Page:Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography volume 5.djvu/448

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VIRGINIA BIOGRAPHY

and Lord Brooke to construct a fort at the mouth of the Connecticut river to keep back the Dutch. He afterwards purchased an island of three thousand acres od the east end of Long Island, and his property has descended in his family ever since. Mr. Tyler's maternal grandfather, Hon. David Gardiner, was born at East Hampton, Long Island, was educated at Yale College, served in the New York senate and was a man of dignity and character. His daughter, Julia Gardiner, born on Gardiner's Island, was celebrated for her beauty, and was married to President John Tyler, June 26, 1844.

Their son, Lyon Gardiner, was a strong, healthy boy and early displayed a studious disposition. And yet, though he never miss- ed a day from school, he loved outdoor exer- cises, especially hunting and fishing. As his father died when he was only eight years old, he fell wholly under the influence of his mother, who inspired him with some of her ambition to excel. She was indeed one of the most ambitious women that ever lived. He went first to school to Austin Ferguson, in Charles City county, Virginia, and when his mother left the South during the war (1861-1865), and took refuge with her little children at her mother's on Staten Island, New York, he was taught by Ralph Day- ton and Dr. Percey G. Mejer, who were ripe scholars in the classics. In February, 1870, he entered the University of Virginia, and in July, 1874, graduated with the degree of Bachelor of Arts. He then graduated in 1875, as Master of Arts. He next studied law one year under John B. Minor, but did not apply for graduation. While at the uni- versity, Mr. Tyler was twice elected by a committee of the faculty, orator of the Jef- ferson Society, and obtained the scholarship as the best editor of the magazine. After leaving the vmiversity, Mr. Tyler was elect- ed in January, 1877, professor of belles- lettres in William and Mary College, a posi- tion which he held until November, 1878, when he accepted an invitation to Memphis, Tennessee. Here Mr. Tyler was head of a high school for four years. At the end of that time he returned to Virginia, and, in September, 1882, settled in Richmond, where he entered on the law, and soon acquired a fair practice. His residence here lasted six years, and his work was very active in many lines. During this time he wrote the life of his father and grandfather in two large

volumes. He joined also with another young lawyer, Mr. Overton Howard, in founding the Virginia Mechanics' Institute night school ; and he was chairman of a commit- tee who appeared before the city council and obtained the first thousand dollars ever voted to its support. He was for five years one of the teachers in the institute and one of its board of managers. When he left Richmond, the institute was receiving four thousand dollars annually from the city, and was well equipped.

In 1887, Mr. Tyler was elected to the house of delegates from Richmond, and pa- tron in that body of the bill which reestab- lished the college of William and Mary (after a suspension of seven years), by ap- propriating to its support the sum of ten thousand dollars annually. He had the sat- isfaction of seeing the bill made a law, and in August, 1888, was elected by the board of visitors president of the college, to suc- ceed the venerable Benjamin S. Ewell. Among the testimonials presented by him to the board at the time of his election was one from Colonel William E. Peters, the dis- tinguished professor of Latin in the Univer- sity of Virginia, who wrote : "The friends of the college could not secure the services anywhere, within or without the state, of one who would more certainly reanimate the college. As a student I regarded him as one of the most promising and gifted men I ever taught. A man more fit for the position could not be found in America." He and his faculty have raised the institution from the dust, and placed it among the foremost col- leges in the state. He has repeatedly fought the battles of the college in congress, in the legislature, and the state convention, and considers the bill passed making the college a state institution the consummation of his labors in its behalf. The annuity of the col- lege has been raised by degrees from ten thousand dollars to forty thousand dollars, and special appropriations have been made by congress and the legislature aggregating one hundred and fifty thousand dollars. In addition to this. President Tyler has ob- tained by his own personal efiforts no incon- siderable sums of money from private sources. All this was done while the col- lege held the ubiquitous relation of being part state and part private institution, which very much handicapped the exertions of its friends