- HON. WILLIAM C. WHITFORD, President of Milton College, of
Milton, Wis., and a leader in
- the cause of education in this state, was born in the town
of West Edmeston, Otsego Co., N.Y., May 5, 1828, and is a son
of Capt. Samuel and Sophia (CLARKE) WHITFORD. His father and
mother were descended from English ancestors who settled in Rhode
Island early in the seventeenth century. The father was born
in the town of Brookfield, Madison Co., N.Y., Aug. 28, 1797,
was a farmer by occupation and also raised and dealt in cattle
and sheep for market. David WHITFORD, the grandfather of our
subject, died when his son Samuel was but sixteen years of age,
leaving a family of eleven children, all of whom except one sister
were younger than himself. Two of that number were cripples from
their birth and all he assisted until of mature years. He carried
on the small farm left by the father and added to the income
of the family by the manufacture of potash. For fourteen years
he devoted his earnings to the support of his mother, brothers
and sisters. Oct. 26, 1826, he married Miss Sophia CLARKE, who
was born in Plainfield, Otsego Co., N.Y., Feb. 6, 1802. Mrs.
WHITFORD was related to the several families of CLARKEs that
originated in Rhode Island, members of which have occupied important
positions in that State. She was the eldest of eight children,
and lost her father at an early age, when after reaching her
majority, she aided her mother several years in supporting the
younger children of the family. Mr. and Mrs. WHITFORD, the parents
of our subject, first made their home in West Edmeston, and later
at Plainfield, Otsego Co., N.Y. The husband possessed great physical
strength and endurance, sound judgment and superior moral and
religious character, and in later years became a man of considerable
influence, holding various positions of honor and trust in both
civil and military life. His death occurred Sept. 21, 1848, his
good wife surviving him until July 14, 1888, her death occurring
at the old homestead.
- William C. WHITFORD, our subject, was the eldest of four
children, all sons; Hamilton Joseph,
- the second, who for many years owned the homestead and cared
for his mother after the death of his father in 1848, until her
death, is now residing in Plainfield, N.Y., and is engaged in
farming; Albert, the third son, since his graduation at Union
College, Schenectady, New York, has been engaged in teaching,
having served as principal of De Ruyter Institute, and as professor
in Alfred University, both in the State of New York. He was also
a professor of Milton College, Wis., and during the service of
his brother William as Superintendent of Public Instruction of
this State, served as President of the College. He is now the
professor of mathematics in that institution. The youngest son,
Herbert David, was a soldier during the most of the Civil war,
having enlisted in a Wisconsin Regiment. He was in several of
the principal engagements of the southwest. He has served four
years in the regular service, and now resides at Leavenworth,
Kansas.
- The subject of this sketch passed his early life on his father's
farm where he developed a strong
- constitution and laid the foundation for that mental and
physical strength and vigor, and capacity for endurance, that
has since characterized his life. He attended the district or
select schools in winter and worked on the farm during the other
seasons of the year. At the age of twelve years he developed
an extraordinary fondness for reading, and for the ensuing five
years applied himself assiduously to the perusal of all works
of travel, history, biography and works of a didactic nature,
that came within his reach. Finding farm work ill suited to his
taste, he resolved to make preparations for some literary or
professional calling, and accordingly at the age of sixteen years
he entered Brookfield Academy, near his home, where he was a
student for nearly three years. When nearly of age, he entered
De Ruyter Institute in New York, where he prepared himself to
enter the Senior Class of Union College, from which he graduated
in 1853. He began teaching at the age of sixteen years and taught
his way through both Brookfield Academy and De Ruyter Institute.
While a student at the Institute he had charge during nearly
every term, of classes in penmanship, elocution, Latin and rhetoric.
After graduating at Union College, he entered Union Theological
Seminary of New York City, where he took a three years' course
of study, graduating in 1856, and was ordained a minister of
the Seventh Day Baptist Church at New Market, N.Y., in April
of that year. He immediately accepted the position of pastor
of the church of his faith at Milton, Wis., and held that charge
for two years, when he assumed the charge of Milton Academy,
in the summer of 1858, and has continued to serve as president
of that institution and of Milton College, which is an outgrowth
of the academy, until the present time, covering a period of
thirty-one years. During five years of this time his connection
with the college was only nominal, as he was granted a leave
of absence to serve as Superintendent of Public Instruction for
Wisconsin, to which office he was elected in the fall of 1877.
Under his administration, Milton Academy enjoyed healthy development
and rapidly acquired great vigor and popularity. During the late
Civil War, the spirit of patriotism led to the enlistment in
the military service of the country of 311 of its students, many
of whom were aided by Mr. WHITFORD in securing good positions
in various regiments in the State.
- For nine years, the school as an academy was under his charge,
and in 1867, largely through his
- efforts, was converted into a college. Mr. WHITFORD has not
only served as president of the college all these years, but
has also been the head of its Board of Trustees. Under his administration
old debts have been cancelled, additional rooms and other accommodations
furnished and quite a large endowment fund secured.
