Tag: 1925

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Crutcher, Benjamin (“Ben”) Harrison  (B.S., Dairy Foods and Industry, 1925; M.S., Dairy Husbandry and Comparative Physiology, 1931)

Headshot of Benjamin Harrison Crutcher

Benjamin Harrison Crutcher was born 6 August 1890 in Harrodsburg City, Kentucky, to Silas Crutcher, a plasterer and sometime clergyman, and his wife, Anna (aka Ann or Anne) M. Worrell Crutcher. On 26 April 1918, Benjamin enlisted in the Army. He was discharged 5 July 1919. Crutcher graduated from Tuskegee Institute, Florida A & M College in Tallahassee, Florida, and Iowa State College, where he earned a B.S. in Dairy Foods and Industry in 1925 and an M.S. in Dairy Husbandry and Comparative Physiology in 1931. When Crutcher earned his B.S. in 1925-26, he was one of only 13 Black regular session students at ISC (“A Record,” 1926). His classmates included Compton Chapman, Maurice Thomasson, and Willa Juanita Ewing.

Crutcher married Cleopatra Baker in 1922, while taking some time off from college coursework. As an Iowa State undergraduate, in 1924-25, Crutcher roomed at 2522 Chamberlain, with Holloway Smith, Thomas Whibby, and Harold Tutt.

In 1935, as a Dairyman at Tuskegee Institute, he was listed as an attendee at the banquet held by the Iowa State Alumni Association for Frederick D. Patterson’s inauguration as President of Tuskegee. By 1942, he was Head of the Animal Husbandry Department and assistant to the Director of Agriculture at Georgia State College, Savannah. In a second career, Crutcher worked as a medical technologist for the Veterans Administration in Tuskegee, Alabama, where he died on 3 August 1981. At the time of his death, Crutcher, age 91, was the oldest active member of the Alpha Nu Lambda Chapter (Tuskegee) of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity (“Omega Chapter,” 1981).

Iowa State College Dissertation Title: The animal parasites of the woodchuck (Marmota monax L.) with special reference to the protozoa, 1936 

Iowa State University Catalog Record:https://quicksearch.lib.iastate.edu/permalink/01IASU_INST/174tg9m/alma990007117870102756 

Sources

A record of the Negro at college 1926. (1926, August). The crisis: A record of the darker races, p. 174.

Omega chapter. (1981, Fall). Sphinx 67. p. 82.

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Whibby, Thomas Wiggins (Attended ISC Fall 1924-Winter 1925)

Headshot of Thomas Wiggins Whibby

Thomas Wiggins Whibby, one of five children, was born 4 February 1892 to Kansas City, MO, to Thomas H. Whibby, a teamster, and Sarah Margaret Wiggins Whibby. Before studying at Iowa State, Thomas was self-employed in Kansas City as a transfer driver, according to his WWI draft card. In 1920, he was employed as a butcher at a packing house there.

He entered ISC in the mid-1920s, and his stay at the school was brief: fall 1924 to winter 1925. By the time of the 1925 Iowa Census, Whibby was rooming with fellow ISC students Holloway Smith, the second African American football player at ISC; Benjamin Crutcher; and Harold Tutt at 2522 Chamberlain Street, the Ames home of Tutt’s grandmother, Louise Wynn, mother-in-law of the home’s owner, Arthur Marshall.

Whibby appears to have moved to Berkeley, California, after leaving Ames, as he is listed in “good standing” among members of the Alpha Epsilon Chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha there in October 1928 (“Roster of Alphas”). By 1930, he had moved to Detroit, where he had become Secretary of the Alpha Upsilon Chapter at the City College of Detroit by February 1930 (“Official,” 1930). Later that same year, The Sphinx reported that “Brother Whibby has been for some time a meat inspector for Uncle Sam” (Griffith, 1930). While others among the Alpha Upsilon Chapter were finding it difficult to stay enrolled in school during the Depression, Whibby was gainfully employed by the U.S.D.A. His employment by the U.S.D.A.’s Department of Animal Industry suggests that he studied Agriculture Sciences courses while at ISC.

Between 1930 and 1940, Thomas married Frieda M. Whibby, and by 1940, they had moved to New York City, where, the Federal Census indicates, he continued his employment as a meat inspector for the U.S.D.A. despite having completed only three years of his four-year college degree. That same job took him to Chicago, where he registered for the WWII draft in 1942 and was still working by the time of the 1950 Census.

Thomas Wiggins Whibby died in Port Charlotte, Florida, 22 Jul 1982 (Find a Grave, 2020).

Sources

Find a Grave, database and images. (2020, Apr. 10). Memorial page for Thomas Wiggins Whibby (1 Feb 1892–22 Jul 1982), Find a Grave Memorial ID 208924226. Retrieved from (https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/208924226/thomas-wiggins-whibby. Maintained by Angelina Davis (contributor 47805424).

Griffith, Clifton H. (1930, Oct.). Alpha Upsilon finds its pledges promising. The Sphinx, vol. 16(4), p. 33. Retrieved from https://issuu.com/apa1906network/docs/193001604

Official Alpha Phi Alpha directory. (1930, Feb.). The Sphinx, vol. 16(1), n.p. Retrieved from https://issuu.com/apa1906network/docs/193001601

Roster of Alphas in good standing. (1928, October). The Sphinx, vol. 14(4), p, 21. ISSUU. Retrieved from https://issuu.com/apa1906network/docs/192801404

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Bibb, Cornelius Connant (B.S., Electrical Engineering, 1925)

Headshot of Cornelius Bibb

Cornelius Connant “Cal” Bibb was born in Alton, IL, in 30 Dec 1900, one of six children born to Scott Nathaniel Bibb, born into slavery in Missouri, and Minnie L. Stokes Bibb, who had been married 23 March 1882. In 1908, when Cornelius was seven, Bibb’s father won a long-fought battle for Black children to be admitted with White children to schools in Alton, IL. The case had been in the courts since 1897, before Cornelius was born, gaining extensive national news coverage for Bibb’s family. Scott Bibb died in 1909, leaving Minnie a widow. By 1915, the family had moved to Ottumwa, IA, where Cornelius could enroll alongside White students and graduate from Ottumwa High School.

During his time at ISC, he lived for a number of semesters in what residents called “The Interstate Club,” an apartment at 226 1/2 Main Street in the Elliott Building. His marriage to Beatrice Jennie Campbell occurred in New York City on 12 May 1941. He was employed by the New York Transit System Power Division and as a machine operator in a refining company. Bibb, a Methodist, died 18 November 1959 in The Bronx, NY. He is buried in Ferncliff Cemetery and Mausoleum, Hartsdale, New York.

Sources

Photo Credit: Iowa State University. (1925). Cornelius C. Bibb. [Photograph]. 1925 Bomb, p. 47. Retrieved from  https://n2t.net/ark:/87292/w9n04q

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