PROMINENT PERSONS
done in his honor by his son, the distin-
guished railroad president, John Skelton
WiUiams. He was a member of the Phi
L'eta Kappa Society of William and Mary
College, to which he was elected in 1900 in
appreciation of certain articles published as
"(Observations of a Philosophical Friend,"
and on account of his loyalty to learning. In
1864 he married Maria Ward Skelton,
daughter of Dr. John Gififord Skelton and
Charlotte Randolph, his wife, of Powhatan
county, Virginia, she being the granddaugh-
ter of Gov. Edmund Randolph.
Tompkins, Christopher, born in Rich- mond, Virginia, September 17, 1847, son of Col. Christopher Tompkins, Confederate States army, a graduate of West Point Mili- tary Academy, and Ellen Wilkins, of Balti- more, Maryland, his wife. On both sides of his family he is descended from the early English colonial settlers. His early educa- tion was obtained in private schools of Richmond, Virginia, and at William and Mary College, from which he graduated in i868 with the degree of Bachelor of Phil- osophy. He entered the University of Vir- ginia, where he studied for one year in the academic department. After leaving the university he became a student of medicine in the Medical College of Virginia, and graduated with the degree of Doctor of Medicine in 1870. After leaving the medical college he continued his medical education in New York City. He then returned to Richmond, Virginia, and began the practice of his profession, which he has since con- tinued. He has been professor of anatomy and obstetrics in the Medical College of Virginia, and he was dean of the faculty. He is ex-surgeon of the Fourth Battalion of
Virginia Volunteers (militia), and is one of
the medical examiners of the Mutual Life
Insurance Company of New York. He has
been deputy coroner of the city of Rich-
mond, assistant city physician, and is presi-
dent of the Southern Medical College Asso-
ciation. He is a member of the medical
staff of the Memorial Hospital of Richmond,
Virginia ; medical referee in Virginia for
the Mutual Benefit Life Insurance Com-
pany of Newark, New Jersey ; a member
of the Medical Society of Virginia, ex-
v'ce-president of the Southern Surgical
and Gynecological Association, and a mem-
1 er of the Association of Obstetricians and
Gynecologists. He has written a number of
papers upon medical subjects. On Novem-
ber 8, 1877, he married Bessie McCaw,
daughter of Dr. James B. McCaw, of Rich-
mond.
Pollard, Edward Alfred, born in Nelson county, Virginia, February 27, 1831, son of Maj. Richard Pollard and Pauline Cabell, his wife, and a direct descendant of Col. William Cabell, of the committee of safetj' during the revolutionary war , he was also a nephew of Hon. Alexander Rives. After ?ttending Hampden-Sidney College, and the L'niversity of Virginia, from which he was graduated in 1849, he began law studies at William and Mary College, and completed them in Baltimore. He spent several years in travel in California, Mexico and Nicarau- gua, and afterwards in Europe, China and Japan, and during this time won consider- able fame as a writer. During the adminis- tration of President Buchanan, he was clerk of the judiciary committee of the house of representatives. While under deep depres- sion on account of the death of his wife, his
