USA > Virginia > Virginia and Virginians; eminent Virginians, executives of the colony of Virginia, Vol. I > Part 21
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JAMES MCDOWELL.
The honored names of McDowell and Preston, so closely interlinked, were both represented in the memorable siege of Londonderry, in 1688. The founder of the distinguished McDowell family of Virginia and Kentucky. Ephraim McDowell, there battled for the Protestant cause, with an elder brother, who sealed his devotion with his life. Ephraim McDowell, who was, it is said, a relative and near neighbor of John Lewis, the founder of the famous Lewis family of Virginia, emigrated from Ireland and settled in the province of Pennsylvania some time prior to the year 1735; but, after a brief residence there, migrated to Virginia, to the home of his relative John Lewis. His son John McDowell and wife, who was Magdalene Woods, and whom he mar- ried in Pennsylvania, accompanied him. Father and son settled on the noted grant of Benjamin Burden, John McDowell becoming the surveyor of Burden, and securing from him a tract of one thousand acres of land in what is now Rockbridge County, and upon which he settled, calling his home " Cherry Grove." He was killed by the Indians, with eight companions, near Balcony Falls, December 25, 1742. He left issue :
i. Samuel; Judge ; father of the celebrated surgeon Ephraim MeDow- ell, M. D., born in Rockbridge County, Virginia, November 11, 1771; completed his medical studies at Edinburgh, Scotland, set- tled in practice at Danville, Kentucky, in 1795, and for years was the leading practitioner in the West; married, in 1802, a dangh- ter of General Evan Shelby; successfully performed, in 1809, the operation for the extirpation of the ovary-the first on rec- ord-and acquired a world-wide celebrity; died at Danville, June 25, 1830. He was recently honored with a statue at Frankfort, Kentucky. The descendants of Samuel MeDowell are repre- sented in the worthy names of Reid, Moore, and others.
ii. James, married Elizabeth MeChing, and, dying in 1770, a post- humous son was born the same year-James, Colonel and the commandant of a brigade in the war of 1812; married Sarah, daughter of William Preston (and granddaughter of the founder of the Preston family, John Preston). Their issue was: i. Susan S., married William Taylor, of Alexandria, lawyer, and member of Congress, and had issue ; ii. Elizabeth, married Hon. Thomas H. Benton, of Missouri, and had, with other issue, Jessie, married General JJohn C. Fremont ; iii. James, the subject of this sketch. Hi. Sarah, married Colonel George Moffett, of Augusta County, distin- guished in Indian warfare, and in the Revolution, in which he fought from the beginning to the close. Their descendants are rep- resented in the names of MeDowell, Bell, MeChe, Hedges, Carson, Cochran, Crawford, Kirk, Miller, and others equally estimable.
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James McDowell, the subject of this sketch, was born at the family seat, "Cherry Grove," Rockbridge County, October 11, 1795. He re- ceived elementary tuition successively from the Rev. Wm. McPheeters, D. D., and Rev. Samuel Brown. The wife of the latter, who was Mary Moore, was the heroine of a thrilling story of Indian captivity, which is presented in a little book entitled The Captives of Abb's Valley. James McDowell later entered Washington College, then attended Yale Col- lege for a year, and completed his education at Princeton College, New Jersey, from which he was graduated Master of Arts in 1816. He spoke the Latin salutatory oration on the occasion of his graduation. Of the class of 1816, Mrs. Miller, the daughter of Governor McDowell, narrates that the Rev. John Maclean, D. D., so long the able and hon- ored President of the College, thus pleasantly collocated some of its members: "There were three Macs in that class, and I tell you, madam, they were not the meanest fellows in it either. They were Mellvaine [the Protestant Episcopal Bishop of Ohio], McDowell, and [with a sig- nificant smile] Johnny Maclean."
So pleased was Colonel MeDowell with the success of his son James at college that upon his return home he presented him with a valuable tract of land, some 2,500 acres, in Bourbon County, Kentucky. Young McDowell now commenced the study of law in the office of the eminent Chapman Johnson, at Staunton, Virginia, but after having so perfected his knowledge therein as to be awarded a license to practice, suddenly relinquished the profession through peculiar conscientions seruples, which he thus enunciated : "Others may be, but I don't know how I can be an honest man and a lawyer." In September, 1818, he married his cousin Susan, daughter of General Francis and Sarah B. (daughter of General William Campbell, the hero of King's Mountain, who married the sister of Patrick Henry the orator) Preston. James McDowell now removed to his plantation in Kentucky, but, after a residence there of a year or two, returned to Virginia to overlook the interests of his father, who had been stricken with paralysis, and near whom he took a farm, in the neighborhood of Lexington. This he made his perma- nent home, and here he raised his large family of children. He first entered public life in 1831, as a member of the House of Delegates from Rockbridge County.
