\'IRGINIA BIOGRAPHY
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the eastern shore, and a prominent citizen
of that section. Children of Robert Bar-
raud Taylor : Lelia Baker, born March 4,
1900; Robert Barraud (4), April 9, 1902;
William Eyre, June 9, 1904; Parker Costin,
August 3. 1908.
Richard Baker Taylor, second son of Robert Barraud (2) and Lelia (Baker) Tay- lor, was born January 20, 1874, in Norfolk. He attended a private school in the vicinity of his home, and subsequently the Episco- pal High School at Alexandria, Virginia. Following this he pursued the law course of the University of Virginia, with the class of 1895. After reading law in the office of R. H. Baker, he finally decided to give his attention to handling real estate, on account of the large holdings of the family in dififer- ent parts of the commonwealth, and has built up a very successful business. In March, 1903, he formed a partnership with Alfred P Page, under the firm style of Page & Taylor, and they have transacted much business, dealing especially in factory sites on deep water and the belt line railway. They handle much acreage property on the seaboard, and Mr. Taylor is much esteemed as a business man and a citizen. All the time that is not required by his business is devoted to his family and friends, and he is not affiliated with aay societies or clubs. Politically he is a Democrat, and like hii father he is an attendant of the Episcopa\ church.
He married (first) November i}, 1^597, Grace Eyre, born November 13, 1873, died September 4, 1911, daughter of Severn and Margaret ( Parker) Eyre, of Virginia. There is one child of this marriage, Margaret Eyre Taylor, born September 6, 1898. He mar- ried (second) September 7, 1912, Elinor Hilliard, born 1875, daughter of Louis and Melissa (Cherry) Hilliard. of North Caro- lina.
William Alexander Webb, president of Randolph-Macon Woman's College, Lynch- burg, Virginia, the son of Rev. Richard Stanford and Jennie ( Clegg) Webb, was born in Durham, North Carolina, July 30, 1867. The father was a graduate of the University of North Carolina, and for thir- ty-four years was a minister of the Metho- dist Episcopal church, south, in the North Carolina and Western North Carolina con-
ferences, serving during the civil war as
chaplain of the Forty-fourth North Carolina
Regiment, Confederate States army. His
mother was a student in Greensboro Female
College at the time the institution was
])urned during the civil war.
President Wel^b comes of a distinguished family of educators. His uncles, Alessrs. W. R. and J. M. Webb, are the founders and principals of the Webb School, now located at Bell Buckle, Tennessee. This in- stitution is generally regarded as one of the leading preparatory schools in the country. After spending four years in this institution, William A. W^ebb entered Vanderbilt Uni- \ersity in 1887 and was graduated four years later with the degree of Bachelor of Arts. He was a member of the Phi Delta Theta fraternity, won the Owen prize medal in moral philosophy, was chairman of the liter- ary committee of "The Comet," the college annual, and in 1903 was elected a member of the Phi Beta Kappa. During his senior year he was assistant in English under Dr. Baskervill, and the next year was made a fellow in that department. After three years of teaching English and Latin in the Webb School, he spent two years as graduate student in the University of Leipzig. In 1887 he became principal of Central College Academy, in Fayette, Missouri, and two years later was elected professor of English in Central College. In 1903 he was granted a leave of absence and spent the year with his family in Berlin. He matriculated in the University of Berlin.
Professor Webb prepared the paper on local government in North Carolina for the volume in the Johns Hopkins University studies on local government in the south and southwest, edited by Edward W. Bemis, his professor in Vanderbilt University. He also prepared the study of Richard Malcolm Johnston for the second volume of Southern Writers, by Professor William M. Basker- vill. In the summer of 1899 ^^^^ 1900 he taught English in the Texas-Colorado Chautauqua of Boulder, Colorado.
In April, 1937, he was elected president of Central College, after having served one year as acting president during the leave of absence of President J. C Morris. Dur- ing his administration, the college made steady progress in all departments. He was particularly interested in raising the stand- ards of scholarship and in building up the
