"Staunton Daily News" of the 21st inst., and I have read with very great
pleasure, the beautiful and eloquent and richly deserved tributes to
your honored father at the public meeting in your town called for the
acceptance of your father's portrait. It well deserves to be placed
among the purest and ablest and noblest of his talented and honored
associates and contemporaries. I congratulate _you_ on so interesting an
occasion, and I sympathise with you in the filial joy and pride and
gratitude to God that your heart, I know, felt, as those tributes were
paid to your noble father's character and influence. Next to the fear of
God, is the feeling we cherish for a father, who has taught us in the
right way of virtue and honor, who has exemplified such a life and led
us onward and upward. I think the _5th Commandment_ stands in the
decalogue where it does, because the love and reverence to parents is
next to the love and fear of God, in the estimation of God himself.
Greek and Latin writers often classified and summed up human duty in the
following three-fold way,--"to fear the gods--to honor one's parents and
to obey the laws of the land." This was I think in the mind of _Cicero_
when he said "_in aris et focis est Republica_." _Plato_ says "let us
believe then that we can have no religious image more precious in the
sight of heaven than a father, or a grandfather or a mother worn out
with age, and that in proportion as we honor or delight in them with a
religious joy, in the same proportion does God himself rejoice." Such
sentiments, I believe, are fragments of the true and primitive religion
carried abroad--but also, soon afterward, in so many respects corrupted,
we recognize such sentiments as a part of the original Divine law not
wholly obliterated, thanks to God, by the fall.
For the sake of dear old Virginia, I thank you that your father's form
and face is where it is--to be an incentive to virtue and patriotism, as
it looks down from year to year upon all who enter your court of
justice.
For your considerate kindness in sending me the paper, and awakening
thoughts of the long past, and with apologies for this longer letter
than I had thought to write, I am,
Gratefully yours,
J. HENRY SMITH.
FROM GEN. ECHOLS.
Louisville, Ky., July 28, 1894.
_Major Thos. C. Elder, Staunton, Va._:
_My Dear Major_--After an absence of several days, I returned to this
city yesterday, and find your postal of the 23rd inst., and also the
newspaper containing an account of the ceremony of the delivery to, and
acceptance by, the county authorities of Augusta county, of the portrait
of the late distinguished John Howe Peyton. I am very much obliged to
you for thinking of me, and giving me an opportunity of reading the
addresses made by yourself and Captain Bumgardner on the occasion
referred to. I have read the speeches with a great deal of interest, and
I have been very much impressed and pleased with your chaste, striking,
and eloquent address, as the representative of the Supervisors of the
county, in accepting the portrait. You have, with a master's hand,
delineated the character of Mr. Peyton, and I hope that your address
will be preserved as a fitting accompaniment of the skillful personation
of the striking countenance that the artist has presented. I recollect
Mr. Peyton very well. When I was a boy I saw him, and heard him
frequently at the bar, generally in Lexington. I have also a very
pleasant recollection of having enjoyed his elegant and generous
hospitality at his home.
When I can first remember Staunton, the Staunton bar was made up of men
who will long live in the memory of those who had the good fortune to
know them.
Judge Thompson was on the bench, and around him Thos. J. Michie, A. H.
H. Stuart, John B. Baldwin, David Fultz, H. W. Sheffey and a number of
other gentlemen, all of whom together formed a notable group that would
have made any forum illustrious.
It is certainly a most fitting thing that the noble county of Augusta
should have her Pantheon, in which shall be gathered the statues and
likenesses of her great sons, in order that those who come after shall
see the men who have given to her her proud pre-eminence among the
counties of the "Old Dominion."
Again thanking you for your kindness, and hoping to see you in a few
days, I am, very truly yours,
JOHN ECHOLS.
Many other interesting letters have been received from distinguished
gentlemen in different parts of the State, but neither time nor the
limits of this pamphlet admit of their insertion.
LETTERS FROM CONTEMPORARIES AT THE BAR.
From a number of letters received from persons to whom Col. Preston's
sketch was posted, nearly fifteen years ago, the following extracts are
selected, because written by Mr. Peyton's colleagues at the bar.
FROM JUDGE ALEXANDER RIVES.
(FEDERAL JUDGE.)
