Page:Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography volume 3.djvu/373

 PROMINENT PERSONS

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to his church at Staunton, from which he resigned in 1873, being appointed a South- ern Baptist missionary to Rome, Italy. He \vas co-editor of the '"Christian Review" for two years, and since 1876 was one of the edi- tors of "II Seminatore," a monthly Baptist magazine published in Rome. The degree of Doctor of Divinity was given him by Richmond College and the University of Chicago in 1872. His publications include "Oakland Stories," "Costar Grew," "Roger Bernard, the Pastor's Son." and "Walter Ennis," a tale of the early Virginia Baptists.

Ruffin, Edmund, was born in Prince George county, Virginia, January 5, 1794. He was a son of George Rufifin, who served in the Virginia legislature and Jane Lucas, his first wife. He was grandson of Ed- mund Ruffin and Jane Skipwith, daughter of Sir William Skipwith, baronet, of Meck- lenburg county, Virginia. He attended Wil- liam and Mary College in 1810-12, but neg- lected his studies and was suspended. He at once enlisted in a volunteer company and served against the British from August 12, 1812, to February, 1813, when, his father having died, he left the army to take care of an estate at "Coggin's Point," James river. Here he began a long career of activity of mind and body. He devoted himself to prac- tical farming and extensive reading. He read as much as eight hours each day and covered not only all the books available on agriculture and science, but he was thor- oughly versed in Biblical, historical, eco- nomic and political literature. He amassed one of the largest and most valuable private libraries in Virginia. He had an inventive genius and contrived various home-made pieces of machinery to save labor on his

farm. In 1818 he was secretary of the United Agricultural Society of Virginia, in 1823-1826 he was a state senator, in 1840 he v,-as secretary of the State Board of Agri- culture, in 1842 he was agricultural surveyor of the state of South Carolina, in 1845 he was president of the Virginia State Agri- cultural Society, and iri 1854 he was agricul- tural commissioner of the state. As an agri- culturalist he anticipated most of the im- provements in modern farming — the use of the legumes and marl as fertilizers of poor soil, drainage and blind ditching and the five field rotation of crops. By following these methods and by a judicious employment of negro labor, he increased the value of his estate from $25,000 to $200,000, and, his ex- ample being followed by all the other plant- ers, the lands of tidewater Virginia increased, in the brief space of thirteen years. 1837- 1850, to an amount valued at $23,000,000. The most famous of his works was an "Essay on Calcareous Manures," published in 1835, which went through four editions, increasing in size at each edition till from one hundred and sixteen pages it reached in 1852, four hundred and ninety pages. In another pam- phlet he pressed the importance of an agri- cultural college and was the first in the United States to outline the course of study for such an institution. He was editor of the "Farmer's Register" and the "Bank Re- former." In 1855 he gave up farming, divid- ed his estate among his children, and devoted himself to politics. He had started life as an opponent of slavery and rather Federalistic in his views and became a strong advocate of the institution and an extreme states rights man. He favored nullification in 1832 and joined the Whig party of states rights and voted for Harrison. Having proved to his