Page:Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography volume 2.djvu/285

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VIRGINIA BIOGRAPHY

with the iUness which resulted in his death. He was the author of "The War and Its Close" ( Richmond. 18^)4 ». He died in Rich- mond, X'irginia, October 2/, 1880.

Bittlc, David Frederick, born near Myers- viile. Frederick county, Maryland, in Janu- ary, ic<ii, son of Thomas and Mary Dittle. lie was graduated from Pennsylvania Col- lege at Gettysburg, and studied for two years in the Theological Seminary at that place. After occupying several pastorates, in 1842, at Mt. Tabor, Augusta county, X'ir- ginia. he aided in establishing the \irginia Collegiate Institute. Removed to Salem, Roanoke county, in 1847, i^ ^^'^^ erected into Roanoke College, with Dr. Uitlle as the tirst president. In 1861, of its one hundred and eighteen students, all except seventeen en- tered the Confederate army, but Ur. Dittle kept the institution open. During the twen- ty-three years of his presidency, he placed the institution on a substantial basis. He died September 25. 1876.

Coleman, Frederick W., well known to the past generation as "Old Fred," was born in Caroline county. X'irginia, in 181 1, son of Thomas I). Coleman and Elizabeth Coghill, his wife; attended common schools, then entered University of Virginia, was a stu- dent from 1832 to 1834, receiving the degree of Master of Arts; founded the Concord Academy, in Caroline county, Virginia, this being among the best ot the private high schools of Virginia, and to this came many representative youths from the South ; the knowledge of the ancient classics was taught to the fullest degree, and from it went forth some of the most notable scholars which the South has produced: there were but few rules in the school, except that every pupil

was expected to be a gentleman and to know his lesson, and there was no excuse for any breach of these rules; the result was that its scholars took high rank wherever they went, and not since Dr. Arnold, at Rugby, was there greater interest and pride shown between master and scholars than existed between the head of this academy and the men whom he taught; many stories arc told ol the rare method of teaching in this school ; the principal was for years a mem- ber of the stale senate, and he would return liome unexpectedly, at night or in the day, and the schoi.»l we>uld be brought up, and every member oi it had to give an account ot what had been done in his absence, how much Latin and Greek had been construed, generally with the result of mutual satis- faction on the part of all concerned. After fifteen years Coleman closed his school and retired to his home, where he died in iS(»8; the school was continued by his nephew, Col. Lewis Minor Coleman, and Col. Hilary l\ Jones, having been moved to the adjoin- ing county of Hanover, where its name was changed to that of the Hanover Academy.

Gamett, Theodore S., Sr., who occupied a I»rominent position in the South as a rail- road man and civil engineer, was born at vember 12, 1812, son of James Mercer and Mary Eleanor Dick (Mercer) Garnett; was educated under private tutors, in Rumford Academy, King William county, and the I'niversity of Virginia, which he entered in 1S28. but was compelled to leave during the session of 1829 on account of the illness of bis brother Charles: after devoting himself to farming in Mason county, near Point Pleasant, for a few years, he began the study
 * 'Elmwood.'* Essex county. Virginia, No-

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