Page:Autobiographies and portraits of the President, cabinet, Supreme court, and Fifty-fifth Congress (IA autobiographiesp02neal).pdf/175

 THOMAS STAPLES MARTIN

, of Albemarle County (post office, Scottsville, Va.), was born in Scottsville, Albemarle County, July 29, 1847, and since 1853, at which time his parents removed to the country, has lived in the county, about two miles from the town; was educated at the Virginia Military Institute, where he was a cadet from March 1, 1864, to April 9, 1865, and at the University of Virginia, where he was a student in the academic schools for two sessions, from October 1, 1865, to June 29, 1866, and from October 1, 1866, to June 29, 1867; though not a regularly enlisted soldier, considerable part of the time while he was a cadet at the Virginia Military Institute was spent in the military service of the Confederate States with the battalion of cadets of the institute; soon after leaving the University of Virginia he commenced the study of law by a course of private reading at home, and was licensed to practice law in the fall of 1869, since which time he has devoted himself closely to that profession; for a number of years has been a member of the board of visitors of the Miller Manual Labor School, of Albemarle County, and a member of the board of visitors of the University of Virginia, but until elected to the Senate he had never held nor been a candidate for any political office, State or national; December 19, 1893, he was elected a Senator from Virginia for the term commencing March 4, 1895, to succeed Hon. Eppa Hunton, who had been first appointed by the governor and then elected by the legislature to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Hon. John S. Barbour. His term of service will expire March 3, 1901.