Virginia and Virginians, Eminent Virginians - City of Richmond, 1888 (partial) Scanned, transcribed and submitted for use in the USGenWeb Archives by Linda R ussell L ewis. ************************************************************************ USGENWEB ARCHIVES NOTICE: These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by any other organization or persons. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material, must obtain the written consent of the contributor, or the legal representative of the submitter, and contact the listed USGenWeb archivist with proof of this consent. The submitter has given permission to the USGenWeb Archives to store the file permanently for free access. http://www.usgwarchives.net ************************************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm CITY OF RICHMOND 1606. 1888. VIRGINIA and VIRGINIANS. EMINENT VIRGINIANS. Executives of the Colony of Virginia from Sir Thomas Smyth to Lord Dunmore. Executives of the State of Vir- ginia from Patrick Henry to Fitzhugh Lee. Sketches of Gens. Ambrose Powell. Hill, Robert E. Lee, Thos. Jonathan Jackson, Commodore Maury. By DR. R. A. BROCK, Secretary of the Virginia Historical Society. _____________________________ HISTORY OF VIRGINIA. From Settlement of Jamestown to Close Of the Civil War. Written by PROF. VIRGIL A. LEWIS. Revised by DR. R. A. BROCK. VOL. II WITH PORTRAITS AND ILLUSTRATIONS. ______________________________ H. H. HARDESTY, Publisher, RICHMOND AND TOLEDO 1888. VIRGINIA AND VIRGINIANS. 765 CITY OF .RICHMOND. THOMAS LEE ALFRIEND, Was born in Richmond, Virginia, February 19,1843, and was educated in that city. From 1859 to 1861 he clerked with Ludlam & Watson and Shields & Sommerville. From 1801 to 1805 was in the Confederate States army, private for two years, orderly sergeant the remaining two years; was captured April 6, 1865, and sent to Point Lookout, and held there until June 22,1865. The next day he returned to Richmond, and there he went into the insurance office of Thomas M. Alfriend & Son as a clerk, the firm consisting of his father and elder brother (E. M. Alfriend). In June, 1866, he became a member of this firm, and so re-mained until, in October, 1879, he started his present business of insurance agent in his own name. Thomas M. Alfriend, father of Thomas Lee, was born in Petersburg, Virginia, November 10, 1811, and died in Richmond, December 11, 1885. He was a son of Colin Alfriend, of Petersburg. The mother of Thomas Lee was Mary Jane Eger, born in County Althone, Ireland, died November 8, 1852, in Richmond. In Richmond, July 2, 1868, Thomas Lee Alfriend married Eliza Sanger Manson, who was born in Granville county, North Carolina. They have four children: Mary B., Otis M., Sallie S. and Anna Lee, and have buried one son, homas Manson, died July 28, 1870, aged eleven months. Mr. and Mrs. Alfriend and their oldest child are mem­bers of All Saints (Episcopal) Church, Richmond. GENERAL EDGAR ALLAN. The subject of this sketch was born in Birmingham, England, Feb­ruary 26, 1842. He attended parochial school in Birmingham in child­hood, but at the age of ten years went into the printing business. He served five years as a compositor, attending night school. From fifteen to nineteen years of age he traveled in the printing and wholesale paper business. In 1863 he came to America, and at Detroit enlisted in Com­pany M, 7th Michigan Cavalry, Federal army, as private. During most of his service he was on special detail, as clerk on courtmartial, or at General Merritt's headquarters. He was wounded at Shepherdstown, August 24, 1864, but served till the close of the war. Making his home in Virginia, he studied law in Prince Edward county, and was admitted to the Bar in December, 1867, beginning practice in 706 VIRGINIA AND VIRGINIANS. Prince Edward and adjoining counties. He was a member of the Con­stitutional Convention of 1867-8, from Prince Edward and Appomattox counties; was elected Commonwealth Attorney for Prince Edward in 1870, and continuously up to 1882, when he resigned on removing to Richmond; was State senator from Prince Edward, Cumberland and Amelia counties, 1873-77; was delegate- at-large to Republican National Convention at Chicago in 1868, and voted for General Grant; was Presidential Elector-at-Large in 1868. Since 1869 General Allan has been connected with the Grand Army of the Republic; in 1885-6 was commander of Phil. Kearney Post of Richmond; in 1886, at San Fran-cisco, was elected National Junior ViceCommander-in-Chief and presided as Commander-in-Chief at the Centennial celebration of the adoption of the American Constitution, in Philadelphia, in 1887. Since 1882 he has been doing a large practice in the City of Richmond. He is an active member of the Grace Street Baptist Church. In Prince Edward county, Virginia, February 6, 1867. General Allan married Mary Edna Land. The children of the union are four: Edith Edna, married F. H. Crump of Richmond, Virginia, now resides in Washington, D. C.; Lola Land, Lottie Lillian, and Edgar, jr. Mrs. Allan was born in Casey county, Kentucky, the daughter of William and Elizabeth (Morton) Land. Her parents were born in Buckingham county, Virginia, and both died in Kentucky in 1852. CHAS. J. ANDERSON. The subject of this sketch was born in Richmond, on August 