Joseph W. Whiting, born September 4, 1864, in Springvale, Wisconsin, was a respected educator at the Springfield Normal School in Springfield, Bon Homme County, South Dakota. He graduated from the Wisconsin State Normal School at Oshkosh in 1887 and began his teaching career in Oconto, Wisconsin. Moving to South Dakota in 1888, Whiting served as principal of public schools in Springfield and Scotland. In 1897, he joined the faculty of the Springfield Normal School, where he earned recognition for his dedication and effective teaching methods. He married Luna B. Monfore in 1890, and they had one daughter, Madge Monfore Whiting, born in 1894.
Joseph W. Whiting, a member of the faculty of the Springfield Normal School, at Springfield, Bon Homme County, merits distinctive representation in this work as one of the able and popular educators of the state, where he has maintained his home for more than fifteen years past, the while gaining a high reputation in his chosen vocation.
Joseph Williams Whiting is a native of the state of Wisconsin, having been born in Springvale, Fond du Lac County, on the 4th of September, 1864, and being a son of Amos C. and Valucia Violant (Williams) Whiting. The father of the subject was a farmer by vocation and died May 7, 1900, while his widow’s death occurred on November 5, the same year. In the agnatic line Professor Whiting traces the direct ancestry back to Nathaniel Whiting, who settled in Lynn, Massachusetts, in 1638, while on the maternal side the lineage is traced to that historic figure, Roger Williams, the founder of the Rhode Island colony. In Romeo Elton’s history of the life of Roger Williams, published in 1853, the ancestral record shows blood relationship of the Williams family and that of Oliver Cromwell. The subject was reared under the sturdy discipline of the homestead farm, and after availing himself of the advantages afforded in the public schools he entered the Wisconsin State Normal School at Oshkosh, with a definite aim of preparing himself for the pedagogic profession. He completed a thorough course in this excellent institution, in which he was graduated as a member of the class of 1887. He began teaching immediately after his graduation, being thus engaged in the public schools at Oconto, Wisconsin, during the winter of 1887-8, while in the autumn of the latter year he came to Springfield, South Dakota, where he held the position of principal of the public schools for the ensuing two years, his efforts in the connection meeting with marked appreciation and approval. In 1891 he was elected principal of the high school at Scotland, Bon Homme County, and retained this incumbency two years, after which he returned to Springfield and accepted a clerical position in a local mercantile establishment. His tastes and training, however, were in the line of his previous endeavors and he was thus naturally led to resume teaching. In 1897 he was elected a member of the faculty of the Springfield Normal School, and in this capacity he has since continued to serve with marked efficiency, being one of the popular and enthusiastic instructors of the institution and having marked facility in begetting a similar spirit of enthusiasm and devotion in the students. So far as educational matters are involved Professor Whiting believes that they should be entirely segregated from politics if the best ends are to be conserved, but in local and national affairs of governmental order he accepts the faith of the Republican party and is a staunch advocate of its principles. With a deep reverence for the spiritual verities, Professor Whiting is tolerant and liberal in his religious views, contributing to the support of all churches and being personally associated principally with the Protestant Episcopal church, though he is not a communicant of the same. Fraternally he is identified with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, having been affiliated with Springfield Lodge, No. 107, since 1890; and with the Modern Woodmen of America, holding membership in Seneca Camp, No. 3053, in which he is at the present time incumbent of the office of clerk, having been identified with the organization since 1900.
In Springfield, on the 29th of March, 1890, Professor Whiting was united in marriage to Miss Luna B. Monfore, a daughter of Peter and Diana (Howland) Monfore, who settled in Springfield in 1871, having come hither from Iowa. It is supposed that the ancestry of the Monfores may be traced to Simon de Montfort, the founder of the English parliament. Mrs. Peter Monfore is a lineal descendant from one of the Howland brothers who came to the new world in the Mayflower and were closely associated with the history of Plymouth colony. The subject and his wife are the parents of a winsome little daughter, Madge Monfore Whiting, who was born in Springfield, on the 8th of February, 1894.
Source: Robinson, Doane, History of South Dakota: together with mention of Citizens of South Dakota, [Logansport? IN] : B. F. Bowen, 1904.