Page:Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography volume 4.djvu/173

 VIRGINIA BIOGRAPHY

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Dr. Charles Augustus Mercer, son of Isaac J. and Josephine Virginia (Arselle) Mercer, was born in Richmond, Virginia, June 14, 185.3, and after a general education pursued professional studies in the Baltimore Col- lege of Dental Surgery, whence he was grad- uated in the class of 1874. He at once be- gan ])rofessional work in the city of Rich- mond, and for the past thirty years has had his office at No. 305 East Main street. A practice that has steadily increased during those years is ample, evidence of the public confidence in his skill and ability, while the honors that have come to him in profes- sional organizations and from his profes- sional brethren have shown the esteem in which he is held in those circles. Dr. Mer- cer is ex-president of the Virginia State Dental Association, and that organization has conferred upon him a life membership, the greatest honor within its gift. He is also a member of the Richmond Dental Association and the National Dental Asso- ciation, and has represented Virginia in several conventions of international import- ance. From 1886 to 1889 he was secretary of the Virginia State Board of Dental Ex- aminers, a board inaugurated in 1886, and six years afterward was elected to another full term in this body but declined to serve. Dr. Mercer's fraternal orders are the Knights of Pythias, the Royal Arcanum, the Columbian Woodmen of the World, and the Masonic, in all of which he holds important official position. He is a communicant of the Second Baptist Church, of Richmond.

He married, in Richmond, in 1878, Nannie Robertson, born in Richmond, daughter of Jefiferson S. Robertson. Mrs. Mercer died May 13, 1913, the mother of seven children: Dr. C. Wilbur; E. Garnett, a civil engineer of Richmond ; Caroline, married Joseph C. Briston, engaged in the insurance business in Richmond ; Isaac John, an optician of Petersburg, Virginia ; Edwin Dunn, a lum- ber dealer of Chicago, Illinois ; Morton, con- nected with the Merchants' National Bank, of Richmond ; Cabell Tabb, a dental student at the Medical College of V^irginia, class of 1914. Dr. Mercer married (second) Janu- ary 7, 1915, Eithel W. Davenport, of King William county. Virginia, daughter of E. M. and Lelia Marshall (McKenzie) Daven- port.

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Blair Banister, a New York insurance broker, was born at Huntsville, Alabama, July 24, 1866. He is the son of John Monro and Mary Louisa (Brodnax) Banister, daughter of General William Brodnax, of "Kingston," Dinwiddie county, Virginia, whose wife was Ann (Withers) Brodnax, also of Virginia. His father, John Monro Banister, was born at "Battersea," Peters- burg, Dinwiddie county, Virginia, March 14, 1 818, died March 25, 1907. He was an Episcopal clergyman, and was graduated from Princeton University with the degree of A. B. in 1840. He received the degree of LL. D. from the Fredericksburg Law School in 1842, and was later a graduate of the Virginia Theological Seminary. He be- came a Doctor of Divinity of William and Mary College in 1869, and from 1868 to 1907 was a trustee of the University of the South, at Sewanee, Tennessee.

The Banister family is English in origin, and the name has been variously written Banester, Banaster and Banister. The name in the form of Banaster occurs in Holin- shed's Roll of Battle Abbey. Camden de- rives it from Balneator, the keeper rji a bath. It also resembles a term used in the parish accounts of Chudleigh, county Devon, and supposed to mean a traveler in distress.

Distinguished among the ancestors of Blair Banister was John Banister, botanist and naturalist, who was born in England, and died in Virginia in 1692. He was an English clergyman who, after spending some years in the West Indies, emigrated to America, and settled near Williamsburg, Virginia. Later, he patented seventeen hundred and thirty acres of land on the south side of the Appomattox river, at Hat- cher's Run. where he established his home. Here he devoted himself almost exclusively to botanical pursuits, and wrote a natural history of Virginia. He was killed by a fall from a bluff near the falls of the Roanoke river while on a botanical expedition. To the second volume of Ray's "History of Plants" he contributed a catalogue of plants discovered by him in Virginia. Among his other publications are : "Observations on the Natural Productions of Jamaica," "The Insects of Virginia" (published 1700), "Cur- iosities of Virginia," "Observations on the