- In the denomination to which President WHITFORD belongs,
he has filled influential positions,
- among which is the presidency of its Conferences in this
county, which he has twice held. He also served more than four
years after 1872 in an important agency for raising a Memorial
Fund of that people, visiting in that time most of the churches
of the Seventh Day Baptists in the United States. From 1865 until
1882, with the exception of intervals amounting to three years,
he served as a member of the State Board of Normal Regents, and
for a while was an ex-officio Regent of the University of Wisconsin.
In 1867, he was elected a member of the Wisconsin Legislature,
and served one term; in 1877, was elected Superintendent of Public
Instruction of Wisconsin, was re-elected to that position in
1879, and served in all four years, proving a very competent
and popular officer. He was during that time editor of the Wisconsin
Journal of Education - a monthly. He is now corresponding secretary
of the Seventh Day Baptist Education Society, and one of the
corresponding editors of the Sabbath Recorder of Alfred Center,
N.Y., also has been editor of the Quarterly, published by that
denomination. Since residing in Milton he has been Superintendent
of the Sabbath School of his church for fifteen years.
- Mr. WHITFORD has been twice married. His first wife was Miss
Elmina E. COON, a graduate
- of De Ruyter Institute, N.Y., to whom he was married at that
place Oct. 19, 1850. She was a most amiable and accomplished
woman, who had fitted herself for teaching and a missionary life.
Her death occurred within six months after her marriage, from
quick consumption. Mrs. WHITFORD was a daughter of Clarke and
Betsey COON and was born in Lincklaen, Chenango Co., N.Y. Mr.
WHITFORD's second marriage was celebrated at Shiloh, N.Y., March
23, 1852, when Miss Ruth HEMPHILL became his wife. She was born
in Deerfield, Oneida Co., N.Y., June 15, 1829, and is a graduate
of Alfred University of the class of 1848. At the time of her
marriage, she was engaged as a teacher in the academy at Shiloh,
where Mr. WHITFORD was also employed some two years as principal
during his early life. Mrs. WHITFORD began teaching in Allegany
County, N.Y., when but fourteen years of age. She also taught
a select school at Adams Center, Jefferson Co., N.Y., was preceptress
of an academy at Shiloh, N.J. for two years, and had charge of
the Seminary at New Market in the same State for three years.
Since coming to Milton she has taught at intervals in the college
for twenty-five years or more. Mrs. WHITFORD is a woman of superior
culture and possesses a moral and religious nature most highly
trained. Four children have been born of their union, only one
of whom is yet living. Minnie, the eldest, died at the age of
five years; William died when sixteen months old; Freddie, the
third child, lived to the age of twelve years; Milton, the youngest,
who was born at Milton, Wis., Sept. 17, 1866, is now employed
in the mercantile business in his native village. The parents
have an adopted daughter, Elizabeth A. STEER, now residing with
them, who was born July 22, 1859, in the town of Cavan, Ontario.
- Mr. WHITFORD has been prominently identified with the educational
interests of the State.
- While serving as a member of the Board of Normal Regents,
which position he filled for nine years, he usually acted on
the committees for examination of graduating classes and for
conducting Teachers' Institutes in the State. He was twice elected
as visitor to the State University and has frequently been called
upon to lecture before teachers associations and lyceums. During
the Centennial year of our country, he prepared at the request
of the State Superintendent of Public Instruction, a work containing
a succinct history of education in Wisconsin, a most thorough
and exhausted one, the result of much research on his part. This,
with other contributions from the State, was on exhibition at
Philadelphia. During his service as Superintendent of Public
Instruction, he devoted much attention to such measures as would
improve and elevate the standing of the country or upgraded schools,
and delivered many addresses in various parts of the State on
educational subjects.
- In his religious opinions and practices, Mr. WHITFORD is
devoid of all cant or bigotry, while his
- convictions in respect to the doctrines and precepts of Christianity
are firm and ardent. Among the thousands of young men and women
who have been under his instructions, there is probably no one
who does not cherish sentiments of respect and esteem for him,
or who has not been benefited and influenced in moral and religious
character by his teachings. He is endowed with a powerful physical
and mental organization, which has been trained to habits of
ceaseless activity; and while he does an immense amount of work,
he never tires or shows signs of fatigue. He is exceedingly fond
of public speaking; and with a full choice, earnest manner, a
practical view of the subjects discussed and ready action of
mind, he attracts and holds his audiences. From his early boyhood
to the present, the subject of education has been the all-absorbing
idea of his life, and he has the pleasure of knowing that thousands
of young men and women have risen to a higher plain of intelligence
and culture through his well-directed efforts.
-
- Taken from "The Portrait and Biographical Album of
Rock County, Wis." (c)1889, pp. 875-877.
-
- Courtesy of Carol
|