Page:Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography volume 5.djvu/623

 VIRGINIA BIOGRAPHY

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Euclid Chapter, No. 15, Royal Arch Masons, of Danville, Virginia ; and Danville Com- mandery. No. 7, Knights Templar. Me has ever been active in the order and is highly regarded by his brethren. He is a well known and well appreciated lecturer before Masonic bodies, his most instructive and interesting discourses being "The Letter C" and "Olympia." He is also a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows.

Dr. Smith married, May 30, 1882, Vir- ginia Henry I very, born in Southampton county, \'irginia, in 1859, daughter of John Cato J very and maternal granddaughter of Peter Quick Beekman, a descendant of the Dutch family early settled in the Hudson Valley. The Beekman line traces to Wil- helmus and Maria ISeekman. Mrs. Smith descending from ^\'ilhelmus Beekman "Van Zuphen," who was born April 28, 1623, at Hassell, in Oberyssel, Holland, son of Hend- rick Beekman, born at Keulen, September 14, 1585, and his second wife, Maria, daugh- ter of Rev. \\'ilhelmus Baudartius. This branch came to America in 1647. Dr. and Mrs. Smith have a daughter. Ivery Lucille, born at Boykins, Virginia, June 30, 18S8, a graduate A. B. of Intermount Women's Col- lege, of Richard, Virginia. She married Will H. Daniels, of Asheville. North Caro-

John Dudley George Brow^n. When this young but great republic, the leviathan of the "New World," was born through the travail of our courageous forefathers, there was given, a common possession to all parts of it, those republican institutions to which we have not tired of pointing with a just pride. That possession has continued com- m,on to all those that dwell within our borders to the present time, but never has there been better illustrated the truth that true freedom resides not in any institution, but in the spirit of the people that make use of them, than in the different conditions which we can observe obtaining under them in the different quarters of the land. In some of our more highly developed indus- trial communities, indeed, so far as any real freedom is enjoyed by the average man, we might as well be living under a despotism: where as, on the other hand there are broad realms where the primitive simplicity has survived and an actual democracy still ob- tains. Of the latter, speaking broadly, may

be classed the state of Virginia, with its strong feeling for state rights and its respect and affection for the splendid traditions of the past. Here, indeed, the distinction be- tween the classes is drawn, and firmly drawn, but there is no fear on the part of any class to mingle freely with the others, and the proudest of the community rub shoulders with the humblest, especially in the realm of politics, where it so important that enlightenment should prevail. So it is that the example of such men as Judge John Dudley George Brown, whose death Janu- ary 20, 1915, cast a gloom of the city of Newport News, is so valuable and so well worthy of imitation elsewhere.

Judge Brown springs from an old and most honorable Virginian family, his grand- father, who bore the same name as he, hav- ir.g been a large plantation owner in Han- over county, Virginia, and a very prominent figure in the life of the region. The elder John D. G. Brown was born in 1800 and died in 1877, passing all his years in his native community, where he was known as a great agriculturist and particularly as a grower of corn. Lie married Harriet Shep- pard, born in 1799, died November 29, 1880, one of their children being Joseph Booth Brown, the father of Judge Brown, whose name heads this sketch.

The lot of Joseph Booth Brown fell on troublous times, the great war which so grievously divided the country breaking out during his young manhood. Mr. Brown, .^r., was no laggard' and he hastened to forces which his beloved state was putting into the field, enlisting as a jjrivate in the Hanover Dragoons, under the command of Captain William C. AVickham. The com- pany was assigned to the Fourth Cavalry Regiment in the brigade of General Fitz- hugh Lee. Captain Wickham was at once ajipointed colonel of this regiment which the promotion of Fitzhugh Lee to rank of brigadier left without a head. With this regiment Mr. Brown served throughout the war, seeing much active service and taking part in numerous great engagements and many daring cavalry raids under his gal- lant and intrepid commander. He was se- verely wounded also at the battle of Kelly's Ford, when he lost a portion of his right hand. He married, .September. 1862. Fannie l.avinia Taylor, of Scotchtown, Hanoyer county, X'irginia. To them were born three