Williams. In 1845 he was obliged, on account of his health, to go to a warm climate. He was connected with the educational departments of Georgia and Florida, was the founder of the Culloden female college, and afterward professor of natural science in Auburn college, Ala. In 1869 he was elected president of the Wesleyan university of Kentucky, but in 1875 resigned, and removed to New York city. He was a regular contributor to the religious press, and was the author of several educational and scientific works, including “Manual of Botany” (Macon, 1841); “The Botany of the Southern States” (New York, 1855); and “Chemistry” (1860).
DARBY, William, geographer, b. in Pennsyl-
vania in 1775 ; d. in Washington, D. C. 9 Oct.. 1854.
He was an officer under Gen. Jackson in Louisiana,
and one of the surveyors of the boundary between
the United States and Canada. With Theodore
Dwight, Jr., he edited the "United States Gazetteer"
in 18o0. His works include " Geographical Descrip-
tion of Louisiana" (1816); " Plan of Pittsburg and
Adjacent Country" (1817); " Emigrant's Guide to
the Western Country" (1818); "Tour from New
York to Detroit" (New York, 1819); "Geography
and History of Florida," with a map (1821) : third
edition of " Brooke's Universal Gazetteer " (1828) ;
" View of the United States " (Philadelphia, 1828) ;
"Lectures on the Discovery of America" (1828);
" Mnemonica, a Register of Events from the Earli-
est Period to 1829" (Baltimore, 1829) ; and " Geo-
graphical Dictionary" (1843).
DARCEY, John S., physician, b. in Hanover,
Morris co., N. J., 24 Feb., 1788; d. in Newark, N.
J., 22 Oct., I860. His father was a physician, and
with him he studied and succeeded to his large
practice. He was a member of the state legisla-
ture in 1819. In 1832, on the first appearance of
Asiatic cholera in this country, he removed to
Newark, N. J., and by his skill in the treatment
of that disease, and his devotion to his patients
and sympathy with their sufferings, attained a
practice more extensive and exacting than any
other in the state, which finally impaired his re-
markably vigorous constitution. In 1835-'41 he
was U. S. marshal for New Jersey. He exerted
great influence in his party in the state, but was
averse to holding office. On the incorporation of
the New Jersey railroad company he was elected
its president, and held the office till his death, a
period of over thirty years. In 1849, his health
failing, he made the overland journey to California,
but his health was rather injured than benefited.
DARDEN, Miles, giant, b. in North Carolina
in 1798; d. in Henderson county, Tenn.. 23 Jan.,
1857. He was seven feet six inches in height, and
at his death weighed more than one thousand
pounds. Until 1853 he was active, energetic, and
able to labor, but from that time was obliged to
remain at home, or be moved about in a wagon.
In 1850 it required thirteen and a half yards of
cloth, one yard wide, to make him a coat. His
coffin was eight feet long, thirty-five inches deep,
thirty-two inches across the breast, eighteen across
the head, and fourteen across the feet.
DARE, Virginia, the first child of English
parents born in the New World, b. at Roanoke, Va.,
in August, 1587. She was the granddaughter of
John White, governor of the colony sent out by
Sir Walter Raleigh to found an agricultural state.
The expedition sailed from Plymouth, England, 26
April, 1587, and reached the island of Roanoke,
Virginia, in July of the same year. The mother
of the child was the wife of one of her father's
assistants. Virginia was born about a month after
the arrival of the expedition. Nine days after her
birth Gov. White sailed for England, and when he
returned, a year later, all vestiges of the colony
had disappeared. An inscription on the bark of a
tree pointed to Croatan, a place supposed to be-
long to a friendly tribe of Indians, but Croatan
was never found.
DARGAN, Clara Victoria, poet. b. near Winns-
boro, S. C., about 1840. She was of French descent,
and of a family whose wealth was lost in the down-
fall of the Confederacy. Her early education was
very carefully conducted, and she was especially
skilled in music. From 1852 till 1865 she resided
with her family in Columbia, S. C. She began
writing sketches and songs at the age of ten, and
a year later produced a story that was much ad-
mired. Her first published poem was " Forever
Thine," in the Charleston "Courant" in 1859, un-
der the pseudonym of "Claudia." During the
following year she wrote several stories for the
" Southern Guardian," signed " Esther Chesney."
In 1863 she edited the literary department of the
"Edgefield Advertiser," and became a contributor
to various other periodicals. After the close of
the civil war she became a teacher in Yorkville,
S. C. She is the author of " Riverlands," a story
of life on the River Ashley, which originally ap-
peared as a prize story in the " Southern Fiekl and
Fireside " (1863), and of another novel that ob-
tained a prize and was published as a serial.
DARGAN, Edmund Spawn, jurist, b. in IMont-
gomery county, N. C, 15 April, 1805; d. in Mobile,
Ala., in November, 1879. He was the son of a
Baptist minister of Irish descent, at whose death
he was left without means. By his own exertions
he obtained a fair knowledge of English, Latin,
and Greek, although he was at work on a farm un-
til he was twenty-three years old. He read law,
was admitted to the bar in 1829, went to Alabama,
and taught three months in Washington, Autauga
CO. Here he was elected a justice of the peace, and
filled the office for several years, meanwhile en-
gaging in the practice of law. In 1833 he removed
to Montgomery, and in 1841 was elected to the
bench of the circuit court of the Mobile district,
and removed to Mobile. He resigned the office of
judge in 1842, and in 1844 was elected to the state
senate. He was also mayor of Mobile the same
year. Pie resigned from the senate the following
year, and was elected to congress, serving from 1
Dec, 1845, till 3 March, 1847. On the question of
the northwestern boundary of Oregon he made an
able speech, and offered some valuable amend-
ments to the resolution of notice. He was the
first proposer of the line of adjustment finally
adopted on the settlement of the question with
the British government. He declined a renoini-
nation, and in 1847 was elected to fill a vacancy
on the bench of the supreme court of Alabama.
In July, 1849, by the resignation of Justice Collier,
he became chief justice, which office he resigned in
December, 1852, and resumed the practice of law
in Mobile. In 1861 he was a delegate to the State
convention, and voted for the ordinance of seces-
sion. He also served for one term as a representa-
tive in the Confederate congress.
DARGAN, Theodore Alonza, physician, b. in Sleepy Hollow, S. C, 15 Aug., 1822 ; d. there, 10 Sept., 1881. He was of Scotch-Irish descent, and received his early education in Darlington, S. C. He was graduated at the South Carolina medical college at the age of twenty-one. At the beginning of the civil war he entered the Confederate service as surgeon, and served until the end. In 1859 he
published a paper on the subject of "Typhoid Fever," which was extensively noticed.
