Oscar Uberto Whitford was born May 12, 1837, in the town of Plainfield, N. Y., two and one-half miles from the village of Leonardsville. His parents were Clark Whitford and Harriet Clarke; one a grandson of Joshua Whitford, a veteran of the War of the Revolution, who removed from Stonington, Conn., to Berlin, N. Y., the other a daughter of Joseph Clarke of Plainfield, N. Y., a descendant of Joseph Clarke of Westerly, R. I.
At an early age the subject of this sketch manifested a fondness for study, and became ambitious for better educational advantages than the limited income of his parents could afford him. To this end, at the age of eighteen, he became a teacher in the public schools near his father's home and thereby acquired means to begin his studies for a higher education. At first he pursued these studies in DeRuyter Institute, DeRuyter, N. Y. In the fall of 1858, he entered as a student Milton Academy, Milton, Wis., whose principal was Rev. W. C. Whitford, a first cousin on both his father's and mother's side. Here he continued his studies for three years, largely supporting himself by manual labor.
Upon leaving Milton Academy he contemplated finishing his collegiate studies in Union College, Schenectady, N. Y., which he had made preparations to enter at an advanced standing, but, out of a sense of duty and loyalty towards a school of his own denomination, he finally concluded to finish these studies in Alfred University, at that time under the presidency of its founder, Rev. Wm. C. Kenyon, a teacher whose enthusiasm and masterfulness could rarely be found. Two years later, in 1863, Mr. Whitford graduated from the classical course of study with the degree of Bachelor of arts. During these some half-dozen years of study in secondary schools, he had maintained a fair standing in scholarship in comparison with his classmates, sometimes leading them, especially in his technical knowledge of the Latin and Greek languages. What was of importance as far as it concerned his future avocation in life was he had reached a clearer conception of his own limitations and possibilities and a need of more intensive culture and a more comprehensive grasp of such problems as might be his to solve.
In the meantime the avocation of a teacher was open to him and was a convenience if not a necessity in acquiring funds to assist him in his better preparation for his life's work. So he concluded to accept the principalship of Union Academy, of Shiloh, N. J. Before entering this field of labor he was united in marriage, August 18, 1863, to Euphemia Allen, a daughter of Joseph Allen and his wife, Phebe Maxson, of Nile, Allegany county, N. Y. The two removed directly to Shiloh and there, for the next six years, labored together for the intellectual culture and moral and religious uplift of the young people of that and neighboring communities. More than three hundred earnest, active, and bright students came within the sphere of their inspiring influence and became better citizens, more successful in business, in their professional labors, because of the excellent educational advantages they enjoyed during these six years at Union Academy.
Mr. Whitford professed conversion in his youth under the labors of Rev. C. M. Lewis, and became a member of the First Seventh-day Baptist Church of Brookfield, at Leonardsville, N. Y. Subsequently, while an undergraduate, he began to cherish a desire of entering the gospel ministry and a few times exercised his gift for preaching, in religious meetings. He occasionally continued this practice while teaching at Shiloh. After six years' service as principal of Union Academy, he concluded that the time was ripe for entering more fully upon the vocation for which he felt he had a divine call, and towards which his aspirations had been directed for years. So he accepted an invitation of the Missionary Society to labor among the feeble churches of the Western Association that were without settled pastors.
After a year spent in this service, a way was opened for him to make a better preparation for his sacred calling. Deacon I. D. Titsworth, of Dunellen, N. J., offered him and his wife a home in his family while taking courses of study in Union Theological Seminary in New York. For two years they enjoyed his generous hospitality until Mr. Whitford's graduation, in May, 1872. During this time, as opportunities were offered, he ministered to neighboring churches.
His first pastorate was in Farina, Ill., to which place he removed his family soon after graduation from the Seminary. Here he was ordained for the gospel ministry in July of the same year. He remained in this charge nearly five years. In an extensive revival during the last year he had the blessed privilege of baptism to twenty-five candidates at one time and to others later.
His second pastorate was at Walworth, Wis., beginning in April, 1877, and ending in the Autumn of 1882. During this period he also was ministerial supply, for two years, of the Congregational Church at Sharon, Wis., which then was without a pastor. He also was an instructor during the winter term of 1877-8 in Milton College, at the time when President Wm. C. Whitford left the school to enter upon his duties as Superintendent of Public Instruction. In the last year or two of his pastorate at Walworth, he united with the other pastors of the Seventh-day Baptist churches of southern Wisconsin in supplying the Sabbath-keepers of Chicago with preaching, taking his turn once a month.
In September, 1882, he again entered into the employment of the Seventh-day Baptist Missionary Society, accepting their call to become their missionary to the churches of the Northwestern Association, with headquarters at Chicago. In this city, he then organized a church of twelve constituent members, who held their services in the rooms of the Pacific Garden Mission, instituted and supported by Colonel George R. Clarke, and who were his faithful and loyal co-workers in his endeavors to rescue the drunkard and the fallen of the slums of that quarter.
Mr. Whitford's third and last pastorate was with the church at Westerly, R. I., where he remained seven years. At the end of this pastorate he again assumed the duties of missionary to the churches of the Northwestern Association and located his family in Milton, Wis., to give his son and daughter better opportunities for an education. After two years in this service, October 1, 1893, he accepted the position of Corresponding Secretary of the Missionary Society and, to better meet the responsibilities of this important office, he again made Westerly, R. I., his home.
The duties of Corresponding Secretary required him to have an oversight of the missionary operations in both the home and foreign field, and also to keep in close touch with all the churches of the denomination, so as to enlist their support and cooperation in all the benevolent enterprises of the society. In fulfilling these duties he was accustomed to traverse all of the associations, visiting especially the feeble churches needing pecuniary aid, counseling them in their choice of pastors, and locating the fields of the evangelists of traveling ministers where there seemed the promise of the greatest good. Mr. Whitford gave the twelve remaining years of his life to the duties of this office with untiring zeal, with a faith that never faltered, and with a wisdom and discretion that disarmed criticism.
It was his privilege to attend the annual Conference of 1905, held in Shiloh, N. J., the place of his labors as a teacher thirty-six years before. He seized the opportunity to call together his old students and to extend to them his fraternal grasp of hand and to congratulate them on their success in life. It was a great delight and comfort to him to hear their kind words of grateful memories and their interest in his long, laborious, and successful career.
He returned home to Westerly, saw to it that his manuscript annual report of the Missionary Society was ready for the press, arranged with Board many matters of business pertaining to the conduct of its affairs, and then started for his Western tour of inspection and visitation of the churches, hoping to see, on his way, the infant first-born child of his daughter living in Milton, Wis. He stopped off at Andover, N. Y., to attend the quarterly meeting of the churches of the Western Association held in that place, and after attesting his Christian faith in his usual clear and vigorous style, on the evening of October 27, 1905, retired to rest at the house of a relative. In the morning he was found asleep. It was a fitting death. He died with harness on.
His remains were brought back to Westerly where appropriate and impressive services were held, and he was laid to rest in River Bend Cemetery, Nov. 1, 1905.
