Whiting, John E.

Born: 1821-04-12 Vanderburgh County, Indiana

Died: 1866-10-20 Carmi, Illinois

John E. Whiting was a lawyer and military officer. After graduating Evansville High School in Indiana, he studied law in Lexington, Kentucky. After graduating law school he relocated to Carmi, Illinois, gained admittance to the bar, and began practicing law. In 1850, he owned $150 in real estate. Over the years, he shifted his political affiliation from the Whig Party to the American Party and the Republican Party. In 1852, delegates to the White County Whig Convention appointed him one of the county's delegates to the Illinois Whig Convention in Springfield, Illinois. In February 1855, he married Laura Buckner. They eventually had four children together, including a daughter who died in infancy. In the local elections of 1856, voters in White and Wabash counties elected him to the Illinois House of Representatives as a candidate for the American Party. By 1860, he owned $5,000 in real and personal property. During the Civil War, he commanded the Eighty-Seventh Illinois Infantry at the rank of colonel. He resigned on October 8, 1863, due to ill health. He later died after a brief bout of cholera.

History of White County Illinois (Chicago: Inter-State, 1883), 512-13; U.S. Census Office, Seventh Census of the United States (1850), Carmi, White County, IL, 269; Illinois Daily Journal (Springfield), 2 July 1852, 2:2; Illinois Statewide Marriage Index, White County, 2 February 1855, Illinois State Archives, Springfield, IL; Daily Illinois State Journal (Springfield), 5 January 1857, 2:2; U.S. Census Office, Eighth Census of the United States (1860), White County, IL, 182; Illinois Civil War Muster and Descriptive Rolls, Illinois State Archives, Springfield, IL; Gravestone, The Old Graveyard, Carmi, IL.