John J. Owen (p. 133): born 1859; private and public schools, agricultural college; one-time senator and representative; new ass't commissioner of agriculture of Vir.

Family: father: physician and landowner, Jefferson Medical College.
father's father: "at one time owned extensive plantations and operated them with slaves."
wife: daughter of tobacconist and farmer, public school and Wales Institute at Rockfish.
sisters: one widow of gov't civil engineer, one wife of farmer.
children: one employee of tobacco company, one manages father's farm, one wife of farmer.

Evaluation: A puzzling case. Subject "escaped" from agriculture by the political route, but his children are back on the land. Subject proves that the Civil War did not dislocate all families.


A. Murat Willis (p. 139): born 1879; public and private schools, business college, medical school, M.D.; president and co-founder of Johnston-Willis hospital, Richmond; lieutenant-commander in U.S.N.

Family: father: post-war plantation owner and manager. Vir. Mil. Academy, course not completed because of outbreak of war.
other ancestors: not mentioned.
brothers: one attorney, one surgeon.

Evaluation: Little data on background given, presumption is that (1) either these brothers stemmed from people of status, or (2) the parents ran an exceptionally well-organized household.


John Hopkins Hall, Jr. (p. 145): born 1878; high school, active in trade unions and lodges, 21 years a draftsman in U.S. navy yard, trade union official, passed Bar. Now commissioner of labor of Vir.

Family: father: managed china store, later owned transfer business.
father's father: farmer.
wife: descendant of Chief Justice Marshall.
brother: a real estate man in Norfolk.

Evaluation: A case of ascent and a case of descent. Through study and connections a draftsman becomes commissioner of labor for state. Such posts frequently fall to trade union officials, of course, and these, in that environment, were usually one-time workers or active workers. The case of descent is found in that the wife, albeit through the female line, descended from Marshall. How did it happen that a person of such lineage married a draftsman? At least she chose an ambitious one! Did she contribute to his advancement?


Thomas Gray Haddon (p. 152): born 1884; high school graduate; stenographer for commonwealth, attorney general; studied law; vice-president of a beverage company; several years on city council; lawyer, state legislator; lodges. Labeled "self-made."

Family: father: "extensive agriculturalist"; retired at Richmond at age 47.
father's father: planter, "accumulating a gratifyingly large estate."
brothers: one sup't of tobacco plant, one machinist.
son: student at McGuire's University School, Richmond.

Evaluation: It appears that the old planter family was solid and successful. Subject's father seems, perhaps through ill health, to have given up agriculture and to have left his sons to their own resources. Subject returned to the level of the ancestors; brothers seem to have found levels below that of subject. The source of disorganization seems to have been either the war or the health of the father or the transition from agriculture to the city.


James Waddell Gordon (pp. 159 - 160): born 1869; public and private schools, law degree; went into father's business; lawyer, prominent in public affairs; labeled "self-made."

Family: father: merchant, founder of metal jobbing business.
father's father: merchant at Richmond, succeeded by his sons.
father's father's father: owner of large estate known as Gordonville, Va.
mother: granddaughter of a colonel; great granddaughter of Rev. James Waddell.
brothers and sisters: one physician, one "connected with a railway company," one attorney, one vice-president of a bank, one sec'y of father's business, one broker, one unmarried.
children: one graduate of Collegiate School for girls, one youngster.

Evaluation: there seems to be little grounds to call subject "self-made." All the other children seem to have raised to the same or a similar level.


Murray Mason McGuire (pp. 165 - 166): born 1872; educated in father's famous school and U. of Vir.; lawyer, clubs. Status high.

family: father: educated at Episcopal High School and U. of Vir., foremost educator, founder and head of McGuire's University School at Richmond.
father's father: Episcopal minister, army chaplain.
father's mother: M. Garnett of "Elmwood in Essex."
mother: Clara Mason, daughter of captain in U.S.N. and great-granddaughter of George Mason.
mother's mother's father: John Forsyth, U.S. Senator, Gov. of Georgia, and twice U.S. Sec'y of State.
father's father's father: first supreme court justice of Miss. Territory, educated at William and Mary.
wife: "Miss Mary Van Benthuysen, daughter of Capt. Jefferson Davis and Cornelia C. Van Benthuysen."
sister: married Episcopal clergyman.
brother: now principal of father's school and active member of exclusive organization, "Society of the Cincinnati."

Evaluation: This is not a good family tree to put in a plot about shirt sleeves to shirt sleeves.