Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1889, volume 6).djvu/524

492 WHITTAKER, Henry, author, b. in Radnor- shire, Wales, 15 Oct., 1808 ; d. in New York citv, 9 Feb.. 1881. He came to New York in 1850, and became managing clerk in a law-office. He published ". Practice and Pleading under the Code. Original and Amended, with Appendix of Forms" (New York, 1852 ; 3d ed., 1863 ; with a supple- ment, 1867), and " Analysis of Recent Decisions on Practice and Pleadings " (1863). — His son, Frederick, author, b. in London, England, 12 Dec, 1838, came to this country with his father in 1850. and studied architecture. During the civil war he was in the National cavalry service, rising to the rank of lieutenant and brevet captain. After the war he became a teacher and journalist. Concerning the circumstances of the battle in which Gen. George A. Custer met his death, he entered into a long and bitter controversy, through a congressional memorial and otherwise, which re- sulted in a military court of inquiry being held in Chicago in 1879, in which his version of the facts was virtually sustained. Since that controversy Mr. Whittaker has withdrawn from all literature save that of the popular order. Pie has written numerous stories for the New York " Ledger," and in March, 1884, he published in the New York " Tribune " a " Defence of Dime Novels, by a Writer of Them." He has published a " Life of Gen. George Armstrong Custer" (New York, 1876) and " Cadet Button." a novel (1878).

WHITTAKER, James, Shaker elder, b. in Old- ham, England, 28 Feb., 1751 ; d. in Enfield, Conn., 20 July, 1787. He was brought up in the faith of the French prophets, and in his youth was placed in the care of Ann Lee, becoming her chief disciple. He accompanied her to America, and when she and her brother William died in 1784 he succeeded as the head of the church, which, under his active ministry, increased in New Lebanon, N. Y., Shir- ley, Harvard, and Woburn, Mass., Enfield, Conn., and otherplaces.

WHITTEMORE, Amos, inventor, b. in Cam- bridge, Mass., 19 April, 1759; d. in West Cain- bridge, Mass., 27 March, 1828. He was the son of a farmer, and, after working for several years as a gunsmith, formed a partnership with his brother and others for the manufacture of cotton and wool cards. After engaging in this business for a short time he invented a machine for puncturing the leather and setting the wires, an operation that had previously been performed by hand. In experi- menting for this invention he met with the great- est difficulty in bending the wires to a given angle after they were finally fastened in the leather, and was on the point of giving up the attempt, when in a dream he discovered the method of effecting it. The invention was patented in the United States in 1797, and Mr. Whittemore went to Eng- land to secure his rights there, but was unsuccess- ful. In this country the invention was sold for $150,000, but afterward it was repurchased by his brother, Samuel, who then conducted the business. His last years were devoted to the construction of an orrery, in which every planet was to describe its own orbit, but he did not complete it.

WHITTEMORE, Don Juan, civil engineer, b. in Milton, Vt., 6 Dec, 1830. He received his early education from his father, who was a,lawyer, and then spent two terms at the Bakersfield academy. In 1847 he became an engineer, and in 1853-'7 was made chief assistant engineer of the La Crosse and Milwaukee railroad, after which he was chief engineer of the Southern Minnesota railway company. His health then failing, he accepted the place of chief assistant engineer of the Western railway of Cuba, but returned to the United States in 1861. and became chief assistant engineer of the La Crosse and Milwaukee railroad. In 1865 he was appointed chief assistant engineer of the Chicago, Milwaukee, and St. Paul railway company, and in 1866 its chief engineer. At that time the road was only 275 miles, but it has steadily increased until it is now 5,675, being the largest railway under one ownership and management in the world. He has had charge of the construction of 2,700 miles of railway line and bridges, including those across Mississippi river at La Crosse, Minne- apolis, and Sabula, and across Missouri river at Kansas City. During 1874-'5 he became much in- terested in the subject of hydraulic cement, and experimented with a product made from stone found near Milwaukee. From these investigations has resulted the establishment of works that now Eroduce 400,000 barrels yearly. A switch-stand of is invention is now in use on more than one tenth the mileage of railways in the United States. The degree of C. E. was conferred on him by the Uni- versity of Vermont in 1884, and that of Ph. D. by the University of Wisconsin in 1884. He is a member of scientific societies and was president of the American society of civil engineers in 1884.

WHITTEMORE; Thomas, clergyman, b. in Boston, 1 Jan., 1800 ; d. in Cambridge, Mass., 21 March, 1861. He was apprenticed, at the age of fourteen, to a morocco-dresser in Charlestown. sub- sequently to a brass-founder, and then to a shoe- maker in Boston. Becoming acquainted with the Rev. Hosea Ballou, he was led to study theology under his direction, and in April, 1821, became fastor of the Universalist church at Milford, Mass. n 1822 he removed to the church in Cambridge- port, the pastorate of w T hich he resigned in 1831. At an early period in his career as a minister he was joint editor of the " Universalist Magazine," and in 1828 he established the " Trumpet," a Uni- versalist newspaper in Boston, of which he was sole editor and proprietor for thirty years. He repre- sented Cambridge repeatedly in the legislature, and was president of the Vermont and IVlassachu- setts railway, and of the Cambridge bank for many years. Tufts college gave him the degree of D. D. in 1858. He published " Modern History of Uni- versalism, from the Era of the Reformation to the Present Time" (Boston, 1830; enlarged ed., 1860); " Notes and Illustrations of the Parables " (1832) ; " Songs of Zion " (1836) ; " Commentary on the Revelation of St. John " (1838) ; " Guide to Univer- salism " (1839) ; " Commentary on the Book of Dan- iel " (1840) ; " The Gospel Harmonist " (1841) ; " Con- ference Hymns " (1842) ; " The Sundav-School Choir" (1844); "Life of Rev. Hosea Ballou" (4 vols.. 1854-'5); and an " Autobiography " (1859).

WHITTHORNE, Washington Curran, senator, b. in Lincoln (now Marshall) county, Tenn., 19 April, 1825. He was graduated at East Tennessee university in 1843, studied law, and was licensed to practise. He was a member of the state senate in 1855-'8, and of the Tennessee house of representatives in 1859-61. Mr. Whitthorne was on the Democratic electoral ticket in 1860, and delegate to the Baltimore convention. At the opening of the civil war he became assistant adjutant-general to Gen. Samuel R.Anderson's Tennessee brigade in the Confederate army, and served throughout the western Virginia campaign. He was adjutant-general of the state of Tennessee in 1862-'5, and was in the various campaigns of the Confederate army of Tennessee as aide on the staffs of Gen. Samuel R. Anderson, Gen. Marcus J. Wright, Gen. John C. Carter, and Gen. William J. Hardee. He was elect-