USA > Washington DC > Eminent and representative men of Virginia and the District of Columbia in the nineteenth century. With a concise historical sketch of Virginia > Part 27
USA > Virginia > Eminent and representative men of Virginia and the District of Columbia in the nineteenth century. With a concise historical sketch of Virginia > Part 27
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Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65
Dr. Rankin is a ripe scholar, a fine linguist, well versed in French and Ger- man literature and a man of great versa- tility of gift and freshness and vigor of thought. He is a forcible and energetic speaker, with clear, strong, sympathetic, ringing voice, which always attracts atten- tion. In personal appearance he is of sistant surgeon, and was commissioned as little more than medium stature, with a muscular, closely-knit frame, a large head, full brown and deep-set eyes and a genial roundness of face. He has always been an energetic, industrious, practical man and has a native repugnance to all attempts at aristocracy, whether of race, property or culture. All his literary work has been incidental to his other work, as he was seldom absent from his pulpit while pastor, and as an educator and ex- ecutive of one of the leading literary insti- tutions in Washington, he is always found ever since. He was chief medical officer at his post of duty. His return to Wash- of the Freedmen's bureau during the last ington has resulted in the growth and two years of its existence, 1871-72; was
The career of this eminent physician and surgeon, now a resident of Washing- ton, D. C., has been so varied and ex- tended in its different practical influences that a simple enumeration of the respon- sible positions he has held and is holding is probably the shortest and most effective method of placing before our readers his character and efficiency in his calling, as well as of indicating his high social stand- ing in the community in which he resides. He was born in Glasgow, Scotland, Au- gust 1, 1833, and came to America with his widowed mother in 1843, settling in Philadelphia, where he received his clas- sical and medical education, graduating from the Philadelphia college of Medicine and Surgery in 1856, and receiving the degree of A. M. from Howard university, Washington, D. C., in 1870. He located in Philadelphia and practiced medicine until 1862, when, in June of that year, he entered the Federal service as acting as- assistant surgeon of the United States volunteers on June 4, 1863; was promoted to surgeon of the United States volunteers June 13, 1863, and served in that capacity until the war closed; was brevetted lieu- tenant-colonel of the United States vol- unteers in 1865, and remained in the army until 1867, when he was appointed captain and assistant surgeon of the United States army, which rank he held until he resigned in the same year, and commenced practice in Washington, D. C., where he has been
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surgeon in charge of the Freedmen's hos- 1811, and was educated there; he went pital, Washington, D. C., from 1867 to 1875; to Scotland just after he was mar- was professor of chemical surgery of ried at the age of twenty-two, but re- mained there only a few years, and then went to England for a while and then back to Ireland, where he died in 1842. He was an artist, and was married in 1832 to Miss Jane Brown; to this union there was born but one child, Dr. Robert Rey- Georgetown university in 1866-67; was professor of surgery in the medical de- partment of Howard university in 1868, was professor of anatomy in the medical department of Georgetown university in 1878. In 1880 he was professor of phys- iology and clinical surgery in the medical burn. The doctor's grandfather's name department of Howard university, which was Robert Reyburn; he was born in Raphoe, in the north of Ireland, in 1772, where he spent his life. He married Matilda Homes, a native of Ireland, and to them were born twelve children, of whom the doctor's father was the third in order of birth. Robert, the doctor's grandfather, died in 1856. position he still retains. He is a member of the American Medical association, of the Medical society of the District of Co- lumbia, and the Medical association of Washington, D. C .; member of the Micro- scopical society of the District of Colum- bia, of the Biological society of the district, and member and vice-president of the National Microscopical society; member of the American society of anatomists and WILLIAM ROBINSON SMITH RILEY, of the congress of American physicians