Page:Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography volume 2.djvu/304

 PROMINENT PERSONS

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was sought both by the southern rights and the Union party ; but he favored neither side of the question that then agitated the south- ern states, and in 1851 was renominated and elected without a regular nomination. At the expiration of his second term of office ho retired to private life, and died at Bailey's Springs, Lauderdale county, Alabama, Au- gust 28. 1855.

Jeter, Jeremiah, born in Bedford county, Virginia. July 18, 1802. He commenced preaching when he was twenty years old, and was ordained a Baptist minister in 1824, r.nd, in turn, served churches in Bedford, Sussex and Campbell counties, in the city of Richmond and in St. Louis, Missouri. He was made president and a trustee of Richmond (Virginia) College, at its organ- ization in 1840, and was first president of the foreign missions board of his church, and later was president of the board of trus- tees of the Louisville Theological Seminary. Under the board of missions he went to Italy to superintend mission work in 1865, and established a chapel in Rome. He was chief editor of the Richmond "Religious Herald, and author of numerous biograph- ical and other works. He was a principal compiler of 'The Psalmist, which was gen- erally adopted by the churches of the United States. Canada and England. He died Feb- ruary 25. 1880.

Mason, Clement R., born in Chesterfield county. Virginia, about 1803, of poor par- ents; he was early thrown upon his own resources, and without the advantages of education. In 1861 he recruited a company for the Fifty-second Virginia Regiment, but his services were called for in another'capac- ity. He was commissioned quartermaster,

with the rank of captain; was employed by Gen. "Stonewair* Jackson in constructing roads and bridges, in which work he dis- played masterly ability, and was promoted t(* lieutenant-colonel. After the war he turned his attention to railroad construction, and built a large part of the Chesapeake & Ohio road. By a mental process peculiar to himself, he made the most intricate calcula- tions in mensuration. He accumulated sev- eral fortunes, and lost nearly all through his generosity. He died in January, 1885, ^ged about eighty-two years.

Dupuy, Eliza Ann, born at Petersburg, \'irginia, about 1814. descended from Abraham Dupuy, who settled with other French Huguenots at Manakintown, above Richmond, in 1700, and of Col. Joel Stur- devant, of the revolution. Her father, a mer- chant and ship owner of Norfolk, Virginia, moved to Kentucky, where she wrote her first novel, "Meeton. a Tale of the Revolu- tion." She became governess in a family at Natchez, Mississippi, and while there wrote her story of Aaron Burr, under title of 'The Conspirator," and its success impelled her to give herself entirely to literary work, and she produced many volumes, among them •The Planter's Daughter,*' *The Separa- tion. *The Divorce, ** Florence, or the Fatal Vow." "Ashleigh. a Tale of the Revo- lution," *The Huguenot Refugees." Most of her work was of the sensational order, and included writings under contract for the "New York Ledger." She died at New Or- leans, Louisiana, in January, 1881.

Baldwin, Joseph Glover, born near Win- chester, Virginia, in January, 1815. He had little opportunity for education, and was in large degree self-taught. He did secretarial

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