Page:Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography volume 2.djvu/230

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twenty-two years professor in the Theo- logical Seminary of Hampden-Sidney. Dr. Alexander died October 22, 1851.

Bracken, John, was a clergyman, and master of the grammar school in William and Mary College in November, 1775, serv- ing until the grammar school was substi- tuted in December, 1779, by a school of modern languages of which Charles Bellini was professor. At the Episcopal conven- tion in May, 1786, in Richmond, Bracken leceived ten votes for bishop. He was for many years pastor of Bruton parish church in Williamsburg. At a meeting held July 20, 1790. by the directors of the hospital for the maintenance and cure of persons of un- sound minds in Williamsburg (the oldest insane asylum in the United States, estab- lished 1768). Dr. Bracken was made presi- dent to succeed James Madison, then in England seeking consecration as bishop. In 1792 he became professor of "humanity" in William and Mary College: on Madison's death in 1812 became president, and in 1814 was elected bishop of the Episcopal church, an otifice which he declined the following year, probably on account of failing health. He died July 15, 1818.

Dale, Samuel, was born in Rockbridge county. Virginia, in 1772, died in Lauder- dale county, Mississippi, May 24, 1841. His parents were Pennsylvanians of Scotch- Irish extraction. Samuel went with them >" ^775 to the forks of Clinch river, Vir- ginia, and in 1783 to the vicinity of the present town of Greensborough, Georgia. In both of these places the family lived with others in a stockade, being exposed to fre- quent attacks from Indians, and young Dale thus became familiar with savage warfare.

After the death of his parents in 1791 he enlisted in 1793 ^s a scout in the service of the United States and soon became a fam- ous Indian fighter, being known as "Big Sam." He commanded a battalion of Ken- tucky volunteers against the Creeks in Feb- ruary, 1814, and in December carried de- spatches for Gen. Jackson froiri Georgia to New Orleans in eight days with only one horse. After the war he became a trader al Dale's Ferry, Alabama, was appointed colonel of militia, held various local offices, and was a delegate in 1816 to the conven- tion that divided the territory of Mississippi. He was a member of the first general as- sembly of Alabama territory in 1817, of the state legislature in 1819-20 and 1824-28, and of that of Mississippi in 1836. In 1821 he was one of a commission to locate a public road from Tuscaloosa through Pensacola to Blakely and Fort Claiborne, and on the completion of his duty, was made brigadier- general by the Alabama legislature and given a life pension. In 1831 he wcs ap- pointed by the secretary of war, together with Col. George S. Gaines, to remove the Choctaw Indians to their new home on the Arkansas and Red rivers. (See **Life and Times of Gen. Sam. Dale,'* from notes of his own conversation, by John F. H. Clai- borne, Xew York. i860).

Blackburn, Gideon, was born in Augusta county, Virginia. August 2^. 1772; he was a nephew of Gen. Samuel Blackburn. His parents removed to East Tennessee, and he was placed under the instruction of the Rev. Mr. Doak. He was' licensed to preach by the Abingdon Presbytery between 1792 and 1795, and with his Bible, hymn book, knapsack and rifle, plunged into the wilder-

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