USA > Virginia > King and Queen County > King and Queen County > King and Queen County, Virginia (history printed in 1908) > Part 23
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HON. BENNEHAN CAMERON
In June, 1905, many of the people about King and Queen Courthouse were much interested by the coming into their midst of a handsome, portly gentleman, a distant relative of the Harwoods and others, whose name heads this sketch. He appeared a man of culture, refined instincts, patriotism, and high moral character- istics, and he met a most cordial reception. Mr. Cam- eron was born fifty years ago in Stagville, N. C. His father was Hon. Paul Carrington Cameron, one of the most valuable citizens of North Carolina. His pater- nal grandfather was Judge Duncan Cameron, one of the ablest jurists of his time. We are pleased to note
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that this gentleman is to be counted a great-grandson of old King and Queen, inasmuch as his relationship to the distinguished Chief-Justice Ruffin was that of grand- son. He is a graduate of the Virginia Military Insti- tute of July 4th, 1875 ; is one of the leading agricultur- ists and stock-breeders of the State; and has been asso- ciated with a number of the great men of the country. He served most acceptably as president of the North Carolina Agricultural Society, and was among the fore- most agents in the establishment of the great Seaboard Air Line Railroad. The writer of the sketch from which this is taken adds to all this that Colonel Cam- eron could have had any office in the gift of his people, so greatly was he honored among them.
COL. WILLIAM CAMPBELL,
Who was a captain in the Revolutionary War, was from King and Queen County, and a close friend of Gen. Washington. He raised a quota of men in King and Queen and was assigned to duty with the First Vir- ginia regiment. After the war he was commissioned major in the regular army, and assigned to command the arsenal at Harper's Ferry. He resigned about 1800. (See Heitman's Historical Register of United States Army.)
Judge John G. Dew-now Second Auditor of Vir- ginia-kindly sends the following regarding his distin- guished relative, that accomplished scholar,
PROF. T. R. DEW
" Thomas Roderick Dew, son of Thomas R. Dew and Lucy Gatewood, his wife, was born in King and Queen County, December 5th, 1802. His father was a large land- and slave-holder in that county, who had served for a short time in the War of the Revolution and was a captain in the War of 1812. Thomas R., the son, was graduated from William and Mary College in 1820, after which he traveled two years in Europe.
"On October 16th, 1826, he was elected Professor
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of History and Political Law in William and Mary Col- lege. The chair of history, which was established for the first time under Rev. Robert Keith, in 1820, was de- veloped by Mr. Dew into one of the first importance. At that time history and political science were scarcely known among the studies of an American college. In 1836 Mr. Dew became president, and the college, under his enlightened management, achieved a degree of pros- perity never previously known. In 1840 the number of students in attendance was one hundred and forty. The time was one of great political activity, and his lectures on the restrictive system, depicting the evils of the tariff system, were very popular, not only with the students, but with the Southern public, and are thought to have had much weight in shaping the opposition to the tariff laws of 1828 and 1832. His essay in favor of slavery had a marked effect, it is said, on the slavery question. But his greatest work was his "Digest of the Laws, Customs, Manners, and Institutions of Ancient and Modern Nations," embracing lectures delivered to his class. Dr. Herbert B. Adams pronounced this work the most thorough and comprehensive course on history of which he had found any record during this early period. Mr. Dew contributed largely to the Southern Review. In 1845 he married Miss Matilda Hay, daughter of Dr. Hay of Clarke County, Va., and died suddenly on his wedding trip. The faculty bore formal testimony in their minutes that it was difficult to decide whether his wisdom as president, his ability as a pro- fessor, or his excellence as a man, was most to be ad- mired.
" He died in Paris, France, August 6, 1846."
EUBANK FAMILY Coldwater, King and Queen Co., Va., November 10th, 1904.
