Page:Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography volume 4.djvu/66

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MRGIXIA BIOGRAPHY

traces directly to the "Mayflower" Pilgrims and early Puritan settlers of Massachusetts colony. He received his early education in the local schools of his native place, and attended the Illinois College at Jacksonville, Illinois, during the years 1866 and 1867. In 1864 and 1865, the last years of the civil war he served on the engineer corps of the Pa- cific Railroad of Missouri in the construc- tion of that road through the western coun- ties of that state. Kansas City and Leaven- worth, Kansas. During the period from November, 1867, to July, 1880, as assistant engineer, he had charge of the construction of several parts of the St. Louis, Iron Moun- tain and Southern Railway, and was chief engineer of the Cairo, Arkansas and Texas Railway, with residence at St. Louis, Mis- souri. From 1880 to 1889 he was vice-presi- dent and also receiver of the Richmond and Alleghany Railroad Company, at Richmond, Virginia, and from 1889 to 1913 was vice- president of the Chesapeake & Ohio Railway Company ; also during this interval he was for some years president of the Toledo & Ohio Central Railway and was chairman of the board of directors of the Kanawha & Michigan Railway. At present he is first vice-president of the Chesapeake & Ohio Railway Company and of the Hocking Val- ley Railway Company. From 1891 to 191 1 he served as president of the Virginia Hot Springs Company ; is now president of the White Sulphur Springs, Inc., and vice-presi- dent and director of several other corpo- rations. He has lived in Richmond since July, 1880.

In politics he is a Democrat, but voted for William McKinley, Republican, for presi- dent in 1896, on the Free Silver issue. He attends the Protestant Episcopal church, though he is not a communicant. He is a member of the American Society of Civil Engineers ; the Ohio Society of New York, the \'irginia State Branch of the Society of Colonial Wars, of the Society of Mayflower Descendants, the Massachusetts Historical Society, the South Carolina Historical So- ciety, the Virginia Historical Societv ; also of the Westmoreland, Commonwealth and Country clubs of Richmond, Mrginia.

He married May Cantrell, daughter of Dr. \\'illiam Armour and Ellen (Harrell) Can- trell. October 13. 1876. at Little Rock, .Ar- kansas. They have no children. Dr. Can- trell served in the confederate army on Gen-

eral Churchill's stafT in the war between the states, and was afterwards physician at the United States army post at Little Rock, Ar- kansas.

Irving P. Whitehead. All that is known of the Whitehead family of Amherst county prior to 1760 is more or less traditional. This is due in a large measure to the fact that the records of New Kent county were destroyed during the war between the states. It is certain that the family were early settlers in the colony and had interest there as early as 1622 for in that year William Wliitehead of London, bequeathed a sum of money to establish a school in Virginia. Only one Whitehead is mentioned by Philip A. Bruce, viz.. Thomas \\'hitehead, whose will is of record year 1660. "The Virginia Heraldica" A'olume V. mentions Richard Whitehead, of (Gloucester county, to whom was granted a tract of 5,000 acres of land on October 24, 1673. The coat-of-arms of this family are those of Whitehead," Lancashire. Eng- land. His son. Philip Whitehead, was a meml:)er of the house of burgesses for King \\'illiam county in 1726. One account of the settlement in Virginia of the Whitehead family is that in the reign of Cromwell three brothers of the name came to Virginia in company with the Spottswoods and Fitz- hughs about the time that Spottswood was governor. Another account, and perhaps the most reliable, is that during the reign of Charles II. a grant of land was made to three brothers in eastern \"irginia between Jamestown and York river. One of these was John Whitehead, and that John White- head, of Amherst, as well as all the family, of that name in Virginia, are descended from him.

(I) John \Miitehead was born in New Kent county. \'irginia. in the year 1735, and came to Amherst county about 1760. bring- ing with him his young wife. Sarah (Bur- cher) \\'hitehead. The deed book of old Amherst, which was cut off from Albemarle in 1 761, shows he purchased in 1762 a tract of land of 125 acres on the head waters of Hufi:' creek in what is now the Sardis neigh- borhood. He was a type of the sturdy farmer of that period, who felled the forest timber and made the wilderness a habitable land. During the revolution he was a staunch patriot; was a member of a com- I)any raised in Amherst by Colonel William