The summer of that year is memorable in the annals of Virginia as the period of the negro insurrection in Southampton County, which has been circumstantially detailed in the preceding sketch of Governor JJohn Floyd. This tragic outbreak created a panic which pervaded the State even to its borders. The utmost terror prevailed, and so supplanted reason that people stood in dread suspense, awaiting supernatural vis- itations and terrible calamities. They watched the sun, and from the spots upon it drew portents of evil ; and when night came the darkness
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was full of spectres. Labor was interrupted and all occupation disor- dered by the measures for safety adopted, which called men from every occupation by day and night for weeks as patrols. The wide-spread consternation gradually settled into a belief in the necessity of legisla- tion regarding the slave population of the State. This subject largely occupied the deliberations of the session of the Legislature of 1832-3, and engaged the ablest minds in the body. Mr. MeDowell, who had been again returned to the House of Delegates from Rockbridge County, took a deep interest in the prolonged discussion, and, in common with a number of leading Virginians, advocated progressive emancipation. From this time onward Mr. McDowell was continuously in public life, in the service of his State and in the National Council. An exalted patriotism governed all of his actions, for though decided and conscien- tious in his party sentiments and adherences, he had no sympathy with the popular catch-word "Our party, right or wrong." Our country, not our party, was the paramount consideration with him. He belonged to the Democratic school of politics -- an affiliation which, it appears, some of his compatriots of the period could not appreciate. One of them, the late Henry A. Wise, then an uncompromising Whig, expressed his "won- der that such a gentleman as Mr. McDowell should be a Democrat." Yet Mr. Wise soon solved the paradox satisfactorily to himself, it may be in- ferred, since his asseverations as a Democrat, a few years later, were as enthusiastic as they had been as a Whig.
In 1838 Mr. McDowell delivered before the Alumni Association of Princeton College an earnest and eloquent address which for years was spoken of in the strongest terms of admiration. So enduring was the impression made by this address that the committee of trustees of the College having in charge the arrangements for the one hundredth an- niversary of the foundation of the College-celebrated in June, 1847- selected James McDowell for the orator on that occasion. But his en- gagements, public and private, debarred his acceptance of the invitation.
In December, 1842, Mr. MeDowell was elected, by the Legislature, Governor of Virginia, and on the 1st of January following entered upon the duties of the office, succeeding Acting Governor John Munford Gre -. gory. Governor MeDowell was an earnest Christian and a consistent member of the Presbyterian Church. He was also a steadfast advocate of the cause of temperance, and, in accordance with his convictions of duty, excluded both wine and dancing from his private and official en- tertainments. Old School Presbyterianism and total abstinence held sway at the gubernatorial mansion during his term. An expressive bon- mot of the late and lamented Colonel Thomas P. August, a prominent lawyer of Richmond, of infinite wit, who attended one of the entertain- ments of Governor MeDowell, has been treasured by his friends. Taking a glass of lemonade, Colonel August, with a significant application of his hand to his chest, offered as a toast : " Governor MeDowell's two
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Aids-lemon-ade and promen-ade." Before the close of his term of three years as the Executive of Virginia, Governor McDowell was elected to a seat in the United States House of Representatives, made vacant by the death of his brother-in-law, William Taylor. He served in Congress with conspicuous ability until 1851, and would doubtless have been returned again but that death intervened before the day of election. He died at Lexington, August 24, 1851, in the fifty-sixth year of his age. His wife had preceded him to the grave. They left issue nine children-two sons and seven daughters-as follows :
i. James, a physician, married Miss Elizabeth Brant, of St. Louis, Missouri, and has issue.
ii. Sally C. P., married, first, Hon. Francis Thomas, Governor of Maryland, and secondly, Rev. John Miller, now of Princeton, New Jersey. She has issue by the second marriage.
iii. Mary B., married Rev. Mr. Ross, of Bladensburg, Maryland.
iv. Frances Elizabeth, died unmarried.
v. Sophonisba, married Professor James W. Massic, of the Virginia Military Institute, late Colonel Confederate States Army (now deceased), and has issuc.
vi. Susan P., married Major Charles S. Carrington, a prominent lawyer of Richmond, Virginia.
vii. Margaret Canty, married Professor Charles S. Venable, LL.D., of Virginia, and late Colonel Confederate States Army, on the staff of General R. E. Lee. Has issue.
viii. Thomas L., married Miss Constance Warwick, of Powhatan County, Virginia. He died in the Confederate States Army service, leaving issue one child.
ix. Eliza, married Bernard L. Wolfe, Major Confederate States Army, and has issue.
