Page:Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography volume 5.djvu/226

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VIRGINIA BIOGRAPHY

prominence. Since November, 1883, in ad- dition to his exacting professional duties, Mr. Watts has headed as president the offi- cial organization of the Bank of Portsmouth, the oldest banking institution in the city, and as a financier has attained reputation, rivalling his professional standing. Mr. Watts v^'as for eight years president of the Portsmouth council, and as office holder or private citizen has aided all that has tended to benefit the city of his birth, whether the proposed reforms were political, social, edu- cational or moral. By appointment of Gov- ernor Fitzhugh Lee he served for one term as a director of the Eastern Lunatic Asy- lum, and by appointment of the same official was for two terms a member of th« board of visitors of the University of Virginia. In 1880 Mr. Watts was presidential elector on the Democratic ticket from the second dis- trict of Virginia, and in 1888 presided over the Democratic state convention. Aflfairs of party engaged a great deal of his time dur- ing this period, but he steadfastly refused the request of his fellow citizens that he ac- cept public office, continuing his party ser- vice to work in the organization and remain- ing a member of the executive committee during the chairmanship of the Hon. John S. Barbour.

As a young man Mr. Watts interrupted bis studies to offer himself for service in the army of the Confederate States, and saw duty principally in the Carolinas, being paroled at Greensboro, North Carolina, from that place returning to his home. For one term he served as commander of Stonewall Jackson Camp, Confederate Veterans, of Richmond, and has ever been an interested member of that organization. He is a mem- ber of the leading bar associations, and for two years held the supreme agency of the Royal Arcanum.

Mr. Watts holds the lasting regard and re- spect that comes as a tribute to a life lived usefully and uprightly. He is highly re- garded as a lawyer, won the approval of the bar and of all right living people when in judicial position, and when large business interests called for his services proved him- self the capable executive and able financier. The demands that have been made upon him have been many and weighty, and in the fulfillment of responsibilities and difficult trusts he has never failed those who relied upon him. Mr. W^atts is a communicant of the Protestant Episcopal church.

Legh Richmond Watts married, Novem- ber 26, 1868, at Portsmouth, Virginia, Mat- tie P., daughter of William H. and Mary A, ( Reed ) Peters.

T. Allen Kirk, A. B., M. D. Dr. T. Allen Kirk, of Roanoke, Virginia, whose deep and widely extended research into the fields of medical science render him particularly fitted for the practice of his chosen profes- sion, has spared neither time nor personal sacrifice in the cause of alleviating the stif- ferings of humanity. He is the son of Dr. James Dallas Kirk, of further mention ; grandson of James Kirk, a farmer and mil- ler of Waterford county, Pennsylvania, and a great-grandson of William Kirk, a miller and distiller.

Dr. James Dallas Kirk, born in Hancock, Washington county, Maryland, in 1843, re- ceived his preparatory education under pri- vate tuition, then studied medicine in the Long Island Medical College, Brooklyn, New York, and at the Bellevue Hospital College, New York City. He established himself in the practice of his profession in Bedford county. Pennsylvania, where he re- mained luitil 1882, then came to Roanoke, \'irginia, where he had an extended practice until his retirement in 1910. He has been one of the foremost business men in many directions, and erected the first brick busi- ness block in the town. He was one of the organizers and builders of the Roanoke & Southern Railway, now a part of the Nor- folk & Western system ; served the city on the board of education and on the board of public works, and has been for many years a director of the First National Rank of Roanoke. Dr. Kirk married Mary Elizabeth Gettys, daughter of Thomas and Eliza Jane (Anderson) Gettys: granddaughter of John Anderson, Sr., born in 1767 in Kent county, Delaware ; great-granddaughter of David Anderson, a native of Ireland, but of Scotch descent ; and a granddaughter of Thomas R. Gettys, editor of a newspaper in Bedford county, Pennsylvania. Gettysburg, Penn- sylvania, is named in honor of this family-

Dr. T. Allen Kirk was born in East Free- dom, Blair county, Pennsylvania, June 14, 1877. He was a young child when his par- ents removed to Roanoke, \'irginia, and he attended the public schools of that town, be- ing graduated from the high school. He then matriculated at the Hampden-Sidney College, Virginia, from which he was grad-