VIRGINIA BIOGRAPHY
323
farm until he was sixteen years of age, and
obtained his education in the local schools.
He then became clerk in the general store
of A. B. Fowlkes & Brother. W. J. Fowlkes,
for whom Mr. Pritchett worked as a boy, is
now assistant cashier of the bank of which
Mr. Pritchett is president. He spent less
than a year in this store, then located in Dan-
ville. \'irginia, where he entered the employ
of P. W. Ferrell. a tobacconist. He re-
mained with Mr. Ferrell eight years, acquir-
ing business experience and some capital,
both of which he later employed in a busi-
ness venture of his own. He was twenty-five
years of age when he established a grain
and feed business in Danville, which he push-
ed to a successful issue, and which has been
the foundation on which he erected his later
larger and varied business enterprises. This
business was later turned over to, and is now
managed by the founder's son, James Ira (2).
In the thirty-three years that have elapsed
since he first started in business for himself,
Mr. Pritchett has been identified watli many
business enterprises of Danville and vicinity,
with many of these yet retaining active
interest and control. He is a director of the
Riverside and Dan River Mills ; director of
the Danville Traction and Power Company ;
director of the Danville and Western Rail-
road Company ; director of the Crystal Ice
and Power Company, and of the Morgan
Iron and Pipe Company, of Lynchburg, Vir-
ginia. He is a member of the company,
Pritchett & Son; presidentof the Dan Valley
Mills since 1893 ; president of the Piedmont
Mills at Lynchburg since 1903, and a mem-
ber of Pritchett & Company, millers, of
Lynchburg. His wise executive ability has
safely guided the companies over which he
presides to safe business havens, and as a
director of the other companies, he has ever
been a tower of strength. He has the pro-
gressive, yet conservative, spirit that blends
so w'ell in modern business life, where the
temptation to unwisely expand has brought
many an otherwise stout financial craft to
wreck and disaster. In x\ugust, 1913, he
was elected president of the First National
Bank of Danville, an institution of solid
financial standing, but with which he had
not been ofificially identified hitherto. This
bank, capitalized at $200,000, shows a unique
condition, having a surplus fund equal to
its capital stock. This record of thirty-three
years of business activity merely outlines
the more important connections, while the
smaller but more numerous enterprises with
wdiich he has been prominent, and the many
he has aided by capital and advice, cannot
be given. He has been a public-spirited pro-
moter of Danville's best interests and an
important factor in her development. His
life has been one devoted to business, polit-
ical life having had no attractions for him.
although as an Independent in political
action, he has neglected none of the duties
of a good citizen. He is a member of the
Masonic order, and of the Protestant Epis-
copal church.
Mr. Pritchett married, in Danville, June 12, 1881, Eleanor A. Hickson, born in Strath- roy, Canada, but living in Virginia since childhood. Children : Richard H., born Oc- tober 29, 1 88 1, now a manufacturer of Balti- more, Maryland; James Ira (2), born Sep- tember 7, 1883, manager of the grain and feed firm, Pritchett & Son.
Samuel Dawson Puller. Son of a planter and slave owner of Gloucester county, Vir- ginia. Samuel Dawson Puller, after four years of military efi^ort, accepted manfully the great change in conditions that resulted and with all the energy of his great nature, began the rebuilding of his fortune. How- well he bore his part in the rebuilding of a new South and in retrieving his own for- tunes in the quarter of a century of active life left him this brief story of his life will tell.
Samuel Dawson Puller was born in Glou- cester county, Virginia, June 11, 1840, died August 12, 1892, in Norfolk, Virginia, son of Samuel Dawson and Mary (Hall) Puller, of Gloucester county, wealthy plantation owners, worked by slave labor. Lie was educated under private tutors and passed his minority in the usual manner of the young Virginian of his day. At the outbreak of the war between the states, he enlisted in the Fifth Regiment Virginia Cavalry, and ^ fought for the Confederacy during four years of strife and bloodshed that follow^ed the attack on Fort Sumter. He was wound- ed several times, received many promotions, was aide on the staiT of General Thomas L. Rosser, and when the end came was rank- ing as colonel, although he had not been commissioned. He was a gallant officer and true soldier of Virginia, risking his life freely and promptly wdierever and whenever
