PROMINENT PERSONS
215
Janney, Asa Moore, born in. Loudoun
county, Virginia, September 18, 1802; was
reared and educated in his native county,
removed from there to Richmond in 1836,
accompanying his family, and for a number
of years assumed charge of Gallego Mills,
one of the most extensive flouring mills in
the South; returned to Loudoun county in
i860 and resided there until 1869, in which
year he was appointed agent for the Santee
Sioux Indians in Nebraska, to which work
he devoted himself assiduously, being
largely instrumental in improving their
moral and physical condition, and his wife
and daughters also labored among the
women of the tribe, their efforts proving
of great benefit, alleviating the burdens and
hardships they were called upon to bear;
while there, he had a saw mill and flouring
mill erected, lands were allotted to the In-
dians in severalty, and about one hundred
log houses erected; owing to impaired
htalth. he resigned his commission and re-
turned to Virginia; was a member of the
Society of Friends, in which he held the
office of elder; his death occurred in Lou-
doun county. Virginia, April 30, 1880.
Beckwourth, James P., was born at Fred- ericksburg, Virginia, April 26, 1798. His father was a major in the revolutionary army, and his mother a negro slave. About the year 1805 he removed to St. Louis, Mis- souri, and settled on the spot afterwards known as "Beckwourth's Settlement." When young Beckwourth was about ten years old he was sent to St. Louis, where he attended school for four years, and was then appren- ticed to a blacksmith in that city. At the age of nineteen he joined an expedition of about one hundred men to go up the Fever river and negotiate a treaty with the Sac
Indians; and that being done, he remained
in the vicinity for more than a year. He
next became connected with General Ash-
ley's Rocky Mountain Fur Company. In
1823 he carried important despatches to the
mountains for Gen. Ashley. After terrible
sufferings and many years spent among the
Indians during which time he was made a
chief of the Crows, he returned to his fam-
ily at St. Louis, and later went to Florida,
where he carried despatches for the United
States, and was engaged in fighting the In-
dians. He went to Mexico, and in 1844 ac-
companied a trading expedition to Califor-
nia. At the breaking out of the California
revolution against Gov. Micheltorena, in
1845, he took an active part. He was en-
gaged by the United States government to
convey despatches to Chihuahua, and after-
v/ards from Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, to
California. Some time after 1849 he dis-
covered a pass through the Sierra Nevada
mountains, which was named **Beckwourth's
Pass/* and in 1852 he became a trader in
Bcckwourth's Valley. He died in 1867.
Greenhow, Robert, was born in Rich- mond, Virginia, in 1800, died in San Fran- cisco, California, in 1854. His father, Robert, was at one time mayor of Richmond. His mother, Mary Ann Wills, perished at the burning of the Richmond theatre in 181 1, and the son barely escaped with his life. He was graduated from William and Mary Col- lege in i8r6, and finished his education in New York, studying medicine with Dr. David Hosack and Dr. John W. Francis, and taking his degree at the College of Phy- sicians and Surgeons in 1821. He then visited Europe where he met Byron and other distinguished men, and on his return delivered lectures on chemistry before the
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