Page:Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography volume 5.djvu/439

 VIRGINIA BIOGRAPHY

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would have turned a less forceful man aside from the path to successful achievement. The money was the least of his reward, for he always said his love of the Bible had its foundation in the words then memorized and never forgotten, and that the task was re- lieved of its tedium by his grandmother's pleasure in his efforts.

In 1846 his father removed his family to Lynchburg, and, except for the years spent in the Confederate service, the remainder of Mr. Blackford's long and successful life was interwoven with the business, civic and social life of that city, where he lived until his death, earning the right to be designated as its "busiest, brainiest and most useful citizen."

He records the date of his arrival in Lynchburg as "Tuesday, the second day of September, 1846, when nearly thirteen years of age," and adds: "We went up the river by canal boat from Richmond, making the journey in what was then considered quick time, 40 hours" (one hundred and forty-six miles).

In Fredericksburg he went to school suc- cessively to Mr. Sterling, Mr. Dodd and Mr. Halsey. In Lynchburg he was sent first to Dunn & Saunders, who had a large school in the Odd Fellows' Hall, on Twelfth street, between Church and Alain. After a month his father, thinking it wiser to make other provision for the education of his sons, en- gaged J\Ir. Lancelot M. Kean as tutor for them and some other bojs. In this private school, under different teachers, Mr. Black- ford studied until 1849, when he went to a large academy in Louisa county, taught by Mr. John A. Winston. After one year at this academy, he entered the University of Virginia, on October i, 1850, seventeen years of age, "too young and not prepared," he writes, "this was a mistake and I have felt its ill effects all my life. I was very happy, but by no means a distinguished stu- dent." After devoting three years to aca- demic classes at the university, he entered the law school on the 1st of (Dctober, 1853, under Professors John B. Minor and James P. Holcombe, and graduated Bachelor of Laws on June 29, 1853.

The influence which determined his voca- tion is interesting in this day of much con- cern for "pre-vocational guidance." A famous bank embezzlement case, involving large sums of money and people of promi-

nence, was of such paramount interest to the whole community that curiosity drew him to the court house on the first day of the trial. He says:

I was in a court house for the first time. I pushed my way up near the judge (Judge Daniel Wilson) who recognized me and called me up to a seat near him, and was very kind in explaining to me what was going on, I got interested and sat during the day's proceedings. When court ad- journed the judge invited me to come the ne.xt day and oiTered me the same seat. I accepted and never missed an hour of the trial during the three weeks it lasted. This taste of legal proceedings made me determine to be a lawyer.

On the 1st of August, 1855, he commenced the practice of law in Lynchburg, in a part- nership with Mr. William Tudor Yancey, dissolved after two years. From August, 1857, until the beginning of the civil war he practiced alone. Of this period he says :

My success was not particularly brilliant, but it was sure and steady, and in the year immediately preceding the closing of my office and going to war, I collected $1,750.00, which for the fifth year of practice was very encouraging. The sum docs not look large to me now, but then I considered it astonishing.

Immediately after leaving the university, he became engaged to Miss Susan Leigh Colston, and they were married by the Rev. Dabney C. T. Davis, on Tuesday, February 17, 1856, at "Hill and Dale," the country home of her brother, Raleigh Colston, in Albemarle county, he in his twent3'-third year and she in her twenty-second. His account of their wedding gives too true and vivid a picture of days and customs that are past to be omitted. Fle writes :

The wedding was typical of the Virginian hos- pitality of the day. The winters of 1855-6 and 1856-7 were made famous for their great snows, and at the time of the wedding the snow was very deep, hard and dry. The houses of all the gentlemen of the neighborhood, like Mr. Colston's, were crowded with guests who had come to the wedding, and they, with the numbers who came up from Char- lottesville, made a large and gay company. I had been a student of the University of Virginia for five years and had graduated in law the year before and my wife had been a well known and popular member of Albemarle and Charlottesville society for several years, so we were well known. The festivities lasted for nearly a week and we went from house to house, as was the custom of those days, and every innocent pleasure which ingenuity could dictate or youth suggest wiled away the happy hours.

At that time there was no railroad from Char-