Page:Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography volume 5.djvu/445

 VIRGINIA BIOGRAPHY

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organization of the Lynchburg Bankers' Association, of which he was made presi- dent, and all his experience, ability, and in- fluence were cast in the scales to keep the balance which averted the threatened finan- cial disaster.

He never sought political position. On the contrary, he often refused nomination to office where nomination was equivalent to election. He believed it unwise to hold one"s support, or any position essential to happiness, at the will of any man or set of men ; that to be truly independent and happy, one should make his living outside of office or position. He took a deep inter- est, however, in public afifairs, and in every political crisis he was dependably counted upon as among the men who would always rally to the support of clean American prin- ciples of democracy, and do his part on the stump, in the press, or wherever public sen- timent could be moulded. First a Whig, and then a Democrat, he kept to his party allegiance until Bryan's advocacy of free silver drove him to vote for McKinley as the representative of sound finance.

Captain Blackford was a staunch church- man, as were his forebears before him. He was baptized in infancy in St. George's Church in his native parish, by Rev. Ed- ward C. McGuire, and confirmed in Orange county in 1862. His heritage and early train- ing fitted him for the prominent place he held in the affairs of the Episcopal church. Soon after the close of the war he took his place in the vestry of St. Paul's Church, Lynchburg, and was elected lay delegate from his parish to the council that met in 1867 in Trinity Church, Staunton, Virginia. From that time until his death, he ,was ab- sent from not more than two sessions' of the council. It is interesting to note that for more than three-quarters of a century, through him. his father, and his grandfather, the family represented the church in vestry, council and convention.

From the begmning he favored a division of the diocese of Virginia, and as early as 1877, offered a resolution looking to the creation of the diocese of Southern Virginia, though the division did not actually occur until 1892. In 1877 ^"d 1880 he was elected alternate lay delegate to the general con- vention. In 1888 he was elected a delegate and was one of the four lav delegates from

his diocese to every general convention of the church until his death.

Upon the organization of the diocese of Southern Virginia, he was made a member of the standing committee, which office he held until his death. He never spared him- self, but ever counted it a pleasure to give of his time and his talents to the church he loved. He was generous in impulse, broad in sympathy, and loyal in devotion, order- ing his life in harmony with the ideal of "strictness in essentials, liberty in non- essentials, charity in all things."

He contributed to the literature of the church a valuable paper on the subject of the division of the diocese of Virginia, and another on the "History of the Book of Common Prayer," both of which, in pam- phlet form, had wide circulation.

Captain I'.lackford's ability as a writer was called into use so often for gratuitous service to the public, in drafting important public documents and writing sketches of men and events, that little time was left from his otherwise busy life for the fullest expression of himself through this talent. A retentive but discriminating memory, en- riched by a keen appreciation of historical and dramatic values, and brightened by a keen sense of humor, had stored up for him a rich fund of incidents connected with periods of unusual interest in \^irginia. His great desire had been to retire from the active practice of law and spend his declin- ing years in recording these pictures of the Virginia he had known and loved and helped to make. Guided by these tastes he had accumulated the library needed for their cultivation and gratification. His address as president of the Virginia Bar Association stating his "reasons why the lawyer should devote a part of his time and labor to litera- ture and why its cultivation is essential to the full development of the powers and pleasures of the great calling and should not be neglected by any lawyer who desires that his reputation should outlive his day and generation," pictures the literary pleas- ures in which he longed to indulge. Into that paper, subsequently printed in pam- phlet form to supply the great demand for it. he wrote himself and his ideals. Death came before this loved labor could be per- formed, and the state suffered an irreparable loss to its literature and to its history.