Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 03.djvu/115

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DABNEY, Charles William, U.S. consul, was born in Alexandria, Va., March 19, 1794; son of John Bass and Roxa (Lewis) Dabney; and grand- son of Charles and Mary (Bass) Dabney, and of Joseph and Molly (Baker) Lewis. The d'Au- bignes (the original form of the name) were French Huguenots who emigrated to England after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, and thence to America early in eighteenth century. Charles William was educated partly in France and partly in America. He was emploj'ed in the counting house of T. B. Wales & Co. of Boston, Mass., 1810-13, and in his father's counting house at Fayal, Azores, 1813-26. His father was U.S. consul, and on his death in 1826, Charles William succeeded to his shipping business, and also to the consulate, which he held, with one short in- termission, for over forty years. His repeated acts of benevolence, and his humane conduct in cases of shipwreck, famine and other disasters brought to his notice by his business and official position, gained for him the respect and affection of the people among whom he lived, and of the masters and sailors who made the port a harbor. He became known as " the father of the poor," and his benefactions amounted to thousands of dollars, given from a moderate fortune. In the political trouble of Portugal in 1830 he acted as mediator between the contending factions on the islands and saved the people from serious rebel- lion. A priest of the defeated faction, in prepar- ing his will, bequeathed him a large sum of money as an evidence of his obligation, which Mr. Dabney persuaded the priest to divert to the founding of a much needed hospital on the isl- and. During the civil war in the United States, Mr. Dabney prevented the blockade runners and Confederate cruisers from coaling at the islands, either by his personal influence with the dealers in coal, or in desperate cases by himself ijurchas- ing and liolding the supply. Captain Seinmes of the Alahama, in retaliation, made an effort to capture ^Mr. Dabney's barque, the Azor, on her return voj-age from Boston, • blockading it with the Alabama off Flores, where the barque was expected to make jxirt, for several days. The Azor, however, escaped by being accidentally carried past the port. Mr. Dabney was married, June 10, 1819, to Frances Alsop Pomeroy, and their children were, Clara Pomeroy, John Pome- roy, Charles William, Samuel Wyllys, Poxana Lewis, Francis Oliver and Frances Alsoj). He died in Fayal, Azores, Marcli 12, 18T1.

DABNEY, Charles William, educator, was born at Hampden-Sidney, Va., June 19, 1855; son of Robert Lewis and Margaret Lavinia (Morri

son) Dabney; grandson of Charles Dabney of Louisa county, Va., and of the Rev. James Mor- rison, of Rockbridge county, Va. , and a descend- ant of Cornelius Dab- ney (D'Aubigne) one of the two original settlers of this name in Virginia. He was graduated at Hamp- den-Sidney college in 18T3, taught a classic school one year, and was graduated at the University of Vir- ginia in 1877. He was professor of chemistrj- and miner- alogy at Emory and Henry college, Va., 1877-78, and studied chemistry, pliysics and mineralogy at Berlin and Gottingen, Germany, 1878-80; was elected professor of chemistry in the University of North Carolina in . 1880, and soon after, state chemist of North Carolina; became director of the North Carolina agricultural experiment sta- tion at Raleigh, in 1881, and also state chemist of the geological survey and board of health. He conducted explorations for phosphate in eastern North Carolina, and was the first to discover and bring these deposits to the attention of the scientific and commercial world. He made sim- ilar explorations of the pyrites deposits in western North Carolina. He discovered cassiterite (black tin) and other minerals new to that section. He represented North Carolina at various exposi- tions and was the chief of the department of government and state exhibits of the New Or- leans World's exposition of 1884-85. While in North Carolina he was instrumental in providing buildings with laboratories, glass houses, etc., for the experiment station, and in organizing and equipping an experimental farm, a state weather service, and a permanent exhibit of the state's resources. He became interested in technical education and n-rote and lectured upon its neces- sity in the south. He was also interested in the establishment of an industrial school in Ra- leigh, N.C., which became the State college of agriculture and mechanic arts. He was elected president of the University of Tennessee in 1887. He was assistant secretaiy of agriculture, 1893- 97; and was appointed special agent in cJiarge of scientific bureaus and investigations of the de- partment of agriculture in 1897, serving in this position for a few months when he was recalled