Quick Facts
GeminiBiography
William Whiting (May 24, 1841 – January 9, 1911) was an American businessman and politician from Holyoke, Massachusetts. Whiting descended from an English family who first settled in Lynn, Massachusetts during 1636.
Whiting was born in Dudley, Massachusetts, May 24, 1841. Whiting attended public schools and graduated from Amherst College.
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. Whiting organized the Whiting Paper Company in Holyoke, Massachusetts in 1865. In 1865, Whiting built his first mill followed by another in 1872. 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.
Whiting later organized the Collins Paper Company and built a paper mill in North Wilbraham, Massachusetts.
Political career
Whiting was a member of the Massachusetts Senate in 1873; city treasurer of Holyoke in 1876 and 1877; mayor of Holyoke in 1878 and 1879; 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 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.
Family
William Whiting's son William F. Whiting was a close friend and adviser to President Calvin Coolidge. Serving for a time as United States Secretary of Commerce.
