Herbert Lincoln Whiteman

Herbert Lincoln Whiteman was born on November 16, 1862, in a log cabin on a farm in Seneca County, Ohio, and died on January 25, 1962, at his home in Liberty Township in Henry County, Ohio. At age 14 he came to Henry County, where his pioneer parents John P. and Martha Petticord Whiteman had purchased a farm in Liberty Township, Section 15. On his way to Henry County, he rode with the driver of a wagon who stopped at too many taverns, became intoxicated, and fell off the wagon and broke his arm in the fall. Young Herb took the lines and drove the remainder of the trip. By the time they found a doctor he ordered applications of kerosene and hot water to reduce the swelling in the arm.

Herb Whiteman, the eldest Whiteman child in a family of eight children, was always greatly depended upon by his parents and his younger brothers and sisters. As a young man he assumed considerable responsibility on the farm and in the tile and brick yard located on the farm which the family built and operated. In young manhood, he joined the Liberty Chapel United Brethren Church near his home. On one occasion, when his assistance was sought for certain work in the neighborhood, he replied that he would do the work provided that he could have Wednesday evenings off to attend prayer meeting. For many years he taught Sunday School classes in that church.

On October 18, 1891, he married Margaret Estella Bonnell. To this union were born four children: Norma, Marjorie, Helen, and Gertrude. He was a kindly father, thoughtful, religious, and interested in the education of his daughters. H. L. Whiteman and his wife succeeded to the Jacob T. Bonnell farm in Section 16 of Liberty Township, where members of the family still live. His "door-yard," as he called it, surrounding his farm home evidenced his artistic temperament.

H. L. Whiteman of Liberty Twp.

H. L. Whiteman was an outstanding farmer, citizen, and community leader. In 1920, he became the first president of the then newly organized Henry County Tuberculosis Eradication League. The organization set out to test all dairy cattle in the county for this disease and to get rid of such diseased cattle. It took five years to accomplish this and Henry County, in 1925, became the first county in Ohio to be free of tuberculosis in cattle. He was an early breeder of Holstein cattle and built the first silo in the area. He helped organize the Henry County Farm Bureau in 1919 and was a board member and county president. He was a member of the County Health Board for many years. He helped bring M. L. Howell to the county as its first county agent and was active in having Howard Bond chosen as a successor. He was a member of the Liberty Township School Board as early as 1901 and later a member of the Liberty Center School Board which consolidated the township and village schools into the Liberty Center School System. He took the initiative in establishing the first Smith-Hughes agricultural department in that school in 1922. He was later made an honorary member of the school's F.F.A. Chapter. He was active and many times a leader in many projects instituted for the youth of the county.

He helped organize the Northwestern Cooperative Sales Association for milk producers in the Toledo area, and served for many years as president of its board of directors. At the time of his resignation in 1935, the Board of Directors adopted a Resolution containing "the following expressions of appreciation: 1. In his long tenure of office as Director, covering the whole life of the Association with the exception of one short period of two years, it is our firm belief that Mr. Whiteman has rendered a type of conscientious service to the dairy interests of this section, to the state of Ohio, and to the cause of Cooperative Marketing generally, not often equalled in the history of this great movement. 2. His good judgment, fine leadership, loyalty to the cause, and willingness to make any sacrifices necessary to advance it, have proven to be an inspiration to all those who have been associated with him.

His counsel, his clear thinking, and his eminent fairness will be greatly missed by all those with whom he has worked most closely."

THE COOPERATIVE DAIRY FARMER (vol. 14, no. 11, July 1935, page 1) summarized: "H. L. Whiteman, Liberty Center, Ohio . . . for more than forty years has occupied a position of real leadership in his community.

"Besides serving as Director of the Northwestern Cooperative Sales Association almost continuously since its creation, he has led the way, with others in his county in crop improvement, livestock improvement, farm practice improvement, better schools, better health, club work and many other worthy projects.

"His farm and home in Liberty Township show the result of the application of industry and intelligence to the farming business."

