Ohio History Journal

AUGUSTUS NEWTON WHITING.     FRANK THEODORE COLE. Mr. Whiting was of the Massachusetts family of that name, his grandfather's home being in Westford, near Lowell. Only two children of this grandfather, William

Whiting, had families. These were Augustus Whiting who married a daughter of Judge Gustavus Swan, of Columbus, 0., and lived in New York City, and Isaac Newton Whiting, who was a book-seller and publisher in Co- lumbus for many years. He married Septem- ber 7, 1835, Orrel, daughter of Col. James Kilbourne, of Worthington, O. Their only child was Augustus Newton Whiting, born September 30, 1836, died December 22, 1903. He married May 11, 1864, Ellen H., daughter

of Ezra and Harriet (Hart) Gilbert, of Worthington. Mr. Whiting was prepared for college first at the academy in Cheshire, Conn., and later at the school in Burlington, N. J., of which Bishop George W. Doane was head. Among his papers is a curious old certificate, as follows: "This is to certify that A. Newton Whiting of the IV Form has taken the first honor in his class for the winter term, 1854-55; that he has satisfactorily sustained his examinations; and that his conduct mark has averaged ten.                  GEO. W. DOANE, President. Burlington College, May 23, 1855." He entered Kenyon College, at Gambier, O., where he grad- uated in 1860. While in college he was a member of the Delta Kappa Epsilon Fraternity. After leaving college he entered into partnership in Cleve- land, 0., with his cousin, Levi Buttles, in the oil business, under the firm name of Buttles & Whiting, owning their own refinery and continuing in business some three years, when he returned to Columbus.                  (392)

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Augustus Newton Whiting.              393

In 1864 he entered into the oil business in Columbus with

P. Rhoades, under the firm name of P. Rhoades & Co. This

firm continued in business until they sold to the Standard Oil

Company, having for some years been under a working agree-

ment with the trust. During the period of this working agree-

ment Mr. Whiting withdrew from the business, at some sacrifice,

because of his unwillingness to profit by the methods employed

by the trust.

Mr. Whiting was devoted to the Episcopal Church, spend-

ing freely of his time and strength in its interests. He was a

vestryman of Trinity Church, junior warden and chairman of the

Finance Committee for many years. He succeeded his father

as Treasurer of the Diocese of Southern Ohio, the two between

them  holding the office for forty-three and a half years.

He was a member of the Diocesan Missionary Committee, and a

delegate to the General Convention which met in San Francisco,

Cal., in 1901. But his chief work was in the founding of mission

churches and the cherishing of them until they became self-sus-

taining organizations.

Mr. and Mrs. Whiting took charge of the North Mission of

Trinity Church on May 23, 1869, the school being then located

in a small frame building on the rear of the lot corner of High

and Naghten streets. Between that date and Easter, 1870, the

school nearly doubled and outgrew its quarters. Lots on the

corner of Russell and Kerr streets were bought and a chapel

erected, the name, Church of the Good Shepherd, adopted and

the church opened on October 8, 1871.

He could not sit down in quiet. When a number of colored

men desired his aid and guidance in the formation of an Epis-

copal Church for colored people he with his wife responded to

the call, and a school was started at the corner of Naghten

street and Cleveland avenue, which in due time grew into the

present St. Philip's Church on Lexington avenue. Mr. Whiting

was the treasurer of this enterprise from the beginning and the

chief counsellor and helper, and here he spent twelve years of

faithful labor.

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394        Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

 

The rector of Trinity Church, the Rev. J. W. Atwood, in

a memorial sermon on January 3, 1904, said:

"He loved his church and its services. He was always in his place

there and it was his home. He did not care to be conspicuous. What

he most sought after was to be useful He wanted the work done and

did not care for any personal recognition of his own share in it. I think

what made his service of most value was this fact.

"So it came about that he was ready to respond to every demand

made upon his time. His colleagues in the vestry know, as chairman

of the Finance Committee, he did not spare himself in the work of

developing our resources to meet the expansion of our work.

"His works will still follow him in the noble bequests that will

eventually come to this parish and to other missionary endeavors for the

betterment of mankind.

"No one knows better than his rector the faithfulness of this

man in all his varied relations to the church. Faithfulness was the

keynote to all his character. If we define the faithful man according

to the definition implied in the text, then Mr. Whiting was a man of

the fullest faith. He had faith in God, faith in his Savior, faith in his

Church, faith in his fellow-men.

* * * "In spite of an almost over-conscientious habit of weigh-

ing things, he yet believed in progress and gave his hearty sympathy

and support to new undertakings that he thought would develop the

church's work. But there was no constitutional timidity which made

him hesitate at any time to stand forth in the expression of any belief

or line of right conduct. What he believed was God's law of righteous-

ness he followed. There could be no following another here. He was

firm and insistent, though never forgetting the law of charity. Possibly

because he was more gentle than aggressive, he sometimes reached and

influenced men different in character from himself, who would not have

been shaken from their stubbornness by more aggressive men."

Mr. Whiting had the careful habit of keeping all the various

accounts of which he was trustee or treasurer up to date, and

he never went to bed at night until they balanced.

Children were denied to him, and he provided for the future

disposition of his property after his wife's use of it, with the

objects in mind to which he had devoted so much of his life.

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