Roger Atkinson PRYOR, Congress, VA (1828-1919)

PRYOR, Roger Atkinson, a Representative from Virginia; born near Petersburg, Dinwiddie County, Va., July 19, 1828; was graduated from Hampden-Sidney College, Virginia, in 1845 and from the University of Virginia at Charlottesville in 1848; studied law; was admitted to the bar in 1849 and practiced a short time in Petersburg, but abandoned law on account of ill health; engaged on the editorial staff of the Washington Union in 1852 and the Richmond Enquirer in 1854; appointed special United States Minister to Greece in 1854; returned and established The South in 1857; associated himself with the staff of the Washington States; elected as a Democrat to the Thirty-sixth Congress to fill the vacancy caused by the death of William O. Goode and served from December 7, 1859, to March 3, 1861; during the Civil War served in the Confederate Army as a colonel in 1861 and brigadier general in 1863; later resigned his commission and reenlisted as a private soldier; member of the Virginia Confederate House of Representatives; captured by the Union troops in November 1864 and confined in Fort Lafayette, but soon afterward was released; moved to New York City and practiced law 1866-1890; delegate to the Democratic National Convention in 1876; judge of the court of common pleas of New York 1890-1894; justice of the New York Supreme Court 1894-1899; retired upon reaching the age limit; appointed official referee by the appellate division of the supreme court April 10, 1912, and served until his death in New York City March 14, 1919; interment in Princeton Cemetery, Princeton, N.J.

Bibliography

Holzman, Robert S. Adapt or Perish; The Life of General Roger A. Pryor, C.S.A. Hamden, Conn.: Archon Books, 1976.

Source: Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1771-Present