Page:Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography volume 4.djvu/474

cian and citizen of Roanoke, Virginia, is a descendant of several of the old Virginian families. He was born August 31, 1876. at Winchester, Virginia, a son of Captain William Leven and Evalina (McGill) Powell. Captain William Leven Powell, Sr., was a native of Loudoun county, Virginia, where he was born May 3. 1830. He was a large planter and a prominent citizen of that region and distinguished himself in the civil war, serving during that great struggle on the staffs of Generals Jackson and Gordon. His wife, Evalina (McGill) Powell, was related to the old Bland and Tucker families, and through her Dr. Powell has inherited some of the table silver of the famous John Randolph, of Roanoke.

Dr. Powell obtained his education at Miller's School, which he attended for several years, and later at the University of Virginia, where he took a three years' course in medicine, 1897 to 1900, graduating in the latter year with the degree of Doctor of Medicine. During his college course Dr. Powell took an active part in the undergraduate life of the university, was an "all round" athlete and a member of the fraternities of Alpha Tau Omega, Pi Mu, P. K. and O. F. C. and the Tilka Society. After his graduation from the university, Dr. Powell became an interne at St. Ann's Infant and Maternity Hospital, Polyclinic Hospital, Philadelphia, and later became the chief resident physician of the State Hospital at Warren, Pennsylvania. He then for two years held the position of superintendent in the Roanoke City Hospital, with which institution he still maintains his connection as a member of its staff. He is also the surgeon for the Roanoke Street Railway Company. Besides his work in these institutions, Dr. Powell has given much of his time and attention to the problems of public health, and has faithfully served his fel- low citizens of Roanoke as a member of the board of health and as city diagnocian. He has been in the past, president and secretary of the Roanoke Academy of Medicine, and an active member of a number of medical socities, i. e., the South Western Virginia Medical Society and the State and American Medical Associations. He is also a member of the Automobile Club of Roanoke, the Roanoke Country Club and the Roanoke Tennis Club.

Dr. Powell married, October 23, 1907, Elinore Kerr, of Philadelphia. and to them have been born two children, as follows: William Leven Jr., born January 10, 1909, and John Randolph, born August 10, 1910. Dr. Powell and his family are members of the Second Presbyterian Church of Roanoke, and Mrs. Powell is most active in the work of the church and the charities connected with it.

William Philip Mathews, M. D. A resident of Richmond, Virginia, since 1874, when as a boy of six years he was taken to that city by his parents. Dr. Mathews descends from the ancient Virginia family of Mathews, among the very earliest settlers of Prince Edward county, that state. His grandfather, Captain William Mathews, was a soldier of the war of 1812, from Prince Edward county, and his great-grandfather, Rev. Philip Mathews, a pious devoted minister of the Gospel (Baptist) passed his long life of ninety useful years entirely in that county. Dr. William Philip Mathews is a son of Dr. Thomas Philip Mathews, an eminent physician and surgeon. Dr. Thomas Philip Mathews was born in Prince Edward county, Virginia, August 2r, 1835. died January 12, 1905, and is buried in Hollywood Cemetery, Richmond. He was a graduate of Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, class of 1855. He practiced his profession in Prince Edward county until the outbreak of the civil war, when he promptly enlisted in the service of his native state and became captain of Company H, Fourteenth Regiment Virginia Infantry, serving with his regiment until the second battle of Manassas, where he was severely wounded. Upon his recovery he was placed in charge of the hospital at Farmville, Prince Edward county, where he devoted his professional skill to the cure of the wounded and sick soldiers. Later he became surgeon under General A. P. Hill, serving in that capacity until the war between the states ended. He then resumed the practice of his profession amid more peaceful surroundings, continuing in honor and esteem until his death. He married, on Christmas eve, 1856, Bettie Bolling, daughter of Thomas R. Marshall, of Hampden-Sidney College. Children: John D., now (1913) living at the age of fifty-three years; Thomas Gibson, aged fifty-one years; Colonel W. Kirk, aged forty-nine years;