- WILLIAM C. WHITFORD was born in the town of Edmeston, Otsego
Co., N.Y., May 5, 1828.
- His father, Capt. Samuel WHITFORD, of English lineage, belonged
to a branch of the family which resided in Massachusetts more
than a hundred and fifty years. His mother, Sophia CLARKE, was
connected, by both her father and her mother, with the numerous
families of that name which originated in Rhode Island, and which
have occupied important positions in that State. Both parents
were born in the town of Brookfield, Madison Co., N.Y., when
that section was comparatively new, and their youth was spent
amidst the hardships and deprivations of a pioneer life. They
enjoyed the most meager advantages to acquire even a common-school
education, but, with strong minds and rare good sense, they were
among the most intelligent and highly respected people in the
community where they lived. The grandfather, David WHITFORD,
died when his son Samuel was but 16 years of age, leaving in
his care a family of eleven children, all of whom, except one
sister, were younger than himself, and two of whom were cripples
from birth, and all of whom he assisted to reach maturity. He
worked at the potash business, managed the small farm left by
his father, and for fourteen years devoted all his earnings to
the maintenance of his mother and his brothers and sisters. By
them he was loved with a devotion seldom exhibited even in the
family circle. In later years, he became a man of considerable
influence, and held various positions of trust and honor in both
civil and military life. The last years of his life were divided
between the care of a farm and the business of buying cattle
and sheep for the New York market. He was endowed with great
physical strength and endurance, with a sound and reliable judgment,
and with a superior moral and religious character. He died at
the age of 51, in the vigor of his powers and in the midst of
his usefulness. The mother, Sophia WHITFORD, lost also her father
at an early age. She was the eldest of eight children, and before
her marriage aided her mother for several years, after reaching
her majority, in supporting and raising the other children of
the family. She has been an invalid most of the time for the
past thirty years, but she still survives as 76 years of age
in the enjoyment of a vigorous mind, a retentive memory and excellent
conversational powers.
- William C. WHITFORD is the eldest of four children - all
sons. The second is Hamilton Joseph,
- who has most generally taken the chief care of the mother
since the death of the father in 1848, and who owned for many
years the homestead farm. He now resides near the birthplace
of the family, and is in charge of a saw-mill. The third son
is Albert, who, after graduating at Union College, New York,
has been since occupied in teaching. He has been employed as
the Principal of De Ruyter Institute and as a Professor in Alfred
University, both in New York State. Besides giving instructions
for many years in Milton College, Wisconsin, he is now filling
the position of President of that institution. The fourth son
is Herbert David, who has served most faithfully for seven years
in the United States Army - three of which being in the time
of the rebellion. William, the eldest son, usually worked on
the farm in summer and attended either a district or select school
in winter until he was 17 years of age. He early developed very
great physical and mental activity. When 12 years old, he exhibited
an extraordinary fondness for reading, and for five years thereafter
applied himself assiduously to perusing all works of biography,
history, travel and of didactic nature which came within his
reach. In this period, he paid but little attention to the studies
taught in the public schools. Finding farm work ill suited to
his taste, he resolved to make preparation for some literary
or professional calling, and, accordingly, he entered, at 17
years of age, Brookfield Academy, New York, near his home, where
he remained the greater part of three years. After this, when
nearly of age, he became a student in De Ruyter Institute, New
York, and there completed his preparation to enter the Senior
Class in Union College, from which he graduated in 1853. In the
meantimes he assisted teaching in Milton Academy, Wisconsin,
one term, and was the Principal of Union Academy at Shiloh, N.J.,
for two years. He also spent a summer in making an elaborate
map of portions of Madison County, N.Y., and in this and various
other ways he met a part of his expenses in obtaining an education.
- He evinced, from an early day, a decided aptness for instructing
pupils and managing schools.
- Before he was twenty years old, he had taught in the district
school which he attended in boyhood, and in the academy where
he prepared himself for college. While a student subsequently
in De Ruyter Institute, he had charge, nearly every term, of
classes in penmanship, elocution, Latin and rhetoric. Upon graduating
from college, he decided to engage in the work of the Gospel
ministry, and thereupon he entered Union Theological Seminary,
New York City, where he completed the three years' course of
study. Immediately after leaving the Seminary, in 1856, he was
called to the pastorate of a church in Milton, Rock Co., Wis.
This Church belongs to the denomination known as Seventh-Day
Baptists, with which he has been connected since he was 14 years
of age. This position he held in Milton for three years, and
under his labors the Church, though previously quite large, more
than doubled its membership and working power. These results
were achieved through the most active and exhaustive work in
preaching and in attention to pastoral duties. During the last
years of his charge of this church, he was induced to assume
the principalship of Milton Academy, in which he taught for a
season eight years before. This institution had then been in
operation as a select school and an academy for fourteen years,
and had gained a good standing in this part of the State. Since
that time, he has been at the head of the school, except during
the past year and a half, when he has been serving as State Superintendent
of Public Instruction in Wisconsin. Under his administration,
the institution has acquired great vigor and wide popularity,
the attendance of students some years reaching over four hundred.
