the steamer " Powhatan," in which he blockaded the Confederate ram " Stonewall " in the port of Havana, Cuba, until she was surrendered by the Spanish authorities. He was commissioned a captain, 25 July, 1866, promoted to commodore, 27 April, 1871, was made rear-admiral, 4 Feb., 1875, and commander-in-chief of the South Pacific station in 1875-6. He was then placed on the retired list at his own request.
WEREAT, John, patriot, b. about 1730 ; d. in
Bryan county, Ga., in 1798. He was an early and
decided advocate of colonial rights, was a member
of the Provincial congress of Georgia in 1775, its
speaker in 1776, and after the fall of Savannah in
1779, as president of the executive council, was at
the head of the state government till the next
election. In 1788 he was president of the Georgia
convention that ratified the constitution of the
United States. In 1782 Mr. Wereat exerted himself to relieve the wants of the suffering population west of Augusta, employing his negroes and
boats in carrying food to them.
WERNICKE, Gottlieb (vair-nick-eh), known
also as Miguel de Faria, German adventurer,
lived in the first half of the 18th century. He was
a merchant, trading in Brazil, and made several
expeditions to the interior. About 1720 he
discovered rich gold-mines at the foot of the peak of
Itabira, and a few years later he organized a new
expedition to explore the mountains north of
Itambe. He found a rich gold-mine, which he
opened and worked for several years, acquiring
great wealth; but the governor of the province of
Goyaz claimed that Wernicke had never obtained
a grant of the mine. Soldiers took possession of
Wernicke's establishments, and he was taken
prisoner; but the complaints of his friends secured
his release, and he went to Portugal to lodge a
complaint against the governor, but died before
obtaining justice. His defence, written originally
in Portuguese, was translated into French under
the title “Exposé des explorations et de la
découverte des mines du district d'Itabira, par Gottlieb
Wernicke, et de leur exploitation, avec un résumé
de ses contestations avec les autorités de la
province de Goyaz” (Amsterdam, 1736).
WERNWAG, Lewis, civil engineer, b. in Alteburg,
Würtemberg, Germany, 4 Dec., 1769; d. in
Harper's Ferry, Va., 12 Aug., 1843. On leaving
school, in order to evade military service, he was
secreted by a shepherd in the mountains, who directed
his attention to the study of astronomy, natural
history, and other scientific subjects. In 1786 he
made his way to Amsterdam and thence to
Philadelphia. His earliest venture in this country was
the building of a machine for making whetstones.
Soon afterward he began to build power-mills and
bridges. While conducting this business he
purchased land containing large quantities of white
oak and pine timber in New Jersey, from which he
got out, about 1809, the keel for the first U. S.
frigate built at the Philadelphia navy-yard. In
1810 he erected a bridge across Neshaminy creek,
on the road between Philadelphia and New York,
and the next year one across Frankford creek.
His third bridge of wood was built across the
Schuylkill river in 1812 at Philadelphia. This
structure, known as the “Colossus of Fairmount,”
consisted of a single arch, the span of which
was 340 feet. In consideration of its length of
span (it being the longest ever erected), solidity,
and strength, the bridge was regarded as one of
the wonders of the world. From that time until
1834 he built twenty-nine additional bridges. In
1813 he removed to Phœnixville, Pa., where he
took an interest in and charge of the Phœnix
nail-works, and there invented the first machine for
cutting and heading spikes from four to seven
inches in length. The other machinery was also
remodelled and greatly improved by him. He
purchased coal-lands near Pottsville, which led to his
experimenting toward the use of anthracite coal.
At first he found it almost impossible to ignite it,
but he discovered that, by closing the
furnace-doors and introducing air from beneath,
combustion was possible. He was sanguine of its
ultimate use for fuel, and while the Philadelphians
drove from the city the person that offered to
sell it, believing he offered stone for coal, he
invented and used in his own residence a stove for
burning it. The canal of the Schuylkill navigation
company, one of the first in the United States,
was partially constructed by him, and the
Fairmount water-works and dam at Philadelphia were
erected in accordance with his plans. In 1819
he removed to Conowingo, Md., where he built a
bridge and double saw-mill, and prepared the
timber for many bridges. Five years later he removed
to Harper's Ferry and purchased the Isle of
Virginius, where he continued his business of
preparing timber for bridges. His last bridge was across
the Potomac at Harper's Ferry for the Baltimore
and Ohio railroad, and was built in 1833.
WERTMÜLLER, Adolph Ulric, artist, b. in
Stockholm, Sweden, in 1751; d. near Marcus Hook,
Pa., 5 Oct., 1811. He worked for some time in
France, where he became a member of the academy
in 1782, and in 1787 he was made court-painter in
Sweden. In 1794 he came to the United States,
remaining a year or two, and in 1797 he settled
finally in this country. During his first visit he
painted several portraits of Washington. Though
the work of an excellent artist, they are hardly
successful as portraits, for Wertmüller belonged to
that ideal French school, which usually sacrificed
truth to nature for elegance in execution. Elizabeth
B. Johnston, in her “Original Portraits of
Washington” (Boston, 1882), speaks of five
portraits of Washington by Wertmüller, of which one,
executed in 1797, was purchased by the U. S.
government in 1878, and another is owned by the
Historical society of Pennsylvania. Among his other
portraits are those of Gustavus III. and his queen,
and Gustavus IV. His “Marie Antoinette and her
Children” (1785) is in the museum at Stockholm.
He was noted especially for his vivid coloring,
“Danae” being a good example of his powers in
that respect. When this picture was first exhibited
in the United States great indignation was
expressed, for public taste and sentiment at that
time were against the nude in art.
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WESLEY, John, founder of Methodism, b. in Epworth, Lincolnshire, England, 17 June, 1703; d. in London, 2 March, 1791. He was graduated at Christ church college, Oxford, in 1727, and the same year he was ordained presbyter and was his father's curate at Epworth, but he returned to Oxford as tutor in 1729, and became the head of the society that had been founded by his brother Charles and others for personal purification by means of “prayer, fastings, alms, and labors among the poor,” the members of which in derision were called “Methodists.” In 1735 he accompanied Gen. James Oglethorpe to Georgia as a missionary to the Indians. He began his labors in Savannah, preached and read the liturgy daily, forded rivers, crossed swamps, slept on the ground, fasted, and went barefooted among the children at school to encourage those who had no shoes. His preaching was at first successful, but his rigorous discipline
