George W. Whitman

biography

George W. Whitman, was born at Middletown, Dauphin county, Pennsylvania, September 17th, 1848. At the age of fourteen he went to Harrisburg, to learn the printer's trade on the Daily Patriot, and from his seventeenth to his nineteenth year, worked with his brother, Benjamin Whitman, on the Erie Observer, in Erie. At the expiration of this time he went to the academy at Lewisburg, Penn'a. He then entered the college at the same place and graduated, June 26th, 1872. This was followed by a two-years course in Crozer Theological Seminary, graduating May 21st, 1874, working during vacations at his trade. Immediately after graduation, he became pastor of the Baptist Church at Oil City, where he remained nearly five years; beginning the pastorate of the Meadville church, April 5th, 1879.

During the early days of the rebellion, his home was in Middletown, near Harrrisburg, a centre of military activity, and becoming fired with the spirit of the times, he ran away and joined the 6th Pennsylvania Reserves, and was in camp two weeks, when he was taken home by his father, as he was much under age. While in Harrisburg, he joined the emergency men, and served in and about the city during Lee's invasion.

He was married at Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, May 4th, 1875, to Miss Candace Diffenderfer.

Directory of Crawford County, 1879-80, page 255