Abel Parker Upshur was an American lawyer,planter,judge,and politician from the Eastern Shore of Virginia. Active in Virginia state politics for decades,with a brother and a nephew who became distinguished U.S. Navy officers,Judge Upshur left the Virginia bench to become the Secretary of the Navy and Secretary of State during the administration of President John Tyler,a fellow Virginian. He negotiated the treaty that led to the 1845 Texas annexation to the United States and helped ensure that it was admitted as a slave state. Upshur died on February 28,1844,when a gun on the warship USS Princeton exploded during a demonstration.
Blandford Cemetery is a historic cemetery located in Petersburg,Virginia. Although in recent years it has attained some notoriety for its large collection of more than 30,000 Confederate graves,it contains remains of people of all classes and races as well as veterans of every American war. It holds the largest mass grave of 30,000 Confederates killed in the Siege of Petersburg (1864–65) and other battles during the American Civil War. Although only 3,700 names of the interred are known,it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1992,in part through the efforts of Charlotte Irving,first president of the Historic Blandford Cemetery Foundation. In addition to this cemetery's historic African American section discussed below,it is located adjacent to the People's Memorial Cemetery,a historic African-American cemetery,and small cemeteries containing additional dead from the lengthy Siege of Petersburg and Battle of the Crater in 1864.
Captain George Graham,a Virginia planter,lawyer,soldier and politician became an early federal government bureaucrat. He served twice as acting United States Secretary of War,including during the transition between the administrations of Presidents James Madison and James Monroe (1816-1817),as well as Commissioner of the United States General Land Office (1823-1830) under Presidents John Quincy Adams and Andrew Jackson.
John Carlyle Herbert was an American lawyer,planter,military officer in the War of 1812 and politician. He served as a legislator in both Virginia and Maryland,as well as a U.S. Congressman representing Maryland's 2nd congressional district (1814-1818).
Thomas Saunders Gholson was a Virginia lawyer,judge and Confederate politician.
William T. Joynes was a Virginia lawyer,railroad president,politician and judge,who served in the Virginia House of Delegates and Virginia Court of Appeals.
Francis Thomas Anderson,Sr. was a 19th-century American lawyer,politician and slaveowner,who served in the Virginia House of Delegates during the American Civil War and later served on the Supreme Court of Appeals of Virginia.
James Keith was a Virginia lawyer,soldier,politician and judge,who served as the chief judge of the Supreme Court of Virginia from 1895 to 1916.
Peterson Goodwyn was an American planter,lawyer,soldier and politician from Virginia. He served in the United States House of Representatives from 1803 until his death in 1818.
Cuthbert Powell was a Virginia lawyer and Whig politician who served in both houses of the Virginia General Assembly and one term in the U.S. representative from Virginia,like his father,former Congressman Leven Powell.
Charles Creighton Carlin was an American lawyer,newspaper publisher and Democratic politician who served in the United States House of Representatives representing Virginia's 8th congressional district.
Richard Kidder Meade,Jr. was Virginia lawyer,plantation owner and politician who served in the Virginia Senate and in the United States House of Representatives,as well as U.S. minister to Brazil under President James Buchanan before returning to Virginia to work for the Confederate States of America during the American Civil War until his death.
Francis Everod Rives was a Virginia Democratic politician and businessman who served two terms in the United States House of Representatives. After making his fortune as a slave trader,Rives became a planter and soon won election and re-election multiple times to both houses of the Virginia General Assembly before his two terms representing Virginia's 2nd congressional district,and afterward represented several counties near Petersburg in the Virginia Senate as well as served as the city's mayor. Rives also helped establish the state-chartered Petersburg Railroad.
Charles Fenton Collier was a Virginia lawyer and American politician who served in the Virginia House of Delegates representing first Prince George County then his native Petersburg before the American Civil War,then in the Confederate States House of Representatives and afterward twice became Petersburg's mayor.
Richard Chichester Mason was an American planter,physician and politician in Fairfax County,Virginia,which he twice represented in the Virginia House of Delegates. Mason also practiced medicine in Alexandria,Virginia and spent the American Civil War in Richmond working for the Confederate States Army.
Charles Simms (1755–1819) was a Virginia lawyer,Revolutionary War officer and politician. A friend of George Washington,Simms thrice represented Fairfax County,Virginia,in the Virginia House of Delegates as well as at the Virginia Ratification Convention of 1788,and also served as mayor of Alexandria during the War of 1812.
David Stuart was a Virginia physician,politician,and correspondent of George Washington. When Washington became President of the United States,he made Stuart one of three commissioners appointed to design a new United States capital city.
David Green Carr,who settled in Dinwiddie County,Virginia and farmed before the American Civil War,after the war's end became active in the Republican Party and served in the Virginia Constitutional Convention of 1868,in the Virginia Senate and as customs collector in Petersburg.
Morton Graham Goode was a Virginia lawyer and Democratic member of the Senate of Virginia. Allied with the Byrd Organization,Goode represented a district centered around Petersburg part time for more than two decades. During his last term before retiring and in the absence of Virginia's Lieutenant Governors,Goode led the Virginia senate as its President pro tempore.
Robert Townshend Thompson was a Virginia lawyer,planter and politician in Fairfax County,Virginia,which he represented in the Virginia House of Delegates for nearly a decade (1816–1825). Thompson married Leah W. Kitchen in 1822 and operated a 870 acre farm. He died at the age of 88.
