RUFFNER, Henry, educator, born in Page county, Virginia, 19 January, 1789; died in Malden, Kanawha County, Virginia, 17 December, 1861. His father removed to the valley of the Great Kanawha, where he bought large tracts of land, and was one of the first to manufacture salt there. The son was graduated at Washington college, Virginia, in 1814, studied theology, was licensed by the presbytery of Lexington in 1819, and held various pastorates in the vicinity. He was professor at Washington college (now Washington and Lee university) from 1819 till 1887, and its president from 1837 till 1848, when he resigned and retired to his farm. The degree of D.D. was conferred on him by Princeton in 1838 and that of LL. D. by Washington in 1849. He was the author of a Discourse upon the Duration of Future Punishment" (Richmond, 1823) : "Inaugural Address" (Lexington, 1837) ; " Judith Bensaddi, a Romance" (1840); "The Fathers of the Desert, or an Account of the Origin and Practice of Monkery" (2 vols., New York, 1850); and several discourses, among which was an address against slavery, known as the "Ruffner, Pamphlet" (1847).