Virus and Response 1856 Pt VI--- -"Report of the Special Committee of the House of Delegates"

Dr. John Henry Claiborne, Del- Petersburg

Art II. Report of the Special Committee of the House of Delegates on the Vaccine Agency. By J. Herbert Claiborne M.D. Delegate from Petersburg and Chairman of the Committee.*

 The committee to whom was referred the communication of the governor of this commonwealth relative to the conduct of the vaccine agent have had the same under consideration and have examined the documents appertaining to the subject the letters of certain persons in the county of New Kent complaining that the agent had distributed among them the matter of small pox instead of vaccine matter together with the communication of Dr. Patteson who was dispatched by the governor to New Kent to enquire(sic) into the case and other papers in the possession of the house germane to the whole and beg leave to submit the following report.

The committee have found it to be well established that Dr. A.E. Peticolas has been the unfortunate agent of dispensing to sundry persons in the county of New Kent matter which by inoculation has produced variola and varioloid instead of the vaccine disease Of this fact the agent himself is convinced and avers it in his candid and impartial communication to the governor. It remains then for the committee to enquire into the motives of the agent whether the distribution of this noxious matter was intentional on his part and into his official conduct whether it has been marked by sufficient carefulness and by intelligent precaution. 

In the total absence of any reason why the agent a state officer of high character and unimpeached integrity should intentionally lend himself to the fiendish act of spreading a fatal and loathsome disease among the people of this commonwealth the committee cannot conceive it possible that his motives should be impugned by any one. They deem it unnecessary to say more on this point. 

 In reference to the official conduct of the agent the committee believe that he has exercised as much caution and sagacity in the procurement of the matter which he distributed to the citizens of New Kent as he has done in all other cases when called on for matter And that he has in all other cases acted with care and prudence will appear from the fact that in a term of five year’s service in which he has supplied many thousand people with virus he has never before been accused of sending improper matter And moreover it will appear on an investigation of the mode in which Dr. Peticolas procures the vaccine scab that no man can do more to obtain and transmit that which is genuine.

- as reported in The Stethoscope and Virginia Medical and Surgical Journal Combined , April 1856



*This is different than the previous committee mentioned which was from the Virginia Senate.

Virus and Response 1856 Pt V- Dr. Patteson's Report

Below find more than one would ever likely want to know about epidemic disease and its treatment in antebellum New Kent County . . . probably.  From the pages of the The Stethoscope and Virginia Medical and Surgical Journal Combined of April 1856 we Dr. Patteson's report to General Assembly about the Smallpox outbreak. The first paragraph is from the Journal article followed by the report itself.

During the month of February last various communications were received by Dr. A.E. Peticolas the vaccine agent in Richmond charging him with having transmitted small pox instead of vaccine virus to several persons who had made application to him, the result of which was that many persons had been inoculated with small pox matter. During the same month a petition was forwarded to the governor from New Kent county desiring him to remove the vaccine agent from office on account of neglect of duty in as much as forty or fifty persons had been afflicted with serious disease resulting from the use of matter received from the agent purporting to be vaccine virus. Dr. Peticolas at once submitted these papers to the governor who with commendable alacrity directed Dr. Patteson to visit the county of New Kent and report to him on the condition of the sufferers in that locality and also to ascertain whether the agent was chargeable with any culpable mismanagement or neglect of duty. In pursuance of the order of the executive Dr. Patteson submitted the interesting report which we now lay before our readers.- Editor

Art I. A Report on the Eruptive Disease lately prevailing in New Kent County. Submitted to the Hon. Henry A. Wise, Governor of Virginia. By William A. Patteson M.D. Richmond.
                                                                                Richmond, March 1, 1856 

Dear Sir,
Having received from the secretary of the commonwealth an executive order dated 25th February 1856 referring certain letters and papers received from the county of New Kent and the letter of Dr. Arthur E Peticolas to me and directing me to repair to the county of New Kent and ascertain whether the cases reported to be varioloid or small pox in that locality are such and also to enquire whether they have been occasioned by any neglect or mismanagement of the vaccine agent and report thereupon to the governor. I have now the honor to say that I have duly executed the order as will more fully and at large appear by the following detailed account.

