Page:Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography volume 3.djvu/284

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VIRGIXIA BIOGRAPHY

folk, and was a Democrat in politics. He for years represented the Episcopal church in the diocesan councils of Virginia and South- ern Virginia, and also as a delegate to the general convention. On June 23, 1870, he married Miss Alice Herbert.

Fetrie, George Laurens, D. D., was born at Cheraw, South Carolina, February 25, 1840, a son of George H. W. Petrie, and his wife, Mary J. Prince, the former a minister of the Presbyterian church. Alexander Petrie, the first of the family to settle in America, came from Elgin, Scotland, in the eighteenth century, and made his home in South Carolina, where his descendant, George Petrie, grandfather of the subject of this review, was a lieutenant in the conti- nental army. George Laurens Petrie, D. D., received his classical education in Charles- ton, South Carolina, and Marietta, Georgia, then became a student at Davidson College, North Carolina, and later studied at Ogle- thorpe University, Georgia, where he grad- uated as Bachelor and Master of Arts. He then entered the Columbia Theological Seminary, and studied for the ministry. In 1862 he commenced his lifework, and be- came a chaplain in the Confederate army in 1863, being assigned to the Twenty-second Alabama Regiment. At the close of the war he conducted a classical school at Mont- gomery ; was professor of Latin at Oakland College, Mississippi, 1866-69 ; and became pastor of the Presbyterian church at Green- ville, Alabama, in 1870. He was pastor of the Presbyterian church on Washington street. Petersburg, Virginia, 1872-78; in the .last mentioned year was called to the Pres- byterian church in Charlottesville, \'irginia. Hampden-Sidney College, Virginia, confer-

I cd ui)iin him the honorary degree of Doc- tor of Divinity in 1887. Dr. Petrie married, November 29, 1864, Mary Cooper.

Conrad, Holmes, born in Winchester. \ irginia, January 31, 1840, son of Robert \ oung Conrad and Elizabeth Whiting Powell, his wife : she was a descendant of Col. Levin Powell, who was a colonel in the continental army during the revolution- ary- war and became a member of the first congress of the United States. Holmes Lor.rad pursued his early education in the primary schools, and in the Winchester Academy, at \\'inchester, Virginia. He was a student in the University of Virginia from 1858 until i860, graduated, and read law un- der a private preceptor. He continued his reading through the winter, but on April 17, 186 1, he enlisted as a private in a cavalry c<>mpany from his native county. In 1862 he was commissioned adjutant of his regi- ment, and became major and assistant adju- t;int-general in 1864. He served on the staff o' Gen. Rosser, in a cavalry division, until the clo-;c of the war in April, 1865. He re- sumed his studies after the cessation of hos- tilities, and was admitted to the bar in Janu- ary. 1866, when he joined his father in the practice of law in Winchester. He was a member of the board of visitors of the Uni- versity of \'irginia. having been appointed by Gov. Kemjier at the beginning of his ad- ministration. He also continued a member of the board under Govs. Fitzhugh Lee and Holliday, this being the board of which the Hon. .\. H. H. Stuart was rector. In 1881- 82 he served as a member of the Virginia legislature; in 1893 was appointed assistant attorney-general of the L^nited States, and in 1895 became solicitor-general of the