Welles Whitmore

Welles Whitmore, an attorney of Oakland, was born in Pittsfield, Washtenaw county, Michigan, August 24, 1849, a son of Ezra W. and Caroline A. (Sanford) Whitmore, both natives of Ontario county, New York.  The father, born in Seneca in 1815, a school-teacher for fifty years, at one time County Superintendent of Schools and a member of the Legislature of Michigan, is living in Oakland, in 1890.  The mother, born in Cortland, New York, April 6, 1821, and married in Pittsfield, Michigan, September 22, 1848, died in 1882.  The Whitmore family dates back to Thomas Whitmore, who was born in England in 1615, and emigrated to Plymouth Colony in 1635.  He moved to Hartford, Connecticut, and was there married to Sarah (Willocke) Hall.  He afterward resided in Middletown, Massachusetts, where he seems to have been a man of considerable prominence, being an office-holder and land-owner.  He was twice married, had nine sons and seven daughters, and lived to the age of ninety.  Samuel, the youngest son of the first wife, born in Middletown, September 10, 1655, was married, December 13, 1687, to Miss Mary Bacon, a daughter of Nathaniel, Sr., and Ann Bacon.  They had eight children, the youngest son being named Jabez.  This Jabez is thought to have been married to a Miss Welles, from whom the subject of this sketch derives his given name. Oliver Whitmore, born in Middletown, February 4, 1738, a son of Jabez, was married in Farrington, Connecticut, June 11, 1667, to Miss Abigail Hayden, born in Windsor, Connecticut, December 21, 1745.  Several years after his marriage Oliver Whitmore, by trade a carpenter, moved to Phelps, Ontario county, New York, where he became a farmer.  He raised a large family, of whom several lived to an advanced age.  His son Seth died in Lockport, New York, a few years since, aged ninety six; and a grandson, William Wallace Whitmore, is living in that city in 1890, aged about eighty.  Luke Hayden Whitmore, born in Farrington, Connecticut, October 23, 1776, a son of Oliver, became a millwright and in later life a farmer in New York and Michigan, being at one time the owner of the land on which the University of Michigan now stands.  He was married in Ontario county, New York, in 1807, to Miss Phoebe Cowing, a daughter of James Cowing, a Welshman by birth and a sea captain by occupation, engaged largely in whaling.  He was twice married, Phoebe being the oldest of fourteen children by his second marriage.  He was the father of seven by his first wife; and of this large family eighteen grew to maturity.  Of these fully one-half lived to be eighty and upwards.  One son, Caleb Cowing, died about 1886, at the age of ninety-eight.  Luke Hayden and Phoebe (Cowing)  Whitmore, the paternal grandparents of Welles Whitmore, lived to be eighty-one and eighty-two respectively.  His maternal ancestry is also traceable to the early Colonial period, Thomas Sanford being a member of the Winthrop Colony of 1631.  He settled in Dorchester about 1635, and in 1639 went to Milford, Connecticut, where he was among the first settlers and organizers of the town.  He was a member of the historic English family which traces its descent from Thomas ab Sandford, who landed with William the Conqueror in 1066, his name being found in the famous roll of Battle Abbey.  For service rendered he was rewarded with a knighthood and the lordship of Sandford, for which form of the name the present Sanford has been generally substituted.  Thomas Sanford of Milford, Connecticut, died in October, 1681, leaving seven children, from the youngest of whom, Ephraim, born May 17, 1646, through his son Nathan and grandson Archibald was descended Friend Sanford, born March 10, 1785, deceased December 19, 1853, the father of Caroline A. (Sanford) Whitmore.

     Welles Whitmore, the subject of this sketch, was brought up on a farm about four miles distant from Ann Arbor, Michigan, and from the age of eight had entertained the idea of taking a university course.  A few years later he settled upon the legal profession as his choice, and with these aspirations as an impelling force he availed himself of his best opportunities for an education while helping on the farm, and was graduated from the high school in Ann Arbor in 1867.  Again at work for a living, being handy with tools, he took a bridge-building contract, on which he made $500, and was thus enabled to gratify his desire for a university course.  After four years' attendance he was graduated from the University of Ann Arbor in the class of 1875.  He had given some attention to the study of law during his college course but was graduated only in the general or literary course.  In 1877 he came to this coast and taught school one year in Washington Territory.  Having a preference for California, he came to San Francisco in March, 1878, and read law one year in the office of Judge E. M. Gibson, and with him moved to Oakland on his becoming District Attorney of this county in April, 1879. Continuing with him as a clerk, student and deputy nearly four years, he was admitted to the bar August 22, 1882.  He was the law partner of Judge Gibson in 1883 and in 1884, under the style of Gibson & Whitmore.  He is a member of the Oakland Bar Association and of the Committee on Examination for admission to the bar, and has a general practice in all the courts of the State and of the United States.

     Mr. Whitmore was married in this city, August 8, 1883, to Miss Bertha Nusbaumer, born in this county, February 22, 1863, a daughter of Louis and Lisette (Roth) Nusbaumer, educated in Mills College and under special teachers in painting. (For parentage see sketch of her brother, Emil Nusbaumer, in this volume)  Mr. and Mrs. Whitmore have two children:  Carl, born September 27, 1884, and Louis Welles, born August 8, 1885.

     Mr. Whitmore is a member of Golden Rule Lodge, No. 159, F. & A.M., of Ann Arbor, Michigan, and of Berkeley Lodge, No. 10, A.O.U.W., in which he is a Past Master Workman.

 

Transcribed 10-16-04  Marilyn R. Pankey