Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 7).djvu/334

286 the regular army in September, and brigadier- general, 3 Nov., 1898. Seven days later Gen. Worth was retired from active service on account of several severe disabling wounds.

WRIGHT, Edward, soldier, b. in Salem, Ohio, 27 June, 1834 ; d. in Des Moines, Iowa, 6 Dec, 1895. Ho was educated in his native town, removed to Iowa at the age of nineteen, and was elected to the legislature in 1857, being re-elected for the two following terms. Early in 1863 he was commis- sioned major of the 24th Iowa infantry, and saw much active service in the civil war, participating in numerous battles, and on two occasions was se- verely wounded, and at its close was brevetted brigadier-general for his excellent war record. Gen. Wright was returned to the Iowa legislature and elected speaker in 1865, and in the following year became secretary of state, serving acceptably as such for three terms. On his retirement from this office he was appointed secretary of the Iowa state capitol commission.

WRIGHT, William James, professor, b. in Weybridge, Vt., 3 Aug., 1831, and was graduated at union college and Princeton theological semi- nary. He was an army chaplain during the last two years of the civil war, later having charge of Presbyterian churches in New Jersey and Ohio. In 1876 he was elected to the professorship of mathe- matics in Wilson college, and seven years later he was elected to the same position in Lafayette, but did not accept the chair. Since 1887 he has been professor of metaphysics in Westminster college, Missouri. He has received the honorary degree of D. D. from Shurtleif college and thatof LL. I), from Westminster. Prof. Wright is a member ot the London mathematical society, also of the American association for the advancement of science, and he is the author of numerous papers on Determinants, Trilinear Coordinates, and Invariants, also of va- rious contributions on philosophical subjects.

WYLIE, Andrew, jurist, b. in Canonsbnrgh, Washington co.. Pa., 25 Feb., 1814. He was gradu- ated at the University of Indiana in 1833. and studied at Transylvania university, being admitted to the Pittsburg bar in 1837 ; was afterward elect- ed attorney for that city. In the great Pittsburg fire of April, 1845, Mr. Wylie's library with all his private and professional papers were destroyed. Three years later he removed to Alexandria, Va., opening a law office in Washington, I). C, where he practised successfully. In 1860 he cast the only vote for Abraham Lincoln that was given in "Alexandria, and at the opening of the civil war removed his residence to Washington, where he has ever since lived. In March, 1863, Presi- dent Lincoln appointed him justice of the su- preme court of the District of Columbia, which office he filled with honor and ability for more than twenty-two years, when Judge Wylie retired from the bench on account of age in June, 1885.

WYMAN, Walter, surgeon-general, b. in St. Louis, 17 Aug., 1848. and was graduated at Am- herst and at the St. Louis medical college. After spending several years in city hospitals, he in 1876 entered the marine hospital service, serving in Bal- timore, Cincinnati, New York, and Washington, and in 1891 became surgeon-general. Dr. Wynian made ast udy of the physical conditions affecting sea- men of the merchant marine, and was instrumental in causing laws to be passed in their behalf, also bringing to light cruellies imposed on deck-hands on the Mississippi and other western rivers, and on the crews of oyster-boats in Chesapeake bay, where he established a hospital for their benefit. Gen. Wyman, who had charge of the government measures to ward oil cholera in 1893, is the author of several brochures connected with public health.

WYMAN, William Stokes, educator, b. in Montgomery, Ala., 23 Nov., 1830, and was gradu- ated at the university of his native slate, from which, in 1882, he received the honorary degree of LL. D. Soon after his graduation he was appoint- ed professor in his alma matar. in which position he has continued almost continuously for nearly half a century, occasionally acting as president. Prof. Wyman has several times declined the presi- dency of the university in which he is at present (1900) occupying the Latin chair. He has been a member of the Alabama assembly, has long been a recognized authority on the history of his native state, as well as the other Gulf states, and has been a frequent contributor to the "t^entury," " Knickerbocker," " Magazine of American His- tory," and other leading periodicals.