12,1848. His father, Son of John and Elenor Anderson, was born in Baltimore, in 1823, and has lived in Richmond since his fifteenth year. His mother was born in Baltimore, daughter of John and Eleanor Horne, grand- daughter of Lydia Jordan Jefferies and Col. Joseph Jefferies, of Lancas-ter, Pennsylvania, who served through the war for American Independ-encn: great granddaughter of Richard Jefferies, who was one of three brothers who left England to settle in the New World in the latter part of the 17th century, and.settled in Pennsylvania, the other two coming to live in Virginia. Charles J. Anderson, entered the Virginia Military Institute in March, 1864; served with the battalion of cadets in May, under Gen. John C. Breckenridge, in the battle of New Market, and with the corps of cadets and local defence troops till the evacuation of Richmond. He returned to the Institute in 1866, graduating in 1869; since 1870 has been in business in Richmond; in 1873 was a State commissioner to the Uni­versal Exposition in Vienna. In 1871 he raised a company for the First Regiment, Virginia Volun­teers, and has served the regiment as an officer in all grades, from first VIRGINIA AND VIRGINIANS. 767 lieutenant to colonel, resigning the latter to take command of the First Brigade, to which he was elected to succeed General Fitzhugh Lee. General Anderson is a member of various Masonic bodies, among others being a Knight Templar and a member of the Ancient and Ac­cepted Scottish Rite. GEN. RUFUS A. AYERS, Attorney-General of the State of Virginia, was born in Bedford county, Virginia, May 20,1849. He was educated in the Goodson Academy, Bristol, Virginia, until the age of twelve, when the war began, and the school was closed. Although under age, he ran away from home and entered the army, and remained for some months in the scouting service in East Tennessee. After the war he engaged for a time in agricultural pursuits, and in merchandising in Eastern Kentucky, beginning busi-ness at Estillville, Virginia, at the age of nineteen. He studied law in the office of H. S. Kane, Esq., Estillville, and was admitted to the Bar in June, 1872, practicing, in Southwest Virginia up to his election as Attorney-General, at the November election, 1885. In May, 1875, he was elected commonwealth attorney for Scott county, serving from July 1,1875 to July 1,1879; was reading clerk of the House of Delegates, sessions of 1875-6, 1876-7, 1877- 8, and 1878-9; was appointed by President Hayes supervisor of census for the 5th district of Virginia, in 1880, under the act which required such ap­pointments to be made without reference to politics, Dr. R. G. Cabell being appointed at the same time. General Ayers has been very active in furthering the building of the South Atlantic and Ohio railroad, and other kindred business enterprises in Southwest Virginia. During his term as Attorney-General, he was imprisoned for contempt, in refusing to respect an injunction granted by Judge Bond, of the Circuit Court of the United States, and was discharged by the Supreme Court of the United States on writ of habeas corpus, the trial of which excited the attention of citizens in every State in the Union, because of its bearing upon the rights of the State, and is reported in the 123d United States Supreme Court reports. The General Assembly adopted a joint resolu- tion directing the Governor to transmit to General Ayers the thanks of the people of Virginia for going to jail in defense of the State. M. J. Ayers, father of General Ayers, born in Bedford county, died May 10,1857, aged forty-two years, was a son of Elijah Ayers, of Bedford county, who was a son of John Ayers. Mrs. Susan L. Ayers, the General's mother, was a Wingfield of Bedford county; she is now living in Bristol, Tennessee, aged seventy-four years. The wife of General Ayers, born in Scott county, Virginia, to whom he was married in Estill-ville, June 8,1870, is Victoria L., daughter of Henry A. Morrison. Her 768 VIRGINIA AND VIRGINIANS. mother, whose maiden name was Kane, died in 1866. Her father,m living now in Estillville, was born in Sullivan county, Tennessee, a son of George Morrison, of that county, who was a son of Peter Morrison, who was a soldier in the Revolutionary ear, and took part in the battle of Kings Mountain. General and Mrs. Ayers have three children, Kate L., and Harry J. and James B, and have buried two: Maggie, died Juoy 14m, 1887, aged twelve years; Rufus W. J., died in 1883, aged five months. Generals Ayers is a Mason. J. BELL BIGGER, Born in the city of Richmond, March 3, 1829, was educated in that city. In 1852 he was appointed clerk to Capt. Thomas Crabbe of the U. S. war steamer San Jacinto, and sailed in her on her first trip to the Mediterranean; was afterwards clerk to Commodore Morgan of the U. S. war flag-ship Independence, and returned on her from Gibraltar. In 1855 he was elected clerk of the committees of finance and of claims, of the House of Delegates, and continued in that service until 1865. In I860 was appointed by Governor Wise special messenger to obtain election returns from Gilmer county; was secretary of the Southern Rights Association prior to the war; was elected clerk of the audit­ing board of Virginia, which Board audited and settled all war ex­penses of Virginia prior to her