Page:Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography volume 5.djvu/655

 VIRGINIA BIOGRAPHY

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the Albemarle Female Institute, and at an early age became the wife of Thomas Davis Durrette, also of Greene county, Virginia. Children: i. Atwood Beazley, born in 1885, at his father's death assisted his mother with the home and farm. 2. Lizzie Lucretia, born in 188"; became the wife of Frank Kirtly. of Madison county, Virginia, and they are the parents of three children : Alary Kvle. Sinclair David, and Keyser. 3. Mamie James, born December 2, 1888; was graduated in trained nursing from The Retreat for the Sick, Richmond, Virginia, and by the display of executive ability and talent in the management of affairs was chosen, after six months of the most satis- factor\- service as nurse, for the position of superintendent of The Home for Incurables of Richmond ; much to the regret of both inmates and board of managers, a year later she became the wife of Starkey Hare, of North Carolina. 4. Carrie Epps, born in November 1891 ; has been making a fine record as trained nurse since her graduation from the Johnston-Willis Hospital in 1914; one of her teachers testified that she had everything necessary to the perfect nurse, a high recommendation. 5. Thomas Davis, born in October, 1895 ; has just received his graduating diploma from the high school in Greene county, Virginia. 6. Robert San- ford, born September 19, 1897, is a student in the same school as his brother, Thomas Davis.

Dr. Robert Sanford Beazley, thind son of Captain James and Elizabeth (Mills) Beaz- ley. and uncle of Dr. Wyatt Sanford Beaz- ley, whom in early childhood he nursed through two severe spells of illnes, was born in Greene county, Virginia, October 14. 1821, and died January 18, 190. He was a student at the University of \irginia, and received his diploma in mediciie from the Jefferson Medical College. Philacclphia, Pennsylvania. When but a lad, his father, while trying to determine which of lis two boys. W'yatt S. and Robert S., shoild be educated in medicine and which in lav. was brought to the decision by an accidnt in which a negro boy on the farm had a toe almost severed from the foot. The b<\-s in C|Uestion chanced to be present — Wyit S., the embryo lawyer, fainting, while R)bert S., the born physician, sewed it bact and nursed it until well again. With thi be- ginning, and taking later as his rotto.

"While there is life, there is hope," it is no wonder that he held on to his patients with a grip that seemed to challenge death, mak- ing his success in healing almost phenom- enal. .\fter sixty-four years of active prac- tice, done almost wholly on horseback, he continued frequent visits to the sick until his death in his eighty-ninth year.

There was an intermission of nine years in the sixty-four, during which, at the earn- est solicitation of the people of Albemarle and Greene counties, he reluctantly gave up his chosen work to serve as their represen- tative in the state senate. While there it was said of him as of Henry Clay, "He never said a word too much, never said a word too little, and always said the right word in the right place." One of his colleagues said that before voting on any important matter he desired no better information than that as to how Dr. Beazley would vote. His life there was not all sunshine, for while seated in a window in the house of delegates, when the latter was crowded to its utmost capacity, the galleries fell, killing many, and crushed through the floor beneath. He re- ceived a bad cut on the head by the falling plastering, but being forced to view so long the heartrending scene below while help- less to aid was by far, he said, the most try- ing part of his experience. His unexpired term in the senate was because of his re- signation on account of the long illness and death of his wife. For this reason he also declined his election to the famous Under- wood Constitutional Convention.

He never lost interest in the affairs and activities of life, but to the end kept pace with all advancement, especially in his own profession, and until his last moment was in full possession of his faculties. He lived the simple, temperate, natural life, and was never ill. Possessed of a remarkable purity, calmness and equanimity, and having "high erected ideas seated in a heart of courtesy" he was often referred to as a true type of the "old \'irginia gentleman."

Dr. Beazley married Sarah Early, of Albe- marle county, Virginia, and they were the parents of two daughters : Elizabeth Fan- ny and Sallie Early, and one son, James E., who married Edwina Graves, of Orange county, Virginia.

Robert Lewis Harrison. Robert Lewis Harrison, a prominent attorney of New York,