Biographical Sketches of Leading Citizens
Lawrence County Pennsylvania 1897
[p. 353] who is extensively engaged in gardening and in fruit-raising in the northern section of Shenango township, a mile from the city limits of New Castle on the County Line Road, was born in New Castle, Sept. 28, 1840. He is a son of Dr. Charles Tillotson Whippo, whose wife was Althea A. Warner, a daughter of James Warner. Our subject's grandfather, James Whippo, who was born Oct. 14, 1760, and died Jan. 24, 1832, was Scotch by descent. He lived for a time in Washington Co., N.Y., whence he moved in 1802 to Cayuga Co., N.Y., where he bought a farm and successfully carried on agricultural operations; he was also a sailor for eleven years or more. He married Hannah Wood, daughter of John and Dinah (Hussey) Wood of Dartmouth, Mass., and the eldest of six children. She was born May 5, 1771, and died Aug. 30, 1838; she was a woman of much ability, and was for a considerable period clerk of the Friends' Yearly meetings of New York City. One of her brothers, Jethro, was the inventor of the first cast-iron plow. The children born to James and Hannah (Wood) Whippo were as follows: Amelia, born Feb. 17, 1788, and died June 18, 1792; John, born in Washington Co., N. Y., May 22, 1790, and died in Dublin, Ind., July 31, 1862, leaving three children by his second wife, Sarah M. Lawrence: Charles Henry, born May 22, 1830, James Lawrence, Aug. 5, 1834, and Maria Louisa, Sept. 9, 1844; Charles Tillotson, our subject's father; and Anna, born July 20, 1795, and died March 7, 1816.
Dr. Charles Tillotson Whippo was an eminent
civil engineer as well as a physician of his day,
and was in charge of large portions of the
construction-work of the canals. He was born April
19, 1793, in Washington Co., N. Y., and died
June 14, 1858, in New Castle, Pa., in his sixty-sixth
year. In consideration of his schooling,
he relinquished all the interest he might have in
his father's estate, and went about identifying
himself with one of the leading professions. He
studied medicine with his uncle, Dr. John
Thompson, the husband of Anne Wood, the
sister of Hannah (Wood) Whippo, and began the
practice of medicine in Cayuga Co., N, Y., from
which locality he moved to Henrietta, Monroe
Co., N. Y. He was very fond of mathematics,
especially of the higher branches, and was well
versed in the sciences of astronomy, geology and
botany. The profession of civil engineering
proving to have greater attractions for him than
that of medicine, he relinquished his practice in
the medical line, and entered the engineer service
of the Erie Canal with David Thomas. He
owned a farm at Holly, N. Y., where he left his
family for a year, when he came into Beaver Co.,
Pa., in 1831, and took charge as engineer of the
Beaver & Erie Extension of the Pennsylvania
Canal. In 1832 he moved his family to New
Castle, Pa., where he purchased 500 acres of
land, 250 of which are now within the city limits
of New Castle. Lawrence County was formed
from the adjoining counties of Beaver and Mercer,
March 20, 1849, and in the following October,
Dr. Whippo was elected associate judge,
and served the full term of five years. The Bank
of New Castle, that city's first bank of issue, was
incorporated March 30, 1855, with Dr. Whippo
at its head as the president. He was mainly
instrumental in organizing the first Seminary in
New Castle, and elected president of the board
of directors. He possesesd [sic] a fine library, and
was an untiring student. He became interested
in the study of the subject of electricity,
purchased an electrical apparatus, and had a
practical knowledge of the science as far as it was
understood in his day. His fortune being ample,
he devoted the latter part of his life entirely
to literary pursuits. He was liberal when it
came to religious matters, and was a Republican
in his politics. He was United in marriage Jan.
18, 1818, to Althea Ann Warner, who was born
July 18, 1798, and who departed this life Aug.
