Joseph S. Culpeper, a well-known citizen of Norfolk, long connected with the extensive transportation interests of the Virginia seaports, is a native of Portsmouth, born March 14, 1843. He was reared and educated at his native city to the age of seventeen, when he embarked in his business career as office boy for the commission house of McPheeters & Ghiselin, of Norfolk. Presently changing to the house of Borum & McLean, he was promoted to a clerkship, which he held until the burning of the navy yard in May, 1861, when he resigned and held himself in readiness for service in the cause of Virginia. He became a member of the signal corps during that spring, and, leaving Norfolk when the city was evacuated, in May, 1862, he was with his command at Petersburg, then at Chester Station, whence he was ordered to Port Walthall on the Appomattox river, where he passed the following summer and autumn. From there he was ordered to City Point, on the James river, where he was stationed until the spring of 1863. He then made preparation, at Petersburg, for scouting duty in addition to signal work, and was stationed at Day's Neck, Va., where for fifteen months he was engaged in the important and often perilous duties of a scout and signal operator. During the summer of 1864 he was stationed successively at Petersburg, Va., Wilmington, N. C., Fort Caswell and Fort Fisher, N. C., and then in September, was transferred to the blockade service and was engaged in blockade running until the close of the war. He served upon the Will o' the Wisp under Captain Capper, until that vessel was disabled by a severe storm and condemned, then being transferred to the Owl, a blockade runner commanded by the celebrated Capt. J. N. Maffitt, who had previously done gallant service with the cruiser Florida. The close of the war found him with the Owl at Havana, whence he returned to Portsmouth to re-enter civil life. His experience in the blockade service now stood him in good stead and he soon found suitable positions in the transportation business. Beginning with the Bay line, he became subsequently the agent of the Old Dominion line at Norfolk, where he made his permanent residence in 1872, and for eleven years he served the company and the public in this capacity, being associated meanwhile with Daniel J. Turner, under the firm name of Culpeper & Turner. In 1893 his well-known business qualifications and trustworthiness led to his appointment to the office of city auditor of Norfolk, for which he was again chosen in 1895 and again in 1897. He is active in social and benevolent organizations, is a member of Pickett-Buchanan camp, United Confederate Veterans, and associated with the management of the Jackson Orphan asylum and the Old Ladies' home. Mr. Culpeper was married June 26, 1867, to Frances S., daughter of Flavius E. N. Wills, of Isle of Wight county, of an old family dating back to Revolutionary times. Their children living are Flavius Wills, William Moore, Rowland Honeycutt and Frances Wills. Mr. Culpeper, it is interesting to note, is a descendant of Governor Culpeper, of colonial fame. His father was Joseph S. Culpeper, Sr., who in his time conducted a considerable foundry business at Portsmouth, and his mother was a daughter of Thomas Brooks, of Norfolk county, whose father, of the same name, was a very wealthy farmer and died in 1857 at the age of eighty-nine years.
James Cunningham was a state pilot of Virginia, and during the