In a letter addressed to Hon. John L. Peyton, and dated Eastbourne,
Charlottesville, Jan. 29th, 1881, Judge R. says:
"There was no one at the bar, with whom I was associated, for whom I
cherished the same admiration, respect and esteem, as for him.
"So much of our State's worth and greatness was in the ranks of the bar
and the bench, that I have felt it to be a shame to the State that it
has never been chronicled, as it should have been, for after ages. Such
men as Wickham, Leigh, and Johnson survive only in brief obituaries. I
am glad your filial piety has, in some measure, rescued your father's
name from that neglect."
FROM JOHN B. MINOR, LL. D.,
PROFESSOR OF LAW, &C.
University of Virginia, February 3d, 1881.
_My Dear Sir_:
I pray you to accept my thanks for the brief memoirs of your
distinguished father, which you were so kind as to send me.
It is very pleasing to have before my eyes the well remembered features,
expression and attitude of a man for whom, through my whole professional
life, I have cherished the most unreserved respect and admiration.
For many years I have been accustomed to regard the county of Augusta as
occupying the first position in the Commonwealth, in respect to the
_morale_ and intelligence of its people, and the soundness of its public
sentiment, and have ascribed the pre-eminence, in a marked degree, to
the lofty character of its bar--a pre-eminence in uprightness, as well
as in abilities and learning, which has now subsisted continuously for
near a hundred years. There is no community in the State, I believe,
which has been blessed, for a blessing indeed it has proved, for so long
a period of time, with such a wonderful and uninterrupted succession of
great and virtuous lawyers.
In that remarkable series, your father is a most conspicuous figure, and
by his example and influence contributed as much as any one to the noble
result, as I apprehend it to exist, in the elevated tone of the people
of Augusta.
Doubtless the highest influences of religion co-operated powerfully to
accomplish what has been achieved, but I do not doubt that one of the
chief auxiliaries was the stainless purity existing for so many years
among the practitioners of the law, rendered more conspicuous and patent
by the extraordinary capacity which accompanied it.
I look with trembling anxiety to the young men who now compose the bulk
of the Augusta bar, many of whom are my pupils, to sustain and transmit
unimpaired the illustrious reputation for lofty integrity and eminent
ability and learning, which has come down to them through so many
successions of their predecessors, so that for the next hundred years,
as for the last, old Augusta may continue to enjoy the distinction she
has won.
Thanking you again for kindly remembering me in the distribution of the
sketch, I am, with great respect and esteem,
Yours truly,
JOHN B. MINOR.
James D. Davidson, in a letter dated Lexington, Va., January 25th, 1879,
and addressed to Col. John L. Peyton, says:
"When I knew Mr. Peyton in practice in Rockbridge county, I was
comparatively a young member of the bar, and I looked up to him, as a
man of imperial, far seeing, commanding intellect, and in every respect
as a superior being, not only as a lawyer, but as a man."
Letters and excerpts from letters to whom the little pamphlet giving an
account of the presentation of Mr. Peyton's likeness to the county were
sent:
_Judge S. Bassett French_, of Mynchester, says:
"Mr. Peyton was a wonderful man in his day, and had few peers in any
age."
_Col. Wm. A. Anderson_, in a letter to Col. Peyton, dated Lexington,
August 8th, 1894, says:
"Accept my thanks for the memorial pamphlet of your honored father. Some
knowledge of his splendid gifts, his eloquence, learning and lofty
traits of character had come down to me among the traditions of the
Lexington bar, at which he was for many years a distinguished
practitioner, and I am very glad to have in more enduring form the
sketches of his life, character and services."
PROF. JOHN B. MINOR, LL. D.
University of Virginia, Law Department,
August 9th, 1894.
_My Dear Sir:_
I received yesterday, the pamphlet containing the account of the
"Ceremonies attending the presentation of the portrait of John Howe
Peyton," your honored father, to the county of Augusta, and beg you to
accept my cordial thanks therefore.
I apprehend that no county in the State, nor in the United States, can
exhibit such an aggregation of judicial worthies as Augusta, not merely
lawyers of distinguished learning and power, but men no less
distinguished for incompatible integrity. The county authorities do
themselves great credit in thus commemorating the virtues and abilities
which have so illustrated their community.
