Rensselaer Journal, Volume 11, Number 25, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 November 1901 — From Farmer's Boy to Governor's Chair. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

From Farmer's Boy to Governor's Chair .

A. J. Montague, the new governor •elect of Virginia, is not quite forty years of age. He will step from the office of attorney general into the executive mansion. The new governor’s father was lieutenant governor of Virginia during the war between the states and afterward judge for many years of the circuit court of Middlesex. Young Montague spent his childhood on a farm. He graduated at William and Mary college at Williamsburg in 1882. During the two years that followed he taught school. In the summer of 1884 he was a law student at the University of Virginia and graduated with the degree of B. L. in 1885. He settled In Danville and in the spring of 1888 was defeated for commonwealth’s attorney. In 1893 President Cleveland appointed him district attorney for the western district of Virginia. In 1896 he was a candidate for the office of attorney general and secured the nomination and election over several of the strongest men in the Democratic party. His recent canvass for the governorship was preceded by one of the bitterest contests for the nomination ever held in Virginia. Congressman C. A. Swanson was also a candidate and had all the machinery of the party behind him. Mon- - utgue and Swanson met in joint debate during the canvass for the nomination and many bitter things were said, but when the nomination was made Mr. Swanson took the stump in Montague's behalf. Mr. Montague is married and has three children, the youngest being four years old. Mrs. Montague is a beautiful woman with delightful personality. / . Mr. Montague’s hair gave him the name his father before him bore a 3 a political nickname, “the Red Fox.” He fs expected to be a candidate for the United States senate in 1905.

GOV.-ELECE MONTAGUE OF VIRGINIA.