Abraham Bedford VENABLE
VENABLE, Abraham B, senator, born in Prince Edward county, Virginia, in 1760 ; died in Richmond, Virginia, 26 December, 1811. His ancestors were among the earliest settlers of Virginia, receiving from Charles II. a grant of lands at the Manikin town on James river. His grandfather was a surgeon in the first regiment of troops that was sent to Jamestown, under the command of Sir John Harvie. Abraham was graduated at Princeton in 1780, settled as a planter in his native county, and in 1791-'9 was a member of congress. In 1803-'4 he was United States senator, but he resigned at the latter date, returned to private life, and exerted a controlling influence in public affairs. He was the intimate friend and party adviser of Thomas Jefferson, by whom he was appointed president of the Bank of Virginia, which enterprise was under that statesman's control. Mr. Venable perished at the burning of the Richmond theatre.--His nephew, Abraham Woodson, congressman, born in Prince Edward county, Virginia, 17 October, 1799; died in Oxford, North Carolina, 24 February, 1876, was graduated at Hampden Sidney in 1816, and at Princeton in 1819, in the mean time studying medicine. He was admitted to the bar in 1821, removed to North Carolina in 1828, and established a large practice. He was a presidential elector on the Jackson ticket in 1832, and on the Van Buren-Johnson ticket in 1836, was chosen to congress in 1846, and served by re-election till 1853, but was defeated in the next canvass. During his service in that body he gained reputation as an able debater and an opponent of the free-soil or anti-slavery policy and that of nullification. He was a presidential elector on the Breckinridge and Lane ticket in 1860, and in 1861-'4 a member of the Confederate congress.--Abraham's nephew, Charles Scott, educator, born in Prince Edward county, Virginia, 19 April, 1827, was graduated at Hampden Sidney in 1842 and at the University of Virginia in 1848, and studied at Berlin in 1852 and at Bonn in 1854. He was professor of mathematics at Hampden Sidney in 1848-'56, of physics and chemistry in the University of Georgia in 1856, and of mathematics and astronomy in the University of South Carolina in 1858-'61. He became captain of engineers in the Confederate army in the last-named year, and in 1862-'5 was lieutenant-colonel and aide-de-camp to General Robert E. Lee, participating in all the important battles in which the Army of Northern Virginia took part. He became professor of mathematics in the University of Virginia in 1865, and still holds that chair. In 1870-'3 he was chairman of the faculty, and in 1887 was again chosen to that office. In 1860 he was one of the five commissioners appointed to visit Labrador to observe the solar eclipse. The University of Virginia gave him the degree of LL. D. in 1868. He has published a series of mathematical text-books (New York, 1869-'75).-His son, Frank Preston, chemist, born at Long-wood, Prince Edward County, Virginia, 17 November, 1856, was educated at the University of Virginia, and then studied chemistry at the universities of Bonn and Gattingen, receiving the degree of Ph. D. from the latter in 1881. He has held the chair of chemistry at the University of North Carolina since 1880, and, in addition to various scientific papers, has published "A Short Course in Qualitative Chemical Analysis" (Raleigh, North Carolina, 1883).
Abraham married Mary MORTON on 4 Aug 1783 in Charlotte County, Virginia, USA. (Mary MORTON was born in Lexington, Fayette, Kentucky, USA.) |
User ID: P00051881.