Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 10.djvu/470

 AVISNER

WISTAR

General board, 190.2; i»romoted rear-admiral, June 13. VM2; commandant of the navy yard and sUition. Pensjicola, Fia., and also of the Gulf Naval district, 1902-03, and ordered to command and organize the training squadron, June, 1903. During his service, he commanded eight and served on twenty-eight men-of-war. The honor- arv degree of A.M. was conferred on him by Yale in ISltSi.

WISNER, Henry, delegate, was born in Goshen. N.Y., in 1725. He was appointed an as- sistant justice of the court of common pleas in 176S; was a member of the New York assembly, 1759-69; a delegate to the Continental congress, 1774-76, and was the only delegate from New York, who voted in favor of the Declaration of Independence. He engaged in the manufacture of gunpowder for the patriot army in Goshen, N.Y.. and at his own expense, mounted cannon on the banks of the Hudson River, to prevent the British vessels from passing the Highlands. He was a member of the state constitutional con- ventions of 1777 and 1788, and state senator, 1777-'^2. He died in Goshen, N.Y., in 1790.

WISTAR, Caspar, physician, was born in Pliihidelphia. Pa.. Sept. 13. 17G1; son of Richard and Sarah (Wyatt) AVistar; grandson of Caspar, (who emigrated from Germany in 1714, and set- tled in Philadelphia) and Catharine (Jansen) "Wistar, and a descendant of Johannes Caspar of Heidell)erg. Baden, whose ancestors came from the Austrian province of Silesiaat an earlj' date, when the succession of the Electorate of Baden devolved upon the members of the Hapsburg House, in whose hereditary service the Caspars were engaged for centuries before the Reforma- tion. He attended the Friends' school; studied medicine under Dr. John Redman, and was grad- uated from the medical department of the Uni- versity of Pennsylvania in 1782. He studied in England and Scotland, 1782-87; was president of the Royal Medical society of Edinburgh for two years; and in January, 1787, returned to Philadelphia, where he was apjwinted a physician to the city dispensary. He was professor of chemistry and the institutes of medicine at the College of Philadelphia, 1789-92; adjunct profes- sor of anatomy, midwifery and surgery at the University of Pennsylvania, 1792-1808, and pro- fessor of anatomy, 1808-18. He was married in 1798, to ElizaV>eth, daughter of Governor Mifflin of Pennsylvania. He was physician of the Penn- sylvania hospital until 1810. and initiated gather- ings of citizens and distinguished foreigners at his hoase to discuss subjects of popular interest, These meetings, known since his death as Wistar parties, resulted in the formation of a club bear- ing his name. He succeeded Dr. Benjamin Rush as president of the Society for the Abolition of

Slavery; was a fellow of the College of Phj'si- cians, 1787, and a censor, 1794-1818; a member of the American Philosophical society, 1787-95; its vice-president, 1795-1815, and succeeded Thomas Jefferson as president of the same, 1815- 18. The climbing Chinese shrub Wistaria was named in his honor by its English discoverer. He contributed papers to the Transdctions of the College of Pliysicians, and to tliose of the Ameri- can Philosophical society, and is the autlior of: A System of Anatomy for the Use of Students of Medicine (2 vols., 1814), which was long the prin- cipal text book in the United States, He died in Philadelphia, Pa., Jan. 22, 1818.

WISTAR, Isaac Jones, soldier, was born in Philadelphia, Pa., Nov. 14. 1827: kinsman of Dr. Casper (q.v.) aiul Lydia (Jones) Wistar. He pre- pared for college at the Westtown Boarding school; entered the sophomore class of Haver- ford college in 1840; left in 1843, and in 1849 went overland to California with a party, one fourth of whom were killed by the Indians. He sailed befoi-e the mast on a trading ship on the Pacific; spent two years in the service of the Hudson Bay company, going to the head waters of the Mackenzie river; was wounded in an en- gagement with the Rogue river Indians; returned to San Francisco, where he studied law with Corbett and Page, and became a law partner with Edward D. Baker (q.v.) in 1853. He re- turned to Pliiladelphia in 1858, where he prac- tised law until April. 1861, when with Colonel Baker he raised 16 companies of 100 men each, enlisted for tliree years and known as the 1st California regiment, of which he became lieu- tenant-colonel. When Colonel Baker was killed at Ball's Bluff and the first battalion of this reg- iment had lost 60 per cent, of its men, Wistar as- sumed command, but was wounded three times. Upon his recovery, he was made colonel of the regiment, which by transfer became known as the 71st Pennsylvania in Burns's brigade. Sedgwick's division, 2d corps. Army of the Potomac. At Glensdale he distinguished himself for bravery and again at Antietam, where he was wounded, left on the field for dead, and after twelve hours, rescued by his own troops. He was married. July 9, 1862. to Sarah, daughter of Robert and Rebecca Toland of Philadelphia. He was promoted bri- gadier-general. Nov. 29, 1862, for Antietam; sur- prised the defences of Richmond, February, 1864, and with a small bodj' of combined cavalry and infantrj', came near capturing the Confederate Capital, his services here and at Charles City court house, receiving special mention in a mes- sage of the President to congress. He served in the cavalry raids around Richmond, capturing two Confederate regiments of cavalry at Charles City court house; commanded a brigade, and