{{short description|American politician}} {{Infobox officeholder | name = William Whiting | image = William Whiting II (politician) picture2.png | state = [[Massachusetts]] | district = {{ushr|MA|11|11th}} | term_start = March 4, 1883 | term_end = March 3, 1889 | predecessor = [[George D. Robinson]] | successor = [[Rodney Wallace (Massachusetts politician)|Rodney Wallace]] | office1 = 3rd [[List of mayors of Holyoke, Massachusetts|Mayor of Holyoke]] | term_start1 = 1878 | term_end1 = 1879 | predecessor1 = [[Roswell P. Crafts]] | successor1 = [[William Ruddy]] | birth_date = {{birth date|1841|5|24}} | birth_place = [[Dudley, Massachusetts]], U.S. | death_date = {{death date and age|1911|1|9|1841|5|24}} | death_place = [[Holyoke, Massachusetts]], U.S. | resting_place = [[Forestdale Cemetery]] | party = [[Republican Party (United States)|Republican]] | spouse = Anna Fairfield | children = 2, including [[William Fairfield Whiting|William]] | education = [[Amherst College]] ([[Bachelor of Arts|BA]]) | signature = WWhiting Signature.svg }} '''William Whiting''' (May 24, 1841 – January 9, 1911) was an American businessman and politician from [[Holyoke, Massachusetts]].<ref>{{cite web |last=Poore |first=Ben: Perley |title=Official Congressional Directory |page=42 |publisher=[[United States Congress]] |location=Washington, D.C. |year=1884}}</ref> Whiting descended from an English family who first settled in [[Lynn, Massachusetts]], during 1636.<ref name="Clark 2004 155">Clark, p. 155</ref>
Whiting was born in [[Dudley, Massachusetts]], May 24, 1841. Whiting attended public schools and graduated from [[Amherst College]].<ref name="Clark 2004 155"/>
Whiting worked for the [[Holyoke Paper Company]] and the [[Hampden Paper Company]]. At the age of 17 Whiting started at the Holyoke Paper Company working first as a bookkeeper. After three years working as a clerk, Whiting became a salesman first working out of the company's main office and later working as a commercial traveling salesman.<ref>{{Citation |last = White | first = James Terry | title = The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography: Being the History of the United States as Illustrated in the Lives of the Founders, Builders, and Defenders of the Republic, and of the Men and Women who are Doing the Work and Moulding the Thought of the Present Time. Supplement 1| page = 481 | publisher = J.T. White and Co. | location = New York, N.Y. | year = 1910}}</ref> Whiting organized the Whiting Paper Company in [[Holyoke, Massachusetts]], in 1865.<ref name=Weeks>{{Citation |last = Weeks | first = Lyman Horace | year = 1916 | title = A history of paper-manufacturing in the United States, 1690-1916 | page = 247 | publisher = The Lockwood Trade Journal Company | location = New York, N.Y. }}</ref> In 1865, Whiting built his first mill followed by another in 1872.<ref name=Weeks/> When the [[Whiting Paper Company]] was first formed. L.L. Brown of [[South Adams, Massachusetts]], was president and Whiting was agent and treasurer. Whiting later became president and his son, [[William Fairfield Whiting]], became treasurer.<ref name=Weeks/> Whiting later organized the [[Collins Paper Company]] and built a paper mill in [[North Wilbraham, Massachusetts]].<ref name=Weeks/>
In addition to his political and manufacturing careers, Whiting was a prominent philanthropist in Holyoke's history, and endowed the city with many of its secular institutions. In 1870 along with John and Edwin Chase, Whiting incorporated the [[Holyoke Public Library]], serving as its first president.<ref>{{cite book |year=1879 |chapter=Holyoke |chapter-url=https://archive.org/stream/historyofconnect02ever#page/n557/mode/2up |title=History of the Connecticut Valley in Massachusetts, with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers |volume=II |pages=915–938 |location=Philadelphia |publisher=Louis H. Everts; Press of J.B. Lippincott and Co |url=https://archive.org/stream/historyofconnect02ever#page/n7/mode/2up |oclc= 866692568 }}</ref> During his mayoralty Whiting privately funded the construction of the [[Holyoke Opera House]], a venue which once hosted a wide variety of renowned Vaudeville and musical acts, as well as early motion pictures. In 1893 he led the efforts to found the [[Holyoke Medical Center]], then known as Holyoke City Hospital, as the first non-sectarian medical institution in the city.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.holyokehealth.com/About-Us/History|title=About Us|publisher=Holyoke Medical Center|access-date=June 11, 2018}}</ref> Being a member of the [[Grand Lodge of Massachusetts|Mount Tom Lodge]] of [[freemasons]], his work in philanthropy was held in such regard that he would go on to have the city's second lodge named after him in 1909, an unusual honor as freemasons rarely name lodges after living persons. Following a period of declining membership and poor bookkeeping the William Whiting Lodge however had its charter suspended in 1997.<ref name="MountTomLodge">{{cite book|page=10|title=Mount Tom Lodge A. F. & A. M. 100th Anniversary|publisher=Anker Printing Company|last=Brooks|first=Archibald|year=1950|url=https://archive.org/stream/HistoryOf100YearsMountTomLodge18501950/History_of_100_Years%2C_Mount_Tom_Lodge_1850-1950.compressed#page/n1/mode/2up}}</ref>
== Political career == {{multiple image | direction = vertical | width = 150 | align = left | footer = Whiting during his tenure as a state senator, 1873; a variant of Whiting Paper's acorn logo, evoking the namesake etymology of his hometown, the Holyoke surname deriving from "holy oak" | image1 = William Whiting II, 1873.jpg | image2 = WhitingPaperCompany.svg}} Whiting was a member of the [[Massachusetts Senate]] in 1873; city treasurer of Holyoke in 1876 and 1877; and mayor of Holyoke in 1878 and 1879. While Holyoke's mayoral elections are officially nonpartisan, drawing support from the business community and Holyoke's residents at large, Whiting enjoyed backing of both major political parties during his mayoral election.<ref name="MountTomLodge"/> He would go on to serve as delegate to the [[Republican National Convention]] in 1876 and 1896; elected as a Republican to the Forty-eighth, Forty-ninth, and Fiftieth Congresses (March 4, 1883 – March 3, 1889).
