258 Charles Whittlesey. — A. Winchell. 
Tallmadge, Ohio in 1842, after spending twenty-nine laborious 
and adventurous years in laying the foundations of that civili- 
zation of which Ohio is so justly proud to-day, after the lapse 
of three-quarters of a century. He served his fellow-citizens 
as justice of the peace and postmaster, from the date of his 
arrival in Ohio to nearly the close of his life. Asaph was 
brother of honorable Elisha Whittlesey, a lawyer of Canfield, 
Ohio, ensign of a military company in 1808, and soon after 
oaptain ; a soldier in the war of 1812, rising to the rank of 
brigade major and inspector, and serving eight terms as 
member of congress, and for many years first comptroller of 
the national treasury. 
The stern and rugged virtue and intelligence of the father 
blended with the refinement and high ideals of the mother in 
the character of the son Charles. Reared in the American 
wilderness, seldom with a full sense of security from murder- 
ous savages, pressed daily by the relentless necessity of con- 
tributing as he might to the earning of the family's livelihood, 
Charles still possessed the industry and the aptitude requisite 
for securing early headway in a thorough education. At four 
years of age he began school at Southington ; at five he sat in 
the log school-house at Tallmadge ; at eleven he entered the 
newly completed academy, working on the farm in the sum- 
mer until he was nineteen. At this age he became a cadet at 
West Point. Graduating in 1831, he became brevet second 
lieutenant in the fifth United States infantry, and in No- 
vember started to join his regiment at Mackinac. He was 
detained for a winter's duty, however, at Fort Gratoit, and in 
the spring was assigned to the post at Green Bay. Resigning 
from the army at the close of the Black Hawk war, he opened 
a law office in Cleveland, and became part owner and co-editor 
of the Whig and Herald, until 1837. Public interest in geo- 
logical surveys was now rapidly rising ; and colonel Whittle- 
sey had lent his influence as a journalist, to the dissemination 
of public interest in Ohio. Professor William W. Mather was 
placed in charge of the survey in that state, and among others 
associated with him was colonel Whittlesey, who was assigned 
to duty as topographer, geographer, and structural geologist. 
The survey, however, ceased to exist at the end of two years, 
and thus began that wasteful no-policy which the government 
of incompetency has since pursued in so many states. The 