Among these great and good men your father was conspicuous, and well
deserves to be enshrined in the esteem and admiration, not of Augusta
only, but of Virginia, and the whole country. With renewed thanks for
the pamphlet,
I am, yours very truly,
JOHN B. MINOR.
Col. John L. Peyton, Staunton, Va.
_Hon. John W. Rieley_, judge-elect to the Supreme Court of Appeals, of
Virginia, says:
"I have read with deep and intense interest the addresses and all that
was said of Mr. Peyton by his contemporaries, and as a Virginian I am
proud of such an illustrious citizen, and congratulate old Augusta that
her people have for contemplation, and emulation for all time the life
and character of one of such worth and commanding ability."
_Col. Jos. H. Sherrard_, under date of Lexington, August 12th, 1894,
writes:
"I have read the pamphlet with a great deal of pleasure, and am glad to
see this departure from the rule too long prevalent of doing honor only
to statesmen and military men, and the system inaugurated of 'rendering
unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's.' Truly among professional men
there is oft-times as much virtue, genius and patriotism as in the
former classes, and this was the case as to your great and good father,
and is so as to many modest citizens, who are as worthy to be
commemorated. Many a youth will be taught that honor and glory are not
alone to be achieved at the cannon's mouth, or in the halls of Congress,
and to emulate such examples of virtue in private life. Would that this
precedent of your good people could be repeated by those of every county
in the State, until all of our court-houses are ornamented by their
illustrious citizens. Surely we might then say: 'Lives of great men all
remind us we may make our lives sublime and departing leave footprints
in the sands of time.'"
_John F. Lewis, Esq._, writes from Charleston, W. Va., under date of
October 12th, 1894:
"While it was not my good fortune to have known personally the subject
of these eloquent tributes to worth, I know full well how richly
deserved they are. From the days of my youth I have heard from the lips
of those who knew John Howe Peyton well and honored him, the most
beautiful and feeling tributes to his high toned honor, his brilliant
intellect, his fervid patriotism and his spotless life. It is eminently
fitting that this speaking likeness of him should adorn the walls of the
Temple of Justice of old Augusta, those same walls which erstwhile
echoed back his eloquent words in defence of the right."
_Rev. Wm. H. Ruffner, D. D._, writes from Lexington, under date of
August 10th, 1894:
"I have read all [the pamphlet containing ceremonies attending the
presentation of Mr. Peyton's portrait to the county] with interest and
sympathy. Your father was one of the heroes of my early days. I saw and
heard him often, and the impression I received of his character and
abilities was correct."
_Dr. R. A. Brock_ writes from Richmond, October 10th, 1894:
"I am thankful in the inspiration that the contemplation of so benign a
presence, and the consequent retrospect of so admirable a life, will
command in posterity."
_Rev. Geo. Gordon Smeade_, Rector of Magill Memorial Church, Pulaski
City, writes:
"For the sake of the rising generation who may frequent your Court of
Justice, it was most timely in placing upon her walls the portrait of so
distinguished a personage as your father. He who has left so deep an
impress upon the community in which he lived, and I may say also upon
his age, cannot help being an incentive to the very _highest type of
virtue_ and patriotism."
_C. B. Thomas, Esq._, writes from Wytheville, August 11th, 1894:
"I have read the pamphlet with much interest. I will have my boys to
read it, hoping that they may be stimulated to strive to emulate some of
the virtues which characterized your distinguished father in such an
eminent degree."
_Miss M. J. Baldwin_, the gifted and accomplished Principal of the
Augusta Female Seminary, under date of August 15th, 1894, writes:
"No one takes more pleasure in seeing your father's memory honored than
I do. May his descendants ever prove worthy of so distinguished an
ancestor."
FROM MRS. LOUISA DUPUY.
The talented and accomplished Mrs. Louisa Dupuy, who was intimately
acquainted with Mr. Peyton and his family, and who spent much time at
Montgomery Hall in early days, thus writes:
Staunton, Thursday Afternoon.
_Dear Col. Peyton_:
I am very much obliged for the pamphlet containing an account of the
presentation and acceptance of your honored father's portrait. "Honor to
whom honor is due," and I am always glad to see any indication that
virtue and integrity and intellectual ability are held in high esteem,
and brought prominently before the public. It is cause of deep regret,
that in these days, so much of the reverse is prominent. If I had known
it in time, and that ladies were to be present on the interesting
occasion, I should have gone down to the Court House, but I do not take
a daily paper and did not know of it.
