Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 3.djvu/1383

Rh presently abandoned for mercantile pursuits, in which he was engaged for several years. From his youth he had taken a great interest in political affairs, and simultaneously with his becoming a voter he became a worker in the organization of his party. At the age of twenty-five his ability in this direction was recognized by appointment to the position of chairman of the city committee of the Democratic party, which he held for the greater part of ten years, doing effective service and easily holding the confidence of his party. At the same time it was apparent that his efforts were not solely for partisan ends, but that the great motive was the good of the community. He engaged in the promotion of various enterprises of value to the people, notably the electric street railway, the establishment of which is chiefly due to his energy and organizing power. Such a character cannot fail of recognition, and Mr. Young has been called upon to serve the people in important official positions. In 1886 he was elected police commissioner of the city and two years later was chosen for the place of clerk of the courts of the county, his tenure of the latter office continuing for six years. In September, 1896, after a spirited contest in the convention of the Second congressional district, he received the nomination for Congress, and was elected in the following November. His initial service in this capacity was during the special session of 1897, and he was re-elected in 1898. Previous to this Mr. Young had represented his district, in a political way, as a delegate to the Democratic national convention at Chicago in 1892. Mr. Young is fraternally connected with the orders of the Elks and Red Men. He is happily married to a daughter of Dr. Thomas Hay, of Philadelphia, and has three children, two daughters and a son.

Nathaniel Francis Young, of Isle of Wight Court House, first commander of Colquitt-Wrenn camp, United Confederate veterans, was born in Portsmouth, Va., October 12, 1841, the youngest of three sons of Dr. Robert W. Young, who served in the Confederate armies. One of these, Tapley Webb Young, now residing at Washington, D. C., was a private in the cavalry of Kirby Smith; Robert West Young was a captain in the commissary department under the same general, and died at New Orleans in 1896. Their father, Dr. Robert W. Young, was born in Isle of Wight county, April 13, 1805, served during the war in one of the departments at Richmond, and died in 1880. He was married in 1833 to Ann Porter, daughter of Capt. Tapley Webb, of Portsmouth. The father of Dr. Young was Nathaniel Young, the son of Francis Young, who removed to Isle of Wight county in 1768 from Brunswick, and was soon afterward made county clerk, an office which has ever since remained in the family, Nathaniel Francis Young being the present incumbent. The latter was reared at Washington, D. C., from the age of five years, and in 1857 went to Europe and began a course of studies in the polytechnic institute at Stuttgart, where his brother, Tapley Webb Young, was then stationed as consul for the United States. Leaving there in August, 1861, he landed at Vera Cruz, Mexico, and thence reached Virginia in February, 1862, when he immediately reported for duty at Richmond, and enlisted as a private in the Otey battery of the Thirteenth battalion of artillery, army of Northern Virginia. He participated in the service of his battery throughout the remainder of