Family:Whitney, Asa (1782-1826)

Asa⁷ Whitney (Elisha⁶, Elijah⁵, Daniel⁴, John³, John², John¹), born in Boston, Massachusetts, 18 May 1782; married in Pomfret, Connecticut, 31 Dec 1805, Mary Hammond; born Dec. 7, 1787; died 1845. He died 4 Mar 1826; resided Pomfret, Connecticut, Roxbury, Cambridge, and Boston, Massachusetts.

Children of Asa⁷ Whitney:

i.	Benjamin Duick8 Whitney, born 6 Nov 1807; married Elizabeth Williams and Charlotte Genalla.
ii.	Daniel H. Whitney, born 7 Oct 1809; died 6 Oct 1817.
iii.	Sarah Hammond Whitney, born May 2w3, 1812; died 23 Jun 1817.
iv.	Mary Whitney, born 5 May 1815; married Prof. Cornelius C. Felton, of Har. Univ. Felton, Cornelius Conway, scholar, born in West Newbury, Massachusetts, 6 Nov 1807; died in Chester, Pennsylvania, 26 Feb 1862. He was graduated at Harvard in 1827, having partially supported himself through his course by teaching in Concord and Boston, and at the round Hill school in Northampton, Massachusetts. In his senior year he was one of the conductors of the "Harvard Register," a students' periodical. After teaching for two years in Geneseo, New York, he was appointed Latin tutor at Harvard in 1829, became Greek tutor in 1830, college professor of Greek in 1832, and in 1834 was given the Eliot professorship of Greek literature. He was also for many years regent of the college. In 1853-54 he revisited Europe, studying the various collections of art and antiquities, and spent five months in Greece, where he devoted himself not only to the topography of the country and the remains of ancient art, there, but to its present language and literature, to which he attached great importance. He was an enthusiastic defender of the modern Greeks, by whom he was known, during his stay among them, as the "American professor." He visited Europe a second time in 1858, and in 1860 was elected president of Harvard college, which office he held until his death. President Felton was a member of the Massachusetts board of education, and one of the regents of the Smithsonian Institute. His literary labors were extended and he was one of the most profound and enthusiastic classical scholars in the country. Besides making large contributions to current literature, he published a translation of Menzel's "German Literature." (3 vols., 1840, in George Ripley'S "Specimens of Foreign Literature"); "Classical Studies," original and translated *selections, in connection with Prof. Sears and Edwards (1843); a translation of Prof. Arnold Guyot'S lectures on "The Earth and Man" (1849); a selection from the writings of Prof. Popkin, with a memoir(1852); "Life of William Eaton," in Sparks' " American Biographies" (New York, 1853); a revised edition of Smith'S "History of Greece," with a continuation from the Roman conquest to the present time (1855); and "Selections From Modern Greek Writers" (1856). After his death appeared "Familiar Letters from Europe," giving an account of his last trip (Boston, 1864), and "Greece, Ancient and Modern," his most important work, composed chiefly of his lectures before the Lowell Institute (2vols., Boston, 1867). He was also the author of several Greek test books, including an edition of Homer, with Flaxman's illustrations (1833).
v.	Emily Whitney, born 27 Sep 1817; married 27 Sep 1841, Dr. Joseph Sargent, of Worcester. He was born in Leicester, 31 Dec 1815, the son of Colorado. Henry. He entered Harvard University in 1830, and graduated in 1834. Studied medicine with Dr. Edward Flint, of Leicester, and Dr. James Jackson, in Boston, and attended medical lectures in the latter city and Philadelphia. He took his degree of M.D. at Harvard in 1837, and at once entered upon the office of house physician at the Massachusetts. General Hospital. In 1838 he went to Paris, where he remained until 1840, when he settled in Worchester. In 1850 he again visited Europe for professional improvement. He ranks high in the medical profession in Massachusetts and is held in high esteem by his fellowcitizens. He died Oct 13, 1888. Ch.: Joseph, born Oct 17, 1842: died 26 Feb 1845; Emily Whitney, born 26 Nov 1848; died 28 Jul 1892; Mary Felton, born Dec 16, 1845; Joseph, born 15 May 1849; married Dec. 5, 1872, Nellie Louise McClure; Henry L., born 29 Jul 1853; died 26 Apr 1854; Henry Leight, born 14 Jul 1856; married 24 Oct 1877, Lydia Hughes, of Lawrence, Massachusetts.
vi.	Asa H. Whitney, born 17 Jun 1819; married Laura L. Henshaw.
vii.	Sarah Whitney, born 13 Jul 1822; married Frederic W. Gale, of Worchester. Both lost on the steamer Artic 27 Sep 1854.
viii.	Catherine Dean Whitney, born Dec 17, 1824; married May, 1849, Dr. Henry Sargent. He died Apr., 1858. She died 9 Sep 1849. He was born in Leicester the brother of Dr. Joseph, 7 Nov 1821. Entered Yale College in 1837, and graduated in 1841. Studied medicine with his brother also, in Boston and Philadelphia, and in the hospitals in Paris. In 1847 he took the degree in medicine at Harvard, and began practice in Worchester. His health failed and he made frequent trips to Europe. His remains are interred in Mt. Auburn in Cambridge.

References

1. All data imported from Frederick Clifton Pierce, The Descendants of John Whitney, Who Came from London, England, to Watertown, Massachusetts, in 1635, (Chicago: 1895), pp. 245-246.

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