The VTS Class of 1878 – A ‘new’ picture of Rev. Sigismund Ware
On Tuesday June 25, I was at a service at Aquia Episcopal of “Celebration of New Ministry” for Rev. Jay Morris and his new interim Connor Newlun. While there I mentioned to Virginia Theological’s history professor Bob Pritchard, an old friend, that we had a new diary on Rev. Sigismund Ware. He took that information to one of their archivist, Christopher Pote who provided me with the above image of Ware’s 1878 graduating class at VTS. Note that Ware’s brother Josiah Ware was also a member of this class. The members were researched by Pote who says it is one of VTS most important classes. It is our earliest picture of Sig Ware.
Top row, standing, L-R: P. Parker Phillips, Sigismund S. Ware , Henry Thomas, John Henry Chesley, Josiah W. Ware, William Byrd Lee, Arthur Powell Gray Seated, L-R: Curtis Grubb, George William Dame, Frank Page, Corbin Braxton Bryan, Byrd T. Turner. Thanks to VTS for their donation to us of this picture.
What happended to these gentlemen ? Here are brief biographies of some of them:
1. Frank Page (1849-1918)
son of Maj. John Page and Betsey BURWELL PAGE, of Oakland, Hanover Co., VA.
Rector of two churches Fairfax
Married Lettie Morris Page
1890 –Waco St. Paul’s Episcopal
1897- Dr. Divinity – Washington and Lee
Called to St. John’s NY 1903
Brother Thomas Page novelist
2. Corbin Braxton Bryan (1852-1922)
Born on April 17, 1852, at Eagle Point in Gloucester County, the son of John Randolph Bryan and Elizabeth Tucker Coalter Bryan.
In 1882 he married Mary Sidney Caldwell Scott, of Lenoir, North Carolina. They had two sons and four daughters.
Bryan spent the years 1878–1881 in Lynnhaven Parish, Princess Anne County; the years 1881–1891 at Christ Church, Millwood, in Clarke County; the years 1891–1893 at Epiphany Episcopal Church in Danville; and the years 1893–1905 at Saint John’s Church in Hampton. At Hampton he developed a keen interest in the students at Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute (later Hampton University), including the Native Americans from the western states and territories. Bryan traveled to the West several times to visit the Indian schools from which many Hampton students came. He helped found Saint Cyprian’s Church, Hampton’s first African American Episcopal congregation, and he came to believe that the influence of Christianity would markedly improve the lives of black Virginians, for whom he believed that he and his fellow whites, as a superior race, had a special responsibility.
During the academic year 1903–1904 Bryan received a D.D. from Hampden-Sydney College. Early in 1905 he moved to Petersburg to become the minister of Grace Episcopal Church, and on March 10 of that year he was elected dean and principal of the Bishop Payne Divinity and Industrial School (after 1910 the Bishop Payne Divinity School), which was also in Petersburg. Organized in 1881, it was the oldest theological seminary for the education of African American Episcopal clergymen in the South. Bishop Payne was a small institution boasting only four teachers and sixteen students in 1908, but by 1921 it had educated more than 60 percent of all the African American Episcopal ministers in the United States, and several of its alumni were serving as missionaries or ministers in other countries. Bryan served as dean and principal until his death.
Bryan also served as historiographer of the Diocese of Southern Virginia, from 1907 to 1919 was the diocese’s clerical delegate to the denomination’s national conventions, and was dean of the Central Convocation of Southern Virginia at the time of his death. He resigned from Grace Church in February 1922 because of poor health, and on March 12 of that year he suffered a heart attack while in Hampton, where he was conducting Sunday Lenten services at Saint John’s, his former church. Bryan traveled to Richmond, where he died at the home of a nephew on March 17, 1922. He was buried in Hollywood Cemetery in that city.
3. Byrd Turner (1848-1923)
Son of G.W. Turner and Cecille Dabney Shelton Turner. Born at Arrow Point in Goochland. He married Nancy Addison Harrison in 1879.
1899-1911 served St. Pauls King George
1911-1916 served Piedmont Episcopal in Madison
His daughter, Nancy Byrd Turner, was a well known author of children’s books. Her first book of poetry, A Riband on My Rein, was published in 1929. Over the course of her career she published 15 books, ranging from adult poetry to children’s literature and lyrics. Her work appeared in England and in the United States in such magazines as Good Housekeeping, Harper’s Magazine, Ladies’ Home Journal, and the New Yorker.
4. Curtis Grubb (1849-1930)
Curtis Grubb was born in a family of Quaker background in Waterford, Loudoun County, Virginia, in 1849.
After marriage in Oct. 1878 Annette French Schooley, also of Quaker background, he sailed for Africa where, until 1881, following a breakdown of his wife’s health, he served as an Episcopal missionary in Cape Mount, Liberia.