On Tuesday the 26th February 1856 I repaired to the said county and was kindly and professionally met by Drs Robert S. Apperson, Vernon P. Jones, Wm Pryor Richardson, A.J.E. Jennings and some other citizens of the vicinity of Barhamsville.

I learned from them that the small pox appeared in the county of New Kent some time about the second week in January last in the person of a white man named Thomas Breeden about 21 years of age who was a trader to Richmond. He sickened with chill and fever and was visited by Dr. Vernon Jones and Dr. James Richardson. After a few days an eruption appeared on his body which was at first thought to be measles. In a very short time it was ascertained to be small pox of a dangerous kind and he died on the 28th day of January. There then sickened at and about the same time in this house George W. Mitchell the head of the family, his wife, and infant daughter, Mrs Breeden the wife of the deceased, her son Lloyd, Joseph Robbins a boy of 12 years of age living in the family, Pryor a free negro lad aged about 18 years, and Peter an old man aged about 70 years the property of John G. Mitchell.

Of these Pryor, Lloyd Robbins, and old Peter had smallpox. The rest had varioloid of a mild form having been previously protected by vaccine except the child which also had varioloid. These were all inmates of this house.

After these occurrences a hospital was established by the magistracy of the county on the 4th day of February and Drs. Vernon Jones and Wm Pryor Richardson appointed physicians thereto. Mitchell's house was constituted said hospital. Dr. Wm P. Richardson had not visited it before this date. It is said to be about five miles from Barhamsville not on the public road but in an out of the way place and the communication with it and the surrounding country was interdicted. Interdiction with it had been established by common consent some time before it was constituted the hospital almost directly after the eruption appeared on Breeden. Thus much as to circumstances and facts attending the origin of small pox in New Kent on the information of others communicated to me.

. . . (wherein is contained a lengthy account of medical examinations of New Kent residents both free and enslaved) . . .

Having now sir duly discharged the trust committed to my charge by your executive precept of the 25th February, 1856, having examined the letters and papers from the county of New Kent and the letter of Dr. Arthur E. Peticolas to you dated 23rd February, 1856, and having as you will see visited and carefully examined the families and cases aforesaid and noted the facts as they were presented to me I have come to the following conclusions:

  "That small pox appeared naturally in New Kent about the second week in January.

"From close and particular enquiry(sic) I believe that those families reported on have had no intercourse with the first subjects of small pox in New Kent. They not only forbade all communication with them but the places of residence and infantile ages of many of those now sick forbid the idea that their sickness has been produced by any connection with those first subjects.

"In reasoning from consequences to causes it is clear that these cases are all to be traced back to the use of matter received by Dr. A.J.E. Jennings and Dr. Vernon Jones and the four small packages covered under the envelop to Dr. Robert S. Apperson for himself, Richardson, Turner, and Hockaday from the vaccine agent. 

"Its use has produced small pox varioloid and apparent vaccine the sickness of all being the direct sequitur of the use of the virus about the usual time and in the usual manner. 

"I suspect and have but little doubt that it was a vaccine crust cropped from the arm of some patient who had been exposed to the contagion of small pox in whose blood smallpox was incubating when vaccined and sufficiently matured to modify it. Such crusts are not distinguishable from genuine crusts by any known law except trial. 

"The agent must have become possessed of some crusts of modified virus from his sources of supply other than his own rearing. 

"His frank letter to you clearly shows the impossibility of answering the public demand for virus in time of panic from croppings under his personal observation alone and therefore the possibility of mistake.

"There are no other modes of supply known than those to which he has had recourse in times of panic.

"I do not see that he has been guilty of any neglect or mismanagement in the discharge of his public duty.

"Very respectfully,

                                 W.A. PATTESON M.D. "

Hon. H.A. Wise, Governor of Virginia 

Virus and Response 1856 Pt IV - "Are you fully aware of the import of your accusation?"

