Page:Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography volume 3.djvu/427

Rh PROMINENT PERSONS 1889. From 1889 to 1892 he was state insti- tute instructor, and in that capacity was a prime factor in the inauguration of new and systematic methods of popular education. He was professor of history at the North Carolina State Normal and Industrial Col- lege at Greensboro, 1892-93; and professor of pedagogy in his alma mater, the Univer- sity of North Carolina, from 1893 to 1896. Ir the latter year he was called to the presi- dency of the institution, and served until 1900, when he resigned to become president of Tulane (Louisiana) University. His ad- ministration was peculiarly successful--the faculty was greatly strengthened, and the curriculum revised and modernized; the material improvements were notable, in- cluding the erection of a fine library build- ing, and considerable additions to the in- come of the university. In 1904 Professor Alderman accepted the presidency of the University of Virginia, and entered upon a most successful work, marked by large ad- ditions to the endowment fund of the insti- tution and of appropriations by the legisla- ture, and with large increase in number of students. He is a member of the National Educational Association, of which he was vice-president for two years; and of the Southern Education Board, and its south- western director. He is author of "A School History of North Carolina," "Life of Wil- liam Hooper, Signer of the Declaration of Independence," and "Life of J. L. M. Curry" and editor-in-chief of "The Library of Southern Literature." He is an accom- plished public speaker, and has delivered various notable addresses. He has received the degree of Doctor of Laws from various universities Johns Hopkins, Yale, Colum- bia, Tulane, Sewanee and North Carolina. 375 James, Edward Wilson, son of John James, a prominent merchant of Norfolk. and Mary Moseley Hunter, his wife, was born in Norfolk, Virginia, shortly before the civil war. He was descended from early set- tlers in Virginia, among whom may be men- tioned John James, who patented lands in Lower Norfolk county in 1680-1682; Henry Woodhouse, son of Henry Woodhouse, gov- ernor of the Bermuda Islands, a son of Sir Henry Woodhouse and Anne Bacon, half- sister of Sir Francis Bacon; James Wilson, Francis Mason and James Dauge (now ren- dered Dozier), the last a French Huguenot. He was educated at Roanoke College in 1866-1868, and travelled in England and France. He was a member of the Phi Beta Kappa Society of William and Mary Col- lege, a member of the executive committee of the Virginia Historical Society, a member of the American Historical Association and of the American Geographic Society. He was a director in the Norfolk City Gas Light Company, and a director of the Norfolk City Library. He was devoted to history and literature, and founded the "Lower Norfolk County Antiquary," a small magazine which passed through five volumes and proved a treasure house of information regarding the early days of that section of the state. By his will he left to the Confederate Soldiers' Home at Richmond and to the University of Virginia the bulk of his fortune, amount- ing to $300,000. He was never married. He died in Norfolk, Virginia. October 11, 1906. Smith, Francis Lee, born in Fauquier county, Virginia, November 25, 1808, son of Hon. John Adams Washington Smith and Maria Love Hawkins, his wife, daughter of Captain John Hawkins, adjutant to Col. Thomas Marshall in the revolution. He