Page:Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography volume 3.djvu/255

 PROMINENT PERSONS

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Virginia in 1760, settling in what is now Alontgomery county. The Craigs were a prominent family of Southwest Virginia, and closely allied to the Montgomery famil}'. Robert Kent was an extensive land owner and a farmer of Wythe county, where for a number of years he was a justice of the old county court. After a careful education in the preparatory schools in the vicinity of his home, Robert Craig Kent matriculated at Georgetown College, Washington, D. C, and from this institution he went to Prince- ton, from which he was graduated with the degree of Bachelor of Arts. He then com- menced the study of law in the office of Judge Andrew Fulton, of Wytheville, and was admitted to the bar in 1853. He at once established himself in Wytheville and rap- idly acquired a lucrative and extended prac- tice. He represented Wythe county in the constitutional convention which passed the ordinance of secession for the state of Vir- ginia ; was twice commonwealth's attorney oi Wythe county; was twice a member of the house of delegates of Virginia; served cnce as president of the electoral college of Virginia; and was in office as lieutenant- governor of the state four years. For many years he served as president of the Farmers Bank of Wytheville, Virginia. All his life he was a stanch supporter of the Democratic party, and he gave his religious support to the Presbyterian church. Gov. Kent mar- ried (first) Eliza Ann Wood, (second) An- astatia Pleasants Smith.

Emmet, Thomas Addis, born at the Uni- versity of Virginia, May 29, 1828, son of Dr. John Patten Emmet (q. v.) and Mary Byrd (Tucker) Emmet. He received his educa- tion at a preparatory school near the univer-

sity, and in a school at Flushing, Long Ihland, under the charge of the Rev. Francis L. Hawks, with a partial course in the aca- demic department of the University of Vir- ginia. In the autumn of 1845 he entered Jffterson Medical College, Philadelphia, under the supervision of Dr. Robley Dung- lison, one of the original professors, gradu- ating in 1849-50, and immediately afterwards passing a competitive examination, and re- ceiving an appointment as resident physician to the Emigrant Refuge Hospital, Ward's Island, New York Harbor. He served in that capacity for two years, when he was appointed a visiting physician to the same institution, and served until the spring of 1855, being the junior by twenty years of the next youngest member of the medical board. Forming the acquaintance of Dr. J. Marion Sims, he began to assist him in his operations at the opening of the Woman's Hospital, in May, 1855. In the following September he received the appointment of assistant surgeon. This position he held until the resignation of Dr. Sims, in 1861, when he became surgcon-in-chief, and when the Woman's Hospital Association became merged under the charter of the Woman's Hospital of the State of New York, in 1868, he continued to hold the same position from the board of governors. Under Dr. Emmet's supervision a large proportion of the money was subscribed, and the first buildings of the Woman's Hospital were constructed under his advice, and he fully organized the medical department. The service rapidly in- creased, and Dr. Emmet had a number of assistants, but it became too large eventual- ly for him to give his attention to the neces- sary details. It was then decided by the board of governors to place the hospital in