Page:Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography volume 4.djvu/103

 VIRGINIA BIOGRAPHY

75

striving after excellence in small things must precede the al)ility to accomplish hirger matters.

Mr. W'ickham is a native of Virginia, born at Hickory Hill. Hanover county, December 17, 1849, son of Williams Carter and Lucy Penn (Taylor) Wickham. His father was noted for courage, both physical and moral, integrity, great firmness of will, very strong in his convictions and friendships ; he was lawyer, planter, soldier and man of affairs — a member of the house of delegates and senate ; of the state convention of 1861 ; of the Confederate congress ; supervisor of Hanover county; captain, lieutenant-colonel, colonel and brigadier-general. Confederate States army ; and president of the Chesa- peake & Ohio Railroad Company. He was descended from Thomas Wickham, who came from England in 1658 to Wethersfield, Connecticut. Among the forbears of Henry T. Wickham were: John Wickham, great- grandfather, characterized in an address by Hon. John Randolph Tucker as "one of the first in time, as first in fame, of the great lawyers of Virginia." Alexander Spotswood, great-great-great-great-grandfather, whose daughter Katherine married Bernard Moore, of Chelsea ; their daughter, Ann Butler Moore, married Charles Carter, of Shirley; their son, Robert Carter, married Mary Nel- son, of Yorktown ; their daughter, Anne Carter, married William F. Wickham, of Hickory Hill, and their son was Williams Carter Wickham, see above. Alexander Spotswood was the "Tubal Cain" of Vir- ginia, the first in America to erect an iron furnace. Thomas Nelson, great-great- grandfather, whose daughter. Mary Nelson, married Robert Carter, of Shirley, as above ; signer of the Declaration of Independence from Virginia, soldier of the revolution, dis- tinguished at the battle of Yorktown. gov- ernor of the state. John Penn, great-great- grandfather, whose daughter, Lucy Penn, married Colonel John Taylor, of Carolina ; their son. Henry Taylor, married Julia Dun- lop Leiper. of Philadelphia, and their daugh- ter, Lucy Penn Taylor, married General W' illiams Carter W'ickham, see above. John Penn was signer of the Declaration of Inde- pendence from North Carolina, member of the continental congress, member of North Carolina board of war, and became prac- tically the board, exercising its powers alone during the greater part of its existence.

Colonel John Taylor, of Carolina, great- great-grandfather, soldier of the revolution, distinguished as a lawyer, United States senator from Virginia, mover of the Vir- ginia resolutions of 1798-99; owner of Hazel- wood, on the Rappahannock ; author of many books upon agriculture and politics, among them "Arator," "Construction Con- strued," "New Views of the Constitution," "Tyranny Unmasked," and "Taylor's In- quiry."

Henry Ta}lor W ickham was reared at the family home, and while having no tasks in- volving manual labor he was accustomed to work, and spent his spare time in hunting and fishing, and with horses and dogs. Owing to the desolation caused by war, his parents made many sacrifices for his educa- tion. After attending the home schools, he entered Washington College (now W'ash- ington and Lee University), coming under the direct influence of President (General) Robert E. Lee, and graduated in 1868 with the degree of Bachelor of Arts. He studied for his profession in the University of Vir- ginia, under Professor John B. Minor, and was graduated with the degree of Bachelor of Laws in 1870, the year in which he attained his majority. On December 17, 1870, he was admitted to the bar in Rich- mond, and became clerk in a lawyer's of^ce. but soon engaged in active practice. His rise in his profession was steady, but in- volved severe labor. Pie became assistant attorney of the Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad Company in February, 1874, and assistant counsel in 1878; February i, 1886, general solicitor of the Newport News & Mississippi Valley Railroad Company; January 5, 1886, general solicitor of the Chesapeake & Ohio Railway Company ; in 1904 receiver of the Street Railway Companies of Richmond ; and was a director in the Big Sandy Rail- way Company, the Elizabethtown, Lexing- ton & Big Sandy Railroad Company, the Maysville & Big Sandy Railroad Company, the Chesapeake & Ohio Railway Company of Kentucky. Mr. Wickham has a notable record as a state legislator. In 1879 he was elected to the house of delegates as a "debt Payer." and served two years; in 1888 he was elected to the senate, serving three years, and during that service was mover of resolutions resulting in the settlement of the Virginia state debt, known as the Cen- tury or Olcott settlement ; in 1890-92 he was