WHITEHILL, H. A.

WHITEHILL, HEATH, TASKER, BLANCHARD

Posted By: Jean Kramer (email)
Date: 7/4/2003 at 13:12:09

Biography reproduced from page 629 of Volume II of the History of Kossuth County written by Benjamin F. Reed and published in 1913:

H. A. Whitehill is widely known as a successful stone mason and plasterer and to his ability the town of Burt, Iowa, owes many of its fine residences and business houses. Mr. Whitehill’s residence in Kossuth County dates from 1872. He is a native of Vermont and was born at Grotton, Vermont, January 1, 1853, his father, James M. Whitehill, being also a native of the Green Mountain state, where he grew to manhood. The latter married Miss Sylvia Ann Heath, and for many years was prosperous in business activities and as a farmer. When he went west he located in Sauk county, Wisconsin, where he resided until 1873. In that year he went to Iowa and located in Kossuth county.

H. A. Whitehill was educated in the public schools of Wisconsin but his advantages in that line were extremely limited. He is almost entirely responsible for his breadth of knowledge and the degree of culture which he has attained by intelligent and continuous reading since coming to mature years. He has been a resident of Iowa since 1872 and in that year worked upon a farm near Irvington. He spent two years in that section, later going to Mitchell, Iowa, where for a similar period of time he engaged in agricultural pursuits in the employ of others. He returned to Wisconsin and his marriage occurred at West Point in 1878. He and his wife commenced their domestic life in Irvington, where Mr. Whitehill farmed with much success for several years. He went to the foothills of South Dakota and worked on a Railroad there for ten months, returning at the end of that time to Irvington. After a short period he purchased an eighty-acre tract in Plum Creek township and broke the soil and began its cultivation. Within a year, however, he sold that property and began work as a stone mason and plasterer, which trade he had learned in his earlier years. He located in Bancroft, where he became identified with various phases of municipal life. He bought a residence in that city and many town lots, and engaged in the buying and selling of real estate for nine years. He eventually disposed of his holdings and moved to Burt, where he followed his trade of stone mason and is now active in this and other fields of labor. He built two residences in that city, both of which he later sold, and he is responsible to a great extent for the character of the building which is now going on in the city in which he resides. He has erected a great many private residences and business houses in Kossuth county, his field of activity extending beyond the limits of Burt. He is an expert judge of land values and active in the buying and selling of real estate. He owns land in North Dakota and gained a knowledge of property values in California during the time immediately following the San Francisco earthquake, when he worked his trade in the latter city. He has gained a place among the industrious and practically successful men of Burt and has won recognition as a force in municipal upbuilding and growth.

Mr. Whitehill was married on March 3, 1878, to Miss Ada Tasker, who was born and reared in Wisconsin. She is a daughter of Robert Tasker, who was a native of England and came to the United States at an early day. To Mr. and Mrs. Whitehill have been born five children: L. T., who is a traveling saleman with headquarters in Mexico; Maude, the wife of J. M. Blanchard, a business man of Lonerock, Iowa; Claude M., who is farming in Adams county, North Dakota; Hazel Marie, who lives at home; and one daughter, Mabel, who passed away when she was three and one-half years of age.

Politically Mr. Whitehill is a republican with progressive tendencies and takes an intelligent interest in public affairs although he has never sought public office. He is a member of Burt Lodge, No. 547, I. O. O. F., and is present noble grand of that organization. He and his wife affiliate with the Rebekahs and Mrs. Whitehill is also a member of the Order of the Eastern Star. Mr. Whitehill is an industrious and intelligently active man. He stands for business expansion and development and has aided materially in the commercial growth of Kossuth county. He has won success by business discrimination, ability and common sense, and has expanded his activities to include many phases of municipal growth. His qualities of intelligence and commercial instinct unite to make him an upright man and useful citizen.