BABCOCK - WHITNEY
 

A fascinating book entitled "Farmboy" has been written and published by
John Babcock, formerly a Duncan Hines executive, who lives in his
hometown of Ithaca, New York.  John Babcock is the son of the eminent
agronomist, nutritionist, and long-time Chairman of Cornell University's
Board of Governors, H. E. Babcock.  H. E. Babcock was a direct
descendant of Fanny Whitney and Worden Babcock.  His farm-estate at
Sunnygables, four miles out of Ithaca, served as a ventable experimental
farm for the whole North-Eastern United States.  H. E. Babcock and
Sunnygables were at the cutting edge of many of the improvements in
American agriculture.  H. E. was a close friend of the "gang-buster",
New York State Attorney-General, Thomas Dewey.  When Governor Dewey ran
for President of the United States in l948, H. E. Babcock was picked as
Secretary of Agriculture in Governor Dewey's shadow cabinet.   Alas!  It
was not to be!  H. E. Babcock was the founder of G.L.F., the Grange
League Federation, now called Agway, the largest Agricultural
Cooperative in the United States.  My father-in-law, John Henry Heslop,
H. E.'s first cousin, and also a direct descendant of Fanny Whitney and
Worden Babcock, was for many years foreman and general overseer of the
many-faceted agricultural operations carried on at Sunnygables.  A
perusal of the obituary articles in various newspapers and agricultural
journals on the occasion of H. E.'s untimely death in l950, at the
relatively early age of 6l gives some idea of the vast contribution of
H. E. Babcock to agriculture in the North-Eastern United States, and,
indeed, in the United States as a whole.  I met H. E.'s widow, Hilda
Butler Babcock, at my father-in-law's home in Newfield, New York in
about l959 or l960.  She recalled attending an agricultural conference
in my home-town of Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, a conference at which H.
E. Babcock was an honored guest and keynote speaker.  The University of
Manitoba, from whose English Department I am retired, has a very large
and active Faculty of Agriculture.  I have yet to meet a professor of
that faculty who has not heard of H. E. Babcock and his work.  John
Butler Babcock's book would be interesting for any member of the
far-flung and numerous Whitney clan, as yet another example of the
Whitney gene pool's contribution to American culture, taken in the broad
sense of that word's meaning.  The book costs $2l.95 plus tax from the
DeWitt Historical Society of Tompkins County, Ithaca, N. Y., l4850

Another fascinating book is "The Whitneys"  (an informal portrait l635 -
l975) by Edwin P. Hoyt in your local library system.  Be sure and read
the chapter of "The Man Who Knew the Secret of the North Pole".