Page:Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography volume 5.djvu/204

 692

VIRGINIA BIOGRAPHY

college, an office he held until his call to the presidency in 1910. To the requirements of this last office he has made able and ample answer, and, aided, by a faculty learned and competent, and supported by a board of trustees with the best welfare of the college at heart, he has turned the college toward a new era of usefulness and prosperity, with the highest aims of education as its goal. In addition to the activities mentioned pre- viously, Dr. Flory has been otherwise busied as an instructor in summer institutes held at Winchester, Fredericksburg and Harri- sonburg, Virginia. He is a Democrat in political faith, and is a member of the Church of the Brethren, and member of the general educational board of the same. Bridgewater College is an educational insti- tution of this church. His college frater- nity is the Phi Beta Kappa, and he has been a member of the Virginia Historical Society.

Dr. Flory married (first) August 12, 1897, Nannie Coppock, born near Tippe- canoe City, Miami county, Ohio, Novem- ber 25, 1871, died July 20, 1898. She at- tended the country and township schools prior to her entrance of Bridgewater Col- lege in September, 1888. She was here a student for nearly two years, and after teaching for one year in Kentucky, entered Juniata College, Pennsylvania, failing health causing her removal to a sanitarium at Battle Creek, Michigan. The next fall she returned to Juniata, and for the two follow- ing years was a teacher in her home school, her efforts meeting with marked success. Fler death occurred less than one year after her marriage. Dr. Flory married (second) in 1908, Vinnie, born in Covington, Ohio, in 1S71, daughter of A. F. and Jennie (Berry) Mikesell, and has children, all born at Bridgewater, Virginia : Susan May, born May 30, 1909: John Samuel, born Septem- ber 5, 1910; Robert Mikesell, born February 21, 1912; and Janet Cordelia, born Novem- ber I, 1913.

Richard Blackburn Washington. The

family of Washington was founded in Eng- land by "Thorfin the Dane," whose ancestors came from Denmark and settled in ancient Ebor or Yorkshire prior to Norman con- quest. The name Washington is of Saxon origin and antedates the coming. The vil- lage of Wassyngton, from which the name Washington is derived, is mentioned in a

Saxon charter as granted by King Edgar i'l 973 to Thornby Abbey. This village, now called Wharton, is in the North Riding of Yorkshire. Twenty generations from Thorfin the Dane came Colonel John Wash- ington, American ancestor of the famous Virginia family that gave to America George W'ashington, the first president of the United States and one of the world's great characters. Colonel John Washington is the lineal ancestor of Richard Blackburn Wash- ington, of .\lexandria, Virginia, who is of the eighth American generation.

The original arms of the Washington family is thus given by Burke : "Vert a lion rampant, argent within a bordure gobo- nated or. and azure." Crest — "Out of a ducal coronet or, an eagle, wings addorsed, sable." Motto — Eritits acta probat. The arms as used- by President Washington are : "Ar- gent, two bars gules, in chief three mullets of the second gules." Crest — "A raven with wings addorsed sable, issuing out of a ducal coronet or."

Laurence and John Washington, the two youngest sons of Leonard and Anne Wash- ington, of Wharton, Lancastershire, Eng- land, came to America in 1659, two years after their father's death. Both purchased land in Westmoreland county, Virginia, be- tween the Potomac and Rappahannock rivers, Lawrence later moving to Rappahan- nock county, Virginia, where he died early in January, 1677. The line of descent to President Washington is that of Colonel John Washington, the youngest of the two brothers.

Colonel John W^ashington was baptized at Wharton, Lancastershire, England, in 1627. He arrived in America in 1659, a pas- senger in a ship commanded by John Greene. He located at Bridge's Creek on his plantation in Westmoreland county, near the Potomac river. He was colonel in the Virginia forces against the Seneca Indians who were ravaging the Potomac settlement, was a magistrate, member of the house of burgesses, warden of the old "White Chapel" in Lancaster county, Virginia, an extensive planter. In honor of his public services and his private virtues, the parish in which he resided was called after him and still bears the name of Washington. He died early in January, 1677, within a few days of his brother, Laurence, and lies buried in a vault on Bridge's Creek which for generations was the family sepulchre.