Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 09.djvu/124

 RIVERS

RIXEY

RI\ ER5, Richard Henderson, educator, was born in Moiitf;omery county, Tenn., Sept. 11, 1814 ; son of Edmund and Sarali (Henderson) Rivers. His maternal grandfather was Samuel Hender- son, brother of Col. Richard Henderson, one of the proprietors of the Transylvania colony, the first settlement in Kentucky at Booueborough in*

1775. His maternal grandmotlier was Betsy Callaway, heroine of a capture by Indians in

1776. and resc-ued by Boone and others. He was graduated from La Grange college, Ala., 1835; was assistant professor of languages in the col- lege, 1835-36, and professor, 1835-43. He was married in June, 1836. to Martha Boiling Cox Jones, daughter of W. S. Jones of Franklin county. Ala., son of a Revolutionary soldier. He ht'l 1 the presidency of Athens Female seminary, 184;}-48 ; was professor of moral science in Cen- tenary college. Jackson, La., 1848-49, and its president, 1849-54, resigning in 1854 to become president of La Grange college. Upon the sus- pension of the latter institution during the civil war, he was president of Centenary college, Summerfield. Ala., and in 1865 conducted a private school for girls in Somerville, Tenn., and sub- sequently other schools of a similar character in that vicinity until 1888, when he became pastor of a Methodist Episcopal church in Louisville, Ky. He received the honorary degree of D.D. from La Grange in 1850 ; edited a volume of ser- mons (1872). and is the author of : Mental Philo- sophy (1860): Moral Philosophy (1866): Our Young People (1880); Life of Bishop Robert Paine (1884), and various articles in periodicals. He died in Louisville. Ky., June 21, 1894.

RIVES, Amelie, see Troubetzkoy, Amelie, Prin.-ess.

RIVES, William Cabell, senator, was born in Nels'jn county. Va.. May 4, 1793; .son of Robert and Margaret Jordan (Cabell) Rives ; grandson of William and Lucy (Shands) Rives and of Col. William and Margaret (Jordan) Cabell, and a descendant of the Rives family who emigrated from Blandford, Eng., in the cavalier emigration of 1649-59, and settled at or near Blandford, Surrey county, Va. William was educated under private tutors, entered Hampden-Sidney college in 1S07. and was graduated at William and Mary college in 1809. He studied law under Thomas Jefferson, 1809-11; served in the defence of Virginia as aide-de-camp to Gen. John H. (^oke, 1814-15. and engaged in the practice of law in Nelson county. He was a member of the state constitutional convention in 1816 ; represented Nelson county in the Virginia house of delegates, 1817-19. and was married. March 24. 1819, to Judith Page, daughter of the Hon. Francis and Jane Byrd (Wilson) Walker of Albemarle county, Va. He removed to Albemarle county in 1821 ;

represented that county in the Virginia house of delegates, 1822-23, and was an Anti-Federalist representative from Virginia in the 18th, 19th and 20th congresses, 1823-1829. He was a mem- ber of the board of visitors of the University of Virginia, 1828-29, and U.S. minister to France by appointment of President Jackson, from April 18, 1829, to Sept. 27, 1832, negotiating the indemnity treaty of July 4, 1831. He was elected to the U.S. senate from Virginia to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Littleton W. Tazewell, and served from Jan. 4, 1833. until 1834, when he resigned, having refused to follow the instruc- tions of the Virginia legislature to vote to censure President Jackson for removing government de- posits from the Bank of the United States. He was re-elected to the U.S. senate in place of John Tyler, resigned, March 14, 1836, and after serving out that term, was returned for a full term of six years, 1839-45. He joined the Whig party in 1844 ; was appointed U.S. minister to France by President Fillmore, serving, 1849-53, and in the latter year retired to private life at " Castle Hill," Albemarle county. He was one of the five commis- sioners sent from Virginia to the Peace congress at "Washington, D.C., in February, 1861, and elected chairman of the Virginia delegates chosen at Richmond, April 17, 1861, to represent the state of Virginia in the provisional congress at Mont- gomery, Ala., April 29, 1861. He represented his district in the 2d Confederate congress, from Feb. 22, 1864. to Feb. 22, 1865. He was made president of the Virginia Historical society, 1847, and received the degree LL.D. from the Uni- versity of Virginia. He is the author of : Tlie Life and Cliaracter of John Hampden (1845); Ethics of CJirisfianity (1855); The Life and Times of James Madison (3 vols.. 1859-69). He died at - Castle Hill." Va., April 25, 1868.

RIXEY, John Franklin, representative, was born in Culpeper county. Va.. Aug. 1. 1854 : son of Presley M. and ^lary H. Rixey. He attended the public schools. Bethel academy, and the Uni- versity of Virginia, where he also studied law, and was admitted to the bar in 1875. He en- gaged in practice at Culpeper, and served as commonwealth's attorney for Culpeper county. 1879-91. He was married. Nov. 30, 1881, to Ellie. daughter of James and Fanny Barbour of Cul- peper. He was a Democratic representative from the eighth Virginia district in the 55th, 56th and 57th congresses, 1897-1903, and was re- elected to the 58th congress in 1902 for the term expiring 1905. In the 57th congress he advocated the admission of Confederate as well as Union soMiers to all soldiers' homes and institutions maintained by the government, and government aid to state homes for Confederate as well as for Union soldiers.