Mini Bios of People of Scots Descent
Biography of CONRAD SYME
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
----
This biography was submitted by Sandy Spradling, E-mail address:
<[log in to unmask]>
History of Greenbrier County J. R. Cole, Lewisburg, WV 1917, p. 166-171
CONRAD SYME.
Conrad Hunt Syme, the present corporation counsel for the District of
Columbia, is a native of Lewisburg, Greenbrier county, West Virginia. He is
descended from an ancestry whose intellects enriched the history and helped
to shape and control for long years the sentiment and policy of this
country. He is a sixth lineal descendant of Col. John Syme and Sarah
Winston, his wife, who lived at Studleigh, Hanover county, Virginia. Col.
John Syme, of Studleigh, came to Virginia from Scotland. He held a royal
commission and was a member of the House of Burgesses in 1722. He died in
1731, leaving his widow, Sarah Winston Syme, and one son, named after his
father, and who was afterward known as Col. John Syme the II. Sarah Winston
was the daughter of Isaac Winston, of Yorkshire, England. Her sister, Lucy
Winston, married William Cole, and was the grandmother of Dorothy Payne
Todd, who married President Madison and who is familiarly known as Dolly
Madison. The Winstons, as a family, were noted for their brilliant talents.
Sarah Winston had the distinction of having two sons in the House of
Burgesses at the same time-Col. John Syme II., the son of her first husband,
and Patrick Henry, her son by a later marriage with John Henry. Col. John
Syme married Mildred Meriwether, daughter of Nicholas and Mildred
Meriwether, of Rocky Mills, Hanover county, Virginia. He was a member of the
Virginia Assembly from 1752 to 1755, a member of the Privy Council in 1759,
and a delegate to the First Virginia Convention from Hanover county in 1776.
He was captured by the British Ceneral Tarlton, at the house of Dr. Walker.
He was so unprepossessing in appearance that Tarlton is said to have
exclaimed when he saw him, "Angels and ministers of grace, defend us. Be
thou a spirit of health or goblin damned?"
Col. John Syme and Mildred Meriwether had a number of children, one of whom,
and the only son, was Nicholas Syme, who marrried Jane Johnson, daughter of
Col. William Johnson. Their son, Dr. William Henry Syme, was the first
member of the family to live in Greenbrier county. Dr. Syme was born in
Hanover county, Virginia, September 5, 1808. After receiving a thorough
training in the primary educational branches he matriculated at William and
Mary College, the oldest, and at the same time, the most distinguished
school of the State, and graduated with high bonors. He then took up the
study of law, attended the celebrated school of Chancellor Tucker, at
Winchester, Va., and was admitted to the bar. He went to Lewisburg, Va. (now
West Virginia), to enter the practice of his profession. Lewisburg, at that
time and for many years thereafter, was one of the places at which the Court
of Appeals of Virginia held its sessions. Before entering actively into the
practice of law he fell in love at first sight with Anne Mays, the beautiful
daughter of John Mays, of Greenbrier county. It is related that she
consented to marry him upon the condition that he should abandon the
practice of law and become a physician. To this condition he assented and
they were married on October 4, 1832, and
she accompanied him to Lexington, Ky., where he entered the Transylvania
University, from which, in due course, he graduated, receiving the degree of
Doctor of Medicine. He returned to Lewisburg, where he practiced his
profession until his death, January 15, 1875. Ten children were born to
them, and all were reared in Lewisburg: Jane Rebecca died in infancy;
Willianna died in 1850; Richard Johnson, the eldest son, married Miss
Burgess, of Winchester, Va.; Samuel Augustus married Mary Maxwell, daughter
of Conrad Hanse Hunt, of Fredericksburg, Va.; William Henry died in 1861;
Chapman Johnson married Miss Julia Russell, of Petersburg; John Nesmith
married Christian, daughter of Conrad Hanse Hunt, of Fredericksburg, Va.;
James Nesmith and Alexander Kossuth Syme never married; Sue C. Syme, another
daughter, married Oliver P Sydenstricker, of Lewisburg.
Although Dr. Syme devoted himself to the practice of his profession with
assiduity and great success and became the leading physician in that part of
the country. Yet his training as a lawyer and the bent given to his mind by
his academic studies while at college broadened him far beyond the line of
his chosen profession. He was not intellectually content in the practice of
medicine. He continued his classical studies during the whole of his life.