During the civil war, it took a prominent part in raising troops
for the service, and not less than three hundred and eleven of
its students joined the Union army, and many of them were aided
by Mr. WHITFORD in securing good positions in various regiments
of the State.
- For nine years the school, as an academy, was under his charge,
and in 1867 was converted,
- mainly by his efforts, into a college, of which he has since
been either actively or nominally the President, serving not
only at the head of the Faculty, but also of the Board of Trustees.
The institution has been mainly supported by the tuition fees
of its students, and old debts have been canceled, and additional
rooms and other accommodations have been furnished under his
administration. The task has been a Herculean one to maintain
the efficiency and popularity of the school. Under its new powers,
it has been steadily advanced in influence. The number of students
in the regular college classes has not been less than seventy
in any year, while those in the academic classes have been usually
thrice that number. The graduates of the college, though not
numerous, are among the most successful teachers in the common,
High and Normal Schools, and the State University of Wisconsin.
In the denomination to which President WHITFORD belongs, he has
filled influential positions, among which is the presidency of
its Annual Conferences in this county, a position he has filled
twice. He served over four years in an important agency of this
people, visiting, at that time, most of the Churches in the United
States.
- In 1867, he was elected to the Assembly of Wisconsin, and
performed eminent service in that
- body during its session the following year, as the Chairman
of the Committee of Education. He was President of the State
Teachers' Association for the year 1865, and succeeded in reviving
a thorough interest in that body, which had greatly declined
in activity and influence during the civil war. Before this association
he has often presented important papers on educational topics.
In 1867, he was appointed by the Governor of the State a member
of the Board of Normal Regents, and held this position for nine
years. During this time, he usually acted on the committees for
the examination of the graduating classes of the Norman [Normal]
Schools, and for conducting the Teachers' Institutes in the State.
He has been twice selected as a visitor at the State University,
and has been repeatedly called to lecture before teachers' associations
and lyceums. For 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 exhaustive one, the result of much research
on his part. This, with other contributions from the State, were
placed on exhibition at Philadelphia. In 1877, he was elected
the State Superintendent of Public Instruction by the Republican
party, and entered upon the duties of that position in January
following. Thus far, in this office, he has given all his labors
to preserving and promoting the various interests belonging to
the public system of education in the State. He has made it the
distinctive policy of his administration to sustain all those
measures which are designed to improve the country or ungraded
schools. In addition to the work of the office, he has been able
to give addresses on educational subjects in very many parts
of the State. At the recent State Convention of the Republican
party, he was unanimously nominated for this position. Besides
giving attention to the affairs of the college, and laboring
in behalf of education elsewhere, President WHITFORD has often
preached in the churches near his home, and in other sections
of the country. He has delivered addresses at political gatherings,
and at celebrations on the Fourth of July, of a high order of
scholarly patriotism.
- In his religious opinions and practices, he is devoid of
all cant or bigotry. Out of the abundance of
- his heart he is continually uttering words of encouragement
and instruction, not only to the students under his care, whether
in the classroom or on the playground, but to all with whom he
comes in contact. His convictions in respect to the doctrines
and precepts of Christianity are firm and ardent, and his influence
in leading young people to the higher duties and labors of life
have been very marked and salutory. He is in full sympathy with
all movements which indicate progress, and he inspires in them
under his influence a deep enthusiasm in any in any work which
improves the condition of the soul. Of the thousands of young
men and young women who have been instructed by him, there is,
probably, no one who does not cherish sentiments of respect and
esteem for him. Over these he exerts a powerful influence in
awakening in their hearts the desire the realize all the possibilities
of their nature. He is a most agreeable companion, abounding
in good-nature, friendly, sympathetic and generous. Possessed
of strong convictions and a firm will, he is not easily turned
aside after once taking hold of an enterprise. He is endowed
with a powerful physical constitution, and has formed the habits
of ceaseless activity. He is exceedingly fond of public speaking,
and, with a full voice, earnest manner, a practical view of the
subjects discussed, and a ready action of the mind, he attracts
and holds his audiences. His profound interest in educational
problems and methods of work will doubtless enlist his chief
attention in future years, as it has for over twenty years of
the past.
- He has been twice married. His first wife was Miss Elmina
E. COON, a graduate of De Ruyter
- Institute, New York. She was a most amiable and accomplished
woman and had fitted herself for the work of teaching and missionary
life. She died with the consumption, six months after marriage.
His second wife, Miss Ruth HEMPHILL, is a graduate of Alfred
University, New York, and has given instruction with him, a portion
of the time, for twenty-five years. She is a woman of superior
culture, excellent business traits, exceedingly fond of her home,
with power to exert a most powerful influence over her friends
and acquaintances, and possessing a moral and religious nature
most highly trained. Four children have been born to President
WHITFORD by his second wife - the eldest, Minnie, died when 5
years of age; the second, William, when he was 16 months old,
and Freddie when he was in the twelfth years of his age; the
youngest, Milton, is now 13 years old, and is fitting himself
by labor and studying at school for such positions as may come
to him in after life.
-
- Taken from "The History of Rock County, Wis."
(c)1879, pp. 830-833.
-
- Courtesy of Carol
|