president of the West End National bank, Washington, D. C., was born in Accomac county, Va., July 19, 1817, but when seven years of age was taken to Washington by his parents. Here he received his educa- tion, and from 1839 until 1889 was one of the most extensive dry goods merchants of the city, but in the latter year relin- quished trade to assume the presidency of the bank named above. For two years he served the city as a member of the council under Mayor John W. Maury's ad- ministration and proved himself to be as efficient in city government as he was in his own business. In 1863 Mr. Riley mar- ried Miss Elizabeth King Reid, daughter of William Reid, of Norfolk, Va., and to this congenial and felicitous union have been born eight children, of whom six grew to maturity, viz: Fanny, wife of Dr. Charles Read Collins, of King George county, Va .; Robinson, of Washington, and surgeons. He is consulting surgeon to Providence hospital and lecturer on clinical surgery at the Freedmen's hos- pital, and is visiting physician to St. John's church orphanage. He was a member of the Washington, District of Columbia, board of health in 1870-71, and president of the board during that period, and also served as school trustee of Washington, D. C., in 1877, 1878, 1879. The doctor was one of the first councilmen elected in Gergetown, D. C., in 1865, but served a short time only and resigned. Dr. Reyburn was married, in 1854, to Catha- rine White, daughter of William White, of Philadelphia, Penn., and to them were born eight children, of whom five survive, as follows: Robert, Kate, Ella Frances, Laura Virginia, and Eugenia. The father of Dr. Robert Reyburn was James Rey- burn (originally spelled Raeburn), who was born in the north of Ireland in D. C .; Ellen Robinson Riley, Elizabeth
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Reid Riley, Ida Blackstone Riley, and Carolina. He was descended from Rev. Charles Reid Riley. Pierre Robert, M. D., and Marie Robert,
Thomas Robinson Riley, father of W. distinguished French Huguenots, who at R. S. Riley, was also a native of Accomac the revocation of the edict of Nantes county, Va., having been born July 10, emigrated with a colony to Santee, South Carolina, in 1685; and from Thomas Smith, landgrave, born in the north of England, and Baroness Schenckling, who came to South Carolina in 1694.
1783. He was a man of much influence in the county and was a member of the old county court and high sheriff. In 1816 he married Elizabeth Cropper Blackstone, of his own county, and to
His father was Rev. Jos. T. Robert, their marriage were born ten children, LL. D., and his mother Adeline Elizabeth viz: Wm. R. S., Ann Robinson Smith, Lawton, daughter of Col. A. R. Lawton, Thomas Wise, of Sinnickson, Accomac and sister of Gen. Alex. R. Lawton, our county, Va., and Elizabeth Wise, who late minister to Austria. At the age of died in 1879, the wife of Benjamin T. thirteen, Col. Robert's parents moved to Hodges, of Prince George's county, Md .; Ellen Robinson, who died May 20, 1872, the wife of Charles Frederick Stansbury, of Washington; Laura Custis; John Black- stone, who died in 1851, aged twenty-
Ohio and at sixteen he entered the U. S. Military academy at West Point, graduat- ing in 1857 at the age of twenty, receiv- ing a commission in the corps of engineers. While still a cadet at the three, unmarried; Philander Chase, died academy he was detailed as acting as- in 1884; he married Virginia Smith, sistent professor of mathematics and daughter of Benjamin Price Smith, of after graduation his first station was at Washington; Melinda Hack, wife of West Point as assistant professor of Eldridge J. Smith; Catharine Custis, wife natural and experimental philosophy. of John J. Smolinski, of Washington. In 1858-60 he served with Gen. Harney The father of this family died in January, in Oregon and Washington territory, on 1846, having been a widower since De- the Dalles and Salt Lake Wagon Rock cember 6, 1834. John Riley, father of T. expedition, as engineer in charge of the R. Riley and grandfather of W. R. S. Riley, was born in Accomac county, Va., where he was engaged in planting until
construction of the defenses of San Juan Island during the difficulty with the English about our boundary, and in his death in 1790. He was married to charge of the exploration for a military road from Fort Vancouver to the Cow- litz via Toutle lake.
Elizabeth Smith, and of his two chil- dren --- a son and a daughter - Thomas R. lived to maturity, and the daughter died in infancy. William Robinson Smith Riley dropped the "Smith" from his name when he entered into business.