He was as familiar with the works of Plato and Aristotle, and Horace and
Virgil in their native tongues, as he was with Bacon and Shakespeare, Dryden
and Goldsmith. He was a profound student of history, and Caesar and Tacitus,
Hume and Gibbon and Macaulay were his constant intellectual companions. For
some time he ed-ited The Statesman, a weekly newspaper published at
Lewisburg, whose editorial columns he enriched with classical references and
analogy. He was a finished orator and a convincing public speaker, and took
active part in public affairs. At the beginning of the Civil war he offered
his services to the Governor of Virginia, but being at that time crippled
with rheumatic gout, which afterwards confined him to his bed for fifteen
years, he was unable to actively participate in the conflict. He was
appointed provost marshal, with the rank of captain, Confederate States of
America, and performed the duties of this position during the war. He was a
man loved, respected and admired by all who knew him, and when he died the
citizens of Greenbrier assembled in public meeting at the court house and
passed resolutions expressive of their appreciation of his character and
their regret at his loss.
Samuel Augustus Maverick Syme, the second son of Dr. Wilham Henry Syme, and
the father of Conrad Hunt Syme, was born in Lewisburg, W. Va., April 8,
1838. He was educated at the Lewisburg Academy under Custer and other noted
teachers, and shortly before the Civil war went to Indiana to attend
college. Upon the outbreak of the war he went to Richmond, Va., where he
volunteered in the Richmond Blues, commanded by Capt. Jennings Wise, and was
with them during the West Virginia campaign in the early days of the war. He
afterwards served under Generals Floyd and Early until the close of the war,
when he returned to Lewisburg. After serving some time as a civil engineer
on the Chesapeake & Ohio railroad, he entered the merchandising business in
Lewisburg. He was married to Mary Maxwell Hunt on December 13, 1866, and
five children were born to them: Conrad Hunt Syme, Dr. William Henry Syme,
Eliza Hunt and Jane Grey, all of Washington, D. C., and Mary Maxwell, who
married the Rev. Henry Waddell Pratt, and who now resides at Abbeville, S.
C. Samuel A. M. Syme continued in the merchandising business until about
1878, when he went to California and engaged with the California Street
Railway System, which had just installed the first cable line in use in the
United States. He returned from California in 1886 and accepted a position
in the Government service in Washington, where he has since resided.
Mary Maxwell Syme, wife of Samuel A. M. Syme, was one of the most respected,
admired and beloved women who ever lived in Greenbrier county. Her father,
who was one of the most prominent men in Fredericksburg, Va., had given her
the advantage of a very liberal education. She was bright and witty in
conversation, gifted in repartee, and of the most charitable and benevolent
nature. The poor and needy and the sick and oppressed found in her a
constant and devoted friend. During the war her ardent Southern sympathies
kept in constant touch with the leaders of the Confederate army in Missouri,
where she then resided, and she worked for the cause of the South with
unceasing devotion, and often incurred personal danger. Her whole life was
one of un-selfish devotion, not only to her own family, but to many others
in the community in which she lived. She died in Washington, D. C., on the
fourteenth of March, 1910, where she had made her home since 1883.
Conrad Hunt Syme was born in Lewisburg, W. Va., January 13, 1868. He
attended school at the old Lewisburg Academy and at the Lewisburg graded
school until the family moved to Washington, D.C., in 1883. He graduated
from the Washington High School in 1887 and immediately entered for the law
course at Georgetown University. In 1888 he was appointed private secretary
to United States Senator Charles J. Faulkner, occupying this position until
1897. He was admitted to the bar in West Virginia in 1893 and in the
District of Columbia in 1894. During the time he was private secretary to
Senator Faulkner he took an active part in West Virginia politics. He was
assistant secretary to the State Democratic Committee in 1892, and also to
the Democratic Congressional Committee in 1896. He spoke frequently on the
stump in West Virginia and elsewhere in political campaigns from 1890 to
1896. He was appointed delegate from the District of Columbia to the Atlanta
Exposition in 1895 and was a delegate to the West Virginia State Convention
in 1896.
In the campaign of 1912 he was active in behalf of the candidacy of Woodrow
Wilson for President, and in 1916 he made a speaking tour, at the request of
the Democratic National Committee, in West Virginia, Maryland and Delaware
in behalf of his re-election to the Presidency.
