Page:Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography volume 3.djvu/389

 PROMINENT PERSONS

341

Burks, Martin Parks, LL. D., born at Liberty, now Bedford City, Bedford county, Virginia, January 23, 185 1, son of Judge Edward Calohill Burks (q. v.). He com- menced his education in the district schools in the vicinity of his home, then matricu- lated at Washington College, from which he was graduated in the class of 1870 with the degree of Bachelor of Arts. At that time Gen. Robert E. Lee was president of this institution, which is now known as Washington and Lee University. He stud- ied law at the University of Virginia, under the preceptorship of the well known legal instructor, John B. Minor; received the de- gree of Bachelor of Law in 1872, and on January i, 1873, he engaged in the active practice as his father's partner. From that time until 1900 he practiced at Liberty, in Bedford county. He has held the position of reporter of the court of appeals since 1895, and in 1900 he was called upon to become professor of law in Washington and Lee University, and has been the capable incum- bent of this office since that time. The degree of Doctor of Laws was conferred upon him by Roanoke College, in appre- ciation of his reputation at the bar, and also in recognition of the value of a law book published by Mr. Burks in 1893, entitled "Property Rights of Married Women in Virginia." Mr. Burks married, December 31, 1874, Roberta Gamble Bell, and they have had two children.

Dunnington, Francis Perry, born in Bal- timore, Maryland, March 3, 1851, son of William Augustus Dunnington and Sarah Brice Keener, his wife. He was educated in the private schools of Baltimore, and at sixteen years old entered the University of

Virginia, being graduated therefrom in 1S72 with the degree of Civil Engineer and Bachelor of Science, and in 1873 with th^ degree of Mining Engineer. Immediately after his graduation he was elected adjunct professor in analytical and agricultural chemistry, a position which he filled with so much satisfaction that in 1884 he was elected full professor. In 1880 he was made a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and in 1885 was secretary of one of the sections of that association. He is a member of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, and of the British Chemical Society. He has contributed much towards the advance- ment of science, to which he has devoted his life, and is an occasional contributor to tlie "American Chemical Journal," and other magazines of science. He has pub- li.'-hed a series of "Notes of Work by Stu- dents of Practical Chemistry in the Labora- tory of the University of Virginia." In Au- gust, 1878, he married Marion Sterling Beale, of Fredericksburg. Virginia.

Cowardin, Charles O'Brien, born at Rich- mond, Virginia, October 23, 1851, died July 5, 1900, son of James Andrew Cowardin and Anna Maria Purcell, his wife. The first of the name to come to Virginia was Abraham Cowardin, from Cheshire, England, who settled in 1671 in Kent county, Maryland. Another ancestor, Jeremiah Strother, had a son William, whose life was spent in Stafford county, Virginia. James Andrew Cowardin founded the "Richmond Dis- patch" and was well known in the field of journalism, and he served as a member of the Virginia house of delegates in 1853. He was the owner of a fine country home near