Whitney, Lewis B. 1855 -
WHITNEY, ROCKWOOD, CRATSENBERG, PHELPS
Posted By: Bill Waters (email)
Date: 2/23/2014 at 16:18:35
LEWIS B. WHITNEY
A foremost representative of commercial and financial interests of Decorah and Winneshiek county is Lewis B. Whitney, who in 1897 helped to establish the National Bank of Decatur, of which institution he has served as president ever since. Born in Jefferson county. New York, on March 29, 1855, he is a son of Brayton and Martha M. (Rockwood) Whitney, natives of New York. The father was for many years a sailor on the Great Lakes, his run being from Oswego to Chicago, at a time when that city was yet Fort Dearborn. He subsequently moved to Wisconsin and there successfully operated a farm until 1861, when he enlisted for service in the Civil war with Company B. Twenty-ninth Wisconsin Volunteers, being afterward transferred to the Sixteenth Ohio Battery, with which he served until the close of the war. At the cessation of hostilities be returned to Wisconsin and there again followed agricultural pursuits until 1867. when he removed to Winneshiek county. Iowa, where he farmed until his death, which occurred in August. 1892. His wife survived him until December, 1896.
Lewis B. Whitney was twelve years of age when his parents removed to Winneshiek county and received his education in the public schools of the neighborhood and in the Owatonna (Minnesota) high school, from which he was graduated with the class of 1874. Reared amid agricultural environments he decided to take up farming and engaged in that occupation here and in North Dakota until 1883, in which year he became a partner of A. J. Cratsenberg in the mercantile business at Burr Oak, this county, being thus engaged until 1893, when he was elected to the important position of county treasurer and served as such with great credit to himself and to the satisfaction of his constituents for four years. In 1897 Mr. Whitney and several other gentlemen organized the National Bank of Decorah with a capital of fifty thousand dollars. Mr. Whitney becoming president. O. C. Johnson, vice president, and H. C. Hjerleid, cashier. Mr. Whitney has served as executive officer of the organization ever since and its prosperous condition is largely due to his efforts.
On December 17, 1882. Mr. Whitney was united in marriage to Miss Ella L. Cratsenberg, a daughter of A. J. and Julia M. (Phelps) Cratsenberg, natives of New York. The father upon coming to Winneshiek county located in Burr Oak where he successfully engaged in the mercantile business until his retirement in 1904. The mother died in 1900. The father upon giving up active business moved to Decorah and made his home with our subject until his demise in 1909. He was a veteran of the Civil war and served with distinction with a New York company. A man of keen foresight and ability. Mr. Whitney has become one of the substantial men of the community and besides his important banking interests is a stockholder, director and the treasurer of the Decorah Gas Company and a director of the Winneshiek Hotel Company. Taking a deep interest in political matters, he has served on the republican state central committee and for the past four years has been secretary of that organization. He owns a beautiful home at No. 300 Grove street where he and his wife extend warm-hearted hospitality to their many friends. Fraternally he is connected with a number of orders, being a thirty-second degree Mason, a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, the Benevolent Protective Order of EIks and the Knights of Pythias. It is to such enterprising and aggressive men as Mr. Whitney that the rapid development of Winneshiek county and Decorah is due, and while his individual success is important, his real value in the upbuilding of this section is of more paramount interest and worthy of greater commendation.
Source: History of Winneshiek County, Iowa Vol. II Chicago the S. J. Clark publishing Company 1913
Winneshiek Biographies maintained by Bruce Kuennen.
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