- ALBERT WHITFORD, M.A., Professor of Mathematics in Milton
College, is one of the oldest
- and best-known educators of southern Wisconsin. He has engaged
in teaching for considerably more than a half century, giving
the profession the devotion of his early years.
- Prof. WHITFORD was born at Plainfield, near Leonardsville,
N.Y., May 28, 1832, son of
- Samuel and Sophia (CLARKE) WHITFORD. The father, a farmer
by occupation, was born in Brookfield, N.Y., in 1797, and was
a son of David WHITFORD, a native of Stonington, Conn. of English
ancestry, and a farmer. Samuel married Sophia, daughter of Joseph
CLARKE, who was born in Rhode Island. The father of our subject
died in Plainfield, N.Y., in 1848, aged fifty-one years; his
wife surviving him forty years, passed away in Plainfield, N.Y.,
at the age of eighty-six. Both were devout members of the Seventh-Day
Baptist Church. They had four sons: Rev. William Clarke, president
of Milton College; Hamilton Joseph, deceased; Albert, our subject;
and Herbert David, of Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
- The early life of our subject was spent on his father's farm.
In 1847, at the age of fifteen years, he
- entered Brookfield Academy, but after a few terms was obliged
by the death of his father to abandon temporarily his education.
He taught district schools for several years, and in 1849 entered
De Ruyter Institute as a student, teaching and attending school
until 1852, when he entered Alfred Academy, by which he was graduated
in the classical course in 1853.
- Mr. WHITFORD came to Milton, Wis., in 1854, and became instructor
in the Latin Language in
- Milton academy. Returning East two years later, he entered
Union College at Schenectady, N.Y., in 1856; and by doing extra
work, completed the classical course and was graduated, in 1857,
with the degree of Bachelor of Arts. Four years later Union
College conferred upon him the degree of Master of Arts.
- Returning to Milton in 1857, Prof. WHITFORD again became
a teacher of Latin at the Academy,
- remaining in that position until 1863, when he was elected
county superintendent of schools of Rock county, Wis. Two years
later he was elected to the principalship of De Ruyter Institute,
N.Y., filling the position two years. Again returning to Milton,
in 1867, he taught for a year in the newly incorporated Milton
college, then accepted the chair of mathematics in Alfred University,
New York, where he taught four years. Since 1872 he has been
professor of mathematics continuously, for two years of this
time, from 1878 to 1880, also serving as acting president of
the College, while President W. C. WHITFORD was State Superintendent
of Public Instruction in Wisconsin.
- Prof. WHIGFORD married, May 31, 1857, Miss Chloe E. CURTIS.
Of their five children, one
- died in infancy. Anna Sophia married C. Eugene CRANDALL,
a professor in the Chicago University. She has recently been
engaged as teacher of German Language and Literature in Milton
College. Albert Curtis, a railroad conductor, residing at Las
Vegas, N.M., married Lottie HARVEY; all their children have died,
Alfred, the youngest, recently. William Henry, a real-estate
dealer at Independence, Kans., married Allie FOSTER, and has
two daughters, Kathleen and Dorothy. Alfred Edward, a student
in the Chicago University, has been elected the professor of
general physics in Milton College. Mrs. WHITFORD died Nov. 4,
1888, and on Feb. 14, 1892, our subject was united in marriage
to Miss Emily L. BURDICK, of West Edmeston, New York.
- Prof. WHITFORD throughout his long and successful career
as a teacher has been devoted to the
- cause of education in the highest sense. While insisting
upon a high standard of scholarship among his students, his unassuming
manners and kindness of heart have greatly endeared him to his
classes. He is liberal in spirit, and has contributed generously
in a financial, as well as educational way to the success of
Milton College.
-
- Taken from "Commemorative Biographical Record of
the Counties of Rock, Green, Grant, Iowa and Lafayette Wisconsin"
(c)1901, pp. 54-55.
-
- Courtesy of Carol
-
- See also biography of Prof.
Alfred WHITFORD (same man).
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