Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 09.djvu/50

 RAVENEL

KAWLE

RAVENEL, St. Julien, chemist, was born in Charleston, S.C, Dec. 15. 1819. He was gradu- ated at the Medical College of the State of South Carolina in 1840; attended medical lectures in Philadelpliia. Pa., and in Paris, France, and practised in Charleston, S.C, 1840-52. He studied natural history, microscopy and physiology, under Louis Agassiz, 1849-50, and after 1853 devoted himself to agricultural chemistry. He established with Clement H. Stevens, the lime works at Stoney Landing, on Cooper river, in 185G, and from the marl bluffs supplied the Con- federate States with most of the lime used during the civil war. As surgeon to the Confederate army he devoted himself to hospital practice, and be- came surgeon-iu-chief of the Confederate hospital. He designed the torpedo cigar boat Little David, wliich did effective service during the investment of Charleston, S.C, in 1S63. He was director of the Confederate laboratory at Columbia, S.C, 1861-65; discovered the value for agricultural purposes of the phosphate deposits near Charles- ton in 1866. and advocated the use of the rich rice lands for diversified crops. He died in Cliarleston, S.C. March 16, 1882.

RAVENSCROFT, John Stark, first bishop of North Carolina and 20th in succession in the American episcopate, was born near Blanford,

Va., in 1772; son of Dr. John and (Miller)

Ravenscroft: grandson of Hugh Miller, and a descendant of Scotch an- cestors. His parents re- turned to Scotland during his infancy, and he at- tended school there, and in the north of England until January, 1789, when he re- turned to the United States. He studied law in the Col- lege of William and Mary; went to Scotland in 1792 to settle his father's estate, and on his return rein- vested his money in an estate in Lunenburg county, Va., which he managed and where he lived a wild and irreligious life. In 1810 he joined a religious body known as the Republican Meth- odists, and in 1815, being moved to enter the ministry, he applied to the Rt. Rev. Richard Channing Moore, bishop of Virginia, for admis- sion to the diaconate and pursued his theological studies under the direction of the bishop. He labored meantime as a lay-reader in the parishes of Cumberland and St. James; was ordered deacon, April 25, 1817, and advanced to the priest- hood, May 6, 1817, by Bisliop Moore. He was rector of St. James's churcli. Boylton, Mecklen- burg county, Va., 1817-1823; declined two calls and was elected in 1823 first bishop of North Car-

olina, which diocese had been organized in 1817. and he was consecrated in St. Pauls church, Philadelphia, Pa., May 22, 1823, by Bishops White, Kemp and Croes, assisted by Bishops Bowen and Brownell. In addition to his duties as bishop he assumed the rectorship of Christ church, Raleigh, which afforded him a home and salary enabling him to administer the affairs of a diocese too poor to pay a bishop's salary. In 1828 his health began to fail, and he relinquished the charge of Christ chui-ch, and assumed that of St. John's church, Williamsborough. He at- tended the general convention of 1829 at Phila- delphia. He was married first, to a daughter of Lewis Burwell of Mecklenburg county, and secondly, to a Miss Buford of Lunenburg county, Va. He received the degree D.D. from Columbia college, from the CoUege of William and Mary and from the University of North Carolina, in 1823. He published several sermons and ad- dresses, which were collected together with sixty- one additional sermons, as: "Sermons and Me- moir of the Life of Bishop John Stark Ravens- croft, edited by the Rev. Dr. J. M. Wainwrighf (2 vols., 18;J0). 11,3 died in Williamsborough, N.C. March 5, 18:30.

RAWLE, Francis, lawyer, was born at the Freedom Iron Works, Mitflin county, Pa., Aug. 7, 1846; son of Francis William and Louisa (Hall) Rawle; grandson of William (q.v.) and Sarah Coates (Burge) Rawle, and of Ciiarles (a lawyer) and Elizabetli (Coleman) Hall of Sunbury, Pa.; great-grandson of Robert Coleman of Cornwall. Pa., and a descendant of Francis Rawle and Francis Rawle, Jr., of Cornwall, England, who landed in Philadelphia, June 23, 1686. His father (1795-1881), University of Pennsylvania, A.B., 1812, A.M., 1816, served as sergeant and lieutenant, 1st Pennsylvania volunteers, in the war of 1812; was one of the first civil engineers emploj-ed in the construction of the Pennsylvania road; subsequently an iron master, and owner of the Freedom Iron Works, Mifflin county, and associate judge. Francis Rawle removed with his parents in 1848 to Pliiladelphia: attended Phillips Exeter academy, N.H., 1863-65. and was graduated from Harvard, A.B., 1869, LL.B., 1871, A.M., 1872, having spent the year 1869-70 studying law in the office of William Henry Rawle (q.v.). He was admitted to the Philadel- phia bar, Nov. 4, 1871, soon after becoming as- sociated in practice with Samuel Robb. He was married, Nov. 25, 1873, to Margaretta, daughter of James M. and Harriet Romeyn (Smith) Aert- sen, and granddaughter of Jonathan Smith, cashier of the Baii'c of the United States. She died in 1891. leaving two sons. Mr. Rawle was elected temporary secretary of the American Bar association upon its organization at Saratoga,