Herringshaw's Encyclopedia of American Biography

Thousands of short American lives — soldiers, inventors, preachers, governors, novelists — each given a paragraph: born where, did what, and why anyone remembered.

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Willis, Jonathan Spencer – Wilmer, Richard Hooker

Printed page 1018 of Herringshaw's Encyclopedia of American Biography (1898) · 29 lives

Willis, Jonathan Spencer

clergyman, congressman, was born in Oxford, Md. He filled pastorates in Maryland, Delaware, Philadelphia, New York city and Stamford, Conn., retired from the ministry in 1884 and settled on a farm near Milford, Del. He was nominated in 1894 and elected to the fifty-fourth congress as a republican.

Willis, Nathaniel

journalist, was born June 6, 1780, in Boston, Mass. He established the Eastern Argus at Portland, Maine, in 1803, the Boston Recorder in 1816, which was the first religious newspaper in America, and the Youth's Companion in 1827, the first American juvenile paper. He died May 26, 1870, in Boston, Mass.

Willis, Nathaniel Parker

author, poet, was born Jan. 20, 1806,, in Portland, Maine. He was a once popular New York writer, much overrated in the earlier part of his career, and now neglected. His prose, though pleasing, is almost all of ephemeral merit, and his verse is sentimental rather than thoughtful. The latter includes the once widely read Sacred Poems; Melanie; Lady Jane, and Humorous Poems; and Poems of Passion; while his prose comprises Hurry Graphs; People I Have Met; Pencillings by the Way; Inklings of Adventures; Letters from Under a Bridge; Famous Persons and Places; A Summer Cruise in the Mediterranean; The Convalescent; Out-Doors at Idlewild; Paul Fane, a novel; Al Abri, and other works of lesser importance. He died Jan. 20, 1867, in Hudson, N. Y.

Willis, Richard Storrs

journalist, author, poet, was born Feb. 10, 1819, in Boston, Mass. He has edited the New York Musical World and Once a Week; contributed to current literature, and published Church Chorals and Choir Studies; Our Church Music: a Book for Pastors and People; and Carols and Music Poems.

He contributed to National Hymns (1861) and to the American edition of the Life of Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy.

Willis, William

lawyer, author, was born Aug. 31, 1794, in Haverhill, Mass. He was a Portland lawyer, and the author of History of Portland; and History of the Law, Courts and Lawyers of Maine. He died Feb. 17, 1870, in Portland, Maine.

Williston, Ebenezer Bancroft

educator, college president, author, was born in 1801 in Tunbridge, Vt. He was president of the Jefferson college of Mississippi. He was the author of Eloquence of the United States, in five volumes. He died Dec. 28, 1837, in Norwich, Vt.

Williston, Payson

author, was born in 1763 in West Haven. He was the author of a work entitled Annals of the American Pulpit. He died Jan. 30, 1856, in Easthampton.

Williston, Samuel

manufacturer, philanthropist, was born June 17, 1795, in Easthampton, Mass. In 1840 he established the Williston seminary in his native town, to which he has given in all nearly a half million dollars. He died July 18, 1874, in Philadelphia, Pa. au-

Williston, Seth

clergyman, thor, was born April 4, 1770, in Suffield, Conn. He was a presbyterian clergyman in New York state, and the author of Discourses on the Sabbath; Moral Imperfections of Christians; Harmony of Divine Truth; and Millennial Discourses.

He died March 2, 1851, in Guilford Center, N. Y.

Williston, Timothy

clergyman, author, was born in 1805 in New York.

He was a presbyterian clergyman, and the author of Orthodox Paths Restored; Talks to My Bible Class; Christ's Millennial Reign; and Premium Essays.

Willits, Edwin

lawyer, congressman, was born April 24, 1830, in Otto, N. Y. He was prosecuting attorney of Monroe county, Mich., from 1860 to 1862, and was a member of the state board of education from 1860 to 1872. He was postmaster at Monroe from 1863 to 1866. He was elected a representative from Michigan to the forty-fifth, forty-sixth and forty-seventh congresses as a republican. In 1885 he was elected president of the State Agricultural college.

Willner, Wolfe

rabbi, educator, was born July 28, 1863, in Strasburg, Germany. At the age of eleven he emigrated to America. He first lived in Newburg, N. Y., then in New Haven, Conn., where he entered Yale in 1881, graduating in the academic course in 1885 with the degree of A. B.; and in 1887 with the degree of A. M. He was then called to the ministry of the congregation Ohed Shalon of Houston, Texas; and now is an eminent rabbi and teacher of Baltimore, Md. He has written poetry from his youth, but his latter years have been devoted to translating from the Hebrew and German. His articles on religious and Hebrew literary subjects constantly appear in current literature; and his poems can be found in Poets of America and other standard works.

Willoston, Lorenzo P

lawyer, jurist, was born in New York. He moved to Pennsylvania and was appointed from that state an associate justice of the United States court for the territory of Dakota.

