Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 10.djvu/296

 WADSWOKTH

AVAGENER

in natural history in 1S74. and that of Ph.D. in 1879. He was a graduate student in petrograpliy at the Uuiversiiy of Heidelberg. Germany, 1884- 60: was an assistant in lithology at the Museum of Comparative Zoology, Cambridge, Mass.. 1877- 87; professor of mineralogy and geology in Colbj- university, Waterville, Maine, 1885-87; assistant geologist, Minnesota geological survey, 1886-87; director and afterward president of the Michigan College of Mines, and also professor of mineral- ogy, petrography and getjlogy, 1887-99. He served as geologist of the state of Michigan, 1888-93; was engaged in professional work. 1899- 1901; l>ecame head of the department of mines and engineering in the Pennsylvania State college in 1901. and in 1902 was made geologist of the stat« board of agriculture. He was elected a fellow of the American Association for the Ad- vancement of Science: of the Geological society of London; the American Geological societj-; the American Institute of Mining Engineers, and a member of the Boston Society of Natural His- tory, the Natural Geograpliic society and various other scientific organizations. He is the author of: Geology of the Iron and Copper Districts of Lake Sujyerior (1880); The Azoic System and its proposed Sub-divisions, with Josiah D. Whitney (ISSi); Lithological Studies (ISSi); Preliminary Description of the Peridotytes, Gabbros, Diabases and Andesites of Minnesota (1887); Report of the Michigan Geological Survey (1893), also numer- ous papers on educational and scientific sub- jects.

WADSWORTH, Peleg, representative, was bom in Duxbury, Mass., May 6, 174S; son of Peleg and Susanna (Sampson) Wadsworth, and a descendant of Cliristoplier Wadsworth, grand- father of Benjamin (q.v.). He was graduated from Harvard college, A.B., 1769, A.M., 1772, meanwhile teaching school with his classmate, Alexander Scammell, in Plymouth, Mass., where he was maiTied in 1772 to Elizabeth Bartlett. He removed soon after to Kingston, Mass., where he engaged in business, and on Sept. 26, 1774, was chosen a member of the committee of cor- respondence. At the outbreak of the Revolution- ary war he recruited a company of minutemen, of which he was chosen captain: served as aide to Gen. Arleraas Ward (q.v.) in March, 1776, and as an engineer under General Thomas in 1776, as- sisting in laying out the defences of Roxbury, Mass. He was promoted brigadier-general of militia in 1777; adjutant-general of Massa- chusetts in 1778, and was second in command of the forces .sent to Penobscot by Massachusetts in 1779. In 1780 General Wadsworth was placed in command of the whole coast of Maine with a force of 600 men: was taken prisoner in Febru- ary, 1781, and confined in the fort at Castine,

Maine, whence he effected his escape the follow- ing June. In 1784 he removed to Portland, Maine, wliere he was engaged in commercial pursuits and in surveying. He was a state senator, 1792, and was the first representative in congress from that portion of Massachusetts which was after- ward Maine, serving in the 3d-9th congresses, 1793-1807. For his services the government awarded him a grant of land in Oxford county, where he incorporated the township of Hiram, Feb. 27, 1807, serving as selectman, treasurer and magistrate. He was subsequently api>ointed major-general of the Maine militia. Of liis chil- dren, Zilpah married Stephen Longfellow and be- came the mother of Henry Wadsworth Long- fellow; John (Harvard, A.B., 1800) was a law- yer and linguist; Lieut. Henry, for whom his nephew, the poet, was named, heroicalh' met his death, together with the entire volunteer crew, in the explosion of the fire-ship Intrepid, com- manded by Capt. Richard Somers, during the Tripolitan war, Sept. 4, 1804, and Alexander Scammell Wadsworth (q.v.) was a naval oflScer of the war of 1812. General Wadsworth died at Hiram, Maine. Nov. 12. 1829.

WADSWORTH, William Henry, representa- tive, was born in Maysville, K}-. , July 4, 1821; son of Adna Anson and Mary (Ramsdell) Wads- worth; grandson of Timothy Wadsworth, and of Robert Wilkins and Prudence (Bowen) Ramsdell of Woodstock, Conn.; greats-grandson of Joseph Wadsworth (" Charter Oak Joe"), and a descend- ant of William Wadsworth, who came to this country with his brother Christopher, from Eng- land, in the ship Lyon, 1637. He attended pri- vate schools: was graduated from Augusta col- lege, Ky., A.B.. 1841; admitted to the bar, 1840, and practised in Maysville, Ky. He was mar- ried. July 31. 1847, to Martha Moorhead, daugli- ter of Charles and Achsa (Taylor) Wood of Lewis county, Ky. He was state senator, 1853-50; president of the electoral college of Kentucky. 1860: U.S. commissioner under the treaty of Washington with Mexico for the adjustment of claims, and a Republican representative from the ninth district in the 37th, 38th and 49th con- gresses, 1861-65 and 1885-87. He received the honorary degree of LL.D. from Centre college, Danville, Ky., in 1873. He died in Maysville, Ky.. April2, 1893.

WAQENER, David D., representative, was born in Easton, Pa., Oct. 11, 1792: son of Judge Daniel D. and Eve (Opp) Wagener; grandson of David and Susannah (Umsted) Wagener: and brother of Jacob Wagener (1790-1859), trustee of Lafayette college, 1826-43, and donor of the col- lection of mineralogical and botanical specimens to the college. He attended the public .schools; subsequently engaged in mercantile pursuits, and