WIMMER, Boniface, R. C. prelate, b. in Thai- massing, Bavaria, 9 Jan., 1809 ; d. in Westmoreland county, Pa.. 8 Dec., 1887. He received a classical education, took an academic course at Ratisbon, and entered the Munich university with the in- tention of studying law, but, changing his mind, pursued a theological course in the Ratisbon sem- inary. On 81 July, 1831, he was ordained priest; and in the following year he was admitted to the Benedictine monastery in Metten, Bavaria, chang- ing his baptismal name Sebastian to Boniface. During 1833-'6 he labored as professor and priest in Edenstetler, Augsburg, in 1840 became profes- sor in the Louis gymnasium, Munich, and in 1846 arrived in the United States with four theological students and fifteen artisans, for the purpose of establishing an abbey for the education of German youth for the Roman Catholic priesthood. He set- tled near Beatty, Westmoreland co., Pa., and on 28 Sept., 1848, laid the foundation of the present St. Vincent's abbey. Two years afterward he founded St. Mary's priory in Elk county, Pa. Pope Pius IX. raised his original settlement to the dignity first of a monastery, then of an abbey, and ap- pointed him superior of St. Vincent's, 21 May, 1852, abbot ad triermium, 17 Sept., 1855, and abbot for life and president of the American congregation, 27 July, 1866. When the parent abbey was fully established and provided with a variety of manu- facturing industries for its support, he set about founding branches in the south, and organized col- onies in Louisiana, North Carolina, Alabama, and Georgia in 18?6-'7,and in southern Illinois in 1881. On 29 Dec, 1883, he celebrated the fiftieth anni- versary of his Benedictine profession amid cere- monies in which members of the order from all parts of the world participated, and on that occa- sion Pope Leo XIII. elevated him to the dignity of arch-abbot. He was a man of attractive manner, fine business abilitv, and large scholarship.
WIMPFFEN-BERNEBURG, Alexander Stanislaus, explorer, b. in Deux-Ponts in 1748; d. in Paris in 1819. He was a younger brother
of the two French generals, Francois Louis and
Felix, received his education in his native city,
entered the French army, and served in this coun-
try as a captain under Count Rochambeau in
1781-'2. He was afterward employed in the West
Indies, but resigned in 1788, and visited the West
Indies and Mexico. In 1804 he secured an em-
ployment in the military household of Napoleon I.,
which he retained till 1814, when he retired to
private life. He wrote " Voyage a, Saint Domingue
dans les annees 1788, 1789, and 1790" (2 vols.,
Paris, 1797), which was translated into German as
"Reisen nach St. Domingo" (Erfurt, 1798), and
into English (London, 1797); "Voyage dans les
Antilles Franeaises et Espagnoles" (Paris, 1799);
" Impressions de voyage et essai sur le royaume de
la Nouvelle Espagne" (1802); and "Histoire na-
turelle du Cacao et du Sucre" (1805).
WINANS, Ross, inventor, b. in Vernon, N. J.,
in October, 1796; d. in Baltimore, Md., 11 April,
1877. He began life as a farmer, and exhibited at
an early age great inventive genius. One of his
first devices was a plough. Afterward he invented
the friction-wheel for cars, and the outside bearing
on axles, now almost indispensable to the use of
railways. He was also the inventor of the eight-
wheeled car system. He was sent to England by
the Baltimore and Ohio railroad company to study
the English^ systems, and spent a year in making
observations that proved of great value to the com-
pany. He built the first successful locomotive used
on this railroad, and also invented the camel-back
locomotive. He established in Baltimore the largest
railway machine-shops in the country, and his sons
were associated in their management. Mr. Winans
was solicited by the Russian government, through
the agency of George W. Whistler, to go to Russia
and build rolling-stock for the railroad between
Moscow and St. Petersburg, but declined to go him-
self, and sent his two sons. During the civil war
he took an active part in politics, and was chosen
to represent Baltimore in the extra session of the
Maryland legislature in 1861 ; but ho was arrested
and imprisoned in Fort McIIenry. He made nu-
merous compilations of gleanings from the works
of eminent writers, upon philosophical subjects,
and was himself the author of various pamphlets
on religious subjects, and of " One Religion, Many
Creeds" (Baltimore, 1870). — His son, Thomas Re Kay, engineer, b. in Vernon, N. J., 6 Dec, 1820: d. in Newport, R. I., 11 June, 1878, showed when a child great fondness for mechanical toys, which
taste his father encouraged, and apprenticed him
in his youth to a machinist. On reaching his ma-
jority, he became associated in business with his
father, and, with his brother William Lewis, was
sent to Russia to arrange the contracts for furnish-
ing and managing the equipment of the railroad
between Moscow and St. Petersburg. In 1843, with
Andrew M. Eastwick and Joseph Harrison, they
concluded a contract with the Russian government
for $3,000,000, and subsequently they held other
contracts, from which the profits were very large.
With his father and brother he invented a system
of steam navigation commonly called the "cigar-
ship," and for many years conducted elaborate, ex-
pensive, and successful experiments, principally in
European waters. After his return to the United
States, he devoted his attention to the study of new
inventions of the most diverse kinds. He devised a
great improvement in the construction of organs, in-
vented a tubular adjustment by which young trout
could be more readily fed, and built a chimney 100
feet high to ventilate his residence in Baltimore.
WINANS, William, clergyman, b. in Pennsyl-
vania, 3 Nov., 1788 ; d. in Amite county. Miss., 31
Aug., 1857. He entered the Western conference of
the Methodist Episcopal church in 1808, went to
Mississippi as a missionary in 1812, was a pioneer
of his church in that state, and Louisiana, and took
a conspicuous part in the organization of the
Methodist Episcopal church, south. He exerted a
wide influence in his denomination, and took part
in the discussion of political questions. He pub-
lished "Discourses on Fundamental Religious
Subjects," edited by the Rev. Thomas O. Summers,
D. D. (Nashville).
WINCHELL, James Manning, clergyman, b. in North East, Dutchess co., N. Y., 8 Sept., 1791 : d. in Boston, Mass.. 22 Feb., 1820. He entered Union college in 1808, but, deciding to become a minister, preferred to finish at a Baptist institution, and was graduated at Brown in 1812. Mr. Winchell was licensed by the Baptist church in North East on 4 Oct., 1812, and accepted an invitation to supply the pulpit in Bristol, R. I., for a year. He was then called to the 1st Baptist church in Boston, and was publicly recognized in that place on 14 March, 1814. Here he remained until his death, and won a high reputation for eloquence, and suavity and grace of manner. Mr. Winchell was one of the editors of the " American Baptist Magazine," and published "Jubilee Sermons: Two Discourses, exhibiting an Historical Sketch of the First Baptist Church in Boston from 1665 to 1818 " (Boston, 1819), and " Watts's Psalms and Hymns, with a Supplement" (1820). The lat-
