Summary Information
Lawrence C. Whittet Papers
1840-1954
- Whittet, Lawrence C., 1871-1954
Mss 27; PH 1562; PH 1563; PH 1564; PH 6020
1.6 cubic feet (3 archives boxes and 1 flat box) and 0.6 cubic feet of photographs (1 archives box, 3 folders, and 1 oversize folder)
Wisconsin Historical Society (Map)
Papers of Lawrence Whittet, a Wisconsin businessman, state legislator, New Deal program administrator, and executive secretary to Governor Emanuel L. Philipp (1915-1921). Contains correspondence, diaries, reminisces, speeches, scrapbooks, photographs, and newspaper clippings, as well as papers of his maternal forebears, the Clarke family, who were pioneer settlers in Wisconsin.
English
http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/wiarchives.uw-whs-mss00027 ↑ Bookmark this ↑
Biography/History
Lawrence C. Whittet was born on June 16, 1871, in Albion, Wisconsin of Scottish and English parentage. He was educated in Edgerton, and graduated from the University of Wisconsin in 1893. Successful in his family's lumber, coal and grain business in Edgerton, Whittet began his long public career by serving on the Rock County Board of Supervisors from 1897 to 1901. For the next five years he was postmaster of Edgerton. Elected, as a Republican, to the State Assembly in 1908, he was defeated in 1911, and reelected in 1914. From 1915 to 1917 he served as speaker of the Assembly.
Whittet served as Governor Philipp's executive secretary from 1915 to 1921 and was considered to be Philipp's closest friend. He was executive secretary of the Milwaukee Association of Commerce from 1923 to 1925, while Philipp was president. In Milwaukee, he was president of the Mi Lola Cigar Company and assistant to the president of the Union Refrigerator Transit Company, both controlled by the family of Emanuel Philipp; and after the Governor's death in 1925 he managed the estate.
In the 1930s, Lawrence C. Whittet was administrator of the Wisconsin Recovery Act, and was then administrator for the National Recovery Act in Wisconsin. He was made administrator of the Fair Trade Practices Commission in 1933, and commissioner in 1935. Through the nineteen forties he served as supervisor of the Oil Inspection Division.
A member of the Masonic Order, the Knights of Pythias, and Delta Upsilon (UW), Whittet died on June 15, 1954. He was married to Katherine Hain in 1895 and had one son, James Lowell Whittet, born in 1896.
Scope and Content Note
Although most of the Lawrence Clarke Whittet Papers came to the Society through his son, J. Lowell Whittet, in 1958 and 1959, Lawrence Whittet had previously given a small but important group of papers pertaining to a Dane County community. The papers have been arranged into three series: CLARKE FAMILY PAPERS; LAWRENCE CLARKE WHITTET PAPERS, and PHOTOGRAPHS.
The CLARKE FAMILY PAPERS series includes family correspondence, diaries, reminiscences, and an account book. The Clarke family papers are not extensive, but they do contain references to people and early life in this particular part of Dane County.
In 1842, Samuel Clarke, maternal grandfather of Lawrence C. Whittet, immigrated as a young bachelor from England and settled on the Albion Prairie, north of the present city of Edgerton. Samuel Clarke's father and mother, Mr. and Mrs. James Clarke, immigrated to Wisconsin around 1849.
In a letter of November 12, 1844, Samuel describes the purchase of a wagon and the cost of building his new log cabin. His diary and reminiscences refer to early settlers such as Jonathan Haigh (Haight?), William Dickinson, William Chambers, John Bolton, Thomas Bussey, Samuel Marsden, John Slater, and "Mr. Mayhew" who owned "a tavern five miles north." (William A. Mayhew was the first postmaster in Christiana, now Rockdale, Dane County, 1846.) The Clarkes were Universalists when they came to Dane County from England, and there is a strong religious flavor to the correspondence of James Clarke. Also includes an account book kept by Samuel between 1850 and 1855.
The LAWRENCE CLARKE WHITTET PAPERS series includes correspondence, essays and speeches, diaries, biographical information, scrapbook about Whittet, and clippings.
