History of Accomack County Virginia United States of America

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Benjamin Azariah Colonna, geodetician and civil engineer, was born in Accomack county, Va., Oct. 17, 1843; son of John Wilkins and Margaret (Jones) Colonna; grandson of Benjamin Colonna; and a descendant of Owen Colonna, who emigrated from England and settled in Accomack on the eastern shore of Virginia about 1697, where the male members of the family were prominent as soldiers taking part in the Revolutionary war, the war of 1812 and the civil war. He was a student at the Virginia military institute and with his fellow students entered the service of his state Aug. 3, 1860, and was graduated in 1864, serving at the time in the Confederate army as cadet captain, Company D, corps of cadets, which he commanded at the battle of Newmarket, Va. He attained the rank of captain in the Confederate army and surrendered with Johnston's army at Greensboro, N. C., April 26, 1865. He returned to his home in Accomack county where he engaged in teaching, surveying and farming until July, 1870, when he attached himself to the U.S. coast survey under Gen. R. D. Cutts. He was employed on various duties, passed through several grades in the service, and on July 24, 1885, was assigned to duty as assistant in charge of office and topography in the U.S. coast and geodetic survey at Washington, D. C. In March, 1895, he resigned from the coast and geodetic survey and at once began the construction of a large marine railway at Norfolk, Va. This led to his taking up the study of steel floating dry docks of the latest improved construction and to his advocating them for adoption in the United States for docking ships of the merchant marine and of the navy. Such a dock was provided for in the naval appropriation bill for 1899.

From: Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Johnson, Rossiter, editor

James Henry, jurist, was born in Accomac county, Va., in 1731; of Scotch ancestry. He studied law at the University of Edinburgh and practised in Virginia, where he was married to Sarah Scarborough. He was a man of large means. He was a burgess from Accotone county in 1772; a delegate to the Continental congress, 1780-81; judge of the court of admiralty, 1782-88; and judge of the general court from Dec. 24, 1788, until January, 1800, when he resigned. He had six children: Edward Hugh, who married first, Martha Catherine, daughter of Gov. Patrick and Dorothea (Dandridge) Henry, and secondly, Elizabeth Washington, daughter of Dr. Valentine and Betty (Washington) Peyton; Samuel; John; Mary, who married John Wise, who afterward, by his second marriage, became the father of' Henry A. Wise, governor of Virginia; Tabitha, and Sarah Elizabeth. Judge Henry died in Accomac county, Va., Dec. 9, 1804.

From: Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Johnson, Rossiter, editor

Edward Southey Joynes, educator, was born in Accomac county, Va., March 2, 1834; son of Thomas R. and Anne Bell (Satchell) Joynes; grandson of Maj. Levin Joynes, of the Continental army, and a descendant of some of the earliest English settlers on the eastern shore of Virginia. He entered Delaware college in 1848, afterward studied in the celebrated Concord academy, Va., and was graduated from the University of Virginia, A.B., 1852, A.M., 1853. He was assistant professor of ancient languages in the University of Virginia, 1853-56, and studied in Berlin, 1856-58. He was married in 1859 to Eliza Waller Vest, of Williamsburg, Pa. He was professor of Greek in the College of William and Mary, 1858-65; served in the Confederate war department, 1861-64; taught in Hollis institute, Va., 1864-65; was professor of modern languages in Washington college, Lexington, Va., 1866-75; helped to organize and was professor in Vanderbilt university, 1875-78; professor of English and modern languages and belles-lettres at the University of Tennessee, 1878-82; professor of English and modern languages in South Carolina college, 1882-88, and in 1888 was made professor of modern languages. He founded and became a trustee of the Winthrop Normaland Industrial College for Women, Columbia, S.C. He edited the "Joynes-Otto" series of text-books in French and German (1870-75); "Classic French Plays" (2 vols., 1870-82), and numerous other textbooks in French and German. He actively promoted the public-school work of Virginia and Tennessee, 1866-82, and subsequently that of South Carolina. He received the honorary degree of LL.D. from Delaware college in 1875, and from the College of William and Mary in 1878. He is the author of: Joynes-Meissner German Grammar (1887); Minimum French Grammar (1893), and several lectures and addresses on educational topics.

From: Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Johnson, Rossiter, editor

History of Accomack County Virginia

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