Page:Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography volume 3.djvu/348

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304


VIRGINIA BIOGRAI'IIV


William Waugh Smith temporarily ahan- (loned his studies and became associated with his father, reporting the sessions of the Confederate senate for the "Enquirer" and one other periodical. Exempt from military service because of his youth and his reportorial duties, he waived such free- dom from service and enlisted in the Con- federate States army, being twice wounded in action. He was left wounded on the hattlefield of Gettysburg and was cared for in the West Building Hospital in Balti- more, being exchanged among the last pris- oners before the practice was discontinued by Gen. Grant. After the war he and his father continued in the newspaper business a.^ R. M. Smith & Son until 1867, when William W. entered the University of Vir- ginia and his father returned to educational work. In the University of Virginia Dr. Smith graduated in Latin with high honors, then entered Randolph-Macon College, in which his father was professor of natural sciences. He left college to become an in- structor in the Richmond school of Gen. J. II. Lane, and at this time married his first wife. Returning to college in the following vear he was graduated .\. M. in June of 1871. and in the fall of that year formed a coniiectinn with his uncle, Maj. Albert G. Smith, in the conduct of Bethel Military Academy in Fauquier county. In the year 1878 Dr. Smith became professor of moral und mental i)liilosophy in Randolph-Macon College, afterv^'ard occui)ied the chair of Greek, finally that of Latin, in which he had specialized. In 1886 he was elevated to the ] residency of the college, the fruits of his devoted application to its welfare being the addition of more than one hundred and twentv-five thousand dollars to the endow-


ment fund (in addition to forty thousand he had gained for this fund while still a professor), and the establishment of two academies, one at Front Royal, the other at Bedford City, each at a cost of one hun- dred thousand dollars and both under the direction of the college authorities. In 1893 Dr. Smith founded the Randolph-Macon Woman's College at Lynchburg, and from a small beginning built up an institution v.orthy of a great educator. In addition to his duties as president of this college. Dr. Smith retained the chancellorship of the Randolph-Macon educational system. Dr. Smith was a leading layman of the Metho- dist Episcopal church and was a member of the general conference that created the church board of education, of which he was the first secretary, with the powers of ex- ecutive office. He was honored in 1889 with the degree of Doctor of Laws from Wes- levan University, of Middletown, Connecti- cut. .Among his published works are "Outlines of Psychology" and "A Compara- tive Syntax Chart of Latin, Greek, German, I'rench and English." He married (first) Ella Junes, of Richmond : (second) Marion Love Howison. of .Alexandria. \'irginia.

Jordan, Cornelia Jane Matthews, born in Lynchburg, \'irgini;i. January 11, 1830, daughter of Edwin Matthews, at one time mayor of Lynchburg. She was educated at the -Academy of the X'isitation in George- town, D. C. and in 1851 married Francis H. Jordan, of Page county. Virginia. In 1863 she visited Corinth, Mississippi, where her husband was a staff officer under Gen. I'.eau- regard. and where she wrote her poem, 'Corinth." This was seized on its publica- tion in 1865 as "objectionable and incendi-