INTRODUCTION.

That section of Virginia which lies south of the James River and east of the Blue Ridge Mountains is popularly known as the Southside; but the designation is often restricted to a smaller area, excluding the tidewater and upland counties, and sometimes also the northern counties of this region.

This part of the State has been considered characteristically Virginian, and it still retains some of the traits which have tended to die out in other parts of the State. Always predominantly agricultural, it is a section which still has many large plantations, some of which are worked by tenant farmers on small holdings. It was the stronghold of slavery in Virginia. The climate is milder than in other sections of the State; some Southside counties along the North Carolina border raise cotton and peanuts as staple crops.

This region has produced some of the foremost men in Virginia history: John Randolph, William Branch Giles, George C. Dromgoole, William S. Archer. Patrick Henry, while not born here, made his home in Charlotte County. Besides these notables, hundreds of distinguished men have come from this section to serve the State and Nation.

Walter Allen Watson was, by birth, residence and temperament, a son of this fair section of Virginia. He had a passion to preserve from oblivion the traits of the people and the history of this region. For many years he spent much of his leisure time in making notes and storing his mind with information about people and things, which knowledge he purposed some day to embody in a history of the Southside. Possessed of indefatigable industry and endowed with an accurate memory and keen humor, he would doubtless have produced a valuable work, embellished with anecdotes and humorous sketches; but having died with his plans unfulfilled, it is left to others to compile his scattered notes, in the effort to preserve something of the local history which his labor had gathered. At the least it is to be regretted that he had not gone further in this work and had not made a more complete and definite written record; but it is believed that the historian and the genealogist of the Southside will find much matter of interest in these pages. It is probable, also, that many of these fragmentary notes will be suggestive of the course which investigators should pursue. There are, as yet, few local histories which deal with this section, and none of Notto way or Amelia, the two counties which have a preponderant place in these notes.

The material has been derived entirely from the manuscript books and papers of Judge Watson, now deposited in the

Virginia State Library, with the exception that a few notes have been taken from private papers in the possession of his widow. It has been the aim to arrange this matter in some logical order without changing the original sense and wording. Many difficulties have attended the classification and co-ordination of this mass of heterogeneous, scattered and undigested material, as also the interpretation of fragmentary and obscure references, full of significance doubtless to the writer but conveying little apparent meaning to others. Inevitably there are errors. While much that was irrelevant or purely personal has been omitted, especially in the case of references to individuals in the diaries, effort has been made to preserve all pertinent data relative to the Southside and its people.

It was the purpose of Mrs. Watson to have these notes published as a memorial to her husband, and with the assumption by the library of responsibility for their publication, she has worked indefatigably in the arrangement and editing of them; her interpretation of a hasty and much abbreviated handwriting and her knowledge of personal and local allusions have been indispensable. To her, and to the many former friends of Judge Watson who have expressed an interest in this work, apology is made for the delay in publication; the pressure of library duties has permitted only brief periods of attention to the planning of the work and the supervision of its arrangement and editing.

Each of the biographical sketches of Judge Watson had been sent to Mrs. Watson by some one well acquainted with him at the period of which it treats. They, with a brief sketch written by herself, give an outline of his life and character.

WILMER L. HALL, Assistant State Librarian.

SOUTHSIDE PUBLIC MEN1

CONFEDERATE STATES GENERALS.

Joseph E. Johnston, Henry Heth, Edward Johnson, Wm. Mahone, John Pegram, J. E. B. Stuart, J. R. Chalmers, W. L. Cabell, D. A. Weisiger, John R. Chambliss, P. St. G. Cocke, J. A. Early, T. L. Rosser, Samuel Jones, B. H. Robertson, Sterling Price, Sam Garland, R. E. Rodes, T. T. Munford, Wm. Terry, Roger A. Pryor.

Scott.

FEDERAL GENERALS.

George Henry Thomas, Lawrence Pike Graham, Winfield

CABINET OFFICERS (FROM OTHER STATES).