joining the Confederacy; was commis­sioned lieutenant in the Letcher Battery, but, owing to physical dis-ability, was unable for field service. In 1865, on December 4th, he was elected clerk of the House of Delegates, and served until 1879, with two interruptions caused by his being twice removed by military au- thorities. .In December, 1883, was again elected to this office, and is the present incumbent, clerk of the House of Delegates and keeper of the Rolls of Virginia. Mr. Bigger also served as secretary of the Virginia Electoral college in 1880, and again in 1884, and was the messenger to carry the vote for Hancock and English and Cleveland and Hendricks respectively to Washington. Thomas B. Bigger, his father, was born in Prince Edward county, Virginia, February 22, 1795. In 1812 he enlisted in Capt. Richard Mc-Rae's company, known as the " Petersburg Volunteers." This company marched from Richmond city to Detroit, Michigan, and was at the siege of Fort Meigs, where Private Bigger was cut off from his com-mand by Indians, and escaped with his life with great difficulty. He declined promotion, but shared all the fortunes of the company, which Gen. Wm. Henry Harrison specially commended in general orders, for "their conduct on the field and example in the camp." Thomas B. VIRGINIA AND VIRGINIANS 769 Bigger was later captain of the "Richmond Light Infantry Blues," and afterwards colonel of a military organization. In 1844 he was appointed postmaster of the city of Richmond by President Polk, and continued in that office more than eighteen years. In 1863 he was elected and served as a member of the House of Delegates from Richmond city. After the war, until 1880, he was clerk in the office of the Auditor of Public Accounts. He died on May 5, 1880. His wife, mother of J. Bell, was Elizabeth Meredith Russell, born in New Kent county, Virginia, in 1807, died in Richmond in 1875. In Essex county, Virginia, August 16, 1853, J. Bell Bigger married Annie B. Muse, who was born in that county,. Her parents were born in Westmorelqand countym, Virginia, Samuel Muse and Elizabeth Y,. (Banks) Muse; her father served in the war of 1812 with rank of major. The children of Mr. and Mrs. Bigger num ber twelve, born in the order named: Lizzie M. (deceased); Lucy A., Peggie S., Carrie R., Thos. H., John B. and Mary A., twins, Elvira M. (deceased), Samuel W., Hunter McGuire, Sallie M. CHARLES EDWARD BOLLING. The subject of this sketch was born at Bolling Island, Goochland county, Virginia, on May 4, 1852. He was educated at Taylors Creek Academy, Hanover county, Virginia, by Prof. Charles Morris, M. A., and at the University of Virginia. At the age of seventeen, he went into mining engineering, and in 1871 was engaged as a civil engineer on the Chesapeake & Ohio R.R., re- maining with this road until 1873, employed most of the time as an assistant engineer in the construction of the Church Hill tunnel, Richmond. In February, 1873, he was appointed assistant engineer to the city engineer of Richmond, and in that position he reamined until, in July 1885, he was elected to the office he is now filling, superintendent of Richmond city water works. In December, 1877, Mr. Bolling married Imogen Warwick of Richmond. he is a son of Thomas Bolling, who was born at Bolling Hall, Goochland county, February 5, 1807, living now in Richmond. Thomas Bolling was son of William Bolling, of Bolling Hall and Mary Randolph of Curls Neck, Virginia. Wm. Bolling was son of Thomas Bolling and Bettie Gay of Cobbs, Virginia. THE BOSHER FAMILY. The first Bosher of whom anything is known was Leonard Bosher, a Baptist minister of London, England, who wrote the first treatise on "Liberty of Conscience," in 1614. Very little is known of him beyond what is in his treatise. The first Bosher of whom anything is known 770 VIRGINIA AND VIRGINIANS by the present generation was Charles Bosher, who came to this country from England as a teacher in the old Wormley family, between 1730 an d 1740, and settled in King William county, Virginia. He married a Miss Edwards, from whom descended Charles Bosher, who left six children, viz.: William, who left no children; Lemuel, left John C.; Thomas, left children; Frances, married a Mr. Abrams; Mary, married a Mr. Walker; and Gideon. Gideon was the pioneer of the stage lines through Virginia and the Carolinas. His first wife was a Miss Hannah Whitlock, and by her eight children were born, viz.: (1) John, married a Miss Bridges; was a builder, and was contractor for the old City Hall, Bosher's Dam (up on James River), the old Shockhoe Warehouse, and other public buildingsm, and was also prominent in the city government. His wife was burned in the old theatre in 1811, the site of the present Monumental Episcopal church; he left one daughter, who married Ellis Brown. (2) Frances Ann, married William Wingo. (3) Charles, carriage manufacturer (1806), left no children. (4) Thomas, one daughter, Wliza D., who married George W. Pemberton. (5) Gideon, jr., one daughter who married Wm. Burke. (6) George, married Miss Ellett. (7) William, builder, whose work is still a monument to him in some of the oldest houses in Richmond; married Gabriella Lipscombe, of King William county, Virginia; left children, eight, namely: i. William P., a builder; ii. (to be continued)