PROMINENT PERSONS
167
under the titles: "Juda"s Jewels: a Study
ill the Hebrew Lyrics," and "'The Story of
the Nazarene in Annotated Paraphrase." It
was due to the personal efforts of Dr. Davis
that the local Young Men's Christian Asso-
ciation has attained its present strong foun-
dation. Dr. Davis married, November 25,
1857, Ella C. Hunt, of Albany, Georgia.
Children : Noah Wilson, Marella, Archibald
Hunt, Clara Bell.
Rives, Alfred Landon, born in Paris, France, March 25, 1830, son of William Cabell and Judith (Walker) Rives; at the time of his birth his father, who was among the most distinguished citizens of the Old Dominion, was the United States minister to France, and he also filled the same posi- tion in 1848 ; Alfred L. Rives was taught by private tutors until fourteen years of age, then became a student of Concord Acad- emy, and at the age of sixteen entered the Virginia Military Institute, was graduated in two years, being sixth in a class of twen- ty-four ; being proficient in engineering, he determined to adopt that as a profession, and in 1848 entered the University of Vir- ginia, where he remained one session, then accompanied his father to France ; after a year devoted to the study of mathematics and French, he successfully passed an ex- amination for entrance in the Government Engineering School of France, "Ecole des ponts et Chaussees ;" after graduation in 1854 he was offered a position upon the great French railroad, "Du Nord." but in- stead returned to the United States, where ht served in the engineering corps of the Virginia Midland railway; later accepted a position in Washington under Captain M. V. Meigs, of the United States Engineering
Corps, where he served for one year as as-
sistant engineer of the United States Capi-
tol and Post Office buildings ; was appointed
secretary of the interior under President
Pierce, to report upon the best location for
a bridge across the Potomac, and directed to
present details and estimates therefor; this
rtport was published in the "Congressional
Records," in 1857, and attracted favorable
comment : was selected to make calculations
and estimates for the Cabin John bridge,
which was built under his personal super-
vision ; upon the secession of Virginia he
returned to his native state, and three days
later received the commission of captain of
engineers from the state of Virginia, and
was directed to report to Colonel Talcott,
at that time chief engineer of the state ; was
assigned to duty on the lower Virginia
peninsula, and upon the resignation of Colo-
nel Talcott he was soon made acting chief
engineer of the state of Virginia ; later he
was appointed acting chief of the Engineer
Bureau of the Confederate States, which
position he held until the close of the war;
he was promoted successively to be major,
lieutenant-colonel and colonel of engineers ;
after the war he was offered a professor-
ship in several institutions of learning, and
also a good architectural position under the
United States government, all of which he
declined, preferring to try to recover his
fortunes in Richmond as an engineer and
architect; in 1868 was division engineer of
the Chesapeake & Ohio railroad ; in 1870
was appointed chief engineer of the Mobile
&- Birmingham railroad ; engineer in charge
of the South & North Alabama railroad and
part of the Louisville & Nashville system,
which he completed in 1873; h^ was offered
by Gen. Sherman, for the Khedive of Egypt.
