Page:Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography volume 4.djvu/723

 VIRGINIA BIOGRAPHY

533

and is a member of Frank Paxton Camp, Sons of Confederate Veterans. Whether considered as public official, fraternity mem- ber or citizen, Mr. Shields shows no weak- nesses and is deservedly popular in his city and county.

Alonzo A. Patrick, the much honored treasurer of the city of Hampton, Virginia, comes of an old and highly respected family which for a number of generations has been closely identified with that city and state. His grandfather. Richard Patrick, was a prominent man in the neighborhood, where he was the proprietor of a large tract of land and a most successful farmer. He also fol- lowed the trade of carpenter and was equally successful in that calling. He was the father of three children, as follows: John R., Lucy, Henrietta.

The eldest of these, John R. Patrick, the father of Alonzo A. Patrick, was born in Hampton in the year 1831, and spent the years of his childhood near that place. He attended the excellent public schools of York county and upon completing his stud- ies learned the trade of carpenter from his father. For a time he continued in this trade, but as time went on, by dint of hard work and his more than common skill, he saved enough to enable him to start in busi- ness on his own account. His first enter- yirise was as a contracting carpenter and builder, and in this he succeeded trom the outset, but he later became the owner of a saw mill and supplied dressed and undressed lumber to the building trade. His affairs were in a highly prosperous state in 1861, when the breath of the civil war swept across the land, causing all those who had before been engaged in productive industry to take in hand the destroying sword. It was so in the case of Mr. Patrick who, leav- ing his mills and his lumber, hastened to join the Coniederate army. He enlisted in the Wythe Rifles, and served with that com- pany for a time when, there being a need for carpenters in Richmond, his skill was called into requisition and he was sent to that city to assist in the construction of vessels going on there. Here he remained until the close of the war. when he returned to his native region and there resumed his contracting and lumber business in which he continued until his death, November 11, 1896.

John R. Patrick married (first) Catherine

Host, a daughter of Richard Host, of Hamp- ton, Virginia, and they became the parents of three children, Evelyn, Alonzo A., who is mentioned at length below, and Estelle K. The eldest child, Evelyn Patrick, was born in the year 1855, and died in 1905. She was married in 1872 to W^illiam D. House, of Hampton, Virginia, where he was born in 1847. He survived his wife five years. To them were born eight children, as fol- lows : Mabel L., born June 20, 1875, mar- ried Isaac T. Jones, June 12, 1900, and is the mother of three children, Lawrence L., Charles W^ilton, and William ; William John, born April 18, 1881, married Maud Mahone, December 20, 191 1; Kate, de- ceased ; Lucille, deceased ; Berdie, married Lloyd McClellan, of Richmond, Virginia, and became the mother of three children, Lucille. Evelyn and Catherine, and is now deceased ; Berenice ; Florence ; Richard. The third child of John R. and Catherine (Host) Patrick, Estelle K. Patrick, was born Janu- ary 28, 1861. After the death of his first wife, John R. Patrick married (second) Susan Massenburg, a daughter of James Massenburg, of Hampton, Virginia, where she was born July 26, 1830. There was one child of this union, a son, Richard James Patrick, a sketch of whom appears else- where in this work. John R. Patrick was a conspicuous figure in the affairs of his community, a man of democratic ideas and the friend of all men. Politically he was a member of the Democratic party, and be- longed to the Independent Order of Odd Fellows.

Alonzo A. Patrick, the second child of John R. and Catherine (Host) Patrick, was born August 6, 1858, in Hampton, Elizabeth City county, Virginia, where, with the ex- ception of an absence of about a year, he has made his home ever since. He obtained his education in the public schools of his native region, and upon completing his studies there, apprenticed himself to his father, who was then engaged in the lumber and contracting business, to learn that trade. He was thus engaged until the year 1882 when, feeling that it would be valuable to him to gain some experience away from home, or perhaps urged thereto by a young man's desire to see the world, he began work as a journeyman carpenter, a task for which his training had well fitted him, and for several years found employment in this