Page:Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography volume 4.djvu/747

 VIRGINIA BIOGRAPHY

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ing his name. Mr. Richardson is a director of one of the banks of his city, holding phice en the executive committee of that institu- tion. He was for eight years a member of the common council of Richmond, and for six years served on the finance committee of the city. In these offices he gave to Rich- mond the best benefits of a mind finely trained, reasoning powers acutely devel- oped, and qualities of judgment reliable and wise, and has ever, whether or not the in- cumbent of official position, supported and championed projects for a better and greater Richmond. He holds the Knights Templar degree in the Masonic order, and has passed all the chairs in Richmond Lodge, No. lo, Free and Accepted Masons, being now a member of the historical committee of that lodge. His church is the Monument Metho- dist Episcopal. Afr. Richardson is a gentle- man of broad views and sentiments, cul- tured in his tastes, and finding in his daily business more than a struggle for means of existence, a field in which each man is pitted against his neighbor on equal foot- ing, victory falling to him who seizes his advantages quickest, and in which good spirit and fair play abound. He is well liked by business associates, and possesses a wide circle of friends. His business suc- cess has come through sound merit and in- dustrious labor.

Mr. Richardson married, in Richmond, Virginia, April 26, 1892, Octavia Virginia Christian, born in James City county, Vir- ginia, October 19, 1868. daughter of Ed- mund Turner and Edmonia Virginia (Wal- ker) Christian, of Charles City county. Mr. and Mrs. Richardson have one child, Evelyn Christian, born January 6, 1895. ^^~ sides at home.

William McKendree Evans is one of a class of men. but too few in number, which into this time of laxer standards has car- ried the ideals and convictions of a more precise age. and proven, what today is too often doubted, that they pay. It is char- acteristic of him that in stating the prin- ciples and habits which he deems essential to the young men of the present, he com- presses his advice into a few short words. "Honesty, integrity, if a thing is worth do- ing at all. it is worth doing your very best." this, he believes, is the essence of true suc- cess.

Mr. I'lvans was born in Richmond, Vir- ginia. February I, 1847, the son of William and Margaret (Patrick) Evans. His father was a native of England, having been born at Newcastle-on-Tyne in the month of Sep- tember, 1789, the son of a third William Evans. He came to America in 181 1, when twenty-two years of age, and landed in Philadelphia, I^ennsylvania. He did not stay in that city long, however, but removed to N'irginia the following year and settled in Richmond, where he engaged in the busi- ness of building and constructing. He was a man of markedly upright life in the full meaning of the term, and was a staunch Methodist in spirit as well as in name. He died Alay 23, 1854, at the age of sixty- five. ]\Irs. Evans, our subject's mother, was a daughter of James Patrick, a man of ScotchTrish blood and a Presbyterian in religion, who was an immigrant to this country at an unknown date, and a settler in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. From these sturdy stocks is William McKendree Evans sprung and his youth fell upon stirring times, times to try what of worth there was in a man. He was educated in the paid schools of the period under such instructors as Roger Martin, E. W. Cone and others, but at the beginning of his fifteenth year, the breaking out of the civil war caused him to leave school and accept a second lieu- tenancy in Company G, Danforth's Battal- ion of Local Reserves. He held this posi- tion for a time, doing provost duty in Rich- mond, and later resigned to enlist as a pri- vate in the Army of the Confederacy. He served from 1862 to 1865 in Parker's bat- tery. Colonel Stephen D. Lee's artillery bat- talion, and during this period he was de- tached for courier duty for Colonels Lee and E. P. Alexander. In 1883 he was made first lieutenant in the Richmond Light In- fantry Blues, and became assistant adjutant general of the First Brigade of \'irginia Volunteers un.der (ienerals Charles J. .An- derson and A. L. Phillips, an office he held for eight or nine years. He is also a retired officer of Virginia Volunteers.

Upon the close of the war, Mr. Evans re- turned from Point Lookout where he had been a prisoner of war, and went to Peters- burg, X'irginia, where he obtained a position with Plummer. Young & Company, work- ing in their office until 1876, when he en- tered the employ of Millhiser & Company