SHEBOYGAN HISTORY

Dr. Cephas Whipple, Page 677

DR. CEPHAS WHIPPLE settled in Sheboygan County in 1845.  By the pioneers he will be remembered for the many virtues which make a life worthy of imitation.  Dr. Whipple's ancestry came from England in Colonial days, and settled in the Massachusetts Bay Colony.

    Dr. Whipple was born March 11, 1807, in Solon, Me.  His educational privileges were very meagre, but in after life he to some extent made good the deficiency by reading and contact with the business world.  He was possessed of a superior order of mechanical genius, and turned it to good advantage in his profession.

    Before leaving Maine, Dr. Whipple married Miss Lois Wood, May 5, 1829.  The lady was a native of the same place as her husband.  In 1844 Dr. Whipple came to Sheboygan County, and the following year went East after his family.  he bought one hundred and sixty acres of Government land in Lima Township.  The country was covered with a heavy growth of timber, and the roads were for the most part Indian trails.  With characteristic energy he began to clear and improve his farm.  Enterprising as well as industrious, he soon had one of the finest places in his neighborhood.  He built the first good frame house and planted the first orchard, of any importance, in Sheboygan County, with one or two exceptions.

    Having decided to become a practicing physician, our subject began to study medicine under Dr. Lapham, of Gibbsville, one of the pioneer practitioners of the county.  Dr. Whipple soon acquired an extensive practice, but leniency toward his debtors kept him from becoming a rich man.  He would rise at any time of night and go, regardless of weather or distance, to relieve the suffering, no matter how poor the prospect for remuneration.  In 1866 he removed to Sheboygan Falls, and thereafter practically lived a retired life.  A sufferer from asthma, he went to Pueblo, Colo., for relief in 1878, and while there was called to his final home, January 31.

    Dr. Whipple was a man of religious convictions, but adhered to no particular church.  His wife was a member of the Congregational Church.  She was born August 27, 1825, and died February 24, 1877.  Their family numbered nine children.  Carlton died in infancy.  Flora married Mark Martin, and resides in Kendall, Wis.  Alfred graduated at the university at Appleton, and at the Rush Medical College, of Chicago.  On the breaking out of the war, he went out as surgeon in the Seventeenth Wisconsin Infantry, and at the beginning of the siege of Vicksburg came home on a sick furlough, dying two days after his arrival.  Charles died at the age of thirty.  Cephas is a farmer of Missouri.  Henry died at the age of twenty-one.  Mary married Capt. W. H. Connor, and her death occurred in Pueblo, Colo.  Martha W. is a well-known dealer in musical instruments in Sheboygan; and Lois is the wife of William Rensis, of Sheboygan Falls.

    Dr. Whipple was a life-long Republican, and, though not a seeker of official positions, was elected Assemblyman in 1865.  He was a man of strong mind, broad and liberal in his views, and kind and considerate toward those who differed from him.  In the practice of his profession, in public life, and in the home circle Dr. Whipple was a true man.