COLONEL HENRY MARTYN ROBERT,
Lieutenant Robert was ordered to Washington in the fall of 1860, and Dec. 17, was married to Helen Marie Thresher, daughter of Ebenezer Thresher, LL. D., of Dayton, Ohio. Lieutenant Robert was deeply interested in the cause of
corps of engineers, U. S. A., was born education and had decided to resign May 2nd, 1837, on a plantation near his commission in the army, hav- Robertville, Beaufort district, South ing provisionally accepted a professor-
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ship, which would take him south, when land, Oregon, in charge of fortifications, the secession of his native state forced upon him the question of his duty to his country. He had been brought up in the
river and harbor improvements, and light houses in Oregon and Washington terri- tory. In December, 1873, he took charge belief in the right of nullification and of the light houses on Lake Michigan, and secession and had never questioned the in May, 1875, of the river and harbor im- correctness of this belief, heretofore. provements on Lake Superior, Green He soon became convinced, whatever Bay and the western shore of Lake may have been the views of those who Michigan north of Milwaukee, where he was stationed. January 9, 1883, he was promotéd to a lieutenant-colonelcy and in May took charge of the river and harbor improvements at Buffalo and on Lakes Ontario and Champlain and the St. Lawrence and Niagara rivers, etc., and the defenses of the northern frontier. In January, 1885, he was ordered to Phila- delphia, where he took charge of the fourth light house district and the de- fenses of Philadelphia and the League Island navy yard, and the river and har- bor improvements in that district, includ- ing the Delaware river and breakwater. While stationed here Colonel Robert devised a plan for the radical improve- ment of the harbor of Philadelphia by re- moving Smith and Windmill islands and framed the constitution, or those who ac- cepted it, that no nation could exist long on the secession theory, and that as it led to disintegration and constant warfare, it should be destroyed at once at any cost. His convictions of duty thus led him to abandon his cherished plans, and remain in the army until there was no need for his services. He reached Washington on the first train from Annapolis after the firing on Fort Sumter, and continued on duty connected with the defenses of Washington till the fall of 1861, when, suffering from nervous prostration (super- induced by an attack of Panama fever, two years previous, and the vicissitudes and privations incident to exploration duties), he was ordered to take charge of the defenses of Philadelphia, and the more than seventy acres of Petty's island, and doubling the width of Delaware avenue, which borders the river, and in- creasing the length of the docks to more than double their original length in that part of the river near the center of the
next year of the construction of the for- tifications of New Bedford, Mass. In 1865 Captain Robert was ordered to West Point in charge of the department of practical military engineering and as treasurer of the Military academy. Up city. This plan was approved and the to this time, while always on duty, he money appropriated by congress for had never recovered his strength suffi- ciently for active field duty.
carrying it out. The amount of material to be excavated is estimated at about seven- teen million cubic yards. February 1, 1890, Colonel Robert was appointed com-
Being promoted to a majority March 3, 1867, he was this same year ordered to San Francisco as chief engineer of the missioner of the District of Columbia. military division of the Pacific, where he By a law of congress an engineer officer served on the staff of Generals Halleck, of the army has to be one of three com- George Il. Thomas, and Schofield till missioners to execute the laws made by April, 1871, when he was ordered to Port- congress for the government of the
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District of Columbia, the other two com-| to the system of internal improvements missioners representing the two political parties of which our congress is composed. He took a deep interest in improving the administration of the government of the district, but the strain was so severe that his being relieved in October, 1891, alone saved his health from permanent injury. At this date Colonel Robert was ordered to Nashville, Tenn., in charge of the im- provement of the Cumberland and Ten- nessee rivers and their tributaries.
Colonel Robert has served upon various boards and commissions, among them the engineer board to select a deep-water harbor for the north-west coast of the Gulf of Mexico. Of this board he was president and prepared the report; also upon the board to consider and report upon the proposed deep-water harbor at San Pedro or Santa Monica bay, as re- quired by the river and harbor act of July, 1892-selecting the most eligible site to accommodate the largest ocean-going vessels, with an estimate of costs, etc.
carried on by the United States govern- ment. This volume, of about 640 pages octavo, proved so useful that he was re- quested to continue the work, and con- sequently, in 1889, a second volume of like size was published, bringing it down to 1888. (Government Printing Office, Washington.) When ordered to Wash- ington as commissioner, the Honorable Secretary of War Proctor said of him to a reporter -"Colonel Robert is a very able man and has the reputation of being one of the best engineers in the army." Adjutant-General Kelton, United States army, says the reporter, was enthusiastic in his praise of Col. Robert. "You will find him a modest, unassuming man," he said, "and he will not at first impress you as a man of great ability, but I venture to say that he is probably one of the greatest men in the army. He is a stu- dent and a thoroughly scientific man, an engineer of great capacity and a very strong thinker." There are few men that possess a more judicial mind than Col. Robert; a natural-born leader and educator - thorough and conscientiously scrupulous, with great moral courage in the pursuance of what is right.