As a speaker, Governor McDowell was eloquent and effective. In Congress he acquired influence and reputation by the gravity of his demeanor and the moderation of his course, and particularly by his wise and cordial support of all measures tending to strengthen the bonds of National Union. His most memorable effort in Congress was his speech on the admission of California as one of the United States, which is said to have produced an impression equal to any other ever delivered in that body.
WILLIAM SMITHI.
To the distinguished representation of the name of Smith in the an- nals of Virginia some reference has been made in a preceding sketch in this serial. Doubtless the paternal ancestor of the subject of this biography was seated in the colony early in the seventeenth century, but it is proposed to deduce first his descent maternally, which is more
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definitely preserved. Alexander Douiphan,* a native of Spain, whose name was thus Anglicized, a Protestant, migrated to England for re- ligious freedom, and thence to Virginia, where he married, some time before the year 1662, an heiress, Margaret, daughter of George Mott, a native of Scotland, and thus came into possession of a large lauded estate, of nearly 18,000 aeres, located in the Northern Neck. He set- tled in that part which was subsequently erected into King George County, and died in 1716, leaving issue three sons and three daughters, as follows: Alexander (the ancestor of the distinguished and vener- able General A. W. Doniphan, United States Army), Mott, Margaret, Elizabeth, Anne, and Robert. The second son, Alexander Doniphan, married twice-first, Mary Waugh, and, secondly, Catharine Dobbins. Of his issue by the first marriage was a daughter, Elizabeth, born April 12, 1744; died January 15, 1809; married, in 1773, William Smith, son of Joseph and Kitty (Anderson) Smith, f born February 5, 1741; died Jamiary 22, 1803. Of their issue of four daughters and three sons, the eldest, Mary Waugh, born January 1, 1775; died September 15, 1811; married, December 18, 1794, Caleb, (son of Thomas) Smith, born in 1761, and died in November, 1814. They had issue:
i. Eliza, born September 25, 1795; died August 14, 1797.
ii. William, the subject of this sketch, born September 6, 1797.
iii. Thomas, born November 15, 1799; married Ann Maria Goodwin, of Caroline County; died April 4, 1847. He studied law with his brother William, and practiced for a time, but later entered the ministry of the Protestant Episcopal Church. By his un- wearying exertions he caused the erection of the handsome Gothic church in Parkersburg, West Virginia. Had issue six sons and four daughters. Of the former, Thomas G., who is married, resides with his family in Parkersburg. Another son, Caleb, was reading law when the war with Mexico broke out. He en- listed, served with distinction, and was made a Lieutenant of the United States Artillery. In 1861 he joined the 49th Vir- ginia Regiment, was made Major, and wounded and permanently disabled in the first battle of Manassas; died December 22, 1874. iv. Mary Frances, born January 9, 1802; married, December 14, 1820, Professor Alexander Keech, President of Potomac Academy, Virginia, who was offered by Mr. Jefferson a professorship in the University of Virginia.
# The tradition held by Alexander Doniphan's descendants is that he was of noble Castilian blood, and had been knighted for gallantry on the field of battle. The parchment patent of his rank, it is said, was carried to Kentucky by his great-grandson, Dr. Anderson Doniphan, in 1792, and is believed to be in the possession of his present representatives.
T The descent of William Smith, as preserved by his descendants, was as fol- lows: " During the reign of George 1., Sir Walter Anderson, a native of Wales
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v. Catharine Elizabeth, born April 10, 1804; married, December 7, 1826, John A. Blackford, and died December 4, 1844.
vi. Martha, born July 24, 1806; married William Bell (died July 1, 1879), brother of the wife of Governor Smith.
vii. James Madison, born March 15, 1808; married, first, Mary Boll; secondly, May 22, 1845, his cousin, Martha Smith Bontwell; died December 15, 1853, at Donna Anna, New Mexico, on his way to take charge of an Indian Agency, to which he had been appointed by President Pierce.
viii. Anna Maria, born December 3, 1809; married, January 17, 1833, Rev. Richard Johnson of South Carolina, of the Episcopal Church, who was' attached to Hampton's Legion during the late civil war, and gained by bis gallantry the sobriquet of "The Fighting Parson." He died February 7, 1872. Two sons only, living respectively in South Carolina and Georgia, survive of their issue.
