Herringshaw's Encyclopedia of American Biography

Thousands of short American lives — soldiers, inventors, preachers, governors, novelists — each given a paragraph: born where, did what, and why anyone remembered.

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Mahone, William

civil engineer, soldier, legislator, United States senator, was born Dec. 1, 1826, in Monroe, Va. In his youth he taught school and then became a civil engion the veys of the Orange and Alexandria railroads. He subbuilt sequently the Fredericksburg Plank road; then was chief engineer of the Norfolk and Petersburg railroad; and became its president. He served as quartermaster in the confederate army, and became majorgeneral. In 1881 he entered the United States senate, and served a full term for six years. It was through his policy that the free school system of his state was rehabilitated; the whipping post abolished; the prerequisite to suffrage removed; a colored normal school and a colored asylum were erected; and the state expenses reduced.

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