunswick,
probably a son or brother of Nicholas, was a gallant Eevolutionary soldier,
serving as Captain in the Third Virginia Begiment through the entire war. Other
members of the Edmunds family made a good military record. Bichard Edmunds was
in Daniel Morgan's old regiment, and was probably made a prisoner in the
Southern Campaign, for his name appears on the list of prisoners on the British
Prison Ship in Charleston Harbor in 17S1. Colonel Elias Edmunds. who lived in
Fauquier County, commanded a regiment of Virginia troops at Yorktown. William
Edmunds was a Lieutenant in a Fauquier Company. Jacob Edmunds appears on the
roster of Captain John Morton's Prince Edward County Militia on June 2S, 17S1,
as a private.

    The subject of this sketch, Joseph Littleton Edmunds, deceased, was born in
Charlotte County, Virginia, August 23, 1857, son of Joseph Nicholas, and
Elizabeth Barnes (Hodge) Edmunds. Their family seat was known as "Woodburn on
the Staunton," and was a splendid estate. After a most useful life of not quite
fifty-three years. Mr. Edmunds died at St. Luke's Hospital, Richmond, Virginia,
on April 1. 1910. Joseph Nicholas Edmunds was a cultivated man, a graduate of
law from the University of Virginia in 1844. When the son was growing up, there
were no public schools in that section, and the father, who had retired from the
practice of law to look after his plantation, gave his son his earliest
scholastic training, and from him he passed under the care of a cousin, Dr. John
Watkins, an accomplished man, who finished the lad's education in so far as the
teaching from books could do so.

    Mr. Edmunds then entered a mercantile business conducted by Major Charles
Bruce, at Cole's Ferry, where he remained for about six years as manager and
partner. He finally decided to change his location, and in 1880 he retired from
that business and located in Danville, where the remainder of his life was
spent. His business career was one of few changes. At Danville, his first
association was with W. M. Shelton, one of Danville's leading and most
successful leaf tobacco merchants, this connection continuing without change
until Mr. Shelton's death in 1S91. He then succeeded to the business of Mr.
Shelton, as the Purchasing Agent of George E. Tuckett and Son Company, Hamilton,
Canada. It will be noted that he made only one business change in his active
career of thirty-five years. He made a success of the tobacco business on an
extensive scale, and became recognized as one of the most substantial business
men of the city, being prominent in business circles, a member of the Board of
Trade, identified with the Orinoco Club (a social organization) and a consistent
member of the First Presbyterian Church. Politically, he voted with the
Democratic Party, but was not in active politics.

    Notwithstanding the demands of a large business, Mr. Edmunds found time to
satisfy his pronounced taste for farming. He had purchased from his father's
estate a farm in Charlotte County, and his greatest delight was the improvement
of this farm, on which much of his time was spent. The sound judgment which he
carried into his business affairs he carried into his farm work. He made of it a
model plantation for the production of crops and the raising of stock. It repaid
him richly for the care which he gave to it, as it yielded abundant harvests,
and gave him a place where he could entertain in the way that was most
acceptable to him, enabling him to indulge his own taste for out-door sports and
to give to his friends a breath of rural life which they could not find in the
confines of a city. Of a cheerful and happy temperament, he had a wide circle of
friends. A thorough workman, everything he undertook he did well. Fond of horses
and of hunting, he excelled in those sports. Mr. Edmunds gave his time and his
money both freely and heartily for the good of his fellow-men. His reading was
of a general character, and he was thoroughly well informed on current events.

    He never married, but his sisters: Mrs. E. E. Bouldin (now deceased); Mrs.
E. L. Coleman, of Pace's, Virginia; Mrs. E. R. Monroe, of Brookneal, Virginia;
Mrs. Mildred A. Gaines, of Charlotte County; and Miss Morton M. Edmunds, of
Baltimore, made for him a pleasant and happy family circle.

    When taken with his last illness, he was advised that it would prove fatal,
but his cheerful courage never failed him, and he bore with marked fortitude and
without complaint the great pain and suffering incident to his malady.

    It was stated, in the local paper, after his death, that the city of
Danville and the Commonwealth had lost a true and loyal citizen; and this was
modest testimony to the value of so useful and worthy a career.

    Philosophic minds have, for generations, studied the question of what
constitutes the highest value in men. Is it the great law-giver, like Solon; or
the great soldier, like Napoleon; or the great statesman, like Jefferson, that
constitutes the standard of value for humanity? These great historical figures
stand up above the common level like mountain peaks. But the traveler knows that
the mountain peaks, while adding to the picturesque feature of the landscape, do
not make for the people a living like the unpicturesque level lands that lie
between; and so in this question of human values—is it not likely that the
unassuming citizen who discharges faithfully, from day to day, the duties which
lie under his hand; who stands for the moralities both in precept and practice;
who adds a little to the productiveness of the land and to the betterment of the
town, is after all a more valuable citizen to the Commonwealth than the leader
of an army which destroys life and property and thereby gives to the reader a
page of history?

    Measured by his industrious and useful life, by his affectionate regard for
his fellow-men, Joseph Littleton Edmunds was a successful man of the best type,
and when he passed away the Commonwealth truly lost a loyal and devoted citizen.

    An old Edmunds Coat of Arms, used by an English family, members of which
settled in Virginia in the early Colonial period, is as follows:

    "Per chevron embattled or and sable three fleurs-de-lis, counterchanged.

    "Crest: An ancient ship of three masts under sail upon the sea, all proper.

    "Motto (over it) : Votis tunc velis."


Additional Comments:

Extracted from:

MAKERS OF AMERICA
BIOGRAPHIES OF LEADING MEN OF THOUGHT AND ACTION

THE MEN WHO CONSTITUTE THE BONE AND SINEW OF AMERICAN PROSPERITY AND LIFE

VOLUME II

By
LEONARD WILSON,
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

ASSISTED BY PROMINENT HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL WRITERS
Illustrated with many full page engravings
B. F. JOHNSON, INC.
CITY OF WASHINGTON, U. S. A.
1916

Copyright, 1916
by
B. F. Johnson, Inc.


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