Page:Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography volume 5.djvu/360

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VIRGINIA BIOGRAPHY

continued at the same location, and during this time has acquired a very high repu- ' tation for work. He is known everywhere south of Washington, and his studio is one of the best equipped in the state of Virginia. At the present time i\Ir. Foster is giving much attention to painting in oil, and his reputation as an artist in this direction is very high. Mr. Foster is deeply absorbed in his work, and has given very little atten- tion to other matters. In disposition he is modest and retiring, and he has never sought any part in the direction of public aiifairs. He is an active member of the Christadel- phian Church of Richmond, and is affiliated with the Masonic fraternity, a member of Highland Park Lodge, No. 292, Free and Accepted Masons, and has attained the thirty-second degree in Scottish Rite Ma- sonry. In Masonic circles he is highly esteemed, and is known for his fidelity to the broad fraternal principles of the order. These principles guide the conduct of his daily life, and thus he is esteemed outside of Masonic circles for his manly worth and large-hearted sympathy.

He married, February 21, 1877, Carrie S. Hughes, a daughter of Josiah and Sallie (Ellison) Hughes, of Richmond. They are the parents of two children: i. Dr. Walter Brownley Foster, at present head of the health department of the city of Roanoke, Virginia, a position which he has held with credit and honor; he married Clara Cren- shaw, and they have three children : G. H., Constance and Gene Foster. 2. Nellie Vir- ginia, wife of Arthur W. Orpin, who is an able assistant of his father-in-law in the photographic studio ; Mr. and Mrs. Orpin have two children : Helen R. and ^Valter Foster.

Armistead Churchill Gordon, LL. D. An enumeration of the men of the present gen- eration who have won honor and public rec- ognition for themselves, and at the same time for the state to which they belong, would be incomplete were there failure to make mention in a prominent manner of Armistead Churchill Gordon, LL. D., of Virginia.

The maternal ancestry of Mr. Gordon in- cludes the father of Colonel Nathaniel Ba- con, the elder, member of the council, and cousin of Nathaniel Bacon, sometime called "The Rebel ;" Lewis Burwell, first of that name in the colony ; William Bassett, pro-

genitor of the Bassetts of "Eltham," New Kent county; Colonel John Stith, in Vir- ginia in 1663, grandfather of William Stith, the historian and president of the College of William and Mary; Colonel Miles Gary, first of that name in Virginia; William Ran- dolph, of Turkey Island, who was the an- cestor of the distinguished Randolph fam- ily; Colonel Nicholas Long, of Halifax, North Carolina, commissary-general of the North Carolina troops in the revolutionary war ; and Barnabas McKinne, of Edenton, North Carolina, a colonial landed proprietor and magnate of the early half of the eight- eenth century.

James Gordon, the first of this family at Sheepbridge, in county Down, Ireland, was there in 1692, and was of a cadet branch of the ancient Gordons of Lesmoir, in Aber- deenshire. Scotland. He married Jane Campbell, whose mother was of the house of Wallace, of Elderslie, Scotland.

James Gordon, son of James and Jane (Campbell) Gordon, was of Sheepbridge, in the lordship of Newry, county Down, Ire- land, and married Sarah Greenway. Among their children were: John, of further men- tion : Colonel James Gordon, an eminent planter of Lancaster county, who married Mary Harrison, daughter of Colonel Na- thaniel Harrison, of Surry county, and had a daughter, Elizabeth, who married her cousin John, as mentioned below.

John Gordon, son of James and Sarah (Greenway) Gordon, married Lucy, daugh- ter of Colonel Armistead Churchill, of Mid- dlesex county.

James Gordon, son of John and Lucy (Churchill) Gordon, removed from Rich- mond county, which he represented in the house of delegates in 1781, to Orange, and resided at Germanna. in that county, which he represented in the state constitutional convention in 1788. He was a planter. He married Elizabeth Gordon, a daughter of Colonel James and Mary (Harrison) Gor- don, mentioned above.

General William Fitzhugh Gordon, sec- ond son of James and Elizabeth (Gordon) Gordon, was of "Edgeworth," Albemarle county, Virginia, and was for a long time distinguished in the political annals of the state. It was to the combined influence of Hon. Joseph C. Cabell in the senate, and General Gordon in the house of delegates, that Mr. Jefferson largely attributed the success of the bill establishing the Univer-