== After politics == Whiting was not a candidate for renomination in 1888. He was a commissioner to the [[Exposition Universelle (1900)|Exposition Universelle]] in [[Paris, France]], in 1900, and resumed his former manufacturing pursuits.
Whiting died in Holyoke on January 9, 1911, and was interred in [[Forestdale Cemetery]] in Holyoke.<ref name="Clark 2004 155" />
== Family == William Whiting's son [[William Fairfield Whiting|William F. Whiting]] was a close friend and adviser to President [[Calvin Coolidge]].<ref name="Clark 2004 155" /> Serving for a time as [[United States Secretary of Commerce]].
==Legacy== {{multiple image | direction = horizontal | width = 180 | align = right | footer = The Holyoke Public Library (''left''), and Holyoke Medical Center (''right''), both institutions that Whiting, his wife Anna Fairfield, and associates directly had a role in establishing | image1 = Holyoke Library from Maple Street.jpg | image2 = Emergency_room,_Holyoke_Medical_Center.jpg}} Many of the institutions which Whiting established or cultivated during his life continue to play a significant in Holyoke today. Most notably these include the [[Holyoke Medical Center]], and the city's public library. Whiting, an alumnus of [[Holyoke Public Schools]] would have one named after him on Chestnut Street, which has since been converted to apartments. He also served as a vice president of the Holyoke and Westfield Railroad, predecessor of the [[Pioneer Valley Railroad]] which maintains freight services in the region. His former summer home and cattle farm today bears his name as the [[Whiting Farms, Holyoke, Massachusetts|Whiting Farms]] neighborhood of Holyoke.
==See also== * [[1873 Massachusetts legislature]]
==Notes== {{reflist}}
==References== * {{Citation |last = Clark | first = Rusty | title = Holyoke, Massachusetts: Stories Carved in Stone | publisher = Dog Pond Press | location = West Springfield, MA | year = 2004 | isbn= 0-9755362-6-5}} * {{Citation |last = Copeland | first = Alfred Minot | title = "Our County and Its People" a History of Hampden County, Massachusetts v. 3 | publisher =The Century Memorial Pub. Co. | location = Boston, MA | year = 1902}}
== External links == {{Commons category|William Whiting|William Whiting II}} * {{CongBio|W000418|William Whiting}} * [http://www.infoplease.com/biography/us/congress/whiting-william-W000418.html William Whiting] at infoplease.com
{{s-start}} {{s-off}} {{US House succession box | state=Massachusetts | district=11 | before=[[George D. Robinson]] | after=[[Rodney Wallace (politician)|Rodney Wallace]] | years=1883–1889}} |- {{s-bef|before=[[Roswell P. Crafts]]}} {{s-ttl|title=[[List of mayors of Holyoke, Massachusetts|Mayor of Holyoke]]|years=1878–1879}} {{s-aft|after=[[William Ruddy]]}} {{s-end}}
{{Members of the U.S. House of Representatives from Massachusetts}} {{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Whiting, William II}} [[Category:19th-century mayors of places in Massachusetts]] [[Category:Republican Party Massachusetts state senators]] [[Category:Papermakers]] [[Category:Amherst College alumni]] [[Category:People from Dudley, Massachusetts]] [[Category:Mayors of Holyoke, Massachusetts]] [[Category:1841 births]] [[Category:1911 deaths]] [[Category:Republican Party United States representatives from Massachusetts]] [[Category:19th-century members of the Massachusetts General Court]] [[Category:19th-century United States representatives]]