Item 0001 - Letter, 1 June 1871.

William Frederick Whitcher was born on August 10, 1845, in Benton, Grafton, New Hampshire.

He was a clergyman and journalist. He graduated from Conference Seminary, Tilton, Wesleyan University, Connecticut in 1871, and the Theological Department of Boston University in 1873. For nine years he was a member of the Southern New England Methodist Episcopal Conference. He held pastorates in Providence and Newport, Rhode Island, and New Bedford, Massachusetts. Abandoning the ministry, Whitcher was for eighteen years engaged in journalistic work in Boston, as a reporter and editor, first with the Boston Traveler and later with the Boston Advertiser. In 1898, he moved to Woodsville and purchased the Woodsville News. He was a member of the New Hampshire House of Representatives (1901, 1903, 1905, 1907, 1911) and the Judiciary Committee. He also served as a trustee of the New Hampshire State Library, director, and clerk of trustees of Woodsville Savings Bank. He was deeply interested in historical matters and published several books, e.g., "Wells River Bridge and Other Haverhill Toll Bridges" (1904), "Some Things about Coventry-Benton, New Hampshire" (1905), and "History of the Town of Haverhill, New Hampshire" (1919).

In 1872, he married Jeanette Maria Burr (1845–1894), and in 1896, he remarried Marietta Amanda Hadley (1858–1930). He died on May 31, 1918, in Woodsville, Grafton, New Hampshire.