Page:Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography volume 3.djvu/181

 PROMINENT PERSONS

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estate, about three miles southeast of Ab- ingdon. He was the author of biographies of General Floyd and General Joseph E. Johnston, published in "Lee and his Lieu- tenants,'' 1867; a volume entitled "The American Dollar," 1885, and of five vol- umes of United States circuit and district court reports, entitled "Hughes' Reports, 1879-1885." In 1866 Judge Hughes fought a duel with William E. Cameron, afterwards governor of Virginia, which resulted in Cam- eron's receiving a broken rib at the first fire. He died December 10, 1901. His remains were interred in Sinking Spring Cemetery, Abingdon, Virginia.

Balch, Thomas, was born at Leesburg, Loudoun county, Virginia, July 23, 1821. He studied at Columbia College, read law in the office of Stephen Cambreleng, New York, and was admitted to the bar in 1850. In 1852 he removed to Philadelphia, served ill the city councils and presided over some of its most important committees. At the request of the Historical Society of Penn- sylvania, he edited "The Shippen Papers," "Letters and Papers relating to the Pro- vincial History of Pennsylvania," "The Maryland Papers," and ''The Examination cf Joseph Galloway for the Seventy-sixth Society." In 1859 he went to Europe, and remained upwards of ten years, making Paris his headquarters, collecting material for his work entitled "Les Francais en Amerique pendant la Guerre de I'lndepend- ence des Etats Unis, 1773-1783." In 1865 he proposed in a letter to Horace Greeley, published in the New York "Tribune," a court of international arbitration as a meas- ure of averting war, which is believed to have been the first step in this direction. In

it was laid down the code of rules observed by the Geneva tribunal. Returning to the L'nited States he devoted himself to literary labor. In September, 1876, he read before the Social Science Association, at Saratoga, a paper in favor of a double standard in coinage, and a paper before a similar asso- ciation in Philadelphia on "Free Coinage and a Self-adjusting Ratio.'' An account of many of his writings may be found in an obituary by John Austin Stevens, in the "Magazine of American History" for June, 1877. He died in Philadelphia, March 29, 1876.

Wilson, Joseph Ruggles, born in 1822, in Ohio, son of Judge James and Annie (.Adams) Wilson. He attended Jefterson College, from which institution he was graduated with the degree of Bachelor of .\rts in 184J ; Princeton Theological Semi- nary, from which he was graduated with the degree of P>achelor of Divinity in 1846, and Oglethorpe University, from which he was graduated with the degree of Doctor of Divinity in 1857. He served as professor of chemistry and natural science in Hamp- ton-Sidney College from 1850 to 1855 ; was pastor at Staunton, Virginia, from 1855 to 1857; pastor at Augusta, Georgia, from 1858 to 1870; professor of pastoral and evangel- istic theology in Columbia (South Carolina) Theological Seminary from 1870 to 1874; pastor at W'ilmington, North Carolina, from 1874 to 1885 ; professor of theology in the South Western Presbyterian University, Clarksville, Tennessee, from 1885 to 1893. He resided in Columbia, South Carolina, and Princeton, New Jersey, until 1903, the year of his death. He also served as per- nianent clerk of the general assembly of