Page:Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography volume 3.djvu/366

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VIRGINIA BIOGRAPHY

Poets and their Haunts;" 1877, "Greek Vignettes;" 1879, "Spain in Profile;" "French Syntax;" "History of Spain;" "Story of Greece;" "Autrefois" (collection of Creole tales). In 1883 he edited the major Anglo-Saxon poems, with the co- operation of scholars in various colleges and universities. The volume with which his name is especially connected was "Beo- wulf," in which he had Professor Sharp, of Tulane, as collaborator; Anglo-Saxon dic- tionary, in which he had Professor W. N. Baskerville, of Vanderbilt, as collaborator ; his Anglo-Saxon reader, in which Professor Baskerville and Professor J. L. Hall, of ^\'illiam and Alary, were joint editors with him ; all have extended his usefulness and his fame in the department of early English. He was associate editor of the "Virginia edition," of Poe's works, published in 1902. A later work, published in 1906, in G. P. Putnam's Sons "Heroes of the Nation" scries, is his "Life of Washington." Pro- fessor Harrison was made an L. H. D. of Columbia University ; LL. D. of Randolph- Macon College, Virginia, of Tulane Univer- sity, New Orleans, and of Washington and Lee University. He was a member of Wil- liam and Mary College Phi Beta Kappa chapter. In 1904 he was a delegate to the International Congress at St. Louis. On September i, 1885, he married Lizzie Stuart, (laughter of Hon. John Letcher, war gov- ernor of V^irginia.

Kenna, John Edward, born in Vacoulin, (Wcstj Virginia, April 10, 1848. He removed with his mother to Missouri, and received a limited education. He entered the Confed- erate army as a private, served chiefly in Missouri, was wounded in 1864, and sur-

rendered at Shreveport, Louisiana, in 1865. He attended St. Vincent's College at Wheel- ing, studied law at Charleston, West \'ir- ginia, and was admitted to the bar ; was prosecuting attorney for Kanawha county, 1872-77; and in 1875 was elected by the bar, under statutory provision, to hold the cir- cuit courts of Lincoln and Wayne counties. He was elected to congress as a Democrat, serving from October, 1877, until March, 1883, and had been re-elected when he was chosen a United States senator to succeed Henry G. Davis. He was re-elected, and served until his death, in Washington City, January 1 1, 1893.

Ayers, Rufus Adolphus, born May 20, 1S49, '^'J" of AI. J. Ayers and Susan Lewis Wingfield, his wife. He is a descendant of John Ayers, who came to this country from England in boyhood, resided in North Caro- lina. He married and removed to Bedford county, Virginia, and became a well known n'.inister of the Methodist church. On the maternal side, Mr. Ayers is descended from John Lewis, a native of Donegal, Ireland, who settled on Lewis' Creek, Augusta county, in 1732, being the first settler in that cuunty. lie attended the Goodson Acad- emy at Bristol, Virginia, until it was closed by the war in 1861, and he afterwards gave every moment that could be spared from his daily toil to reading, histories and biog- raphies being his favorite studies. Ilis first jiosition was as clerk in a retail store, and he retained this until April. 1864, at which time he enlisted in the Confederate army, serving for six months in an independent crmmand, and until the close of the war in the field ciuartcrmastcr's department for Last Tennessee. At the close of the war.