Illustrated Historical Atlas of the State of Iowa, 1875

A. T. Andreas Illustrated Historical Atlas of the State of Iowa, 1875.
Published by Andreas Atlas Corp., Chicago.

Unless otherwise noted, biographies submitted by Dick Barton.

Barrett Whittemore was born in Fitz William, Cheshire County, New Hampshire, Feb. 26, 1806.

His grandfather was Josiah Whittemore, who married and had the following family. Hs wife's maiden name is not remembered.

Josiah Whittemore and Miss _____ _____, parents.

Children.
I. William Snow, born July 26, 1774.
II. John, born Oct. 17, 1775.
III. Salmon, born July 17, 1778.
IV. Mary, born Sept. 28, 1780.
V. Lucy, born July 28, 1783.
VI. Josiah, born Oct. 28, 1784.
VII. Levi, Born June 12, 1786.
VIII. Cephas, born Dec. 2, 1787.
IX. Otis, born Aug. 8, 1789.
X. Betsey, born Sept. 26, 1793.
XI. Cephas (2d), born April 26, 1797.
XII. Zenas, born Sept. 15, 1798.
XIII. Patty, born April 1, 1800.
XIV. Salenas, born Aug. 19, 1803.

Mr. Whittemore's father was the oldest son of Josiah. He married Polly Locke. The following is his family:

William Snow Whittemore and Polly Locke, parents.

Children.
I. Sophronia, born Aug. 12, 1801.
II. Harriett, born Oct. 31, 1802.
III. William Locke, born May 15, 1804.
IV. Barrett, born Feb. 26, 1806.
V. Mary, born April 12, 1808.
VI. Rebecca, born May 27, 1811.
VII. William, born Jan. 14, 1814.
VIII. Otis, born March 5, 1816.

We have inserted the above families for the purpose of preserving the record of the two previous generations, that their posterity may be able to trace their descent from them.

Mr. Whittemore, the subject of this sketch, was educated in the Common Schools of New Hampshire, attending occasionally the High School in the vicinity where he lived, which was taught by graduates of Amherst College.

He aided his father on the farm during his minority, and remained at the old homestead until he was about twenty-four years of age, and then went to Bureau County, Illinois, where he remained one year - from there to Galena, in the same state. Here he engaged in mining and smelting lead, and continued in that business until about the year 1834, when he went to Dubuque, Iowa, where he followed the same business for a while.

During his first winter in Dubuque he taught the second school ever taught in that city.

Subsequently he engaged in a saw mill near Durango, Dubuque County, where he remained till he went to Bowen's Prairie, in Jones County, in the year 1838. Here he took up about 120 acres of land, and has ever since made it his home. His first residence was a log cabin, which stood near the site of his present home.

In 1841 he opened the first school in Jones County, on Bowen's Prairie.

In 1842 he returned to his old home in New Hampshire, where he made an extended visit of about eighteen months, and then brought back his brother Otis and family, and J. H. Eaton, who settled near him, on Bowen's Prairie.

He continued teaching and farming until 1846, when he once more visited the scenes of his childhood, and the friends of former days, and was successful in persuading Miss Louisa Blodgett to return as a "help meet" to his home in the far West. In sharing his toils, in prosperity and in adversity, she has ever been the true and faithful wife.

In 1844 Mr. Whittemore was elected Clerk of the Board of County Commissioners, the duties of which office included both that of the Clerk and Auditor of the present day.

In 1858 he was elected the first County Superintendent of Schools of Jones County, and served about two years. During the past ten years he has served the public as Justice of the Peace, Township Collector, District Secretary, etc., and, in every position, has discharged the duties of his office with fidelity and precision.

During his early settlement in this state, he aided in breaking the ground for the first capitol at Iowa City. The first election in Jones County was held in his cabin, and the whole number of votes cast for Territorial officers was eleven. He was in the Black Hawk War, and was active on the side of the Government during the exciting times of the Rebellion.

It would be easy to fill a volume, detailing the incidents of the life of Mr. W., but our space will not admit of a more extended notice. For the past fifty years he has served the rising generation as a teacher, and, at the age of sixty-nine, his school last winter was a success.

Mr. Whittemore is a good writer, and his sketches of the early settlement of Bowen's Prairie, etc., published in the Monticello Express, a few years ago, were read by the people of the county with increasing interest.

Doctor JAMES WIDNER, Clerk of Courts of Adams County, was born in Huron County , Ohio , in 1825. He was brought up in Hardin County , in that state, on a farm, till he was about twenty-one years of age, when, in 1846, he came to Iowa with his parents and settled in Van Buren County, and remained there until 1850, when he crossed the Plains to California , returning in the Spring of 1855.

