Essex-Richmond City-Fairfax County Virginia USGenWeb Archives Biographies.....McGuire, John Peyton 1836 - 1906
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Alice Warner Brosey http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00015.html#0003503 August 23, 2010, 6:40 pm

Source: Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography
Author: Lyon Gardiner Tyler

From biography of John Peyton McGuire (1866- ):

John Peyton (2) McGuire, son of John Peyton (1) and Maria Mercer (Garnett) 
McGuire, was born at Elmwood, Essex county, Virginia, September 30, 1836, died 
in Richmond, Virginia, in April, 1906. He was educated at the Episcopal High 
School near Alexandria, Virginia, and at the University of Virginia. From 1856 
to 1861 he was an instructor at the high school, and during the war between 
the states was at various times a private in the ranks, clerk in the war 
department, instructor of mathematics at the Confederate Naval School, and 
lieutenant in the Confederate States navy, but because of persistent ill 
health saw little actual service. In September, 1865, he founded McGuire's 
University School in Richmond, continuing its honored head until his death in 
1906. He was a member of the Episcopal church in religion, and in politics a 
Democrat. He married at Chestnut Hill, Fairfax county, Virginia, July 10, 
1860, Clara Mason, born there February 16, 1840, daughter of Captain Murray 
Mason of the United States navy and the Confederate States navy, and 
granddaughter of John and Anna Maria (Murray) Mason, and great-granddaughter 
of George Mason. Captain Murray Mason married Clara Forsyth, who was the 
daughter of Hon. John Forsyth. United States senator and governor of Georgia, 
also secretary of state under both Presidents Jackson and Van Buren. Children 
of John Peyton (2) and Clara (Mason) McGuire: John Peyton (3), of whom 
further; Clara Forsyth, born August 19, 1869; Murray Mason, January 19, 1872.

Though widely known as a ripe scholar and a brilliant orator, John Peyton (2) 
McGuire was distinguished preeminently as a teacher of boys. As such he 
founded and directed for forty years the famous school that bears his name; as 
such he exerted an influence on the commonwealth of Virginia scarcely second 
to that of any other man of his generation. To Mr. McGuire teaching was not a 
gainful profession but a sacred calling. He chose it as a life career after 
hestitating long between it and the Christian ministry and he was wont, to the 
end of his life, to return thanks for the Guidance that made him devote his 
talents to the education of young Virginians. The spirit of consecration which 
led him to become a teacher found expression throughout his long career in 
methods of instruction which were peculiarly his own. He did not content 
himself with merely teaching, even in the most thorough manner, the standard 
subjects of classical preparation. He used his text-books not less to inspire 
than to teach and not infrequently, in discussing some famous character of 
history, he would drop his book and vividly characterize men and events of the 
past. Students who have forgotten the "fifteen decisive battles" upon which he 
dwelt at length, remember his wonderful sketches of Marlborough and of Nelson 
and the stirring moral lessons he taught from the failings of these great 
commanders. On Friday afternoons, when the lessons of the week were over, he 
would frequently gather the boys of the upper forms about him and would, in 
the parlance of the school "deliver a lecture" on some great truth of life. 
Hundreds of lads now grown to manhood remember Mr. McGuire's lectures far 
better than any of the sermons to which they listened in mature life. The 
spirit of the man became the spirit of the school. His personal allegiance to 
honor and fidelity grew into the mottoes of his pupils—/Fides intacta, 
persevcrantia vincit omnia/. As these were the rules of his life, living, 
conscious influences that daily governed his actions, they could not fail to 
be the unwritten law of his school. The honor system, rigid adherence to 
truth, frank admission of guilt and manly apologies for wrong-doing were 
principles upheld by the students without instruction or even direct 
suggestion from him.

It has generally been conceded at the colleges of Virginia that the boys 
prepared at McGuire's School were among the best equipped that applied for 
admission. In mathematics, in English and in Latin particularly their 
preliminary training was regarded as model. The McGuire rule for public 
speaking likewise was an important part of the school curriculum. During many 
years of his life, Mr. McGuire required every student twelve years of age and 
older to participate in these public-speaking exercises at least once a month. 
The result was the prominence of his students in the debating societies of the 
college and the eventual development of many of them into able lawyers, 
ministers and publicists. Particular emphasis has always been placed by Mr. 
McGuire and by his son, John Peyton (3) McGuire, on the completion by their 
students of their education at the best colleges of the country. As an 
incentive to this end, the school has preserved the academic record of every 
student who was prepared for college. The whole constitutes one of the most 
remarkable evidences of thoroughness of which any school in America can boast. 
On it will be found the names of many of the most prominent younger leaders of 
southern thought, industry and trade today, including, in some instances, the 
second generation of "McGuire's boys." The great work of John Peyton (2) 
McGuire was continued by his son, John Peyton (3) McGuire.



Additional Comments:
Entire McGuire Biography located: 
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