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[Page 275]
McGuffey, William Holmes, born in Washington county, Pennsylvania,
September 23, 1800. He received his education at Washington College, in that state, at the time
when that institution was distinct from Jefferson College, with which it became amalgamated at a
later time. In his young manhood his parents removed to Trumbull county, Ohio, and immediately
after his graduation, in 1826, he went to that state, and was at once appointed professor of
ancient languages in Miami University, at Oxford. After a period of six years he was transferred
to the chair of moral philosophy. In 1829 he became a regularly licensed minister of the
Presbyterian church, and throughout his life he frequently engaged in preaching in different
churches. In 1836 he was chosen president of Cincinnati College, and three years later (in 1839)
he was called to the same position in the Ohio University. In 1843 he became a professor in the
Woodward high school in Cincinnati. In 1845 he came to the chair of moral philosophy and
political economy in the University of Virginia, which he occupied until his death at
Charlottesville, May 4, 1873. Professor McGuffey came to his widest fame through his series of
Eclectic Readers and Spellers, which were for many years the most popular works in their
department throughout the country, and which passed through several revised and expanded editions
from time to time.
[Pages 275-276]
Foote, Henry Stuart, born in Fauquier county, Virginia, September
20, 1800, son of Richard Helm Foote and Jane Stuart, his wife, daughter of Rev. William Stuart.
He was graduated from Washington College Lexington, Virginia, in the class of 1819, where he had
studied law, was admitted to the bar in 1822, and two years later went to Tuscumbia, Alabama,
where he became the editor of a Democratic newspaper. In 1826 he removed to Jackson, Mississippi,
where his legal practice became an extended one, was prominent in political affairs, and was
chosen a presidential elector in 1844. In 1847 he was chosen a United States senator, as a
Conservative, acted in favor of the compromise measures of 1850, and was chairman of the c
committee on foreign relations. In the fall of 1852 he resigned his seat in the senate, in order
to canvass his state as a candidate of the Whig party for the office of governor, having as his
opponent Jefferson Davis, who had been persuaded to take the place of Gen. John A. Quitman on the
Democratic ticket, when it became a self evident fact that the latter would be defeated. Mr.
Foote was elected, served one term until 1854, then removed to California, but returned to
Mississippi in 1858, and resumed the practice of law, at Vicksburg. In the southern convention at
Knoxville, Tennessee, in May, 1859, he strongly opposed secession, and when the question was
seriously agitated in Mississippi he removed to Tennessee. Subsequently he was elected to the
Confederate congress, in which he was noted for his hostility toward Jefferson Davis, and finally
for his opposition to the continuance of the war. He was in favor of accepting the terms offered
by President Lincoln in 1863 and 1864. After the close of the war he resided for a time in
Washington, D. C., supporting the administration of Gen. Grant, who appointed him superintendent
of the United States mint at New Orleans. A short time prior to his death impaired health obliged
him to resign this office and return to his home near Nashville. Gov. Foote was an able criminal
lawyer, an astute politician and a popular orator, but he had a violent temper, and several times
in the course of his political career he fought duels; two of these were with Sargent S.
Prentiss, one with John A. Winston, and one with John F. H. Claiborne. He also had a personal
encounter with Thomas H. Benton, on the floor of the United States senate. He published "Texas
and the Texans," two volumes, Philadelphia, 1841; "The War of the Rebellion, or Scylla and
Charybdis," New York, 1866; "Bench and Bar of the South and Southwest," St. Louis, 1876; and
"Personal Reminiscences." He died in Nashville, Tennessee, May 20, 1880. He was descended from
Richard Foote, who came to Virginia about 1652, as the agent of his father-in-law, Nicholas
Hayward, a prominent notary of London.
[Pages 276-277]
Seawell, Washington, born in Gloucester county, Virginia, in 1802,
son of John Seawell and Fanny Hobday, his wife. He graduated from the United States Military
Academy in 1825, and as lieutenant was assigned to the Seventh Infantry. From 1832 to 1834 he was
disbursing agent for Indian affairs, and was then assigned to duty as adjutant-general and
aide-de-camp on the staff of Gen. Matthew Arbuckle. In 1836 he was promoted to captain, and saw
service against the Indians. He served in the Mexican war, and was promoted to major of the
Second Infantry, in 1847, with which regiment he was on duty at Monterey, in 1849. He was
promoted to lieutenant-colonel in 1852, and to colonel in 1860. He was retired from active
service February 20, 1862, on account of disability resulting from exposure in the line of duty.
