Hiram Abiff Whittington was born January 14, 1805 in Boston, Massachusetts to William and Hepzebeth Whittington. At the age of fifteen, Hiram learned the printing trade and became an apprentice for the Nantucket Enquirer. During his tenure at the newspaper, his younger brother, Granville, was training under a book binder.

In 1823 Hiram moved to Brooklyn, New York where he worked under Alden Spooner, who introduced him to William E. Woodruff, editor of the Arkansas Gazette. When Hiram heard that the Arkansas Gazette needed a printer, he left for Little Rock and arrived Christmas day 1826. Due to an illness, Hiram left Little Rock seeking the healing waters of Hot Springs in 1832. After Hiram’s illness subsided he returned to Little Rock, but only for two month. A Little Rock merchant named John McLane wanted to open a store in Hot Springs and wanted Hiram to operate it. While in Hot Springs, Hiram established the city’s first mercantile store, H.A Whittington & Co., developed a novaculite factory to manufacture and export whetstones, and started the state’s first lending library. In addition, he was appointed Post Master and elected Clerk of Hot Spring County in 1833. Hiram was in Hot Spring County because Garland County, named after Arkansas Governor, Augustus Garland, was not established until April 5, 1873, from parts of Hot Spring, Montgomery, and Saline counties.

Hiram returned to Boston in 1836 and married Mary Burnham on October 12, 1836 and brought his new bride back to Hot Springs. While in Hot Springs, Hiram opened the Chalybeate Springs, a boarding house, which was in operation from 1836 to 1849. Hiram entered the political arena when he was elected as a councilman from Hot Spring County, Arkansas in the General Assembly in 1835. In 1838, area citizens elected him to the Arkansas House of Representatives and he was re-elected in 1840 and 1850.

Mary Burnham Whittington died April 7, 1851 at the age of 31. Together, Mary and Hiram had six children and lived in the Magnolia House, a log cabin, which was located on the present site of the Majestic Hotel. During the last few years of Hiram’s life, he donated land near his home, which he built in 1851, to St. Mary’s Catholic Church and the First Presbyterian Church in Hot Springs. Hiram died May 5, 1890 and was buried in a cemetery off of Mill Creek Road and was later moved to the Whittington family plot in the Hollywood Cemetery in Hot Springs in 1991.

During the years 1827 through 1834, Hiram wrote to his brother, Granville, in Boston about life on the Arkansas frontier. After the marriage of Hiram and Mary, Granville left Massachusetts with his wife, Cordelia Wilder whom he married August 31, 1831, and came to Arkansas in 1837. After his arrival in Arkansas, he spend a brief time in Hot Springs before he settled near present day Mount Ida Montgomery County, Arkansas and opened a general store.

The first post office in the area was established in June 1842 by Granville and was named Mount Ida after a mountain near his home in Massachusetts. In 1846, Granville was elected to the Arkansas House of Representatives from Montgomery County. In addition, for six years he operated the post office and general store out of his log home one mile north of the present town square until the post office was relocated to the county clerk’s office in 1848.

Granville died April 27, 1887 at the age of 79. Cordelia, his wife, died five years after his death on January 10, 1892. Between them they had ten children with eight surviving to adulthood.