Robert Enoch Withers was born in Campbell County on 18 Sept. 1821. After graduation from the medical department at the University of Virginia in 1841, he practiced medicine in Campbell County and Danville until 1861. During the Civil War Withers achieved the rank of colonel in the Confederate army. He served as the lieutenant governor of Virginia from 1874 to 1875 and in the United States Senate from 1875 to 1881. Withers was the U. S. Consul at Hong Kong from 1885 to 1889 and he died nearby at his home, Ingleside, on 21 Sept. 1907.