Below is the rather lengthy reply of Dr. Peticolas to the letter of Dr. Richardson. They both appeared in the March 4 issue of the Richmond Examiner one over top of the other.

REPLY OF THE VACCINE AGENT TO DR. WM. P. RICHARDSON OF BARHAMSVILLE, NEW KENT COUNTY, Va. 

Richmond, March 1, 1856. 

Sir: I last night had an interview with Dr. Patteson commissioned by the Governor to report on the apparent origin of Small Pox in your neighborhood. It grieves me sorely to learn the sad suffering of many of your people, caused undoubtedly by virus obtained from me, supposed to be vaccine virus. I know full well that regrets of mine can afford you no relief, and that nothing I can now say or do will remedy the evil you have been subjected to. While, however, I respect your afflictions you must pardon me for saying that neither you nor your fellow sufferers have acted justly in conceiving for one moment that your visitation has been due to neglect of mine. I am aware that an excited people does not reason logically. The maledictions of the ignorant I might reasonably count on, but I am surprised that those whose profession and education should teach them coolness and prudence, have joined in the general outcry; ascribing fault where none is to be found. I am still more surprised to see that you, a member of the medical profession, should attempt to make public issue of a medical question. Whatever your object, your quiet reflections will show that the only ends to be thus attained arc needless alarm of the public mind, incalculable injury to one who could never have voluntarily harmed you or yours, and, I worse than all, loss of confidence in the operation of vaccination. 

I am told that your child is ill with small-pox, that its disease was produced by virus obtained from me, that perhaps the result may prove fatal. I am myself a father, and can appreciate your sorrow, and those of your neighbors who may be similarly situated.- I But, sir, if our positions were reversed. l would not only refrain from public or private expression calculated to excite against you the prejudices of your fellow-men, but would earnestly use every effort in my power to enlighten those who would ignorantly make like attempt. What in the thing of which you complain? Analyze it. Why, Simply this: that my earnest endeavor to shield you and your people, has, under the direction of the great Governor of the Universe, failed; that I extended the malady it was my wish to prevent; that you called on me for assistance; that I responded to the call, and that my caution, my skill, my judgment, were alike in vain,-  Pray, sir, have you lived a practicing physician these many years, and never been guilty of a like offence. Have you never yet seen the case where all your art and all your science has failed to save the patient from the grasp of death? Have you never yet seen the man, woman or child who might, in all human probability, have lived longer but for your professional interference! Lives there the doctor of even limited experience, who esteems his own sagacity an unerring guide! Yet, what would you think, if the friends of one of these unfortunate sufferers were to reward your thought and toil In his behalf by & well-directed effort to destroy or weaken your moral or professional influence? Would you not severely censure so unfair a course? And, yet, are you willing to commit yourself to a like procedure?

It is useless to pursue this question; your reasoning, if admitted, lends not alone to the conclusion that I should resign my vaccine agency, and that the Legislature should abolish the office, but that you and I and all men, should cease to occupy any position involving the exercise of judgment or of faith. Are you fully aware of the import of your accusation? It is that my intelligence is not superhuman; that I am not infallible; that I am not always able to discern the invisible forces of a piece of scab. In short, my great crime is that I am an erring mortal like yourself! I am willing to confess, sir, that I do not pretend to any preeminent qualities of head or heart, but I do feel sure that I have exerted the utmost care in the administration of my office; that I have done even more than might be considered my duty; that I have often uselessly expanded my own funds rather than risk injury to others, and I am conscious of distributing, at no time, any virus which I would not have fearlessly used on my own family. Would you do as much?  Can any man do more? With such faith before your eyes, will you now persist in seeking my injury? Can you find no other explanation of the difficulties and dangers of the past month but by ascribing them to my misconduct? It In wisely intimated in your letter that I must expect imposition if I send to Philadelphia.- But the reason why I send to this or any other city, it is not attempted to explain. The truth is, sir, you and your professional brethren throughout the State, force me to adapt the method you are so prompt to condemn, and if lives are thus lost, you are responsible, and you alone! Instead of protecting every infant as soon after birth a practicable; instead of inculcating and practicing the  re-vaccination of your people at stated periods; instead of urging the importance of these considerations on the notice of your patients, you seldom think of virus, except under immediate fear of infection: and when the agent sends you good matter, having reaped its advantages, you fail to make any return. The consequence is obvious, more virus is needed at one time than the agent can procure by his own unassisted endeavors. Opprobrium is heaped upon him by applicants mad with fear; and, deserted by those from whom he might naturally expect aid, he is compelled to seek the assistance of those whom you term "the picayune cormorants of Northern cities." There is no leisure for trial, the only test of virus. All must be vaccinated at once. If the matter chance to be I good, not even thanks are returned. If, on the other hand, as has now occurred, it proves bad, all must suffer- some may die, and the cry is still against the agent. The agent is sagaciously expected to remedy all the evils resulting from the carelessness and negligence of 2,000 practicing physicians and a million of people.

