BIOGRAPHY: Whittemore, Otis
From the A.T. Andreas Illustrated Historical Atlas of the State of Iowa, 1875

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   Honorable OTIS WHITTEMORE was born in Fitz William, Cheshire 
County, New Hampshire, March 5, 1816.
   His grandfather, Josiah Whittemore, married Lucy Snow and had a 
family of fourteen children, most of whom married, and their descendants 
are widely scattered over the United States.  The oldest son, William Snow 
Whittemore, was the father of the subject of this sketch.  He was born at 
Lunenburg, Massachusetts, and married September 18, 1800, Polly, 
daughter of William Locke, of Fitz William, New Hampshire, and had a 
family of nine children, of which Otis was the youngest.  (Dee genealogy 
of the Whittemore family.)
   This William Locke (or Lock as it is sometimes written) at the breaking 
out of the revolutionary war, and after the battle of Lexington, was called 
to Cambridge to aid in protecting the government stores, and an old 
account book still in the possession of Mr. Whittemore bears the record of 
that event.  The families on both sides were active in securing our national 
independence in those exciting times.  
   Mr. Whittemore was educated in his native town, and during his 
minority aided his father on the farm.  He remained in New Hampshire 
until he was twenty-seven years of age. His youth was characterized by a 
strict and ready obedience to his parents, and a filial regard for them 
worthy of imitation.  In 1843 he moved to Bowen's Prairie, Jones County, 
Iowa.  Here he found a few cabins of early settlers, and pitched his tent on 
the best forty acres in that vicinity.  He subsequently increased his 
domains to over two hundred acres, and after a few years built a good 
substantial farm-house which still stands.  This was situated on the 
military road between Dubuque and Iowa City.  The United State 
Government expended about $50,000 on this road, and in that early day it 
was frequently enlivened by the passage of government troops and 
munitions of war.
   Mr. Whittemore erected the first frame house in the settlement, and 
afterwards built the first frame school house in the county that was guilt 
by tax, and was among the foremost in erecting a church within a few rods 
of his door.  He and others in 1844, built a church at Cascade where he at 
first united and held his standing until one was built at Bowen's Prairie.
   His farming operations at first consisted of grain raising, but 
subsequently he engaged in cattle raising.  He also worked at the 
carpenter's trade, carrying on both occupations for a period of about 
fifteen years.  
   In the year 1854, he laid out the Town of Bowen's Prairie which was 
duly recorded in the clerk's office, and sold a number of lots, but like 
many others in a new county, he was doomed to disappointment -- his 
town did not grow to be a city.
   The same year he engaged in merchandising, and continued in that 
business about five years.
   The first temperance society in Jones County was organized on Bowen's 
Prairie, and Mr. Whittemore had always been one of the most active 
members in carrying on that cause from 1844 to the present time.
   Mr. Whittemore's house has always been open to strangers and 
frequently resembled the oriental caravansary.  Many a family of the first 
settlers to this region have enjoyed his hospitality until they could erect 
their own cabins.  Ministers always found a hearty welcome and regarded 
his residence as  "the home of the prophets."
   Mr. Whittemore was conscientiously opposed to the system of American 
Slavery, and his first presidential vote was cast for James G. Birney, the 
anti-slavery candidate in 1840.  He always held the sentiment of the 
equality o f human right, and in honor of his consistency and firmness in 
the cause of universal freedom of all classes of men without caste or color, 
he was elected in 1861, to represent Jones County in his adopted state, and 
took his seat in the House of Representatives in January of the following 
year.
   It was during the exciting times of the breaking out of the Rebellion, and 
the country North was full of southern sympathizers and spies; the 
legislation consequently in the Iowa Legislature was earnest, decided and 
exciting.  Mr. Whittemore was always at his post, and his votes will be 
found on the right side of every question that pertained to the crushing out 
of the Rebellion -- by protecting the soldiers in the field, and supplying 
their families at home -- and in aid of every bill that had for its object the 
amelioration of mankind.  He was an earnest advocate of the benevolent 
institutions of our state -- the Insane, the Blind, the Deaf and Dumb -- and 
voted liberal appropriations for their support.
   And when the great moral question arose, and the debate waxed hot his 
voice was not silent.  An effort was made to repeal the prohibitory liquor 
law by a forty feet petition signed by men who never saw it (!) and, 
overdoing the matter by false friends, but it was adroitly defeated by a 
timely exposure of the hydra-headed monster, much to the discomfiture of 
the enemies, and to the satisfaction of the friends of temperance.
   Mr. Whittemore exemplified the words of England's great poet --

"Honor and fame from no condition rise,
        Act well your part, there all the honor lies."

   At extra session of the legislature called for the purpose of giving the 
soldiers the privilege of voting in the field -- an act of pure justice -- and 
also to carry out and legislate in regard to an act of congress pertaining to 
the establishment of an agricultural college, Mr. Whittemore took an 
active part.  He was always vigilant and faithful to the trusts imposed in 
him by his constituents, and never allowed personal profit to swerve him 
from the path of duty and strict justice.
   About 1870, Mr. Whittemore having secured a competence, and desiring 
to abandon the severer labors of an agriculturalist, purchased a lot, and 
built thereon a convenient house in Monticello, moved thither the same 
year, and will probably make it his permanent home.
   The view from his balcony is beautiful in the extreme.  The surrounding 
country, dotted with villages and interspersed with fine farm residences, 
lies spread out like a vast amphitheater, and when spring spreads her 
carpet of green over the earth, and decks the forests with emerald and the 
trees in white and pink, a more magnificent landscape can scarcely be 
found in any country. 
   Mr. Whittemore married August 31, 1841, Miss Harriet M. Eaton of Fitz 
William, Cheshire County, New Hampshire.  Her father was John Eaton, a 
native of Lancaster, Massachusetts.  They had no issue, but have adopted 
several children, giving them a home, and educating them until they were 
able to care for themselves.  Some of them are married, and are well 
settled in life.
   Mr. Whittemore has for many years been an active member o the 
Congregational Church, and has manifested a lively interest in the Sabbath 
school cause, contributing of his means for the spread of the gospel and 
the evangelization of the world.