Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 10.djvu/415

 WHITMAN

^VHITMAN

Portland, Maine, 1807-52. He was defeated as a Federalist candidate for representative in the 10th congress in 180G ; but served as a representative in the Uth congress, 1809-11, and in the 15th, 16th and 17th congresses, 1817-23. He was a member of the executive council of Massachusetts, 1815-16, and of the state constitutional conven- tion of 1819 ; was judge of the court of common pleas of Maine, 1822-41, and chief justice of the state supreme court, 1841-48. He is the author of : Genealogy of the Descendants of John Whit- man (1832). In 1852 he returned to East Bridge- water, Mass., where he died, Aug. 1, 1866.

WHITMAN, Harcus, pioneer, was born in Rushville, Ontario county, N.Y., Sept. 4, 1802. He studied under private tutors ; attended the Berkshire Medical institution, Pittsfield, Mass., and in 1834 was appointed a missionary physician of the A.B.C.F.M. In 1835 he accompanied the Rev. Samuel Parker on a tour of exploration in the northwest. He was married in February, 1836, and together with the Rev. and Mrs. Henry H. Spaulding, immediately started with his wife for Oregon, where he had volunteered to build up a permanent mission. They were joined by a larger company going in the same direction, and after many liardships reached Fort Hall, where they met Captain Grant, a British subject in the employ of the Hudson Bay company, whose busi- ness it was to discourage settlers from tlie United States from crossing the Rockies. Dr. Whitman was not, however, to be turned from his purpose, and drove the wagon over the Rocky Mountains and up to the settlement at Waiilatpui, having opened the first wagon road across the continent. On Oct. 3, 1843, in company with General Love- joy and one guide, he started on the ride back to Washington to jjresent to the President the matter of the exclusion of American immigrants from Oregon by the Hudson Bay company. After riding 3000 miles he reached St. Louis before the conclusion of the Ashburton treaty, adjusting the boundary between the United States and the British possessions in the Northwest, and on his arrival at Washington he obtained an audience with President Tyler and Secretary Webster, urging them to refuse to give over the territory to Great Britain, and setting forth the possibili- ties of Oregon as a field for immigration. His timely arrival caused the secretary, of state to re- fuse to accede to any terms below the 49th paral- lel, and originated the party whose motto was "Fifty-four, Forty or Fight." When AVhitman arrived in Boston in March, 1843. the A.B.C.F.M. received him coldly, claiming that he had left his post of duty from mercenary motives, and sent him back to Oregon, with only enough money to buy a single ham for his supplies. The emigrant train which started ahead of Mr. Whitman, and

which was furnished by Secretary of War Porter with an escort of U.S. troops, numbered 1,000 men, women and children, and 200 wagons (of which 125 were driven through) and large herds of horses and cattle. They arrived at Waiilatpui in September, 1843, Whitman having been absent from home eleven months, and commenced plant- ing crops, passing laws, organizing settlements, and thus building up the future states of Oregon, Idaho and Washington. Whitman's action antag- onized the Hudson Bay company into instigating the Indians against the American settlers on the ground that the latter were encroaching on their hunting grounds. On Nov. 28, 1847, Whitman was warned that there was a plot against his life, but he went about his work as usual. At noon, while sitting in his house, he was struck on the head with a tomahawk in the hands of a Cayuse Indian convert. Mrs. Whitman was shot dead ; fourteen other settlers were killed, and forty women and children were carried away in cajjtivity. Whit- man college was founded as a tribute to his mem- ory at Walla Walla in 1866, and a statue of Dr. AVhitman placed before the Witherspoon build- ing (Presbyterian) in Philadelphia, Pa., was un- veiled, Nov. 29, 1897. His name in " Class E, Missionaries and Explorers " received nineteen votes for a place in the Hall of Fame for Great Americans, New York university, October, 1900. See " Marcus Whitman and the Early Days of Oregon" by William A. Mowry (1901). He died in Waiilalpui, Oregon, Nov. 28, 1847.

WHITMAN, Walter, (" Walt ") poet, was born at West Hills, Huntington township. Long Island, N.Y., May 31, 1819 ; son of Walter and Louisa (Van Velsor) Whitman ; grandson of Maj. Cor- nelius and Amy (Williams) Van Velsor, and a descendant of the Rev. Zechariah Whit- ..sC^^^K

man, who came from England in the ship True-Love in 1635 to Milford, Conn., and whose son, Joseph W., located in Hunt- ington, Long Island, previous to 1660. His maternal grandpar- ents belonged to the Society of Friends and were of Hol- land Dutch descent. He removed with his parents to Brook- lyn, N.Y., in 1823. where he attended the common schools until his apprenticeship to the Long Island Star of Brooklyn in 1831. He suc- ceeded in getting some literary attempts pub- lished about this time in the Patriot and Mir-

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