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Jenney, William Le Baron

(Encyclopedia)Jenney, William Le Baron, 1832–1907, American engineer and architect, b. Fairhaven, Mass. He studied at Harvard Scientific School and the École des Beaux-Arts. Later he learned engineering, constru...

Brennan, William Joseph, Jr.

(Encyclopedia)Brennan, William Joseph, Jr., 1906–97, associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court (1956–90), b. Newark, N.J. After receiving his law degree from Harvard, he practiced law in Newark. He served as ...

Evarts, William Maxwell

(Encyclopedia)Evarts, William Maxwell ĕvˈərts [key], 1818–1901, American lawyer and statesman, b. Boston; grandson of Roger Sherman. After attending Harvard Law School he began (1841) to practice law in New Yo...

Sherman Silver Purchase Act

(Encyclopedia)Sherman Silver Purchase Act, 1890, passed by the U.S. Congress to supplant the Bland-Allison Act of 1878. It not only required the U.S. government to purchase nearly twice as much silver as before, bu...

Wilson, William Lyne

(Encyclopedia)Wilson, William Lyne, 1843–1900, American legislator, cabinet member, and university president, b. Jefferson co., Va. (now in W.Va.). He was a private in the Confederate army in the Civil War, and a...

Shawnee Prophet

(Encyclopedia)Shawnee Prophet, 1775?–1837?, Native North American of the Shawnee tribe; brother of Tecumseh. His Native American name was Tenskwautawa. He announced himself as a prophet bearing a revelation from ...

Shawnee, indigenous people of North America

(Encyclopedia)Shawnee shôˈwənō [key], Native North Americans whose language belongs to the Algonquian branch of the Algonquian-Wakashan linguistic stock (see Native American languages). Their earliest known hom...

McClernand, John Alexander

(Encyclopedia)McClernand, John Alexander, 1812–1900, Union general in the American Civil War, b. Breckinridge co., Ky. He was admitted (1832) to the Illinois bar and sat as a Democrat in the U.S. House of Represe...

Johnson, Richard Mentor

(Encyclopedia)Johnson, Richard Mentor, 1780–1850, Vice President of the United States (1837–41), b. Kentucky, on the site of present Louisville. Admitted (1802) to the bar, he became prominent in state politics...

Wheeler, Joseph

(Encyclopedia)Wheeler, Joseph, 1836–1906, Confederate general in the American Civil War, b. Augusta, Ga. He resigned from the U.S. army in Apr., 1861, to fight for the Confederacy. He commanded a regiment at Shil...