REID, ANDREW
Andrew Reid, of Mulberry Hill, married Magdalene, daughter of Samuel McDowell, and had three sons and eight daughters. He was the first clerk of Rockbridge. Samuel McDowell Reid, one of the three sons, was born in 1790, and was an adjutant under his cousin, Colonel James McDowell, in the war of 1812. He succeeded his father as county clerk, after serving a time as deputy. He was a founder of the Franklin Society, more than fifty years trustee of Washington College and Ann Smith Academy, a chief organizer of the Rockbridge County Fair, and was mainly instrumental in opening the North River to Lexington. He died in 1869. From his marriage to Sarah E. Hare, only two children, Mary L., and Agnes, grew to maturity. The former married Professor James J. White.
(Source: The History of Rockbridge County, Virginia, By Olen Morton, Publ. 1920. Transcribed by Andrea Stawski Pack)

ROBERTSON, MARION GORDON
Marion Gordon "Pat" Robertson was born on March 22 1930 in Lexington VA.   His parents were a conservative Democratic US Senator Absalom Willis Robertson and Gladys Willis Churchill.  On August 26, 1954 he married Adelia Elmer.  He is the founder of numerous organizations and corporations.  He is a Southern Baptist and was an ordained minister with the Baptists for many years.  He holds to a Charismatic theology.  In 1988 he unsuccesfully campained with the Republican Party for the Presidential election. 
(Source: Wikipedia)

ROBINSON, JOHN
John Robinson came from Ireland to Rockbridge in 1770, when seventeen years of age. He learned the trade of weaver, but by turning horse trader and speculating in soldiers' certificates, he became able to purchase Hart's Bottom in 1779. He enlarged his landed property to 800 acres, exclusive of his holdings on the Cowpasture. He was not highly successful as a planter, although he became owner of sixty slaves. It was mainly by the distilling of whiskey that he accumulated his fortune. Mr. Robinson was without an heir, and decided to devote his entire estate to educational uses. In 1820 he rescued the Ann Smith Academy from a sheriff's sale by taking up a judgment against it of about $3,000. His will begins by saying that "John Robinson, a native of the county of Armagh in the north of Ireland, but now a resident of Hart's Bottom, in the county of Rockbridge and the state of Virginia, having migrated to America just in time to participate in its Revolutionary struggle (which I did in various situations) and having since that period by a long, peaceful, and prosperous intercourse with my fellow citizens amassed a considerable estate which I am desirous of rendering back to them, upon terms most likely to conduce to their essential and permanent interests, do therefore will and ordain."  He endowed a chair of geology and biology, and a clause in the will provides that two medals shall be given yearly.”  With the exception of General Washington he was the first considerable benefactor of the college. Mr. Robinson died in 1826, and in 1855 a monument to his memory was erected on the college campus.
(Source: The History of Rockbridge County, Virginia, By Olen Morton, Publ. 1920. Transcribed by Andrea Stawski Pack)

RUFFNER, HENRY
Henry Ruffner, son of Colonel David Ruffner of Page county, and grandson of Peter Ruffner, a German immigrant, was born in Page in 1789. He was educated at Washington College from which he was graduated in 1817. Two years later he entered the same college as a professor, and also was licensed to the Presbyterian ministry. From 1836 to 1848 he was the college president. He then retired to a farm on the Kanawha and ceased preaching a year before his death, which took place in 1861. Princeton gave him the degree of Doctor of Divinity. Doctor Ruffner was an occasional contributor to the religious press. His wife was Sarah, daughter of William Lyle of "Oakley" on Mill Creek.
(Source: The History of Rockbridge County, Virginia, By Olen Morton, Publ. 1920. Transcribed by Andrea Stawski Pack)

RUFFNER, WILLIAM HENRY