Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 10.djvu/427

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WIGHT


WIKOFF


Wiggles worth removed to Newburyport, Mass., at au early age; was graduated from Harvard, A.B., 1761, A.M., 1766; subsequently engaged in business, and was commissioned June 24,1776, by the council of Massachusetts Bay, colonel of a regiment from the counties of Essex, York and Cumberland. His commission was renewed by congress in November, and he held the third com- mand under Generals Arnold and Waterbury in the operations of the American fleet on Lake ChampUiin. He participated in the defence of Ticonderoga in June, 1777, in the battle of Mon- moutli, and subsequent battles, and served as president of the court of inquiry appointed to ex- amine into Gen. George Clinton's surrender of Forts Montgomery and Clinton, 1778-79. He was afterward collector of the port of Newburyport, Mass., and in 1818 granted by congress an annual pension of $340. Captain Wigglesworth died in Newburyport, Mass., Dec. 8, 1836.

WIGHT, Peter Bonnett, architect, was born in New York city, Aug. 1, 1838; son of Amherst and Joanna (Sanderson) Wight; grandson of Eliab and Jemima (Hawes) Wiglit of Bellingham, Mass., and of John and Elizabetli (Blake) Sander- son of Newburg. N.Y. , and a descendant of Thomas Wiglit, the founder of the Wight fam- ily in America who, in 1634, came from England, and settled in Dedham, Mass. He was graduated from the College of the City of New York, A.B., 1855; studied architecture in New York city, 1855-57; practised in Chicago, 111., 1858-59; in New York city, 1861-71, and in the latter year re- turned to Chicago, practising as a consulting architect after 1878. He organized the Wight fireproofing company in 1880, and was general manager of the same, 1881-91. He was married, March 33, 1883, at Norwich, England, to Marion, daughter of William D. and Mary (Newstead) Onley. He was elected a fellow of the American Institute of Architects in 1866; was elected sec- retary of the Illinois state board of examiners of architects from 1897, and of the Municipal Art League of Chicago in 1900, still holding both of- fices in 1903. His inventions include chiefly im- provements in the construction of fire proof buildings. He was also the inventor of the method of coping brick walls with salt glazed vit- rified tiles, which later came into general use. He designed the National Academy of Design buildings. New York city (1862-65), recently de- molished to make room for a commercial build- ing; the Yale School of Fine Arts (1866-67); the Brooklyn Mercantile Library (1867-68), now the Brooklyn Library; and the American Ex- press building, Chicago, 111. (1873), with H.H. Richardson. He also planned the first army hos- pital at Washington (1863), and constructed and managed the Union square branch building at


the sanitary fair in New York city. 1^64. and was associate architect of the California. Ohio and other buildings at the World's Columbian exhi- bition, Chicago (1892-93). He is the author of: National Academy of Design Building, a mono- graph (1866, 50 copies); One Phase in the Revival of the Fine Arts in America (1886), and contribu- tions to numerous architectural and other jour- nals. He was also in demand as a lecturer on his specialties, fire-proof construction of building, municipal and landscape art.

WIQHTMAN, William May, M.E. bishop, was born in Charleston. S.C, Jan. 29, 1808. He began preaching in 1825; was graduated from the College of Charleston, S.C, in 1826; received on trial into the South Carolina conference, 1828, and held various charges in South Carolina, 1828- 33; was agent for Randolph-Macon college, 1833- 35, and professor of English literature in the col- lege, 1835-36. He served as presiding elder of the Cokesbury district, S.C, 1839-40; edited the South Carolina Christian Advocate, 1840-54; was president of Wofford college, Spartansburg, 1854-59, and chancellor of the Southern univer- sity, Greensboro, Ala., 1859-67. He was elected bishop of tiie Methodist Episcopal church, south, in May, 1866, at the general conference in New Orleans, La. He received the honorary degree of D.D. from Randolph-Macon college, 1846. and that of LL.D. from the College of Charleston. S.C Bishop Wightman attended the general conferences of 1840 and 1844; edited Bishop Will- iam Capers's autobiography (1858), and contri- buted several biographical letters to Sprague's " Annals of the American Pulpit "(Vol. VII. 1861). He died in Charleston, S.C. Feb. 15, 1882.

WIKOFF, Charles Augustus, soldier, was born in Easton, Pa., March 8, 1S37; son of Isaac Cox and Rachel Erwin (Heckman) Wickoff; grand- son of Isaac and Martha (Cox) Wickoff of Phil- adelphia, and of George M. and Maiy (Snyder) Heckman of Boston. He was graduated from Lafayette college, A.B., 1855, A.M., 1858. He taught school in New Jersey, 1855; was a civil engineer under George B. McClellan on the Illi- nois Central railroad, 1855-57; studied law with William Davis at Stroudsburg. Pa., 1857-61. He entered the volunteer service as a private in the 1st Pennsylvania infantry, April 20, 1861, serving until May 14, 1861, when he was commissioned 1st lieutenant, 15th U.S. infantiy. He was promoted captain, Aug. 15, 1864, and transferred to the 24th U.S. infantry, Sept. 21, 1866, participating in the battles of Sliiloh (where he lost an eye and was brevetted captain), and at Chicamauga and Missionary Ridge, for which battles he was brevet- ted major. He was transferred to the 11 tli U.S. in- fantry, April 25, 1869; served at forts Richardson and Concho, Texas, and at forts Bennett and Sul-