California Biographies 

Source:
History of Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo and Ventura Counties, California
by: C M Gidney - Santa Barbara. Benjamin Brooks - San Luis Obispo. 
Edwin M Sheridan - Ventura
Volumes II - Lewis Publishing Company, Chicago, ILL., 1917

This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cagha/index.htm

 
JOSEPH J. WHIPPLE. Coming from Germany to the United States as an ambitious and aspiring 
youth of splendid character and marked talent, the late Joseph J. Whipple made a splendid 
record of achievement in the domain of expert landscape gardening, and he became one of the 
prominent and popular representatives of this profession at Santa Barbara. In this city he 
continued to maintain his home until his death, which was of tragic order, as he was killed in an 
automobile accident, on the 26th of July, 1915, when in the very height of his strong and useful 
manhood, his death having occurred when he was thirty-nine years of age.
Mr. Whipple was born at Osterhofen, Bavaria, Germany, on the 19th of January, 1876, and was 
reared and educated in his native land, though he was but fourteen years of age when he 
severed the home ties and came to the United States, where he felt assured of better 
opportunities for the achieving of success through individual effort. None could have been more 
appreciative of the advantages and institutions of the United States, and he became one of the 
most loyal of American citizens. Mr. Whipple was endowed with distinctive genius along 
mechanical lines, and in the land of his adoption he was able to command the wages of an 
expert machinist. In 1893, at the age of seventeen years, he returned to his old home in 
Bavaria, where he inherited an appreciable sum of money from the estate of his paternal 
grandfather, who had been a man of influence and substantial financial resources. After 
receiving this patrimony Mr. Whipple returned to the United States and resumed his association 
with agricultural pursuits, though he later developed his distinctive talent for horticulture and 
floriculture. As an exponent of the latter branches of enterprise he entered the employ of D. E. 
Richardson, at Riverside, Illinois, a suburb of the City of Chicago, and by his employer he was 
sent to California th supervise the improvement of the fine new estate, "Piranhurst," which Mr. 
Richardson had purchased at Montecito, Santa Barbara County, a property now owned by Mr. 
Bothin. Mr. Whipple assumed charge of the landscape gardening and other incidental 
improvements of this estate in December, 1901, and he there continued his effective service 
until Mr. Richardson's death. Thereafter he passed a few months at Goldfields, Nevada, and 
upon his return to Santa Barbara he engaged in independent business as a contractor in 
landscape gardening. There came instant and appreciative demand for his services in the laying 
out and beautifying of many of the beautiful private grounds of finer private residences in this 
section, including those of Miss Waring and Mr. Bartlett, and in 1908 he opened at Santa 
Barbara the finely appointed store, on State Street, that has been successfully conducted by his 
widow since his death. He continued his successful activities as a contractor in landscape 
gardening until the close of his life, and his tragic death was deeply deplored in the community 
in which his circle of friends was limited only by that of his acquaintances.
Though he had no ambition to enter the arena of practical politics or to become a candidate for 
public office of any kind, Mr. Whipple was essentially loyal and progressive in his civic attitude 
and gave staunch support to the cause of the republican party. He was actively affiliated with 
the Masonic fraternity and the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks.
At Kenosha, Wisconsin, on the 19th of November, 1895, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. 
Whipple to Miss Annie S. Baker, who was born in the City of Copenhagen, Denmark, a daughter 
of Henric Eric Alfred Baker and Amelia Sophia Baker, her parents having passed away there 
when she was a child. Mrs. Whipple has proved a very successful and popular business woman 
and has continued to conduct the store that had been established by her husband, their two 
children, George Edward and Theresa Matilda, being students in the public schools of Santa 
Barbara.