Page:Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography volume 3.djvu/257

 PROMINENT PERSONS

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naecology as a specialty. In 1903 he retired from practice, and since that time has de- voted himself to literary pursuits, and par- ticularly to the study of the Gaelic or Irish language. He acquired some knowledge of this language during his service in the Emi- grant Refuge Hospital after the great Irish famine in 1849, and at which time but a small portion of the Irish peasantry was familiar with any other but their native tongue. Dr. Emmet was married in 1854 to Catherine Rebecca, daughter of John and Catherine Aloffit Duncan, of Montgomery, Alabama.

Latane, James Allen, born in Essex county, Virginia, January 15, 1831, a descendant of Dr. Lewis Latane, a French Hugue- not, who came to Virginia in 1700; gradu- ated at the University of Virginia in 1852, and then studied law. In 1854 he entered the Protestant Episcopal Theological Seminary, near .\lexandria, and in 1856 was ordained deacon, and in 1857 was made priest by Bishop Meade, at Millwood, Virginia. He was rector at Staunton from 1857 to 1871, then at Wheeling, West Virginia, till 1874, when he formally withdrew from the Prot- estant Episcopal church, and announced his adhesion to the Reformed Episcopal tenets. Returning to his early home, he founded a Reformed church in Essex county, and one in King William county. He was elected bishop in 1876, and declined the position, but accepted it when he was elected a second time, in 1879, and was assigned to the south- ern jurisdiction. He was unanimously elected presiding bishop in 1883. He re- sided in Baltimore, having charge of the Bishop Cumming Memorial Church. He died in 1902.

Talley, Susan Archer, born in Hanover county, X'irginia, in 1835, of Huguenot de- scent. When she was eight years old her father removed to Richmond, in order to educate her. At ten years of age, an attack of scarlet fever left her with impaired hear- ing, and she took to drawing, and then paint- ing in water colors and oil, becoming skillful in all, and made some essays at sculpture. Her tasks, however, inclined her to poetry, \erse which was published in the "Southern Literary Messenger." At Richmond, and in 1859 her first volume of poems was pub- lished. She was for a time a clerk in the war department. She later became a con- tributor to "Harper's" and "Scribner's Maga- zines," and other leading periodicals and newspapers. Her poem which is of greatest note is "Ennerslie," by many held to be re- mindful of Tennyson's "Lady of Shalott."
 * ind at the age of eleven she wrote creditable

Cruse, Mary Ann, born in Virginia, about 1S35, and long a resident of Huntsville, Ala- bama. In 1866 she published "Cameron Hall," a tale of the civil war, which brought her high praise. She also wrote several Sun- day schools books — "The Little Episcopa- lian." "Bessie Melville," and "Little (jrand- pa."

Poague, William Thomas, born in Rock- bridge county, Virginia, December 20, 1835, son of John Barclay Poague and his wife, Elizabeth Stuart Paxton ; and a descendant of Robert Poague, the immigrant, who came to Virginia from the north of Ireland, and purchased land in the vicinity of Staunton. William Thomas Poague was reared on his father's farm, and there obtained a practical knowledge of farm cultivation and the care