Bio:  WHETSTONE, Robert, Autauga County, AL., then Morehouse Parish, Louisiana
Submitted by Mike Miller



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Robert Whetstone, a prominent lawyer of Oak Ridge, Morehouse parish, La.,
was born in 1851, in Autauga county, Ala.  He is the twelfth child in a
family of thirteen children born to Dr. John A. and Martha S. (Alexander)
Whetstone.  The father was a native of South Carolina, and was a graduate
of the New York Medical college.  He settled in Alabama in his early life
and came to this state in 1853, settling in Morehouse parish, about two and
a half miles from Bastrop.  He died in December, 1859, at the age of
fifty-nine years.  He was connected with the Masonic fraternity, and at the
time of his death was G. L. of Louisiana.  He organized the "Mount
Garrison" lodge at Bastrop, which was the first lodge of the parish.  He
was always quite active in matters of public concern.  His wife died
October 17, 1865.  At the time the war broke out eleven of the thirteen
children of this family were living and three of them enlisted in the
confederate service.  Ed A., the eldest was killed at the battle of Oak
Hill, Mo., and the other two served through the entire war.  Seven of this
large family are still living--four brothers and three sisters.  Our
subject received a common-school education and clerked in a store until
1871, when he took a commercial course at Soul  Commercial college at New
Orleans, finishing his course in half the allotted time by extra hard work.
 He began mercantile business in Oak Ridge in 1873, which he followed until
1885, when he suffered a heavy failure of $24,000.  In 1873 he was married
to Miss E. Larkin, daughter of Robert J. and Elizabeth G. (Cann) Larkin.
Her father was a son of Dr. Samuel J. Larkin, a very prominent and early
settler of this parish.  Her mother's family was of English descent.  In
1885 Mr. Whetstone began the study of law with Hon. C. Newton, of Bastrop,
and D. Todd, a son of one of the supreme justices of Louisiana.  He
graduated in law and was admitted to the bar in 1887, before the supreme
court at Shreveport.  He was then thirty-six years old, and was supporting
a wife and four children, and it is much to his credit that he was
energetic enough to do this.  His law practice has been very successful.
He has practiced in West Carroll, Richland, Ouachita and Morehouse
parishes.  He has defended seven capital cases since the 1st of January and
has cleared six out of the seven.  He has also been very successful in
reclaiming lost estates.  His residence is in Rayville.  He is the owner of
about 1,800 acres of land in this and Richland parishes, about 500 acres of
which are well cultivated.  He owns considerable property in town besides.
Socially he is a member of the Brookville Masonic lodge No. 163, of Oak
Ridge, also of the Knights of Pythias and the Knights of Honor, of Oak
Ridge.  Mr. and Mrs. Whetstone are members of the Episcopal church.  They
are the parents of four children.  Mr. Whetstone has always taken quite an
active part in politics.  He is at present a commissioner of the state
levee board.  He has seen a great deal of the development of this county
and, is well acquainted with all of its features.

Biographical and Historical Memoires of Louisiana, (vol. 2), p. 450.
Published by the Goodspeed Publishing Company, Chicago, 1892.