Sacramento County
Biographies
WHITTEMORE BROS.
WHITTEMORE BROS.--Well-known among the successful ranchers of Sacramento
County who have attained their success by scientific, progressive methods,
courageous investment and steady application to the problems before them,
Messrs. Whittemore Bros., who are operating two miles northwest of Clay, are
enjoying an enviable position. They
represent the Whittemore family of Clay, together with a sister who is still
living, and they all live on the old Whittemore ranch. These brothers are Albion E. Whittemore, who
was born on July 16, 1874; Carl A. Whittemore, who first saw light on January
24, 1878; and Benjamin Franklin Whittemore, who was born on February 15,
1880. The sister is Anna Lucy, now
married and the wife of William Hart. She was born in 1883. They are the children of Benjamin Franklin
Whittemore, a native of New Hampshire, who had married Miss Anna Margaret
Snyder, of Allegany County, New York. Benjamin F. Whittemore came out to
California as early as 1853, across the great plains; and he mined at Michigan
Bar. The Snyder family had migrated to Illinois, and in 1872 Benjamin F.
Whittemore returned East from California.
He was married in Illinois, and that same year he came back to
California, bringing with him his young wife. He settled about two miles
northwest of Clay Station, and there purchased a quarter-section of land. And
he built a home at that time, and died on his ranch on November 9, 1885, aged
fifty-two years and ten months. His wife was born on June 27, 1838, and she
died at the old home at Clay, on June 3, 1920, having almost reached her
eighty-second year. Mr. Whittemore was one of the first trustees of the Laguna
school district, and both he and his gifted wife were among the most esteemed
pioneers in this section. All their boys attended the Clay district school, and
since their boyhood, they lived on the ranch with their mother. Miss Whittemore
married William Hart, of Clements, and she has three sons: Wilbur, Lauren and
Delbert
To the original quarter-section of land
Benjamin F. Whittemore had added 320 acres in two parcels, and of this estate
the Whittemore brothers own 280 acres. They also have a plot of ground seven
and one-half acres in extent in Galt, within the northern part of the city.
Their father always conducted a general farming enterprise, and bequeathed to
his children something more then merely a good name. Carl A. Whittemore has
been a clerk of the board of directors of the Laguna district school for the
last twelve years. Benjamin Franklin, Jr., the youngest son, served as
constable of Alabama Township from 1914 to 1922, and like the other brothers he
is a stanch Republican. B. F. Whittemore was united in matrimony at Sacramento
on December 15, 1918, with Miss Josephine Ivey, who is a native of
Arkansas. She came to California with
her mother when two years old, and was reared and educated at Clay Station. Her
father was William Ivey, who had married Mary Holcomb. Mr. Ivey died in
Arkansas, but the mother came on to California with her family, and here
married Thomas Allen, of Clay. He died in 1911.
Mrs. Allen is still living near clay, the mother of four children, by
her first marriage, all of whom are deceased, save Mrs. Whittemore, while by
her union with Mr. Allen she had three children, Louis, Rufus, and Jewel. Mrs. Whittemore attended the Clay district
school, and has two children, Leland Benjamin and Roland Carl.
Transcribed by Louise E.
Shoemaker.
Source: Reed, G. Walter, History of Sacramento County, California With Biographical Sketches,
Pages 316-317. Historic Record Company,
Los Angeles, CA. 1923.
© 2007 Louise E. Shoemaker.