WILSON. 546 WILSON. WILSON, Almn B. (1824-88). An Ameri- can inventor, born in New York City. He learned the trade of a cabinet-maker. In 184J he invented a sewing machine (q.v.), in wliieU the material was carried forward by a feeding- plate By this means an endless seam could be formed at any curve. The feeding device he greatly improved in 1850 by giving the roughened feeding-plate four motions. He also introduced the rotarv hook and stationary bobbin. In 18.50 he, with Nathaniel Wheeler, formed the ^ heeler & Wilson Manufacturing Company for the manu- facture of sewing machines, with works at Bridgeport, Conn. WILSON, Alpiiei-s Water.s (1834—). A bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. He was bnrn in Baltimore, and educated at Co- lumbian College, Washington, D. C He entered the ministry o"f the Methodist Episcopal Church, 185.3 He became secretarv of the board of mis- sions of the ]Methodist Episcopal Church, South. in 1S7S, and was elected bishop in 1882. In his oversight of the missions of his Church, he trav- eled entirely around the world. WILSON, Andrew (1831-81). A British traveler and author, son of John Wilson, the In- dian missionary, born at Bombay and educated at Edinburgh and Tubingen. He edited the Chine. Mail and the Bombay Times. He traveled a great deal in Southern China and sent articles on Eastern questions to Bidchii-ood's, The Duily ■News, and to the I'all Mall Gazelte. He wrote: The Ener Victorious Army (1878), a history of the campaign of 'Chinese' Gordon; and The Abode of Snow (1875), which is a description of an adventurous journey through the upper val- lej-s of the Himalayas. WILSON, Augusta Jane (Evans) (183.5—). An American novelist, born in Columbus. Ga. Slie lived as a child in Texas, and after 1841 in Mo- bile Ala., where she was educated by lier mother. Slie' wrote her first novel, Inez, A Tale of the Alamo (pub. 1856), at the age of seventeen. During the Civil War she opened a private hos- pital for the Confederate wounded. She wrote several novels, of which the chief were: Beulah (1859); Maearia (1864): Saint Elmo (1806); T'ashH (1869) ; Irifelice (1875); At the Meraj of Tiherius (1887) ; and A Speckled Bird (1902) . WILSON, Sir CliAELES BiVEKS (1831 — ). .Vn Eii"lisli linancicr, born in London. He graduated at Balliol College. Oxford, in 1851; entered the Trcasurv as a clerk in 1850; was a private secre- tary to Disraeli in 1807-68, and to Low in 1868- 73-' and was Comptroller-General of the National nei.t Office from 1874 till 1894. In 1876 he was appointed one of the British administrators of the Suez Canal ; two years afterwards was chosen vice-president of the international commission of inquiry into the financial condition of Egypt; soon afterwards became Finance Jlinister to the Khedive; and was made jircsident of the Inter- national Commission of Liquidation in 1880. WILSON, Sir Daniicl (1816-92). A dis- tinguished Scotch-Canadian archirologist and edu- cational reformer, born at Edinburgh, Scotland. He graduated at Edinburgh University; worked in London from 1837 until 1842 as a journalist; and then returned to Edinburgh, where five years afterwards lie published the arch«ologieal work Edinhunih in the Olden Time, illustrated with sketches" made by himself. In 1851 he followed up this work with the highly praised Arclurolony and I'reUistoric Annals of Scotland. Two years later he went to Canada to become professor of history and English literature in the University of Toronto, of which he became president in 1881. In 1854 he became editor of the Journal of the Canadian Institute; in 1859 and 1800 was presi- dent of that body; in 1885 was president of the literature section of the Canadian Royal So- ciety; and in 1888 was loiighted. His publica- tion's, other than those already mentioned, in- clude: Prehistoric Man: Researches into the Oriflin of Civilization in the Old and Scie Worlds (1803: 3ded. 1876) ; Chatterton: A Bioyraphtcal K/»rf</ (1869) ; Caliban, the Missing Link (18i3) ; Spring ^Yild Flowers, a collection of verse (1875) ; Ueminiscences of Old Edinburgh (1878) ; and Anthropology (1885). WILSON, Edmund Beechek (1856—). An meri<an zoolocist. born at Geneva, 111. He graduated from Yale College in 1878 and obtained his doctorate at Johns Hopkins University in 1881. He was lecturer at Williams College from 1883 to 1S84: at the ilassachusetts Institute of Technology in 1884-85; professor of biology at Bryn Mawr College from 1885 to 1891; and be- came professor of zoology at Columbia University in 1891. His publications include, besides many special papers on embrvology: An Introduction to (Icncral Biology (with W. T. Sedgwick, 1886, 1895) ; The Embryology of the Earthworm (1889); Amphioxus, and the Mosaic Theory of Derelopment (1893) ; Atlas of Fertilization and Karijokinesis (1895) ; and The Cell w Develop- ment and Inheritance (1896-1900). WILSON, Francis (1854—). An American actor born in Philadelphia. He began his ca- reer in a minstrel show, but by 1878 was jdaying at the Chestnut Street Theatre. Philadelphia, and the next year appeared in M'liss with Annie Pixlev. After several years in regular comedy, he took up comic opera. In 1889, leaving the New York Casino, where he had attracted much attention as Cadeaux in Erminie, he made his appearance as a star in The Oolah. Among his later pieces have been: The Eion Tamer (1891) ; The Devils Deputii (1894-95) : The Little Cor- poral (1898-99); and The Toreador (1901-02). Consult Clapp and Edgett, I'layers of the Pres- ent (New York, Dunlap Society Publications, 1901). WILSON, Henry (1812-75). An American iiolitical leader, Vice-President of the United States in 1873-75. He was born at Earmington, N. II., and his original name was Jeremiah Jones Colbaith, but when he reached manhood he legally assumed the name of Henry Wilson. From the a"e of ten till that of twenty-one he served an ap- prenticeship to a farmer. lie then learned the shocmaking trade at Naliek, Mass., and in two years earned enough money to enable him to at- tend academies at Stratford, WoUhorougli. and Concord, in New Ilamiishire. The loss of some of his money throuah the insolvency of a friend forced him to return to Natick, where ho once more took up the shoe business, and soon estab- lished a prosperous manufactory. In 1840 he was elected to the Jlassachusetts House of Rep- resentatives as a Whig; was reelected in the fol-