To resolve these difficulties, you say "abolish the office." Similar argument might be directed against all the articles of your materia medica, of worth, or of power. Some have suffered, others have died, because of their use; and the extension of the principle would terminate in the suppression of your own art. Suppose the agency abolished, where should you get virus! The reply is plain: by sending either directly or indirectly to the North. The fact is, air, in thinking of this question, you must balance the evil against the good. Don't imagine that, because one or two hundred people in New Kent, or elsewhere, have suffered from the only accident which has occurred for fifteen years, that therefore, many thousands have not received benefit, many thousand who might otherwise have shared your fate.

The fault is not in the agent, but in the law. The present law expects miracles at the hands of the agent, and rewards him with so much of $500, as is saved from payments of postage and purchases of virus.- To earn this magnificent remainder, he must suffer himself to be set up a mark for the ill-conceived rage of dissatisfied citizens. The greater the work, the less the pay: the more doubtful the encomiums is passed upon his labors. But with all its imperfections and its impossible requirements the vaccine agency has done and will yet do much service, unless the Legislature, inflamed by your exciting appeal, acts without reflection. But if the present law has obtained good results, one may be framed far preferable and more protective in all its provisions. If your intentions have not for their end the gratification of private malice or the manufacture of political capital at my expense- if you are truly patriotic in your desire, do not waste precious time in accusing me of faults of which you must be conscious I am innocent; but exert your energy to procure a just vaccine law, which shall protect both the people and the agent; forcing the latter to assume no more than his true share of responsibility and affording him reasonable remuneration for the fulfillment of its requisitions.

Under the circumstances, be it understood that no expression in this epistle is intended to bear other than a kind and courteous interpretation. I am attacked; I must defend myself; but I do so coolly and dispassionately, with both the hope and the belief that the time which shall terminate your apprehensions for the safety of your family and friends will enable you to recognise(sic) the truth of my remarks.

 A.E. PETICOLAS, Vaccine Agent.

Dr. Arthur Edward Peticolas, 32, a charter member of the Medical Society of Virginia, was at this time Professor of Anatomy at the Medical College of Virginia in Richmond.

Virus and Response 1856 Pt III- "Our community has, for the the last two weeks, been in the highest degree of excitement"

     From the Richmond Enquirer of March 4, 1856




                    BARHAMSVILLE NEW KENT  COUNTY, Va.,
                              February 27th, 1856-

 To the Vaccine Agent of the State of Virginia:

