University of Virginia Library

CHARLES SCOTT VENABLE

Venable Hall bears the name of Charles
Scott Venable, Professor of Mathematics
from 1865 to 1896. He was of the fifth
generation of a family that had settled in
Virginia in 1687, and had been composed
of sturdy country gentlemen, prominent in
public affairs and officers in the Revolutionary
War and in the War of 1812. He
was born 19 April 1827 at "Longwood"
in Prince Edward County, a home eminent
for culture, hospitality, and a wholesome
outdoor life. His father, Nathaniel Venable,
was one of the founders of Hampden-Sydney
College, and the son, trained by
private tutors, entered that College when
twelve years of age and graduated when
fifteen. He remained at Hampden-Sydney
as a Tutor in Mathematics for two years,
and then spent a session at the University
of Virginia, after which he was called back
to his alma mater as Professor of Mathematics.
This post he held until 1856, but
was on leave for a further year at the University

of Virginia (where he completed
the courses in six Schools), and for a year
of study in Germany, at Berlin and at
Bonn. In 1856 he received appointment as
Professor of Natural Philosophy at the University
of Georgia, but his stay there was
for only one year, as he transferred to the
chair of Mathematics and Astronomy at
South Carolina College, later called the
University of South Carolina. While there,
in 1860, he was appointed on a commission
to make observations in Labrador on the
solar eclipse of that year.

At the outbreak of the War of 1861–1865
he promptly volunteered, and saw active
service from the bombardment of Fort
Sumter to the surrender at Appomattox.
In 1862 Venable was chosen by General
Lee as one of his aides, and, attaining the
rank of Lieutenant-Colonel, he remained
in close relationship with the General until
the end of hostilities. Then, like his beloved
Commander, he turned from grievously
blighted hopes to the task of educating
the new generation; and in 1865 he

began his long term of thirty-one years as
Professor of Mathematics at the University
of Virginia.

He was in the true sense a gentleman
and a scholar. Dignified and forceful as a
teacher, he possessed an instinctive comprehension
of the individual needs of his
students, and he made the School of Mathematics
one of the largest and most highly
respected in the University. In the post-war
endeavor to provide text-books for use in
the South, he prepared a number in Mathematics;
indeed he would have covered
that field completely had not other responsibilities
prevented. He was elected Chairman
of the Faculty for the years 1870 to
1873 and from 1886 to 1888; he had a
large share in the establishment of new
Schools, in Astronomy, in Biology and
Agriculture, in Applied Chemistry, in
Engineering, and in Natural History and
Geology; and it was largely he who induced
the Virginia Legislature to increase the annual
appropriation for the University from
$15,000 to $40,000. He was Chairman of

the Trustees of the Miller Manual Labor
School of Albemarle County, and he effectively
aided in making that one of the
foremost industrial schools of the South.

At the University he lived in Pavilion
VIII and in the Monroe House, rendering
his home as hospitable a haven for the
academic community as had been his
ancestral "Longwood." He was married
twice: first, in 1856, to Margaret Cantey
McDowell, a daughter of Governor James
McDowell, who died in 1874; and second,
in 1876, to Mrs. Mary Southall Brown, the
widow of Colonel J. Thompson Brown.
There were five children by the first marriage
and one by the second. One son,
Francis Preston Venable, became President
of the University of North Carolina; and
another, Charles Scott Venable, son by the
second marriage, won renown as a physician
in San Antonio, Texas. Two of his
daughters had the wedded name of Minor.
Mary McDowell Venable married Dr.
Charles Launcelot Minor, a medical specialist
of international reputation; and

Natalie Embra Venable married Raleigh
Colston Minor, Professor of Law, thus uniting
the Minor-Venable families which figure
so notably in University of Virginia
history. Professor Venable's sturdy physique
stood him in good stead until he had
well nigh reached three score years and ten.
But ill health overtook him in 1896, compelling
him to retire from his activities,
and he was named Emeritus Professor.
Death came on 11 August 1900, and he lies
buried in the University Cemetery.