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Cumberland Gap

(Encyclopedia)Cumberland Gap, natural passage through the Cumberland Mts., near the point where Virginia, Kentucky, and Tennessee meet. The gap was formed by the erosive action of a stream that once flowed there. I...

Clay, Clement Claiborne

(Encyclopedia)Clay, Clement Claiborne, 1816–82, U.S. Senator (1853–61), b. Huntsville, Ala. A legislator and then a judge in his native state, he was twice elected to the U.S. Senate and became an ardent defend...

Barnard, Christiaan Neethling

(Encyclopedia)Barnard, Christiaan Neethling krĭsˈtēänˌ nāˈᵺĭng bärˈnərd [key], 1922–2001, South African surgeon. The son of a Dutch Reformed minister, Barnard studied medicine at the Univ. of Cape To...

Sigel, Franz

(Encyclopedia)Sigel, Franz fränts sēˈgəl [key], 1824–1902, Union general in the American Civil War, b. Sinsheim, Baden, Germany. An officer in the army of Baden, he was a leader (1848–49) of the Baden revol...

Ruffin, Edmund

(Encyclopedia)Ruffin, Edmund rŭfˈĭn [key], 1794–1865, American agriculturist, one of the Southern fire-eaters, b. Prince George co., Va. His interest in improving impoverished land led him to become a pioneer ...

Benacerraf, Baruj

(Encyclopedia)Benacerraf, Baruj bäˈro͞okh bĕnăsˈərəf [key], 1920–2011, American immunologist, b. Caracas, Venezuela, grad. Columbia (B.S., 1942), Medical College of Virginia (M.D., 1945). Raised in Paris,...

Washington, Martha

(Encyclopedia)Washington, Martha, 1731–1802, wife of George Washington, b. New Kent co., Va. The daughter of John Dandridge and Frances Jones Dandridge, she first married (1749) Daniel Parke Custis. She bore him ...

Staunton

(Encyclopedia)Staunton stănˈtən [key], city (1990 pop. 24,461), seat of Augusta co., W central Va., in the Shenandoah Valley; settled 1732, inc. as a city 1871. It is a trade and industrial center in a fertile f...

Boehm, Martin

(Encyclopedia)Boehm, Martin bām [key], 1725–1812, American evangelical preacher, b. Conestoga, Pa. He was the son of a Palatinate Mennonite who settled in Lancaster co., Pa. Boehm became a Mennonite preacher c.1...

Breckinridge, John

(Encyclopedia)Breckinridge, John, 1760–1806, American statesman, b. Augusta co., Va; grandfather of John Cabell Breckinridge. After he was admitted (1785) to the bar, he practiced law in Charlottesville, Va. Elec...