Page:Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography volume 5.djvu/730

 io62

VIRGINIA BIOGRAPHY

fiance. Here the Union forces were repulsed and driven back by the AlcCulloch Rangers under Lieutenant Buckner's command. After the close of hostilities, he accepted the re- sult, and sometimes entertained his friends who had formerly been his enemies on the field of battle. His homestead at "Island View" had been the scene of a serious en- gagement in February, 1864, and when he returned to it after the war, he found it swept of everything, only the house remain- ing. With his war horse and a yoke of oxen, he began plowing, and soon had crops growing. From the multitude of bullets with which his fields had been peppered, he moulded gunshot, and was able to sup- ply his table from the plentiful game of the vicinity, no other meats being obtain- able. He did not repine over the devasta- tion wrought by the war, but set indus- triously to woik to repair his fortunes, and by advice and example, brought up his sons to be energetic and efficient. His plantation was rapidly restored to its condition as the home of plenty and hospitality. A well read, polished and refined gentleman, he was a hospitable entertainer and instructive con- versationalist. Here he continued to reside until his death. He married, at Chestnut Valley, Caroline county, Virginia, November 22, 1853, Louisa Fitzhugh Dickinson, daugh- ter of William I. and Jane Richard ( Buck- ner), the last named a daughter of Thomas Buckner, of "Lake Farm," Caroline county, Virginia. Children : Bailey, William Dickin- son, Louisa CJohn Strother, Aylett Hawes, Marshall Dulany and Lucy.

William Dickinson Buckner, second son of Major Caldwell Calhoun and Louisa Fitz- hugh (Dickinson) Buckner, was born Au- gust 4, 1856, at "Marengo," near Fredericks- burg, and received his elementary and pri- mary education at the Rappahannock Acad- emy. He pursued the scientific course at Ran- dolph-Macon College, graduating in 1879. This included a special course in engineer- ing, and he also took a three years' course ill English, Latin and German. Two years were devoted to teaching, and his spare time was occupied in practical surveying. In 1881 he became assistant engineer on the exten- sion of the Chesapeake & Ohio railroad through eastern Kentucky, and in January of the following year was transit man in charge of a locating party, and made the first survey of the Kentucky Central rail-

road between Paris and Winchester, Ken- tucky. Later he became assistant engineer of construction on a division of the Ken- tucky Central railroad. In the fall of 1883, Air. Buckner went to Mexico as transit man on the Mexican & Western railroad, and was advanced to engineer in charge of loca- tion in the following 3'ear, and a year later to chief engineer of construction. While in Mexico he made a study of the Spanish lan- guage, in which he became fluent. In 1886 he resigned his position in Mexico in order to take up the study of irrigation in Cali- fornia, and became assistant to the city engi- neer of Los Angeles, where he staked out the first electric railroad built in that city. This is now the model trolley system of the United States. In 1888 Mr. Buckner was chief engineer of the Santa Anna & Pacific railroad, and had charge of the construction oc the Southern Riverside Irrigation canal and various other large enterprises, while conducting a general engineering office in Los Angeles. He became assistant to the \ice-prcsident of the Chino Land and Water Company, and in 1890 went to Europe to establish a plant and railroad connections for the Chino Sugar Beet Factory, which received the first bounty paid by the United States on beet sugar. While abroad he made a study of the French language. Returning to America, he was appointed chief engineer and superintendent of construction on the Cartagena-Magdalena railroad, of Columbia, South America. The tropical fevers to which hfc was subject enfeebled his health and he went to the City of New York, where he occupied himself from 1894 to 1897 with real estate investments. In the latter year he accepted the appointment of assistant chief engineer of the Guayaquil & Quito railroad, in the Republic of Ecuador. On account of the poor health of the chief engineer, the responsibilities of the latter's position prac- tically devolved upon Mr. Buckner. He had charge of the engineering parties seeking a way to mount the precipitous Andes, and was also made general manager of the por- tion of the road operated by the government of Ecuador. During his stay in that coun- try he witnessed a South American revolu- tion. On his arrival there, the terminus of the railroad was at Chimbo, a small village in the foothills, which had no importance until it became the railroad terminal. Here pack trains of horses, mules, donkeys and