William Smith, the subject of this sketch, entered, at the age of seven years, the old field schools of his native county, King George, and some years later received tuition in Fredericksburg, Virginia, where he resided in the family of Judge John Williams Green. In 1811 he was sent to Plainfield, Connectient, to continue his studies at the academy of Jabez W. Huntington, subsequently United States Senator. Here he made considerable progress in the study of Latin and Greek; but the war with Great Britain breaking out in June, 1812, young William caught the patriotic fire of the period, and wished to enter the naval service. Having written his father to procure him a midshipman's appointment, the latter deemed it prudent to recall his ardent son home. He now for a time enjoyed private tuition; but, upon the death of his father in November, 1814, he was sent to the classical school of Rev. Thomas Nelson, at " Wingfield," Hanover County. Mr. Nelson was a highly successful teacher for a long series of years, and many of his pupils dis tinguished themselves in science and in legislation. Young Smith con- tinued with Mr. Nelson until the age of eighteen, when he entered upon the study of law, first with Green and Williams at Fredericksburg, then with T. L. Moore in Warrenton, and finally for a brief period in the office of General William H. Winder, in Baltimore, Maryland. Hav-
and an officer in the British Navy, and Sir Sydney Smith, a native of England, settled in Richmond County, Virginia; and Joseph Smith, a son of the last, married Kitty, daughter of Sir Walter Anderson." Another daughter, Anne Anderson, married Mott Doniphan, son of the emigrant settler, Alexander Doni- phan. Walter Anderson received from Lord Fairfax a grant of 818 aeres of land on Carter's Run, west side of the Rappahannock River, and another of 395 acres in June, 1728.
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ing passed an examination by Judges Hugh Holmes, Robert White, and John W. Green, he was licensed to practice law, and qualified in the Court of Culpeper County, in August, 1819. His talents, energy, and fidelity speedily gained him success in his profession. An ardent Democrat in politics, the ability of Mr. Smith was soon extendedly in request by his party. He responded cheerfully to its calls, though at personal sac- rifice, and persistently declined all political preferment for a long period. In 1836, when in his thirty-ninth year, he consented to become a candi- date for the State Senate, to which he was elected, and served through the term of four years. He Was re-elected to this body, but resigned after serving one session. In the Presidential campaign of 1840 Mr. Smith effectively canvassed the State in the interest of his party, and greatly enhanced his reputation as a public speaker.
Early in the career of Mr. Smith as a lawyer he had been impressed with the illy-provided mail service of Culpeper County, and determined to improve such facilities. In 1827 he obtained a contract for carrying the mails twice a week from Fairfax Court House to Warrenton, and thence to Culpeper Court House. He renewed this contract in 1831. With this small beginning he in four years built up a daily four-horse post-coach line from Washington City to Milledgeville, Georgia. In 1834 a violent attack was made upon the administration of the Post- office Department, W. T. Barry being then Postmaster-General. In the rapid development of the postal facilities of the Southern country the expenditures of the Department were largely increased. In the Blue Book, or official register of the United States Government, the salaries or compensation of its officers or contractors appear in con- nection with the names; and, in the case of the contractors, compensa- tion for instances of additional service ordered to be performed is indi- cated by an asterisk. Every extra allowance beyond the stipulations of the original contract was thus designated. As the route of Mr. Smith was one of rapid development his entries of service were abundantly thus marked. The circumstance was noted in debate by Senator Ben- jamin Watkins Leigh, from Virginia, who, without calling the name of Mr. Smith, yet affixed upon him the life-long sobriquet of " Extra Billy." Mr. Smith obtained, January 1, 1835, the mail contract by steamboat and coach-line between Washington and Richmond. The previous contractors, Messrs. Edmond, Davenport & Co., of the latter place, started a passenger line in opposition, and for a few months there was a lively competition, which is transmitted in traditions of free pas- sage, and finally of the additional gratuitous inducement of a bottle of wine. It was ended by the transfer, for a consideration, of the con- tract to the former contractors. During this contest, in the month of March, Mr. Smith was seized, in Fredericksburg, Virginia, with a violent attack of inflammatory rheumatism, which confined him to his bed, incapable of movement without assistance. Early in March, whilst still prostrated, and at a time when the ground was covered with snow,
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intelligence was brought him that three of his coaches had been over- turned in Potomac Run, which was very much swollen in volume. Under the stimulant of strong excitement he demanded that he should be taken from bed, dressed, and placed upon his riding horse, and would take no denial. This was, with difficulty and much pain to himself, ac- complished. Urging his horse to full speed he speedily reached the run, plunged into the foaming flood, and ordered the drivers to his assistance. Reaching the coaches, singularly enough, he found that the excitement had freed him from the rheumatism. Dismounting into the water, his active example soon righted the trouble, and the coaches re- sumed their route. The rheumatism was dispelled, not to return again. The resolution of Mr. Smith was strikingly exhibited on another occa- sion. Being deprived unexpectedly of the services of the captain and pilot of a steamboat which he ran between Baltimore and Norfolk, ho undauntedly took command of the boat and charge of the wheel him- self, and successfully made the hazardous trip. Such energetic purpose merited the fullest pecuniary success, but it was unfortunately other- wise. The attention ef Mr. Smith being divided between politics, his profession, and his contracts, subjected him to the peculation of his agents, and financial disaster was the result. In 1841 Mr. Smith was elected to Congress over the Hon. Linn Banks, and served in that body until 1843. In December, 1845, he was elected Governor of Virginia for the term of three years, suceceding James McDowell, January 1, 1846. During his term he was an unsuccessful candidate for the United States Senate. In 1850 Governor Smith determined to go to California, where two of his sons were residing. He arrived in San Francisco in May, and engaged in the practice of his profession with much success. His first considerable fee was $3,000 for the examination into the cele- brated Suter title. California was admitted into the Union September 9, 1850.
