Page:Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography volume 4.djvu/707

 VIRGINIA BIOGRAPHY

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31, 191 1. After an education obtained in the public schools of his native county he became there employed in a general store, in 1887 coming to Richmond and establish- ing in business as a dealer in groceries. His store was at Twenty-eighth and Clay streets, and here he remained for three years, at the end of that time becoming a contractor in the city, a bueiness he profitably conducted until his death. In connection with this he was for a time proprietor of a sales stable, a venture that was a distinct success but which he discontinued because of the exces- sive demands upon his time and attention, which could ill be spared from his contract- ing operations. For the three years since the death of "Sir. Clay his son. Garland Pres- ton Clay, has managed the business founded by the elder Clay, and has held it in its pros- perous course. Mr. Clay was a Democrat in political belief, and gave his unvarying support to that party. He was a gentleman well liked by his associates, and a business man w^hose code was honor and integrity.

j\Ir. Clay married, in Richmond, Virginia, May 18, 1892, Mary J. Hughes, born in Hen- rico county, A'irginia, two miles south of Richmond, daughter of John Hughes, born in Pennsylvania, June 11. 1812. He moved to Henrico county prior to the war with the states, and became a landowner, there dying September 11, 1875. His wife was Alary C. (Vaughan) Hughes, born in Hen- rico county. A'irginia, died July 9, 1905, in Richmond, aged seventy-three years. Mr. and Mrs. Clay had one son. Garland Pres- ton, born Februar}- 9, 1894, his father's suc- cessor in the contracting business.

David Allen Williamson. David Allen Williamson, an honored member of the Vir- ginia bar, has been in practice in Alleghany county since 1891, the year of his admission to the bar. He is a son of David William- son, deceased, born in Fifeshire, Scotland, who after coming to the United States pur- sued the quiet life of a farmer until his death. He married Sarah Elizabeth Ham- mersley, of Charlotte county, Virginia, and left two sons and five daughters : W^illiam Leybourne, born in Alleghany county, Vir- ginia, in 1863. now connected in an official capacity with the Southern Railway Com- pany; David Allen, of further mention; Ma- linda Hays, married B. F. Early ; Jean S.,

unmarried; Martha .\., married E. P. Davis; Sarah E., deceased; Marv E.. married W. M. Smith.

David Allen Williamson, third son of David and Sarah Elizabeth ( Hammersley) \\'illiamson, was born in Alleghany county, Virginia, July 2^, 1865. He obtained his academic education in private and public schools, and at Washington and Lee Uni- versity, whence he was graduated Bachelor of Laws, class of "91." He was admitted to the bar of Alleghany county in the same year and located at Clifton Forge, and after- ward removed to Covington, the capital of the county, where he has since been con- tinually in general practice in the courts of Alleghany and adjoining counties, and of Clifton Forge, thirteen miles distant. He is a member of the American and Virginia State Bar associations, a Mason, inclines to the Presbyterian church in religion, and in politics is a Democrat. Mr. W^illiamson is highly regarded as a lawyer and counsellor, and is interested in all that pertains to the public good.

George Addison Lea. For the early his- tory of the Lea family the searcher must seek in the records of Caswell county. North Carolina, wdiere his task will be an easy one, since for generations that district has con- tained those bearing the name, their con- nection with public affairs and enterprises appearing in each generation and filling the annals of the county with their works and deeds. There resided John Calvin Lea. grandfather of George Addison Lea, a native of the county, who married Hannah Slade, of Caswell county, brother of Nat Slade, a soldier in a North Carolina company in the Colonial army during the revolution. The story is told of Nat Slade that, when the Colonial force had encamped prior to the battle of Guilford Court House, he discovered a Tory spy in the camp, and was so enraged at his presence that he picked him up bodily and flung him into a large log fire about which the soldiers were grouped. Although a member of a family so indissolubly asso- ciated with the history of North Carolina, the life activity of George Addison Lea has been in Virginia scenes, and since his fif- teenth year he has been a resident of Dan- ville, linked with the business interests of that city at the present time as head of the