Page:Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography volume 5.djvu/738

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VIRGINIA BIOGRAPHY

cement work. He gained some experience in early life as a collector for the firm of Bergen & Wrenn, lumber merchants. In Newport News he has achieved success as a business man, and enjoys a high reputation for thorough and reliable work. He is a member of Fleetfoot Council, No. 8, Im- proved Order of Red Men, of which he was the second sachem. In 1910 he was made Junior sagamore, and in 191 1 senior saga- more and twelve great sachem of Virginia. In 191 3 he was made representative to the Great Council of the United States held in Washington, D. C. Mr. Whitley has been very active in social life, in his home city, and is a charter member of Peninsula Coun- cil, No. 125, of Hampton, Virginia, Junior Order United American Mechanics, of which he is past counsel and past representative. He is a past grand of East End Lodge, No. 247, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and is past chief patriarch and representative of Encampment No. 12, of that order. He is a member of Warwick Lodge, No. 72, Knights of Pythias, of the Order of Owls, and is past counsel of Monticello Lodge, Daughters of Liberty. He is now serving his third term as representative of ward three in the city council of Newport News, and a member of the fire and water committee, and chairman of the almshouse and poor committee of that body. For twenty years he has been a steward of the Methodist Episcopal church, and is an active and efficient member of the city Democratic committee. His popularity and ability are indicated by the many public services above enumerated.

He married Lillian A. Ives, a granddaugh- ter of William W. and Sarah (Miller) Ives. The Virginia archives show that William W. Ives was the owner of three slaves in Princess Anne county in 1840. His son, Alonzo Ives, of Norfolk, was born February 2, 1841, and was a merchant in Norfolk, a m.ember of the Methodist church, a man of cmiet nature, who sought no publicity but acted politically with the Democratic party. He married Minnie F. Old, born 1850, died 1905, daughter of Thomas and Fanny A. (Martin) Old, and they were the parents of: Annie \'irginia, who died in childhood ; Lil- lian A., wife of George W. Whitley, and Frances L., Mrs. Richard W. Fenton, of Newport News, Virginia.

G. Ashton Harris. The present business interests of G. Ashton Harris, of Suffolk, \'irginia, are focused in Suffolk after a con- nection with the Metropolitan Life Insur- ance Company in which his field of respon- sibility was the entire Virginia district. In this city Mr. Harris has come into promi- nence in public affairs and service, filling the office of city clerk, and Nansemond, the county of which Suffolk is the capital, knows the value of his labors in the capacity of clerk of the circuit court, to which posi- tion he was elected in 1913, having since 1910 been deputy clerk. G. A. Harris is a member of a distinctively Virginian family, his father, John Thomas Harris, upholding the Confederate cause as a member of the Surry Light Artillery, his grandfather, John Harris, a planter of Surry county. Virginia. John Harris owned large lands which yield- ed, in the main, cotton, although a portion of his plantation was devoted to general ag- riculture. He was the father of children. Eliza, ^lary. John Thomas, of whom fur- ther, and Joel.

John Thomas Harris, son of John Harris, was born in Surry county, Virginia, in 1832, and died in 1895. He was educated in the private schools in the vicinity of his home, and when war between the states began was his father's assistant on the Surry county plantation, enlisting at once in the Surry Light Artillery. He survived the conflict, gaining at the front honor and distinction for gallantry and bravery in action, return- ing at its close to Surry county, where he was for a time occupied with agricultural operations. He subsequently undertook contracting and building, in which line he prospered, and resided for a time in Isle of \\'ight county, continuing in successful busi- ness until his retirement. He belonged to the Confederate \'eterans Association, and was always a loyal Democratic supporter. Jolin Thomas Harris married Mary Rich- ardson, whose death occurred in 1880, she preceding him to the grave fifteen years, and had children : Ida Thomas, married Rich- ard Henry Booth, and has a son, Herbert Wesley, who married Jennie Drury and is the father of Elton Drury, James Richard, Herbert A\>sley ; Nannie Cora, died aged forty-two years, married Bennett T. Har- gra\es ; Mamie Low : John Garnet, mar- ried Mollie Harwell ; Minnie Lee, married