He was chief mustering and disbursing officer of the state of Kentucky, from March, 1862, to
September, 1863, and then of the department of the Pacific. He was acting assistant
provost-marshal at San Francisco from November, 1865, to June, 1866. In 1865 he was brevetted
brigadier-general, for long and faithful service. He had lived on the Pacific coast since 1864,
and owned one of the largest ranches in the state of California, in Sonoma county. He died in San
Francisco, January 9, 1888, being at that time next to the oldest general officer on the retired
list of the army, His brother, John B. Seawell, was a distinguished lawyer of Virginia, and
married Maria Henry Tyler, sister of President Tyler.
[Page 277]
Cocke, William, born in Amelia county, Virginia, about 1740, son
of Abraham Cocke. He received an English education, and began the practice of law. After serving
in the Virginia legislature and as colonel of militia, he went to Tennessee, where he became
brigadier-general of militia. When Tennessee was admitted into the Union in 1796, he and William
Blunt were elected as its first United States senators, Cocke serving from December 5, 1796, till
1797, and again from 1799 till March 3, 1805. He was a member of the legislature in 1813, a judge
of the circuit court, and in 1814 was appointed by President Madison as Indian agent for the
Chickasaw nation. He died in Columbus, Mississippi, August 22, 1828, in the eighty-first year of
his age.
[Page 277]
Darke, William, born in Philadelphia county, Pennsylvania, in
1736; he was reared and educated in Virginia, his parents removing thither when he was four years
of age, and when he attained the age of nineteen years he joined the army, and was with Gen.
Braddock at his defeat in 1755. During the early part of the revolutionary war, he was promoted
to the rank of captain, and later became colonel, commanding the Hampshire and Berkeley regiments
at the capture of Cornwallis, and at the battle of Germantown, while serving as captain, was
taken prisoner. He was commissioned lieutenant colonel in a regiment of levies, in 1791,
commanded the left wing of St. Clair's army at its defeat by the Miami Indians on November 4,
1791, being severely wounded, narrowly escaping death, and was subsequently appointed
major-general of Virginia militia. He was frequently chosen as a member of the Virginia
legislature, and in the convention of 1788 voted for the Federal constitution. He died in
Jefferson county, Virginia, November 26, 1801.
[Pages 277-278]
Dickins, John, born in London, England, August 24, 1747; he
acquired an excellent education, being a student for a portion of the time at Eton, and prior to
the revolutionary war he emigrated to the New World, locating in Virginia, where he united with
the Methodist church in the year 1774, and two years later preached there as an evangelist, was
admitted into the itinerant ministry in 1777, and labored in North Carolina. In 1780 he suggested
to Bishop Asbury the plan of Cokesbury College, New Abingdon, Maryland, the first Methodist
academic institution in this country. During the years 1783-85-86-89, he resided in New York
City, then removed to the city of Philadelphia, where he published a Methodist hymn-book,
printing the greater part of it with his own hands, and shortly afterward the conference assumed
the publication, and appointed him book-steward, and in this office he founded the Methodist book
concern. He issued the "Arminian Magazine" in Philadelphia in 1789-90, and the "Methodist
Magazine" from 1797 until his death, which occurred in Philadelphia, September 27, 1798. Mr.
Dickins was the first American preacher to receive Thomas Coke and approve his scheme for
organizing the Methodist denomination, and he was a member of the "Christmas conference" of 1784,
and suggested the name "Methodist Episcopal Church" which it adopted. Mr. Dickins was a powerful
preacher and one of the best scholars of his church at the time of his ministry, and a sermon in
his memory was delivered by the Rev. Ezekiel Cooper and afterward published (Philadelphia, 1799).
During the yellow fever epidemics in Philadelphia during the years 1793, 1797, 1879, he remained
at his post, in the latter named year falling a victim to the disease.
