Page:Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography volume 5.djvu/748

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VIRGINIA BIOGRAPHY

became president of the Trenton Pottery C bmpany, of Trenton New Jersey, of which he was an organizer, holding this office six- teen years and then resigning. He was in- terested in this company np to the time of his death, and was a member of the board oi directors, and also member of the executive committee. He was interested in the im- portation and sale of cofifee from early man- hood and was well informed on every phase of the business. He inherited good business sense from his father and gained wide ex- perience from observation and travel, in con- nection with his financial interests. He always handled large interests in a financial sense and looked upon production, manu- facture and distribution of wares from a capitalist's standpoint.

Mr. Bayne took great interest in the part taken by his ancestors in the development of Virginia and was well informed on the history of his native state and its relation to the country at large. He was a member of the Southern Society of New York, the Vir- ginian Society of New York, and of the Maryland Society of New York City. He also belonged to The Union Club of New York City, of which he was governor, and of the Metropolitan Club of that city. He was of distinguished lineage, being descend- ed from the famous Loudon and Clarke and other old Virginia families, and others equally well known. Pope's Peake was named for the Pope family, who lived in the same neighborhood as the ancestors of George Washington. Mr. Bayne made an honorable name and place for himself and he had just cause to be proud of the record for probity and good business principles which his father left him.

D. K. Bayne died January 24, 191 5.

Lewis Nixon. Lewis Nixon, prominent as manufacturer, politician, publicist and naval officer, was born at Leesburg, Virginia, April 7, 1861. Llis father was Colonel Joei Lewis Nixon, a member of the well known Nixon family of Virginia and Maryland. His mother was Mary Jane (Turner) Nixon, born in Fall county, Virginia, in 1823, the daughter of George and Mary Payne (Beatty) Turner. There were several Nixon and Nickson families among the colonial settlers and their descendants in America, that had no connection with each other be- vond the community of name. The name it-

self is derived from the personal name Nico- las, and is in some cases an anglicized form of MacNicail, which is also derived from the personal name Nicolas in its Gaelic form. Families of the name have been distin- guished in Europe, and many had the right tc coats armorial. The family to which Mr. Lewis Nixon belongs has had its seat mostly in Maryland and Virginia, where they took up large tracts of land, and has been con- spicuous in the histories of both.

Mr. Nixon was educated at Leesburg Academy, and the United States Naval Academy, graduating number one in his class. After his graduation he was sent by the United States navy department to Greenwich, England, where he became a student in the Royal Naval College. He graduated as midshipman in 1882 and was transferred from the "line" of navy to the construction corps in 1884. He designed the battleships Oregon, Massachusetts and Indiana, in 1890, then resigned from the navy to become superintending constructor in Cramp's Shipyard, Philadelphia, Penn- sylvania. He started on his own account with the Crescent Shipyards at Elizabeth, New Jersey, in 1895, and built a hundred vessels in six years for all departments of the government of the United States as well as for foreign governments. Among the vessels constructed by him are conspicu- ously mentioned the submarine torpedo boat Holland, the Monitor, Florida, the torpedo boat O'Brien, and the cruiser Chattanooga. Mr. Nixon has built eleven men-of-war for the United States navy, sixteen vessels for the Russian navy, two vessels for the Mex- ican navy, five vessels for Cuba, and four for Santo Domingo. Mr. Nixon has built every known type of vessel for the United States and other countries. He built the Gregory, the first motor boat to cross the ocean, and he also built the first seven sub- marine boats for the United States navy. He is a director of the Standard Motor Con- struction Company. He established the International Smokeless Powder Company at Parlin, New Jersey, in 1898, and is sole owner of the Nixon Nitration Works. By appointment of Mayor Van Wyck, of New York City, in 1897, he was made presi- dent of the East River bridge commission. Mr. Nixon came into national prominence as politician and statesman when he was elected as the leader of Tammany Hall in