The Dictionary of Virginia Biography is published online through a partnership with Encyclopedia Virginia. Biographies that do not also appear in the three print volumes (surnames Aaroe�Daniels) link to lists of sources consulted.
Sources consulted for the biography of:William Henry Ruffner (1824–1908)
Primary Sources
- Birth and death dates on gravestone, Stonewall Jackson Memorial Cemetery, Lexington, Virginia
- Rockingham County Marriage Register, 1791–1852, Library of Virginia
- Correspondence and other materials in William Henry Ruffner Papers, 1850–1902, Presbyterian Heritage Center, Montreat, North Carolina
- Correspondence, diary (fifth quotation in entry for 29 September–3 October, 1890 on p. 133), and other materials in William Henry Ruffner Papers, 1848–1907, Accession 24814, Library of Virginia (finding aid available online)
- William Henry Ruffner Letters, 1905, Accession 44362, Library of Virginia
- William H. Ruffner Letters, 1855–1888, MS1977-003, Special Collections, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, Virginia
- William Henry Ruffner, Presidents' Subject File, Greenwood Library, Longwood University, Farmville, Virginia
Selected Publications
- Ruffner, Africa's Redemption: A Discourse on African Civilization in its Missionary Aspects, and in its Relations to Slavery and Abolition (1852), first quotation on 17–18
- Ruffner's addresses, articles, and instructions regularly appeared in Educational Journal of Virginia, vols. 1–13 (October 1870–February 1882), including second quotation in 6 (1875):517 and third and fourth quotations in 20 (1889): 247–248
- Ruffner's annual reports as superintendent of public instruction and as president of the State Female Normal School appear in Virginia School Report (1871–1881, 1885)
Secondary Sources
- Walter Javan Fraser, Jr., "William Henry Ruffner: A Liberal in the Old and New South" (Ph.D. dissertation, University of Tennessee, 1970)
- Walter J. Fraser, Jr. "William Henry Ruffner and the Establishment of Virginia's Public School System, 1870–1874," Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, 79 (1971): 258–279
- Celestia Parrish, "William Henry Ruffner, LL.D.," Educational Journal of Virginia 20 (1889): 246–248
Newspapers and Periodicals
- Ruffner's debate with Robert Lewis Dabney printed in Educational Journal of Virginia 7 (1876): 352–362, 387–412, 453–458
- Virginia School Journal 9 (1900): 36, 38–40, 42–43
Obituaries
- Lexington Gazette, 26 November 1908; 2 December 1908 (editorial tribute)
- Southern Workman 38 (1909): 6–7
- Virginia Journal of Education 2 (1909): 1–3, 19
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