[Page 278]
Francisco, Peter, was brought to Virginia as a child, by a sea
captain, who left him upon the wharf at City Point, friendless and alone. After some days he was
taken in charge by the parish authorities, who bound him out to Anthony Winston (an uncle of
Patrick Henry), who resided on his estate "Hunting Tower," in Buckingham county. His name and
dark complexion led the common surmise that he was of Portugese origin. His immense physical
strength, even as a boy, attracted attention, and his honest and frankness won the respect and
confidence of his master. In the fall of 1776, at the age of sixteen, he joined the Tenth
Virginia Regiment. He was now a sturdy youth, six feet one inch in height, two hundred and sixty
pounds in weight, and exceedingly muscular and active. His son said of him: "He could take with
his two arms two men weight one hundred and sixty pounds each, by their legs, and at arms-length
raise them to the ceiling; and he told me that he had shouldered a cannon weighing eleven hundred
pounds. An ordinary sword being too short and light for him. Gen. Washington ordered one to be
made for him at a blacksmith shop six feet from hilt to point, which he could wield as a
feather." He was passionately devoted to the cause which he had made his own, and there is no
such picturesque figure in the whole continental line as Peter Francisco. He fought in the
battles of Brandywine, Germantown and Monmouth. At the storming of Stony Point, he was the second
man to enter the fort, only preceded by Lieut. James Gibbons, of Virginia. He was wounded several
times, and killed several British soldiers. After his term of service had ended, he returned to
Virginia, and enlisted in a cavalry troop, and fought under Gates and Greene, and was at the
surrender of Lord Cornwallis, at Yorktown. After the war, he kept a tavern at "new Store,"
Buckingham county, Virginia, and for many years was sergeant-at-arms of the house of delegates.
He married (first) Mary Anderson; (second) Catherine Fauntleroy Brooke; and (third) Mary B.
(Grymes) West, a widow. He died, in Richmond, Virginia, in January, 1831, and the house of
delegates paid him the honor of a public funeral. His portrait hangs in the State Library in
Richmond.
[Page 278]
Stuart, John, son of David Stuart and Margaret Lynn, his wife. He
was engaged by John Lewis in locating land in West Virginia, and settled on the Greenbrier river.
He was frequently engaged in the Indian wars. He was a member of the house of delegates during
the revolutionary war, and for more than a quarter of a century was county clerk. He was also
county lieutenant of Greenbrier county, and in 1788 was a member of the state convention called
to pass upon the Federal constitution, and voted for its adoption. He married Agatha, widow of
John Frogg, of Augusta, and daughter of Thomas Lewis, son of John Lewis.
[Page 279]
Washington, William, born in Stafford county, Virginia, February
28, 1752, son of Bailey Washington and Catherine Storke, his wife. He was intended for the
church, and received a much more careful education than his great kinsman, George Washington. At
the outbreak of the revolution he was a young man of twenty-four. If he had intended to be a
clergyman, he soon abandoned that idea, and early in the war was commissioned captain in the
Third Regiment Virginia line, and had under him as a lieutenant, James Monroe, a future President
of the United States. He was with Washington at New York, and was severely wounded at the battle
of Long Island. He was with the army in the retreat through New Jersey, and at the battle of
Trenton led a daring charge upon a battery, capturing the guns, but receiving a severe wound.
Later he was transferred to the dragoons, and promoted to major. Joining Gen. Lincoln's army in
the South, he was given command of a regiment. He defeated the British cavalry leader, Tarleton,
and was surprised by him in turn. At the Cowpens he led a daring charge at a critical leader,
Tarleton, and was surprised by him in turn. At the Cowpens he led a daring charge at a critical
moment, and worsted Tarleton in a hand to hand encounter. For his gallantry he received the
congressional medal. At the battle of Eutaw Springs in 1781 he was unhorsed, wounded and taken
prisoner. After the war he married a Miss Elliott, of Charleston, South Carolina, and removed to
that city; was elected to the legislature, and put forward as a candidate for governor; he
declined the latter nomination because, as he declared he "could not make a speech." When Gen.
George Washington accepted the position of commander-in-chief of the army under President Adams,
he called Col. Washington to his staff as an aide, with the rank of brigadier-general. Gen.
William Washington died July 19, 1798, "leaving behind him an unsullied reputation, an amiable
temper, lively manner, a hospitable disposition, and a truly benevolent heart."
