Page:Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography volume 3.djvu/286

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\'IRGI.\IA inOGRAPHY

Hugh Mercer, who was killed at the battle of Princeton.

Dooley, James Henry, born at Richmond, \'irginia, January i~, 1841, son of John Dooley and Sarah, his wife. Both John and Sarah Dooley came from their home in Limerick. Ireland, to Alexandria, Virginia, in 1834, whence they came to Richmond. He was first a student in Richmond institu- f.ons, at the age of eight years coming under the teaching of Dr. Socrates Maupin, who later was for many years professor and chair- man of the faculty of the University of Vir- ginia. His preparation in Richmond en- abled him to enter Georgetown University, District of Columbia, at the age of fifteen years, where he won highest honors during each year of his college course, in 1861 tak- ing his A. B. with the first honors of his class. The same year he enlisted as a pri- vate in the regiment of which his father was major, the First Virginia, and at the battle 01 Williamsburg, May 5, 1862, was wounded and made a prisoner. Until his exchange in the following August he was confined at the Rip Raps in Hampton Roads, and soon afterward passed the difficult examinations of the Confederate government for service in the ordnance department, being appointed lieutenant of ordnance and assigned to nuty under Gen. J. L. Kemper. At the close of the war he began the practice of law and was very successful. From 1871 to 1877 he w-as a member of the Virginia house of as- sembly, holding place upon some of the most important committees of that body. He re- tired from practice in 1898 to devote his entire time to the administration of the vast business interests he had acquired. In 1881 and 1882 he was a director of the Richmond

(S,- Danville Railroad, at llic same time hold- ing like office in the Richmond & West loint Terminal Railway and Warehouse Company, and iluring the year 1S86 he served as vice-president of the first named road. He has long served as president of the Richmond and St. Paul Land and Im- I)rovement Company, also as president of the Richmond and West Point Land, Navi- gation, and Improvement Company. He was president of the North Birmingham Street Railway Company in 1888, also of the North Birmingham Land Company, and in the following year was one of the organ- izers of the Seaboard Air Line Railway Company. In 1900, 1901 and 1902 he was chairman of the executive committee of this last named company, and he has long been president of the West End Home Building Fund Company and of the Henrico Build- ing Fund Company. From 1898 to 1904 he was first vice-president of the Richmond Trust and Safe Deposit Company, and is a director of the Merchants National Bank, of Richmond. Mr. Dooley married, Sep- tember II, 1869, Sallie May, of the well known Mav family of that name.

Orr, James Wesley, born in Lee county, Virginia, July 19. 1841, son of David Orr, who was a progressive agriculturist of Lee county, \'irginia, and Rhoda Orr, his wife. The pioneer ancestor of the line of the Orr family herein recorded was Alexander Orr, who emigrated from Ireland, accompanied by a brother and sister, they locating in the state of Pennsylvania. James W. Orr was raised to manhood on his father's farm, and obtained his education at the local schools and the Jonesville Academy ; he also ob- tained a knowledge of law by a course of