Alameda County
Biographies
JOHN CLEVELAND WHIPPLE
JOHN CLEVELAND WHIPPLE.
The substantial and honored citizens of
Alameda county have no better representative than the venerable
John Cleveland Whipple, a pioneer agriculturist of Washington
township, owning and occupying a finely improved homestead near Decoto. Although he has passed the eighty-second milestone
of life, he bears the burden of his years with ease and dignity, retaining in a
remarkable degree his physical and mental vigor. A native of New York, he was
born January 25, 1820, in Duanesburg,
Schenectady county, which was also the birthplace of his father,
Samuel Whipple. On both sides of the house he comes of thrifty New England
stock, his ancestors having been among the earlier settlers of that section of
the country. His paternal grandfather, David Whipple, removed from his New
England home to New York state, taking up a tract of land on the extreme
western frontier, and after serious trouble succeeded in getting a clear title
to his estate, on which he spent the remainder of his life, passing away at the
advanced age of ninety years.
Born and reared in
Schenectady county, N. Y., Samuel Whipple removed to Susquehanna county, Pa.,
about 1823, and in the midst of a dense wilderness bought land that was in its
primitive condition, paying $6 an acre for it. Selling out about 1840 he
returned to his native state, and bought land near Palmyra, where he was
employed in tilling the soil for a few years. Removing then to Monroe county,
N. Y., he bought a farm near Brockport, only seventeen miles from Rochester,
and there continued his agricultural labors until his death, at the age of
three score years. He married Phoebe Cleveland, who was born in Maine, and
died in New York state, at the age of eighty-two years. Her parents, Judge
Gardner Cleveland and his wife, were born in Maine, and both lived to a good
old age, her mother being ninety-two years old when she passed to the life
beyond. Of the union of Samuel and Phoebe (Cleveland) Whipple, thirteen
children were born, twelve of whom grew to years of maturity, and nine are still
living, three being more than eighty years of age.
One of a large family
of children, John Cleveland Whipple began as a boy to assist his father in
clearing a farm, laboring assiduously throughout his early life, during the
winter seasons attending the short term of the district school. When twenty
years of age he began working for wages, receiving $10 a month, all of which he
saved, at the end of the year having $120 to his credit. Subsequently learning
the carpenter’s trade, he followed it first in Pennsylvania, and afterwards
with his uncle near Rochester, N. Y. While there he cast his first presidential
vote for the Whig candidate, Henry Clay. In the latter part of 1852 Mr. Whipple
started for California by way of Panama, and after walking a part of the way
across the Isthmus boarded a steamer, and arrived in San Francisco
February 5, 1853. He worked at his trade in that city or near by for nearly five years. In the fall of 1853 he went
to Oakland, which was then in its incipiency, having but one store, one
butcher’s shop, and no postoffice, although one was
opened soon after. There was at that time no wagon road between that place and
San Pablo, a distance of twelve miles, and only one house between the two
towns. Locating at Point Richmond, Contra Costa county, in 1858,
Mr. Whipple, in company with his brother William, who came to California
with him, rented land and engaged in general farming, continuing in partnership
for about two years, when the brother returned to New York state. John Whipple
also spent a year in his native state and upon removing to Alameda county in
1863, bought two hundred acres of the land now included in his present ranch,
and has since carried on ranching with eminent success. From time to time he
has added more land by purchase, and now owns three hundred acres of good land
in the hills, while in his home farm, which lies on an open plain, he has one
hundred and thirty-eight acres. He has been very fortunate in his chosen
occupation, devoting himself principally to the raising of grain, although he
has a fine-bearing orchard of twenty-seven acres. A man of sterling integrity,
and of many excellent traits of character, Mr. Whipple has always been
held in high respect throughout the community, and has been actively identified
with its improvement and advancement. Since the formation of the Republican
party he has cordially indorsed its principles, and been one of its most loyal
adherents.
Transcribed by Marie Hassard
05 January 2015.
Source: History
of the State of California & Biographical Record of Coast Counties,
California by Prof. J. M. Guinn, A. M., Pages 325-326. The Chapman
Publishing Co., Chicago, 1904.
© 2015 Marie Hassard.
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