Colonel Robert is the author of the article on " Parliamentary Law " in " Ap- pleton's American Cyclopedia," and of ' Robert's Rules of Order, " the standard authority in our country on parliamentary law. It is used as a text book in many of WILLIAM MUNDAY POINDEXTER the colleges of our country and adopted (originaliy spelled Poyndextre), a re- alike by statesmen, legislatures, and the spected citizen and prominent architect most important political, civil and religious residing in Washington city, D. C., is a deliberative bodies. Since the first issue native of Virginia, born in the city of of the book in 1876 to the present time Richmond in the year 1846. His father, the work has reached an edition of James Lewis Poindexter, was born in Louisa county, the same state, in the year 1800, and for a period of forty years was a prominent merchant of Richmond. In 1840 he was united in marriage with Sarah Ayres, daughter of Israel Munday,
130,000. He had prepared under his di- rection an "Index to the Reports of the Chief of Engineers U. S. A. on River and Harbor Improvements, 1866-1879, inclu- clusive, " being an analytical and topical index to the public documents relating of Rahway, N. J., to which union seven 26
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children were born, six of whom reached | ton county, Ill. He was a pupil in private maturity, namely: Charles of Richmond, who served with the Richmond Howitzers in the Confederate service throughout the war. George Henry, deceased in 1890, served through the war, in the same company with his brother, and attained the rank of first lieutenant; Alfred, a member of the Norfolk Confederate battery, also reached the rank of lieu- tenant, and now resides in New York; William M., John Edward of Texas, and Thomas of Richmond, Va. The father of this family died in 1867 and the mother in 1875. Mr. Poindexter's grandfather, whose christian name was Henry, was born in Louisa county, and followed farming all his life.
William M. Poindexter spent the years of his youth and early manhood in his native city, in the schools of which he ob- tained a good education, and during the subjects of common-law practice, torts, late war between the north and south and domestic relations, and in 1885 the university honored him with the degree of LL. D. Mr. Ross was appointed post- master at Washington in 1888, and held that office until September 30, 1890. Sep- tember 11, 1890, he was appointed commis- sioner of the District of Columbia and espoused the cause of the Confederacy, entering the service in 1863, as a member of the telegraphic corps of the army of northern Virginia. In October of the following year he joined Colonel James Breathell's battalion of artillery, with which he served until the battle of qualified October I of that year. He was Waynesboro, March, 1865, when he was captured, and for some time thereafter was held a prisoner of war. At the close of the war he returned to Richmond, and after residing there two years, located in Washington, D. C., in which city he has since pursued his profession of architect. Mr. Poindexter was married in October, 1882, to Julia, daughter of Benjamin T. Reilly of Philadelphia, Penn.
JOHN WESLEY ROSS,
commissioner of the District of Columbia, was born June 23, 1841, at Lewistown, Ful-
schools until 1853 and in the Lewistown seminary until 1856. Entering Illinois college in September of the latter year, he left in June, 1862. In the college society, Mr. Ross served successively as recording secretary and president. In 1866 he de- livered the address at the society reunion. He attended the Harvard law school in 1864-65, and was admitted to the bar upon examination in open supreme court at Springfield, Ill., in January, 1866. He practiced at Lewistown in 1866-73, and during the last four of these years he rep- resented the Fulton county district in the state legislature. In April, 1873, Mr. Ross was admitted to the bar of the United States supreme court, and has since prac- ticed in Washington, D. C. In October, 1883, he was appointed lecturer in the law school of Georgetown university on the
for two terms president of the board of trustees of public schools in the District of Columbia. In June, 1870, Mr. Ross married Miss Emma Tenney, daughter of Franklin Tenney, and a native of New Hampshire, and who died in January, 1879, leaving five children, four of whom still survive and are named Tenney, Mil- dred, Lee and Georgette. In September, 1888, Mr. Ross was married to Mrs. Isabel Mccullough, of Allegheny, Penn.
