Page:Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography volume 5.djvu/326

 770

VIRGINIA BIOGRAPHY

born at Wheeling. West Virginia ; married Alfred Walton, of Norfolk, Virginia, and has a daughter, Frances Baker. 4. William Keene, born in Wheeling, West Virginia ; educated in the grammar and high schools of Woodstock ; married Maude Steele, of Stephens City, and has a daughter, Dorothy. 5. James Carr (3), born in Woodstock, \"ir- ginia ; now connected with the Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad Company at Newport News.

John Langbourne Williams. John Lang- bourne Williams, son of John and Sianna Armistead (Dandridge) Williams, was born in Richmond, Virginia, July 13, 1831, and continued an honored resident of his native city until his death. February 11, 1915, in his eighty-fourth year. His father, John W'il- liams, of Scotch-Irish descent, was also a business man of Richmond, holding at one time the office of treasurer of the Richmond & Petersburg Railroad Company. The lat- ter's wife, Sianna Armistead (Dandridge) A\'iniams, was a daughter of ^^'illiam Dan- dridge. of New Kent county, Virginia, and granddaughter of Judge Bartholomew Dan- dridge, brother of the wife of George Wash- ington, the first President. The collateral lines of descent lead to many of the noted families of Virginia.

John L. W'illiams was educated in the schools of Richmond, preparatory and col- legiate, winning his degree. Master of Arts, at the University of Virginia. For a short time after leaving the university, he taught in Loretto Academy, Essex county, \''ir- ginia, and also prepared for the practice of law. He did not long continue at the bar, finding it uncongenial, and began his long and successful career as a banker by enter- ing the banking house of John A. Lancas- ter & Son, at Richmond, continuing there until he established his own business. After the war he founded the private banking house of John L. Williams in Richmond, and later, with his sons, John Skelton, Robert Lancaster. Langbourne, and his son-in-law, Eli Lockert Bemis, reorganized as John L. ^^'illiams & Sons. This became one of the strong, well-known banking houses of the state, and has ever been prominent in the development of railway properties, not only in Richmond, and Virginia, but throughout the south. Among these may be named the Georgia & Alabama railroad, and the Sea Board Air Line. The operations of John L.

Williams & Sons have included many of the valuable enterprises of Richmond, the his- tory of this house having ever been one of usefulness and honor.

During the war the firm of John A. Lan- caster & Son, with which Mr. Williams was connected, acted as fiscal agent for the Con- federate government, and provided the sin- ews of war, through successive flotations of Confederate States bond issues. During that period Mr. Williams bore heavy responsi- bilities and gained experience of correspond- ing value. His relationship with the finances of the Confederate government brought him into intimate acquaintance with President Davis, General Lee and others of the great official and military leaders, while later oper- ations as railroad financier and banker brought him in close contact with the great captains of the industrial republic ; his part being as a leader of the economic reconstruc- tion of the South.

Throughout his entire life he was an ardent reader and student, a constant writer for tfie press along philosophical and re- ligious lines ; a philanthropist, active in church and educational causes, and a distin- guished layman of the Protestant Episcopal church. For nearly half a century he was treasurer of the Missionary Society of the Diocese ; for nearly as long represented his church in the diocesan council, and was sev- eral times a delegate to the general conven- tion of the Protestant Episcopal church. He was president for several years of the "Southern Churchman Company;" president of the Virginia Bible Society : president of the Richmond Male Orphan Society ; treas- urer of the Virginia Negro Reformatory; president of the Virginia State School for Colored Deaf and Blind Children, and presi- dent of the Memorial Hospital, the latter institution made possible by the generosity of Mr. \\'illiams and his family, they thus honored the memory of a departed daughter and sister.

To his alma mater, the University of Vir- ginia, he was ever the generous friend, money, books and portraits having been be- stowed with a lavish hand. The portraits of Chief Justice Marshall and Commodore Maury were presented by him and adorn the university librar}', together with a "Tablet of Principles" from the same source. A man of broad culture, his "Observations" and "A Little Philosophy," so long a weekly feature of Richmond papers, were of rare interest