HON. LUCIEN DOUGLAS STARKE.
The Starke family have been seated in Virginia for several generations.
Col. Bowling Starke, father of Lucien D., of Hanover county,
Virginia, born in 1790, married Eliza G., daughter of Hon. Anthony
New, who represented the Caroline district in Congress for many years,
and after his removal to Kentucky represented his Congressional district
in that State in Congress for many years. Col. Bowling Starke
and his wife left surviving them the following children: Joseph A.,
Bowling W., John W., Lucien D., Anne E., Alexander W., Julia Isabella
and Lucy A., of whom Joseph A. and Alexander W. are dead.
The father of Col. Bowling Starke was also named Bowling Starke,
and was of Hanover county. His children were named: Richard,
Thomas, William, Bowling, Lucy, Ann, Sarah, Frances, Jane, Eliza,
Susan and Elizabeth—all dead, leaving numerous descendants.
Lucien Douglas Starke was born in Hanover county, Virginia, near
Cold Harbor, February 9, 1826. His first wife was Elizabeth F. Marchant,
born at Indian Town, North Carolina, May, 1831. They were
married at Indian Town, January 8, 1855, by Rev. J. B. Dod, of New
York, and she died at Franklinton, North Carolina, March 18, 1863,
leaving two daughters: Eliza N. and Elizabeth M., the latter now the
wife of W. B. Martin, of Norfolk.
Secondly, Mr. Starke married in Tarboro, North Carolina, January
8, 1868, Talitha L. Pippen, daughter of John Pippen of Edgecomb
county, North Carolina. She died in Norfolk, Virginia, February 18,
1876, leaving four children: Lucien D., Talitha P., Virginia Lee, and
William Wallace Starke.
Mr. Starke was collector of customs for the port of Elizabeth City,
North Carolina, during the administrations of Pierce and Buchanan,
and represented Norfolk City in the House of Delegates, sessions of
1875-6 and 1876-7; again in the session of 1887-8.
As colonel of the 3d regiment North Carolina militia, he was the first
officer assigned to command the forces at Hatteras Inlet, North Carolina,
during the erection of fortifications there in 1862. On the organization
of the State Troops of North Carolina he was appointed assistant
commissary of subsistence for the 17th regiment, Martin's Brigade,
Hoke's Division, but during the entire active service of the troops
under General Martin's command he was assigned to duty at general
headquarters as acting inspector general of the brigade, and served in
the trenches and at the front in all the engagements of that brigade.
Among the most important of these were those around Petersburg, the
battle of Bermuda Hundred, where the Confederate forces "bottled
up" Gen. Butler, and the battle of second Cold Harbor. During this
time, Colonel Starke also acted by temporary assignment as adjutant-general
to Gen. J. Johnston Pettigrew. At the end of the war was surrendered,
with the rest of Johnston's army, at Greensboro, North
Carolina, April, 1865.
Col. Starke has resided in Norfolk from 1867 to the present time, and
during that period has pursued his profession as a lawyer.
