Page:Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography volume 2.djvu/376

 PROMINENT PERSONS

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tm principal of an academy. In 18191 he made a missionary tour in Virginia, and was chap- lain of Hampden-Sidney for a year. In 182J he held a charge in Cartersville, Vir- ginia, and 1824 was made pastor ol the churches of Bird and Providence, in Gooch- land county, Virginia, where he served un- til his death. He published a series of articles in the "Southern Religious Tele- graph"' on "Baptism," and "Sketches of Church History from the Birth of Christ to the Nineteenth Century," both of which afterward appeared in book-form. He died in Goochland county, Virginia, April 29, 1842.

Noble, James, born in Battletown, Fred- erick county, Virginia, about 1790. In youth he moved to Kentucky, but finally located in Indiana, where he acquired a good education through self-study and read- ing. He was one of the first United States senators sent from Indiana, serving from December 12, 18 16, until his death in Wash- ington. D. C. February 26, 1831.

Spencer, Pitman Curtius, born in Char- lotte county. Virginia, in 1790: graduated at the medical department of the University cl Pennsylvania in 1818, and settling in Not- tcway county. Virginia, practiced there for fifteen years, after which he went to Eu- rope to pursue his studies. On his return he settled in Petersburg, and devoted himself to surgery. He was a successful litho- tomist. and claimed to be the first to practice this branch of surgery in this country. He died in Petersburg. Virginia, in February, 1S61.

MacRea, William, born in 1767; in 1791 was apix>inted from Virginia lieutenant of

levies, and was wounded at Gen. Arthur St. Clair's defeat by the Miami Indians, No- vember 4, 1791. He became captain in De- cember, 1794, was transferred to the artil- lery in June, 1798; and promoted to major, Second Regiment of artillerists and engi- neers, July 31, 1800, and lieutenant-colonel, April 19, 1814. He was brevetted colonel "for ten years* faithful service,'* April 19, 1824. He died near Shawneetown, Illinois, November 3, 1832. *

Mosby, Mary Webster, born in Henrico county, Virginia, in April, 1791. Left an orphan, she was adopted by her paternal grandfather, Robert Pleasants, a Quaker planter who had set free more than a hun- dred slaves. She was educated at a Friends' school, and married John Garland Mosby. She wrote for magazines over the signa- ture of "M. M. Webster," and published "Pocahontas,'' treating of the legend of the Indian heroine, from whom, through her maternal grandfather, Thomas Mann Ran- dolph, she was a lineal descendant. She died at Richmond, Virginia, November 19,

Underwood, Joseph Rogers, born in Goochland county, Virginia, October 24, 1791. He was adopted by his maternal uncle, Edward Rogers, a revolutionary sol- dier who had settled in Kentucky in 1783. He attended different schools, and graduated from Transylvania College, in 181 1. He pursued legal study in Lexington, Ken- tucky. In the war of 1812-14, he was the first volunteer in Col. William Dudley's regiment for service on the Canadian bor- der. He was promoted to lieutenant, and when the cajftain of his campany was killed, the command devolved upon him. Later in

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