tion, so that it could be worked like iron, and was the first to attain practical success in this direction. He sent to the Centennial exhibition of 1876, and to the Paris exposition of 1878, samples of nickel ores, nickel-matte, metallic nickel in grains and cubes, cast and wrought nickel, cast cobalt, and electro-plating with nickel and cobalt, which illustrated the progress in the metallurgical development of this substance, and excited much admiration. Mr. Wharton aided in establishing Swarthmore college, of which he is president of the board of trustees, endowing its chair of history and political economy, and also founded the Wharton school of finance and economy in the University of Pennsylvania. He is a member of the Society of Friends. Mr. Wharton has published several pamphlets on the subject of protection to home industry.— Henry's son, Thomas Isaac, author, b. in Philadelphia, Pa., 1 Aug., 1859, was graduated at the University of Pennsylvania in 1879, studied law, was admitted to the bar, and is the author of "A Latter-Dav Saint" (New York, 1884), and "Hannibal of "New York" (1886).— The first Joseph's descendant, Anne Hollingsworth, author, b. in Philadelphia, Pa., about 1845. has published "The Wharton Family" (Philadelphia, 1880); "Vigilia"; and "St. Bartholomew's Eve."
WHATCOAT, Richard, M. E. bishop, b. in the parish of Quinton, Gloucester co., England, 23 Feb., 1736; d. in Dover, Del., 4 July, 1806. His
parents were members of the Church of England, but when he was twenty-two years of age he accepted Methodist views. Until he was thirty-three years of age he continued in business, and was a useful member of the Wesleyan connection. In July, 1769, he became a minister, and was very successful, having great ability in composing difficulties, but in 1784 John Wesley sent him to the United States as a missionary with Thomas Coke. Coke and Wesley ordained him a presbyter, an act on Wesley's part that occasioned much discussion. When he came to this country he was forty-six years of age, and was a marvellous preacher, able to move an audience, according to the testimony of Adam Clark, M as the leaves of a forest are moved by a mighty wind." His contemporaries attributed his strength chiefly to his supreme devotion. In the year 1800 he was elected bishop. After several years of infirmity, he died at the house of ex-Gov. Richard Bassett, of Delaware. Bishop Francis Asbury said of him: " A man so uniformly good I have not known in Europe or America."
WHEAT, John Thomas, clergyman, b. in Washington, D. C, 15 Nov., 1800 ; d. "in Salisbury, N. C, 2 Feb., 1888. He was educated at Asbury college, Baltimore, and established a private school in Washington. Having devoted himself to the study of theology, he was ordained deacon in Alexandria, and in the following year at Baltimore he was made a priest. He was instrumental in founding an Episcopal church at Marietta, Ohio, afterward went to North Carolina, and subsequently to Tennessee, and for twenty years labored in Nashville and Memphis. He was also for a time in Arkansas. He held various positions of influence in the annual conventions of the church, and in 1845 was given the degree of D. D. by the University of Nashville. He was an intimate friend of Henry Clay. His book on "Preparation for the Holy Communion" (New York, 1860) won a high reputation in the religious world.
WHEATLEY, Charles Moore, mineralogist, b.
in Essex, England, 16 March, 1822; d. in Phœnixville,
Pa., 6 May, 1882. He came to this country
when a boy, was educated in New York city, and,
entering mercantile life in 1835, continued so
engaged until 1845. Mr. Wheatley became in 1837
a member of the Mercantile library, was a director
in 1841-'3, and served as recording secretary in
1844-'5. He then turned his attention to mining,
and in 1846 became manager of the Bristol copper-mine
in Connecticut, whence in 1848 he was called
to a similar place at the Perkiomen copper-mine
in Pennsylvania. From 1850 till 1857 he was
general manager and part owner of the Wheatley
silver-lead mines, which he discovered and opened.
Subsequently he mined in Pennsylvania and in
California, but finally settled in Phœnixville, Pa.,
where he established the Schuylkill copper works
and was the first person successfully to reduce
copper-ores. Mr. Wheatley was an active collector,
and gathered a valuable library of books in
geology and mineralogy. He also accumulated a
collection of more than 6,000 minerals and shells,
valued at $25,000, which was purchased by Edward
C. Delavan and given to Union college to be kept as
the Wheatley cabinets, forever subject to the
control of the University of New York. Later he
made an extensive collection of fresh-water shells.
At the World's fair held in New York in 1853 he
exhibited specimens from the Wheatley mine, plans
of the mining operations and drawings of machinery,
for which he received one of the two silver
medals that were given. He discovered a cave near
Port Kennedy, on Schuylkill river, where he found
many specimens of fossils, an account of which was
read before the American philosophical society in
1871 by Prof. Edward D. Cope, who named one of
the species Megalonyx Wheatleyi in his honor.
The degree of A. M. was given him by Yale in
1858. He was elected a member of the New York
lyceum of natural history in 1840, was its treasurer
in 1847-'58, and was connected with other
scientific associations both in this country and
abroad. He published “Catalogues of the Shells
of the United States, with their Localities,” one of
the first volumes of its kind that were ever
published (New York, 1842).
WHEATLEY, Phillis, poet, b. in Africa about
1753; d. in Boston, Mass., 5 Dec., 1784. She was
brought here from Africa in 1761, and her only
recollection of her early life was that of her heathen
mother worshipping the sun at its rising. She
was bought from the slave-market by John Wheatley,
of Boston, and soon developed remarkable
acquisitive faculties. She became a member of
his family and was educated by his daughters.
In sixteen months from her arrival she could
read English fluently, soon learned to write, and
also studied Latin. She visited England in 1774,
where she was cordially received, and after her
return to Boston she corresponded with the
Countess of Huntingdon, the Earl of Dartmouth,
Rev. George Whitefield, and others, and wrote
many poems to her friends. She addressed some
lines and a letter to Gen. Washington on 26
Oct., 1775, which were afterward published in the
“Pennsylvania Magazine, or American Monthly
Museum,” for April, 1776. In a reply, under date
of 2 Feb., 1776, Gen. Washington writes: “I thank
you most sincerely for your polite notice of me in
the elegant lines you inclosed; and, however
undeserving I may be of such encomium and
panegyric, the style and manner exhibit a striking
proof of your poetical talents; in honor of which,
and as a tribute justly due to you, I would have
published the poem had I not been apprehensive
that, while I only meant to give the world this
new instance of your genius, I might have incurred
the imputation of vanity. This, and nothing else,