Sir: Our community has, for the the last two weeks, been in the  highest degree of excitement, on account of the sudden and unexpected introduction of small pox virus procured from you. Some four or five weeks since, a young man in the vicinity of this place, was attacked with that most loathsome and alarming disease, small pox, of which he died. From twelve to fourteen days afterwards, the whole family of which he was an inmate, consisting of nine persons and some four or five others who visited him during his illness, fell sick of the same disease. A hospital was immediately opened for the treatment of the cases, and for the better protection of the community. I was summoned as consulting physician to that Hospital and, responded to the call. Before, however, entering upon my official duties or to any way exposing myself to various contagion, I procured a small portion of what was denominated vaccine virus from you. It was endorsed genuine vaccine matter. I immediately inserted it into the arms of three persons, one of whom had been previously vaccinated. Nine days from that time, the vaccine disease, as was supposed, commenced in the two unprotected individuals, though with much more violence, and persistence than is usual. I was informed by the parent and mistress of the patients that the disease was running unusually high, characterized by violent pains in the head and  trunk, sick stomach and intensely high fever. I flattered myself without seeing the patients, or having any communication whatever with them. from the description given, that it might be the vaccine disease. Three days from the time these premonitory symptoms commenced, an eruption appeared upon the face, neck and forearms of both patients. I Was called at once to visit them, and to my great surprise and astonishment found it to be genuine inoculation, and so pronounced it. I proclaimed it, wherever I went, that the community might be protected against the insertion of any more virus obtained from you. Mr. Agent, you little know the great injury you nave indicted upon this people, to say nothing of the disease consequent upon the innoculation(sic), a death blow has been given to the business operations of our community. Would you think, sir, that there have been, and are now, in our midst some eighty persons, suffering under small pox, taken alone by innoculation from your small pox virus?-- Sir, there can be no doubt about it. I have seen, and am treating some forty cases of inoculation myself in all these cases, there was not the slightest communication between them and those who contracted the disease, in the natural way. You may suppose that innocolation modifies the disease to some extent, and I grant it does when patients are prepared for it. But there has been no preparation in these cases, and I am now treating cases whose recovery is exceeding doubtful. They have assumed the most confluent form incident to the disease. Are you not now satisfied of the genuineness of your innoculations? If not, If not I respectfully invite you to visit our county and satisfy yourself. I will see to it that you shall not be harmed, although the indignation of the people is superlatively high. You have placed yourself, as Vaccine Agent of the State of Virginia, in a position to be imposed upon by every picayune cormorant of Northern cities. It is said when you are pressed for vaccine virus, you procure it in Philadelphia, it so you are liable to be imposed upon at all times for the most obvious reasons. I would, therefore, most respectfully suggest to you the propriety of resigning your office at once, I and to the Legislature of the State, the greater propriety of abolishing the agency altogether. I think the community would be better protected by such a course.

                      Respectfully, W.R. RICHARDSON, M.D.



The name is wrong. The letter is from William Pryor Richardson, a 39 year old doctor living with his family near Tabernacle Church. The doctor in 1852 had had a report of his use of ergot for convulsion published in The Stethoscope and Virginia Medical Gazette of Richmond.

The Vaccine Agent to to which this letter is addressed was Dr. Arthur Edward Peticolas, Assistant Professor of Anatomy at the Medical College of Virginia.

Next, Dr. Peticolas responds.

Virus and Response 1856 Pt II - "In relation to the charge of transmitting small pox virus."

GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF VIRGINIA. 

SENATE. 

                                                                                TUESDAY. March 4, 1856.

The President presented various Executive communications, among others a communication from Dr. Petticolas, in relation to the charge of transmitting small pox virus. The Governor appointed Dr. Wm. A. Patterson† to visit New Kent and ascertain the facts. Dr. P. reported that the small pox virus had been transmitted, but that the best medical skill could not have prevented it.  

The communication, on motion of Mr. SAUNDERS¹, was referred to a special committee —Messrs. SAUNDERS, RANDOLPH², CREIGH³, FUNSTEN⁴ and MCKENNEY⁵were appointed said committee.

 -Daily Dispatch, 5 March 1856


*The President of the Senate

† that is William A. Patteson,(1795-1870) who had an office on the south side of Main between 8th and 9th streets. A graduate of the College of Philadelphia, he had studied under Rush. A former Delegate he had been practicing medicine in the city and in Manchester since 1817.