G. M. Bibb, Prince Edward County, Va., Sec. of Treasury (Kentucky); A. V. Brown, Brunswick County, Va., P. M. General (Tennessee); W. T. Barry, Lunenburg County, Va., P. M. General (Kentucky; buried at Lexington, Ky.)

CHIEF JUSTICES (OF OTHER STATES).

A. G. Thurman, Lynchburg, Campbell County, Va., Ohio; W. T. Barry, Lunenburg County, Va., Kentucky; G. M. Bibb, Prince Edward County, Va., Kentucky.

UNITED STATES SENATORS (FOR VIRGINIA).

Henry Tazewell, Brunswick County; A. B. Venable, Prince Edward County; Wm. B. Giles, Amelia County; John Randolph, Prince George County; L. W. Tazewell, Norfolk County; B. W. Leigh, Chesterfield County; John Wayles Eppes, Chesterfield County; Wm. S. Archer, Amelia County; R. E. Withers, Campbell County; Wm. Mahone, Southampton County; John W. Daniel, Lynchburg City; Henry Tazewell, Brunswick County, UNITED STATES SENATORS (FROM OTHER STATES).

George M. Bibb, Prince Edward County, Va., Kentucky; Walter T. Colquitt, Halifax County, Va., Georgia; Henry Chambers, Lunenburg County, Va., Alabama; Wm. Cocke, Brunswick County, Va., Tennessee; C. C. Clay, Sr., Halifax County, Va., Alabama; Jno. B. Henderson, Pittsylvania County, Va., Missouri;

1The following lists are not complete; they are given as compiled by Judge Watson.

Wilson Lumpkin, Pittsylvania County, Va., Georgia; Isham Talbot, Bedford County, Va., Kentucky; Waller Taylor, Lunenburg County, Va., Indiana; A. G. Thurman, Lynchburg, Campbell County, Va., Ohio; Jas. F. Trotter, Brunswick County, Va., Mississippi; Jas. Turner, Southampton County, Va., North Carolina; B. K. Bruce, Prince Edward County, Va., Mississippi; W. C. C. Claiborne, Sussex County, Va., Louisiana; Dixon H. Lewis, Dinwiddie County, Va., Alabama.

CONGRESSMEN.

We have been represented in Congress by Colonel Peterson Goodwyn, of Dinwiddie, 1803-1818; Thomas Saunders Gholson, Jr., of Brunswick, 1808-1816 (also in the Confederate Congress, 1863-1865); General John Pegram, of Dinwiddie, 1818-1819; Dr. James Jones, of Nottoway, 1819-1823; Wm. S. Archer, of Amelia, 1820-1835; John Winston Jones, of Chesterfield, 18351845; General George Coke Dromgoole, of Brunswick, 1835-1841 and 1843-1847; William Osborne Goode, of Mecklenburg, 18411843 and 1853-1859; Richard Kidder Meade, of Brunswick, 18471853; Roger Atkinson Pryor, of Dinwiddie, 1859-1861 (also in the Confederate Congress); Robert Ridgeway, of Cool Well, Va., 18692; William H. H. Stowell (a carpet bagger), of Windsor, Vermont, 1874; Edward Carrington Venable, of Prince Edward, 1889-1890; and others.

Colonel Goodwyn died while a member of Congress in 1818 and was succeeded by General John Pegram, who appeared at the second session of the fifteenth Congress and was sworn in as representative (Richmond Enquirer, Nov. 20, 1818). General Pegram was previously Major General of the First Division of Virginia Militia in the War of 1812 (Journal, House of Delegates, 1813, table in back), and subsequently United States Marshal for the eastern district of Virginia. He represented Dinwiddie County in the House of Delegates many years and also served in the State Senate. He was a relative of General Winfield Scott. It appears that Dr. James Jones was voted for in this election but was beaten. The following year, however, he beat General Pegram in the district (Richmond Enquirer, May 4, 1819). General Pegram, I think, lost his life by some accident on the Ohio River-the burning of a boat perhaps. In

3

2Of Amherst County. Editor of Richmond Whig, 1853-1865; became a candidate for Congress in 1865, but withdrew; elected to Congress, 1869; died Oct. 16, 1870. The fifth district, which he represented, consisted of Greene, Albemarle, Fluvanna, Nelson, Buckingham, Amherst, Appomattox, Bedford, Campbell, Prince Edward and the city of Lynchburg. Robert W. Hughes, in his address, "Editors of the Past," before the Virginia Press Association, June 22, 1897, spoke of Robert Ridgeway as having been "wonderfully efficient in his dashing peculiarities."

