William |Robert2 |Robert3 |Edmund4|Edmund5George

Edmund 7 Ruffin Family


EDMUND7

Born: About 1794 Evergreen VA
married: ? 1813 Susan Huthings TRAVIS  d/o Champion and Elizabeth Boush Travis of Williamsburg
Residences: Coggin's Point Farm, Prince George Co VA
Died: 15 June 1865 (Remoor, Amelia VA by suicide)

Parents:George and Jane Lucas

EDMUND RUFFIN is well known for "firing the first shot" at Ft. Sumter, for his agricultural
achievements, and his deep devotion to the South and its cause in the War. He
revolutionized fertilization processes in Virginia. Using the Tidewater area's
extensive marl with its high lime content, Ruffin was able to correct Virginia's
highly acidic soil, exhausted after years of tobacco farming and primitive
agricultural techniques. His methods restored Virginia's decling agricultural
economy during the first half of the 19th century.




  • Edmund IV (1814-1876)

  • George (1815, died in infancy)

  • Agnes (1817) m.  6 Jun 
1838 in Petersburg, Virginia - Dr. Thomas Stanley Beckwith
 She died 18 Nov 1865 and he died 22 Aug 
1884 and both were buried in Petersburg, Virginia.

  • Jane (1819, died young)

  • Julian Calx(1821-1864) m. Charlotte Stockdell Meade. Killed CSA Drewry's Bluff May 16, 1864

  • Rebecca (1823-1855)

  • Elizabeth (1824-1860)m. Wm Sayre who became resident manager of
Marlbourne after Ruffin's retirement. Elizabeth died Dec 4, 1860 after giving
birth to a son who died within a few weeks.

  • Mildred )1827-1863) resided at Marlbourne until her marriage (Oct 4, 1859) to Burwell B. Sayre, a Kentucky schoolmaster and brother of Wm Sayre. She gave birth to a daughter in July  1860, but the infant lived only 3 weeks.

  • Jane (1829-1855)married Ruffin's nephew, Dr. John J. Dupuy of Glebe

  • Ella (1833-1855) twin

  • Charles (1833 -?) Prince George Co

    
Researcher on this line: Coleman Ruffin
    
Records of Ante-Belloum Southern
Plantations.  Index of manuscripts, letters, papers of Edmund Ruffin.
    • Poquosin Jack Temple Kirby pg.61-91. Chapter: The Wizard of Shellbanks

    Incidents of My Life: Edmund Ruffin's Auobiographical Essays David F. Allmendinger, Jr.

    Ruffin:Family and Reform in the Old South David F. Allmendinger, Jr.

    Poquosin Jack Temple Kirby pg.61-91. Chapter: The Wizard of Shellbanks

    Edmund's mother, Jane Lucas Ruffin, died when he was a small child and his father, George, remarried Rebecca Cocke, and they had six children (although only 4 survived infancy). George died in 1810 when Edmund was only 16 and he was brought home from William and Mary College in Williamsburg to live at Evergreen, now in the possession of his stepmother.

    In the beginning of the War (August 1812), Edmund enlisted as a private in the Prince George militia and was in Norfolk until Feb 1813. He planned to marry and take possession of Coggins Point farm which had been left to him by his grandfather.

    With the permission of his guardian, Thomas Cocke, in 1813 Edmund married Susan Travis, an orphan from Williamsburg. He remained very close to Thomas Cocke until the older man's suicide in 1840.

    Susan and Edmund had a large number of children--10 by 1832!

    Coggin's Point was 1,500 acres of marsh, ravines, pinewoods and worn out crop fields. Faced with this problem, he developed the agricultural system, keeping a detailed journal.

    Mr. Kirby's chapter makes Edmund come alive!

    N.B. A related collection among the holdings of the Virginia Historical Society is Mss1R8385a, Edmund Ruffin Papers, 1818-1865, included in UPA's Records of Ante-Bellum Southern Plantations from the Revolution Through the Civil War, Series M, Part 4. A related collection among the holdings of the Southern Historical Collection, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, is the Harrison Henry Cocke Papers, 1762-1876, included in UPA's Southern Women and Their Families in the 19th Century: Papers and Diaries, Series A, Part 6.


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