Civil War Vet Became WPB Mayor

Readers: In January, we ran a feature about the local chapter of Sons of Union Veterans trying to mark local graves of Civil War veterans. One, at Woodlawn Cemetery, was the plot of Willmon Whilldin, a private in the New Jersey Volunteers. The unit fought in skirmishes in Virginia before Whilldin was discharged for a disability on Aug. 16, 1862. He went on to be an early developer in Orlando and one of West Palm Beach’s first mayors. The story made its way to Tom Dvorschak, a New Jersey resident who lived in Whilldin’s former
home in Cape May, N.J., and has researched the man. Dvorschak said his grandparents bought the house in 1948 and it was bequeathed to him in 1989. He sold it in 1999. Dvorschak sent us two letters Whilldin wrote to a hometown newspaper, Cape May Ocean Wave, from Maryland. Here’s an excerpt from the first, dated Dec. 20, 1861:
“For near four months past we have been in the service of our country, endeavoring to frustrate anything that would tend to help on this unjustifiable rebellion.
“Friends at home can scarcely imagine the hardship soldiers have to endure. Often times, after a long and wearisome march, they are compelled to be out during the damp, chilly nights, with nought but the cold earth for a bed, a stone for a pillow, and the sky for covering; but we cheerfully bear it all, and would rather fall at the cannon’s mouth than to see the blest abode of freemen rent in twain by fiend traitors, who are led on by high-minded Southern demagogues, who grieve at and seek to avenge the loss of power … The Cape May boys of the 7th Reg. are in fine spirits, robust and healthy, ready at a moment’s warning to meet the foe on the battlefield, and fight like freemen, or die like patriots.”
Next week: Witness to peace.

Tags: Civil War