Page:Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography volume 4.djvu/753

 VIRGINIA BIOGRAPHY

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\^irginia. He was educated, first at home, under the care of a governess, and in the neighborhood schools ; then at the famous Hanover Academy, under Colonel Hilary Jones. From Hanover Academy he entered the University of Virginia for the academic course of four years. In September, 1877, after completing his course at the univer- sity, Mr. Taylor went to Petersburg, where he taught for two years in Colonel Gordon McCabe's well known University School. During the summer of 1879 ^^ returned to the university as a student in Professor John B. Minor's summer law school, and in the autumn of that year he began the prac- tice of law in Richmond, Virginia. The first day of February, 1886, Mr. Taylor was ap- pointed assistant solicitor of the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway Company, of which Gen- eral W. C. Wickham was then vice-presi- dent, and Mr. Henry T. Wickham, general solicitor. In 1907 Mr. Wickham was made general counsel of this road, and Mr. Taylor general solicitor. From 1901 to 1909, Mr. Taylor was also trial lawyer for the Rich- mond Passenger & Power Company. Dur- ing the twenty-eight years of his service with the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway Company, Mr. Taylor has attained to the front rank of his profession, and is recog- nized as one of the foremost railroad attor- neys in the state.

On June 8, 1886, Mr. Taylor was married to Virginia, daughter of the late well known author and humorist. Dr. George W. Bag- by, and has four children. His son, Henry Taylor IV., is assistant engineer of the American Bridge Company.

John Wesley Fergusson. When one con- siders that it is but one hundred and thirty- eight years since American independence was declared, one hundred and seventy-two years since the city of Richmond was laid out, one hundred and thirty-five years since it became the state capital and but one hun- dred and twenty-nine years since the first capitol building was erected in Capitol Square, it is then possible to realize the great age John Wesley Fergusson, founder of the printing house of J. W. Fergusson & Sons, had attained, eighty-eight years. At the time of his birth, 1821, Richmond was a city of about ten thousand population, and when in 1845 ^'^^ founded the present house of J. W. Fergusson &: Sons, the popu-

lation was but twenty-five thousand. His span of life covered the birth and growth of the locomotive, the steam boat, telegraph and all electrical invention, and he wit- nessed in his own business the marvelous progress that only an old time printer can appreciate. In short all that has occurred in the United States that is historically valuable since the first quarter of the nine- teenth century has occurred during the life- time of this man.

His own life was one of usefulness to the city, to his state and to the fraternal order to which he belonged, the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, of which for over half a century he was grand treasurer. His business career covered a period dating from 1845, when in association with W. H. Mc- Farland as McFarland & Fergusson, he succeeded to the business of T. W. White, who owned and published the "Southern Literary Messenger,"' with Edgar Allen Poe, John R. Thompson and B. B. Miner as editors. He saw the business section of Richmond and his own plant destroyed by fire, when Richmond was evacuated .\i)ri: 3, 1865, a plant he and his partners had labored for nearly twenty years to erect. But he saw the new Richmond arise from the ashes, and two years later, in partner- ship with C. P. Rady, his own plant was erected and a prosperous era begun. Then almost a centenarian, he saw that business in the capable hands of his sons, who as president and vice-president, secretary and treasurer, manage it as a corporation. He served city and church in an official capa- city, but his monument is the printing house of J. W. Fergusson & Sons, one of the old- est and strongest houses of Richmond. Richmond had nothing but praise and good wishes for her oldest, most highly respected adopted son.

John \\'esley Fergusson was born in Chesterfield county, Virginia, March 29. 182 1, son of George Fergusson, grandson of Robert Fergusson, and great-grandson of James Fergusson, who fought at Kings Mountain with the revolutionary forces. Robert Fergusson and his wife, Elizabeth, were residents of Chesterfield county, \'ir- ginia, where their son, George Fergusson. was born. George Fergusson married Ann Ursula Richardson, of New Kent county, Virginia. He died in Richmond at the age of seventy-six years. John \\'esley Fergus-