[Page 279]
Deuxponts, William, born June 18,1754; became lieutenant-colonel
of the regiment commanded by his brother, Christian Deuxponts, October 2, 1779, and was wounded
in the attack on the redoubt at Yorktown, October 14, 1781, and for his services there was made
by the King of France a chevalier of the military order of St. Louis, and was mentioned
particularly in Baron Viomesnil's report to Gen. Rochambeau. he afterward held the honorable post
of commander of the palace guard at the Bavarian court. Col. Trumbull's painting of the surrender
of Gen. Cornwallis, in the rotunda of the capitol at Washington, D. C., contains a portrait of
Count des Deuxponts. He left in manuscript "Mes campagnes d' Amerique," which was fond on a Paris
book-stall in 1867 by Dr. Samuel Abbot Green, and published by him, with an English translation
and notes (Boston, 1868).
[Pages 279-280]
Todd, Thomas, born in King and Queen county, Virginia, January 23,
1765, son of Richard Todd and Elizabeth Richards, his wife. He was orphaned in childhood and
gained an education with difficulty. In 1781, at the age of sixteen, he joined the army, at the
time of the British invasion by Gens. Phillips and Arnold, serving six months. He then entered
Liberty Hall Academy, and graduated when eighteen years old, in 1783. In the summer of that year
he went to Bedford county, Virginia, and lived in the family of his cousin, Judge Harry Innes,
and in the following spring went to Kentucky and engaged in law practice at Danville. He was
secretary of the ten conventions, from 1784 to 1792, looking to the formation of the state of
Kentucky; was clerk of the Federal court for the district of Kentucky; was the first clerk of its
court of appeals; judge of the court of appeals in 1801; and chief justice in 1806. In 1807 he
was appointed a judge of the United States supreme court, holding court twice a year each in
Nashville, Frankfort and Chillicothe, and six winter months in Washington City, occupying that
position until his death, at his home in Frankfort, Kentucky, February 9, 1826. His chief
judicial labors were in adjudications under the land laws, involving many disputes as to title.
He was father of Charles S. Todd, appointed minister to Russia in 1841. (For Todd family see
"Virginia Magazine of History and Biography," vol. iii, p. 80, and "William and Mary Quarterly,"
xxi, 203).
[Page 280]
Daviess, Joseph Hamilton, born in Bedford county, Virginia, March
4, 1774, son of Joseph and Jean Daviess; his parents removed to Lincoln county, Kentucky, when he
was five years of age, subsequently removed to the vicinity of Danville, and Joseph H. received
his education in an academy at Harrodsburg, this knowledge being supplemented by a wide course of
reading. For six months during the year 1793 he served as a volunteer in the Indian campaign,
after which he studied at law, and two years later was admitted to the bar. He began the active
practice of his profession in Danville, and gained a high position at the bar, usually appearing
in court in a hunting costume. In 1799 he acted as second to John Rowan in a duel in which
Rowan's antagonist was killed, when both principals and seconds fled to avoid prosecution; after
being a fugitive for some time, hearing that Rowan had been arrested, Mr. Daviess returned and
appeared in court as his counsel, secured his acquittal. Later he became United States attorney
for Kentucky, in which capacity, on November 3, 1806, he moved for an order requiring Aaron Burr
to appear and answer to a charge of levying war against a nation with which the United States was
at peace. Burr boldly courted investigation, but the witnesses upon whom the prosecution relied
could not be brought into court, and it was impossible to sustain the charges. This event almost
entirely destroyed the popularity of Mr. Daviess, which even the subsequent revelation of Aaron
Burr's plot could not fully restore. He joined the army of Genl William H. Harrison as major of
Kentucky volunteer dragoons, in 1811, served in the campaign against the Northwestern Indians,
and led a cavalry charge against the savages at the battle of Tippecanoe, November 7, 1811, which
was successful, but he fell, shot through the breast. Counties in the states of Indiana,
Illinois, Kentucky and Missouri have been named in his honor. He published "A View of the
President's Conduct Concerning the Conspiracy of 1806" (1807). Mr. Daviess married a sister of
Chief Justice Marshall.
