Page:Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography volume 3.djvu/191

 PROMINENT PERSONS

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grant colleges was clearly set forth in his presidential address delivered before the Association of American Agricultural Col- leges and Experiment Stations at the New Orleans meeting in 1892. This was an earnest plea for that form of technical edu- cation which trains and develops the mind as well as the hand, and this, he urged, called for both breadth and liberality in the curriculum. He was the author of various articles upon educational subjects, setting forth advanced ideas, many of which have been adopted by different colleges and uni- versities of the south. He died January 23, 1902.

Buford, Algernon Sidney, born in Rowan county, North Carolina. January 2, 1826 (during the temporary residence of his par- ents in that state), son of William Buford, of Lunenburg county, Virginia, and Susan Robertson Shelton, of Pittsylvania county, Virginia, his wife. On his father's side, he was descended from colonial English set- tlers, his great-grandfather, Henry Buford, having settled in Culpeper county, Virginia. His early education was obtained at a pri- vate school taught by his father in Pittsyl- vania county, \'irginia. For two years he taught school. In October, 1846, he entered the University of Virginia, and in June, 1848, graduated with the degree of Bachelor or Law. L'pon leaving the university he began the practice of law in Pittsylvania and adjacent counties ,and so continued until the outbreak of the civil war. For a shor^ time before the war, having become a resi- dent of Danville, Virginia, he owned and edited the "Danville Register." In 1853 he was elected to the state legislature, from Pittsvl\ ania countv, but declined re-election.

In 1861 he was elected to the house of dele- gates, while he was serving as a non-com- missioned officer in the Confederate army, v.'hich position he held until the close of the war. During his membership in the house, he was commissioned by Gov. Letcher, lieu- tenant-colonel by brevet, and given special service in aid of the \'irginia soldiers in the t'eld. In October, 1865, he was elected president of the Richmond & Danville Rail- road Company, which position he held for upwards of twenty years, and during his administration he saw this railroad enlarged, under his active direction, from about two hundred miles to about two thousand miles. He removed early in 1866 to Richmond, and in 1887 he was elected and served a term in the house of delegates from that city. He has always taken an earnest and active in- terest in agriculture, and in the commercial and material development of the state, and was for years president of the Virginia board of agriculture. His first wife was Emily W. Townes, of Pittsylvania county, whom he married in 1854. His second wife was Kate A. Wortham. of Richmond, Vir- ginia, whom he married in May, 1872. His third wife was Mrs. Mary Cameron Stro- ther, iicc Ross, whom he married in 1879, in Richmond, Virginia.

Rutherfoord, John Coles, born in Rich- mond, Virginia, November 20, 1825, son of Gov. John Rutherfoord (q. v.), and Emily (Coles) Rutherfoord, his wife, was educated in the private schools of Richmond, Wash- ington College, now Washington and Lee University, and the University of Virginia, which he entered in 1841, and graduated therefrom in 1843 with the degree of blaster of Arts : traveled abroad for a year, and upon