The correspondence of Lawrence C. Whittet covers the years 1908 to 1954, and is arranged chronologically except in cases where Whittet fastened together correspondence dealing with a specific subject or with one correspondent. In these latter cases the letters were left together as they were found. The correspondence is of a personal and business nature, with occasional letters relating to state politics. Although there is no correspondence with his close friend and mentor, Governor Philipp, he did receive one letter from Senator Robert M. La Follette Sr. (April 23, 1917); Whittet also corresponded with Senator Irwin S. Lenroot regarding appointments and congressional bills; he had official correspondence with Governor Philip La Follette in the 1930s; and also corresponded with Marshall Cousins, a prominent local historian in Eau Claire Wisconsin.
Includes a few of Whittet's essays and speeches spanning a long period in his life, 1889, 1909-1943, and undated. Biographical information includes a biography written in the 1930s by Harold Keller, in the preparation of which Keller interviewed Whittet as well as many who knew him. Clippings concerning Whittet are loose and in the scrapbook. While he was state supervisor of the Wisconsin Oil Inspection Division, Lawrence C. Whittet kept a diary concerning office and personnel matters covering the years 1940 through 1948.
The PHOTOGRAH series illustrate events surrounding the inauguration of Wisconsin Governor Emanuel L. Philipp (1915), a duck hunting trip (circa 1920), and images of the Whittet family, including portraits of Whittet (circa 1870-1950).
The inaugural photographs includes: a crowd waiting for a train at the Madison station; dignitaries arriving in Madison; a procession to the State Capitol; the inaugural ceremony at the Capitol; and Philipp's walking out of the 18th ward polling place.
The duck hunting trip made by Lawrence Whittet, Governor Philipp, Frank Fuller, Henry Johnson, and Warren Schwartz, at Camp Lookout near Hoven, South Dakota, includes: images of men shooting; decoys; a display of ducks shot; cars; duck boats; and camp buildings.
Photographs of the Whittet family, primarily studio portraits, depict Lawrence C. Whittet from childhood to adulthood, his son Lowell Whittet and several images of other family members, including Dorothy and Sonny Whittet, Mary Jane Whittet, and Lawrence P. Whittet Jr.
Administrative/Restriction Information
Presented by Lawrence C. Whittet, Edgerton, Wisconsin, 1943 and 1953, and by J. Lowell Whittet, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, 1958 and 1959.
Processed by Margaret Hafstad, November 19, 1968.
Contents List
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Mss 27
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Series: Clarke Family Papers
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Box
1
Folder
1
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Clarke family correspondence, 1840-1887
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Box
1
Folder
1
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James Clarke diary, 1848
: Unbound.
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Box
1
Folder
1
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Samuel Clarke reminiscences, given before an old settlers' club, 1894?
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Box
1
Folder
2
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Samuel Clarke diary, 1845 June 10-September 30
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Box
1
Folder
2 (continued)
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Account book, 1850-1855
: Formerly volume 1 of collection.
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Series: Lawrence Clarke Whittet Papers
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Correspondence
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Box
1
Folder
3
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1908-1919
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Box
1
Folder
4
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1920-1924
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Box
1
Folder
5
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1925-1929
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Box
2
Folder
1
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1933-1934
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Box
2
Folder
2
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1935 January-July
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Box
2
Folder
3
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1935 August-December
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Box
2
Folder
4
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1936-1937 September
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Box
2
Folder
5
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1940-1946 October, 1950 September-1954 November
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Box
2
Folder
6
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Essays and speeches, 1889, 1909-1943, undated
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Box
2
Folder
7
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Biographical
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Box
2
Folder
8
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Clippings
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Lawrence C. Whittet diaries
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Box
3
Volume
2
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1940
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Box
3
Volume
3
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1941
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Box
3
Volume
4
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1942
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Box
3
Volume
5
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1943
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Box
3
Volume
6
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1944
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Box
3
Volume
7
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1945
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Box
3
Volume
8
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1946
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Box
3
Volume
9
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1947
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Box
3
Volume
10
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1948
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Box
4
Volume
11
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Scrapbook concerning Whittet, 1909-1933
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Series: Photographs
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PH 1562
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Duck hunting photographs, 1920
8 photographs
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PH 1563
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Duck hunting photographs, 1920
7 photographs
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PH 1564
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Governor Emanuel L. Philipp's inauguration photographs, 1915
10 photographs
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PH 6020
Box
1
Folder
1
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Lawrence C. Whittet portraits
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Box
1
Folder
2
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Lawrence C. Whittet professional life
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Box
1
Folder
3
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Lowell Whittet
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Box
1
Folder
4
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Other relatives
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Oversize Folder
1
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Lawrence C. Whittet, portrait as a young man, undated
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