Pardon Augustus Whitney was born around June 1843 in Woodstock, Vermont, to Aaron and Harriet Whitney. His father was a master machinist who owned $1,000 of real estate and $300 of personal property by 1860. Whitney grew up and attended school in Woodstock, and by 1860, he was also working as a machinist.

 

He enlisted in the Union army on August 7, 1862, and he mustered in as a private in Company C of the 6^th Vermont Infantry on September 30, 1862. The regiment took part in the Battle of Fredericksburg, the Battle of Chancellorsville, the Battle of Gettysburg, the Overland Campaign, and the siege of Petersburg. He was promoted to corporal on May 20, 1864, and to sergeant on October 16, 1864. He mustered out on June 19, 1865.

 

Whitney settled in Westampton, New Jersey, after the war, and he resumed his work as a machinist. He married Julia N. Douglass on October 2, 1870, and the couple had at least three children: Jennie, born around 1872; Mabel, born around 1875; and Mary, born around 1878. They probably moved to Connecticut in the 1870s, and by 1880, they were living in Cleveland, Ohio. By 1880, Whitney was working as a superintendent in a hardware shop. He reportedly received “nearly fifty patents” from the United States Patent Office.

 

They moved to Southington, Connecticut, in the late 1800s. Whitney applied for a federal pension in September 1905 and eventually received one. They moved to Fresno, California, around 1907, and his wife died the following year. Whitney died in Fresno on December 30, 1916.

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