Page:Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography volume 3.djvu/367

 PROMINENT PERSONS

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he was salesman and merchant for a period of seven years and 1873 was admitted to the bar of Virginia as a lawyer, having com- menced his legal studies during the summer following the war. He was elected attorney for the commonwealth of Scott county, serving 1875-79, and in this period was clerk of the committee on finance and reading clerk of the house of delegates. The "Scott County Banner," published at the court house at this time, was his property, and he was its editor. He drew up the charter for the railroad between Bristol and Big Stone Gap, Virginia, in 1876, and the following year organized the company which com- menced its construction. In 1881 he was one of the most active workers in the or- ganization of the Virginia Coal and Iron Company, and has been the counsel and a member of the board of directors ever since. He organized the Bank of Gates City in 1889; the Interstate Finance & Trust Com- pany, and the Wise County Bank in 1901 and 1902 ; the Virginia Tanning & Extract Company in 1897; the Stone Gap Colliery Company, and Wise County Terminal Com- pany in 1902 ; the Tazewell Coal and Land Corporation, and the Seaboard Coal Com- pany in 1904; and he organized a number of companies of lesser importance, in which he is still an ofificial. He was also active in the construction of the railroad from Norton to Glamorgan, and the Big Creek branch of the Norfolk & Western Railway. In 1880 he was supervisor of the census for the fifth district of Virginia, under appointment from President Hayes, who was required by act of congress to ignore politics in mak- ing appointments. He served as attorney- general of Virginia from 1886 to 1890; was a member of the state central and executive

committees of the Democratic party from 1S83 to 1895; and in 1901 and 1902 repre- sented Wise, Dickinson and Buchanan counties in the convention called to revise the constitution of the state. His residence is Big Stone Gap, Wise county, Virginia. Mr. Ayers married, June 8, 1870, Victoria Louisa Morrison.

McCormick, Marshall, born in Clarke c(junty, Virginia, June 29, 1849, son of Province McCormick and Margaretta Holmes Moss, his wife ; and grandson of William McCormick, who emigrated to this country from Ireland. His father was a successful lawyer, and commonwealth's at- torney of Clarke county from 1840 to 1866. Marshall McCormick spent the early years of his life on his father's farm, and his pre- liminary education was obtained in private schools of Clarke county, and supplemented by attendance at the University of Virginia, from which institution he graduated in Latin, Greek and moral philosophy: and the Virginia Military Institute, which he at- tended for one session. He began the study of law in a private law office in Winchester Virginia, in 1870, was admitted to the bar the following year, and located for practice in Berryville, Virginia. In addition to his private practice, he has served for many years as counsel to the Norfolk & Western Railroad Company. He has served as a member of the board of visitors of the Western State Hospital and of the Institu- tion for the Deaf, Dumb and Blind ; of the board of visitors of the University of Vir- ginia for eight years, and for a period of four years was chairman of the finance committee of that board. He served as mayor of Berryville for six years ; common-