Page:Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography volume 5.djvu/434

 846

VIRGINIA BIOGRAPHY

Thomas Thornberg Blackford, born Feb- ruary 9, 1794, at Pine Grove Furnace, Cum- berland county, Maryland ; married Caroline Steinbergen, of Shenandoah county, Vir- ginia, and died in Lynchburg, Virginia, Feb- ruary 28, 1863, after a successful career as physician.

Joseph Arthur Blackford, born December 18, 1795; died June 18, 1797.

Jane Ege Blackford, born August 31, 1798, at Pine Grove Furnace ; married Wil- liam Powell Leiper ; died February 17, 1826, at Isabella Furnace, Page county, Virginia.

John Arthur Blackford, born February i, 1804, at Catoctin Furnace, Frederick county, Maryland, married (first) Catherine Smith, a sister of Governor William Smith, of Vir- ginia, and upon her death, married again.

Mary Martin Blackford, born October 13, 1806, at Catoctin Furnace; married (first) Joseph Lauk, and (second) James Arthur: died August 18, 1837.

William Matthews Blackford, father of Charles Minor Blackford, the fourth child of Benjamin and Isabella Blackford, was born at Catoctin l^'urnace, Frederick county, Maryland, on the 19th day of August, 1801, and died in Lynchburg, April 14, 1864. He was educated for the bar, but his literary tastes soon drew him away from his pro- fession to more congenial work, which his independent means gave him liberty to en- joy. For five or six years he edited and owned the "Political Arena," a Whig news- paper in Fredericksburg, wielding, with his strong and facile pen, great influence as its editor, as well as by reviews for many liter- ary magazines. In 1841, he was appointed by President Tyler charge d'afifairs to New Granada, where he made enviable record as a diplomatist. After four years he resigned, that he might come home, and accepted the position of editor of the "Lynchburg Vir- ginian," of which he became part owner. This paper, then the only Whig organ in that part of the state, was very flourishing and potential, and Mr. Blackford, justly re- garded as one of the ablest editors in Vir- ginia, added greatly to its power and in- fluence. In 1853, he sold out his interest in the "Virginian" to become cashier of the Exchange Bank of Lynchburg, where he continued until his death in 1864. Under his successful administration, this bank became the largest and most popular in the city. During the civil war he was financial agent

at Lynchburg for the Confederate govern- ment. He was not a strong man physically, and the mental anxieties incident to the war — those connected with his business and his solicitude for his five sons in the army — brought on an attack of some brain trouble, under which he died, after a few days' ill- ness, loved and respected by all who knew him.

He accumulated a large library of the choicest books, and was rarely in the house without reading or writing something. He used the few minutes of waiting for dinner each day in studying French, which he thus learned to read with such ease and fluency as to enjoy the literary classics of that lan- guage in the original. In a diary kept from 1841 until the week of his death he left a vivid and accurate picture of the times of which he wrote. A loyal churchman, he rep- resented his parish in the church conven- tions from 1827, and for many years was secretary of that body ; was senior warden of St. Paul's Church, Lynchburg, and the leading spirit in every movement connected with the good of the church. His was an unusual combination of that refined taste, broad culture, and trained intellect which, when coupled with strong business sense, leads to success in the paths of finance. His manners were perfect — winning friends and cementing friendships, impressing all who came in contact with him with the sincerity of his expressions, the honesty of his pur- pose and the singleness of his aim.

On the 1 2th of October, 1825, he married Mary Berkeley Minor, only daughter of General John Minor, of Fredericksburg, Virginia, and of his wife, Lucy Landon Minor [iicc Carter). The marriage was celebrated at "Topping Castle," General Minor's country seat on the North Anna river, in Caroline county, Virginia, an estate given to his grandfather, the first John Minor of Virginia, by his father-in-law, Thomas Carr.

Mrs. Blackford was born on the 2nd of December, 1802. at Hazel Hill, her father's Fredericksburg home. She and her mother were called in their day the two most beau- tiful women in Virginia, and she retained her beauty to the last. It was not, however, her personal loveliness, but her strength of character and the enthusiasm and poetic fire of her nature that made her a social power, wielding great influences for good. There