 | A history of Caroline county, Virginia |  |
JOHN VAUGHAN KEAN
John Vaughan Kean was the son of the famous Dr. Andrew
Kean, of Goochland county. His mother was Kitty Vaughan.
He was born in 1802, and was educated at the University of Virginia.
His father was offered the Chair of Medicine in the
University of Virginia by Thomas Jefferson, but, high as the
honor was, he declined it, and kept the offer such a secret that no
one knew of it until the Jefferson letter was found among his
papers after his death.
John Vaughan Kean married Caroline Hill, of Caroline
county, and established "Olney," in Caroline, and entered upon the
profession of teaching. Dr. L. B. Anderson, of Caroline, who
practiced medicine in Norfolk for many years, published in
Richmond a volume, entitled "Brief Biographies of Virginia
Physicians," in which he writes in part as follows: "When seven
years of age I was sent to school to Mr. John Vaughan Kean at
Olney, Caroline county, Va., about two miles from my father's
residence. Mr. Kean had recently lost his wife, Caroline Hill,
leaving him with two sons, Lancelot Minor and Robert Garlick.
Lancelot Minor Kean died of typhoid fever while a medical
student in Philadelphia, and Robert Garlick Hill Kean became a
distinguished barrister in Lynchburg. * * * In John Vaughan
Kean, my first preceptor, were strongly blended suaviter in modo,
fortiter in re. I have seen him weep like a female in reading a
little poem in my spelling book, entitled "A Mother's Gift to Her
Only Boy." Under other circumstances, though it was never my
misfortune to feel its impress, I have had my little heart to bound
and flutter and pause and tremble as his ponderous hand would
fall with sharp concussions on the ears of truant boys. He would
preserve a stern dignity in school hours, and in `play time'
would mingle with the boys in playing marbles, cat, bandy, and
a favorite game called in our school vernacular `chumny.'
During these social hours he would relate anecdotes, grave, sad,
and amusing, some of which were illustrative of the life and
character of his distinguished father, Dr. Andrew Kean."
| A history of Caroline county, Virginia | |