Wittick served In the American Civil War for the Union when he was 16, before being discharged in Minnesota in 1865.

[2] In the town of Moline where he lived, he learned photography from a Mr. Mangold who operated a gallery.

After 1870, he started some of his travels west, where he went on to photograph many landscapes, portraits and Native American tribes including the Hopi, Navajo, Apache, and Zuni.

He died August 30, 1903, in Fort Wingate, New Mexico, after a rattlesnake bite from which he never recovered.

He was bitten weeks previous, while handling the snake before he left Fort Wingate.