Page:Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography volume 4.djvu/662

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VIRGINIA BIOGRAPHY

through distinguished service in the Confed- erate army during the civil war. He was five times wounded, twice very severely.

To Judge and Mrs. Nelson there have been born nine children, all of whom are living, as follows: Page Dandridge, now a resident of Lynchburg, Virginia, where he conducts an automobile business ; Blanche \y., now the wife of Dr. W. C. Rosser, the leading physician of Rustburg ; Frank Nel- son, Jr., a resident of Roanoke, Virginia, where he holds the important position of chief draughtsman with the Norfolk & Western railroad ; Carrie Payton and Eve- lyn Byrd, who reside at home with their parents ; William, now a student of medicine at the Medical College of Virginia, at Rich- mond ; Louise Carter, now attending an in- stitute at Charlottesville, \'irginia ; Mary W'atkins, now a student at St. Ann's School, Charlottesville. X'irginia; and Ida Withers, now in the Rustburg high school.

Richard Hugh Bagby. Follower of a pro- fession that for a time claimed his honored father, Init which the elder Bagby aban- doned to enter the ministry of the Baptist church, Richard Hugh Bagby (2) has for twenty-five years been identified with the law, for the last fourteen years of that time as a practitioner of Portsmouth, Virginia, where he is prominent and influential in legal circles.

(I) King and Queen county, Virginia, has long been the family home, and there lived John P>agby, grandfather of Richard Hugh Bagby (2). John Bagby cultivated the land that he owned, and was also pro- prietor of a general store on his property. He saw active service in the war of 1812 as a soldier in the American army, and was a life-long supporter of Democratic principles. John I'agby married Ann Elizabeth (Kidd) Motley, widow of John Motley. By her previous marriage she had borne one daugh- ter, Ann Elizabeth, and by her marriage with John Bagby she had one son, Richard Hugh, of whom further.

(II) Rev. Richard Hugh Bagby. son of John and Ann Elizabeth (Kidd-Motley ) luigby, was born in King and Queen county, \'irginia, in 1819, and died in 1870. After at- tending the public schools and a preparatory school he entered Columbia University, graduating in law, and then began studying for the ministrv. Soon after his ordination

he became pastor of the Baptist church at Stevensville, his home, and continued in charge of this congregation for twenty-eight years. He was a gentleman of strict moral integrity, a learned scholar, a pleasing and forceful speaker, and a minister with the highest conception of his calling and with the loftiest ideal as his constant aim. His office he did not use as a cloak to shield him from contact with the realities of daily life, but he entered with vigorous enthusiasm into the activities of his people, particularly politics, and during the war between the states, although he did not leave his church, filled the captaincy in the Home Guards. His influence was as wide as his interests, and his long ministry bore good fruit. Rev. Richard Hugh Bagby married his half-sister, Ann Elizabeth Motley, who died in 1893, and had issue: John, a physician; Elizabeth Hugh, Emma C., Ruth, Laura, Hannah C, Luther R., Virginia, Richard Hugh, of whom further.

(IIIj Richard Hugh (2) Bagby, son of Rev. Richard Hugh ( i ) and Ann Elizabeth (Motley) Bagby, was born June 15, 1866. He studied as a youth in the public schools and the Academy, the time that he passed in school earned by diligent labor, which occu- pied him when not in attendance at these institutions. By dint of close application and earnest study he became proficient in the profession of civil engineering, which engaged him for a time in Arkansas. Re- turning to his native state he matriculated at the University of Virginia, there complet- ing the law course in the terms of 1888 and 1889, in the year of his graduation being ad- mitted to the Virginia bar. Tappahannock, Essex county, V^irginia, was the locality in which he began private practice, and after eleven successful years in this place he came to Portsmouth, where he now continues. He has been admitted to all state and Fed- eral courts in his district, and has won pres- tige and influence in the law, of which he is an able master. Politics have claimed him only in so far as he may be of service to the Democratic party, for he has never entered public life. His practice is wide and his legal record has gained him worthy reputa- tion, which, as an advocate of honor and principle, he strongly upholds. At the bar dignified, calm, courteous, always in com- plete control of his case, he has won the re- spectful regard of his contemporary attor-