Jim and Ellen are my grandparents.

Jim Elected Republican County Chairman

In August, Jim began a new chapter in his life.  The Eagle of August 22, 1893 featured the following news article:

“Mr. Jas. E. Whipple of this place was elected Chairman of the Republican County Central Committee replacing James G. Mallory who will run for the office of county treasurer in the fall election.  Mr. Whipple is a native of Vinton and one of the most active Republicans.  For the most part of his life he has lived in Indiana, and for two or three years previous to his removal to Vinton took an active part in county politics.  He holds the responsible position of City Clerk.  He is a good executive officer, and is a splendid successor to Mr. Mallory.  He will make an active, stirring campaign.” Read the rest of this entry »

James and Ellen are my grandparents.

The Family Moves to Vinton, Benton County, Iowa

Jim arrived in Vinton the end of September 1888 to visit his Whipple relatives and to assess the opportunities available to him were he to move his family there.  It was his first trip back in 29 years.

He stayed with his uncle Cyrenius, who by then was one of the leading farmers in that section of Iowa.   He also met with his uncle Henry and his married Whipple aunts Angeline McKinley, Eliza Kearns, and Luana Edmonds, along with a host of cousins.  By then, his cousin William P., Cyrenius’s oldest son, had been practicing law and selling real estate in the county for many years and along with his brother Milo was an active member of the Republican party.  Apparently convinced Vinton would be a desirable new home for his family, he purchased William’s real estate business and moved Ellen and Blaine there. Read the rest of this entry »

James E. Whipple and Ellen Thompson are Blaine’s grandparents.

Launches The Journal in Cayuga, Indiana

Sometime prior to 1887 Jim worked for the Clinton Argus writing Eugene news and a column entitled “The Old JEW” (James E. Whipple).  When the Clinton Siftings ceased publication in May 1887 Jim purchased its equipment and type and founded the Cayuga Journal in Cayuga, Indiana on May 14, 1887 with John Wigley as typesetter and financial help from H.O. Peters, his former employer.

The Cayuga Journal was a six column paper with pages one and four boilerplate and pages two and three hand set type of local news items and advertising.  It was published on Saturdays.  As editor-publisher, Jim said the paper would be “independent in all things and neutral in nothing.”  He included a number of opinion columns in the initial issue including:

“We expect to make the Cayuga Journal a purely
local paper devoted to the interests of Cayuga, Eu-
gene, and the surrounding country.   Partisan opinions
will not be allowed to enter its columns, although the
editor’s devotion to his Party is as firm as ever, and
personally he will work for the success of that Party.

We invite short, spicy locals from contributors, but
long-winded articles from verbose contributors to
be assigned to the privacy of the waste basket.   In
short, we intend to make a first class local paper.

We will be greatly pleased to receive the approba-
tion of the public, and if you can give us a certifi-
cate of approbation in the shape of a one dollar bill
we will be still greater pleased and will also send
you the Journal for one year. Read the rest of this entry »

Blaine Whipple has meticulously gathered information on 15 Generations of Matthew Whipple of Ipswich, Massachusetts. A talented writer, the author has brought history to life. These ancestry stories include the how, when, and where and are illustrated with maps, photographs, sketches, scanned newspaper articles, marriage licenses, and other artifacts which takes the reader from the 1500s to the current generation. Extensive end notes explain the relevance of the information.

Those who don’t share the heritage will find 15 Generations of Whipples a fascinating read.  Jean Foster Kelley CG, Library Director, MoSGA Journal, XXX, No. 3,2010

My grandfather, James Ezekiel Whipple, son of Union Civil War veteran Lucien and great (6) grandson of Matthew, Jr., was born 3 September 1857 on a farm southeast of Vinton, Benton County; Iowa and died in Vinton 14 May 1914. He married 1 April 1881 at Georgetown, Vermilion Co., Illinois Ellen Thompson, daughter of John and Rebecca (Campbell?) Thompson. During his business life, he was an insurance and real estate broker,  a newspaper editor and publisher,  a city and county officer, active in many civic organizations and the Republican Party of Benton County.  He served in Cuba during the Spanish-American War and  retired as a Major in the Iowa National Guard.

His middle name honors his mother’s father, Ezekiel Sheward of Eugene, Vermillion County, Indiana.  Lucien moved the family back to Eugene in the fall of 1859 where their five children were raised. Read the rest of this entry »

This is the final post on Lucien Whipple family and includes details on Sarah’s death in June 1898 and Lute’s in May 1904.

