Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1889, volume 6).djvu/494

462 Minn. Having many Indians within his jurisdic- tion and in the neighboring territories, he has de- voted his energies largely to their improvement, education, and evangelization. He is known among the tribes as " Straight Tongue." He is one of the origi- nal members of the Pea- body educa- tion fund. For many years he has been a recog- nized authori- ty on all ques- tions relating to the vexed Indian prob- lem, and he is often consult- ed by the U. S. govern- ment in such matters. He is a member of the government commission for the consolidation of Indian tribes that are capable of civilization, and has been able to do much in this direction. In northern Minnesota 1,500 Christian Chippewa Indians are gathered on White Earth reservation engaged in agriculture and cattle-raising. He attended the third Pan- Anglican council at Lambeth palace in 1888, and took part in the funeral services of Bishop Harris, of Michigan, in Westminster abbey. One of the principal buildings in Faribault college is called Whipple Hall in his honor. Racine gave him the degree of D. D. in 1859. He has written much for the press and periodicals on the Indian question, and has also published sermons, addresses, and charges.

WHIPPLE, John Adams, inventor, b. in Grafton, Mass., 10 Sept., 1822. While a boy he was an ardent student of chemistry, and on the intro- duction of the daguerreotype process into this coun- try he was the first to manufacture the chemicals that were used in it. His health having become impaired through this work, he devoted his atten- tion exclusively to photography, in connection with which he made many useful inventions and im- provements. He prepared his plates and brought out his pictures by steam, invented crayon daguer- reotypes, and crystalotypes, or daguerreotypes on glass, and, with the aid of the fifteen-inch equa- torial telescope of the Harvard college observatory, under the direction of Prof. William C. Bond, took a daguerreotype of the moon's surface, for which he was complimented by the Royal academy of arts and sciences of London, and on 17 July, 1850, photographed Alpha Lyra, which is said to have been the first successful experiment in stellar photography. He received the prize medal at the World's fair, London, and a silver medal at the Crystal palace, New York.

WHIPPLE, Squire, civil engineer, b. in Wor- cester county, Mass., 16 Sept., 1804 ; d. in Albany, N. Y., 15 March, 1888. He earned sufficient money by teaching to educate himself at Hartwick semi- nary and Fairfield academy, and was graduated at Union college in 1830. Having acquired a fond- ness for mechanical pursuits as a boy in his father's I cotton-factory, he now turned his attention to civil engineering, and was successively a rod-man and leveller on the Baltimore and Ohio railroad. In 1840 he designed and built the first model of a I scale for weighing canal-boats, and subsequently he built the first weigh-lock scale on the Erie canal. He began his career as a bridge-builder in 1840 by designing and patenting an iron-bridge truss. During the next ten years he built several bridges on the Erie .canal and the New York and Erie railroad. In 1852-'3 he built a wrought- and cast- iron bridge over the Albany and Northern railroad, and by his work acquired the title of the " father of iron bridges." He obtained a patent for his lift draw-bridge in 1872, and in 1873-'4 built the first one over the Erie canal at Utica. Since that time the Whipple iron bridges have stood in the foremost rank. He possessed a fine cabinet of models, instruments, and apparatus, mostly made by himself, illustrating the different branches of physical and mechanical science. Mr. Whipple was elected an honorary member of the American society of civil engineers in 1868. He was the author of "The Way to Happiness" (Utica, 1847), and a "Treatise on Bridge-Building" (1847; en- larged ed., New York, 1873).

WHIPPLE, William, signer of the Declara- tion of Independence, b. in Kittery, Me., 14 Jan., 1730; d. in Portsmouth, N, H., 28 Nov., 1785. His father, William, a native of Ipswich, Mass., was bred as a maltster, but, removing to Kittery, engaged in a seafaring life for several years. The son was educated at a public school in his native town, and afterward became a sailor, having com- mand of a vessel before he was twenty-one years of age. He engaged in the European, West India, and African trade, and brought large numbers of negro slaves to this country, but afterward, during the Revolution, liberated those that belonged to him. In 1759 he abandoned the sea entirely and entered into busi- ness in Portsmouth with his brother Joseph, which connection lasted till about two years previous to the Revolution. At an early period of the contest between the colonies and Great Britain he took a decided part in favor of the former. He was elected a delegate from New Hampshire to the Continental congress in 1775, taking his seat in May. was re-elected, 23 Jan., 1776, took his seat on 29 Feb. following, and signed the Declaration of Independence in July. He was re-elected to con- gress in 1778, and declined to be chosen ;i irtiin. but was a member of the state assembly in 1780-'4. He was commissioned a brigadier - general in 1777, commanded a brigade of New Hampshire troops at the battles of Saratoga and Still- water, and. after the surrender of Burgoyne, signed the articles of ca- pitulation with Col. James Wil- kinson ' on behalf of Gen. Horatio Gates. Gen. Whip- ple was afterward selected as one of the officers under whose charge the British troops were conducted to their place of encampment on Winter hill, near Boston. In 1778 he participated in Gen. Sullivan's expedition to Rhode Island, having command of the detachment of militia from New Hampshire, but the expedition failed of success, and he resigned his military appointment, 20 June, 1782. In 1780 he