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- RUFUS CLARK WHITCOMB has for the past twenty-two years
- been the efficient and highly esteemed superintendent of
the Poor Farm and County Insane asylum of Green county, having
assumed the responsible and difficult position at the age of
thirty years. His long continuance in the office is the best
testimonial to his eminent fitness in caring for the wards of
the county, where he has resided since he was a year old, or
more than half a century. He is a native of the Badger State,
having been born in Rock county July 6, 1848.
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- James WHITCOMB, his father, one of the pioneers of Wisconsin,
was born May 17, 1812, in
- New York State, and there married Nancy GOLTRY, a native
of the same State, born Aug. 7, 1814. A farmer by occupation,
James WHITCOMB early in his married life moved West, and lived
for four or five years in Indiana. He then purchased eighty acres
of land in Rock county, Wis., which he occupied until 1849, in
that year trading it for a farm of 120 acres in Mt. Pleasant
township, Green county, to which he moved, and where he lived
until his death, in 1854, at the age of forty-two. His wife survived
him until May 22, 1883, and was sixty-nine years of age at her
death. They were devout members of the Baptist Church, in which
he was for many years a deacon. Of the seven children of James
and Nancy WHITCOMB, three sons and four daughters, four survive:
Rhoda M., wife of John A. CLEMMER, of Monroe; Roxana, wife of
E. L. NEAL, of Clarksville, Iowa; Rufus C.; and James M., of
Albany, Wisconsin.
- Isaac WHITCOMB, father of James, was born in Maine May 25,
1769, and died Feb. 26, 1816.
- His wife, Susanna GREGORY, was born Sept. 1, 1784 and died
July 7, 1839. Paul GOLTRY, the maternal grandfather of our subject
was born in New Jersey, May 24, 1767, and died Sept. 28, 1845.
His wife was Rachel MOFFETT. He was a fine musician, a talented
violinist.
- Rufus C. WHITCOMB was reared in Green county, on a farm.
He received his education in the
- district schools, and possessing musical talent, he taught
singing school for some time in his younger years. He was only
six years old when his father died, and by the efforts of his
boyhood and youth assisted in the support of his widowed mother
and her family. He worked on the home farm, and also rented other
lands which he farmed, remaining with his mother until his marriage,
June 8, 1874, to Miss Margaretta FITCH, daughter of Benjamin
and Sarah J. (SMITH) FITCH, natives, respectively, of Ohio and
Ireland. James FITCH, the grandfather of Mrs. WHITCOMB, served
in the war of 1812. He was a farmer of Washington county, Penn.,
and moved to Ohio, where he died at an advanced age, leaving
a large family. His father, James Robert SMITH, the maternal
grandfather of Mrs. WHITCOMB, was a native of Ireland, of Scottish
lineage. About 1822 he emigrated with his family to America,
and settled in Ohio, where he engaged in farming, reared a large
family, and lived to the age of eighty-four years. Benjamin FITCH,
the father of Mrs. WHITCOMB, moved from Ohio to Wisconsin in
1854, settling in Sylvester township, Green county, where he
remained until 1869, in that year he moved to Oskaloosa, Iowa,
and died in 1897, aged seventy-seven years. His widow survives,
a resident of that city. Of their six children five survive:
Margaretta, wife of Mr. WHITCOMB; Mary, wife of L. P. STANTON,
of Oskaloosa, Iowa; Dr. Edwin L. of Oskaloosa; and R. F. and
Walter P., both of Oskaloosa.
- Mrs. WHITCOMB was educated in the public schools of Wisconsin
and at Oskaloosa (Iowa)
- College, and taught in Iowa and Wisconsin for several years
prior to her marriage. She was for some time the president of
the local Woman's Relief Corps, is now serving her eighth year
as treasurer of same, and has held the office of secretary. She
is a member of the Woman's club.
- To Rufus C. and Margaretta WHITCOMB have been born two children,
Eva Grace and Walter
- J., both living at home. In religious faith Mr. and Mrs.
WHITCOMB are members of the Baptist Church. Among the fraternal
orders Mr. WHITCOMB holds membership in the Knights of Pythias,
in which he is past chancellor, and was deputy grand chancellor
for five years; the Royal Arcanum, in which he has been representative
to the Grand Lodge, and was also vice-grand regent: and the Knights
of the Globe. Politically he is a stanch Republican, and he is
recognized as one of the political leaders of Green county. He
has been twice elected county coroner, now serving his second
term in that office, and also served twice as chairman of the
town board. He has been one of the most prominent members of
the Green County Agricultural Society and Mechanics Institute,
and has served that organization one year as treasurer, one year
as president, and three years as corresponding secretary. Mr.
WHITCOMB possesses great force of character and a winning personality,
and his wide acquaintanceship among the influential people extends
beyond the limits of his own county.
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-
- Taken from "Commemorative Biographical Record of
the Counties of Rock, Green, Grant, Iowa and Lafayette Wisconsin,"
(c)1901 Union Publishing; pp. 632-633.
-
- Courtesy of Carol.
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