Other People | Frank J. Bradley | Olive Rambo Cook | Jerry Litton | | |||
Past and Present of Livingston County Volume 2. Biographies by Major A. J. Roof. 1913 |
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Pages 141-142
A native of Livingston county, Mrs. Sarah Metilda. (Gee) Whittecar, the widow of Hiram Whittecar, is a representative of the farming interests of this section, although her properties are not confined within the county. She owns a valuable piece of land of forty acres in Lincoln township, Daviess county, making her residence, however, west of Hickory on a farm in Jefferson township, Grundy county. Born in Jackson township, September 11, 1850, she is a daughter of William M. and Tabitha (Arbuckle) Gee, the father also a native of Livingston county and one of its early pioneers, becoming prominent as a farmer and being well liked by all who knew him. He passed away August 15, 1906, at the age of eighty-four years, his wife having preceded him, passing away February 9, 1905, at the age of seventy-seven years and six months. She was greatly beloved for her many accomplishments and esteemed as a good Christian woman and what a wife and mother should be. The parents are buried side by side in the Dockery cemetery in Jackson township. The Gee family is of Scotch origin and the grandfather of Mrs. Whittecar was holding the rank of general in the Mexican and Mormon wars.
Sarah Metilda Gee received her education in the district schools of Livingston county, acquiring such knowledge as was available under pioneer conditions. She subsequently supplemented her learning by a course in the Des Moines Central College of Des Moines, Iowa, and on September 1, 1867, was united in marriage to Hiram Whittecar, entering upon a period of happy domestic life which continued until the demise of the husband and father, who passed away at the age of sixty-one years on December 3, 1907, and found his last resting place in the Bratten cemetery north of Hickory, Missouri. He was a son of Nathaniel and Sarah Whittecar. Industrious, energetic and thrifty, he became one of the substantial agriculturist of the section and at the time of his death left his family well provided for.
Mr. and Mrs. Whittecar had four children: Tabitha, the wife Othoe Prothero, an agriculturist of Grundy county; George A., who assists his mother in the management of her farm properties; Myrtle, the wife of William Moore, an agriculturist residing at Plattsville, Colorado; and Cecil E. Since the demise of her husband Mrs. Whittecar has ably superintended the labor upon her properties, which under her management have greatly increased in value. She has made a number of improvements and instituted such equipment as she considered indispensable to the better cultivation of the land and has thereby greatly enhanced the value and productivity of the soil. A woman of high character and many lovable qualities, she enjoys the friendship of many and is held by all who know her in high esteem.