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Jasper County, Iowa
Historical and Genealogical Data Exchange
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John Ervill Whittaker One
of the successful young farmers of Kellogg Township, Jasper County, is John
Ervill Whittaker, a man who is deserving of the success that has attended his
efforts because he has striven for it along conservative and legitimate lines,
never permitting obstacles, small or great, to thwart him in his pursuit of the
goal, and while laboring for his own advancement he has not neglected his larger duties to his fellow men and the public in
general, having always stood ready to lend his support to all worthy movements
having for their-object the general good. Mr. Whittaker was born in Des Moines, Iowa, January 22,
1879, and he is the son of Joseph Whittaker, who was born in England, October 7,
1850, but who was brought to America in 1852.
He grew to manhood at Oil City, Pennsylvania, where he attended school,
and he came to Iowa in 1864, during the Civil War, and located in Jasper County
when the country was new, and remained here until 1872, when he entered the service of the Chicago,
Rock Island & Pacific Railroad Company as fireman, finally becoming
engineer, serving twenty-three years in that capacity, being well-known in
railroad circles and regarded as one of the most capable and faithful of that
road's employees. He is now living
retired in Newton, Iowa. John E. Whittaker attended school in Des Moines, after which he began
railroading, serving as fireman and engineer until 1910, in fact. he alternated
work on the road and his father's farm, and his services on the Rock Island
system were highly satisfactory at all times. Finally desiring to turn his
attention to farming exclusively, he located on his present farm in 1910.
It consists of one hundred and twenty-five acres, about sixty acres of
which is flat, the balance rolling. It
is of excellent quality and produces abundant crops, being well adapted to
general farming and stock raising. Mr.
Whittaker is a member of a family consisting of five children, three daughters
and two sons, he being the eldest; the others are, Frederick, Jenny, Mabel and
Alice. The subject was married November 4, 1909 to Merle Call, who was born
at Broughton, Kansas, January 30, 1887. She
is the daughter of Dell P. and Amelia A. (Pierce) Call, the father born in
Pennsylvania in 1854 and died September, 1887, in Benton, Kansas; he made
farming and school teaching his life work. Mrs. Call was born at Middlefield, Ohio, June 22, 1862, and
her death occurred on May 12, 1902, in Herington, Kansas.
Their family consisted of two sons and two daughters, Mrs. Whittaker
being the eldest; the others are Verne, Nellie, Ralph B. and Merril. To Mr. and Mrs. Whittaker one child, Homer 0. has been
born, his birth occurring on April 2, 1910. Politically, the subject is a Republican and, fraternally, he belongs to the Masonic order, including the Knights Templar, and religiously he belongs to the Congregational Church. The Past and Present of Jasper County, Gen. James B. Weaver, Editor-In-Chief, 1912 B.F. Bowen Co., Indianapolis, IN, 1060. |
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