Page:Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography volume 4.djvu/603

 VIRGINIA BIOGRAPHY

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mouth and during the existence of the Con- federate States of America he was connected with the naval department of the govern- ment. His church was the Trinity Protes- tant Episcopal, which he served as vestry- man. Washington Reed married. April 28, 1859, Octavia Murdaugh. fifth child of John ^^'ashington and Margaret O'Hara Waller (Rice) Murdaugh. and had issue: William H. Murdaugh ; James Washington ; John Murdaugh ; Jefiferson Davis, of whom fur- ther ; Octavia. married Charles T. Parrish ; Washington (2); Esther; Nannie M., mar- ried John H. Dayton; Margaret, married Duncan M. Wood; Robert Carter; Pem- broke W.

Jefferson Davis Reed, son of Washington and Octavia (Murdaugh) Reed, was born in Portsmouth, Virginia, April 12. 1866. He obtained his general education in the Nor- folk Academy. His business career had its beginning when he became a clerk in the employ of the firm of Peters & Reed, stave exporters, after which Mr. Reed was for a time engaged in log and lumber exporting. Reed Brothers & Company succeeded Peters & Reed in 1890, and of this firm Mr. Reed became a member, dealing in staves until 1903, when he returned to log and lumber exporting, his present line. During all of his business life, passed entirely in Ports- mouth. Mr. Reed has constantly held the trust and confidence of his associates and those with whom he has become acquainted in the world of trade. Unswervingly up- right in all transactions, meeting his obli- gations fully and promptly, countenancing only the most legitimate practices, he has risen to a position of prosperity and influ- ence, his record an open one of honorable success.

Among all of Mr. Reed's activities none is of greater interest than the part he takes and has taken in public life. He has been a lifelong Democrat, and entered public serv- ice as a member of the Portsmouth common council, was a member of the board of har- bor commissioners, and filled the post of consular agent for Italy. The successful candidate for mayor of Portsmouth, he as- sumed the duties of that office, May 15, 1905. and until September i, 1912, was head of the municipal government, his adminis- tration one of usefulness and achievement. He had been retired from the public service for but a short time when his name was ad-

\'anced for the house of delegates, and tak- ing his seat in the session of 1914 he con- tinues a member of that body. Mr. Reed is fitted by a wide experience in political and l)ublic affairs to fulfill his duties in the lower house of the assembly with credit to him- self and the district that named him as its representative, and his past record pledges him to the support of legislation for the common good. Mr. Reed is a director of the Portsmouth Business Men's Association, fraternizes with the Masonic order and the Improved Order of Red Men, and is a ves- tr\man of Trinity Protestant Episcopal Church.

Mr. Reed married, at Shawboro, North Carolina, November 30, 1907, Anne, born at Shawboro, daughter of Dr. Henry Mar- chand and Hulda (Ferebee) Shaw, her father a medical practitioner. Children of Dr. Henry Marchand and Hulda (Ferebee) Shaw; Anne, of previous mention, married Jefiferson Davis Reed ; Millie, married S. S. Stephenson ; H. M. ; Susie Woodward, mar- ried R. P. Rosser. Mr. and Mrs. Reed are the parents of; Jefferson Davis Jr., born September 10. 1908; Henry Shaw, born No- vember 7. 1910.

St. Julian Oppenhimer, M. D. From no race forming the composite citizenship of the United States has more valuable traits of character been introduced than from the German, the race from which Dr. Oppen- himer, of Richmond, Virginia, descends. This branch of the family was founded in the United States by Abraham Oppenhimer, born in Baden, Germany, in the year 1831,

son of Oppenhimer. a resident of

Baden, who held the proud distinction of membership in the French Legion of Honor and the prouder distinction of receiving the insignia of the order from the hands of Na- poleon, the Great, in return for noble serv- ices rendered the Emperor.

Abraham Oppenhimer came to the United States when a young man, settling in Flu- vanna county. Virginia, where he engaged in business, but at the outbreak of the war between the states, enlisted in the Fluvanna artillery and served in the Confederate army during the entire period, 1861-65. He died in Richmond, Virginia. Abraham Oppen- himer married, in i860, Sarah Eliza Jones, born in Fluvanna county, Virginia, in 1838, daughter of W'illiam E. and Martha Jones,