George H. Whiting Biography


	This biography appears on pages 1260-1261 in "History of Dakota 
	Territory" by George W. Kingsbury, Vol. V (1915) and was 
	scanned, OCRed and edited by Maurice Krueger, mkrueger@iw.net.

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				GEORGE H. WHITING. 

	George H. Whiting, living on section 8, Yankton precinct, in 
Yankton county, first came to Dakota territory on the 4th of June, 
1879, crossing from Nebraska to Yankton with a party of three friends. 
He had been seeking a location in the west and with his companions 
started out from Minnesota with a two-horse wagon. They crossed the 
Missouri river at Sioux City and traveled through Nebraska as far as 
Antelope county. The farther they went into the sand hill country the 
worse it looked to the prospectors. Someone suggested South Dakota and 
they at once turned back, crossing the river at Yankton and proceeding 
north and east from Sioux Falls to Flandreau. Since that time Mr. 
Whiting has been continuously a resident of this state. 

	He was born in Winnebago county, Illinois, half way between 
Freeport and Rockford, on the 24th of June, 1856, a son of Ralph B. and 
Emma (Idling) Whiting, natives of Connecticut and Germany respectively. 
They were married in New York about 1854 and soon afterward settled in 
New York, where they remained for some time, and, as previously stated, 
George H. Whiting was born in Winnebago county, Illinois, in 1856 and 
in 1862 the family removed to Fayette county, Iowa. In 1868 a further 
removal was made to Mower county, Minnesota, where George H. Whiting 
continued until the spring of 1876, when he returned to Iowa and worked 
upon a farm and at carpentering until the fall. He then traveled 
westward to California and for two and a half years was employed on 
fruit ranches on the Mokalomee river in Alameda county and in the Napa 
valley north of San Francisco. At the end of that time he returned to 
his home in Minnesota and soon afterward started on the overland 
journey to Nebraska, as previously stated. Eventually they reached 
South Dakota and Mr. Whiting filed on a tract ten miles north of the 
county seat in Moody county. His cash capital at that time consisted of 
but fourteen dollars, the amount of the government fee. The thirty 
dollars paid for the relinquishment and the two dollar fee to the 
deputy land agent at Flandreau had been borrowed and that without 
security. The first work which he did was on the Northwestern Railroad, 
then being built into Brookings. An old bachelor in the neighborhood 
took a fancy to Mr. Whiting, w ho had helped him without asking pay. 
This man allowed Mr. Whiting to take a yoke of oxen and a plow to break 
his own land and then break for others, paying for the team and plow at 
a later date. He also loaned him money to buy a team of horses to 
cultivate his first crop. Mr. Whiting broke forty acres the first year 
and upon it raised forty acres of good wheat. Two years later he went 
to Kingsbury county, where he filed on a timber claim and when he 
proved up on the homestead he sold that property and removed to the 
timber claim and also filed on a preemption near Esmond. 

	His experience on the fruit ranches in California caused Mr. 
Whiting to early turn to the nursery business as a profitable 
undertaking. In this he was associated with his brother-in-law. They 
started with four hundred seedling apples, which, however, were ruined 
the next season by the hail. They began again with forest trees, which 
were in demand for timber claims, and gradually began handling fruit 
trees, while still furnishing forest trees when in demand. In the 
nursery business Mr. Whiting prospered and in 1891 he removed to 
Yankton and established the Whiting Nurseries. He now has two hundred 
acres, one-half of which is usually kept in trees, while the remainder 
is devoted to crops, which are rotated, and thus the soil is again 
prepared for the trees. His business extends over most of the states 
west of the Mississippi and east of the mountains. Recently he has 
established a fruit farm of ten hundred and forty acres near Bayfield, 
Wisconsin, within a mile and a half of the shore of Lake Michigan in 
the finest fruit belt in the United States. The snow falls so deep in 
that locality that the ground seldom freezes and it lies on until 
spring. The nearness of the lake retards the blooming season until 
spring is fully established and there is thus little danger of the 
trees blooming and then freezing. The nearness of the lake supplies 
cheap shipping facilities and the property promises to be most 
profitable. 

	Mr. Whiting was first married in Kingsbury county on the 11th of 
July, 1884, to Miss Jennie S. Dewey, a native of Ohio and a daughter of 
David Dewey, who died in the Buckeye state before the birth of his 
daughter. To this marriage were born two children: Agnes, now the wile 
of P. L. Chase, who is engaged in the implement business in Sioux City 
with his brother; and Hittie, the wife of George Joslyn, of Yankton 
county. For his second wife Mr. Whiting chose Mrs. Eva E. Williams, the 
widow of George Williams and a daughter of George W. and Emma E. 
(Watson) Carpenter, both of whom were natives of Buffalo, New York. Mr. 
Carpenter removed to Codington county, South Dakota, in the spring of 
1879. He became the first city engineer of Watertown and held that 
office until his death. Mr. Williams served Codington county as a 
surveyor for six years. Mrs. Whiting was the first teacher who taught 
school in a regular schoolhouse in Codington county. By her first 
marriage she had three children: Rolla G., who served as register of 
deeds at Watertown for two terms; Emma, the wife of Martin Lawton, of 
Minneapolis; and Eva, who is attending school in Yankton. 

	In his political views Mr. Whiting is a republican and is a 
public-spirited citizen. He is identified with many horticultural 
societies and keeps in touch with the advancement made along the most 
scientific lines bearing upon fruit culture. He is now the vice 
president of the South Dakota Agricultural Association, a member of the 
Western nurserymen's Association, and of the South Dakota Horticultural 
Society, of which he served as the first president. He is likewise a 
member of the Minnesota Horticultural Association and the Wisconsin 
Horticultural Association, and he is a member of the executive board of 
the South Dakota conservation and development congress and has charge 
of the horticultural department. He served on the state board of 
agriculture for four years and on the local board of Yankton county 
when that association had charge of the state fairs. His memory 
compasses the pioneer period in the history of this state. When he 
settled on his claim in the early days he lived in a sod shanty and 
spent the first season in a shanty so hastily constructed that he could 
see through the cracks on all four sides. He remembers as one of the 
hard experiences of pioneer days, a drive from De Smet to Watertown 
after nine o'clock at night when the mercury registered twenty degrees 
below zero. There were no fences or roads and he drove across the snow 
covered cakes in a direct line and was in sight of the town directly 
ahead when the day broke, following a course absolutely true by means 
of the stars. He has lived to see remarkable changes and has borne his 
full share in the work of development and improvement, especially in 
advancing horticultural interests in) South Dakota.