VIRGINIA BIOGRAPHY
seventeenth century (q. v. I, 346). He is
a very happy and popular speaker and is
distinguished for his genial and affable
manners.
Montague, Andrew Jackson, born in Campbell county. \'irginia. October 3, 1802, son of Judge Robert Latane Montague (q. v.). He was educated at private schools and by private tutors in Middlesex county, and in early youth developed a taste for the best of English literature— historical, bio- graphical, poetical. After a year in the grammar school of William and Mary Col- lege. Wiliianij-burg, he entered Richmond College, at Richmond, Virginia, and in due time was graduated from several of the schools of that institution, and having achiev- ed much distinction as an orator and debater ii; the literary societies. He served as a pri- >ate tutor from 1882 to 1884, and displayed such ability as to give promise of a high place in the educational field, had he seen proper to engage in it permanently. In the summer of 1S84 he became a law student in the University of Virginia, under Professor John B. Minor, took the regular course in the following session, and in 1885 was grad- uated with the B. L. degree. He then enter- ed u]K>n practice in Danville, Virginia, and soon took a prom.inent place at the bar. He took an enthusiastic interest in politics, and in the campaign of 1892 he attracted the ad- miring attention of Mr. Cleveland, who, on c««ming to the presidency in the following year, appointed him United States district attorney for the western district of Virginia. In 1897 he was elected attorney-general of the state, and therefore resigned the district attorneyship. His services in this new |M>Hition. during his four year term, were
conspicuously creditable, and a factor in
his further advancement. In 1901 he was
th.e Democratic nominee for governor, over
several distinguished competitors, and in the
ensuing campaign he delivered many able
speeches, and was elected by a large major-
ity. During his four year term, he won
general commendation as a most useful and
progressive executive. In large measure, to
him is due a deeply awakened interest in
the public school system, and its substan-
tial development. It was largely through
his instrumentality that the primary plan
for the nomination of United States sena-
tors was adopted. Retiring from the guber-
natorial chair in 1906, Mr. Montague re-
sumed the practice of his profession, in
Richmond, and in May, of the same year,
President Roosevelt selected him as one of
the six delegates from the United States to
the Third International Conference of
.Xmerican States, in Rio de Janeiro, July
21, 1906. Mr. Montague is well read in
sociolog>' and political economy, and in 1905
he received from Brown University, Rhode
Island, the degree of LL. D. He was mar-
ried, December 11, 1889, to Elizabeth
Lynne Hoskins, of Middlesex county. In
191 3 he succeeded John Lamb in congress
from the Richmond district and is the pres-
ent incumbent.
Swanson, Claude Augustus, born March 31, 1862, at Swansonville, Pittsylvania county, son of John Muse Swanson and Catherine Pritchett, his wife. His father was a highly respected merchant and manu- facturer of tobacco in Pittsylvania county, who suffered a reverse and lost all his prop- erty in the panic of 1876. The subject of this sketch was put early to school and
