

OBITUARIES, AMERICAN. (WEST WILLARU.) 



579 



n by his first wife, David Dwight Wells, who sur- 

 vives him. 



West, Joseph Rodman, soldier, born in New Or- 

 leans, La., Sept. 19, 1822 ; died in Washington, D. C., 

 Oct. 81, 1898. He studied at the University of 

 Pennsylvania, but was not graduated, leaving to 

 serve as a captain of volunteers in the Mexican War. 

 He went to California in 1849 and engaged in busi- 

 ness. At the beginning of the civil war he entered 

 the army as lieutenant colonel of the 1st California 

 Infantry ; served in the Southwest; was promoted 

 brigadier general of volunteers, Oct. 25, 1862 ; and 

 when honorably mustered out of the service, Jan. 4, 

 1866, was brevetted major general. He settled in 

 New Orleans, where he became successively chief 

 deputy United States marshal, auditor of the cus- 

 toms, and administrator of improvements. He was 

 elected United States Senator from Louisiana as a 

 Republican, and served from 1871 till 1877. From 

 882 till 1885 he was commissioner of the District 

 Columbia. 



Westcott, Edward Noyes, novelist, born in Syra- 

 se, N. Y., Sept. 24, 1847: died there, March 31, 

 1898. He was a 

 banker in his na- 

 tive city, and his 

 only book, " David 

 Ha rum : A Story 

 of American Life," 

 was issued soon 

 after his death. It 

 is a careful study 

 of life in central 

 New York, and the 

 excellence of the 

 workmanship and 

 the fidelity of its 

 descriptions have 

 attracted much at- 

 tention to it and 

 given it a wide cir- 

 culation. 



Westoii, Byron, 

 manufacturer, born 

 in Dalton, Mass., April 9, 1831 ; died there, Nov. 8, 

 1898. He began to fit himself for the profession of 

 civil engineer, but changed his plans and was appren- 

 ticed to the trade of paper making. So rapidly did he 

 advance in this work that at the age of twenty he was 

 superintendent of 7 large mills. Soon afterward he 

 became interested financially in paper mills in Hart- 

 ford, Conn., and in Dalton. It is said that he was 

 the first to invent the process for making paper from 

 wood pulp. In 1862 he raised a company for the 

 49th Massachusetts Volunteers, became its captain, 

 and served till the end of the civil war. He served 

 a term in the State Senate. In 1879 he was elected 

 Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts, John D. 

 Long being the Governor. He was a generous bene- 

 factor of Williams College, notably in the gift of 

 'ts athletic field, and that college conferred on him 

 'ie honorary degree of master of arts. 



White, George GL illustrator, born in Philadel- 

 phia, Pa., in 1830 ; died in New York city, Feb. 24, 

 398. Pie was educated atGirard College. During 

 ic gold fever he went to California : later, spent 

 >me time in South America, and in 1863 came to 

 few York city. He worked as a war correspondent 

 Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper," and 

 fter the war opened a studio. He made a specialty 

 " illustrating schoolbooks and novels. 

 Wikoff, Charles A., soldier, born in Easton, Pa., 

 [arch 8, 1837 ; died near Santiago, Cuba, July 1, 

 398. He enlisted in the civil war as a private in 

 1st Pennsylvania Infantry, April 20, 1861 ; was 

 pointed 1st lieutenant, 15th Infantry, regular 

 rmy, May 14, 1861 ; promoted captain, Aug. 15, 



1864; transferred to 24th Infantry, Sept. 21, 1866; 

 transferred to llth Infantry, April 25, 1869; pro- 

 moted major, 14th Infantry, Dec. 8, 1886; lieu- 

 tenant colonel, 19th Infantry, Nov. 1, 1891 ; and 

 colonel 22d Infantry, Jan. 28, 1897. He took part in 

 the battles of Shiloh, Chickamauga. and Missionary 

 Ridge during the civil war. At. the battle before 

 Santiago, July 1, 1898, he commanded the 3d bri- 

 gade of the 1st division, 5th Army Corps, and was 

 killed while superintending the fording of San Juan 

 river by his brigade. His body was brought to the 

 United States and interred in Easton, Oct. 21, and 

 the military camp on Montauk, Long Island, was 

 named in his honor. 



