DABXEY
DABXEY
D.
DABNEY, Charles William, U.S. consul, was
born in Alexandria, Va., March 19, 1794; son of
John Bass and Roxa (Lewis) Dabney; and grand-
son of Charles and Mary (Bass) Dabney, and of
Joseph and Molly (Baker) Lewis. The d'Au-
bignes (the original form of the name) were
French Huguenots who emigrated to England
after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, and
thence to America early in eighteenth century.
Charles William was educated partly in France
and partly in America. He was emploj'ed in the
counting house of T. B. Wales & Co. of Boston,
Mass., 1810-13, and in his father's counting house
at Fayal, Azores, 1813-26. His father was U.S.
consul, and on his death in 1826, Charles William
succeeded to his shipping business, and also to
the consulate, which he held, with one short in-
termission, for over forty years. His repeated
acts of benevolence, and his humane conduct in
cases of shipwreck, famine and other disasters
brought to his notice by his business and official
position, gained for him the respect and affection
of the people among whom he lived, and of the
masters and sailors who made the port a harbor.
He became known as " the father of the poor,"
and his benefactions amounted to thousands of
dollars, given from a moderate fortune. In the
political trouble of Portugal in 1830 he acted as
mediator between the contending factions on the
islands and saved the people from serious rebel-
lion. A priest of the defeated faction, in prepar-
ing his will, bequeathed him a large sum of
money as an evidence of his obligation, which
Mr. Dabney persuaded the priest to divert to the
founding of a much needed hospital on the isl-
and. During the civil war in the United States,
Mr. Dabney prevented the blockade runners and
Confederate cruisers from coaling at the islands,
either by his personal influence with the dealers
in coal, or in desperate cases by himself ijurchas-
ing and liolding the supply. Captain Seinmes of
the Alahama, in retaliation, made an effort to
capture ^Mr. Dabney's barque, the Azor, on her
return voj-age from Boston, • blockading it with
the Alabama off Flores, where the barque was
expected to make jxirt, for several days. The
Azor, however, escaped by being accidentally
carried past the port. Mr. Dabney was married,
June 10, 1819, to Frances Alsop Pomeroy, and
their children were, Clara Pomeroy, John Pome-
roy, Charles William, Samuel Wyllys, Poxana
Lewis, Francis Oliver and Frances Alsoj). He
died in Fayal, Azores, Marcli 12, 18T1.
DABNEY, Charles William, educator, was born at Hampden-Sidney, Va., June 19, 1855; son of Robert Lewis and Margaret Lavinia (Morri
son) Dabney; grandson of Charles Dabney of
Louisa county, Va. , and of the Rev. James Mor-
rison, of Rockbridge county, Va. , and a descend-
ant of Cornelius Dab-
ney (D'Aubigne) one
of the two original
settlers of this name
in Virginia. He was
graduated at Hamp-
den-Sidney college in
18T3, taught a classic
school one year, and
was graduated at the
University of Vir-
ginia in 1877. He
was professor of
chemistrj- and miner-
alogy at Emory and
Henry college, Va.,
1877-78, and studied
chemistry, pliysics and mineralogy at Berlin
and Gottingen, Germany, 1878-80; was elected
professor of chemistry in the University of
North Carolina in . 1880, and soon after, state
chemist of North Carolina; became director of
the North Carolina agricultural experiment sta-
tion at Raleigh, in 1881, and also state chemist of
the geological survey and board of health. He
conducted explorations for phosphate in eastern
North Carolina, and was the first to discover
and bring these deposits to the attention of the
scientific and commercial world. He made sim-
ilar explorations of the pyrites deposits in western
North Carolina. He discovered cassiterite (black
tin) and other minerals new to that section.
He represented North Carolina at various exposi-
tions and was the chief of the department of
government and state exhibits of the New Or-
leans World's exposition of 1884-85. While in
North Carolina he was instrumental in providing
buildings with laboratories, glass houses, etc., for
the experiment station, and in organizing and
equipping an experimental farm, a state weather
service, and a permanent exhibit of the state's
resources. He became interested in technical
education and n-rote and lectured upon its neces-
sity in the south. He was also interested in
the establishment of an industrial school in Ra-
leigh, N.C., which became the State college of
agriculture and mechanic arts. He was elected
president of the University of Tennessee in 1887.
He was assistant secretaiy of agriculture, 1893-
97; and was appointed special agent in cJiarge of
scientific bureaus and investigations of the de-
partment of agriculture in 1897, serving in this
position for a few months when he was recalled
