Cumming, Hugh S.

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES

Edwin Gilliam Booth was born on January 11, 1810, at " Shenstone, " Nottoway County, to Gilliam Booth and Rebecca (Hicks) Booth . At age ten he was sent to Winfield Academy in Dinwiddie County, where he began a friendship with Theodorick Pryor, who later became one of the most influential and successful ministers in southeastern Virginia . His chief preparation for college was at Oxford, North Carolina ; he matriculated at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1824, (at the age of fourteen) after an arduous course in classics and mathematics. Subsequently, he studied law at Fredericksburg under the supervision of Judge John Taylor Lomax, a professor at the University of Virginia and a judge of the Court of Appeals ; and, although not a well-disciplined student, he was diligent in his quest for legal knowledge, and afterward returned to Nottoway County to practice law in the five southeastern counties of Virginia .

In 1833, he married Sarah Tanner Jones (May 10, 1811, -August 29, 1860) with whom he had five children: Edwin Gilliam Booth, Jr., (February 27, 1839 -January 5, 1922); Archer Jones Booth (May 22, 1844 -November 22, 1864); Frances Rebecca Booth (December 17, 1846 -June 7, 1885); Sarah Tanner Booth (June 3, 1848 -September 23, 1865); and, William Travis Booth (July 12, 1850 -June 25, 1861).

Booth was known for his public spirit and devotion to politics, his activities for the welfare of man and for the promotion of Christianity. On August 30, 1838, he made a public profession of his faith in Christ, and was soon made the ruling elder in the Nottoway Church . In 1847, he was elected from the Nottoway District to serve in the Virginia Legislature for the 1848 and 1849 sessions, and took part in the revision and codification of the civil laws of Virginia . During the Civil War, he attempted to alleviate the miseries of military prisons by obtaining permission to assist friends in prison. He received permission from President Abraham Lincoln to pass through the blockade in April 1863, and dined with Lincoln and Davis over the month, by their invitations. In 1876, he erected the Old Virginia Building at the National Centennial Exhibition in Fairmont Park, Philadelphia .

Edwin Gilliam Booth, Sr., passed away on February 13, 1886 in Philadelphia .

More information on Booth may be found in The Life and Character of Edwin Gilliam Booth by Henry Edwin Dwight (F230.B74).

Edwin Gilliam Booth, Jr., was born on February 27, 1839, in Nottoway County to Edwin Gilliam Booth and Sarah Tanner (Jones) Booth . He attended Winfield Academy, Dinwiddie County, and was prepared for college by David Comfort, a Princeton graduate. He then attended Hampton-Sydney College for two years, graduating in 1859, and spent part of a session at the University of Virginia before enrolling in the University of Pennsylvania at Philadelphia where he graduated as a doctor of medicine in 1861.

During the Civil War, he enlisted in the Confederate Army as a member of the Nottoway Cavalry in the G and E companies of the Third Virginia Regiment . His company fought at the Battle of Big Bethel on June 10, 1861. On May 1, 1863, he was commissioned as assistant surgeon in the Confederate Navy, and was a surgeon on the C. S. S. Selma during the Battle of Mobile Bay, where their fleet was defeated and the steamer was sunk on August 5, 1864. He was taken prisoner and sent to Pensacola, and later released on parole.

After the war he visited Europe, then returned to live at " Shenstone " until ca. 1886 when he moved to " Carter's Grove, " James City County. In October 1870, he married Clara Haxall Thomson of Jefferson County, West Virginia ; they had the following children: Lucy Almira Booth (July 15, 1871 -1960); Frances Rebecca Booth (October 1, 1873 -? ); Henrietta Edwina Booth (January 6, 1876-? ); Edwin Gilliam Booth, III (July 14, 1878 -? ); Clara Thomson Booth (July 10, 1880 -? ); John Thomson Booth (May 13, 1883 -? ); and, William Harris Booth (June 16, 1885 -? ).

In 1907, he settled in the old George Wythe home at Williamsburg, and was a member of the Board of Visitors of the College of William and Mary . He died at home on January 5, 1922.

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES

See entries from: Who Was Who In America, Volume II, 1943 -1950, page 139; Who's Who in America, 1984-1985, 43rd edition, Volume I, A-K, pp. 723-724; the National Cyclopedia of American Biography, pp. 279-280, and the obituary for Hugh S. Cumming, Jr. from the November 26, 1986 "Washington Post."

From the guide to the Cumming Family Papers, 1777-1984, (University of Virginia. Library. Special Collections Dept.)