With its headquarters located at 600 South Central Avenue, Glendale, the Sons of the Revolution in the State of California and its American Heritage Library and Museum are supported by the generous donations of patriotic Americans who value our nation’s heritage. The Library and Museum specializes in genealogical and early American history resources with emphasis on the Colonial and Revolutionary War period. It has a fine collection of 18th and 19th century vital records, family histories, American military history and English genealogy, an extensive photo archive and numerous artifacts spanning the colonial area to the present.
The Society is blessed with a rich legacy left by its founders, who established the Library and Museum in 1893 and commenced regular publication of periodicals, topical pamphlets and annual reports. The Society's collections and archives today are 120 years deep, providing a wealth of information and knowledge, some of it unavailable elsewhere. Because of its early founding among the many patriotic societies, the Sons of the Revolution in the State of California has a unique bond with multiple generations of founding families of our nation. One such family is that of Gen. Charles Henry Whipple.
Below are abstracts reproduced from the Society's periodical, The Bulletin. The original writing is unedited, which accounts for the occassional different spelling and archaic gramatical construction. Where additional information has become known since its publication, this has been added (such as death dates of family members).
GEN. CHARLES HENRY WHIPPLE
General Whipple was born in Adams County, New York, June 12, 1849, and acquired his right to membership in the Sons of the Revolution in virtue of descent from Hon. Stephen Ward. At the early age of twenty-two he was paymaster of the Northern Pacific Railroad. For ten years thereafter he was cashier of the Citizens National Bank of Faribault, Minnesota. Resigning therefrom in 1881, he was appointed to the Paymaster's Department of the United States Army with the rank of Major.
Charles Henry Whipple
circa 1881
He served continuously in that department until his voluntary retirement in 1912. For four years immediately preceding his retirement, he had been Paymaster General of the Army with the rank of Brigadier General. He saw service in the Philippines, Puerto Rico and Cuba, as well as in Indian campaigns. He was a member of the Society of the Cincinnati, Society of Colonial Wars, Sons of the American Revolution, Society of the War of 1812, and Military Order of Loyal Legion. He served on the Board of Directors of the California Society, Sons of the Revolution, for nearly nine years and was its president during 1924.
He was married December 5, 1871, to Evelyn Elizabeth McLean, a granddaughter of Justice John McLean of the United States Supreme Court,
with whom he lived in happiest harmony for over sixty years. Gen. Whipple's wife died July 27, 1932 and he passed away November 6, 1932 in
Los Angeles. Two sons survive them: Charles H. Whipple, Jr. (1872-1946), of Laguna, Calif., and Henry Benjamin Whipple (1874-1965) of
Brooklyn, N. Y.
Gen. Whipple was the son of the Right Rev. Henry Benjamin Whipple (1822-1901) and his wife, the former Cornelia Wright (1816-1890).
Rev. Whipple served as General Chaplain, Sons of the Revolution, 1895-1901.
The Bulletin. Sons of the Revolution in the State of California. Vol. IX, No. 6. November-December, 1932.
Right Reverend Henry Benjamin Whipple, D.D., L.L.D.
First (Episcopal) Bishop of Minnesota 1859-1901
General Chaplain, Sons of the Revolution, 1895-1901
On May 28th, 1932 there was held at the headquarters of the Society one of the most interesting events it has been our pleasure to record. This was the unveiling of a memorial tablet in honor of Bishop Henry Benjamin Whipple, first Episcopal Bishop of Minnesota, Friend of the Indian, and outstanding Churchman of America. Truly a Saint of God.
The California Society, Sons of the Revolution, from time to time adorns the walls of its home on South Hope Street in Los Angeles with a simple bronze tablet designed to memorialize some man who has served America in a fashion justifying his special remembrance by a great patriotic organization. In the belief that the Society could honor itself by thus honoring Bishop Whipple, a tablet briefly expressive of his achievements was prepared for our headquarters.
Headquarters and Library Building
437 South Hope Street, Los Angeles
One of our directors and at the same time one of the best loved members of the Society, Gen. Charles Henry Whipple, U. S. Army, retired, is a son of Bishop Whipple and he asked the privilege of entertaining the Board of Directors and a few friends at luncheon on the occasion of the unveiling. After the luncheon Gen. Whipple introduced Chief Thunderbird, a full blooded Southern Cheyenne Indian Chieftain, and a graduate of the Carlisle School, who as a boy had known Bishop Whipple in Minnesota.
