stitutions under State control include hospitals at Evanston, Rock Springs, and Sheridan; the penitentiary at Rawlins; Soldiers' and Sailors' Home at Buffalo; School for Defectives at Lander; Big Horn Hot Springs Reserve at Thermopolis, and an industrial institute at Worland.
Railroads.—The railway mileage in the State is about 2,000. The Union Pacific, the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy, and the Chicago and Northwestern railroads have the longest mileage.
State Government.—The State officers are elected for a term of four years. The legislative sessions are held biennially in odd years, beginning on the second Tuesday in January, and are limited in length to 40 days each. The Legislature has 27 members in the Senate and 57 in the House, each of whom receives $5 per day and mileage. There is one Representative in Congress.
History.—The greater part of the area of Wyoming was included in that of the Louisiana Purchase of 1803, though the W. section formed part of the Oregon settlement. It was organized as a Territory July 25, 1868, from what was then the S. W. portion of Dakota, the N. E. part of Utah, and from the E. part of Idaho, to which the name of Wyoming was given. This territory was admitted to the Union as a State July 10, 1890. The oldest white settlement within its confines was Fort Laramie, on Platte river, which was made a fur trading post in 1834, rebuilt by the American Fur Company in 1836, sold by them to the United States and garrisoned as a fort in 1849. It was long an important base of operations against the Indians, though it is now abandoned. Settlement took place very slowly till recently, the Indians occupying the more fertile districts. As the latter were removed, settlement became more rapid. The N. W. corner of the State, remarkable for its natural beauties and wonders, has been set aside as the Yellowstone National Park.
WYOMING, UNIVERSITY OF, a coeducational, non-sectarian institution in Laramie, Wyo., founded in 1886; reported at the close of 1919: Professors and instructors, 56; students, 913; president, A. Nelson, Ph. D.
WYOMING VALLEY, a valley in Luzerne co., Pa., famous as the scene of a massacre following the battle of Tory and Indian invaders, on one side, and the American settlers on the other, July 3, 1778. The American force was weak, nearly all the fighting men being away in the Continental army, and more than half of it was killed. The survivors took refuge in Forty Fort, where most of the families of the valley had gathered. The Tories under Colonel Butler, offered unexpectedly easy terms of surrender, and the settlers went back to their homes, while the invaders were supposed to be leaving the valley. Against the commands of their white leaders the Indians remained, and, on the night of July 4, began massacring the inhabitants and burning the houses. All who could escape made their way into the Wilkesbarre Mountains and the swampy land beyond, where so many women and children died that it was afterward called “The Shades of Death.” When peace was established and the Indians came under control, the surviving settlers returned. They were confirmed in the possession of the valley about 1787.
WYTHE, GEORGE, a signer of the Declaration of Independence; born in Elizabeth City, Va., in 1726; was educated at William and Mary College; studied law and became eminent in that profession; was chosen to the Virginia House of Burgesses in which he became a leader. He was author of a paper remonstrating against the Stamp Act, which was adopted after being modified. In 1775 he was sent to the Continental Congress and affixed his name to the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776, as a representative of Virginia. He was made speaker of the Virginia House of Delegates in 1777, and the same year became a judge in the Court of Chancery of Virginia. He was Professor of Law at William and Mary College in 1779-1789, and a delegate to the Constitutional Convention of 1787. He was the author of “Decisions in Virginia by the High Court of Chancery, with Remarks Upon Decrees by the Court of Appeals” (1795). He died in Richmond, Va., June 8, 1806.
WYTTENBACH, DANIEL (vit′ten-bah), a Dutch scholar; born in Bern, Aug. 7, 1746; studied at Marburg, Göttingen, and Leyden; became Professor of Greek at the Remonstrant Gymnasium at Amsterdam in 1771, of Philosophy at the Athenaeum in 1779, and succeeded in 1799 to Ruhnken's chair of rhetoric at the university. His greatest work is the edition of Plutarch's “Morals,” with rich annotations and an admirable “Greek Index to Plutarch's Works” (Oxf. 8 vols. 1795-1380). He retired in 1816, and died after some years of blindness in Osgeest, Jan. 17, 1820. His wife, Johanna Gallien, a niece of Hanau, whom he married at 72, was a remarkably accomplished woman. She lived after her husband's death at Paris.
