| Notes |
- 1850; Census Place: , Bureau, Illinois; Roll: M432_99; Page: 293A; Image: 222.
895/950 L D Whiting 30 male farmer $700 New York
Lucretia C 27 fem New York
Emily D 02 fem New York
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1860; Census Place: Indiantown, Bureau, Illinois; Roll: M653_158; Page: 222; Image: 222; Family History Library Film: 803158.
1560/1592 Lorenzo D Whitny 40 male farmer $5000/2000 New York
Lucretia C 37 fem New York
Emily L 12 fem New York
Adelbert C 03 male Illinois
Herbert L 01 male Illinois
Cornelius Conklin 21 male $400/200 Ireland
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U.S., Civil War Draft Registrations Records, 1863-1865 about Lorenzo D Whiting
Name: Lorenzo D Whiting
Residence: Indiantown, Bureau, Illinois
Class: 2
Congressional District: 5th
Age on 1 July 1863: 43
Race: White
Place of Birth: New York
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1870; Census Place: Indiantown, Bureau, Illinois; Roll: M593_190; Page: 324B; Image: 336; Family History Library Film: 545689.
214/214 Whiting L D 50 male white farmer $20,000/2000 New York
Lucretia 47 fem white housekeeping New York
Emily 22 fem white teacher New York
Adelbert 13 male white on farm Illinois attended school
Herbert 11 male white on farm Illinois attended school
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1880; Census Place: Indiantown, Bureau, Illinois; Roll: T9_177; Family History Film: 1254177; Page: 149.4000; Enumeration District: 12; Image: 0302.
Household Record 1880 United States Census
Name Relation Marital Status Gender Race Age Birthplace Occupation Father's Birthplace Mother's Birthplace
L. D. WHITING Self M Male W 60 NY Farmer CT CT
Eriphyle St. J. WHITING Wife M Female W 42 GA Keeping House CT NY
Clement A. WHITING Son S Male W 23 IL Farming NY NY
Herbert N. WHITING Son S Male W 21 IL Farming NY NY
Cora HOCK Other S Female W 18 IL Servant IL PA
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Source Information:
Census Place Indiantown, Bureau, Illinois
Family History Library Film 1254177
NA Film Number T9-0177
Page Number 149D
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1900; Census Place: Los Angeles Ward 4, Los Angeles, California; Roll: T623_89; Page: 12A; Enumeration District: 38. 1702 South Flower Street
248/263 Whiting Climent head white male Nov 1861 38 Married 8 years ILL NY NY Teacher
rents house
Lillian M wife white fem May 1870 30 Married 8 years mother of 3:2 living
Illinois Canada (Eng) Australia
Lorenzo D son white male Apr 1893
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WHITING LORENZO D. by occupation a Farmer; lives on Sec. 14, in the township
of Indiantown; owns 584 acres land, worth $50 per acre; his home is somewhnt known as "Rocky Run." Republican in politics, and " Liberal" in religion. He was born Nov. 17, 1819, on a farm among the hills of Arcadia, Wayne Co. N. V., and received a good English and mathematical education at Lima Seminary. He removed with his father's family to Niagara County, New York, in 1833. In 1838 he was sent on business to Illinois, where he remained four years, traveling nearly over the entire state in its then primitive condition. He returned to New York, and was married in 1846 to Miss Lucretia C. Clement, of Oneida Co.. a young lady of much ability and ambition; and who proved a worthy helpmeet in the battle of life.
In his boyhood, Mr. Whiting served as clerk and book-keeper in a village store, and while a young man taught successfully many terms of school, and before leaving his native state served successively in the offices of Justice of the Peace and Superintendent of Schools. But having a strong taste for agriculture and rural life, he removed to Illinois in 1849. and soon settled on the farm where he now resides, one mile west of Tiskilwa. This place he calls "Rocky Run," from the rocks along the little stream which meanders through the valley. On this farm are beautiful natural groves, drives, walks, and many points of interest to the lover of nature; and these, quite as much as the intrinsic value, induced its purchase in 1854. He was elected five terms successively Supervisor of his town, and during these services took an active part in the great enterprise of draining the Winnebago Swamps.
