Page:Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography volume 4.djvu/32

 VIRGINIA BIOGRAPHY

eral Lee lying in his uniform as if asleep, on his narrow soldier's bed. One hand is on his bosom, the other lying by his side, rests upon his sword. The whole expression of the statue is that of tranquil and absolute repose — the repose of physical power un- shaken though dormant, of manly dignity m.ost graceful when at rest — of noble facul- ties alive and sovereign though still. Other prominent works, not yet mentioned, are, the ideal figures. "Judas" and "Grief," "The Nation's Ward ;" "The Samaritan Woman," "The Penitent Thief," and the statue of General Wickham in Monroe Park, Rich- mond. He has also completed a statue of General Hugh Mercer of the revolution, for the United States government, for which twenty-five thousand dollars was appro- priated ; a bronze statue of Jefferson Davis, and a symljolic figure of the "South." for the Jefferson Davis ^Monument Association ; a statue of General Robert E. Lee, ordered by the Virginia legislature for Statuary Hall in the capitol of Washington ; a statue of John James Audubon for the city of New Orleans, and many others.

Mr. Valentine's talents are not all of the brush or chisel. He is an excellent writer, a great lover of history and poetry, and an interesting speaker. He has kept a diary since 1857 to date, without the omission of a single day. This diary, so interesting and valuable, is being prepared for publication. He has received recognition from many literary societies by election to honorary membership, and is also a member of art unions and societies, both in the United States and Europe. He is an honorary member of Robert E. Lee Camp, United Confederate Veterans ; president of the board of trustees of Valentine Museum, in Richmond, founded by the will of his hon- ored brother ; vice-president of the Virginia Historical Society ; chairman of the advis- ory board of the Society for the Preserva- tion of Virginia Antiquities ; member of the advisory board of the Confederate Memorial Literary Society ; president of the William and Mary Chapter, Phi Beta Kappa. He is an Episcopalian in religious faith, and in politics a Democrat.

Now in his seventy-sixth year, Mr. Val- entine has not laid aside his active work, but is still the creator of the beautiful in art. He is a man of charming personality, known and loved by all Richmond. He is wholly

free from all affectation or assumption, simple and natural in his conversation, and apparently unconscious of his own great- ness. To young men he gives this word : "Have faith in your work and work with faith in God."

Mr. Valentine married (first) in 1872, Alice Churchill Robinson, of the King and Queen county family of that name. It was of her death, in 1883. that Paul Hamilton Hayne wrote the beautiful poem entitled, "His Lost Andromache." In 1892 Mr. Val- entine married (second) Mrs. Mayo, of Richmond, formerly Miss Catherine Friend, of Petersburg. Virginia. In his home on Sixth street, as in his studio, there is every- thing to stimulate the art impulse ; rare pictures, curio specimens of empire furni- ture, delicate foreign china of antique de- sign, and the like. A portrait of special interest is that of his father, I\Iann S. Val- entine, painted in the uniform of a lieuten- ant of the Public Guard, Virginia and South Carolina being the only states which main- tained such a military body. Another por- trait is of the sculptor's cousin, Mrs. Allan, the beautiful Richmond woman, who adop- ted Edgar Allan Poe, and whose name will go down in history with his.

Edmund Brice Addison. Although a resi- dent of Richmond, Virginia, since 1861, and for half a century a leading business man of that city, Mr. Addison is not a native born son, but descends from distinguished Mary- land families. Addison. Dulany, Smith and others.

(I) He is a grandson of the eminent and greatly beloved Rev. Walter Dulany Addi- son, who in 1893 was ordained a minister of the Protestant Episcopal church at Easton, Maryland, by the Right Rev. Thomas J. Claggett. Rev. Walter D. Addison, as is learned from a most interesting book, "One Hundred Years Ago," written by his grand- daughter, Elizabeth Hesselius Murray, and published in 1895, was a descendant of Colo- nel John Addison, who came to this country from England in the year 1667. Colonel John Addison was a brother of Rev. Launce- lot Addison, Dean of Litchfield, father of the noted Joseph Addison. He was also a brother of Rev. Anthony Addison, B. D., rector of Abington and chaplain to the Duke of Marlborough. He died in 1719, and is buried under the altar of the church he