DEAR BROTHER BAGBY :
In answer to your inquiry, my great-grandfather was named William, and great-grandmother was named Jane, and my grandfather Richard was born June 11th,
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1767. My grandmother was named Elizabeth, born October 23d, 1768. They raised six children, three boys and three girls. My father was the fifth child, named Philip Eubank, born May 28th, 1806; married Susan Jeffries in the year 1828. My father died the seventh day of March, 1848, some forty-two years old; left five boys, all very young. My mother lived thirty- eight years, one month and twenty-two days longer than my father; she left four sons; brother John was killed in the battle around Petersburg on the 15th day of June, 1864. She left only four sons, twenty-three grand- children, and six great-grandchildren. My father was said to be one of the very best of men, lived and died member of the Mattaponia Church, under the pastorate of old Brother William Todd. If my good old super- intendent, Colonel John Pollard, was living, he could give you the history of my father. Brother William Todd baptized me the 23d day of August, 1848. I was then only fourteen years old; afterwards you became my pastor until I moved to the neighborhood of Ware's Church. The old Mattaponia has now a dear place in my heart; there I was brought up in the Sunday school under the leadership of Brother John Pollard, superin- tendent, and under your pastoral care. I often think of you along with my boyhood days, and never can forget you. Whenever I have the privilege to meet you I feel like saying, Here is my first pastor and teacher in the Gospel of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. I revere and reverence you as no other pastor, though I have had four since. I have loved all the pastors that have presided over me. I am quite old now, in my seventy- first year, occupying some important places in my church; deacon ever since 1857, superintendent of the Sunday school for a number of years, treasurer for twenty years. As you are my father in Gospel, is why I name these different places holding in my church, by no means in a boastful spirit. My dear brother, if I am saved it will be by the unmerited grace of God. Your Brother I hope in Christ, WILLIAM J. EUBANK.
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CHARLES B. FLEET,
Youngest son of Dr. Christopher B. and Lucy Anne Fleet (née Semple), was born at Mordington in 1843. His mother-widowed-was married in 1853 to Rev. William F. Broaddus, and removed to Fredericksburg. Mr. Fleet served through the war of '61-'65 in the Fredericksburg Artillery, the first permanent officers of which were: Carter M. Braxton, captain, Edward S. Marye, first lieutenant, etc. He was in all the principal battles of the war, and surrendered with General Lee at Appomattox. His battery fired the first shot in the battle of Gettysburg and the last artillery shot at Appomattox.
COLONEL ARCHIBALD R. HARWOOD,
Was a son of Margaret Roane, a daughter of Thomas Roane; was born at Newington. He was for long years a member of the Virginia House of Delegates, and then of the Senate of Virginia. He was nominated by the Democratic party for Congress, and defeated by the late R. M. T. Hunter, who was elected by seventeen votes.
SAMUEL FAUNTLEROY HARWOOD
Samuel Fauntleroy Harwood, lawyer, son of Archi- bald Roane Harwood and Martha Fauntleroy, was born at the country home, Newington, King and Queen County, February 26th, 1817; educated at Rumford Academy and in Richmond; served for ten years as dep- uty clerk of King and Queen County. In 1847 he was elected to the State Senate and served three years, being the unexpired term of Carter M. Braxton, deceased; declined reëlection; studied law while a member of the Senate, and practiced his profession successfully up to the commencement of the war. During the period of the war he acted as secretary and treasurer of the Rich- mond and York River Railroad Company, and after the war was one of the directors. In the spring of 1867 he removed to Texas and for about twenty months maintained a law partnership with his brother, Major
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T. M. Harwood; returned to his old home in Virginia at the end of 1868, and resumed the practice of his pro- fession. Married Bettie Brockenbrough March 16th, 1869. He was for many years vestryman in the Epis- copal Church. On Wednesday, May 23d, 1906, he died, leaving behind him a beautiful example of an up- right Christian gentleman.
COLONEL THOMAS MOORE HARWOOD,
A brother of S. F., born September, 1827; died Janu- ary, 1900; married Brown; educated at Uni- versity of Virginia and Ballston Spa, N. Y .; removed to Texas in 1850, and practiced law at Gonzales. In 1880 was tendered a seat on supreme bench of Texas, but de- clined. Was for years regent of University of Texas. In June, 1861, joined army of C. S. A., and was captain and subsequently colonel. Was at battles of Corinth and Holly Springs, and afterwards served in Forest's command. Colonel Harwood was a courtly gentleman and a Christian, which is the highest type of man.
DR. W. S. B. HENRY [Falls Church, Va., Dec. 15th.]
The death of Dr. William Scarborough Braxton Henry came as a shock to his friends and loved ones. It occurred suddenly on Saturday in Falls Church, Va., at the residence of his grandniece, Miss Sallie S. Beach. He had been sick but a week, and it was thought that danger was passed, when he was stricken with heart disease.
His funeral took place this afternoon at 2 o'clock, the interment being made in Oakwood Cemetery.
Dr. Henry had lived more than the threescore and ten years allotted to man. He was "an old Virginia gentleman " in every sense of the word, and by his courteous and affable manners made many friends among both old and young. He belonged to the old genera- tion that is fast dying out.
