Wycombe
a market town of Buckinghamshire, England; on the Wye; 25 miles E. S. E. of Oxford and 29 W. N. W. of London. Called variously Chipping (or Chepping), Wycombe and High Wycombe, it was the seat of a Saxon fortress, Desborough Castle, some remains of which may be seen, and has a fine cruciform parish church (1273-1522; restored 1874-1888) with a tower 96 feet high, a guildhall (1757-1859), etc. Wycombe was governed rned by a mayor in Henry III.'s time, but first incorporated by Henry VI.; the municipal boundary was extended in 1880. Pop. about 20,000.
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Wye
a river of South Wales, which, rising from Montgomeryshire, near the Severn's source, and flowing generally through Hereford, and between Gloucester and Monmouth, enters the Severn at Chepstow, 123 miles below its head. Rapid and rockbound as far as Hay, the Wye grows gentler as it gathers volume, but throughout is singularly beautiful, making innumerable horseshoe curves between wooded banks, and passing by Maeslough, Clifford, Gooderich, and Chepstow Castles, Hereford Cathedral, and Tintern Abbey.
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Wyman
WALTER an American surgeon; born in St. Louis, Mo., Aug. 17, 1848; was graduated at Amherst College in 1870, and at the St. Louis Medical College in 1873; was made assistant surgeon in the United States Hospital Service in 1876, and became chief medical purveyor of the quarantine division in 1888; was appointed supervising surgeon-general of the United States Marine Hospital Service in 1891. Under his Ho management was one of the finest laboratories in the world, where diseases were constantly being scientifically investigated. He was an earnest advocate for the sanitation of ports not only in the United States but in the West Indies and South America, holding that if this were enforced yellow fever would be entirely eradicated from the Western Hemisphere. He was also interested in purifying water supplies; in the study of leprosy and tuberculosis; etc. On his recommendation the Government set apart a large tract of land in New Mexico for a hospital whence all consumptive patients in the United States marine hospitals could be transferred. He died in 1911.
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Wyndham
SIR CHARLES, a British actor; born in 1837. He was educated in Germany, at St. Andrew's and in Dublin, studying medicine for some years. After fighting in the American Civil War, he went on the stage, making his first appearance in America with John Wilkes Booth, and in London, in 1865. He acted also in German. In 1876 he became lessee and manager of the Criterion Theater, London, England, and in 1899 built and opened with Mary Moore, Wyndham's Theater, in London. He was knighted in 1902.
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Wyoming
UNIVERSITY OF, a coeducational, non-sectarian institution in Laramie, Wyo., founded in 1886; reported at the close of 1919: Professors and instructors, 56; students, 913; president, A. Nelson, Ph. D.
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Wyoming Valley
a valley in Luzerne co., Pa., famous as the scene of a massacre following the battle of Tory and Indian invaders, on one side, and the American settlers on the other, July 3, 1778. The American force was weak, nearly all the fighting men being away in the Continental army, and more than half of it was killed. The survivors took refuge in Forty Fort, where most Cyc 30 of the families of the valley had gathered. The Tories under Colonel Butler, offered unexpectedly easy terms of surrender, and the settlers went back to their homes, while the invaders were supposed to be leaving the valley. Against the commands of their white leaders the Indians remained, and, on the inhabitants and burning the houses. All who could escape made their way into the Wilkesbarre Mountains and the swampy land beyond, where so many women and children died that it was afterward called "The Shades of Death." When peace was established and the Indians came under control, the surviving settlers returned. They were confirmed in the possession of the valley about 1787.
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Wythe
Declaration of Independence; born in GEORGE, a signer of the Elizabeth City, Va., in 1726; was educated at William and studied law and became eminent in that Mary College; profession; was House of Burgesses in which he became chosen to the Virginia a leader. He was monstrating against the Stamp Act, author of a paper rewhich was adopted after being modified. In 1775 he was sent to the Continental Congress and affixed his name to the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776 , as a representative of Virginia. He was made speaker of Delegates in 1777, and the same year of the Virginia House became a judge in the Court of Chancery of Virginia. He was Professor of Law at William and Mary College in 1779- 1789, and a delegate to the Constitutional Convention of 1787. He was the author of "Decisions in Virginia by the High Court of Chancery, with Remarks Upon Decrees by the Court of Appeals" (1795). He died in Richmond, Va., June 8, 1806.
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