Page:Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography volume 4.djvu/606

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VIRGINIA BIOGRAPHY

man. now went to the political ■■])ie counter." During the next three decades, time-servers introduced many abuses in the office, and so it became a reproach to be called the super- intendent of the penitentiary. Many of these abuses have been corrected by the general assembly in the last ten years. An odd co- incidence is, that a Morgan was elected to the office eight or ten years ago, though he was no relation to the ante-bellum official, so far as is known. These facts relating to this Anticjuarian Society have not been heretofore published. They are given by the youngest child of Colonel Morgan, who li\es in Virginia with two sons.

-All Lolonel Alorgan's family were Episco- jjalians. An unusual thing occurred at his funeral in 1859, w^hich took place in St. Paul's Protestant Episcopal Church in Rich- mond, Virginia. After the rector. Dr. (Jharles AI. Minnegrode. had concluded the service, he laid aside his Prayer Book, say- ing, "Now I must speak of the dead."' He then gave a sketch of Colonel Morgan's life ; his wonderful philanthropic work amongst his prisoners ; his care in a dread- ful winter of the wives and children of sol- diers fighting in the Mexican war; of him as a communicant of St. Paul's Church and his part in building up the church, and of his remarkable refusal of a political career, to live with the state's criminals. Closing he said, pointing to the casket, "There is a man whose place cannot be filled." The crowded congregation was astonished that anything should be added to the beautiful regular service, but all agreed that the trib- ute was due.

He sleeps in Hollywood, Richmond, under a simple shaft, on which is the motto, below a crown and cross, Rcsurgam, I will rise again. His religion entered in his daily walk, and the radiance of this, his hourly teaching, spread far beyond to comfort the troubled and weary.

Claude Nelson Rucker, M. D. Dr. Rucker, a practicing physician of Clifton Forge, Al- leghany county, Virginia, is a son of Waller Jonathan Rucker and through his maternal grandmother, Martha Emma (Arthur) Mc- Daniel, is a great-grandson of Colonel Arthur, of Amherst county, Virginia, who was also the great-uncle of Chester A. Arthur, president of the United States.

Waller Jonathan Rucker was born in

Bedford county, A'irginia, in 1854, and there \ et resides, a prosperous farmer. His three elder brothers all served in the Confederate army. Albert M. Rucker served in the Sev- enteenth Virginia Infantry. Pickett's divi- sion, was wounded in the immortal charge at Gettysburg, taken prisoner and after- wards confined in Fort Delaware, later was parolled, but was soon afterwards attacked by lockjaw, the result of his wounds, and died. Lock Rucker served in the Twenty- first Regiment Virginia Infantry as first lieutenant, died from the result of exposure and hardship in the trenches at Petersburg, \'irginia. Warren Rucker served in the Reserve Guards in and around Petersburg.

Waller Jonathan Rucker married Russels McDaniel, born in Amherst county, Virginia, in 1 86 1, daughter of Edward and Martha Emma (Arthur) McDaniel, the latter a sec- ond cousin of President Chester A. Arthur and daughter of Colonel Arthur, of Bedford county. President Arthur was on terms of intimacy with his Virginia cousins and vis- ited the Arthur and McDaniel families in their homes. Children of Waller Jonathan Rucker. all born in Bedford county, Vir- ginia: Claude Nelson, of further mention; Vernon A., born in 1882. now a traveling salesman ; Waller Jonathan, born in 1886, married Catherine Elliott; Reginald.

Dr. Claude Nelson Rucker, eldest son of \\'aller Jonathan and Russels (McDaniel) Rucker, was born in Bedford county, Vir- ginia. March 21. 1880. He secured a good high school education in the schools of Lynchburg, Virginia, graduating in 1899 and in the same year entering the medical department of the University of Virginia. He there spent four years and was gradu- ated M. D., class of 1903. He spent six months as interne in Memorial Hospital, Richmond, Virginia, then located in Lewis- ton, West Virginia, where he practiced his profession for one year. He then practiced at Norton, Wise county, Virginia, until 1907. locating at Clifton Forge. Mrginia, in the latter year. During his seven years' residence in Clifton Forge. Dr. Rucker has won an enviable reputation, that has brought him an abundant practice in town and county. He is a member of the American Medical Association, Virginia Medical and West Virginia Medical associations, the Wise County Medical Society and the Southern Medical Societv, taking an active interest