Richard Evelyn Byrd Sr. (August 13, 1860 – October 23, 1925) was a Virginia lawyer, politician and newspaperman. He was the father of politician Harry Byrd and aviator Richard Byrd Jr.
Early and family life
He was the first son born to Jennie (Rivers) and her husband William Byrd, who had become an adjutant general of the state of Texas, and born in Austin, Travis County, Texas, months after the American Civil War had begun.[1] After the war, his parents returned to Virginia, and lived with his grandparents. His grandfather and namesake, also Richard E. Byrd (1801-1872), was a politician and by then former slaveholder (the elder Richard E. Byrd owned 26 enslaved people in Frederick County in 1860, and possibly more in neighboring Clarke County). The elder Byrd had been one of the representatives of Frederick, Hampshire, and Morgan counties in the Virginia Constitutional Convention of 1851 and had also served in the Virginia General Assembly.[2] His great grandfather was Thomas Taylor Byrd, who used enslaved labor to work plantations, mostly in what became Clarke County after it was split from Frederick County. His great-great grandfather William Byrd had served in the British army during the American Revolutionary War, then moved to northwestern Virginia. This Richard E. Byrd graduated from the University of Virginia and later received a law degree from the University of Maryland.
^188- U.S. Federal Census for District 45 of Winchester, Frederick County Virginia p. 44 of 52
^Dictionary of Virginia Biography Richard Evelyn Byrd available www.lva.gov/public/dvd/bio.asp?b=Byrd_Richard_Evelyn_1801-1872
Jamerson, Bruce F., Clerk of the House of Delegates, supervising (2007). Speakers and Clerks of the Virginia House of Delegates, 1776-2007. Richmond, Virginia: Virginia House of Delegates.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
External links
Richard Evelyn Byrd Sr. at The Virginia Elections and State Elected Officials Database Project, 1776-2007