Subsequently, on January 31, 1939, during Farmers' Week at Ohio State University, College of Agriculture, H. L. Whiteman, along with three other Ohio Farmers, was presented the 1938 "Master Farmer Award" with gold medal, conferred annually (beginning in the 1920s) by the "Ohio Farmer" to Ohio's most distinguished agriculturalists.

Submitted by Marjorie Whiteman

From The Congressional Record, Proceedings And Debates Of The 91st Congress, Second Session, Washington, Thursday, May 28, 1970, House of Representatives:

MARJORIE WHITEMAN

Mr. ADAIR. Mr. Speaker, It has come to my attention that a distinguished international lawyer and a truly remarkable woman, Marjorie Whiteman, has just retired from the Department of State after 41 years of outstanding service.

Her contributions not only to the field of international law but to the conduct of foreign policy are of such a special nature that they deserve recognition by the Members of the Congress.

In 1929, when the U.S. Government was confronted with a difficult claims settlement involving substantial sums of money, the Solicitor of the Department of State, Green H. Hackworth, learned of a highly specialized legal study of international claims and State responsibility undertaken by Marjorie Whiteman, then a young graduate of the Yale Law School. She was hired the next day - an event which spearheaded a widening train of development in international law with significant effects on U.S. foreign policy for the next 41 years.

Not only has the U.S. Government been saved vast sums of money in claims settlements as a result of Marjorie Whiteman's pioneering and scholarly research in the original archives of this Government, but her study, a three-volume work entitled "Damages in International Law" is still regarded as the most definitive treatment of this subject, never having been superseded.

Marjorie Whiteman's capabilities were early recognized, as successive Secretaries of State from Cordell Hull to Dean Rusk repeatedly requested her inclusion among the U.S. delegation at international conferences where she proved of indispensable worth.

At the Inter-American Conference for Maintenance of Peace, Buenos Aires in 1936, Miss Whiteman originated and formulated the unique concept of consultation for the inter- American system. This legal concept has since developed into the vital machinery which has consistently been invoked by the American states in efforts to check the Communist   subversion and aggression unleashed in Latin America throughout the 1950's and 1960's.

Dean Rusk, as Secretary of State, receiving the first copy of volume I of her Digest of International Law from Majorie M. Whiteman.

A recorded tribute to her value at these conferences occurred in 1948. After having been evacuated from Bogota in the heat of the 1948 revolution, she was summoned to return immediately by Secretary of State Marshall who, along with a part of the U.S. delegation remaining behind, had been separated from the U.S. position papers for the drafting of the OAS charter. Through her skill as a lawyer, enhanced by her characteristically consistent and careful preparation of U.S. positions, she was able to render the assistance necessary for the completion of the OAS charter.

Assigned in 1958 to the Law of the Sea Conference at Geneva, Miss Whiteman was commended by Arthur Dean, Chairman of the U.S. delegation, not only for her ability as a lawyer but for her skill as a negotiator in successfully securing the signatures of other states to the Continental Shelf Convention.

These are but a few of the highlights of a dedicated career in the pursuit of law in which her excellence and brilliance contributed to still other major events of our history such as the drafting of the United Nations Charter, the Declaration of Human Rights, and the numerous Inter-American Conferences and Meetings of Consultation of Foreign Ministers of American States.

As Assistant Legal Adviser for American Republic Affairs from 1950-65, Miss Whiteman achieved one of the most successful and valued lawyer- client relationships on record. Her clients, the Bureau of American Republics Affairs, in 1958 took the initiative in nominating her for the National Civil Service League Award, which she won. At that time, she was commended for her valuable service to both the Department of State and that Bureau. Her particular value and effectiveness as a consultant was attributed by the Bureau not only to "her thorough knowledge of the law" but also to "her keen insight into political aspects of any given problem."

In addition to Miss Whiteman's three volume work, "Damages in International Law," she has authored numerous studies, some published as articles in leading law journals, but many which remain unpublished because classified or of particular application only to the U.S. Government. Miss Whiteman was a major contributor to the eight-volume Hackworth "Digest of International Law."

