World Events

William McKinley

Nobel Prize

1896 Olympics

• William McKinley defeated William Jennings Bryant to become President.
• Plessy vs. Ferguson landmark Supreme Court case rules in favor of a Louisiana law requiring blacks to ride in separate railroad cars as long as they are provide equal accommodations.   This ruling legalizes “separate but equal” policies and sets the precedent for passing many other segregation laws, including “separate but equal” education.
• John Philip Sousa wrote “Stars and Stripes Forever.”
• The will of Alfred Nobel establishes a fund for prizes for outstanding contributions toward world peace, science, and literature.
• The world’s first escalator was built at Coney Island, NY.
• The first modern Summer Olympic Games took place in Greece.

Life Details

• Clarke Walton Leftwich was born on December 8, 1859 at Walnut Hill, the old Leftwich family home, in Campbell County, Virginia.
• His father, Colonel Joel Breckenridge Leftwich, was a Civil War veteran.  His grandfather, General J. B. Leftwich, was a captain in the Revolutionary War and a Brigadier-General in the War of 1812.
• Pastor Leftwich graduated from Randolph-Macon College.
• He married Susan Elizabeth Sale of Hibernia Plantation in Bedford County on December 8, 1897 (his birthday).  They had 4 children:  Richard Sale, Emily Wharton, Frances Walton, and Virginia Meriwether.
• He retired in 1924 due to failing health which caused him to become an invalid until his death in Washington, DC on January 20, 1934.
• He was described as a strong preacher, clear thinker, a man of real convictions.
• In 1904, he conducted a wedding in Madison County.

• During the years 1920-1923, he served as pastor of Beulah Methodist Episcopal Church South in Keysville, VA (Prince Edward Charge, Farmville District).