John M. Whitall

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John Mickle Whitall
Born(1800-11-04)November 4, 1800
Woodbury, New Jersey, U.S.
DiedJune 6, 1877(1877-06-06) (aged 76)
Atlantic City, New Jersey, U.S.
OccupationBusinessman
SpouseMary Tatum
ChildrenHannah, Sarah, Mary, James

John Mickle Whitall (November 4, 1800 – June 6, 1877) was a prominent US sea captain, businessman and philanthropist in New Jersey and Pennsylvania involved in the spice and silk trade, glass-making, and missionary work.

Early years

Whitall was born in

capsized by a squall and demasted
, losing some of the sailors. At Calcutta, due to his good performance and ill health of one of the ship's officers, he was promoted to
spices
, were profitable for the owners and the ship's officers.

Career

Ship captain

In 1824, Whitall was contracted by Whitton Evans to oversee the construction of a new sailing ship, New Jersey, the largest

captain
. Upon returning to Philadelphia in 1829, Whitall found that the ship's owner Whitton Evans had died, and the ship was then sold.

Philadelphia businessman

With his savings from his life at sea, in 1829 Whitall entered into the dry goods business in

Friends Meeting
in Woodbury, New Jersey on November 5, 1830, and lived with his parents in Cemnter City Philadelphia but soon after found another residence nearby. He went into partnership for five years but found the dry goods business meager for his needs because he was accustomed to dealing with men on board ship and a little more excitement.

Being relatively uneducated and naive to the business world, Whitall attempted to deal in business honestly but found that some of his business clients had taken unfair advantage of him. Instead of attempting to secure further loans, Whitall in 1837 chose to sell out and settle with his creditors. He found that he could only settle his accounts at 75 cents per dollar. He paid this off in a period of 12 months and promised to pay the remaining 25% with interest, which he did successfully by 1850.

Glass business

In 1838, G.M. Haverstick, Whitall's brother in law, and his partner William Scattergood offered Whitall

telegraph
poles under the direction of IF Whitall and Edward Tatum and their descendants until 1938 when it was purchased by the Armstrong Cork Company.

Family

In 1850, after Whitall had paid off his debts, he and family moved to a new house they had built at 1317 Filbert Street,

Friends Meetings at their house and enjoyed inviting other summer residents to join them. In 1872, a Friends meeting house was built in Atlantic City which served well for many generations of Quakers. Whitall began speaking in Meeting from 1858 and continued this activity until near his death in 1877. Another summer residence, a farm complete with hay fields, orchard, and lake, was purchased in 1864 in Haddon Township, New Jersey, enjoyed by the whole family.[1]

Retirement and mission work

Whitall retired from the glass business in 1865 and was elected a manager of

Methodist Church
, where the First-Day School convened. The church was located on St. Mary's Street so the school was termed St. Mary's Street School. Over the following 10 years, attendance rose consistently. By 1871, there average attendance was 175. The attendance continued to increase and Whitall continued his oversight of the school until 1874, when he had a slight stroke and became weaker. In 1876, he was unable to continue and continued to weaken until his death in 1877.

References

  1. ^ White-Grear, Sandra. The Whitall-Van Sciver House" Archived 2012-03-21 at the Wayback Machine, Haddon Township Historical Society. Accessed March 24, 2011.

External links

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