I remember your father as an elegant and courtly gentleman, genial and
kind to all, both old and young; and that he belonged to a noble set of
such men belonging to Staunton in those days.
I have read the pamphlet through (I had read the account in the papers),
and have mailed it to Sam and the boys.
Your old friend,
LOUISA DUPUY.
Many other interesting letters have been received from distinguished
persons in all parts of the State, from the South and West, but space
does not admit of their introduction. We feel the less difficulty in
omitting them, though coming from such men as Gen. G. W. C. Lee, from
judges of the Court of Appeals of Maryland, North Carolina and Ohio,
Hon. R. Taylor Scott, Col. Jesse E. Peyton, of New Jersey, R. L. Parrish
and other eminent men and lawyers, because they knew Mr. Peyton only by
reputation, not personally.
MRS. JOHN H. PEYTON.
We have mentioned Mr. Peyton's second marriage, in 1821, to Anne
Montgomery Lewis. The happiness derived from this auspicious union was
such that it may be classed among the matches "made in heaven."
As a becoming conclusion to this compilation the following sketch of
Mrs. Peyton is appended:
Among the noteworthy women of Virginia during the early part of the
present century--our comparatively unknown and entirely unsung Southern
heroines--was the subject of this sketch. Remarkable for her practical
ability and efficiency, her graceful and accomplished taste, the extent
and variety of her literary attainments, the unselfish generosity of her
heart, and her unostentatious charities, no one was more highly esteemed
while living, or was more mourned when, in her bright and useful career,
struck down by the hand of death. Nor is there one of those departed
Matrons--the peerless women of Virginia,--whose memory is more cherished
by those among whom she lived; for, it was her peculiar good fortune to
be at once the life and joy of her family, the "bright particular star"
of the society in which she moved, and the pride and ornament of the
community.
Anne Montgomery Peyton was born at the Sweet Springs Monroe County,
Virginia, in the year 1802. Her father Major John Lewis, was a man of
large fortune, having inherited this extensive and valuable estate from
his father, Col. William Lewis, commonly called the "Civilizer of the
border." Major Lewis was a distinguished officer of that branch of the
military forces of the "Thirteen United Colonies," styled the
"Continental line," and served under Washington until the close of the
revolutionary war. A little more than two years after the surrender of
the British Army at Yorktown, by Lord Cornwallis, October 17th--19th,
1781, namely, in the winter of 1783 when Washington relinquished the
command of the army, Major Lewis returned to the Sweet Springs where he
spent the rest of his life, improving his property and enjoying the
society of his friends. He married, in 1795, Mary Preston, the fourth
daughter of Col. William Preston of Smithfield, County of Montgomery.
Mary Preston Lewis is reported to have been a woman of great personal
charms and of uncommon vivacity of intellect, and of varied
accomplishments. As spirited as beautiful, she was one of the true type
of that Virginia character which has made itself known and felt
throughout the world.[28]
[28] When little Anne Lewis left the Sweet Springs for Mr. C's school,
she bore the following letter from her mother to him.
Sweet Springs, July 23rd, 1811.
_Mr. Crutchfield_:
_Dear Sir_--With the sincerest pleasure I send my dear little Anne to
you again. I hope nothing will happen, not even an indulgence of my
affection for her, to cause her coming home again shortly, for to you, I
confide with confidence her entire education, and I hope your labors
will be crowned with success by Him above, who is able to give
abundantly.
It has been with much persuasion and many difficulties I have succeeded
in getting Mr. L's consent to Anne and Margaret Lynn being sent to you.
I need not say anything as to Anne's temper and disposition. I know your
penetration is sufficient, and in your judgment and tenderness [to
improve both] I have entire confidence. You can do more to improve her
than I can and I know you will. I have many happy proofs of the great
good, both in mind and manners, that have accompanied your exertions
towards my family.
Heaven bless and prosper you, is the wish of your friend,
MARY P. LEWIS.
P. S. My respects to Mrs. Crutchfield. I have sent a cot and bedding for
Anne and Lynn.