[Pages 280-281]
Clayton, Augustine Smith, born in Fredericksburg, November 27,
1783, son of Philip Clayton, of Culpeper county, Virginia. Soon after his birth his parents
removed to Georgia, and he graduated at the University of Georgia in 1804. He was admitted to the
bar, was elected to the state legislature, and in 1810 appointed to compile the statutes of
Georgia from 1800. In 1819 he was elected judge of the superior court of the western circuit, an
office which he retained until 1825, and again from 1828 till 1831. during his last term occurred
the difficulties between the state of Georgia and the Cherokee Indians, resulting in the
expatriation of the latter. In 1829 the legislature brought the Cherokee territory within the
jurisdiction of Georgia, and this action of the state authorities was sustained by Judge Clayton,
though eventually the United States supreme court decided against its legality, and ruled that
the Cherokee nation was not subject to the state laws that had been imposed upon it. Judge
Clayton, however, was not in perfect accord with the legislature as to Indian rights, holding
that they were entitled to dig gold on lands to which their stipulated title had not been
extinguished; and for thus opposing the policy of the state he was removed from his judicial
office. In 1831 he was elected to congress, where he took a leading part in debates on the tariff
and the United States bank, both of which he opposed. he served two terms in congress, and after
his retirement in 1835 held no public office excepting the trusteeship of the University of
Georgia. He was a presidential elector in 1829. His attitude towards Christianity for many years
was one of doubt, but at the time of his death he was a member of the Methodist Episcopal church.
He was reputed to be the author of the political pamphlet called "Crockett's Life of Van Buren."
He died at Athens, Georgia, June 21, 1839.
[Page 281]
Warrell, James, was an Englishmen. In 1804 he taught dancing in
Petersburg. At one time he was proprietor of the Richmond Museum. He painted portraits, and
probably landscapes. Among portraits painted by him are those of John Tyler (father of President
John Tyler), now in the library of William and Mary College, Williamsburg; and of Washington and
Lafayette, hanging in the council chamber at Richmond.
[Page 281]
Cleland, Thomas, born in Fairfax county, Virginia, May 22, 1778;
removed to Marion county, Kentucky, in 1789. He as an exhorter during the revival of 1801, and
being urged to become a preacher by the presbytery of Transylvania, was licensed April 14, 1803,
and became pastor of a church in Washington county. In 1813 he was settled over the churches of
New Providence and Cane Run, now Harrodsburg. He published a hymn-gook for prayer meetings and
revivals, and tracts directed against the Campbellites and New-lights, entitled "Letters on
Campbellism," "The Socini-Arian Detected" (1815), and "Unitarianism Unmasked" (1825). He died
January 31, 1858.
[Pages 281-282]
Dagg, John L., born at Middleburg, Loudoun county, Virginia,
February 13, 1794; was ordained tot he Baptist ministry in 1817, preached for a number of years
in his native state, removing to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in the year 1825, where he was
appointed pastor of the Fifth Baptist Church and so served for eight years, at the expiration of
which time he resigned from the ministry owing to trouble with his throat. He then turned his
attention to the profession of teaching and to authorship, in 1836 accepting charge of the
Alabama Female Athenæum in Tuscaloosa, and eight years later was appointed president of
Mercer University at Penfield, Georgia, where for a period of twelve years he performed his
duties satisfactorily and in addition gave instruction in theology, resigning from the presidency
in 1856. His published works are: "Manual of Theology;" "Treatise of Church Order;" "Elements of
Moral science;" "Evidences of Christianity;" and several pamphlets including "The More Excellent
Way;" "An Interpretation of John iii.:5;" "An Essay in Defence of Strict Communion," and "A
Decisive Argument against Infant Baptism, furnished by One of its Own Proof-Texts."
[Page 282]
Cobbs, Nicholas Hamner, born in Bedford county, Virginia, February
5, 1796, son of John Lewis Cobbs and Susanna Hamner, his wife, daughter of Nicholas Hamner, of
Albemarle county, Virginia. While studying for the ministry in the Episcopal church he was
engaged in teaching for several years. He was ordained deacon in Staunton, Virginia, in May,
1824, by the Rt. Rev. R. C. Moore, D. D., and priest the next year, in Richmond, Virginia, by the
same bishop. He performed pastoral work in his native county for fifteen years. In 1839 he became
rector of St. Paul's Church, Cincinnati, Ohio. In 1844 he was elected bishop of Alabama
the first to preside over that diocese, and was consecrated in Philadelphia, October 20, 1844. He
was a faithful overseer of the work committed to him, and his memory is preserved in a noble
charity in Montgomery, bearing the name of the Bishop Cobbs Homes for Orphans. He published a few
sermons and addresses. He died at Montgomery, Alabama, January 11, 1861. He was descended from
Ambrose Cobbs, of York county, Virginia, who patented lands in 1639.
