PROMINENT PERSONS
217
Virginia in 1760, settling in what is now
Alontgomery county. The Craigs were a
prominent family of Southwest Virginia,
and closely allied to the Montgomery famil}'.
Robert Kent was an extensive land owner
and a farmer of Wythe county, where for a
number of years he was a justice of the old
county court. After a careful education in
the preparatory schools in the vicinity of
his home, Robert Craig Kent matriculated at
Georgetown College, Washington, D. C,
and from this institution he went to Prince-
ton, from which he was graduated with the
degree of Bachelor of Arts. He then com-
menced the study of law in the office of
Judge Andrew Fulton, of Wytheville, and
was admitted to the bar in 1853. He at once
established himself in Wytheville and rap-
idly acquired a lucrative and extended prac-
tice. He represented Wythe county in the
constitutional convention which passed the
ordinance of secession for the state of Vir-
ginia ; was twice commonwealth's attorney
oi Wythe county; was twice a member of
the house of delegates of Virginia; served
cnce as president of the electoral college of
Virginia; and was in office as lieutenant-
governor of the state four years. For many
years he served as president of the Farmers
Bank of Wytheville, Virginia. All his life
he was a stanch supporter of the Democratic
party, and he gave his religious support to
the Presbyterian church. Gov. Kent mar-
ried (first) Eliza Ann Wood, (second) An-
astatia Pleasants Smith.
Emmet, Thomas Addis, born at the Uni- versity of Virginia, May 29, 1828, son of Dr. John Patten Emmet (q. v.) and Mary Byrd (Tucker) Emmet. He received his educa- tion at a preparatory school near the univer-
sity, and in a school at Flushing, Long
Ihland, under the charge of the Rev. Francis
L. Hawks, with a partial course in the aca-
demic department of the University of Vir-
ginia. In the autumn of 1845 he entered
Jffterson Medical College, Philadelphia,
under the supervision of Dr. Robley Dung-
lison, one of the original professors, gradu-
ating in 1849-50, and immediately afterwards
passing a competitive examination, and re-
ceiving an appointment as resident physician
to the Emigrant Refuge Hospital, Ward's
Island, New York Harbor. He served in
that capacity for two years, when he was
appointed a visiting physician to the same
institution, and served until the spring of
1855, being the junior by twenty years of
the next youngest member of the medical
board. Forming the acquaintance of Dr. J.
Marion Sims, he began to assist him in his
operations at the opening of the Woman's
Hospital, in May, 1855. In the following
September he received the appointment of
assistant surgeon. This position he held
until the resignation of Dr. Sims, in 1861,
when he became surgcon-in-chief, and when
the Woman's Hospital Association became
merged under the charter of the Woman's
Hospital of the State of New York, in 1868,
he continued to hold the same position from
the board of governors. Under Dr. Emmet's
supervision a large proportion of the money
was subscribed, and the first buildings of
the Woman's Hospital were constructed
under his advice, and he fully organized the
medical department. The service rapidly in-
creased, and Dr. Emmet had a number of
assistants, but it became too large eventual-
ly for him to give his attention to the neces-
sary details. It was then decided by the
board of governors to place the hospital in
