Roscoe Leighton Whitman

By Betty W. Acker, SSWDA Historian, 2000

We have Roscoe Whitman to thank for our family society as we know it today. He was instrumental in founding the Society of Stukely Westcott Descendants of America on January 13, 1934. There were 116 charter members. In an early letter from Ethel Clarke we find the comment, “Our bylaws are ridiculously long and complicated for our little organization.” But, 66 years later the “little organization” is stronger than ever.

Roscoe L. Whitman was born in West Oneonta, New York on September 25, 1869, the son of Henry Cutler and Zilpha Abigail (Westcott) Whitman. Roscoe was a descendant of Stukely and Juliana Westcott in the tenth generation: Roscoe Whitman¹⁰, Zilpha Abigail (Wescott) Whitman⁹, Hamilton Wescott⁸, Reuben Jr.⁷, Reuben⁶, Stukely ⁵, Stukely⁴, Stukely³, Jeremiah², Stukely¹.

Whitman was married in Amsterdam, New York on July 18, 1894 to Susan Felthousen Kline. They had one daughter, Dorothy. She married first Edmund Stites Morris and then Adelbert Niles Potter.

Whitman’s professional life was in advertising. He established the Whitman Advertisers Service in 1907; he closed the firm at the request of James Cash Penney and became the first Advertising Director of JCPenney, retiring in 1929.

In 1932, he was the author of History and Genealogy of the Ancestors and Some Descendants of Stukely Westcott. In 1939 he published Volume II of the Westcott genealogy. He built on the family genealogy published earlier by J. Russell Bullock. He was Registrar, Historian and Editor of our society newsletter.

Roscoe Whitman was quite a writer and we have copies of the speeches that he gave at all the early society meetings. In 1939 he was honored with a “Certificate of Merit in Genealogy” and he was elected as a “fellow” of the Institute of American Genealogy.

Roscoe L. Whitman died in Westfield, New Jersey on September 3, 1955 and is buried beside his wife, Susan, at Westfield, New Jersey.

Read a tribute in verse to Roscoe Whitman by written by Lulu W. Bergen-Fowler in 1941: To a Friend and Kinsman

My Boyhood Home

The following is an excerpt from “My Boyhood Home” by Roscoe L. Whitman. This installment was written on “My 68th birthday, September 25, 1937.”

There were many other incidents in my boyhood on this old farm, but probably my life there was no different than that of the average boy­ — even to the extent of making every possible maneuver to keep out of school, which oh, so many times, I have since recognized as the greatest and most costly mistake of my whole life.

Unlike the children of today, I was not brought up in rompers and play-suits, but in gingham dresses with long curls hanging down my back. At four years of age, I had my first knickerbocker suit – tan with black bindings – but it was not until I was first sent to school in September 1875 that my mother permitted cutting off the curls. These curls were preserved many years in a glass-top box, but in the course of the many changes of family life, the box was lost.

The one-story-and-a-half frame house, painted white, was a typical old fashioned, comparatively small farm home. The main building was about 40-feet square to which was a good-sized kitchen and pantry added in the rear. In the kitchen was running water from a spring on the hill some fifty yards in the rear of the tenant house across the road. In the rear of the kitchen, my father built a woodshed about 1873. I recall the year, for my parents on many occasions, told of when I was three years old, father had the framework up for the woodshed. I had climbed a ladder and crawled out on one of the beams which was some ten feet above the ground. There I was discovered by my mother who did not dare to call him, but went into the kitchen, told my father of my danger and promptly fainted. While the hired girl was bringing my mother back to consciousness, my father went to the wood shed and instead of shouting at me, which if he had done so, might have caused me to fall, laughed and encouraged me, but at the same time, he was mounting that ladder and out on the beam to grab me. I was too young to remember what happened later, but I imagine I received what usually happens to venturesome boys.

In the Westcott Society Collection

There are two copies of Volume I of Whitman’s Westcott Genealogy in the Westcott Society Collection. Here is their description: Whitman, Roscoe L. History and Genealogy of the Ancestors and Some Descendants of Stukely Westcott. Oneonta, New York: Otsego Publishing Company, 1932 [publisher based on the prospectus; publisher not imprinted in the volume]. 7″ by 10″. Hardbound. 436 pages.

No. 80: Inscribed on a front flyleaf: “This Book, No. 80, has been reserved for a ‘Working Copy,’ in which to record any detected errors in the text, and also to record such additional records as from time to time, may become available. /s/ Roscoe L. Whitman. February 10, 1933.” The book is heavily annotated in both pen and pencil, presumably by the author. This book is in relatively good condition given that it was the author’s working copy. There are a few loose signatures.

No. 183: Fair condition, wear and tear on the cover, some breaks in the binding, not heavily annotated. Inscribed on a front flyleaf: “Vol. I This Genealogy belongs to the National Society of Stukely Westcott Descendants of America.” Then in a different pen: “To be used by the Sec or Registrar and passed on to each said officer in turn.”

There is one copy (No. 154) of the second volume: Whitman, Roscoe. Volume II Book of Appendices to the History and Genealogy of the Ancestors and Some Descendants of Stukely Westcott. Oneonta, New York: Otsego Publishing Company, 1939. [Presumed publisher; not imprinted in the book.] This 7″ by 10″ hardbound book with 438 pages is in poor condition: wear and tear on the cover, damaged binding, some signatures hanging by a thread. It has a moderate number of annotations in pen and pencil.

Volume II expands the family history and makes numerous corrections and additions to the genealogical record. Perhaps the most important update is proving that Juliana Marchant was the only wife of Stukely and the mother of their six children.

Inscribed on a front fly leaf of No. 154: “Vol. 2 This Genealogy belongs to the National Society of Stukely Westcott Descendants of America.” Then in a different pen: “To be used by the Sec or Registrar and passed on to each said officer in turn.”

In addition to the two volumes of the genealogy, Roscoe Whitman kept the Westcott cousins in the know as he gathered more (and corrected) information about Stukely, Juliana and their descendants, using the Quarterly, addresses at SSWDA meetings, and “Westcott Genealogical Bulletins.” The Westcott Society Collection has several folders of his writings and research including: “File of the Westcott Genealogical Bulletins, Beginning with the first number — March, 1940.” This collection is Roscoe Whitman’s own file as noted on the cover: “This was Mr. Whitman’s folio of data. Do not destroy!” March 1940 to March 1949, updates and request for ancestry information; 8½”  by 11″ typewritten sheets (singled space with small margins – he never wasted paper), bound in a Dou-Tang folder, yellowed paper, with a page of updates to the genealogy in August 1935.