[Page 282]
Chandler, Reuben, born in Randolph county, Virginia, July 15,
1799. He received an academic education in Virginia, and then removed to Alabama, settling in
Somerville, Morgan county, where he practiced law. For many years he was a member of the state
legislature, and subsequently was elected as a Democrat to congress, serving from December 7,
1835, till March 3, 1847. He was then elected governor of his state, and held that office until
1849, after which he retired to private life in Huntsville For many years he continued to be
consulted on matters of political importance, and was a delegate to the national Democratic
conventions of Cincinnati in 1856, of Charleston in 1860, and of New York in 1868. He died in
Huntsville, Alabama, May 17, 1882.
[Pages 282-283]
Colquitt, Walter T., born in Halifax county, Virginia, December
27, 1799; he removed with his parents to Georgia. He entered Princeton college, but was not
graduated; studied law in Milledgeville, Georgia, was admitted to the bar in 1820, and began
practice at Sparta, afterwards removing to Cowpens. When twenty-one years old he was elected
brigadier-general of militia. He became prominent in 1826 by contesting the district as the Troup
candidate for congress against Lumpkin, the Clark candidate, who was elected by thirty-two
majority. The same year he was elected judge of the Chattahoochee circuit, and was reëlected
in 1829. In 1834 and 1837 he was a state senator. In 1838 he was elected to congress as a states
rights Whig, and took his seat December 2, 1839, but, having left the party with two colleagues
after the nomination of Harrison for President, he resigned, July 21, 1840. He was again elected
to congress as a Van Buren Democrat, serving from February 1, 1842, till March 3, 1843, and was
then elected to the United States senate, serving from December 4, 1843, till he resigned in
1848. He supported President Polk in the Oregon controversy, and throughout the Mexican war was a
prominent opponent of the Wilmot proviso. he was an earnest speaker in the Nashville convention
in 1850 in defence of the rights of the South. He was licensed as a Methodist preacher in 1827,
and even during the turmoil of a most exciting political career, was in the habit of officiating
at the Methodist churches. He was one of the most successful lawyers in the state, and in
criminal practice had no rival. he died in Macon, Georgia, May 78, 1855.
[Page 283]
Fleming, Thomas, born in Goochland county, Virginia, in 1727, son
of Col. John Fleming and Mary Bolling, his wife. He was in command of two hundred backwoodsmen in
the battle of Point Pleasant against the Indians in 1774 he concealed his men behind trees and
had them hold out their hats. As the Indians rushed forward to scalp their supposed victims, who
tomahawked their assailants. After leading his men gallantly in two onrushes, Fleming was
severely wounded, one ball passing through his arm and another through his breast. In March,
1776, he was commissioned colonel of the Ninth Virginia Regiment, but died from his former
exposures in August of the same year.
[Pages 283-284]
Henderson, Richard, born in Hanover county, Virginia, in 1734. His
parents were poor and unable to give him an education, and he could neither read nor write until
he was grown to manhood, but served as constable and under sheriff. In 1762 he went to North
Carolina, where he studied law, was admitted to the bar, and in 1769 was made an associate judge
of the superior court. In 1770 public feeling ran high on account of the excessive taxation
enforced under Gov. Tryon, and a mob assailed him in the court room and forced him from the
bench. After the revolutionary war, and when order was restored, Henderson was reëlected
judge, but would not qualify, having formed the Transylvania Land Company, for the purpose of
acquiring large tracts of the public domain. In effecting this purpose he negotiated "the Watoga
Treaty" with the chiefs of the Cherokee Indians, by which the company came into possession of all
the lands lying between the Cumberland river, the Cumberland mountains, and the Kentucky river
a territory larger than the present state of Kentucky and was named Transylvania,
with Boonesborough as its capital. Among the members of the company were Daniel Boone, Richard
Calloway, John Floyd, James Harrod and Thomas Slaughter, and they formed a most comprehensive and
equitable system of government. However, Henderson's purchase was subsequently annulled by
Virginia, as an infringement of her chartered rights; but, to compensate the settlers, the
legislature granted to them a tract twelve miles square on the Ohio river, below the mouth of the
Greene river. In 1779 Judge Henderson and four others were appointed commissioners to run the
boundary line between Virginia and North Carolina, into Powell's valley. He now removed to
Tennessee, and engaged in law practice in Nashville. In 1780 he returned to North Carolina, and
settled down upon his farm. He died in Hillsborough, North Carolina, January 30, 1785. A son,
Archibald, became a distinguished lawyer in North Carolina, and a member of congress from that
state; another son, Leonard, became chief justice of North Carolina.
