Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1889, volume 6).djvu/592

558 retired by operation of law, 21 Dec, 1861, because of his age. He saw no service during the civil war, on account of his feeble health.

WILSON, William Dexter, clergyman, b. in Stoddard, N. H., 28 Feb., 1816. He was graduated at Walpole academy, where he became teacher of mathematics, entered the Harvard divinity-school in 1835. and was graduated in 1838. Becoming dissatisfied with Unitarianism, he took orders in the Protestant Episcopal church, was ordained deacon in St. Anne's church, Lowell, Mass., 7 April, 1842, by Bishop Griswold, and priest in Trinity church, Rutland, Vt., 21 Sept., 1847, by Bishop Hopkins. He was minister of Christ church, Sherburne, N. Y.. from 1842 till 1850, when he was elected professor of moral and intellectual philoso- phy in Geneva (now Hobart) college. On the opening of Cornell university in 1868, he became professor of philosophy in that institution, which post he held until 1886, when he was retired as emeritus professor. He now resides in Syracuse, N. Y., and is deacon of St. Andrew's divinity-school in that city. He received the degree of D. D. from Geneva college in 1849, that of LL. D. from Bed- ford university, Tenn., in 1868, and that of L. H. D. from the regents of the University of the state of New York in 1872. Dr. Wilson has been active in the affairs of the church in various ways, and has contributed to reviews and magazines during forty years. His chief publications are "The Church Identified " (Utica, 1848) ; " Elementary Treatise on Logic " (New York, 1856) ; " Psychology, Compara- tive and Human " (1871) ; " Text-Book of Logic " (1872) ; " Introduction to the Study of the History of Philosophy " (1872) ; " Live Questions in Psychology and Metaphysics " (1877) ; and " The Foundations of Religious'Belief," Paddock lectures (1883). WILSON, William Lyne, congressman, b. in Jefferson county, Va., 3 May, 1843. He was grad- uated at Columbian college in 1860, afterward studied in the University of Virginia, served in the Confederate army, was professor of Latin in Columbian college from 1865 till 1871, studying law at the same time, and on being admitted to the bar in the latter year engaged in practice at Charlestown, W. Va. He was a delegate to the Democratic national convention and a presidential elector in 1880. In 1882 he became president of West Virginia university, but he resigned in order to take his seat in congress on 1 Dec, 1883. He was re-elected for the three following terms, and served on the ways and means committee that pre- pared the Mills tariff bill, taking an active part in the debates on that measure in 1888. He was a regent of the Smithsonian institution in 1883-'7, and received the degree of LL. D. from Columbian university in 1883.

WILSON, Woodrow, educator, b. in Staunton, Va., 28 Dec., 1856. He is a son of the Rev. Joseph R. Wilson, D. D., and nephew of the Rev. James Woodrow, D. D., of Columbia, S. C. He was graduated at Princeton in 1879, studied law at the University of Virginia, and practised at Atlanta, Ga., in 1882-'3. Preferring to devote himself to special studies, he abandoned the legal profession and took a post-graduate course in history and politics at Johns Hopkins university in 1883-'5, receiving the degree of Ph. D. from that institution in 1886, and that of LL. D. from Wake Forest college, N. C.. in 1887. He was associate in history at Bryn Mawr college, Pa., in 1885-'6, and associate professor of history and political science in the same college in 1886-'8. In the latter year he was elected to the chair of history and political economy in Wesleyan university. Prof. Wilson has published &ldquo;Congressional Government: a Study in American Politics&rdquo; (Boston, 1885). This work has attracted attention in England, Belgium, and Germany. In England it has been accepted as an authority on American institutions. It has also been epitomized by Prof. Émile de Laveleye in the &ldquo;Revue des Deux-Mondes.&rdquo; He has contributed to a collection of essays by American economists, entitled &ldquo;The National Revenues&rdquo; (Chicago, 1888), and articles on political and administrative subjects to periodicals.

WILSTACH, John Augustine (wil'-stack), au- thor, b. in Washington, D. C, 14 July, 1824. He was educated in a military and academical in- stitute that was taught by Ormsby M. Mitchel, and in Cincinnati college, studied law, and began practice in 1850. From 1852 till 1862 he was a master in chancery. In 1867 he was sent to the Paris universal exposition as commissioner for Indiana, and from that year till 1872 he was com- missioner of immigration for the same state. He has devoted his attention to philological studies, and has made the only complete translation of the works of Virgil into English verse, with various readings and notes (Boston, 1884). He also pub- lished a review of the literature relating to Virgil under the title of " The Virgilians " (1884). More recently he has prepared a poetical translation of the " Divine Comedy " of Dante Alighieri, with notes and illustrations (1888), and a volume of criti- cism entitled " Dante, the Danteans, and Things Dantean " (1889). Mr. Wilstach has invented a new character (ai) to represent the Greek diph- thong eu, which was first used in typography in his translation of the " Divina Commedia." He has almost completed a free translation of the entire Bible from the original languages. — His son, Jo- seph Walter, author, b. in Lafayette, Ind., 28 June, 1857, was educated at St. John's college, Fordham, N. Y., studied law, and established him- self in practice at Lafayette, Ind. He has made a translation of some of the " Odes " of Horace (printed privately, New York, 1883), and, besides review articles, has published a " Biography of Count Charles d'Alembert " (1885).

WIMAN, Erastus, capitalist, b. in Churchville, Peel co., Ont., 21 April, 1834. He received a scanty education in a country school, removed to Toronto, and, after working four years as a printer, became a reporter on the Toronto " Globe," and in 1854-'7 was commercial editor of that paper. He edited the Montreal " Trade Review " in 1864-5. In 1856 he entered the service of R. G. Dun and Co.'s mercantile agency, and in 1867 became a partner in its New York house, and subsequently its principal manager. He became president of the Great Northwestern telegraph company of Canada in 1881, is a director of the Western Union telegraph company, and president of the Staten Island Rapid Transit railway company in 1884, and succeeded in carrying through congress the authorization of the Arthur Kill bridge between New Jersey and Staten island, which makes ten miles of water front in New York harbor accessible to trunk railroads. Mr. Wiman was mainly instrumental in establishing the Canadian club of New York in 1885, and was its first president. Through his influence chiefly the project of the commercial union of Canada with the. United States assumed public importance in the former country, and was finally adopted in the winter of 1888 as the main clause in the platform of the Canadian Liberals, under its changed name of unrestricted reciprocity. He was instrumental in securing in 1886 the abolition of imprisonment for debt in New York state.