Dr. Widner settled in Adams County in the Spring of 1857, in Quincy , then the county seat. He studied menicine and graduated at Keokuk Medical College in 1865, having been previously engaged in practice. He continued to practice medicine until 1869, when he was elected to the office of Clerk of the Courts, which position he has continued to hold to the present time, the duties of which he has discharged in a faithful and efficient manner.

He served three years in the Fourth Iowa Infantry, during which time he was wounded twice. Enlisted in 1862, and returned at the close of the war.

ALLISON I. WILLITS was born in Wayne County, Indiana, about 1810, and died April 22, 1858 , aged 47, his ancestors immigrating to America previous to the Revolution. Mr. W. was a practical farmer, and followed that business in Indiana until about 1839 or 1840, when he removed to Mt. Vernon , Iowa , where he engaged in real estate business and in merchandising, and was among the first settlers of Linn County . He, with others, laid out the town of Mt. Vernon .

He married Elizabeth E. Julian, a sister of George W. Julian, a former member of Congress from Indiana, by whom he had four children, two of whom are living. Adelia, who married George Thompson, a soldier in the 1st Iowa Cavalry during the Rebellion, and who has three children, Allison, John and Horace; and George J., who is editor of the Linn County Pilot , published at Marion , and who married Ora N. Rankin, of Jones County , by whom he has one son, Charles E. Willits.

ALONZO PELHAM WOOD was born in the town of Little Compton , Rhode Island , in the month of August, 1817. At about the age of twelve he began working in a newspaper office (in the neighboring village of Fall River , Massachusetts ), and with the exception of some time afterwards spent in school, continued to be so employed until he reached his majority. Subsequently to this he spent some time (principally in the capacity of a working printer) at different points in the middle and southwestern states, occasionally, during the time, contributing articles for the press, and during most of one year was employed in reading elementary law works, with a view to ultimately entering the legal profession.

In 1841-'42, while residing in Cincinnati , Ohio , he became a participant in an active and somewhat excited political discussion, then being carried on in that city between the Whig and Democratic parties, involving more particularly the doctrine of protection to domestic industry. Mr. Wood espoused the Whig side of the controversy, and championed the policy of protection, against the assaults of some of the most noted free traders of that period and locality (among others, Elwood Fisher), who were making strenuous efforts to implant their doctrines in the minds of the people of Cincinnati .

Early is 1841, Mr. Wood was invited to become the editor of the Iowa Standard, a Whig newspaper recently established at Iowa City , then the seat of government of the Territory of Iowa . This invitation he accepted, and continued to occupy the position for about four years, being also, a portion of the time, the owner of the establishment. But the Whig party being steadily in a minority, both in the immediate locality of publication and in the territory at large, The Standard failed to receive sufficient support to protect it against pecuniary difficulties, and in 1845 Mr. Wood began to contemplate a change of location. He finally determined on removing to Dubuque , the wealthiest, and at the same time the most intensely Democratic town in the territory, and where a Whig paper had but recently been discontinued from lack of support. This purpose was carried into effect in the Fall of 1846, and the Dubuque Tribune established. Friends, both personal and political, were free in expressing the opinion that the enterprise would prove unsuccessful. It was, however, steadily persisted in, although encountering many difficulties, one of which was the establishing of a rival sheet, that its independent course provoked into existence in 1848. This rivalry was protracted through a period of about two years, when the opposition paper became absorbed in the Tribune, which from that time held undisputed position as the leading Whig journal of Northern Iowa . In 1854, on account of impaired health, brought about by excessive application to business. Mr. Wood relinquished the management of the Tribune, to other hands.

After retiring from the newspaper business, Mr. Wood became somewhat largely engaged in real estate operations; but these were brought to a sudden and disastrous close by the great panic of 1857. During several months of 1857, Mr. Wood was the editor and publisher of the Dubuque Republican, a daily and weekly paper, devoted especially to the advocacy of the present Constitution of the State of Iowa , which was voted upon and adopted in the Fall of that year. Soon after the close of the canvass, the Republican was discontinued, its subscription list being transferred to The Tribune.

For some time after this second retiracy from editorial life, Mr. Wood entertained the purpose of writing a history of Iowa , as a territory and state; but was eventually led to relinquish this plan in favor of a history of the part taken by the state in the was of the Rebellion. With the latter object in view, he began accumulating data a considerable time in advance of the close of the war, and continued for about two years after that event - the process proving much more tedious than was anticipated in the beginning. It ultimately became Mr. Wood's determination, however, to make the Iowa work a stepping stone to a general history of the war, and for this reason a much greater degree of care was exercised in gathering facts from every portion of the war field, and investigating the details of movements and battles, while the actors in them were still accessible to be consulted, than would have been justified for a state history alone. Work was closed on the Iowa history in the Spring of 1875, and it is now passing through the press. When its publication shall have been completed, the labor of amplifying its matter into a national history will be begun.