Richard Evelyn Byrd Sr.
American politician (1860–1925)
Richard Evelyn Byrd Sr. (August 13, 1860 – October 23, 1925) was a Virginia lawyer, politician and newspaperman. He was the father of politician Harry Byrd and aviator Richard Byrd Jr.
Early and family life
He was the first son born to Jennie (Rivers) and her husband William Byrd, who had become an adjutant general of the state of Texas, and born in Austin, Travis County, Texas, months after the American Civil War had begun. After the war, his parents returned to Virginia, and lived with his grandparents. His grandfather and namesake, also Richard E. Byrd (1801-1872), was a politician and by then former slaveholder (the elder Richard E. Byrd owned 26 enslaved people in Frederick County in 1860, and possibly more in neighboring Clarke County). The elder Byrd had been one of the representatives of Frederick, Hampshire, and Morgan counties in the Virginia Constitutional Convention of 1851 and had also served in the Virginia General Assembly. His great grandfather was Thomas Taylor Byrd, who used enslaved labor to work plantations, mostly in what became Clarke County after it was split from Frederick County. His great-great grandfather William Byrd had served in the British army during the American Revolutionary War, then moved to northwestern Virginia. This Richard E. Byrd graduated from the University of Virginia and later received a law degree from the University of Maryland.
The public source identifies “Richard Evelyn Byrd Sr.” as american politician (1860–1925). This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Richard, Evelyn and Byrd.
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The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 1, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7325555. VIAF identifies the subject as 75414443. The Library of Congress control number is n88205794. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1860, 1925, 1801 and 1872.
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This entry incorporates text from “Richard Evelyn Byrd Sr.” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.