Matthew Fontaine Maury

number 30 — summer 2021 Matthew Fontaine Maury By Stuart Moore Presented to The Fortnightly, November 14, 1941 n January 14, 1806, in the part of Spotsylvania and five daughters, took the rough trail through south- County known as the Wilderness, some twelve west Virginia to middle Tennessee. O miles west of Fredericksburg, was born Mat- There his brother, Major Abram P. Maury, had al- thew Fontaine Maury, of French and Dutch ancestry, the ready established himself as a lawyer and prominent first represented by his father, Richard Maury, and the citizen; in 1807 a new county was created and named latter by his mother, who had been Diana Minor. Maury County in his honor. It is reasonable to suppose At this time Thomas Jefferson was in his second that it was the hand of this substantial brother that beck- term as president of the young nation, which had assert- oned Richard. The overland voyagers, weary no doubt, ed its independence less than thirty years before; John drew rein at their new home on the Harpeth River near Marshall was its new chief justice, and his decisions were Franklin, Tennessee, about eighteen miles southwest laying a sturdy foundation for the struggling union. of Nashville, amid a pioneer land of boundless forests, In this same year Lewis and Clark had returned from their explorations beyond the Rocky Mountains, Stuart Moore (1893–1961) was born and educated in Lexington and bringing tales of a great new land to be developed. It was spent his career here as a lawyer, businessman and elected public the age of the covered wagon and the start of the winning official. His Fortnightly paper focused principally on Maury’s career as a scientist and naval officer. Maury’s role in the Civil War and of the west. As a result, families were pouring over the as a Virginia Military Institute professor is explored in somewhat Alleghanies, and in 1810 Richard Maury sold his land in more detail in “ ‘All Is Well’: The Life of Matthew Fontaine Maury,” by Keith E. Gibson of VMI, a paper presented to the Rockbridge Spotsylvania for $300,000 and, with his wife, four sons Historical Society in 2006 and available in RHS’s Proceedings XIV. 2 Matthew Fontaine Maury Matthew Fontaine Maury 3 bitten off and his back so severely injured it was thought daughter of Dabney Herndon of Fredericksburg. A spark he would never again indulge in active work. was lighted that smoldered for nine years before Matthew To make the best of this unpromising situation, his could return to claim her as his bride. father, with little or no enthusiasm, entered Matthew His dwindling funds replenished by a generous at Harpeth Academy, a frontier institution of learning. traveling allowance from the Navy Department, Mat- Yet Matthew’s first impetus for more than superficial thew proceeded to New York, where he boarded his first learning came not from Harpeth Academy and its small ship, the frigate Brandywine, which had been commis- corps of somewhat unusual instructors, but rather from sioned to carry back to France the distinguished visitor an obscure neighborhood shoemaker named Neal. The Lafayette. The Brandywine took sail with the cheers of rough shoes of the numerous Maury progeny must have America following her down the Chesapeake and a rain- required numerous trips to Neal’s shop for re-soling, bow spanning the skies. But foul weather and seasick- and the new leather bottoms more often than not were ness soon banished all remembrance of the rainbow, and The Brandywine, 1831. covered from end to end with mystic figuring in which Lafayette and nearly all on board languished in misery the letters “x” and “y” predominated. Prodded by curi- for the greater part of the voyage. Throughout life he was the islands, learned to converse with the old chief in the osity to investigate the meaning of these symbols, young never able to board ship without more or less violent native tongue; and the chief, much impressed, offered Maury discovered that the old cobbler was a mathemat- seasickness, but it is related that he continued about his Matthew a native bride and a royal throne, the first of ics fanatic who solved algebraic problems on the fresh duties preserving an amiable manner even while suffer- many unusual honors, and one he respectfully declined. sheets of leather; the contagion of this old man’s zeal ing active nausea. In the years from 1825 to 1839, Maury was assidu- gave birth to Maury’s ambition to become a master of After depositing its famous guest, who carried the ous in his study and training. During the year 1830–31, the science of mathematics. ship’s flag ashore as a memento, the Brandywine joined while on shore duty, he