In 1897 he entered actively into the practice of law in Washington, D. C.,
and secured a lucrative practice. He has been a member of the bar of the
Supreme Court of the United States since 1900. In 1900 he, together with
Senator Faulkner, was employed in the contest over the will of Baroness
Amoss, and in 1901 he went to Europe and took testimony in this case at
Rome, Luzerne, Heidelberg, Hamburg and Berlin, and afterwards visited Paris
and London. In 1902 he was employed as one of the counsel for the defendants
in the celebrated post office fraud cases. In 1905 he was employed to defend
the will of Ellen M. Colton, widow of General Colton, of California, one of
the builders of the Union Pacific railroad, and this employment carried him
to California.
In 1913, at the solicitation of the Commissioners of the District of
Columbia, he became Corporation Counsel of the District of Columbia and
Ceneral Counsel of the Public Utilities Commission of the District of
Columbia, which position he now occupies and where he has represented the
District of Columbia in the most important litigation in all of the courts
with much success. This position corresponds with that of the attorney
general in the States and carries with it the responsibility for all legal
matters pertaining to the capital of the Nation. He is a charter member of
the University Club, of Washington, D. C., and a member of the National
Press Club, and of the City Club, of New York.
In 1896 he was married, at Harrodsburg, Ky., to Lavinia B. Forsythe,
daughter of Dr. and Mrs. M. L. Forsythe. 'Miss Forsythe, at the time of her
marriage, was one of the belles of the blue grass region and her family was
among the first settlers of Kentucky, her ancestors having gone there from
Virginia many years before the Revolutionary war. Two sons were born to
them-Leander Dunbar Syme, born on January 8, 1898, and Samuel Augustus Syme,
born on February 5, 1900. The elder son, having graduated at the Central
High School in Washington, D. C., received an appointment to the United
States Military Academy at West Point, on November 10, 1916, and entered
this institution on June 14, 1917, as a cadet. The younger son, having
attended three years at the Central High School in Washington, D. C.,
entered the Virginia Military Institute, at Lexington, Va., as a cadet, on
September 5, 1917, both boys preparing themselves as rapidly as possible to
take part in the existing war with Germany.
JPAdams
Texas
-----Original Message-----
From: Discussion of research and writing about Virginia history
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Sam Treynor
Sent: Thursday, January 28, 2010 9:57 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: William Byrd adjectives from 1732
I think that the suggestion of "hairy" for "Family of Esau" and "swarthy"
for "family of the Saracens" is probably on the right track. Another name
for Esau was Edom, which means "red". Perhaps Mrs. Syme had red hair.
Sam Treynor
-----Original Message-----
From: Discussion of research and writing about Virginia history
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Kathleen Much
Sent: Thursday, January 28, 2010 12:02 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [VA-HIST] William Byrd adjectives from 1732
It's probable that Byrd meant "portly" in its old sense, "having dignified
bearing", rather than the modern sense of "hefty".
I can't say what he meant by the Esau and Saracen reference, unless Sarah's
family was hairy (Esau was "an hairy man") and Mr Syme was swarthy. See if
you can find portraits of them that might shed more light.
Kathleen Much
The Book Doctor
On Wed, Jan 27, 2010 at 9:00 PM, VA-HIST automatic digest system Jon Kukla
wrote:
>
> In his Progress to the Mines narrative, William Byrd II described am
> Octobe=
> r
> 1732 visit to Studley plantation in Hanover County where me met the widow
> Sarah Winston Syme, future wife of John Henry and future mother of Patrick
> Henry. Byrd described her as =93a portly, handsome dame, of the family of
> Esau, and [who] seemed not to pine too much for the death of her husband,
> who was of the family of the Saracens.=94
>
> Mrs. Syme was not literally Jewish (i.e., "of the family of Esau") nor was
> her late husband literally Moslem ("Saracen)." Haven't turned up anything
> useful in the OED. Is anyone aware of any scholarship about whether these
> descriptors were idiosyncratic on Byrd=92s part? or might they have had a
> contemporary context?
>
>
______________________________________
To subscribe, change options, or unsubscribe please see the instructions at
http://listlva.lib.va.us/archives/va-hist.html
No virus found in this incoming message.
Checked by AVG - www.avg.com
Version: 9.0.733 / Virus Database: 271.1.1/2649 - Release Date: 01/27/10
07:08:00
______________________________________
To subscribe, change options, or unsubscribe please see the instructions at
http://listlva.lib.va.us/archives/va-hist.html
______________________________________
To subscribe, change options, or unsubscribe please see the instructions at
http://listlva.lib.va.us/archives/va-hist.html
|
