WHISTLER, GEORGE W. 



"WIRE TRAMWAYS. 



721 



There was no general State election held 

 during the year, except for members of the 

 Legislature. The political complexion of this 

 body for 1870 is 18 Republicans and 4 Demo- 

 crats in the Senate, and 32 Republicans and 

 24: Democrats in the House. 



The manufacturing and mining interests of 

 West Virginia are reported to be in a more 

 flourishing condition than at any previous 

 time since the organization of the State. Dur- 

 ing the year there has been a rapid increase in 

 many localities in the production of salt, coal, 

 and lumber. The amount of salt produced in 

 the Great Kanawha Valley the past year ex- 

 ceeded the amount in 1864 by about half a 

 million of bushels, the shipments for 1869 

 amounting to about 160, 000 bush els per month. 

 The amount of coal obtained in the same re- 

 gion during the year was about 4, 000, 000 bush- 

 els, showing an increase of 300 per cent, since 

 1864. The amount of gas-coal transported 

 from points in the State west of the moun- 

 tains, on the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, was 

 269,000 tons in 1869, which exhibits an increase 

 of more than 100,000 tons over the shipments 

 of the previous year. In the coal-region on 

 the Ohio River, in Mason County, the number 

 of coal-mines before the organization of the 

 State was three, producing an aggregate of 

 60,000 bushels per annum. In 1869 the num- 

 ber of mines had increased to 16, which pro- 

 duced during the year 500,000 bushels of coal. 

 The production of salt in this locality has in- 

 creased nearly 500 per cent, since the organiza- 

 tion of the State, the number of bushels manu- 

 factured in 1869 being 350,000. 



The Executive recommends that a geological 

 survey of the State be made for the purpose of 

 obtaining and disseminating information in re- 

 gard to the character of the soil, coal-fields, iron- 

 ore, and other minerals abounding in the State. 



WHISTLER, GEORGE WILLIAM, died at 

 Brighton, England, December 24. He was a 

 son of the late Major George W. Whistler, and 

 was born at New London, Ct., ia. 1822. Under 

 his father, he commenced the profession of 

 civil engineer in 1840. He was connected 

 with various railroads in this country, both 

 in the laying out and construction, and had 

 charge of the Erie and New York and New 

 Haven Railroad as assistant superintendent 

 and superintendent. In the fall of 1856 he 

 went to Russia, to take charge of the run- 

 ning of the St. Petersburg and Moscow Rail- 

 road under the Winans contract, a road of 

 which his father had been the chief engineer. 

 At the completion of this contract, he re- 

 tired for a while to Frankfort and Brighton ; 

 but, on the resumption of the contract by 

 the Winans Brothers, returned to St. Pe- 

 tersburg, where he continued till the spring 

 of 1869, when he retired entirely from ac- 

 tive duties, to recover his health by quiet 

 and literary pursuits. As an engineer Mr. 

 Whistler was well known, especially for his 

 knowledge of railway machinery, and his 

 VOL. ix. 40. A 



executive ability in the management of rail- 

 ways. His death was sudden and unexpected, 

 although his health had for many years been 

 delicate, and he had been ordered by his phy- 

 sician to Germany for a more genial climate. 



WICKLIFFE, CHARLES A., a Kentuckian, 

 political leader, and Cabinet officer, born in 

 Bardstown, Ky., June 8, 1788 ; died in Howard 

 County, Maryland, October 31, 1869. He re- 

 ceived such education as was possible at that 

 time in the newly-settled country, in the Bards- 

 town grammar-school, studied law, and was 

 admitted to the bar in 1809. He soon achieved 

 a high reputation as a lawyer. During the War 

 of 1812, he became an aid to General Winlock, 

 and, after serving in the Legislature, appeared 

 in the battle of the Thames on the staff of Gen- 

 eral Caldwell, after which he was reflected to 

 the Legislature, where he remained until chosen 

 to Congress in 1823, to which body he was 

 reflected for four terms in succession. As 

 chairman of the Committee on Public Lands, 

 he was perhaps best known as a legislative 

 worker. After quitting Congress in 1833, he 

 became once more a legislator, in which capa- 

 city he was made Speaker in 1834, and in 1836 

 he was made Lieuten ant-Governor of Kentucky. 

 On the death, in 1839, of Governor Clark, he 

 succeeded to the actual governorship, and in 

 1841 his influence and leadership were recog- 

 nized by President Tyler, in appointing him 

 to the office of Postmaster-General, which he 

 held till March, 1845. President Polk, in 1845, 

 sent him on a delicate and private mission to 

 Texas in the interest of annexation. In 1849 

 he was a member of a Constitutional Conven- 

 tion of Kentucky ; in 1861, once more a Con- 

 gressman, having previously (January and Feb- 

 ruary, 1861) held a place in the Peace Con- 

 vention, and served to the end of the Thirty-sev- 

 enth Congress (March 4, 1863) ; in 1866 he was a 

 delegate to the Chicago Convention. Governor 

 Wickliffe was a brother-in-law of David L. 

 Yulee, of Florida, one of the seceding Senators, 

 and his family was among the most powerful 

 in the South through its social and political 

 connections. Governor Wickliffe (as he was 

 often called) was one of the stateliest and 

 most aristocratic of Kentuckians in his manner 

 and bearing ; and this stateliness, together with 

 his large landed possessions, and his hardly 

 concealed contempt for the poorer classes, led 

 to his receiving the sobriquet of " The Duke," 

 by which he was generally known throughout 

 the Southwest. He had a very extensive es- 

 tate, and leaves an ample fortune to his family. 

 For some years past he has been almost blind, 

 and had recently gone to the residence of his 

 son-in-law near Baltimore for the purpose of 

 submitting to an operation upon his eyes. 



WIRE TRAMWAYS. There is a mode of 

 transit which has been practised in India and 

 Australia by means of a rope stretched from 

 point to point, but which as yet has been only 

 what may be called a local arrangement used 

 principally for bridging rivers or ravines. The 



