George W. Whitmer
George W. Whitmer, assistant trainmaster of the Cincinnati division of the Pennsylvania Lines, with headquarters at Xenia, was born in Preble county, this state, and has lived in Ohio all his life, a resident of Xenia most of the time during the past thirty years or more, he having been train dispatcher for the Pennsylvania Company for some time before entering upon the duties of his present position with that company.
Mr. Whitmer is a son of the Rev. David and Amanda Catherine (Gardner) Whitmer, the former a native of Pennsylvania and the latter of Ohio, whose last days were spent in this state. The Rev. David Whitmer was born in Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, on March 10, 1823, and was but an infant when his parents, Jacob and Eve Whitmer, came to Ohio and settled in the vicinity of Tremont in Clark county. Jacob Whitmer was a tanner by trade and for some time followed that occupation in Ohio, but later engaged in farming. Of the children born to him and his wife five grew to maturity, the one son, David, and four daughters, one of whom, Mrs. Catherine Stevenson, is still living, a resident of Indianapolis. David Whitmer grew up on the home farm in Clark county and became by self-study a well educated man. For some time he taught school, in the meantime pursuing his studies with a view to entering the ministry of the Methodist Episcopal church and in due time was licensed to preach. During his long service in the ministry the Rev. David Whitmer was located at numerous points throughout southwestern Ohio, his itinerary moving him about after the manner of the Methodist system, but the last six years of his active ministry were spent in Greene county, at New Burlington and Spring Valley. In September, 1884, he retired from the ministry and moved to Xenia, where he died on June 23, 1887. He was an active worker in the temperance cause and had a wide acquaintance throughout this section of the state.
The Rev. David Whitmer was twice married. By his first wife, Hannah I. Fox, who was born at Richmond, Indiana, he had two sons, William C, now deceased, who was for years chief train dispatcher and later trainmaster for the New York division of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, and Charles W., a lawyer at Xenia, further mention of whom is made elsewhere in this volume. His second wife. Amanda Catherine Gardner, was bom at Clarksville, in the neighboring county of Clinton, October 9, 1833. and died at her home in Xenia on March 28, 1906. She was a daughter of Dr. John and Sarah (Roland) Gardner, both of whom were born in Ohio and the latter of whom died when her daughter Amanda Catherine was a child. The mother of Dr. John Gardner was a sister of Governor Tiffin, the first governor of Ohio, and the name "Tiffin" appears in every generation since as a given name. The Tiffins came from Carlisle, England. Dr. John Gardner was a physician at Clarksville and continued in active practice there to the very hour of his death, his death occurring at the home of a patient while he was making a professional call, he then having been seventy-four years of age. He had been thrice married, and by his first wife had one child, a son; by his second, three children, Mr. Whitmer's mother having had a brother and a sister, and by his third marriage had one child, a daughter. To the Rev. David and Amanda Catherine (Gardner) Whitmer were born eight children, of whom the subject of this sketch was the first-born, the others being Carrie, wife of E. H. Hart, of Xenia; Clarence, who is quite successfully engaged in the insurance business at Chicago; Hattie W., who is unmarried and who makes her home with her brother George at 520 South Detroit street in Xenia, where they have a very pleasant home; Edward Tiffin, now deceased; John Harrison, who is engaged in the undertaking business at Xenia; Mary, wife of Marshall Lupton, of Indianapolis, and Florence, wife of W. B. Fulghum, of Richmond, Indiana.
George W. Whitmer early turned his attention to railroading and in his boyhood became a telegraph operator, working at various stations along the lines that now form a part of the Pennsylvania Railroad System, and finally was made station agent at Wilmington, the county seat of the neighboring county of Clinton. A few years later he was promoted to the position of train dispatcher and for fifteen years was thus engaged, his duties being divided between the oflices at Cincinnati and at Xenia. In 1904 he was appointed assistant trainmaster of the Cincinnati division of the Pennsylvania Lines, with headquarters at Xenia, and has ever since been stationed there. Mr. Whitmer is a Scottish Rite Mason, affiliated with the blue lodge at Xenia and with the consistory at Cincinnati, and is a noble of the Ancient Arabic Order of Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, affiliated with Syrian Temple at Cincinnati.
From History of Greene County Ohio, Its People, Industries and Institutions, vol. 2. M.A.Broadstone, editor. B.F.Bowen & Co., Indianapolis. 1918