Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1889, volume 6).djvu/620

584 mitted to the bar of Detroit in 1819, was prose- cuting attorney and probate judge of Wayne county, and in 1843 district judge of the criminal court of Wayne, Washtenaw, and Jackson counties. He became historiographer of Detroit in 1855, and from 1857 until his death was circuit judge of Wayne county. He was appointed a regent of the State university in 1848, served several terms in the legislature, was a member of the State consti- tutional convention in 1850, and president of the Michigan historical society for many years.

WITHERS, Frederick Clarke, architect, b. in Shepton Mallet, Somersetshire, England, 4 Feb., 1828. He was educated in King Edward's school in Sherborne, Dorsetshire, and then devoted him- self to the study of architecture. Mr. Withers early came to this country and established for

himself a high reputation for his designs of churches. Among these are St. Luke's, Matteawan, N. Y. ; the 1st Presbyterian, Newburg, N. Y. ; St. Thomas's, Hanover, N. H. ; the Church of the Ad- vent, Louisville, Ky. ; St. Luke's, Altoona, Pa. ; and Calvary, Summit, N. J. Of other buildings, the Hudson river state hospital for the insane at Pough- keepsie, N. Y. ; and the buildings of the Columbia institution for deaf and dumb at Washington, D. C., are from his plans. The Jefferson market court-house and prison in New York, designed in the Italian Gothic style, is the only public building where that style has been introduced, and ranks as one of the best pieces of architectural designing in that city. He also designed and had charge of the erection of the altar and reredos in Trinity church, New York city, in honor of William B. Astor. This memorial, carved in Caen stone, occupies nearly the entire width of the chancel, and is about twenty feet high. The altar, of white marble, is eleven feet long, and is divided into panels, in the central one of which is a Maltese cross in mosaic set with cameos, on which are cut the symbols of the evangelists. In beauty of de- sign and delicacy of carving this reredos is among the best works of its character on the American continent. (See illustration.) During 1861-2 Mr. Withers served as an officer in the New York vol- unteer engineers, and he has published ''Church Architecture" (New York. 1873).

WITHERS, Jones Mitchell, soldier, b. in Madison county, Wis., 12 Jan., 1814. He was graduated at the U. S. military academy in 1835, and resigned in the same year, but during the Creek disturbances in 1836 commanded the Ala- bama volunteers. He subsequently studied law in Tuscaloosa, Ala., became private secretary to Gov. Clement C. Clay, and was admitted to the bar in 1838. He settled in Mobile as a lawyer and com- mission merchant in 1841. He was in the legisla- ture in 1855, mayor of Mobile in 1856-'61, and at the beginning of the civil war entered the Confed- erate army as colonel of the 3d Alabama infantry. He became brigadier-general in July, 1861, com- manding the defences of Mobile, major-general early in 1862, commanded a division at Shiloh. and participated in the battle of Stone River, 31 Dec. r 1862. He was subsequently in charge of a depart- ment, with headquarters at Montgomery, Ala. After the war he returned to Mobile, and edited the " Tribune " in that city.

WITHERS, Robert Enoch, senator, b. in Campbell county, Va., 18 Sept., 1821. He was graduated at the medical department of the Uni- versity of Virginia in 1840, and practised his pro- fession in his native county for fifteen years, after- ward removing to Danville, Va. Early in 1861 he- became colonel of the 18th Virginia regiment, and with that command he participated in all the bat- tles of the Army of Northern Virginia from Bull Run to Gaines's Mills, where he was severely wounded. Being incapacitated for further field duty, he was then assigned to the charge of the prisons and hospitals in Danville, Va., which post he held till the close of the civil war. He edited the " Lynchburg News " in 1866-'8, and subse- quently the " Richmond Enquirer," and was nomi- nated for governor by the Democratic party in 1868, but withdrew in "favor of Gilbert C. Walker, Conservative. He was a presidential elector in 1873, became lieutenant-governor, 1 Jan., 1874 r and on the 13th of the same month was chosen U. S. senator as a Democrat, succeeding John F. Lewis, Republican, and serving one term. Since 1885 he has been U. S. consul at Hong Kong. China.

WITHERSPOON, John, signer of the Declara- tion of Independence, b. in* Gifford, Haddington- shire, Scotland, 5 Feb., 1722; d. near Princeton, N. J., 15 Sept., 1794. Through his mother he was descended from John Knox. His father, James Witherspoon, was minister of the parish of Yester y which included the village of Gifford. The son was gradu- ated at Edinburgh university in 1742, and in 1745 was ordained minister of the parish of Beith. "While look- ing at the battle of Falkirk he was made a prisoner, and confined for two weeks, to the permanent injury of his health. He gained a wide rep- utation, first by a satirical essay on ec- clesiastical abuses, and afterward by a disquisition on the Calvinistic doctrine of justification by faith, and was installed pastor at Paisley on 16 Jan., 1757, and in the course of a year was chosen moderator of the synod of Glasgow and Ayr. The University of Aberdeen conferred on him the degree of D. D. in 1764. He declined the presidency of Princeton college in 1766, but accepted a second invitation, and was inaugurated on 17 Aug., 1768. He brought with him 300 valuable volumes as a gift to the college, while his friends in Scotland and England gave many more. Finding the treasury empty, he made a