HUGH CAPERTON PRESTON
Monroe Co. WV
Virginia: Rebirth of the Old Dominion, Vol 5, 1929 pg. 239

Among the men of Virginia who wielded with equal energy and 
ability the implements of peace and the weapons of war, the 
late Hugh Caperton Preston, of East Radford was a striking 
example. Coming of a long line of distinguished ancestors, 
who had established splendid records as patriots, soldiers 
and statesmen, it was natural that he should inherit military 
ability, while in no less a degree did he rank high as a real 
estate dealer at East Radford, where his death occurred Jan. 
3, 1905.

Mr. Preston was born at "Elmwood," the old Caperton estate in 
West Virginia, September 5, 1856 and was a son of Col. James 
Francis and Sarah Caperton Preston. Old records show the fact 
that one John Preston came from England to Virginia in 1845 
and settled on a land grant at Tinkling Springs, Augusta 
County. His son, William Preston, after taking part in the 
Indian Wars as a captain, became a colonel in the Colonial 
Army during the War of the Revolution, following the close 
of which he became the founder of Smithfield Plantation, a 
tract of some 7 or 8,000 acres on a part of which is located 
the Virginia Polytechnic Institute. James Patton Preston, 
son of William Preston and grandfather of Hugh Capeton 
Preston, was a colonel during the War of 1812 and afterward 
became governor of Virginia. Among his sons was Hon. William 
Ballard Preston, a famous lawyer and statesmen who in 1849 
was secretary of the Navy in President Taylor's cabinet and 
during the War between the States, a member of the 
Confederate Senate.  Another son, Robert Taylor Preston, 
served as a colonel in the Confederate Army.

Col. James Francis Preston was born in Virginia and as a 
youth secured a commission to West Point Military Academy, 
from which institution he was duly graduated.  During the 
Mexican War he volunteered for service, equipped and 
organized a complete company at his own expense, was 
commissioned a captain and after the close of that struggle, 
he returned to his estate "White Home," in Montgomery Co. 
Va.  When the trouble broke out between the forces of the 
North and South he espoused the cause of the Confederacy 
and became colonel of the Fourth Virginia infantry, a part 
of the great "Stonewall" Brigade which won deathless fame 
on many a hard fought field. Colonel Preston did no live 
to see the fall of the Confederacy, his death occurring 
in 1862, caused by the exposure, incidental to his 
military service. He married Sarah Caperton, of Elmwood, 
Monroe Co. WV.  One of their sons, William Ballard enlisted 
for service in the Spanish American War under his brother, 
Hugh C.and received a commission as first lt.  Later he 
went to the Philippines, where he was commissioned a 
captain on the Island Panay at Iloilo, and then was 
appointed governor of one of the group of islands but 
died before assuming office. He married Elizabeth Scott.

The education of Hugh Caperton Preston was completed at the 
Virginia Military Institute, from which he was graduated as 
a senior captain and adjutant as a member of the class of 
1877.  A young man he became head and master of his mother's 
estate known as "White Thorn" in Montgomery Co. Va. but sold 
this in 1892 and went to East Radford, where he entered the 
real estate and insurance business, also serving two terms 
as Mayor. At the outbreak of the Spanish America War he 
lived up to the family traditions by enlisting as a captain 
in the volunteers, Company M., Fourth Virginia Volunteer 
infantry, under Colonel Petit, and saw one year of service 
in Cuba.  One month after his return the regiment was 
mustered out of service but he secured a commission in 
the Thirty first U.S. Volunteers and with the rank of 1st 
Lt. went to Mindanao, Philippine Islands, where for two 
years he served as captain of the post. In 1901 Mr. Preston 
returned to the U.S. and again took up the real estate 
business at East Radford in which he continued to be engaged 
until his death. He also had various other business 
connections, was widely known in business circles.

On April 30, 1878 he married at Stanton, Miss Cary Marx 
Baldwin of Winchester, Va., who was educated at Dunbar 
Institute and Mary Baldwin's School at Staunton, a daughter 
of Dr. Robert Frederick and Cary (Barton) Baldwin, the former 
of whom was a distinguished surgeon in his day who held the 
rank of colonel in the Confederate Army.  

Seven children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Preston: James 
Francis, who died in infancy; Robert Baldwin, county engineer 
of Norfolk Co., who married Marle Page and has three children, 
(Robert Baldwin Jr, Edwin Page and John Baldwin); Cary Baldwin, 
wife of Hartwell Henry Gary, a mechanical engineer of Norfolk 
and president of the Norfolk Tank Corp. and has two children, 
(Cary Preston and Hartwell Henry Jr); Sarah Caperton, 
president of the Preston School of Dancing and director 
and owner of the Camp Carybook for Girls; William Ballard, 
who enlisted for service on patrol duty on the Mexican 
border and served as sgt. until the U.S. entered the world 
war when he was appointed 1st lt. and sent to Camp Lee, and 
in May 1918 went to France, where he was promoted to the 
rank of captain of a machine gun company on the battlefield 
and who married Lelia Harrison Hew and has two children: 
(Bettie Harrison Braxton and William Ballard, IV); Hugh 
Caperton, identified with the National Highway of Commissions, 
who married Ann Cahill and has one child; Hugh Caperton III, 
and Katherine Stuart, a registered nurse who is a member of 
the McGuire clinical staff of St. Luke's Hospital at Richmond.

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