He was born at the old homestead, Pleasant Hill, King and Queen County, Va., August 6th, 1827, but
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spent about twenty-five or thirty years in Washington. His father, Colonel James Hugh Henry, son of Judge James Henry, of the Continental Congress, was an officer in the War of 1812, fought at Norfolk, Va., and also in the District of Columbia at the time of the burn- ing of Washington by the British forces under General Ross and Admiral Cockburn. Colonel Henry was twice married; his first wife, Anne Elizabeth Braxton, was the granddaughter of Carter Braxton, signer of the Declaration of Independence. Dr. Henry was this wife's son. His second wife, Anne Catherine Temple, received from the United States government until the time of her death a pension on account of the disability of her husband contracted during the War of 1812. This pension was carried to her during the Civil War through the Confederate lines under a flag of truce. The Colonel's six sons-three by each wife-were offi- cers in the Confederate army.
Dr. Henry enlisted in Company B, Fortieth Virginia Regiment, serving six months, when he was appointed surgeon and sent to the Fourth Division of Camp Win- der, and then to take charge of Camp Lee and Batteries Nos. 9 and 10. Afterwards he was made president of the Examining Board of the Confederate States. He resigned December 22d, 1863, going to his farm, "Shellie," in Richmond County, where he remained until the close of the war. He is survived by a half- brother, General Edward Moore Henry, of Norfolk, Va., ex-commander of the Grand Camp of Confederate Veterans of Virginia.
At one time he attended Richmond College, after- wards graduating in medicine from Jefferson College in Philadelphia. He was well known in many counties in Virginia as a physician.
During President Hayes' administration he was sent as physician to the Omaha and Winnebago agencies, in Nebraska. While there he was presented with the " Sauntee Peace Pipe," by the chief of the tribe. Later he was a clerk in the Patent Office.
Dr. Henry was a member of one of the proudest and most distinguished families of the Old Dominion.
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It is the same as that which produced the immortal Patrick Henry. He is a lineal descendant of Sir Alex- ander Spotswood, one of the Colonial governors. The family is also related to the Braxtons, Scarboroughs, Carters of Shirley, Lees, Washingtons, Moores of Chel- sea, Robinsons, Nelsons, Pages, and others equally well known. He married Miss Lucy Daingerfield.
Dr. Henry had been a member of the Baptist Church since his young manhood. He was a Christian gentle- man, noble, brave, and true.
JONES FAMILY
The following are extracts from a letter to the editor by Hon. Alexander C. Jones, who left King and Queen in 1859 for Arkansas with his mother ( Mary Courtney, widow of Hill Jones) . The children were Elonisa, Thyresa Ann, Martha Jane, Amelia, Alexander C., William, and Hill, Jr. Alexander C. was a captain C. S. A. and a member of his State legislature. Hav- ing been wounded at the Wilderness battle he came to King and Queen on furlough; was at my house when Sheridan raided us in 1864, and missed capture nar- rowly. He was with us at the Reunion in May, 1907. A chivalrous soldier, a fine citizen, a Christian gentle- man :
" About myself there is not much to write. Wife and I are in reasonably good health for old people. I will have lived to be seventy-five on the 8th of next March, my wife two years younger.
" We have four children, two sons and two daughters. My oldest son, Courtney, lives in Oklahoma and is do- ing well. Laman lives with me and is our main sup- port. I have a married daughter in Pine Bluff, Ark., with three children. My other daughter, Mary, is a trained nurse, a graduate of a New Orleans institute. She has more than she can do in her profession and so we see very little of her.
" Only a week ago we were much shocked at the sud- den death of my younger brother, Hill Jones. It seems strange that he should be taken first as he was my
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junior by eleven years. Hill was a good man and a Christian, deacon in our Baptist Church here, and a highly respected citizen. We shall all miss him much. Four children survive him, two sons and two daughters, all married and doing well.
" You will perhaps be surprised to hear that my oldest sister, Elonisa, still lives. She is now in her eighty- seventh year and has been remarkably active and healthy up to a year ago, but is now growing quite feeble. Only we two remain of the eight, including my mother, that moved to Arkansas."
WILLIAM LYNE
Perhaps in the annals of King and Queen County we find no more distinguished man than William Lyne the 2d, son of William the Ist, who came to Virginia from Bristol, England; settled first in Granville County, N. C., and removed thence to King and Queen County. William Lyne, the second of that name, was a most distinguished man in the House of Burgesses of May, 1769, when Lord Botetourt was governor of Virginia. He was a burgess from King and Queen also in the sessions of Nov. 7, 1769; May 21, 1770; and July II, 1771. In 1775 he was a member of the Committee of Safety from King and Queen County. He was colonel in the Revolutionary War from 1776.
William Lyne married his first cousin, Lucy Foster Lyne, daughter of Henry Lyne.
