- WILLIAM CLARKE WHITFORD. After several efforts were made
to secure a successor to
- Professor SPICER as principal of the school [Milton], the
trustees prevailed upon the Rev. W. C. WHITFORD, then the pastor
of the Milton Seventh Day Baptist Church, to assume the charge
during the following fall term of 1858, and he consented to remain
in the same position the balance of the year. He then resigned
the pastoral charge of the church and became permanently connected
with the school as principal. He had fitted himself for college
at De Ruyter Institute; graduated at Union College in 1853, and
completed the full course of studies at Union Theological Seminary,
New York city, in 1856. From that time until his death on May
20, 1902, a period of forty-four years, he was the president
of the academy and of the college, and the history of the school
for this almost a half century is in reality a part of his biography;
a part, because his life was even more extended than that of
the school, for he was one year a member of the Wisconsin legislature,
for four years the superintendent of public instruction, and
for nine years a member of the state board of regents of the
normal schools. Then, he was often invited to deliver lectures
and addresses wholly outside of the work of the school. He wrote
many articles for newspapers and magazines, and was an influential
force in all the departments of the Seventh Day Baptist denomination.
During the first year in which he had charge of the school he
had associated with him Professor Albert WHITFORD, Mrs. Chloe
C. WHITFORD, Mr. S. S. ROCKWOOD, Mrs. Flora H. ROCKWOOD and Mr.
W. H. CLARKE, a music teacher.
-
- Taken from "Rock County, Wisconsin, Vol. II"
by William Fiske Brown, (c)1908, pp. 319-320.
-
- Courtesy of Carol
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