¹ Robert Saunders of Williamsburg, who represented New Kent as well as the rest of the Peninsula
² Benjamin F. Randolph of Albemarle
³ Thomas Creigh who represented a district in what is now West Virginia
⁴ Oliver R. Funsten who represented the northern Valley
⁵ William N. McKenney who represented the City of Norfolk

Virus and Response 1856 Pt I - "Such persons as may be effected"

The County Court of Henrico concluded its February term yesterday. Before adjourning, an order was passed directing such persons as may be effected with small pox on the suburbs of the city, to procure a certificate of two county justice and go to the city hospital, the county to pay the expenses.

- Daily Dispatch, 7 February 1856



                                                                                 WANTS.

WANTED.— A Female Nurse, to attend Small Pox patients, in the county of New Kent, liberal compensation will be paid. Immediate application may be made to Alex. Walker, North side of Main street, between 18th and 19th streets, Richmond, Va.                            fe 12—lt*

- Richmond Daily Dispatch, 12 February 1856

SMALL POX IN NEW KENT COUNTY.  —The Williamsburg Gazette learns that the Small Pox has made its appearance in the neighborhood of Barhamsville, New Kent county, Va. About ten or twelve cases have appeared. It broke out in the house of Mr. Washington Mitchell, at Ware Creek. A young man at Mr. Mitchell's, by the name of Wm. F. Breeden died of it about three weeks since. This is the only death reported. We learn by Mr. William Meanly, that Dr. Richardson who lives at Ware Creek has taken the disease. The residence of Mr. Mitchell has been converted into a hospital for the treatment of cases.

  - Richmond Daily Dispatch, 19 February 1856

Women's Suffrage - "Let us face the issue like real men."

The 19th Amendment to the Constitution, extending the right to women, was ratified through the vote of Tennessee 100 years ago this August. The fight in the Virginia General Assembly took place earlier in the year in February(so I am a little late). The fight came to a head as the Virginia Senate passed the Leedy Resolution rejecting the amendment, which was then taken up by the House of Delegates. Julien Gunn, New Kent's Senator (later a judge in Henrico), voted for the Resolution.

Sen. Robert Franklin Leedy of Luray

DELEGATES ADOPT LEEDY RESOLUTION  

Richmond Representatives Are Split, Haddon and Wilcox Opposing Measure.  

TRY TO STAVE OFF DEFEAT  

Norris Offers Measure Referring Question to People, Which Loses, 57 to 29. 

________________ 

Through its lower branch the General Assembly of Virginia yesterday rejected the Susan B. Anthony amendment to the Federal Constitution. By a vote of 62 to 22 the House of Delegates concurred in the Leedy resolution. calling for rejection of the amendment. which passed the Senate by a vote of 24 to 10.  

Richmond's delegation in the House was evenly divided in its vote, Delegates Boschen and Fuller voting for the Leedy resolution and Delegates Haddon and Wilcox casting their votes against it. Delegate Price was absent. Ten delegates were paired.  

Supporters of woman suffrage made desperate eleventh-hour attempt to stave off inevitable defeat when Delegate Robert O. Norris of Lancaster, offered a resolution to refer the question to the voter of the State for their determination. This resolution. which was similar to the one which the House adopted last week before the Senate had acted, was lost. 23 to 67.  

How the delegates Voted. The recorded vote on the Leedy resolution was as follows:

[there is then in the text of yeas and nays both for the Leedy resolution and the Rew resolution  ]

Debate Is Limited. 

Following a conference between Democratic Floor Leader Willis and Delegates Rew, Norris, Hunter and Ozlin, it was decided to allow one and one-half hours to each side and to vote at 2 o'clock.  

The resolution was set as a special continuing order for yesterday at [garbled] clock, and the gallery was crowded with visitors in expectation of flights oratory and spirited debate. In this they were disappointed. 

Those who spoke in behalf of the Anthony amendment- and they were few- apparently realized that their task was a hopeless one and that little they could say would chance minds that already had been made up. There was little that was convincing in their arguments, and their oratory lacked much of its wonted fire. 

