Fauquier-Halifax County Virginia USGenWeb Archives Biographies.....Plummer, Henry Lyne 1842 - ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/va/vafiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Joy Fisher http://www.rootsweb.com/~archreg/vols/00001.html#0000031 February 22, 2008, 7:21 am Author: Leonard Wilson (1916) HENRY LYNE PLUMMER THE family name of Plummer is derived, according to an English authority, from the French "le Plumer" or "le Plumier," meaning a plume-maker. Plumes were, of course, very much worn in the Middle Ages by the Knights and mounted men. The craft was important and lucrative. With the Norman conquerors of England came the plume-makers, and from them was derived the English surname, which has been indifferently spelled "Plumer," "Plomer" and "Plummer." As a surname "Plomer" was apparently the favorite form down to about the beginning of the seventeenth century. From that time to the present, "Plomer" appears to have disappeared, and the two present spellings of "Plumer" and "Plummer," have survived. In the Colonial period of our country there were three main branches of the family-one of which settled in Massachusetts and New Hampshire about 1634; another in Maryland, probably about 1660; and a third in Virginia, the date ranging from 1638 to 1656. The leading figures of the New England family were William, who was a Governor of New Hampshire and United States Senator in the early part of the last century, and Edwin, who was editor of a great paper at Portland, Maine. In the same period the Maryland and Pennsylvania family had always enjoyed high standing, and in the last century contributed one man of national reputation and great worth. This was the Reverend Dr. William S. Plumer, who adhered to the spelling of the name with one "m." He was born in Pennsylvania, educated in Washington College, Virginia, and entered the Presbyterian ministry. He served churches in Washington, Raleigh, and New Bern (North Carolina), in Prince Edward and Charlotte Counties, Virginia, was pastor of Tabb Street Church in Petersburg, in 1831 to 1834; pastor of the First Church of Richmond from 1834 to 1848; and Trustee of Hampden-Sidney College for many years. But the crowning work of his most useful life was the establishment of the Deaf, Dumb and Blind Institute, at Staunton, Virginia, in 1838-he being the original mover of the enterprise. The first record of the Virginia branch of the family is that of Thomas Plomer who, in partnership with Samuel Edmonds, obtained a grant of four hundred acres of land, on September 4, 1638, at the Upper Chippokes Creek-this was in James City County. The next is of John Plummer, who came to Virginia in 1642, and settled in Northampton County. In 1650 another John came and settled in Nansemond County. In 1653 came a third John, who settled in Henrico County. Then came Francis Plumer, in 1651-the place where he located being unknown. Peter came over in 1656, settled in York County, and on October 20, 1665, was granted eighty acres of land on the north side of James River and the north side of Kittawan Creek. The last of the early settlers was Morris Plummer, who came over in 1656, and settled in Gloucester County. The subject of this sketch, Henry Lyne Plummer, President of the Virginia Trunk and Bag Company, at Petersburg, is probably descended from Thomas, as that given name seems to have been favored by this family in the earlier period. According to the family history handed down to him, Henry Lyne Plummer is the third of his name. His father was Henry Lyne Plummer(2), and his grandfather was Henry Lyne Plummer(1), who was a son of Hon. Kemp Plummer, who was the son of William Plummer(2), who was the son of William Plummer(1), who married Elizabeth Kemp, of Middlesex County, Virginia, a member of the distinguished Kemp family of that section. The "Richmond Dispatch" is authority for the statement that the Plummer who married Elizabeth Kemp was Thomas Plummer, and that this marriage took place in 1717. This date must be in error, because Elizabeth Kemp, who was the daughter of Matthew and Mary Kemp, was born in Middlesex County on April 28, 1722. It is quite probable that Thomas Plummer was the father of William, who married Elizabeth Kemp, and that the names have become confused. It is stated that the children of this marriage were Kemp(1), John, George and William-that Kemp married, in 1743, Judith Dudley, and was a member of the vestry of Kingston Parish in Matthews County. This is confirmed by Bishop Meade, who in his "Old Churches and Families of Virginia," says that both Kemp and William (evidently Kemp's brother) were vestrymen of that Parish. Of Kemp Plummer's marriage to Judith Dudley was born, in 1769, Kemp Plummer(2), who moved to North Carolina about 1790, settled in Warren County, and became a leading citizen. He was educated at Hampden Sidney College, and read law under the celebrated Chancellor Wythe. He served in the Lower House of the Legislature in 1794, and in 1815 and 1816 was a member of the State Senate. He married Susannah Martin, and by her had a large family. He was the grandfather of the subject of this sketch, and one of his daughters married the Hon. William H. Battle, of the prominent North Carolina family of that name. Another distinguished North Carolina man who married into the Plummer family was Hon. Nathaniel Macon, believed by many to be the greatest man North Carolina has ever produced. He married Hannah Plummer, and by her had two daughters. His oldest daughter, Betty Kemp Macon, married William John Martin, and their son, Robert A. Martin, was at one time a resident of Petersburg, Virginia. A writer in the "William and Mary Quarterly" Volume VIII), says that among the descendants of the distinguished Armistead family are the Plummers of Petersburg. This would indicate that there was, several generations back, an intermarriage with that family, for we find that the Reverend James Fitts Plummer, of Petersburg, son of Edward Armistead and Lucy (Fitts) Plummer, married Fannie Ansley Minor, who was in the eighth generation from John Carter, the founder of the famous Carter family, of Virginia. There are two other interesting marriages in this family-one in the old time, and one in the new. The earlier one was the marriage of John Reade, who was in the fourth generation from George Reade, founder of the Reade family in Virginia. He married Jane Plummer about one hundred and thirty years ago. This Reade family claims