Garbed in the magnificent and colorful robes of a true tribal leader, Chief Thunderbird in a speech of extreme fervor and simplicity but of marked eloquence, extolled the man whom we were gathered to honor and then unveiled the tablet. He was followed by our own Bishop, Right Reverend W. Bertrand Stevens who, with that rare felicity that characterizes his utterances, spoke in more extended eulogy and biography of his fellow Churchman. It was supposed that of the gathering present only Gen. Whipple and Chief Thunderbird had ever had personal acquaintance with Bishop Whipple. One of his most enthusiastic admirers, however, was A. L. Lathrop, Trust Officer of Union Trust and Savings Bank and long a member of our Society, who laid claim to the fact that at the age of three weeks, -- the circumstance being still vivid in his mind, of course -- he was baptized by the Bishop. Truly with some men their good works do follow them.
Bishop Henry Benjamin Whipple played a unique part in the development of the Great Northwest. Sent out by his church into the wilds of the wonderful country beyond the Mississippi, to found and head an ecclesiastical dynasty, he not only built a diocese but he helped to develop an Empire. A leader of the whites he became at the same time a champion of the reds, and it was because of his unremitting zeal in their behalf that he became known and justly so as "the friend of the Indian." They called him "Straight Tongue," the forthright Indian expression calculated to characterize the man upon whose word not only the Indians but all others might in completest confidence rely. He realized and sympathized with the many injustices suffered by the red man. He sensed the full meaning of the uninspiring chapter of American history then being written, that red occupancy of the soil might be succeeded by white ownership. He appreciated, of course, that the white man's civilization was destined to overcome and outlast the red man's; but he insisted that its accomplishment should be accompanied by as little of wrong, injustice and over-reaching as the nature of the result to be attained would permit.
General Whipple and Guests
at unveiling of the Bishop Whipple Memorial.
Left of Chief Thunderbird is Gen. Whipple. To the right of Chief Thunderbird is Rt. Rev. William Betrand Stevens, Episcopal Bishop of Los Angeles, a member of the California Society and General Chaplain, and to his right (in light-colored jacket) is U. S. District Judge Benjamin Franklin Bledsoe (1874-1938), 1931-1932 President, California SR who later served as General President, Sons of the Revolution, 1937-1938.
His sturdy character and unwavering determination made him loved by those who would be served and feared by those who would despoil. Ice bound Alaska, far flung Hawaii, neighboring Cuba, romantic Spain and even peaceful England felt the touch of his genius and profited by his ministrations. The world was his field and militant Protestantism his theme. Presidents of our Republic repeatedly called him into counsel and the Great Queen Victoria was his friend. Of him, as has been said of another, it was indeed true:
"Clean, simple, valiant, well beloved; Flawless in faith and
fame; Whom neither ease nor honors moved One hair's breadth from Chosen
Aims."
The Bulletin. Sons of the Revolution in the State of California. Vol. VII, No. 5. June, 1931. pp 2-5.
THE WHIPPLE GAVEL
Gen. Charles H. Whipple and his son, Henry Benjamin Whipple, traffic manager New York Dock Company, also a member of the California Society along with his brother Charles Henry Whipple, Jr. and the General's grandson, Arthur Wright Whipple (1901-1960), presented the California Society with a gavel made from one of the original boards taken from the floor of Independence Hall, Philadelphia, in which building the Declaration of Independence was signed. The wood from which the gavel was fashioned had been obtained decades earlier by Bishop Henry Benjamin Whipple during the Centennial restoration of the famous structure.
The Bulletin. Sons of the Revolution in the State of California. Vol. VIII, No. 4. November, 1931. p 3.
Below are recent images of the Whipple Gavel showing its beautiful wood and craftsmanship, which is passed in ceremonial fashion upn the installation of the Society's newly elected President.
Click
to make a donation. The Society, a §501(c)(3) non-profit, is debt free and relies on community support. Donations are tax deductible the fullest
extend of the law.