He took an active part in the Anti-Monopoly and Farmer's movement, being the temporary President, and making, by appointment, the opening address at their first State Convention at Kloomington, in January, 1873; but he refused to go with it into a new political party, preferring to remain with the Republicans,—a party he helped to form, and had always warmly supported. He acted with many conventions in the cause of cheap transportation, and in the Winter of 1867 and '68 was sent by the Board of Supervisors to labor with the General Assembly in behalf of this interest. In 1868 he was elected a Representative in the 26th General Assembly; was made Chairman of the Canal and River Committee, and wrote the elaborate report on the water improvements of Illinois, published in the volume of reports for that session. This was received with so much favor, that 5,000 copies were ordered printed f ir distribution, and it secured the long-sought inauguration of the work of improving the Illinois River by an appropriation of $400,000 for a lock and dam at the city of Henry. In 1869 he was elected a member of the Constitutional Convention, which framed the present Stale Constitution. In this body he was the first to move by resolution, and by a speech which was extensively published, to declare railroads "public corporations," subject to be regulated and controlled by the law-making power, which provision was finally incorporated in the new Constitution. Under the new Constitution, Mr. Whiting has been three timetf successively elected to the State Senate, of which body he is now a member.. In this body he has taken a leading part in all matters connected with cheap transportation, supporting the measures for canal and river improvement, and the regulation and control of railroads. He has also been active in all matters bearing upon education and temperance, and in such measures as relate to rural affairs.
During the darkest period of the war for secession, and embracing an exciting political canvass, at the solicitation of political friends, he edited for a year the Bureau County Republican. Mr. Whiting takes a lively interest in local improvements. He was the projector of Mount Bloom Cemetery, and was President of the Association for many years. He led in the movement for building the Tiskilwa school-house, the most beautiful building of its kind in the county, and among the very best in the state; in locating and securing the grounds, planning the general features of the building, getting passed a special law to enable the district to levy sufficient tax to pay the debt, obtaining the loans for its erection, and was one of the Directors during its construction, and first inauguration of the school.
Mr. Whiting, having lost by death his estimable wife, was married Dec. 3, 1873, to Miss Eriphyle St. J. Robinson, daughter of the late Dr. Robinson, of New York city—honorary member of the New York Historical Society. She was tenderly reared, and carefully and accurately educated. She inherited a clear intellect and a love of art, which has been cultivated; and from her mother, who was an amiable and highly accomplished lady oi French extraction, she inherits, and was tiained in tact and grace, which fit her for a sphere very different from her present surroundings; but as she is also highly practical, she makes the best of her fortune, and seems to enjoy and make herself quite indispensable as mistress of a farmer's household.
Mr. Whiting has three living children: Emily Lilian, Clement Adelbert, and Herbert Lamont. The daughter, Lilian, has developed a strong love and considerable talent for literature; has already written much of prose and poetry, and is now connected with journalism in St. Louis.
The boys are juniors working on the farm, and will probably follow their father in this occupation.
Mr. Whiting having, what may be truly said, a well-balanced mind, and being perfectly temperate in all his habits—though not insisting on extremes—possesses vigorous health, and is generally judged many years younger. His foresight in all transactions, and wonderful memory, with perfect control, give him power in all proceedings. His strength lies in his clear understanding and forcible statement, as he never undertakes a question with ut understanding it. Hope is a prominent feature in Mr. Whiting's character, as in his philosophy he believes "all evils have their remedies," and for that remedy he actively seeks. In his simplicity of heart he bears no malice, and is willing to shake hands over any chasm.
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If long service in public life be taken by a legislator as an approval of the representative's acts while serving his constituents, then the subject of our sketch stands forth as the most thoroughly endorsed amongst our many able statesmen and lawmakers.
Lorenzo Dow Whiting was born at Arcadia, Wayne county, New York, November 19, 1819, son of Samuel and Zilpha Whiting, Ins mother being a lineal descendent of Cotton Mather. His grand-father, Samuel Whiting, was a soldier in the revolution.
