Copyright USGenNet Inc., 2013, All Rights Reserved U.S. Data Repository Please read U.S. Data Repository Copyright Statement on this page: Transcribed and submitted by Linda Talbott for the US Data Repository http://www.us-data.org/ ========================================================================= U.S. Data Repository NOTICE: These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by any other organization. Non-commercial organizations desiring to use this material must obtain the consent of the transcriber prior to use. Individuals desiring to use this material in their own research may do so. ========================================================================= Formatted by U.S. Data Repository Chief Archivist, Linda Talbott All of the above information must remain when copied or downloaded. =========================================================================== Biographical History of Cherokee County, Iowa W. S. Dunbar & Co., Chigago - 1889 [page 402] FRANK E. WHITMORE, junior member of the well-known and reliable real-estate firm, CORBETT & WHITMORE, Cherokee, Iowa, has by reason of his long residence here, together with his extensive business operations, made a record which truly entitles him to more than pass- ing mention in the review of representative men of Cherokee County, where Mr. WHITMORE has resided over eighteen years. To gain informa- tion concerning his earlier career, one must needs go back to the place of his nativity, in the old Empire State. He was born July 22, 1843, in the town of Georgetown, Madison County, New York, and is the youngest child of a second marriage. HIs father, Dr. E. WHITMORE, was a native of East Haddam, Connecticut, in which State he was reared and educated. He removed to the State of New York in the year 1810, and settled in Georgetown, Madison County, where he continued to prac- tice medicine until his death, which occurred November 6, 1851, the date of his birth being February 24, 1784. Mr. Whitmore's mother was BETSEY (BARNETT) WHITMORE, a daughter of JAMES BARNETT, Esq. She was born November 26, 1808, in Connecticut, [page 403] and died August 15, 1850. She was the mother of two children: CERISSA A. WHITMORE and FRANK E. Dr. WHITMORE'S first wife was Miss SUSANNA HOVEY. FRANK E. WHITMORE was reared in his native town where he atten-ded the public schools. When about ten years of age he went to Morrisville, New York, and entered the Morris- ville Union School, where he remained until 1860. He then taught school four months, commencing November 5, 1860, after which he went to Cazenovia, New York, and entered the Oneida Conference Seminary December 4, 1861. After leaving that educational insti- tution he enlisted for nine months, November 1, 1862, in Company F, One Hundred and Seventy-sixth New York Volunteers, and was sent to Louisiana under General B. F. BUTLER; he afterward joined the expedition under General N. P. BANKS. He was detached as a bugler and later as a member of the regimental band. On June 23, 1863, he was taken prisoner of war at Morgan City, Louisiana. He was paroled and sent to Ship Island, held sixty days, and then exchanged, when he returned to the service, his regiment being at Bonnet Carre, Louisiana. He was mustered out in the autumn of 1863, and returned to Morrisville, New York, and soon went to Petersborough, New York, where he took charge of a store owned by an uncle, JAMES BARNET. He remained there about three years and then went to South Carolina, July 1, 1866, rented a sea island cotton plantation in company with others, about thirty miles north of Charleston, in which he owned an interest in crop and equipments; he resided there about one year, and on account of sickness was compelled to return to the North. He went to Utica, in his native State, April 15, 1867, and was there employed in a hardware store owned by J. E. Roberts & Co., with whom he remained about two years. At the expiration of that time he went to Red Wing, Minnesota, April 9, 1868, and took a position as bookkeeper in the hardware store of E. L. BAKER & Co., whom he served two years. In July, 1871, Mr. WHITMORE came to Cherokee, Iowa, and soon after formed a partnership with JOHN H. ROE, in the real-estate business. This co-partnership existed until 1873, when Mr. WHITMORE purchased the in-terest of Mr. ROE, and afterward sold a one-half interest in the business to CARLTON COR- BETT, Esq. The firm now known as CORBETT & WHITMORE are extensive dealers in both wild and improved lands, and are agents for the Iowa Railroad Land and Town Lot Company. Mr. WHITMORE was united in marriage June 6, 1871, to EMMA E. BATES, a daughter of JOHN W. BATES, and a native of Utica, New York,w here she grew to woman- hood. In his political choice Mr. WHITMORE now favors the Prohi- bition party, believing that no great reform in likely to be en- acted by either of the other two political parties. being a thorough-going business man, he has frequently been placed in public office. He served as secretary of the School Board of Chero- kee for several years, has been a member of the Town Council, and is a director of the Cherokee State Bank, in which he is a stock- holder. He is a member of the Congregational Church, and holds the office of clerk of the same. He is also an active member of the Y.M.C.A., of which he is director and treasurer. He is a member of the A.O.U.W., belonging to the Loyal Order at Cherokee, of which he is an officer. Cherokee County has an unusually large number of excellent business men in proportion to its population, yet none stand higher in point of intelligence and moral super- iority than he of whom this sketch is written. He was endowed by nature with a very keen perception of right and wrong, which inval- uable characteristic he has [page 404] cultivated from his early youth; this fact alone causes him to stand out prominent among his fellow men as an exemplary Chris- tian and exceptionally correct business man whom all classes admire and greatly respect. Cherokee County can boast of no better type of a good citizen than that found in FRANK E. WHITMORE. ===========================================================================