In 1881 he returned to Virginia where, ordained a priest by Bishop Whittle, he entered upon the duties of Rector of St. Martin’s Parish. He lived with his growing family in St. Martin’s Rectory until he resigned the parish in 1886. Mrs. Grubb planted the smoke bush which still grows in the Rectory Garden. Through his presence in Hanover, he influenced his brother Joseph to buy the nearby Cool Water estate, and thus establish the Grubb lineage in Hanover until the present time. One of Mr. Grubb’s last acts as Rector was to officiate at the funeral of the Rev’d Dr. Robert Nelson, native son of Hanover and retired missionary to China, on 17 July 1886.
Following a short tenure in West Virginia (1887-1888) Mr. Grubb and his family moved to Florida, in which diocese he remained for the rest of his life. He finished his career as rector of St. Luke’s Church, Live Oak, and Archdeacon of Middle Florida. He died and was buried in Live Oak in 1930.
When the family came to Hanover from Africa, they brought with them a young African Princess, born in 1878, who had been given to the Grubbs by her parents. She lived with a black family in Petersburg, and was attending college with the idea of returning to Liberia as a missionary teacher, when she was stricken with tuberculosis, and died at the age of 18.
5. P. (Peter) Parker Phillips (1852-1931)
Rector of St. Pauls Alexandria in 1912.
6. John Henry Chesley (1842-1915)
Born in Mercer, Illinois, USA on 12 Apr 1842 to Hiram Chesley. John Henry married Mary F Thompson and had 4 children. He passed away on 12 Aug 1915 in Edmore, Montcalm, Michigan, USA.
7. Henry Thomas
Rector St Clement’s Episcopal Church .
8. William Byrd Lee (1851-1931)
The Rev. Mr. Lee was born at Wildwood, Va., March 21, 1851, son of Col. Richard Henry Lee and Evelyn Byrd Page. He was married 25 Sep 1878 to Sarah Jane Blackburn Kownslar.
A short pastorate in Rapidan followed, and then for 40 years he was rector of Ware Episcopal Church in Gloucester County, during which time he also served Kingston Parish, Mathews and Grace Church, Yorktown.
In 1884 he became rector of Abingdon Parish, this county, serving this and Ware Parish until 1921, when he became Rector Emeritus. Mr. Lee is survived by his widow, Mrs. Jane Blackburn Kounslar Lee; six daughters:
He was the 2nd Great grandson of William Evelyn Byrd III of Westover Plantation
9. Arthur Powell Gray (1853 – 1921)
He was the son of Judge William H. Gray, of Leesburg, and his wife, who was Ellen Douglas Powell, of “Glengollen,” Loudoun county. He was married in 1881 to Mina Radford, of Bedford county. Besides his wife he is survived by one son, Rev. Arthur P. Gray, Jr. of Richmond, and one daughter, Mrs. R. B. Tyler, of Lawrenceville. Mr. Gray was one of the four original trustees of Sweet Briar College, and Gray Hall, at that institution, was named for him.
10. Josiah Ware (1853-1942)
Born in Berryville at Springfield plantation with this brother Sigismund.
He wrote, “I gladly record my gratitude for the influence of my mother’s life, teaching and prayers; to the last to these I attribute the divine call to the ministry of my brother (Sigismund S.) and myself.”
From 1878 until 1880, Rev. Jo Ware worked in Hungar’s Parish, a place rich in history and tradition. The two churches that fell in his parish, Hungar’s Church and Christ Church in Eastville, had served the people of the Eastern Shore of Virginia since 1623.
On October 22, 1879, at Christ Church, Rev. Josiah Ware married Ann Wise Stratton Nottingham. The wedding ceremony was especially memorable for him because his brother, Rev. Sigismund Stribling Ware, performed the ceremony.
After leaving Hungar’s Parish in 1880, he and Anne lived in Nelson Parish for two years and Jo became the priest for Christ Episcopal Church there until 1882. Then, the couple moved to Christ Church in Clarksburg.
By the year 1885, Rev. Jo and Annie were living in Farmville, Virginia, where he ministered to St. John’s Memorial Church for the next 11 years.
After leaving Farmville, the couple went to Ashland, Virginia, where Jo served in St. James Church from 1896 until 1903
From Ashland, the Wares moved to St. Mark’s Parish in Culpeper County, Virginia. In 1903, Jo began his ministry at St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church.
Over the years, Rev. Jo Ware and his brother, Sigismund, stayed very close to each other; serving in their respective churches, sitting on committees together, and even attending school reunions.
After Rev. Josiah Ware’s retirement, “he and Aunt Annie bought a home in Orange, Virginia where they lived just across the street from their daughter Jaquelin.” (Ref. 2, 3) Anne passed away first in 1938, and Josiah died about four years later on November 15, 1942. They were both buried in Graham Cemetery in Orange, Virginia.