When a boy, Lorenzo enjoyed the benefits of the schools as they were conducted at that time, and when sufficiently advanced in the rudimentary departments he was sent to Genesee Wesleyan Seminary, where so many of our great men and noble women have received their education. He came to Bureau county, Ill., in 1849, and has since resided on a farm near Tiskilwa, and engaged in teaching at that place for several terms. He had taught several terms of school and been elected justice of the peace and superintendent of public instruction before coming to Illinois, and was, for five terms in succession, elected supervisor of the township, and took an active and leading part in the drainage of the Winnebago Swamps, a work so largely done by Bureau county.
Id 1868 he was elected to the legislature, taking his seat in the house January, 1869. He served his constituency so well that when the members of the constitutional convention were elected in 1869, and met in 1870, he was one of the returned members, and so satisfactorily did bis services prove that he was elected to the state senate at the election of November, 1870, and at the expiration of each succeeding term since he has been re-elected in districts that have been three times changed, thus numbering in all five elections to the state senate.
Mr. Whiting is gifted with that virtue in well doing, patience and endurance (we will not say long suffering), which always, when backed by perseverance, as Lincoln says, " pegging away," is always crowned with success in the end. In the last political campaign of Owen Lovejoy he edited the Bureau County Republican, and is a prolific writer on all subjects that tend to promote the advance of the country to greatness, wealth and power. What he does is done with a will and with the determination to succeed. He is almost the pioneer in the movement to build the Hennepin canal, and has probably, with perhaps one or two exceptions, attended more meetings and written more articles in the papers, made more speeches, written more memorials and reports, than any other man in the state to promote this enterprise. The same care and time has been given to the improvements of the Illinois river. Coming to his legislative action and his acts in the convention, we find that he was the first to assert the doctrine — in the constitutional convention — that the state should control the railroads, and supported it in a speech (see page 147, 1st volume debates). Practically he is an anti-monopolist, and at the time of the great Granger agitation, from 1872 to 1875, attended many of the meetings, but was not in favor of organizing a separate party, so did not lose his identity with the republican party. He was active in passing and sustaining present railroad laws relating to "extortion and unjust discrimination," and was opposed to the so-called "grab law" of 1869, and "Lake Front "act of the same session. The present drainage laws owe a great many of their best provisions to his formative hand, and he has always given his influence to the passage of acts promoting the interests of farmers. The movement that has been agitated, and that will probably culminate in the passage of a law to inaugurate a road system for the entire state, that will operate to give the country better roads, meets his approbation and support, his own elaborate but well arranged road-law at this writing being just ready to pass to its third reading in the senate. He is in favor of a declaratory statute "that where the outlet of drainage is in a drainage depression, on a man's own land, he may drain and it will be no trespass on his lower neighbor — or lands below," and has a bill pending declaratory of this principle. He is also in favor of amendments, or a new revenue law, to reach all values once, and to relieve encumbered lands from double taxation. He is also in favor of authorizing county boards to maintain their ditches, made under Swamp Land Act, by special assessment on lands benefited, and his bill for this purpose has just passed the senate unanimously. He, at this writing, has a bill pending for the state to survey certain inland streams, so as to show to land owners their interest in straightening and clearing the channels, preparatory to a new law enabling them to combine for this purpose. He is in favor of "compulsory education;" has always favored temperance legislation that can be executed. When we last met Senator Whiting and a number of others of our Solon's,— men of practical wisdom, discretion, versed in affairs of state, we proposed to him the advocacy of our measure for the correction and reformation of all the abuses and evils the body politic is now heir to,—"compulsory voting"—which is no less than compelling every citizen of the state to vote at all elections. This was only a suggestion, a subject for thoughtful study, that has a great many good reasons in its favor, which we do not propose giving in this place.
Our acquaintance with Senator Whiting dates back to near 1850, but was not intimate till the winter of 1860, since which time we have been somewhat familiar with his "goings to and fro." He has been married twice; his first marriage at Clayville, N. Y., to Miss Lucretia C. Clement, to whom were born three children, now living; his second marriage to Miss Eriphy C. Robinson, formerly of Brooklyn, New York. His daughter, Miss Lilian Whiting, educated at Galesburg and Mt. Carroll Seminary, is one of the editorial staff of the Boston Traveller, and eastern correspondent of the Inter-Ocean and several other western papers and magazines. She has already achieved quite a literary reputation, and bids fair to take rank among the rising authors of the future.