21, 1865. Their oldest child, Amelia Ann., who
was born Oct. 28, 1818, in Henrietta, N. Y., and
who died Dec. 11, 1845, in Connersville, Ind, of
angina pectoris, was married Sept. 12, 1837, to
Henry Clay Moore, and bore him these children:
Robert, born June 19, 1838 in New Castle, married
Alice Filley Oct. 3, 1878; Charles Whippo,
born Sept. 11, 1840 in Connersville, Ind., died
June 8, 1877, in Dana, Ind., leaving his wife,
Marion A. (Eddy) Moore, and daughter Emma;
Mary Stibbs, who was born April 6, 1843;
Franklin, who was born July 6, 1845, in New
Castle, Pa., and died June 28, 1846, in
Connersville, Ind. Ellen D. who was born Oct. 1,
1822, and died Oct. 7, 1881, married, Jan. 14, 1847,
Dryden Reno, and they became the parents of
two children: Althea Ellen, who was born Nov.
12, 1847, and who married on May 3, 1878,
Frank D. Storm; Louis Cassius, who was born
June 28, 1851, and married Lizzie Hays. Maria,
the third daughter, born Jan. 20, 1834, and died
May 15, 1874, married on Dec. 15, 1853, Henry
Reis, and gave birth to these children: Robert
C., born Oct. 13, 1854, died Dec. 2, 1857;
Charles, born Oct. 19, 1856, married Sarah Davis;
Ellen, born May 5, 1860, married W. S.
Jackman; James Whippo, born Dec. 27, 1863,
married Mary Miller; Lillian, born Oct. 20,
1866; Louis, Sept. 30, 1869; and Althea Mary,
who was born March 28, 1874. The fourth child
in the family of Dr. Whippo, Charles, was born
Jan. 21, 1837, and died Feb. 18, 1857. Joseph,
born May 1, 1838, died Aug. 29, 1838.
Of the six children born to his parents, our subject, James Whippo, was the youngest, and is now the sole survivor. His boyhood years were spent in his native city, attending school and the seminary; in 1853 and 1854 he was enrolled among the pupils of Prof. Sulio's school in Salem, Ohio. He then followed up his seminary education with a college course at Greenmount, Pa., and at Richmond, Ind.; in 1856 he went to Duff's Business College in Pittsburg for the winter. Having been left in comfortable circumstances by his father, James Whippo gave no attention to business of any sort for a number of years. On June 5, 1859, he married Elizabeth Jane Armstrong, who was born in the town of Monaghan, County Monaghan, Ireland, Jan. 10, 1841. She came to America in 1844 with her brother, and lived with him in Pittsburg until her marriage in 1859. Her father, Thomas Armstrong, was born in 1812 in County Monaghan, and died in 1842; he was a large land holder and very well-to-do. Her mother's maiden name was Campbell, her parents being also large land-holders in the same locality, having originally come from Scotland. Mrs. Whippo's mother was born in 1816 and died in 1841.
After his marriage Mr. Whippo took up his residence on the old homestead, which he made his home until the spring of 1867, when he moved to his present location, a well-improved tract of thirty-five acres, which is mostly devoted to fruit-raising, having on it about eight hundred peach trees, and other large and small fruits in proportion. On this farm since 1867 he has been interested in gardening and fruit-raising, supplying both the local market, and also shipping to surrounding points. His home life has been blessed by the advent of five children, who are as follows: Minnie E., born March 9, 1860; Maude, who was born Aug. 28, 1861, and married Joseph B. Hutton; Charles T., born Feb. 10, 1868, died Dec. 21, 1868; Daisy N., born Oct. 31, 1872; and Blanche, born Dec. 29, 1873. Mr. Whippo is a Republican of pronounced views. He was formerly a member of the Knights of Pythias organization, but allowed his membership to lapse. He is a member of the G. A. R. by virtue of his services in Co. I, 87th Reg. O. V. I.; he enlisted in June, 1862, was taken prisoner by Longstreet's brigade, Harper's Ferry, Va., near Antietam, and was finally mustered out of the service at Baltimore, receiving an honorable discharge October, 1862.
As a gentleman worthy of the fullest recognition in the early history of the country, whose eminent services in various fields of labor for the advancement of the interests of this section will not be soon forgotten, we deem it a pleasure to present the portrait of Dr. Charles T. Whippo, father of James, our subject.
Biographical Sketches of Leading Citizens Lawrence County Pennsylvania
Biographical Publishing Company, Buffalo, N.Y., 1897
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