lawyer, politician, b. Hillsboro, Ill. He graduated from Yale Univ. (A.B., 1877), studied law in Chicago, and was admitted to the bar in 1880. In 1883 he moved to Wisconsin, settling in Janesville, where he set up a law practice and soon became active in Republican politics. A Stalwart Republican, Whitehead was state senator (1897-1912) and was chairman of the committee on assessments and collection of taxes, which in 1899 began Wisconsin's tax reforms by introducing legislation creating a temporary tax commission. Noted for his opposition to Robert M. La Follette, Sr. (q.v.), Whitehead was one of the Stalwart-Republican preconvention candidates for governor in 1900, and in 1902 was the pre-election candidate of the Stalwart "Eleventh Story League." He was a delegate to the Republican national convention of 1920, and was president of the Wisconsin Bar Association (1921-1922). He was for many years a curator of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin, and, after retiring from active political affairs, spent his remaining years practicing law in Janesville. M. M. Quaife, Wis. (4 vols., Chicago, 1924); Wis. Blue Book (1911); R. S. Maxwell, La Follette and the Rise of the Progressives . . . [Madison, 1956]; Wis. Reports, 188 (1926), p. xxxiii; Milwaukee Sentinel, Sept. 2, 1924; J. M. Whitehead Papers.

The Wisconsin Historical Society has manuscripts related to this topic. See the catalog description of the John M. Whitehead Papers for details.

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[Source: Blue book]