Wild, John, actor, born in Manchester, England, 

 Dec. 29, 1843 ; died near Troy, N. Y., March 9, 1898. 

 He was brought to New York city by his parents, 

 who settled there in 1845. He was employed in a 

 grocery in 1855, became a newsboy, and subse- 

 quently was driver of a passenger stage in Harlem. 

 About 1859 he became a negro minstrel, and in 1860 

 he was engaged with a company that occupied No. 

 444 Broadway. He came at once into favor as a 

 delineator of the negro of the Thompson Street 

 type, and, with the exception of a few engagements 

 in Philadelphia, he remained for thirty years " on 

 Broadway," the most popular black-face "comedian 

 of the country. On Jan. 28, 1878, at the Theater 

 Comique, 514 Broadway, New York, he began his 

 association with Edward Harrigan and Tony Hart 

 as Capt. Simpson Primrose, the dandy coon, in the 

 first of the great series of " Mulligan Guard " come- 

 dies of New York's good-natured lower life. The 

 only departure from black-face comedy that he had 

 to make in the Mulligan plays was " Lemons," as a 

 tramp in " The Mulligan Guard's Picnic." In Janu- 

 ary, 1889, he began a starring tour in a play which 

 it was thought was suited to his quaint humor. 

 This was called "Running Wild." It lasted but a 

 few months, and in the autumn of the same year 

 Wild was playing again in New York. On De"c. 29, 

 1890, he again joined Edward Harrigan at Harri- 

 gan's Theater, now the Garrick, in West Thirty-fifth 

 Street, near Broadway, and played " Salvator Mag- 

 nus " in " Reilly and the 400." He remained with 

 this theater until the vogue of Harrigan comedies 

 declined. His last appearance on the stage was at 

 Proctor's Twenty-third Street Theater in January, 

 1898. 



Wilkinson, Melville C., soldier, born in New 

 York, Nov. 14, 1835 ; died on Bear island, Minn., 

 Oct. 6, 1898. He entered the volunteer service as 1st 

 lieutenant, 23d New York Infantry, May 16, 1861 ; 

 resigned, Nov. 7, 1861 : commissioned 1st lieutenant, 

 107th New York Infantry, July 28, 1862 ; promoted 

 captain, Aug. 9, 1862; resigned, Jan. 26, 1863 ; com- 

 missioned 1st lieutenant in the Veteran Reserve 

 Corps, Aug. 13, 1863 ; promoted captain, Dec. 10, 

 1863 : and was honorably mustered out of the service, 

 June 30, 1866. He entered the regular army as 2d 

 lieutenant, 42d Infantry, July 28, 1866 ; was trans- 

 ferred to the 6th Infantry, April 22, 1869 : unas- 

 signed, June 28, 1869 ; assigned to 3d infantry, Aug. 

 3. 1870 ; promoted 1st lieutenant, Jan. 1, 1871 ; and 

 captain, April 24, 1886. He was brevetted major, 

 Feb. 27, 1890, for service in the war with the Idaho 

 Indians in 1877. He was sent from Fort Snelling, 

 Minn., to Leech Lake in October, 1898, to quiet the 

 Pillager Indians, and in the skirmish that took place 

 was shot dead. 



Willard, Frances Elizabeth, social reformer, 

 born in Churchville, N. Y., Sept. 28, 1839 ; died in 

 New York city, Feb. 18, 1898. She was graduated 

 at the Northwestern Female College, Evanston, 111., 

 in 1859 ; became Professor of Natural Science in her 

 alma mater in 1862 ; and subsequently taught in 

 the Pittsburg Female College and was principal of 