descent from King Edward III, and unlike most families who make large claims in that direction, are able to prove it. The later marriage referred to was that of Mary Thornton Taylor, who was in the eighth generation from Benjamin Harrison, who was the founder of that great family which has given two Presidents to the United States. She married George A. Plummer, now a resident of Minneapolis. In the interest of accuracy, it is proper here to say that one of the older records states that John Reade married Judith Plummer (instead of Jane), and gives the date as May 1G, 17G9. The Plummer family made a creditable record in the Revolutionary War. The list shows Armistead, George, George William, John, Kemp, Robert and William as being in active service at one time or another. George was commissioned an ensign by the Committee of Safety for Gloucester County on September 13, 1775. Kemp was a lieutenant, apparently in the Continentals; and George William was a captain of Gloucester Militia. Bishop Meade, in his work, says that the Plummers were among the leading families of eastern Virginia; and numerous isolated references, not referred to above, show this to be true. Henry Lyne Plummer, of Petersburg, was born in Warren County, North Carolina, on November 19, 1863, son of Henry Lyne and Isabel Greer (Tannahill) Plummer. His father was a merchant, son of Dr. Henry Lyne Plummer, a planter of Warren County, North Carolina, who married Sallie D. Falkener. Dr. Henry Lyne Plummer was a son of Hon. Kemp Plummer, who married Susannah Martin. Kemp Plummer, the second to bear that given name, was the son of William Plummer(2), who was a Gloucester County planter, and married Mary Hayes. William Plummer(2) was son of William Plummer(1), who married Elizabeth Kemp. Henry Lyne Plummer's business career dates from 1879, in which year he left school (at the age of sixteen) and became a clerk for O. B. Morgan, a cotton merchant. He did not remain in that service quite a year. He then went to work for his father, who was at that time engaged in the same line of business, and remained with him until 1886, when he was employed by the Battersea, Ettrick and Matoaca Cotton Mills, of Petersburg. He served that concern in the capacity of a classer of cotton, and not being satisfied with his opportunities, he decided to change from the cotton business, and accepted, in 1891, a position as traveling salesman with I. P. Hoag and Company, trunk manufacturers of Petersburg. His service with them for the first year was as a traveling salesman. After the first year he was taken into the office as a bookkeeper and assistant. That he made good in that capacity was evidenced by the fact that, in 1893, they sent him to New York as their representative in that city. He remained there for five years. He had then been between seven and eight years in the trunk business, had acquired a thorough knowledge of the trade, and felt within himself the ability to do larger things. In 1899 he organized the Virginia Trunk and Bag Company, of which he has been President from its inception up to the present time. He began in a small way, enlarging the scope of his operations as rapidly as an increasing volume of business would justify, until now, sixteen years from the starting, his Company is one of the largest trunk and bag manufacturing corporations in the world. Its buildings, occupying acres of space, handle in one year twelve thousand tons of material, employing twenty traveling representatives, who cover not only the United States but foreign countries. It requires five hundred employees to operate the plant. This can all be told in few words, but one cannot adequately realize, without seeing it, the magnitude of the plant which has been built up in a comparatively few years. It is a monument to the thoroughness of Henry Lyne Plummer's work and to his business capacity. He spent nineteen years as an employee before making his venture on his own account-but in those nineteen years he gained such an equipment as has carried him on to ever increasing success. Mr. Plummer was married in Clover, Virginia, on November 19, 1903, to Martha Venable Morton, daughter of William Goodridge and Sarah (Hamilton) Morton. They have two children: Henry Lyne Plummer(4), and Sarah Alexander Plummer. Mr. Plummer is a member of St. Paul's Church of Petersburg. Henry Lyne Plummer is one of those capable business men, who are now contributing so largely to the rebuilding of the "Old Dominion." It is perhaps within the truth to say, speaking from a material standpoint, that the State is worth to-day more money than it was before the great cataclysm. It is certainly within the truth to say that, in its educational and eleemosynary institutions, it is far in advance of what it was even in its most prosperous days, and this is the result of the work of these men who have been loyal to the home State in preference to seeking their fortunes in other countries; and the men who have built up great institutions, like the one of which Henry Lyne Plummer is the head, are entitled to much credit. As previously stated, the old form of the name was "Plomer," and at least one man brought that old spelling with him to Virginia, though he later abandoned it. It sounds rather familiar to find upon the records of the English Courts, in 1629, that Thomas Plomer was defending his title to a house willed to him by his father, William Plomer. Going back farther, more than a century, to the year 1500 -the quaint will of a widow, Agnes Drake, after providing that an honest priest should say masses for the repose of her soul, goes on to make sundry bequests-among these is one of forty shillings to Friar John Plumer. Forty shillings does not look like a very large legacy now, but in the year 1500 the purchasing power of forty shillings made it an important sum. There were two main Plummer lines in England, the Yorkshire and the Southern. The latter was prominent in Sussex. The Virginia Plummers presumably came from the Southern line, the Coat of Arms of the family being: Per chevron flory counterflory argent and gules three martlets counterchanged. Crest: A demi-lion rampant gules, holding a garb or. 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. Photo: http://www.usgwarchives.net/va/fauquier/photos/bios/plummer43gbs.jpg File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/va/fauquier/bios/plummer43gbs.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/vafiles/ File size: 13.6 Kb