Willoughby, James Amos

journalist, legislator, was born May 2, 1855, in St. Clair county, Ill. He is a prominent journalist of Belleville, Ill., and was elected a member of the state senate of the Illinois legislature in 1894.

Willoughby, John Wallace Cunningham

college president, was born Aug. 20, 1845, in Knox county, Tenn.

In 1883 he became president of the Washington college in Tennessee, holding this position until 1891.

Willoughby, Westel

JR., congressman. He was a representative in congress from New York from 1816 to 1817.

Wills, James

philanthropist, was born in 1760 in England. He bequeathed to the mayor and corporation of Philadelphia and to their successors forever, more than $122,000 to found the Wills hospital for the relief of indigent blind and lame.

He died in 1830 in Philadelphia, Pa.

Wills, John Calvin

druggist, physician, was born in 1860 in Gainesville, Ga. He received a thorough education, and the degrees of M. D. and Ph. G. were conferred upon him. For ten years he was a prescription druggist in Jacksonville and Starke, Fla., and is now a successful physician of Lake Butler, Fla.

Willson, David Burt

educator, clergyman, journalist, author, was born Sept. 27, 1842, in Philadelphia, Pa. He was ordained as a reformed presbyterian, and was pastor in Allegheny from 1870 till 1875, when he was chosen to his present post in the seminary there as professor of theology. Besides publishing occasional addresses he edited an edition of Lyman's Historical Chart; and since 1874 has been editor of the Reformed Presby terian and Covenanter in Pittsburg.

Willson, Forceythe

poet, was; born April 10, 1837, in Little Genesee, N..

Y. He was a verse-writer at one time on the staff of the Louisville Journal, and the author of The Old Sergeant, and Other Poems. He died Feb. 2, 1867, in Alfred,.

N. Y.

Willson, James Mcleod

clergy-- man, author, was born Nov. 17, 1809, in Elizabeth, Pa. He was a reformed pres-- byterian clergyman of Philadelphia, and the author of The Deacon; Bible Magis-- tracy; Civil Government; Social Religious Covenanting; and Witnessing. He. died in 1866.

Willson, James Renwick

clergyman, author, was born April 9, 1780, in Pittsburg, Pa. He was a reformed presbyterian clergyman in New York and. Pennsylvania, and the author of History of the Church of Scotland; The Written Law; and Historical Sketch of Opinions on the Atonement. He died Sept. 29, 1853, in Coldenham, N. Y.

Willson, Marcius

educator, author,. was born Dec. 8, 1813, in West Stockbridge, Mass. He is an educator of Vineland, N. J., and the author of Civil Polity and Political Economy; Mosaics of Bible:

History; and many school text-books.

Willson, Slater Gordan

railroad president, was born Dec. 28, 1824, in Arkwright, N. Y. He is president of the Crooked Creek and Webster City, and Southwestern railroads at Webster City, Iowa.

Wilmarth, Lemuel Everett

art-- ist, was born Nov. 11, 1835, in Attleborough, Mass. Among his works, principally genre pictures, are Captain Nathan Hale; Playing Two Games at the Same Time; The Home Missionary: Another Candidate for Adoption (1871); Guess.

What I Have Brought You; Left in Charge; Ingratitude; Feat of Courage; A Plea for the Homeless; Pick of the Orchard; and Jack's Return.

Wilmarth, Seth

inventor, was born.

Sept. '8, 1810, in Brattleboro, Vt. He became a machinist in Pawtucket, R. I., and in 1855 was appointed superintendent. and master-mechanic of the Charlestown navy yard. Among his patents, numbering about twenty, were those for his revolving turrets, and for the hydraulic lift. for raising the turret shafts on monitor vessels. He died Nov. 5, 1886, in Walden,.

Mass.

Wilmer, Joseph Pere Bell

protestant episcopal bishop, was born Feb. 11,. 1812, in Kent county, Md. He went to England in 1863 to purchase Bibles for the confederate army, was captured on his return voyage, and for a short time confined in the old Capitol prison, Washington, D. C. He became bishop of Louisiana in 1866. He died Dec. 2, 1878, in New Orleans, La.

Wilmer, Lambert A

journalist, author, was born about 1805. He was a Philadelphia journalist, and the author of New System of Grammar; The Quacks of Helicon; Life of De Soto; Our Press Gang, an Exposition of the Corruptions of American Newspapers (1859); Recantation: a Poem; Somnia; and Liberty Triumphant. He died Dec. 21, 1863, in Brooklyn, N. Y.

Wilmer, Richard Hooker

bishop of Alabama, was born March 15, 1816, in Alexandria, Va. He was successively rector of several churches in Virginia, and of St. James's, Wilmington, N. C., till he was consecrated bishop of Alabama. He is the author of The Recent Past from a Southern Standpoint,

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