Benjamin Franklin Whittemore

Born in Malden, Massachusetts, Whittemore was the son of Susan Floyd and John Whittemore,[1] who were married on June 22, 1823. They were both from Malden.[2] He attended the public schools of Worcester, and studied at Amherst College.[3] Whittemore worked in mercantile establishments over the period that he studied theology.[3]

In 1859, he became a minister in the Methodist Episcopal Church of the New England Conference.[3] During the Civil War, Whittemore served as chaplain of the 53rd Massachusetts Infantry Regiment, and later with the 30th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment, Veteran Volunteers.[3]

When the war ended, he was stationed in the Darlington district in South Carolina and he decided to stay there.[4] From 1865 to 1867, he held the position of superintendent of education for the Freedmen's Bureau. He established around 60 schools and churches and he met with freedmen and others in the community to develop educational programs.[4] He founded the New Era, a weekly newspaper, in Darlington in 1865.[3][5] He was editor in 1865 and the following year James H. Norwood was the editor. The paper was "devoted to the restoration, reconstruction, and union of the States".[5]

He served as delegate to the State constitutional convention in 1867 and was elected president of the Republican State executive board in 1867.[3] He was elected to the South Carolina Senate in 1868,[3] but resigned before the session to take a seat in Congress.[6] He served as delegate to the 1868 Republican National Convention. Upon the readmission of South Carolina to the Union, Whittemore was elected as a Republican to the Fortieth and Forty-first Congresses and served from July 18, 1868, to February 24, 1870, when he resigned[3] under the eminent threat of expulsion from the House.[7][8][9]

He was censured by the House of Representatives on February 24, 1870, for selling an appointment to the United States Naval Academy,[3] United States Military Academy at West Point,[10] and other military academies for up to $2,000 each appointment.[7] He presented credentials of a second election to the same Congress on June 18, 1870, but the House declined to allow him to take his seat.[3] Some of his constituents claimed that they had a right to vote in whoever they wanted, as long as they "met the constitutional qualifications of citizenship, age and residence." In response, Representative John A. Logan from Illinois stated that the House does have the right to reject a man of his character. "He is not merely a representative of the constituents who elect him, but his vote in this house is a vote for the whole nation. If Congress shall not have the power to exclude a man of that kind, then the rights of the people of the whole country may be destroyed."[7]

Whittemore was elected to the South Carolina senate on November 22, 1870. He served until 1877, when he resigned.[3][6]

Whittemore returned to Massachusetts, settling in Woburn where he was a publisher.[3]

Whittemore married Mandanna Dora (M. Dora) Stone, the daughter of George and Betsey Stone, on August 22, 1854, in Fitchburg, Massachusetts.[6][11] Mandanna taught at the Fitchburg High School.[12] They had two children.[13]

By 1860, Rev. B.F. Whittemore was a member of a masonic lodge in Connecticut.[14] He was initiated at the Hiram Lodge in Virginia in 1865 and transferred to the Mount Horeb Lodge in Woburn, Massachusetts on January 7, 1880.[15]

His wife M. Dora Stone Whittemmore died in Woburn on June 7, 1872, at the age of 65.[16] He died in Montvale, on January 25, 1894. He was interred in the Salem Street Cemetery in Woburn,[3] as was his wife Mandanna (also Mandana) Dora Stone.[6][11]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Benjamin Franklin Whittemore.

• List of United States representatives expelled, censured, or reprimanded

• Shepard, Christopher. "The Carpetbagging Congressman: The Corruption Case of Benjamin Whittemore." Carologue. 32 no. 2 (Fall 2016): 18-23.