Memoir of John Howe Peyton: in sketches by his contemporaries, together with some of his public and private letters, etc., also a sketch of Ann M. Peyton
History
Memoir of John Howe Peyton: in sketches by his contemporaries, together with some of his public and private letters, etc., also a sketch of Ann M. Peyton
Peyton, Anne Montgomery, 1802-1850; Peyton, John Howe, 1778-1847
"Let me say, in conclusion, that the person and figure of Mr. Peyton were
fine and commanding. His carriage was always erect, his head well poised
on his shoulders, while his ample chest gave token of great vitality. On
rising to address court or jury, there was something more than commonly
impressive in his personal presence and whether clad in 'Virginia
home-spun,' or English blue broadcloth with gold buttons, (and I have
often seen him in both), whenever you saw him button his coat across his
breast and slowly raise his spectacles to rest them on the lofty crown,
you might confidently expect an intellectual treat of no mean order.
"There never was a broader contrast presented in the same person than
that between Howe Peyton, the lawyer, the public prosecutor, or even the
Senatorial candidate amongst the people, and the same individual in his
own home. Here in the midst of his family, or surrounded by friends, the
rigor of his manner relaxed, and he was the model of an affectionate
husband and father, and the most genial of companions. He was 'given to
hospitality,' and there was no mansion in all this favored region where
it was more generously and elegantly dispensed, through many years, than
at 'Montgomery Hall.'"
SKETCH OF JOHN HOWE PEYTON,
BY
JUDGE JOHN H. McCUE, B. L., UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA.
One of the truest tests of the greatness of a man is very often the
impression, I think, which, without intending, he makes upon the minds
of the young with whom he may come in contact. There are few of us who
do not remember having met, in our earlier days, with men whose presence
filled us with respect and awe, before even, perhaps, we had learned
their names and reputations, and who, in after years, seemed to stand
out from amid our youthful recollections, apart and distinct from the
memories of other men--men who, unconsciously, stamp their individuality
not only upon our minds, but who often serve, though we may not perceive
it, as models upon which our own conduct is, or ought to be, moulded,
and the impress of whose attributes and virtues serve as standards by
which we judge of other men. The impressions I have of John Howe Peyton
are those which I formed when a youth, but they were such as to stamp
him, not only as an able and good man, but as a great man in the truest
acceptation of the term. When a boy at the school at Waynesboro, Augusta
county, of the Rev. James C. Wilson, D. D., a famous criminal trial was
progressing in the Circuit Superior Court at Staunton. Mr. Peyton was
the prosecutor, and was regarded as the ablest prosecuting attorney
then, or who had ever been, in the Commonwealth of Virginia. Everybody
was talking of this trial, in which, for various reasons, not necessary
to be here detailed, the community was deeply interested. Shortly after,
as I remember, I saw standing, in the porch of the hotel at Waynesboro,
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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