The Whitson and Rakestraw families were prominent in Pennsylvania’s Lancaster and Chester counties during the 18th and 19th centuries. Both families were well-established in their local communities and were significantly involved in education, Quaker Meetings, and agriculture. They were related to other noteworthy local families, such as the Bushong and Houston families.

The Whitson and Rakestraw families were well-known for their support of progressive causes such as abolition and women’s education. Thomas Whitson V (1796-1864) and Martha Hobson Whitson (1800-1887) were particularly involved in abolitionist activism. Their home was a station on the Underground Railroad, and Thomas Whitson V attended the 1833 founding convention of the American Anti-Slavery Society in Philadelphia.

Theodore Whitson (1840-1899), the son of Thomas Whitson V (1796-1864) and Martha Hobson Whitson (1800-1887), was born on February 12, 1840, into a Quaker family whose Lancaster County home served as a station on the Underground Railroad. Whitson attended Millersville State Normal School from 1857 to 1858. On August 11, 1862, he enlisted in Company E of the 122nd Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry Regiment, which was involved in the Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville campaigns. The 122nd PA Regiment was mustered out on May 15 and 16, 1863, and Theodore returned home to Lancaster County. On January 26, 1865, he married Eliza Rakestraw Whitson (1840-1921). For much of his life, Theodore Whitson was a farmer in the Chester County communities of Kennett, Homeville, and Atglen. As his health declined in the early 1890s, the family moved to Atglen, PA, where Whitson operated a nursery business, growing primarily flowers. He died in Atglen on January 5, 1899.

Eliza Rakestraw Whitson (1840-1921), the daughter of Abraham Rakestraw (1799-1874) and Lydia Bushong Rakestraw (1807-1885), was born on December 6, 1840. She attended Millersville State Normal School from 1857 to 1858 before teaching for a few years prior to her marriage in 1865. In addition to raising a family, Rakestraw Whitson wrote poetry and literary compositions, several of which were published in the Lancaster newspaper. After Theodore Whitson's death in 1899, she sold her home in Atglen, PA, and moved to Ithaca, NY, where her daughter, Martha Whitson Fetter (1868-1954), was then living. For the remainder of her life, she lived with, or near, her married daughters, spending time in both Ithaca and in Princeton, NJ. Eliza Rakestraw Whitson died in August 1921.

Theodore Whitson (1840-1899) and Eliza Rakestraw Whitson (1840-1921) had seven children, five of whom survived to adulthood. Their second son, Edward Whitson (1870-1871), died in infancy, while the fourth son, Thomas Theodore Whitson (1875-1890), died of diphtheria at the age of 14 in 1890.

Sumner Whitson (1866-1901) was born on April 30, 1866. He attended West Chester State Normal School and worked for the First National Bank of West Chester, then for Pyle and Brown, a West Chester-based firm with interests in the west. In 1892, he moved to Kansas to collect money owed to the Southern Kansas Mortgage Company. He settled in Wellington, Kansas, and married Lula Frantz Whitson (1866-1953) on October 20, 1896. Together, they had three daughters: Ruth Whitson Freeman (1898-1987), Mary Whitson (1900-1900), and Virginia Whitson (1901-1976). The family moved to Wichita, Kansas, where Sumner died of typhoid on December 26, 1901.

Martha Whitson Fetter (1868-1954) was born on June 23, 1868. She attended the West Chester State Normal School, then taught school in several locations, including Oxford, Ohio and at the Friends School in Wilmington, Delaware. While furthering her education at Cornell University during the 1894-1895 school year, she met Frank Albert Fetter (1863-1949), an economist. The couple were married on July 16, 1896. Together, they had three children: Frank Whitson Fetter (1899-1991), Ellen Cole Fetter Roberts (b. 1901), and Theodore Henry Fetter (1906-1996). Frank Whitson Fetter became an economist and worked under economist Edwin W. Kemmerer as a financial advisor to Ecuador’s government in the 1920s. Martha Whitson Fetter and Frank Albert Fetter moved several times during the early years of their marriage, eventually returning to Ithaca, where Frank Albert Fetter taught at Cornell University from 1901 to 1911. In 1911, he accepted a position at Princeton University as the first chairman of Princeton University's Department of Economics and Social institutions. Two years later, he became president of the American Economic Association. Frank Albert Fetter died on March 21, 1949. Martha Whitson Fetter died on April 4, 1954.

Henry Whitson (1872-1952) was born on April 2, 1872. He attended West Chester State Normal School, then worked in the insurance business in Baltimore. When his father's health began to fail in the early 1890s, Henry returned to Atglen and joined Theodore Whitson (1840-1899) in his nursery business, also starting a mushroom growing operation. When income from the business was insufficient to support the family, Henry went to work for a real estate business in Philadelphia until the time of his father's death. He then went into the real estate and insurance business with his brother, Sumner Whitson (1866-1901), in Wichita, Kansas, continuing the business for a few years after Sumner's death. Henry eventually moved to Boise, Idaho, marrying Hester Gray Whitson (1879-1968) on December 14, 1910. Together, the couple had two children: Elizabeth Whitson (1911-1944) and Henry Gray Whitson (1915-1976). Henry Whitson (1872-1952) died on July 26, 1952.

Mary Whitson Warren (1878-1958) was born on July 16, 1878. She attended Swarthmore College and the University of Indiana, teaching school for a few years before completing her education at Cornell University in 1905. After teaching for an additional year, she married George Frederick Warren (1874-1938), who became the chairman of the Department of Agricultural Economics at Cornell University. Together, they had six children: Stanley Whitson Warren (b. 1907), Jean Warren (b. 1909), Richard Warren (b. 1911), George Frederick Warren (b. 1913), Martha Warren Hertel (b. 1915), and Mary Warren Swan (1917-2005). Mary Whitson Warren was active in a number of organizations in the Ithaca area, including the Girl Scouts. She died on April 23, 1958.

Olive Louella Whitson (1882-1977) was born in Homeville, Chester County on December 22, 1882. She attended West Chester State Normal School from 1900 to 1902, then taught school in Chatham and Baltimore before continuing her education at Cornell. She graduated from Cornell in 1910, then became one of the head workers at the Hudson Guild on New York City's Lower West Side, a position she held for more than thirty years. Later she worked with a Quaker program serving European refugees based at Powell House in New York, then undertook responsibilities at Quaekerhaus in Vienna from 1955 to 1957. She died on December 10, 1977 in Kennett Square, Pennsylvania.