Miss Whiteman's career, thus combining the ideal attributes of an experienced practitioner and distinguished scholar and publicist of international law, culminated in her assignment to compile, edit, and direct the publication of a new digest of international law, carrying on a tradition of the Department of State dating from 1877. Miss Whiteman formally began work on the digest in 1957 and carried this work simultaneously with her duties as legal adviser for the Bureau of American Republic Affairs until 1965 when she devoted full time to the digest in the capacity of assistant legal adviser and counselor on international law.

Working alone for 2 years, Miss Whiteman's research reflected from the outset her vision of the unprecedented broad scope which characterizes the content of this 15 volume "Digest of International Law" - a record of the practice of international law and the application of its principles throughout the past 25 years by the nations of the world. This distinguishing feature has been uniformly acclaimed by the eminent scholars and jurists of international law who have reviewed the Whiteman digest. In the words of one British jurist, this inclusion of the practice of other governments -

Makes it of even greater value to those in other countries whose daily work requires them to apply the principles and rules of international law to existing facts.

Secretary of State Rusk, upon receiving the first volume of the Whiteman Digest of International Law in July 1963, stated:

This volume and the ones to come, will fill an important gap in the legal materials available to the United States Government, to the Bar and to the public in this country, and to Governments and scholars throughout the world. We are grateful to you, Miss Whiteman, for undertaking the preparation of the Digest of International Law, and for the intensive work you have done and have directed over several years, to see the task through to completion…

The American Society of International Law, bestowing its 1965 Annual Award upon Miss Whiteman, commented:

In it [the first three volumes of the Whiteman Digest] Miss Whiteman, Assistant Legal Adviser of the Department of State, has brought together published sources and manuscript archives showing the practice of the United States, judicial decisions on international law (from American, foreign, and international courts), pertinent documentation of international organizations, and relevant extracts from American and foreign books and articles. She has diligently ferreted out material, selected and compressed it with skill, and synthesized the whole in a manner which tells the story of contemporary international law as viewed by an active participant who is at the same time an erudite and objective scholar. The reader will note an emphasis less peculiarly American, and more truly international in approach and scope, than in the earlier Digests issued by our Government.

All of us concerned with, or interested in, international law - whether as student, teacher, scholar, lawyer, social scientist, practitioner of foreign relations, or citizen seeking to become informed about the world in which we live - will find these volumes invaluable.

In commending the Whiteman Digest of International Law as a "most valuable service to the international community" and "as without parallel and unrivaled in its utility to international lawyer," reviewers, both domestic and foreign, have without exception lauded the author variously, in terms of her "breadth of experience," "judicious selection of right quotations," "appreciation of the significant trends in international law today," "prodigious labour," "intelligence," "unexcelled scholarship" and "admirable dedication."

In 1966, Miss Whiteman was awarded the Department of State's distinguished Honor Award which cited her -

For signal achievement in the compilation and editing of her masterful "Digest of International Law," the first five volumes of which are already widely acclaimed and used throughout the world; for many other outstanding achievements in nearly four decades of dedicated service, such as the drafting of the Charter of the Organization of American States and the Rio Pact; and for her vision, intellectual integrity, and achievement for world-wide recognition as an authority on international law.

At her retirement reception on March 30, 1970, the present legal adviser, John R. Stevenson, read the following excerpt from a letter written by Herman Phleger, the legal adviser who launched Miss Whiteman in the writing of the Digest of International Law:

Marjorie is unique. She has great intellectual endowments, is untiring in her work of scholarship, is unmatched in her dedication to public service, and with it all is modest and unassuming, and bears her honors lightly. She has made a major contribution to the progress of international law in her Digest of International Law.

Through a lifetime of dedicated service distinguished by sustained excellence, Miss Whiteman has reached the acme of an individual's contribution to the American commitment of Government under law in presenting to the world the Whiteman Digest of International Law. As a result, the United States has been credited with having taken the lead in advancing the development of international law.