Lewis W. Ross, father of John Wesley Ross, was born at Seneca Falls, N. Y. December 8, 1812, and was educated at
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Illinois college, at Jacksonville, Ill. He William T. was educated at various is a lawyer and was admitted to the bar schools in different parts of the country, in 1838 and is located at Lewistown, IIl. He was a member of the Illinois legisla- ture two terms, was a member of two state constitutional conventions and repre- sented the tenth congressional district in congress from 1863 to 1869. He was mar- ried June 13, 1839, to Frances Mildred Simms, daughter of Reuben C. Simms, of Madison county, Va., and to them were born twelve children, of whom the follow- ing grew to maturity: John W., Ossian
as his father was transferred from station to station. July 1, 1869, however, he en- tered the United States military academy at West Point, N. Y., having been ap- pointed from New Jersey, the state in which his father was born. He graduated from this military school June 13, 1873, was commissioned second lieutenant, corps of engineers, United States army, and was placed on duty at the engineer school of application, Willett's Point, R. (who died in 1863, unmarried), Ellen C. New York harbor, where he continued (who died in 1879, the wife of Robert M. his studies until August, 1876, when he Hinde), Lewis C., Frank R. (who died in returned to West Point as an instructor 1877), Pike C., Fannie W. (who died in in the department of military and civil 1885, the wife of H. J. Latshaw), and Jen- nie, wife of G. K. Barrere.
engineering, which duty occupied his time until August 28, 1880,-acting as The grandfather of John W. Ross was named Ossian M. and was born in the state of New York; was a soldier in the promoted September 12, 1877, to first war of 1812; emigrated to Illinois in 1821 and laid out the town of Lewistown, which he named after his son Lewis. He was a merchant and Indian trader and accumu- lated considerable wealth. He married Mary Winans, of western New York, and had born to him the following children: Lewis W., Harriet, who married A. S. Steele, Harvey Lee, Lucinda, who married William Kellogg, Leonard F. and Pike C. Ross. Mr. Ross was postmaster at Ha- vana, Ill., where he died in 1837. assistant professor of the department during the last year of his stay. Was lieutenant. From the United States military academy, West Point, N. Y., he was transferred for duty at Portland, Me., in connection with river and harbor work and fortifications on the coast of Maine, New Hampshire and Massachusetts. Thence he was sent to Jacksonville, Fla., as assistant in river and harbor work along the eastern coast of that state. Was promoted to captain, corps of en- gineers, March 17, 1884, and the same year was placed in charge of the river and harbor work and fortifications in WILLIAM TRENT ROSSELL, Florida from Jacksonville to Pensacola. In 1886 he was transferred to Memphis, engineer commissioner of the District of Columbia, with headquarters at Wash- ington city, was born in Mount Vernon arsenal, Ala., October 11, 1849, where, at the time, his father, who was an officer Tenn., where, under the Mississippi river commission, he was given charge of the levees and of river improvements from the mouth of the White river, in Ark- ansas, to Warrenton, Miss., -a stretch in the United States army, happened to of 220 miles. In November, 1889, he was be stationed, having his wife with him. ordered to assist the engineer commis-
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sioner of the District of Columbia, and | Zachariah, and was born in Freehold, was finally appointed to the office of en- N. J., and for many years was a justice of the peace. gineer commissioner, October 9, 1891, and this position he has ably filled to the present time. The marriage of Mr. Ros- _ GENERAL ALLAN RUTHERFORD. sell took place December 28, 1882, to Miss Jane G. Ellis, the daughter of Gov. J. W. Ellis of North Carolina, who died in 1861 while incumbent of that high office.
William Trent Rossell is a descendant of one of the oldest families of New Jersey. His father, William H. Rossell, was born in Trenton in 1820, was a gradu- ate of Yale college, educated to be a physician, and was acting assistant sur- geon at the United States arsenal at Mount Vernon, Mobile, Ala., at the date of William Trent's birth, as stated above. March 3, 1855, William H. Rossell en- tered the United States Tenth infantry on its organization as second lieutenant, and with it served against the Mormons in their war of rebellion in 1857; in the early part of the late Civil war he was brevetted for gallantry on the battle field of Valverde, N. M .: in November, 1863, he was placed on the retired list, and in 1885 he died in Asheville, N. C. The father of William H. Rossell was named Zachariah and was a major of the Fifteenth United States infantry in the war of 1812, but resigned after the con- flict had closed and held the position of adjutant-general of the state of New Jersey most of the remainder of his life, which ended in 1847. William Rossell, the father of Zachariah Rossell, was judge of the supreme court of New Jersey for over twenty years, and for about thirty years was United States judge for the district of New Jersey, dying in office at the age of ninety years. The father of Judge William Rossell was also named | aid in suppressing the late rebellion:
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