Bishop Meade's book (page 414) says of Drysdale parish : " This parish lay partly in Caroline and partly in King and Queen County. Mr. William Lyne ap- pears during the time to have been a faithful lay dele- gate."
MURDOCH FAMILY
J. Ryland Murdoch, born April 10th, 1873; died January 5th, 1906, Ontario, Cal. Married Miss Gil- christ, Philadelphia., June 12th, 1901. Baptized when 13 years of age at Bruington, King and Queen, by Rev. W. R. D. Moncure. Ordained at Bruington Church, September, 1897; when the Presbytery consisted of :
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Dr. Charles H. Ryland, Dr. Harry Bagby, Dr. B. Cabell Hening, Rev. J. W. Ryland, Rev. Alexander Fleet, Rev. Frank Beale.
At Berlin, New Jersey, 2 years.
At Kennett Square, Penn., 2 years.
At Winchester, Va., 2 years.
At La Junta, Col., 1 year.
JUDGE THOMAS RUFFIN
This distinguished gentleman deserves more than a passing notice. The record we shall give is taken from an address delivered by Governor William A. Gra- ham of North Carolina, afterwards Secretary of the Navy, and from other documents relating to the same subject :
Thomas Ruffin, the oldest child of his parents, was born at Newington, County of King and Queen, Va., the residence of his maternal grandfather, Thomas Roane, November 17th, 1787. His father, Sterling Ruffin, was a planter in the neighboring county of Es- sex; and he in turn was a son of Robert Ruffin, who years before had established his residence at Sweet Hall, King William County. Judge Ruffin's mother, Alice Roane, was of a distinguished family. She was a first cousin of Judge Spencer Roane, Chief Justice of Vir- ginia; also of Thomas Ritchie, the distinguished editor of the Enquirer at Richmond; and also a first cousin of Dr. William Brokenborough, President of the Bank of Virginia. His father, having a respectable fortune, sought for his son the best education. He lived for a while in boyhood on the farm in Essex, attending school in the neighborhood. Thence he was sent to a classical academy in the village of Warrenton, N. C., then under the instruction of Mr. Marcus George, an Irish- man, and a skillful instructor. Mr. George placed great faith in the rod, and did not spare it when he thought it needed. Judge Ruffin always retained a grateful and affectionate remembrance of Master George. He was next sent to the college of Nassau Hall, at Princeton, N. J. The late Governor James Iredell was in the class
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succeeding that of Mr. Ruffin, and became his room- mate. Thus began a friendship between these gentle- men, which terminated only in the death of Governor Iredell. Theodore Frelinghuysen, of New Jersey, was also his college associate, as was also Joseph R. Inger- soll. Mr. Ruffin then entered the law office of David Robertson, of Petersburg, where he was associated with Winfield Scott, the future general. This was in 1806. The year following, Sterling Ruffin, the father, changed his home from Virginia to Rockingham County, N. C., and his son soon afterwards followed him. After pur- suing his legal studies yet further, he was admitted to the bar in 1808. In 1809 he established his home at Hills- borough, and on the 9th of December of that year he was united in marriage to Miss Annie Kirkland of that town.
In 1813-'16 he served as a member of the legis- lature, and became Speaker of the House. His manner at the bar was diffident and his speech embarrassed, but the vigor of his understanding soon overcame all diffi- culties. His income from his practice has hardly ever been equaled in North Carolina. In 1825 he was ap- pointed Judge of the Superior Court, and in this position had universal admiration and acceptance. In the au- tumn of 1829 he was elected a Judge of the Supreme Court, and in 1833 he was elevated to the Chief- Justiceship. Few advocates ever equaled him in pre- senting so much solid thought in the same number of words, or in disentangling complicated facts and mak- ing a demonstration clear to the minds of the auditors. He thus became habituated to abstract and exact reason- ing. With an energy that pressed the business forward, a quickness in comprehending facts, patient habits of labor, he suffered no time to be lost, and yet there was no indecent haste. While he presided it was rare that any case before a jury occupied more than a single day. He held this position twenty-three years, and in these years he delivered a greater number of opinions than any other judge with whom he was associated. These opinions are found in twenty-five volumes of re- ports, and have been cited with approbation in many
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courts, both State and national, and even in Westmin- ster Hall. He has been thought by many able lawyers to rank with Judge Spencer Roane of Virginia, and with that greatest of all the Chief-Justices, John Marshall. Hon. R. T. Bennett, himself an able lawyer, says of him, " I have read every opinion delivered by the late Chief-Justice Ruffin, and when I completed these read- ings, I said in my deepest thought, 'Chief-Justice Ruffin is the greatest judge who ever administered justice in an English-speaking community.'" Again, Senator Graham says of him that he wore the ermine as natur- ally and gracefully as if he had never been divested of its folds. When the great war between the States came on, Judge Ruffin was for the maintenance of the Union until he was sent to Washington to attend a peace con- ference, which had been suggested by Virginia with the faint hope of saving the country from a bloody strife. After he returned, at a great public meeting called to consider the question by his own people, the venerable judge mounted the platform and exclaimed, " I know not what others may say, but as for myself, I say Fight ! Fight! Fight!" On the 15th of January, 1870, after an illness of but four days, he breathed his last, in the eighty-third year of his age. His end was resigned and peaceful, and in the consolation of an
enlightened and humble Christian faith. For more than forty years he was a communicant of the Protestant Episcopal Church. His venerable companion, Annie (Kirkland) Ruffin, survived him.
