Page:Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography volume 3.djvu/400

 VIRGINIA BIOGRAPHY

Page, Thomas Nelson, born at "Oakland," in Hanover county, \irginia, April 23, 1853, son of Major John Page, a distinguished graduate of the University of Virginia, and Elizabeth Burwell Nelson, his wife. Both parents were grandchildren of Governor Thomas Nelson, signer of the Declaration of Independence, and commander of the Virginia forces at Yorktown, in 1781. His father was also a grandson of Governor John Page of "Rosewell," the lifelong friend of Thomas Jefferson, between whom and Iklr. Jefferson as school boys the well known letters found in the lives of Jefferson passed. The old Page and Nelson homestead in the upper end of Hanover county was a part of the original grant to General Nelson, within a few miles of the site of General Nelson's home, so charmingly described in the travels of the Marquis De Chastellux. Mr. Page's early education was obtained at home, his father being an ardent lover of the classics, and devoted to the Latin, Greek and Eng- lish literatures. Perhaps the most striking part of his life was that spent in his old home as a child during the civil war. This period he has repeatedly described in his stories, which are well known. The absence of his father and uncle from home, and the consequent responsibility, made his life and that of other boys within the track of the armies and the sound of the guns of the bloodiest campaigns of the civil war. strangely exciting. After the war he at- tended a school five miles from home, taught by his kin.sman, the late Dr. Charles L. C. Minor. From this he entered Wash- ington and Lee University, while it was under the presidency of General Robert E. Lee. Here he was a student several years, living at the home of his uncle by marriage,

the Rev. Dr. William N. Pendleton, who had been Gen. Lee's chief of artillery. After leaving Washington and Lee University, he returned home, where he spent a year, and subsequently entered the University of Vir- ginia as a law student, being graduated in 1874 on a special examination given him because of illness, with the degree of Bach- elor of Law. He settled in Richmond, Vir- ginia, and began the practice of his profes- sion, which he later abandoned to give him- self wholly to literary work. While yet a member of the Richmond bar, he published some of his short stories, which at once established his reputation as a writer. In addition to these, which were under the title "In Old Virginia," he has published numerous other works, among the most popular of which are: '"The Old South." "Two Little Confederates." "Marse Chan." and "Robert E. Lee, the Southerner." He settled later in Washington and in 1913 he was appointed by President Wilson minis- ter to Italy. In 1887 he married (first) Anne Sedden Bruce, daughter of Charles Bruce, Esq., of "Staunton Hill." Charlotte county, Virginia : he married (second) in 1893. Mrs. Florence Lathrop Field, of Chi- cago, a great-granddaughter of Governor James Barbour.

Downing, Henry Hawkins, born in Fau- quier county. Virginia. .April 20. 1833, son of John H. Downing and Fannie Scott, his wife. He received a practical and thorough training in farm life. He received his clas- sical education partly from private tutors, and partly at Bethel Academy. In 1874 he matriculated at the University of Virginia and studied law under John B. Minor. He graduated in 1876, and not long afterwards