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H. C. (Henry C.) Bradsby .
History of Bureau County, Illinois
. (page 108 of 111)
BIOGRAPHICAI> SKETCHES. 093 Mr. D. L. Whittin is a stanch Kepublioan in politics, as was also bis father. HON. LORENZO DOW 'WHITING, Tis- kilwa, is a native of Wayne County, N. Y., his birth being dated at Arcadia, November 17, 1819. His father, Samuel Whiting, was a farmer and contractor on the Erie Canal, and did at one time a lumber business on the Genesee River; was born in Connecticut; and his mother, whose maiden name was Zilpha Mather, was a lineal descendant of Cotton Mather, and a native of Connecticut. Sam- uel Whiting, Sr., the gi-audfather of Loren- zo, was a New Englander, and a young sol- dier in the Continental Army. The Whitings are of English descent. Our suljjoct re- ceived an academic education, and was a merchant's clerk at Olcott, Niagara County, until eighteen years of age. He came West in 1838, and was engaged in the patent right business in Illinois fom- years, and then returned to New York State. For the ne.^t seven years he was engaged in teaching and acting as Town Superintendent of schools in Newfane. Niagara County, filling also the office of Justice of the Peace most of the time. , In 1849 Mr. Whiting returned to Illinois, made a jiurchase of a quarter section of land near Tiskilwa, and for the first three seasons was engaged in farming and teaching. Since he ceased teaching he has given his whole time to agi-icultural pursuits, adding to his land from time to time until he now has nearly 600 acres largely under excellent improvement. Mr. Whiting served as Super- visor of Indiantown for five or six years. He was elected to the Illinois House of Kepre- , sentatives in 1868, to the Constitutional Con
vention in 1869, to the State Senate in 1870, and still holds the latter office, having been a member of the upper house for twelve con- secutive years, and of the Legislature four- teen consecutive years. In the Constitutional Convention Mr, Whiting was first to pro- pose the insertion of a provision in the Con- stitution requiring the General Assembly to pass laws regulating railroad charges; and as Senator was active in carrying through the bill which embodied a law against unjust discrimination and extortionate charges known as the Granger Laws. He was the pro- jector of the Hennepin Canal scheme and the originator of other bills looking to the inter- nal improvement of the State. He was the author of several important laws relating to agriculture, roads and drainage, and of the bill which passed and became a law ceding the Illinois & Michigan Canal to the United States on certain conditions. For the last four or five years he labored in the Senate very earnestly to secure a more just revenue law, whereby all property shall be taxed once and no property doubly taxed. Cheap transportation and equal taxation are leading objects with him. No man in the Senate has a clearer head than ,Mr. Whiting, or labors more zealously to secure equal rights and equal justice to all classes of his con- stituents, and of the citizens of Illinois. In 1809 he was among the most active in oppos- ing the lake front scheme, whereby threerailroad corporations sought to possess them- selves of the shore line of the outer and .future harbor of Chicago. In 1878 he led the opposition in the defeat of Senate bill 114, which was to effect the release of a com- bination of railroads from a large amount of taxes adjudged by the courts to be due to the public. His championship of measures relating to the producers, and his watchful- ness of the public interest when assailed by special and coi'porato greed, have made him known as the " farmer's statesman." These powerful interests which he has so often foiled generally stir up a lively opposition to his repeated re-elections, but the people whom he lias so faithfully served have so far successfully rallied to his support, having elected him seven times in succession toeerve at the State capital. Senator Whiting is a Kepnl)lican of Democratic antecedents. He was first married in 1846 to Miss Lncretia C. Clement, of Oneida County, N. Y. She died in 1872, leaving throe children, two sons and one daughter. Senator Whiting was married the second time in 1S74, to Miss Eriphyle Robinson, of Brooklyn, N. Y. She is the daughter of the laie Dr. Daniel Rob- inson, of New York, a thorough scholar, with good taste for mathematics, horticulture and mechanics, and was a member of the New York Historical Society. Mrs. Whiting's mother's name was Caroline M. Crop.sy, an accomplished lady of French descent; her
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1819 - 1889 (70 years)