Page:Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography volume 2.djvu/269

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VIRGINIA BIOGRAPHY

came president, and the college achieved a degree of prosperity never previously known. In 1840 the number of students in attendance was one hundred and forty. His "Lectures on the Restrictive System," de- picting the evils of the tariff system, were very popular, not only with his students, but with the Southern public, and had much weight in shaping opposition to the tariff laws of 1828 and 1832. His essay in favor of slavery had a marked effect. His great- est work was his "Digest of the Laws, Cus- toms. Manners, and Institutions of Ancient and Modern Nations," embracing lectures delivered to his class. Dr. Dew contributed largely to the "Southern Review." In 1845 he married Natilia Hay, daughter of Dr. Hay. of Clarke county, Virginia' and died suddenly on his wedding trip. The faculty formally bore 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 admired." He died in Paris, France, August 6, 1846.

Foe, Edgar Allan, was born in Boston, Massachusetts, January 19, 1809, son of David and Elizabeth (Arnold) Poe. His grandfather, David Poe, fought in the revo- lutionary and 181 2 wars, and his father, who had been educated for the law, had become an actor, married an actress, and was play-, ing in Boston, when Edgar Allan, his sec- ond son, was born. His parents died when he was but two years old, and John Allan, a wealthy merchant of Richmond, adopted him. He attended school at Stoke Newing- ton, England, and a private school in Rich- mond, Virginia, and entered the University of Virginia. February 14, 1826. He remain-

ed there but one year, worked in Mr. Allan's counting room a few months, and in 1827 went to Boston, where at the age of eighteen he published his first volume of poems, which he later attempted to destroy. When his money was gone, he enlisted in the army, May 6, 1828, as Edgar A. Perr>% He was advanced from private to the rank of sergeant-major in less than nine months, and when Mr. Allan learned where he was he furnished a substitute and had Poe ap- pointed to the United States Military Acad- emy. July I, 1830. Poe found the life dis- tJisteful to him. and Mr. Allan, refusing to allow him to resign, he succeeded in being cashiered in 1831. In 1829 he had published a second edition of his poems under a new title, and in 1831 he published a third vol- ume, dedicated to his fellow students. Mr. Allan's anger at the Military Academy dis- grace caused Poe to leave his home and go to Baltimore, where he took up literature as a profession, turning his attention to prose. His first story, published in the "Saturday Visitor," in 1833, won him the $100 prize offered by that paper. He be- came editor of the '^Southern Literary Mes- senger" of Richmond in 1835, and here he began to show the peculiar, mystical side of his writings and his ability and fearlessness as a critic. He became editor of "Graham's Magazine" in 1836 and in the same year was married to his young cousin, Virginia Clemm. He was made associate editor of the "Gentleman's Magazine" in 1839, and in 1841, when this was merged into "Gra- ham's Magazine," became editor. It was at this time that he published his theories in regard to cryptography, and demonstrated them by solving a hundred miscellaneous specimens that were sent to him by his con-

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