Richard W. Whitham

NJGenWeb ~ Morris County, New Jersey

Richard W. Whitham

Source: History Morris County New Jersey, Volume II, Lewis Publishing Co., 1914

Richard W. WHITHAM is a man of unusual enterprise and initiative and has met with such marvelous good fortune in his various business projects that it would verily seem as though he possessed an "open sesame" to unlock the doors to success. Self-made and self-educated in the most significant sense of the words, he has progressed steadily toward the goal of success until he is recognized as one of the foremost business men and citizens of Dover, in Morris county, New Jersey, where he has resided since he was fourteen years of age. He is president of the R.W. Whitham Company, masons, a corporation that owns about $14,000 worth of property in this section of the State.

July 29 1875, occurred the birth of Richard W. WHITHAM, the place of his nativity being Franklin Furnace, Sussex county, New Jersey. He is a son of Robert W. and Catherine C. (HAYCOOK) WHITHAM and a grandson of Robert WHITHAM, the latter of whom was born and reared in England, where he spent the entire period of his life. The father was born in England and immigrated to America in the year 1857; he was a machinist and worked at that trade at Franklin Furnace until twenty-three years prior to his death in December, 1908. The mother is a native of this State and she is now living at Mount Hope, New Jersey. To Mr. and Mrs. Robert W. WHITHAM were born the following children: Laura C., wife of Philip ANDREWS; Hester H., wife of F.A. RHINEHART; William H.; Richard W., of this sketch; George B.; Mary C., wife of F.S. McFERREN.

Richard W. WHITHAM early availed himself of the advantages afforded in the public schools of his native place, and at the age of fourteen years came to Dover. Here he entered upon an apprenticeship to learn the trade of mason, working for the firm of Smith & Fanning for a period of twenty-one years. In 1910 he purchased the business of his employers and he is rapidly building up one of the finest enterprises of its kind in this section of New Jersey. The R.W. Whitham Company was formed as a partnership in 1910. This concern employs an average of forty to sixty men during the entire round of the year and needless to say an immense amount of business is taken care of annually. The company owns property to the amount of $14,000.

In 1898 Mr. WHITHAM married Laura C. IKE, born in Dover, daughter of Isaac C. and Elsie A. (KISSAUBH) IKE. Mrs. WHITHAM has two brothers and three sisters, as follows: Harry, Lilly, Irene, Scott, Elsie. Mr. and Mrs. WHITHAM have one daughter, Elsie C., a student in the public schools of Dover.

Mr. WHITHAM fraternizes with the local lodge and State encampment of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows; and he is likewise connected with the Knights of Pythias, the Royal Arcanum, the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks and the Free and Accepted Masons. The family attends the Methodist Episcopal church. In politics he is unswerving in his public service to membership on the city council of Dover, although he is deeply and sincerely interested in all manners affecting the good of the general welfare, not only of his home community but of New Jersey and the nation at large.