Governor Smith was returned by San Francisco as its delegate to the Constitutional Convention which met at Benieia in the autumn of 1850, and was unanimously elected the permanent President of the body. In the State Assembly, which convened soon after, Governor Smith was nominated for United States Senator, but was not elected. When, on the 1st of December, 1852, Governor Smith determined to return to Virginia, such had been his success from his practice that he left in San Francisco property acquired therefrom which yielded him an annual rental of $18,000. Upon reaching Virginia, Governor Smith found the people of the State much agitated about a redivision into Congressional Districts, rendered necessary by the Census of 1850. Upon the Legis- lature, then in session, devolved this duty. Under the new apportion- ment Governor Smith was elected to Congress in May, 1853, and served in this body by successive re-election until March 4, 1861. Returning home, he was prostrated by sickness, and confined to his room for two
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months. In the meanwhile the initial movement of our recent lamen- table civil war had been instituted. Governor Smith, feeling that the struggle on the part of the South " would need the employment of every element of its strength " in the contest, was impelled by a sense of duty to enter the army, though in the sixty-fourth year of his age, and " wholly ignorant of drill and tactics." He therefore offered his services to Gov- ernor Letcher, and was promptly commissioned as Colonel and assigned to the command of the 49th Regiment of Virginia Infantry, then being organized, and containing only three companies, with which it inaugu- rated its subsequent long and brilliant career by a gallant participation in the first battle of Manassas. Its first commander thus warnily tes- tifies to its valorous worth : "I will say that, in the numerous bloody fights in which it was engaged, it never broke in battle or gave me the slightest uneasiness or concern as to its conduct." During the summer and autumn it remained in camp at Manassas, completing its organiza- tion and being perfected in drill. During this period Colonel Smith, at the solicitations of his friends, announced himself as a candidate for the Confederate States Congress, and was elected. He attended this body when it convened at Richmond in February, 1862, leaving his regiment in the command of the Lieutenant-Colonel. Upon the adjournment of Congress, on April 16th, he rejoined his command. At the reorganiza- tion of the regiment, May 1st, he was elected its Colonel, upon which he resigned his seat in Congress. He participated with his command in the operations on the Peninsula, about Yorktown, and in those later near Richmond. In the battle of the Seven Pines the loss of the regi- ment was fifty-five per cent. of its number. Of its service here Colonel Smith narrates: " Anderson's brigade, of which my regiment was a part, was ordered to keep on the left of the Williamsburg road, and 'To the front, forward march' was the only order I received during the fight of some hours. In obeying this order we had to encounter a formidable abattis, consisting of heavy felled timber, in which was also a row of rifle pits, and also, on the Williamsburg road, a formidable carth-work-the whole occupied by an enemy whom we could not see until we came into the closest proximity. It was on this occa- sion, upon the complaint of my men that they could not see the foe, that I gave the order to . flush the game,' which excited so much humorous newspaper comment." Colonel Smith effectively participated in the bat- tle of Sharpsburg, Maryland, on the 17th of September, 1862, the 49th Virginia constituting the right of the line in that memorable engage- ment. Colonel Smith was here severely wounded. One of his wounds, through the shoulder, it was feared would prove fatal. Before his wounds were healed he returned to the field, in April, 1863, having been pro- moted to the rank of Brigadier-General, and took command of the 4th Brigade, then lying at Hamilton's Crossing, near Fredericksburg, Va.
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