Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 3.djvu/833

Rh & Co., conducting a general insurance business. Two years later he formed a partnership with his brother under the title of John H. Burgess & Brother, which continued until he was compelled by poor health to retire from work for a time. In 1895 he returned to Norfolk, and after connection with the firm of R. C. M. Wingfield & Co. for one year, became a member of the firm. On February 6, 1890, he formed a partnership with W. W. Dey, under the firm name of Burgess & Dey, representing the following insurance companies: Greenwich of New York, the London' Assurance, the Equitable Fire of Charlestown, the Maryland Life, the Travelers' Accident of Hartford, and the Agricultural insurance company of Watertown, N. Y. In November, 1897, the interest of Mr. Dey was purchased by Mr. Burgess, who now conducts the business as Burgess & Co. He is also a member of the firm of C. R. Bell & Co., of Elizabeth City, N. C, a director in the South Oakwood Park land company, and in fill his business enterprises manifests a keen and aggressive spirit that is a guarantee of success. Socially he is popular, and is a valued member of the Merrimac club, the Masonic order, and the order of Columbus.

John W. Burgess, a farmer by occupation enlisted in a North Carolina regiment early in 1861, and served throughout the war as a private. At the close he was with the army under Gen. J. E. Johnston and surrendered at Greensboro. He escaped serious injury during his military career, but not long after its close, in 1867, he met an untimely death by accident. By his marriage to Mary Elizabeth Powell, in 1859. he had three children, of whom two survive. The only son, William G. Burgess, now a prominent business man of Newport News, Va., was born at Morganton, N. C., November 19, 1867, and was there reared and educated. At the age of fourteen years, taking the position of drug clerk, he embarked in his career as a pharmacist, in 1887 he graduated at the Chicago college of pharmacy, and during the following eight years was employed at Manchester and Hampton, Va. His career as proprietor of a drug establishment at Newport News began in 1895, and during the subsequent period he has fully demonstrated his excellent business ability and enterprise. While a resident of Manchester he served upon the city council, and at Newport News he has taken an active part in municipal and social affairs, is a member of the business men's association and several prominent fraternal orders, and has gained a genuine popularity among the people of the city.

Captain John J. Burroughs, of Norfolk, well known, especially in legal and political circles throughout Virginia, is a native of Princess Anne county, and was born April 22, 1841. His father, who bore the same name, is well remembered as holding for nearly half a century the office of clerk of the courts for Princess Anne county. He died in 1874, two years after the death of his wife, Ann, who was a daughter of Col. William Nimmo. Both the Burroughs and Nimmo families are among the oldest in Virginia, and their histories include many admirable careers in military and civil life. Captain Burroughs, at the age of fourteen years, was sent to school in Botetourt county to a famous teacher of that day, W. R. Galt, brother of the celebrated sculptor, Alexander Galt. Subsequently he entered Lynchburg college, a military institution, where he completed a four years' course in the spring of 1861. The