[Page 284]
Henderson, Pleasant, born in Hanover county, Virginia, January 9,
1756, brother of Richard Henderson (q. v.). He served in the revolution army, and at the close of
the war was major of Col. Malmedy's mounted corps. He studied law, and in 1789 became clerk of
the house of commons of North Carolina. He finally removed to Tennessee, and died at Huntington,
that state, December 10, 1842.
[Page 284]
Farrow, Samuel, born in Virginia, about 1759. He was a youth when
his parents removed to Spartanburg district, South Carolina. he was one of a company of scouts in
the revolutionary war, was wounded in a skirmish and took part in the battle of Musgrove's Mills.
He was captured by the British, with his two brothers, and they regained their freedom by their
mother (a daughter of Col. Philemon Waters), delivering to their captors six British prisoners;
she took great pleasure in this achievement, boasting that she had made a good bargain, having
beat the British four to one. After the war, Farrow studied law, was admitted to the bar, and
practiced in Spartanburgh. In 1810 he was elected lieutenant-governor of South Carolina, and
later was elected to congress as a Republican, serving in the session of 1813-15. he was
reëlected, but soon resigned, preferring service in the house of representatives of his
state, of which he was a member from 1816 to 1821, when he retired to private life. The
establishment of the South Carolina lunatic and deaf and dumb asylums was chiefly due to his
efforts. he died in Columbia, South Carolina, in November, 1824.
[Page 284]
Franklin, Jesse, born in Orange county, Virginia, March 24, 1760.
When he was fifteen years old his family removed to North Carolina. He served in the
revolutionary war, rising to the rank of major; was a member of the house of delegates three
terms, and a state senator one term; member of congress, 1795-97; United States senator,
1799-1805, and again 1807-13, a part of the time acting as president pro tem. of that
body. In 1816 the President appointed him a commissioner to treat with the Chickasaw Indians. In
1820 he was elected governor of North Carolina. He died in Surry county, North Carolina, in
September, 1823.
[Pages 284-285]
Peyton, John Howe, was born in Stafford county, Virginia, April 3,
1778, son of John N. Peyton, who was descended from Henry Peyton, of Lincoln's Inn, London, whose
son Valentine came to Westmoreland county, about 1650. He graduated at Princeton in 1797,
admitted to the bar in 1709, and established a reputation as a criminal lawyer. He served many
years in the legislature, and was the author of a series of revolutions upon the attitude of the
state of Pennsylvania with reference to an amendment of the constitution of the United States
that provided a tribunal for setting disputes between the state and the Federal judiciary, of
which resolutions Daniel Webster said: "They are so conclusive of the question that they admit of
no further discussion." He was prosecuting attorney for the Augusta district in 1808-09. During
the war of 1812 he was major of militia, and served till 1815. He then became deputy United
States attorney for the western district of Virginia, and declined a nomination to congress in
1820 and a judgship in 1824. He was in the state senate in 1836-44, at which date he fell from
his horse and received an injury that compelled his retirement from public life. In 1840 he was
appointed a visitor to the United States Military Academy, and he wrote the report of that year.
For ten years he was president of the board of directors of the Western Virginia Lunatic Asylum.
Mr. Peyton was an active member of the Whig party, opposed nullification and secession, and
favored all schemes for internal improvements and public education. He won a brilliant reputation
at the bar. He died in Staunton, Virginia, April 3, 1847.