For reasons unknown to the author, the Whipples returned to Eugene after only two years in Kansas. They more than doubled the purchase price of their farm, which they sold to Rosa Chrisman for $800.00 on September 1, 1870.

Lute purchased a home in Eugene from F. B. Ragland for $350.00 on January 3, 1871. He did resume farming and became a Patent Right Agent and followed many lines of work until retiring in the late 1890s. How the family was impacted by the depression that began in 1873 is unknown.

He was employed in 1873 to help build the Eugene covered bridge which still stands today.  He conducted the Eugene Federal Census in 1880, ran a meat market in 1894, and was named Town Marshal in 1895. When the town voted to dissolve its corporate entity March 28, 1896, his law enforcement career ended. He also participated in home talent plays and was in the cast of American Born presented by the Alexander Dramatic Combination in February 1885. Admission was 15 cents for children, 25 cents for adults, and 35 cents for a reserved front seat. Proceeds were to benefit the Eugene Brass Band.

He was one of the organizers and the first Vice President of the Total Abstinence Society, dubbed the Reformed Roosters, organized in February 1886. His son Jim was the Society’s first Secretary.   He was also an organizer of the Eugene Chapter of the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR) and elected its Colonel.  The Whipple School was built in 1881 on land he owned. Between 1881 and 1909, it had 13 teachers, including his granddaughter Clara Fultz who taught the 1911-12 school year. In the fall of 1909 only the first five grades were taught and it was closed in 1920 and the building was advertised for sale in 1923. Read the rest of this entry »

Blaine, I want to offer profuse thanks to you for the extraordinary gift of your Family Genealogy! I had seen the galley proofs of one volume several years ago, but I had no appreciation of the breadth and depth of your work until I sat with all four volumes over the weekend. I went first, of course, to Volume 4 to look for names on my search lists. The index is like the Manhattan telephone book.

The sheer magnitude of your research is staggering. I too have done family history work (since I was in high school), and I know how the passion for family information can become all-consuming.

You can take comfort in knowing that you are leaving an irreplaceable gift for your family.

James Reinhardt, San Francisco, 12-27-12

When the Soviet Sputnik went up on Oct. 4, 1957, so did hundreds of amateur telescopes across America. They were already in the hands of school students as part of Operation Moonwatch, given to them by astronomer Dr. Fred Whipple, director of the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory (SAO) in Cambridge, Mass.

Whipple wanted youth to view meteors and comets during the International Geophysical Year (July 1957-December 1958) and student amateurs participated alongside “tens of thousands of professional scientists from sixty-seven nations staffing hundreds of stations around the globe.”  Moonwatch said: “Keep Watching the Skies” and Whipple’s network was ideal for tracking the Soviet hardware and for satellite spotting. The students reported their sightings to the SAO, which then computed the orbital data. Read the rest of this entry »

Lute returned to farming in Eugene for the next three-and-a-half years and undoubtedly followed with interest the purchase of Alaska from Russia in 1867 and the protracted disagreements between President Andrew Johnson and the Republican Congress in 1867-68.

Thaddeus Stevens of Pennsylvania, chairman of the powerful Ways and Means Committee, was among the most radical and anti-southern members of Congress.  He opposed all of Lincoln’s and Johnson’s measures to deal leniently with the former Confederacy.  On February 24, 1868, he asked the House to remove Johnson from office, calling him a “great political malefactor.”  The House drew up 11 Articles of Impeachment, nine about the Tenure of Office Act, one condemning the President’s speeches, and one an omnibus denunciation.  His trial by the Senate ended May 16 with a 35 to19 vote for conviction, one short of the necessary two-thirds majority.  Seven Republican senators voted for acquittal because they believed party politics, not impeachable offenses, motivated the trial. Read the rest of this entry »

On Nov. 5, 1906, Fred Lawrence Whipple, a descendant of Captain John Whipple of Providence, RI, was born in the commercial trading town of Red Oak, Iowa.  I was fortunate to make his acquaintance during his time at Harvard and we communicated several times about his family background.

Frank Daniels III, a member of the staff of the Pilot Newspaper in Southern Pines, North Carolina in his article, “Separating the Comments from the Chaff,” published recently wrote this about Fred L. Whipple. Read the rest of this entry »