Floor Leader Willis opened for the advocates of suffrage. He asked his colleagues in the House whether they were prepared to stand by their own action in adopting the Rew resolution granting a referendum on suffrage to the people, or if they would repudiate their own action by adopting the Senate rejection amendment. He said he expected the House to vote its convictions regardless of the action of the upper branch.  

"There are more brains on this side of the Capitol this session than on the other side." he asserted.  

The suffrage question, he said, will never be permanently settled until it is settled right, and that, he said. Is by giving woman the vote.  

"If only one woman in a thousand in Virginia wants the vote, you have no right to deprive her of that right." he said.

Attacks Newspaper Critics

He took a fling at newspaper critics, who he said, had charged the House with attempting to straddle the issue.  

Delegate Ozlin, patron of a previous resolution to reject the Federal suffrage amendment declared it as his belief that the temper of the house to adopt the Leedy resolution.  

"Let us face the issue like real men." he urged his hearers. Nothing was to be gained, he argued, by referring the question to the people, as, he asserted, sentiment is over overwhelmingly against the Anthony amendment. The house, he said should support the Senate and should recede from its position in adopting the Rew resolution.
He was confident, he said, that fellow-delegates would not vote for something they knew their constituents did not want. 

"I have heard members of the House say that, personally, they were in favor of woman suffrage, but would not vote for it because such a vote would not reflect the sentiment of those back home." 

The Delegate from Lunenburg said that, with the Anthony amendment out of the way, a suffrage amendment to the Constitution of Virginia might be introduced and passed. 

He was asked by Delegate Willis, if such a bill were introduced in the House if he would vote for it. Delegate Ozlin answered in the affirmative.

Question Most Serious

"The suffrage question is the most serious that ever has confronted the people of Virginia and the Democratic party since I have been a member of the House," Delegate Norris declared. "If we do not settle it for ourselves, it will soon be settled for us, and against our will," he added. 

He did not think referring the question to the people could be construed as straddling the issue. 

Delegate Norris said that, while he believed a large majority of his constituents were opposed to the Anthony amendment, he believed the question should be referred to the people. 

Delegate Parke P. Deans, of Isle of Wight, hoped he would not live to see the day when Virginia must look to the North and West for guidance as to what to do in enacting legislation. 

He referred to the patriotism of Patrick Henry, who, he said, was ever jealous of States' rights. He called on the House to support the Leedy resolution.

-Richmond Times-Dispatch, 13 February 1920

New Kent's Delegate at the Norvell Lightfoot Henley, a Williamsburg attorney, voted against the Leedy Resolution and thus for women's suffrage. The former Commonwealth's attorney of Williamsburg he represented Charles City, New Kent. James City, York and Warwick, and the City of Williamsburg in the House of Delegates from 1916 until his death in 1923.

N.L. Henley(1869-1923)

Map of the York River Railroad

Find below a good map of the York River Railroad as it existed at the time of the Civil war. The railroad had only been completed in 1859 and so had hardly been in use long before it became an important operational objective of the military campaigns in Tidewater Virginia.

The image is from the Library of Congress map collection and the description for it reads, "Sketch from the Confederate Engineer Bureau in Richmond, Va. General J.F. Gilmer, Chief Engineer[.] Presented to the Virginia Historical Society by his only daughter, Mrs. J.F. Minis, Sav[ana]h, Ga."A Georgia born engineer, Jeremy Francis Gilmer (February 23, 1818 – December 1, 1883), was Chief Engineer of the Department of Northern Virginia from August 1862 until the summer of 1863.

Library of Congress

Below a blow up of the section in New Kent

The New Kent section is a little lacking in detail, so some explanation is needed. The red lines represent roads. Where the road crosses the line closest to the Chickahominy River that was the location of Dispatch Station. The next road crossing is the site of Summit Station, renamed after war Quinton Station.

Below the West Point/Eltham/ Brickshouse area.