Page:Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography volume 4.djvu/386

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VIRGINIA BIOGRAPHY

of tools, occasionally obtaining employment as a carpenter, and at the age of eighteen years he began contracting in the hauling of lumber. At nineteen, he was a master builder with a small business, and at twenty he was a self-supporting man. with the vic- tories of the first skirmishes of life's battle upon his side.

His plans, although but imperfectly form- ed, were disarranged by the beginning of hostilities in the civil war. In 1861 he re- ceived a governor's appointment as recruit- ing officer, and in the latter part of 1863 himself enlisted in a Union Maryland regi- ment. He was honorably discharged from the service, and in Baltimore entered upon a new chapter in his life. Deciding against returning to his Eastern Shore home, he ap- plied for a position at the office of the Adams Express Company, and, there being no other vacancy, accepted work as a wagon boy at wages of three dollars a week, his discharge papers his references. Ten days after ac- cepting this place he was ordered to report for work in the office, and before six weeks had passed he was detailed as special mes- senger on the way train to Martinsburg, West Virginia, and for four months ran as special messenger to Martinsburg, during which time he was twice captured by Mose- by's band. He was next engaged in rvm- ning cars through Baltimore and tracing lost cars and freight ; was again on the Mar- tinsburg route ; and then as special agent to the important post of Point Lookout, Mary- land, where nearly thirty thousand Confed- erate prisoners were confined. His duties here were principally conducted with the provost-marshal and other United States officers, but his many kindnesses to prison-. ers are attested by a formal resolution of thanks.

At the close of the war and the discon- tinuance of the station at Point Lookout, the Adams Company, in July. 1865, sent a special messenger to Richmond by way of Gordonsville to report upon the condition of the roads and to arrange for the reopen- ing of express routes. Mr. Phoebus was entrusted with this mission, journeyed with the first overland party after the close of the war, and his suggestions were acknowl- edged by their adoption. After the reopen- ing of the Orange & Alexandria railroad be- tween Baltimore and Richmond in May,

1866, he was appointed agent at Fort Mon- roe, X'irginia.

Through the influence of Samuel M. Shoe- maker, vice-president of the Adams Express Company, between wdiom and Mr. Phoebus mutual love and admiration had been born, he was appointed to a pleasant and profit- able post in the Adams Express Company, and immediately after permanent settlement at Old Point Comfort, Mr. Phoebus sought fresh fields for labor, confident, as ever, in his abilities, anxious for greater usefulness. Mr. Shoemaker again aiding him, he was appointed to the vacant postmastership by President Johnson, and he then acquired several important agencies. The Anna Mes- six northern route, via Crisfield, Maryland, made him its agent, and he accepted like responsibility from the Old Dominion Line between New York and Virginia ports and the Baltimore Steam Packet Company, be- tw-een Baltimore and Norfolk. He became a United States commissioner and a notary ])ublic. Representing several large insur- ance companies, he thoroughly canvassed the outlying region in their interests, and did a volume of business that made that de- partment of his activities a well paying one. Occasional investments in real estate were successfully concluded, the cause of his suc- cess in all lines his absolute determination, his unflagging perseverance. He was one of the founders of the Norfolk National Bank, Norfolk, Virginia.

There is no part of Mr. Phoebus' life that reflects more abundant honor upon him nor which better shows his sterling quality as a shrewd man of business than his connection with the Hygeia Hotel. For years the many natural attractions of Old Point Comfort had made the place celebrated as a fashionable seaside resort. Before the war the old Hygeia Hotel was crowded season after season with a throng of beauty and fashion unexcelled at any watering place in the country. But with the war this splendor passed, the hotel was torn down, as interfering with the gun range of Fortress Monroe, and as late as 1872 the once famous Hygeia was repre- sented by a low, two-story building, with scant accommodations for a score or two of guests. The operations that brought Mr. Phoebus into relation with this hotel are here worthy of exact reproduction. In 1872 Messrs. Clark and AX'ilson secured posses-