Page:Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography volume 3.djvu/180

This page needs to be proofread.

146


MRGIXIA BIOGRAPHY


until the downfall of Maximilian, when he returned and took up his residence in W'ash- ington City, and Berkeley Springs, West Virginia. He died in Richmond, July 4, 1890.

Page, John, was born at Rug Swamp. Hanover county, Virginia, April 26, 1821, son of Francis and Susan (Nelson) Page^ and grandson of Gov. John Page, and Gov. Thomas Nelson, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, and commander of the Virginia forces at Yorktown. During his boyhood he attended school at the home of Bishop Meade, in Frederick county, Vir- ginia, and then attended Bristol College, Pennsylvania, and Newark College, Dela- ware. The year following the completion of his studies, he was a tutor at the Episco- pal High School near Alexandria, and dur- ing this time he read law with Henry Win- ter Davis. In 1843 '"'^ entered the Univer- sity of Virginia, graduating from that in- stitution the following year with the degree of Bachelor of Law. He began the active practice of his profession in Hanover county, \"irginia, and so continued, with a large degree of success for the remainder of his days. Upon the outbreak of the war between the states he enlisted in the Pat- rick Henry Rifles, a company formed in his neighborhood, and which became dis- tinguished as one of the constituent com- panies of the Fifteenth Virginia Regiment, and after the Peninsula campaign he re- ceived an appointment upon the staff of his brother-in-law, Gen. William N. Pendle- ton, chief of artillery of the Army of North Virginia. He was a Whig in politics, but the only political office he held was that of commonwealth's attorney. He was a


lever of literature, and was thoroughly familiar with the Latin and Greek classics, as well as with those of his own tongue. He married, in 1846, Elizabeth I'.urwell Nelson, his cousin. Children : Rev. Dr. Frank Page, rector of St. John's Church, Brooklyn ; Thomas Nelson Page, of Wash- ington ; Rosewell Page, of Richmond, \"ir- ginia. Mr. Page died at his home in Han- over county, A'irginia, October 30. 1901.

Hughes, Robert William, born in Pow- hatan county, \'irginia, June 16, 1821, and was reared by Mrs. General Carrington, daughter of General Francis Preston, of Abingdon. He w-as educated at Caldwell Institute, Greensboro, North Carolina, and was tutor in Bingham high school. Hillsboro, North Carolina, 1840-43. He was a practic- ing lawyer in Richmond, 1843-53 > "^^'^s edi- tor of the "Richmond Examiner," 1850-57, in which he strongly favored secession, and joint editor of that paper from May, 1861, to April, 1865. Upon the close of the war he aligned himself with the Republican party, and edited first the "Richmond Re- public," and afterwards the "Richmond Journal." In 1873 he was the Republican candidate for governor, and in January, 1874, he was by President Grant commis- sioned United States district judge for the eastern district of Mrginia. in which posi- tion he served with marked ability and dis- tinction till February 22, 1898, when, owing tc his advanced age, he tendered his resig- I'ation. On June 4, 1850, at the governor's mansion in Richmond, he married Eliza M. Johnston, daughter of Hon. Charles C.John- ston, and Eliza Mary Preston, niece of Gen- eral Joseph E. Johnston. For many years he occupied as a summer home his fine