Chauncy Whiting, Sr.

Find a Grave

SOURCE: http://edwinwhiting.org/edwinwhiting/edwinwhitingancestryandsibling...

Next summer will be the one hundredth anniversary of the arrival of the first permanent settlers in Otter Tail County and it is understood an effort will be made to have the annual reunion of the old settlers of the county held at Clitherall on the site of the first settlement.

The first permanent settlement was the Mormon Colony, which settled at Clitherall at the close of July, 1865. The Journal has published reports of the arrival of these settlers from time to time. The first account was written by Chauncey Whiting for the January 1, 1874 issue of the Journal, in which he recalled details regarding their arrival in July 1865. He mentioned the fear of the Indians fell by the women and children, as the great Minnesota Massacre had occurred only two years before. However, soldiers were stationed in Alexandria and Pomme de Terre and the Indians were peaceful when the Mormons arrived and became good neighbors, leading Mr. Whiting to observe, that when the golden rite was practiced, man could live in peace with his neighbors of any race.

He recalled that at the time of their arrival it took twelve days to go by ox team to Sauk Centre to secure flour and other provisions. In Mr. Whiting's letter to the Journal, written nine years after the colony's arrival, he wrote that they had had a wonderful harvest in the preceding autumn and in glowing terms announced that Fergus Falls now had a fine flour mill at which their wheat could be ground. He suggested that the colony would continue to prosper as long as the young people were taught to use the spinning wheel and the loom instead of the piano and the melodian.

Mason's history of Otter Tail County gives a report of the arrival of the Mormon colony and contains the following chapter written by the late E. E. Corliss, attorney of Fergus Falls, who himself had originally settled on the shore of Clitherall Lake:

"Clitherall was the first settlement in the county after the Indian trouble of 1862. It was settled in 1865 by about twenty families of Latter Day Saints or Mormons, as they are usually called. These people were all members of the original Joseph Smith church. After the murder of Smith by a mob at Nauvoo, some of the original Mormons refused Brigham Young's leadership and his advocacy of polygamy. Those who rejected the polygamous doctrine of Young separated from him and chose as their leader one Cutler, and after his death, Chauncey Whiting. These leaders, in the eyes of their followers, had all the singular powers of St. Peter. These people were very zealous in their belief. Most of them were Americans, and all of them were honest, law-abiding people, good neighbors and patriotic citizens, firmly believing that the Mormon Bible and the Christian Bible were both inspired.

"The Mormons claimed to have been directed to Clitherall by a dream which one of their elders had of a land between two lakes, with an abundance of prairie and timber and convenient bands of Indians whom they were to convert to the Mormon faith, and thus civilize and save them from their paganism. Accordingly, a small band of these good people made the long overland trip through Illinois and Minnesota to Otter Tail County. They brought with them their cattle, sheep, horses and all kinds of tools. The men were nearly all farmers, although there were a number of skilled artisans among them. Edward Fletcher was a good blacksmith; Marcus Shaw was a stone mason and plasterer; Chauncey Whiting, their priest and prophet was a fine mechanic and could make all kinds of furniture, but gave most of his attention to wagon making; 'Uncle Al' Whiting was a chair maker; 'Uncle Vet' Whiting was the storekeeper, postmaster and a famous hunter.

"By 1870, when I first came to the county, there were about fifteen men with their families in this settlement. Their names as I recall them were as follows: Mr. and Mrs. Chauncey Whiting, Lewis Whiting and Sylvester Whiting - a year or two later another brother, Almon Whiting, his wife and children joined them; Hiram and Lyman Murdock; John, Albert and Edward Fletcher, three brothers and their families, all large families of children grown to manhood and womanhood and some of them married: Isaac, the oldest son of Chancey Whiting, Warren Whiting, Rueben Oaks Sr. and James Oaks, his son; Marcus Shaw, Jeremiah Anderson, Jesse Burdock and a full-blooded New York Indian by the name of Dana, with his white wife, Thomas Mason and Mrs. Mason, a widow and her daughter, Charles Taylor and two Mclntire brothers, Joseph and Sylvester

"I always understood that there were twenty-five families, but I cannot make out but about sixteen married couples and four bachelors, making twenty households besides the children. There were a few families, who came up with those to Clitherall and later settled at Detroit (Detroit Lakes). The settlers in Otter Tail County took up as homesteads about all the land between Clitherall and Battle Lake. Much of this land taken by them lay in a strip about one mile in width; that is they took a strip four forties wide from the north shore of Clitherall Lake to the south shore of Battle Lake. They opened up a road along the north shore of Clitherall Lake and built their houses, barns, along this road, so that the whole settlement was a compact group. They erected a log church with a secret chamber in which they worshiped for more than fifty years.

"In recent years they have erected a fine little church and razed the old building which had served them so many years. In the early seventies the community was a sort of commune, or as they called it, "The Oneness". All property was to be turned into the church. All grain and provisions were to be placed in the church granary and issued to members by the storekeeper. When they adopted this rule the members of the community, although not wealthy, were very prosperous; but under the new system all or nearly all they had laid up was soon exhausted and little or no property was left in the store or in the hands of the members. So they broke up 'the Oneness' and returned to their original mode of life and were soon prosperous again.

"The community as a Mormon church, has scattered. Many have joined the Joseph Smith Jr. branch; others have moved away. Now there remains only a small number of the faithful, who are struggling to maintain the Cutlerite branch of the church and keep the divine authority of Old Clitherall. These faithful old settlers had built beautiful homes on this tract of land. Old Clitherall, like Otter Tail City, once the commercial, political and religious center of the county, is today beautiful only in death.

"I cannot dismiss this historical settlement without mentioning one ludicrous incident: John W. Mason and I tried a criminal case before Jesse Burdock, local justice of the peace in the Clitherall community. The case was the State of Minnesota vs John Campbell. Campbell was arrested on complaint of his wife, charged with assault with intent to kill. I remember Mr. Mason, as usual put up a strong fight for the defendant. He would raise one strong point after another and after setting forth the arguments in favor of each point, his honor, the Justice, went out behind the barn and engaged in prayer. Each time on resuming his judicial chair, he decided the point in favor of the state. Campbell was bound over, and the court allowed him to go north to get bond. He went to Canada and was never again seen in the county.

(Mr. Corliss was county attorney for a number of years and in later years capitol custodian in St. Paul.)

Fergus Falls Daily Journal Saturday, July 18, 1964 transcribed by Rhonda Holton

Married Editha Ann Morley on 20 June 1844 in Lima, Adams, Illinois

Children:

Isaac Morley Lide W Lyman Carmilla married Hyrum J. Oakes Warren Alonzo Lurette Lucy Emeline married #1 Alfred Irwin #2 Julius Rozeneranz Alfred Chauncey Jr. Louisa married #1 William P. Shappell (divorced), #2 James A. Sanders, #3 Curtis Robbins

• Updated from Find A Grave Memorial via mother Sally Whiting (born Hulet) by SmartCopy: May 19 2015, 17:45:52 UTC