[3] As a young man, Langhorne served briefly in the Confederate Army before being discharged for disability in October 1861.

Soon after the Civil War, he moved to Danville, Virginia, a major center for bright leaf tobacco.

It is said that Langhorne originated the auctioneer's fast-talking "chant," which proved very effective at evoking a heightened sense of bidding, and was also copied everywhere.

[4] Through the influence of his wartime commanding officer, he landed a construction contract with the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway.

By 1892, he had installed his family at Mirador, a colonnaded house in Albemarle County, at the foot of the Blue Ridge Mountains.