property as if she were single, except that she cannot by her sole
act deprive her husband of his courtesy in her real estate. A widow
is entitled to a dower in one-third of the real estate of which her
husband was seized at any time during coverture. If the husband
dies intestate, leaving no descendants and no paternal or maternal
kindred, the whole of his estate goes to his widow absolutely. If
the husband dies intestate, leaving a widow and issue, either by her
or by a former marriage, the widow is entitled to at least one-third
of his personal estate; if he leaves no issue by her, she is entitled
to so much of his personal estate as was acquired by him by virtue
of his marriage with her prior to the 4th of April 1877; if he leaves
no issue whatever, she is entitled to one-half of his personal estate.
A widower is entitled by courtesy to a life interest in all his wife’s
real estate; if she dies intestate, he is entitled to all her personal
estate; if she dies intestate, leaving no descendants and no paternal
or maternal kindred, he is entitled to her whole estate absolutely.
The causes for an absolute divorce are adultery; impotency;
desertion for three years; a sentence to confinement in the penitentiary;
a conviction of an infamous offence before marriage
unknown to the other; or, if one of the parties is charged with an
offence punishable with death or confinement in the penitentiary,
and has been a fugitive from justice for two years; pregnancy of
the wife before marriage unknown to the husband, or the wife’s
being a prostitute before marriage unknown to the husband. One
party must be a resident of the state for one year preceding the
commencement of a suit for a divorce. When a divorce is obtained
because of adultery, permission of the guilty party to marry again
is in the discretion of the court. Marriages between whites and
negroes and bigamous marriages are void. The homestead of a
householder or head of a family to the value of $2000 and properly
recorded is exempt from levy, seizure, garnishment or forced sale,
except for purchase money, for services of a labouring person or
mechanic, for liabilities incurred by a public officer, fiduciary or
attorney for money collected, for taxes, for rent or for legal fees
of a public officer. If the owner is a married man his homestead
cannot be sold except by the joint deed of himself and his wife;
neither can it be mortgaged without his wife’s consent except for
purchase money or for the erection or repair of buildings upon it.
The exemption continues after his death so long as there is an
unmarried widow or an unmarried minor child. The family library,
family pictures, school books, a seat or pew in a house of worship,
a lot in a burial ground, necessary wearing apparel, a limited amount
of furniture and household utensils, some of a farmer’s domestic
animals and agricultural implements, and the wages of a labouring
man who is a householder are exempt from levy or distress. A law
enacted in 1908 forbids the employment of children under fourteen
years of age in any factory, workshop, mercantile establishment,
or mine within the state, except that orphans or other children
dependent upon their own labour for support or upon whom invalid
parents are dependent may be so employed after they are twelve
years of age, and that a parent may work his or her own children in
his or her own factory, workshop, mercantile establishment or mine.
Charitable and Penal Institutions.—Virginia has four hospitals for the insane: the Eastern State Hospital (1773), at Williamsburg; the South-Western State Hospital (1887), at Marion; the Western State Hospital (1828), with an epileptic colony, at Staunton; and the Central State Hospital (1870; for negroes), at Petersburg. For the care of the deaf and blind there is the Virginia School for Deaf and Blind (1839), at Staunton, and the Virginia School for Coloured Deaf and Blind Children (1908), at Newport News. The State Penitentiary is at Richmond. The Prison Association of Virginia with an Industrial School (1890) at Laurel Station, the Negro Reformatory Association of Virginia with a Manual Labour School (1897) at Broadneck Farm, Hanover, and the Virginia Home and Industrial School for white girls (1910) at Bon Air take care of juvenile offenders; these are all owned and controlled by self-perpetuating boards of trustees, but are supported by the state, receiving an allowance per capita. For each state hospital for the insane there is a special board of directors consisting of three members appointed by the governor with the concurrence of the Senate, one every two years, and over them all is the commissioner of state hospitals for the insane, who is appointed by the governor with the concurrence of the Senate for a term of four years. The members of the special boards under the chairmanship of the commissioner constitute a general board for all the hospitals, and the superintendent of each hospital is appointed by the general board. Each school for the deaf and blind is managed by a board of visitors appointed by the governor with the concurrence of the Senate. About five-sixths of the convicts are negroes. Some of them are employed on a state farm at Lassiter, Goochland county, on which there is a tuberculosis hospital, and some of them on the public roads; in 1909 there were 350 men at the state farm, 14 road camps with about 630 men, and 1273 men and 96 women in the penitentiary at Richmond. When a prisoner has served one-half of his term and his conduct has been good for two years (if he has been confined for that period) the board of directors may parole him for the remainder of his term, provided there is satisfactory assurance that he will not be dependent on public charity. The Prison Association of Virginia, the Negro Reformatory Association of Virginia and the Virginia Home and Industrial School for girls are each under a board of trustees appointed by the General Assembly, and each is authorized to establish houses of correction, reformatories and industrial schools. A general supervision of all state, county, municipal and private charities and corrections is vested by a law enacted in 1908 in a board of charities and corrections consisting of five members appointed by the governor with the concurrence of the Senate.
