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VIRGINIA BIOGRAPHY
important. He was a lawyer of power and
brilliance, a matchless mind forming efiec-
tive legal weapons that were launched in an
easily masterful delivery. In his arguments
- ind pleas he could employ the keenest
--atire, the most scathing sarcasm, and in [he same moment stir the emotions of his auditors with an impassioned appeal for justice. It was written of him shortly after his death that "he entered no courtroom that he did not illumine with his splendid attainments as a lawyer, and he engaged no society that he did not adorn with the court- liness' of his person." With his immense legal activity he likewise acquired other interests of a business nature, and was con- nected with several financial institutions, also dealing extensively in real estate. He was ever the loyal and interested friend of the Hampton Normal School and Agricul- tural Institute, serving both as legal adviser without renumeration of any kind. The gracious ho.spitality of his home was ever extended in the reception of his friends and those of his wife, and under his own roof he enjoyed serenity and peace, the loving re- spect and close companionship of wife and children.
Colonel Tabb was a trustee of the Baptist church, and tcok part in the work of that denomination throughout Virginia. For twenty-five years he served his church as superintendent of the Sunday school, and in this important branch of church work was as efficient and faithful as in his dis- charge of secular duties. His pastor, Dr. Wpodfin. of the First Baptist Church of Hampton, after an association of eighteen years, wrote of Colonel Tabb in a most in- timately appreciative manner, saying, in part:
He was modest well nigh to the point of timidity. His fellow citizens, admiring his sterling charac- ter and proud of his splendid abilities, were ready to bestow upon him cny political honors to which he might have aspired, but he shrank from honors
- * * * I believe that my friend and brother
was a sincerely pious man. The extreme modesty to which 1 have referred forbade his speaking much of his religious experience, but his deep interesc in the Sunday school, of which he was the honored superintendent for a period of twenty-five (25) years; his regular and constant attendance upon the worship of the sanctuary: his keen relish for the preached word, manifested in the eager eye and. not infrequently, in the tear bedewed face; his afteoiion for Christ's poor, shown in kindly courtesy and generous gifts; his interest in missions; his hund)le
and unctuous public prayers; all showed that he
was in loving touch with Jesus.
Colonel Tabb married, January 31, 1867, Virginia Jones, born November 29, 1840, daughter of Thomas and Eliza (Simkins) Jones, granddaughter of Thomas Jones and John Simkins, her line one of the noted fami- lies of the state. Children: i. Lucy, born March 26, 1870; married, January 2, 1895, Robert I. Mason, of Kentucky, and' has Hor- atio P., born September 27, 1895, Virginia, born December 2, 1896, Samuel, born July 23, 1899, and Eliza Simkins Tabb, born May 10, 1903. 2. Eliza Simkins, born July 17, 1872. died November 13, 1900. 3. Malvina, born November 29, 1880, died July 3, 1908. 4. Paul, born April 20, 1883 ; married, April 15. 1908, Nan Morgan, of Maryland, and has Effie Malvina, born October 11, 1910, and Thomas (2), born July 18, 1912; Paul Tabb was educated in the Virginia Military Acad- emy, and is now the proprietor of a large dairy farm.
Henry Clement Tyler. Tyler, an honored name everywhere, is one that has been borne by a president of the United States, three governors of Virginia, by congressmen, by presidents of colleges, men high in the liter- ary and professional world and by men eminent in the business world. A twentieth century representative, Henry Clement Tyler, of East Radford, Virginia, son of ex- Governor James Hoge Tyler, is the present commonwealth attorney of the city of Rad- ford, Virginia, and descends through a long line of eminent forbears, intimately con- nected with the military and civil history of Virginia.
(I) Henry Clement Tyler descends from Richard Tyler, who came from London, England, in 1674, settling in Essex county, \'irginia, later was in Caroline county, which was the principal family seat for several generations.
(II) William Tyler, son of Richard Tyler, had three sons, who during the revolution organized and equipped a company of colo- nials and led the company as captain, first and second lieutenants.
(HI) Captain George Tyler, son of Wil- liam Tyler, while ranking as captain, com- manded a regiment at Yorktown, although not commissioned as such.
(IV) Henry Tyler, son of Captain George
