“Memorial and Biographical History of Dallas County,” published:  
Chicago;  The Lewis Publishing Company, 1892.

W.T. STRANGE,  attorney at law North Texas bank building, Dallas, Texas, 
was born in Charlottesville, Albemarle county, Virginia, September 6, 1860.

When a boy, Mr. Strange served as page in the State Senate of Virginia, 
receiving his first appointment from Hon. John L. Mayre, the Lieutenant 
Governor and President of the Senate.  His subsequent appointment was by 
Hon. R.E. Withers, Lieutenant Governor, and later a United States Senator, 
of the State.

While serving his second term as page, the State of Virginia chartered a 
lottery company, making a condition in said charter, that said company 
should provide free board and tuition for a certain number of students, sons 
of Confederate officers who were killed in the Confederate service.  The 
appointment was to be made by the Board of Directors of William and Mary 
College.  Young Strange resigned his appointment to enter the college, being 
selected by the authorized board.  In this institution he passed his academic 
studies, and graduated in the class of 1875, with credit to himself and the 
college.

After leaving college he was at different springs and watering places in 
Virginia, recruiting his health, which had become impaired.  During this 
time he had special instruction from a graduate of the University of Virginia, 
in the languages, Latin and Greek.  The next year he matriculated as a 
student in the Richmond Law College, under the tuition of “Curry & Davis,” 
and completed his law course in 1877.  In 1878 he entered the University of 
Virginia, and graduated at that institution in 1880.

That same fall he came to Dallas, where he had two brothers:  H.B., cashier 
of the Fourth National Bank until recently, and John B. Strange, Jr.  Our 
subject was taken into the law offices of Crawford & Crawford, and, while 
not a partner, was associated with them three years.  In 1884, he, with three 
others, ran for County Judge, and was beaten by a few votes only.  He ran 
for City Attorney in 1886, and thirty-eight votes marked the difference 
between him and the successful candidate.  Since that he has devoted his 
energies to the practice of his profession, and has been very successful.  He 
is well known in Dallas as a lawyer of marked ability as well as a speaker of 
power and eloquence.  His course as a member of the Dallas Bar for the past 
few years has gained for him a deserved reputation for industry, integrity 
and strict devotion to his professional work.  A gentleman noted for his 
social qualities and inherent force of character, he is popular with all classes, 
and especially adapted for a leader among his fellows.

Mr. Strange comes of a distinguished ancestry.  His father, General John 
Bowie Strange, son of Colonel Gideon A. and Harriet J. Strange, was born in 
Fluvanna county, Virginia, in 1823.  Colonel Gideon A. Strange served as 
Captain in the war of 1812.  He also represented his county for a number of 
years in the Virginia Legislature.

On the 11th of November, 1839, John B. Strange was sent to the Virginia 
Military Institute.  In the first graduating class of that school, 1842, he 
received his diploma as third distinguished graduate.  In addition to this high 
standing in his studies, he had attained distinction in the military department, 
being the first adjutant in the corps of cadets.

After graduation, Mr. Strange was for some years a professor of 
mathematics in the Norfolk Academy.  Eventually becoming the principal of 
that school, he gained for it great reputation, placing it at the head of 
academics and high schools in the State.  Between 1854 and 1856, Professor 
Strange founded the Albemarle Military Institute, which he conducted with 
great success until the beginning of hostilities in 1861.

Having been in 1859 appointed Brigade Inspector of the Third Brigade, 
Second Division Virginia Militia, composed of the regiments in the counties 
of Amherst, Nelson, Albemarle, Fluvanna, Louisa and Goochland, he was 
prepared to take up arms at the moment Virginia assumed a hostile attitude.  
Appointed Lieutenant-Colonel of the Nineteenth Virginia Infantry in April, 
1861, immediately after the ordinance of secession, and soon afterward 
promoted to Colonel, he was stationed with it at Culpeper Courthouse, and 
was occupied in drilling and preparing this regiment for service until ordered 
on to Manassas, just before the memorable battle on July 21, 1861.  In this 
battle Colonel Strange fought gallantly, having already, in the words of the 
commanding general, Beauregard, “gained the reputation of being brave, 
intelligent, and faithful in the discharge of his duties.”  Stationed at 
Centreville, Fairfax Courthouse, and Munson’s Hill, until the army fell back 
to the Peninsula, Colonel Strange was engaged in many skirmishes, but 
received no hurt.  At Williamsburg his regiment captured the Excelsior 
Battery, belonging to General Sickles’ brigade.  In all the battles around 
Richmond, extending from Seven Pines to Malvern Hill, Colonel Strange 
fought with distinguished gallantry.  At the second battle of Manassas he 
commanded his brigade; passing over into Maryland then, he was for some 
time at Frederick City, Maryland, thence onward with the army to 
Hagerstown; and at South Mountain, September 14, 1862, he fell mortally 
wounded, having previously in the same battle received wounds in his right 
foot and side, which disabled him from keeping his feet, and which did not 
prevent him from cheering on the noble troops of his command.  Calling to 
them to advance, the fatal ball passed through his heart, closing instantly his 
career of usefulness and dauntless bravery, in the thirty-fourth year of his 
age, having passed unhurt through thirty-two pitched battles, besides 
numerous skirmishes.  His body fell into the hands of the enemy, and its 
resting place was unknown to any of the family until several years after, 
when, through a lady who had cared for the grave, its locality was made 
known, and the body was moved by the Masons of Norfolk, Colonel Strange 
having been one of that order, to the cemetery at Charlottesville, Virginia.  
All who knew Colonel Strange speak of him in the highest terms.  Colonel 
Edmund Pendleton, of Botetourt county, Virginia, in closing his eulogy on 
the death of General John B. Strange, says:

“It is gratifying to me to know of this friend and companion of my youth that 
when our State called for her defenders he was among the first to obey the 
summons, and that, though he fell, he fell at the post of duty, and sleeps in 
the honored grave of the soldier who died in defending the liberties of his 
country.”

General Strange had the degree of A.M. conferred on him by William and 
Mary College.

He was married in December, 1849, to Miss Agnes Gaines, daughter of 
Judge H.B. and Agnes (Gwathney) Gaines, the former of Petersburg, and the 
latter of King William county, Virginia.  Mrs. Strange was a graduate of 
several colleges of Petersburg.  She was a woman of rare literary attainments 
and social standing, having been one of the reigning belles of the “Old 
Dominion” for several years prior to the war.  A short and interesting sketch 
of her life was written by Mr. Campbell in his History of Virginia.  She was 
related to many of the largest and most influential families in Virginia.  A 
life-long and consistent member of the Presbyterian Church, she died in that 
faith, December 26, 1887, aged fifty-seven years.

Submitted by: L. Pingel