Page:Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography volume 4.djvu/212

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MRGINIA BIOGRAPHY

rouiuliii^s until he finally wrung from the (lesixjilers a considerable part of their ill- j^'ottcn gains. In the course of the litiga- tion several appeals were taken l)y him to the Suj^reme Court of the United States, and arising out of these matters and through Mr. Ilrown's instrumentality articles of im- peachment were presented by the house of representatives against a judge of the United States court in Kansas, charging bribery, corruption and high misdemeanors in office. Mr. Brown was one of the chief witnesses who testified against him. with the result that the judge resigned his office pending the hearing of the charges. In all his professional career, as w^ell as in his business affairs, he loved justice, scorned (lecei)tion and trickery, and was absolutely without fear of man.

In early life he joined the Methodist church, and after moving to Lynchburg he united with the Court Street Methodist Church, to which he was zealously devoted and a constant attendant to the last. He was especially fond of Bible study, and de- voted to teaching it in his Sunday school class, which in his latter days, despite the increasing feebleness of age, he would never consent to give up. He carried on his labors almost to the day of his death, for when he was stricken with his last illness, just a few days before the end, he was in the midst of preparing legal documents and engaged in Biblical research. In this and in all things else he fought a good fight and kept the faith, and his religious life was even as the "path of the just that shineth more and more unto the perfect day." He was a just man who daily walked in his up- rightness. His was the life of a Christian gentleman, charitable to all his kind, slow to anger and full of good words. In his fam- ily he was amiable, kind-hearted, hospitable and helpful ; as a friend he was faithful and .sympathetic, and when he went to his re- ward he left a blessed memory. No man in all f,vnchburg was more beloved than he.

Though he always took an intelligent and lively interest in all the public questions of the day and the affairs of his country, yet he had no taste for politics and never sought public office. But recognizing the ability and high character of the man, his county people prior to the civil war elected him to the legislature and he represented them in

the house of delegates with the same indus- try and fidelity which he brought to the discharge of every duty.

Mr. Brown married, in 1845. Jane Mar- garet Winfree, of Lynchburg, Virginia, daughter of Christopher and Cornelia (Meyer) Winfree, and took her to his home. "Sunny Side," an attractive country seat a few miles below Cumberland Court House. Here they resided for some years, he lead- ing the life of a country lawyer of the olden time in one of the most pros])erous and larg- est slaveholding counties of the state, and in a community of the highest social advan- tages until after the close of the civil war. Their children were: i. Cornelia Walton, born April 6, 1846. 2. Mary Virginia, born January 9, 1849; married, November 5, 1867, John Winston Ivey, son of Peter and Sallie (Lawson) Ivey; children: Otelia Walton, born March 2, 1872; Mary Win- ston, born October 20, 1878. 3. Anne, born October 7. 1856.

Littleberry Stainback Foster, M. D. While the Fosters of Mathews county, Virginia, descendants of Isaac Foster, are elsewhere described as a family of seafaring men, pilots, mates and masters, there are excep- tions to this general rule and in the follow- ing review, the career of one of the most notable professional men of the family is traced.

Dr. Littleberry S. Foster is a grandson ot Isaac Foster, a sea captain, ship and land- owner, sailing his own vessel, a man of means, influence, and strong character. He served in the second war with Great Britain, was a devoted member of the Methodist Episcopal church, devoting largely of his time and means to promote its welfare. Cap- tain Isaac Foster married Mary Miller and had issue : Julia ; Baldwin, whose career is elsewhere noted in this work ; John, father of Dr. Foster, of Norfolk; Seth ; Isaac (2) ; Elizabeth ; Shepard.

John Foster, second son of Isaac and Mary (Miller) Foster, was born in Mathews county, Virginia, in 1817, died in 1896. Nearness to the sea and family example combined to determine his choice of a career and from boyhood he began sailing the near- by Avaters of the Chesapeake and from inti- mate association became thoroughly famil- iar with the secrets of that great body. From the bay he graduated to the ocean, beginning