VIRGINIA BIOGRAPFIY
i«i
Virginia, and pursued a course of study in
the law department of the University of
Virginia ; now a practicing lawyer of Suf-
folk ; married Lula Vanderslice Ivey. 3.
Sydney, secretary and treasurer of a coal
company in West Virginia. 4. Luther R.,
of whom further. Children of second mar-
riage: 5. Eudora Custine, a teacher, unmar-
ried. 6. Anna Benton, who became the wife
of Alexander Myrick ; children : Britt and
Theodore. 7. Dudley Digges, a civil and
mining engineer, who married Flora Cam-
den Bailey. 8. Thurman. who died at the
age of twenty-six years. 9. Frances Louise.
10. Benjamin Riddick, a student of the Vir-
ginia Polytechnic Institute, now a civil and
mining engineer.
Luther R. Britt, youngest child of Exum (2) and Eudora (Riddick) Britt, was born in Suffolk. Virginia. October 18, 1865. He was educated in private schools and the Suf- folk Military Academy. He located in Nor- folk, Virginia, and was actively identified with its business and property interests, being engaged for a number of years in the wholesale grocery business and later as a real estate and bond broker. Mr. Britt mar- ried, December 16, 1890, Bessie, daughter of John and Susan A. (Lumsden) Peters. Child, ^largaret Lumsden.
John Benjamin Finder. On paternal lines ]\lr. Finder is of early Georgia ancestry, and on the maternal side is a direct descendant of John Adam Treutlen, governor of Georgia, one of the foremost revolutionists of that state. He was a member of the first provincial Congress of Georgia, which met in Savannah. July 4, 1775, and the promi- nence of his activity in the cause of independ- ence may be measured from the fact that he was described as a "rebel governor" by act of the royal government in 1780. He was elected governor of Georgia, May 8, 1777, over Button Gwinnett, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, by a large majority. The circumstances of his death are not known, but the belief is that he was murdered by Tories at Orangeburg, South Carolina.
(I) John Benjamin Finder's paternal revolutionary ancestor is Joseph William Finder, a cotton planter, who fought in the colonial army, a patriot strong and true.
(II) Joseph William (2) Finder, son of Joseph W^illiam (i) Finder, was born on
Wilmington Island, near Savannah, Georgia,
in the Savannah river, in 1833, died in 1903.
His early life was passed in the place of his
birth, and he was there educated. In young
manhood he became identified with the ser-
vice of the Georgia Central Railroad, and
rose to high position in the road. In such
great favor was he held by the officials there-
of that at the outbreak of the war in 1861,
when he announced his intention of leaving
for the front, the president of the road at-
tempted to dissuade him, arguing that his
services were of such great value to the
road that he could best serve the Confeder-
ate government by remaining at his post
and directing the use of the campany's prop-
erty for government purposes. Mr. Finder,
however, was not to be turned from his
original purpose, and he enlisted in the
Savannah Volunteer Guards, serving
throughout the four years' struggle. For
the ten years prior to his death, which oc-
curred in Richmond, he was a farmer and
dairyman of Henrico county, owning and
cultivating land just outside of the limits of
the city of Richmond. He married, about
1867, Adelaide, born in Powhatan county,
Virginia, daughter of Peter and Susan
(Spears) Ellett, his first wife a Miss Turner,
of Savannah, Georgia, who bore him one
daughter, Susie, married a Mr. Harris. Chil-
dren of Joseph William (2) and Adelaide
(Ellett) Finder: Hattie E., married W. R.
Allen ; Joseph William Jr., deceased ; Oc-
tavia, married L. F. Hudson ; Annie, married
Oscar High ; John Benjamin, of whom fur-
ther ; Walter Spears ; Bena T., married Cole-
man Johnston ; Catherine Belle, married
Robert L. Rand.
(HI) John Benjamin Finder, son of Joseph William (2) and Adelaide (Ellett) Finder, was born in Goochland county, Vir- ginia, August 7, 1873. W^ien he was one year old his parents moved from the home at Cedar Point to Powhatan county, and here he first attended public school at the age of fourteen years going with his par- ents to Henrico county. Although his active business career began in Richmond when he was sixteen years of age, his studies were not completed until afterward, when he fin- ished a business course in a Richmond com- mercial college. His first connection was with hardware dealing, and in this he has since remained, in 1901 establishing the \irginia-Carolina Hardware Company, be-
