Page:Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography volume 3.djvu/320

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278


VIRGINIA BIOGRAPHY


souri, and Mississippi. He was elected to the Confederate congress by Missouri soldiers in May, 1864. He removed to New York in 1865, was managing editor of the "Daily News" in 1865-66, and was admitted to the bar of New York in 1866. He pub- lished the first volume of a history of the war in the Trans-Mississippi department, entitled "The Fight for Missouri."

Pryor, Sara Agnes, born in Halifax county, Virginia, in 1830, daughter of Rev. Samuel Blair Rice and Lucinda Walton Leftwich, his wife; she married, at Char- lottesville, Virginia, in 1848, Roger Atkin- son Pryor (q. v.). She was educated by private tutors, being given special instruc- tion in English literature, history, modern languages and music. In 1903 she published "The Mother of Washington, and Her Times," which was received with general commendation; and her "Reminiscences of War and Peace" (1904), was hailed as a delightful portraiture of the leading people of a stirring period. She was a leading member of the principal patriotic orders.

Tabb, John Banister, born in Amelia county, Virginia, in 1845, son of John Yel- verton Tabb, and great-grandson of Col. John Tabb, of the public committe.e of safety (1775), and Frances Peyton, his wife, daughter of Sir John Peyton, of Mathews county, Virginia. He was edu- cated at home by private tutors. He was a lad when he entered the Confederate army, was capturecl and held prisoner for seven months. After the war, he studied music in Baltimore, later entered St. Mary's Theo- logical Seminary, and was ordained a priest in the Roman Catholic church in 1884. In 1884 he published a volume containing


poems he had previously written for the pi ess. He was made professor of English at St. Charles College, Ellicott City, Mary- land, in 18S5. In 1889 he published a sec- ond volume of poems. His verse is char- acterized by natural imagery, and a refined taste. He died in 1909.

Magruder, Julia, born at Charlottes\ ille, X'irginia, in 1854, daughter of Allan Bowie Magruder and Sarah M. Gilliam, his wife. She was almost entirely educated by her I)arents and governesses. She was only sixteen when her "My Three Chances" was published in a southern journal, and re- ceived with marked favor. Her first im- portant novel was "Across the Chasm, ' dealing with the period after the civil war. Among her other works are : "At Anchor," "A Magnificent Plebeian," "The Princess Sonia," "A Beautiful Alien," and "The Thousandth Woman."

Dabney, Richard Heath, born in Memphis, Tennessee, March 29, i860, son of Virgiiiius Dabney and Ellen Maria Heath, his wife. His mother died when he was less than a month old, and he was brought up by his maternal grandmother, by whom he was t;!Ught until he was sent to Miss Sue Wil- liams' private school in Richmond, at the age of seven years. He was further in- structed by his father, and in 1878 he entered the Univer^ty of \'irginia, and graduated in 1881 with the Master of Arts degree. He t'lught school for a year, and was then a student of history, politics and economics in the Munich, Berlin and Heidelberg univer- sities, and graduating from the latter in 1885 as Ph. D., iiiulta ciiiii laudc. In the v/inter of that year, while living with his father, in New \'ork, he wrote a series of