Page:Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography volume 2.djvu/392

 PROMINENT PERSONS

339

In 1832 he was elected governor of Ohio, serving four years, and in 1838 was appoint- ed the first governor of the territory of Iowa. He died at Iowa City, Iowa, Febru- ary 7, 1853.

Gamble, Elizabeth Washington, born at Richmond, Virginia, January 30, 1785, daughter of Col. Robert Gamble (q. v.). She was well educated, and early showed a fondness for literature. She was the author of "Flora's Dictionary" (1829), a quarto remarkable in its day, combining botany with an epistolary guide and a dic- tionary of quotations. She married, in 1802, William Wirt.

Johnson, Frank W., born in Virginia, Oc- tober. 1799. He emigrated to Texas in 1826, and engaged in surveying land until 183 1, \\ hen he was elected alcalde of the jurisdic- tion of Austin. In 1832 he led an expedi- tion against the Mexican post of Annahuac. The same year he was appointed chief sur- vtyor of Austin's colony. He entered the army as a volunteer in F835, and was ap- H^inted adjutant and inspector-general suc- cessively by Generals Austin and Burleson. In December. 1835. ^^ 1^^ ^"^ ^^ ^^e col- umns which so gallantly stormed and took the post and city of San Antonio de Bexar, and on the fall of Colonel Benjamin R. Milam, the command devolved upon him. In 1836 he made a raid through the country between the Xueces river and the Rio Grande, but was surprised by the Mexicans, and lost most of his command. This was his last public service. He died in 1885, on a visit to the famed hot springs, Aguas Calientes, Mexico.

Ambler, John Jaquelin, eldest son of Col. John Ambler and Catherine Bush, his wife,

daughter of Philip Bush, of Winchester, was born at Williamsburg, Virginia, March 9, 1801. He was educated at William and Mary College, which he left in 1817; attend- ed medical lectures at the University of Pennsylvania, and studied law with George Hay, in Richmond; in 1823-26 he toured Europe. He was a prominent planter. He lived for many years at "Glen Ambler," in Amherst county; and afterwards moved to another of his fine estates, ^J^^^^l*" Hall," in Madison county, where he died Novem- ber 18, 1854. He married Elizabeth Bar- bour, daughter of Judge Philip Pendleton P.arbour, of the United States supreme court.

Harris, Chapman, born in Nelson county, Virginia, in 1802. His mother was a free negress. and consequently he had no diffi- culty, when he grew to man's estate, in emigrating to Indiana. He settled at Madi- son, and united with the Baptist church of th.at place. Before this time he had become actively engaged in the operations of the underground railroad. The Ohio river being the dividing line between Kentucky and Indiana, fugitive slaves frequently fled to the northern shore, and were piloted by Harris and his associates through the city 01 Madison, and from station to station on the "underground routes" to Canada. Har- lis and his four sons, Elijah, William. George and John, were the principal colored workers on this railfoad, but they had allies in some of the leading white residents of the district. Near the mouth of Eagle hol- low, above Madison, stood a gigantic syca- more tree, the hollow trunk of which Har- ris called his depot. .At this point, on solid reck, he had placed an iron plate weighing twelve pounds, on which he used to strike

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