3 His half sister, Martha P. Pegram, daughter by his father's second wife, Ann Harper Parham, married Colonel James Scott, of "Laurel Branch," Dinwiddie County, Virginia, brother of General Winfield Scott.

1823 Nottoway was transferred to Mr. Archer's district and Dr. Jones thus lost his seat. I think Nottoway was in the Chesterfield district when John Winston Jones represented it, but this is a matter of record and can be ascertained of course. Mr. Freeman Epes recalls John Winston Jones, the congressman, as one of the most fluent men he ever heard before the people, and Colonel Jeffress recollects that he was a very effective speaker.

MEMBERS OF CONGRESS (OTHER STATES).

Charles Eaton Haynes, Brunswick County, Va., Georgia; Jos. Chappel Hutcheson, Mecklenburg County, Va., Texas; John Kerr, Jr., Pittsylvania County, Va., North Carolina; Wm. Lattimore, Norfolk County, Va., Mississippi; John William Leftwich, Bedford County, Va., Tennessee; Wm. Mallory Levy, Isle of Wight County, Va., Louisiana; Jas. Hamilton Lewis, Danville, Pittsylvania County, Va., Washington; Thos. Watkins Ligon, Prince Edward County, Va., Maryland; Wilson Lumpkin, Pittsylvania County, Va., Georgia; John H. Marable, Brunswick County, Va., Tennessee; Thos. Patrick Moore, Charlotte County, Va., Kentucky; Robert Page Waller Morris, Lynchburg, Campbell County, Va., Minnesota; Abner Nash, Prince Edward County, Va., North Carolina; Thos. Lawson Price, Pittsylvania County, Va., Missouri; Richard Clausell Puryear, Mecklenburg County, Va., North Carolina; Dixon Hall Lewis, Dinwiddie County, Va., Alabama; John W. Reid, Lynchburg, Campbell County, Va., Missouri; Thos. Bolling Robertson, Bellfield near Petersburg, Va., Louisiana; Alexander Dromgoole Sims, Brunswick County, Va., South Carolina; Martin Russell Thayer, Petersburg, Va., Pennsylvania; Allen Granberry Thurman, Lynchburg, Campbell County, Va., Ohio; Abraham Watkins Venable, Prince Edward County, Va., North Carolina; Thos. Williams, Greensville County, Va., Alabama; Henry Taylor Blow, Southampton County, Va., Missouri; Joseph J. Gravely, Henry County, Va., Missouri; Jas. Madison Gregg, Patrick County, Va., Indiana; John Henry Harmanson, Norfolk, Va., Louisiana; Robt. Anthony Hatcher, Buckingham County, Va., Missouri; Pressly T. Glass, Halifax County, Va., Tennessee; John Cocke, Brunswick County, Va., Tennessee; (General) Jas. Ronald Chalmers, Halifax County, Va., Mississippi; Thos. Claiborne, Brunswick County, Va., Tennessee; Seth Wallace Cobb, Southampton County, Va., Missouri; Walter Terry Colquitt, Halifax County, Va., Georgia; Henry W. Connor, Prince George County, Va., North Carolina; David Patterson Dyer, Henry County, Va., Missouri.

Richmond Enquirer, September 3, 1819: George M. Bibb appointed by the President United States attorney for the Kentucky district.

4 At that time, the third congressional district comprised the counties of Powhatan, Amelia, Chesterfield, Goochland and Nottoway.