Another Bay Area Whipple Exit

Two years ago, the post entitled “Who Is Willard Whipple?” referred to the Whipple Avenue exit on U.S. Highway 101 south of San Francisco, on the west side of San Francisco Bay. Numbered 409, the led to Redwood City in San Mateo County.

Further study found another Whipple exit, across San Francisco Bay from Whipple Avenue. On the east side of the Bay, Interstate 880’s Whipple Road exit 24 leads to Union City.

Union City exit to Whipple Road on I-880

Because of its proximity to Redwood City (across the Bay), I initially imagined that Whipple Road might have been named after Willard Whipple.

It turns out that Whipple Road was named after three brothers who farmed on the Union City (east) side of the Bay:

The three were among the 13 children of Samuel  Whipple and Phoebe Cleveland, both of whom were born in Duanesburg, Schenectady County, New York. Unlike the brothers Willard and Eli from Redwood City (who descended from Captain John Whipple of Providence, Rhode Island), Samuel descended from Matthew Whipple (brother of John) who migrated from Bocking, England, to Ipswich, Massachusetts in 1838.

John Cleveland Whipple and Edwin Whipple lived out their lives in California.  (The San Francisco Chronicle, for example, reported John’s death date as 28 Aug 1905.) Their brother William married in San Francisco county, then returned to New York, where he died.

John Adams Whipple, Photographic Pioneer

I was recently made aware of a page at the Historic Camera web site about John Adams Whipple (1822-1891) who pioneered photography in America during the 19th Century. He was the “first in the United States to take up the manufacture of chemicals that were used in the daguerreotype process.” He became the “most successful portrait photographer in Boston, with buildings and historical monuments his specialty.”

We hope you enjoy reading about John.

 

Who’s your daddy? Don’t ask a DNA test

Mater certissima est – the mother is always certain.

The Facebook group of the Guild of One-Name Studies posted a link to an article by Nara Milanich entitled “Who’s your daddy? Don’t ask a DNA test.” It raises interesting questions about parentage. What is a father? Is biology the only way of determining who someone’s father is?

How many of the fathers listed in the Whipple One-Name Study database (https://whipple.one-name.net/tng) are biological?

What do you think? Take a look at https://bigthink.com/health/fathers-dna-test/