WHITTEMORE BROS.

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.