After continuing the study of his profession one year at Richmond, Va., he returned to Charles City county, and entered upon the practice, in which he has since continued, meeting with a notable degree of success. His eminence in the profession, ability in the conduct of public affairs, and the leading position which was soon accorded him in the political field in that part of Virginia, have been recognized by his appointment to various positions of trust and public usefulness. From 1884 to 1887 he served as a director of the State asylum at Williamsburg; is one of the board of visitors of William and Mary college; was elected a presidential elector on the Democratic ticket in 1888; and in 1891 was elected to the Virginia senate by his district. The faithful and intelligent service which he rendered the people in these positions, led to his nomination for Congress in the Second district in 1892. He was elected and worthily represented his district and the interests of Virginia in the Fifty-third Congress and in the Fifty-fourth, being re-elected by a decisive majority in 1894. Since the expiration of his second term in Congress he has been engaged in his profession and in the management of his plantation.
John J. Tyler, a well-known business man of Lynchburg, was born in Amherst county, in 1844. He was reared and educated in his native county, and there at the age of eighteen years, entered the service of the Confederate States as a private in the Thirteenth Virginia infantry. He served as a private throughout the remainder of the war, until he surrendered and was paroled with the army at Appomattox. He fought with Jackson at Port Republic, Winchester, Cross Keys and Kernstown, and in the Seven Days' battles on the peninsula, participated in the movement against Washington under Early, and took part in the battle of Monocacy, again in the valley met the enemy at Winchester and Cedar Creek, and shared the fighting at Spottsylvania Court House, Kelly's Ford and before Lynchburg. After the surrender he returned to his home in Amherst county, and thence in the fall of 1866 removed to Lynchburg, where he has since that date been engaged in business.
Walker Wilson Tyler, of Lynchburg, was born in Amherst county, in 1840, and was reared and educated in that county. In the summer of 1862 he entered the Confederate service in Company B of the Twentieth battery heavy artillery, as a private, but was at once detailed as secretary to Col. T. S. Rhett, chief of the ordnance bureau under Gen. Josiah Gorgas. Mr. Tyler served in this capacity until Colonel Rhett was sent to Europe on ordnance duty, when he was detailed at Richmond in the quartermaster's department, in which duty he continued until the evacuation of the Confederate capital. In the spring of 1865 he was paroled at Lynchburg, ending a period of nearly three years' faithful and efficient service for the Confederate government. After the close of hostilities he embarked in business at Lynchburg, and during the quarter century and more which has elapsed, he has conducted with much success one of the leading dry goods establishments of the city. He is regarded by his community as a business man of integrity and an enterprising and valuable citizen. In 1868 he was married to Ella, daughter of John Rucker, of Lynchburg, and they have one son, John Duvall, and a daughter, Elizabeth Walker. Mr. Tyler is descended from a Virginia family long associated