Mary Preston Lewis died at an early age, leaving a large family of young
children, and it devolved upon the subject of this sketch, as being one
of the oldest, to act the part of mother and sister towards them--a duty
which she nobly performed, ever extending to them Christian care and
true sympathy. The portals of Montgomery Hall were always open to
receive them and her younger brothers. In fact it became the home of her
sisters, three of whom were subsequently, at different periods, married
from it: namely, Margaret Lynn, to John Cochran, of Charlottesville,
Va., Sarah, to her cousin, Col. John Lewis, of Kanawha, and Polydora, to
John Gosse, of Albemarle. Her two younger brothers, John Benjamin and
Thomas Preston, also resided with her several years while attending
school in Staunton.
Anne Lewis, the third child of Major John Lewis and Mary Preston, and
according to contemporaneous accounts, the most favored of them all; was
entered in her ninth year at the school--a school in great repute at
that day--of Mr. Crutchfield, situated in the Falling Spring Valley near
the Peytona Cascades, Alleghany County.[29]
[29] The following letter from John Preston, Treasurer of the State of
Virginia, gives a brief account of the death of his sister, Mary Preston
Lewis.
Greenfield, Botetourt County, Va.,
February 8th, 1824.
_Dear Sister_:
The painful duty of informing you of the death of our beloved Sister
Lewis devolves on me. She expired on Wednesday the 4th, (Feb. 4th, 1824)
at her home at the Sweet Springs. She had lingered for some time but no
dangerous symptoms appeared in her complaint, nor was any alarm excited.
She, however, became suddenly worse, and sent for Mary Woodville, who
set out instantly and took with her Doctor Patterson, of Fincastle, but
before they arrived she was struggling with death. She died with all the
firmness of a Christian hero, firmly relying on the merits and mediation
of an all-sufficient Saviour, and declared that her hope and confidence
were so great that death presented not one solitary terror to her, but
rather that he appeared to her as a friend who was to conduct her out of
this into a far better world that she had long looked forward to with
ardor--and called on her relations and friends around her to witness
with what composure a real Christian could die, and actually closed her
eyes with her own hands.
The family are now dispersed, and the house locked up and the plantation
forsaken for awhile.
Sarah, Lynn and Thomas are at Mr. Woodville's, Ben and Polly down at Mr.
Massie's. What future disposition will be made of them or the property
is not yet decided on. She did not make a will.
My wife is very sick and confined to her bed with something like the
nettle-rash. Sarah is well and I am in my general health.
Your affectionate brother,
JOHN PRESTON.
To Mrs. Elizabeth Madison, Montgomery Co.
The reader will probably excuse a brief reference to this valley which
is so remarkable for its scenic charms, the cascade being the most
striking point, that one cannot pass through it without feeling the
truth of Cowper's beautiful line--"God made the Country and man made the
Town." The variety, the perfection, and indeed everything about a lively
country scene so eclipse the noise and bustle and turmoil of a large
town that I have sometimes been so uncharitable as to think that those
who did not love the country, could scarcely love their Maker; but to
indulge such a thought would be illiberal, decidedly wrong. And yet the
country has many, many charms, peculiar to itself and of a peculiar
character; and although it is certain that a vicious mind will think of
God nowhere, while a pious one will behold him in everything, it
nevertheless cannot be doubted that there are natural tendencies in the
bustle, parade, and business of large commercial towns, to turn away the
soul from God; while innumerable objects are presented in the country
which lead the mind of the reflective "through Nature up to Nature's
God."
The general truth of these remarks has always been impressed on our mind
when in the country, and more especially when rambling during the summer
through the enchanting regions of western Virginia.
In one of the loveliest spots in this picturesque land, Mr. Crutchfield
had wisely established his school--no doubt influenced in his choice by
its central position in the State, its retired situation and the extreme
healthfulness of the climate. Amidst these rural scenes in the "sweet
sequestered vale," Anne Lewis spent her early youth, making much
progress in learning and acquiring a fund of valuable information.
Studying with unexampled industry, she carried off the highest prizes.
But even in this, the school of highest grade at that period in Western
Virginia, she was in a measure deprived of that thorough and liberal
education which her ambition craved. When she completed the course and
returned home it was with a painful consciousness on her part of how
little she knew and how much she had yet to learn.