completed his examination for the United States squadron under Commodore John the rank of passed midshipman [i.e., eligibility for pro- ne of Maury’s boyhood dreams was that Rodgers and remained at Gibraltar for the winter, dur- motion to lieutenant] — but without distinction, rank- The U.S. Navy’s portrait of Matthew Maury, he might enter the military academy at West ing which time the young recruit gave serious attention ing twenty-seventh in a class of forty. Then followed a painted in 1923 by Ella Sophonisba Hergesheimer. O Point, but his father’s opposition to the idea to his duties and studies, learning Spanish and acquiring cruise of three years in and around South America. sparsely settled farming land, and widely dispersed log boiled into rage. There was yet no naval academy, but a reputation as a master of mathematics. At last, in 1834 he returned to Virginia and married cabin homes. John Minor Maury, the eldest brother, had boarded a Matthew Maury spent the next three years at var- Ann Hull Herndon. At their new home in Fredericks- So far as we know the young Matthew Maury led a ship at thirteen for training as a midshipman, had seen ious South American ports before heading to the far burg he completed writing a book on navigation, which wholesome existence as he grew older — hunting, clear- strange lands and experienced thrilling adventure. So Pacific, where his ship visited Tahiti, the Sandwich or he had begun at sea. The first work on nautical science ing new ground, working in the cotton fields, and at in the year 1825, without disclosing his plan to Rich- Hawaiian islands, China and Manila, thence proceeding by a naval officer of the United States, it was adopted as a somewhat rare intervals attending the field schools that ard Maury, Matthew, then nineteen years old, secured westward around the Cape of Good Hope and across the text in the Navy and used at the naval academy when the provided the rudiments of education on the frontier. an appointment as a midshipman in the United States Atlantic to New York. latter was established in 1845. Nothing, in short, indicates that he would have de- Navy with the help of Sam Houston, famed native son In the Marquesas Islands, Matthew encountered an Maury was promoted to lieutenant in 1836, and was veloped into other than an enterprising Southern plant- of Rockbridge County, who was then a member of Con- old native chief who had befriended his elder brother, often called upon to deliver lectures on various scientif- er, until there came the first of two serious accidents. It gress from Tennessee. John Minor Maury, during two years when the young ic subjects. He was made superintendent of the United is not known whether the youngster of twelve was en- The father grudgingly permitted the boy to go his officer was exiled there. Left with six other Americans States gold mine near Fredericksburg, and worked in as- gaged in hunting, or helping his elders about their work, way; and with a horse bought on credit and thirty dollars by a merchant ship which, because of the British block- tronomy in Philadelphia and elsewhere. In 1838, he con- or merely exercising his young limbs, but he was high in his pocket, he set out into a strange new world, stopping ade, never returned, all but John Maury and one oth- tributed a series of articles to the Richmond Whig under in a tree, forty-five feet from the ground, when he fell. in Albemarle County at the home of his cousin, Reuben er were killed in the course of a native war. Finally the the pen name of Harry Bluff, criticizing certain methods By all usual rules he should have been killed by this fall Maury, with fifty cents remaining. Then, upon reaching U.S. Essex, under David Porter, came to the rescue of and practices of the Navy and pointing out the remedies and, in fact, those with him were convinced he was dead, Spotsylvania after fourteen years’ absence, he met his kin, the two survivors. Matthew Maury, by dint of concen- for these in a keen, witty, and yet forthright manner. He But after a time he revived, badly hurt, his tongue nearly and among these was a young cousin, Ann Herndon, trated study during the two or three weeks he spent in advocated improved means of training young men for 4 Matthew Fontaine Maury Matthew Fontaine Maury 5 the Navy, and urged the establishment of a naval acade- Lieutenant Maury, 1853. avidly digested and collated the data these resources went straight to the spot, and there the wounded vessel Library of Congress photograph. my. Seven years later the United States Naval Academy contained. By the and of his first year in office he had was found.

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