Joseph Whitehill

Joseph Whitehill junior (born December 30, 1786 in Lancaster County , Pennsylvania , † November 1, 1861 in Columbus , Ohio ) was an American farmer and politician . He was a member of the Ohio General Assembly and was Treasurer of State of Ohio from 1835 to 1847 .

Career

Joseph Whitehill Jr., son of Mary Kennedy and Joseph Whitehill († 1808), was born in Lancaster County about three years after the end of the Revolutionary War . At the age of 14 years, in 1800, the family moved to Virginia and settled there near Fincastle ( Botetourt County ) down. When his father died in 1808, Whitehill took on responsibility for his family: six sisters and one brother. During the British-American War he served as a lieutenant in a militia company from Botetourt County. He helped defend Norfolk, Virginia from the British. When the captain of his company fell, he took command there. After the war ended, the family moved to Warren County, Ohio, north of Cincinnati . They arrived in the county in 1815, first settling near the town of Waynesville , but then moving closer to Lebanon , the county seat . Because of rheumatism he was forced to give up his work as a farmer. He then moved to the town of Lebanon, where he subsequently transported freight between Lebanon and Cincinnati. He owned his own flour mill at Lock 3 on the Warren County Canal, southwest of Lebanon.

In 1826 he was elected sheriff in Warren County. He held the post from 1826 to 1830 for two two-year terms. He then bought a farm three miles north of Lebanon in the Turtlecreek Township . In 1830 he was elected to the Ohio House of Representatives. He was re-elected three times in a row and served four consecutive one-year terms. He was then elected Treasurer of State of Ohio in 1834. He was re-elected three times and served four consecutive three-year terms. After the end of his last term in office, he stayed in Columbus. Whitehill never married and lived there with his unmarried sister Jane.

He became wealthy with land speculation, but lost his fortune again as a result of the bankruptcy of several companies in which he invested his money. Josiah Morrow, a Warren County historian, wrote the following about him:

"Mr. Whitehill was not a man of much knowledge of the sort that is derived from books, he having had but little time for the acquisition of that kind of knowledge in his early life, which was one of labor and activity, rendered necessary by reason of the responsibilities imposed upon him. . . . But he was a man of strong sense and sound judgment. His disposition was frank and generous, and his manners were popular. He enjoyed in an eminent degree the affection of his relatives and friends, and the respect and esteem of his acquaintances. "

He died in Columbus two months before his 75th birthday. He and his sister are buried there in the Green Lawn Cemetery . The cemetery records indicate that he died on November 1, 1861.

Individual evidence

1. ^ ^{A b} Joseph Whitehill in the Find a Grave database . Retrieved June 12, 2015.
2. ^ Josiah Morrow: The History of Warren County, Ohio , WH Beers, 1883
3. ^ Green Lawn Cemetery Burial Records