Page:Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography volume 5.djvu/808

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VIRGINIA BIOGRAPHY

firm of Baltimore, Maryland. He was known to a host of friends as a model type of Christian gentleman. Mr. Cootes mar- ried Mary Elizabeth (born in Greenville, Virginia, April 19, 1843, died January 21, 1897 j, a daughter of John and Amanda (Tatej Newton, of Greenville, Virginia. They had two daughters, Emma Newton and Lillie Graham, who died in infancy, and two sons, F. Graham, whose name heads this sketch, and Captain Harry New- ton Cootes, of the Thirteenth United States Cavalry, who was born at Saunton, Vir- ginia, April 2, 1874. He was educated at the Staunton Military Academy and the Virginia Military Institute. At the out- break of the Spanish-American war he en- listed as a volunteer, and was assigned to the Eourth Regiment, Immunes. He was later commissioned second lieutenant in the same regiment, and when mustered out at the close of the war. enlisted in the volunteer service of the United States. He was assigned to the Thirty-fifth Regi- ment, Volunteer Infantry, and served with distinction in the Philippines for about two years with the rank of captain. He then rc-enlisted in the United States regular army, being assigned to service in the I'welfth Cavalry, as first lieutenant, and after several years service was promoted to a captaincy. He served later as aide-de- camp to Governor-General Forbes, of the Philippines, to the Secretary of War, J. M. Dickenson, and to President Tucker and General Frederick Dent Grant at the James- town Exposition. Captain Cootes married. May 26, 1908. Mary Lou, daughter of Merritt 1". and Elizabeth (Dickson) Cooke, of Nor- folk, Virginia.

Frank Graham son of Benjamin Franklin and Mary Elizabeth (Newton) Cootes, was born in Staunton, Augusta county, Virginia, April 6, 1879. He received his elementary education in the public schools of his native town, and from his earliest years showed decided artistic tendencies. For a period ot two years he v,'as a student at Professor S. H. Owens" Academy, where he was awarded a competitive scholarship entitling him to attendance at Washington and Lee Univer- sity. He matriculated at this institution in 1896. and spent one year there. In 1897 he entered the University of Virginia, from which he was graduated in 1901, with the degrees of Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts. The following year he came to the

city of New York, and commenced the study of his chosen profession at the New York School of Art, known as Chase's School, founded by William M. Chase, and which was continued several years. In 1904 he took up the profession of art as a business, becoming an illustrator of books and maga- j,ines, and was also engaged in portrait work in New York City. He has made portrait sketches of many of the best known people in the financial and social world in America. He has done some excellent work for the great magazines of America — Scribner's, Harper's, McClure's, The Saturday Even- ing Post, Colliers, etc ; has illustrated the popular books of Harold Bell Wright the "Shepherd of the Hills," etc., and many other popular books. He has in his posses- sion many letters from well known authors expressing their satisfaction at the masterly manner in which he has illustrated their ideas. To successfully delineate the char- acters described in a book, takes more than merely artistic sense ; this must be combined with general intelligence of an unusually high order, if form, feature and expression are to be rightly portrayed. In this special form of art Mr. Cootes has been exceptionally successful. In 1904 he founded the Virginia Summer School of Art at the University of Virginia. Mr. Cootes was elected a member of the Phi Beta Kappa Society of the Uni- versity of Virginia, because of the distinc- tion he has achieved in art: he was elected a member of the Delta Tau Delta fraternity in 1896; and he is a member of the executive committee of "The Virginians" of New York, and a member of the Southern Society and the Society of Illustrators of New York. Mr. Cootes married. July 17, 1912, Adele, born June 28, 1887, a daughter of Richard Clay and Carlie (Harmer) Sibley, of New \ ork City. He is a man of broad minded and liberal views on all subjects and is in- dependent in his political and religious ideas, refusing to allow himself to be bound by partisan ties. He gives earnest thought to the serious questions of the day, and has a high and readily expressed appreciation for the good qualities to be discovered in others.

Charles Hunter Locher. Charles Hunter Locher. a prominent contractor of New York City, was born in Rockbridge county, Virginia, October 3, 1862. His father was Charles Hess Locher, who was born in