This is the inscription upon Judge Ruffin's tomb in St. Matthew's churchyard, Hillsboro, N. C., by Hon. Paul C. Cameron, a son-in-law :
THOMAS RUFFIN THE FIRST BORN OF STERLING RUFFIN AND ALICE ROANE, BORN AT NEWINGTON, KING AND QUEEN COUNTY, VIRGINIA, NOV. 17TH, 1787, DIED AT HILLSBORO, ORANGE CO., N. C., JANUARY 15TH, 1870.
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Graduated at Nassau Hall, Princeton, N. J., 1805, Admitted to the Bar in N. C. in 1808. Intermarried with Annie M. Kirkland December 9th, 1809.
A member of the State Legislature, Speaker of the House of Com- mons; a trustee of the University; twice Judge of the Superior Court; in 1829, Justice of the Supreme Court, in which he presided for nine- teen years as Chief Justice.
Labor ipse est voluptas.
In the 83rd year of his life, in full possession of his faculties, ripe in learning and in wisdom, crowned with public honors and with con- fidence, rich in the affection of his kindred and friends, he closed his long, active and useful life in the consolation of an enlightened and humble Christian faith.
" A man resolved and steady to his trust, Inflexible to ill and obstinately just."
ROBERT RYLAND, A. M., D. D. By
This distinguished son of the county was the child of Josiah Ryland-for sixty-five years a deacon of Bruing- ton Church-and Catharine Peachey.
He was born in 1805 and died in his 94th year. Educated in Humanity Hall Academy and Columbian College, D. C., he was for thirty-four years the presi- dent of leading educational establishments,-first of the Virginia Baptist Seminary and then of Richmond Col- lege. The college, now the pride of Virginia Baptists, was cradled largely in his self-denying labors and pray- ers, and its success is in great measure due to his able administration and sound learning.
Dr. Ryland was the brother of Samuel Peachey, Jo- seph, and John Newton Ryland, all of whom resided in the county and were eminent for good citizenship, religious character, and usefulness. He was also the uncle of Charles Hill Ryland, D. D., son of Samuel Peachey Ryland.
REV. A. F. SCOTT By Mrs. T. P. B.
Azariah Francis Scott was born September 14th, 1822, in Northampton County, Virginia, and died Oc-
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tober 7th, 1898. He received a first-class education at both Richmond and Columbian Colleges, at the latter of which he took the A. M. degree. He was a close student, possessed fine discriminative powers, and was never satisfied until he had mastered the subject under- taken. He was well versed in the Scriptures and sound to the core. He never " ran after new things "; he was satisfied with the good old doctrines of the Gospel, and preached Jesus Christ as the only and all-sufficient Savior of a world ruined by sin. In early life and until after the Civil War he taught school. He was fond of this work. He loved young men and identified him- self with them, and this made him very successful and popular as a teacher. Many of the most prominent men in this section were his pupils. On one occasion not very many years before his death, he paid a visit to Gloucester Courthouse, meeting a great many old friends. He was invited to sit with the judge (Fielding Taylor). A great many new people had moved to the county and curiosity was rife among them as to who this old gray-haired gentleman was on whom the judge conferred such honor. At the right time Judge Taylor introduced him as his own teacher, and added that not only had he been the teacher of the judge, but of the jury, the lawyers in attendance, and all of the officers of the court. During the Civil War he lived in Glouces- ter County, and being too old for the ranks, when the county was lacking in men, he served as a Justice of the Peace. To-day his portrait hangs on the walls of Gloucester Court House as a prominent county officer. Mr. Scott had very few pastorates for one actively en- gaged in the ministry forty-seven years. Ebenezer (of which Newington was a branch at that time) in Glouces- ter, Colosse in King William, Glebe Landing in Mid- dlesex, and Ephesus in Essex, were his only pastorates.
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