Education.—The public free school system is administered by a state board of education, a superintendent of public instruction, division superintendents, and district and county school boards. The state board of education consists of the governor; the attorney general; the superintendent of public instruction, who is ex officio its president; three experienced educators chosen quadrennially by the Senate from members of the faculties of the University of Virginia, the Virginia Military Institute, the Virginia Polytechnic Institute, the State Female Normal School at Farmville, the School for the Deaf and Blind, and the College of William and Mary; and two division superintendents, one from a county and one from a city, chosen biennially by the other members of the board. This board prescribes the duties of the superintendent of public instruction and decides appeals from his decisions; keeps the state divided into school divisions, comprising not less than one county or city each; appoints quadrennially, with the concurrence of the Senate, one superintendent for each school division and prescribes his powers and duties; selects textbooks; provides for examination of teachers; and appoints school inspectors. In each county an electoral board, consisting of the attorney for the Commonwealth, the division superintendent and one member appointed by the judge of the circuit court, appoints a board of three school trustees for each district, one each year. The division superintendent and the school trustees of the several districts constitute a county school board. The elementary schools are maintained from the proceeds of the state school funds, consisting of interest on the literary fund, a portion of the state poll tax, a property tax not less than one mill nor more than five mills on the dollar, and special appropriations; county funds, consisting principally of a property tax; and district funds, consisting principally of a property tax and a dog tax. A law enacted in 1908 encourages the establishment of departments of agriculture, domestic economy and manual training in at least one high school in each congressional district. A law enacted in 1910 provides a fund for special aid from the state to rural graded schools with at least two rooms. With state aid normal training departments are maintained in several of the high schools in counties which adopt the provisions of the statute. All children between the ages of eight and twelve years are required to attend a public school at least twelve weeks in a year (six weeks consecutively) unless excused on account of weakness of mind or body, unless the child can read and write and is attending a private school, or unless the child lives more than two miles from the nearest school and more than one mile from an established public school wagon route. The State Female Normal School, at Farmville, is governed by a board consisting of the state superintendent and thirteen trustees appointed by the governor with the concurrence of the Senate for a term of four years. The Virginia Normal and Industrial Institute, at Petersburg, is governed by a board of visitors consisting of the superintendent of public instruction and four other members appointed by the governor with the concurrence of the Senate for four years. In 1908 the General Assembly made an appropriation for establishing two state normal and industrial schools for women, one at Harrisonburg and the other at Fredericksburg, both under a board of trustees consisting of the superintendent of public instruction and ten other members appointed by the governor with the concurrence of the Senate. The Virginia Agricultural and Mechanical College and Polytechnic Institute, at Blacksburg, is governed by a board consisting of the state superintendent and eight visitors appointed by the governor with the concurrence of the Senate. The Virginia Military Institute, at Lexington, is governed by a board of visitors consisting of the adjutant general, the superintendent of public instruction and nine other members appointed by the governor with the concurrence of the Senate. The University of Virginia (q.v.), at Charlottesville, was founded in 1817 and opened in 1825. The College of William and Mary (1693), at Williamsburg, became a state institution in 1906 and is likewise governed under a board appointed by the governor. Other institutions of higher learning which are not under state control are: Washington and Lee University (nonsectarian, 1749), at Lexington; Hampden-Sidney College (Presbyterian, 1776), at Hampden-Sidney; Richmond College (Baptist, 1832), at Richmond; Randolph-Macon College (Methodist Episcopal, 1832), at Ashland; Emory and Henry College (Methodist Episcopal, 1838), at Emory; Roanoke College (Lutheran, 1853), at Salem; Bridgewater College (German Baptist, 1879), at Bridgewater; Fredericksburg College (Presbyterian, 1893), at Fredericksburg; Virginia Union University (Baptist, 1899), at Richmond; and Virginia Christian College (Christian, 1903), at Lynchburg.
Finance.—Revenue for state, county and municipal purposes is derived principally from taxes on real estate, tangible personal property, incomes in excess of $1000, wills and administrations.
