Family:Whitney, Micah (1752-1832)

Micah⁵ Whitney (Abel⁴, Nathaniel³, Benjamin², John¹), son of Abel⁴ and Mary (Cane) Whitney, was born 2 Dec 1752, Phillips, ME,^[1] or 11 Dec 1752, York, ME, and died 19 Jun 1829, probabaly Gorham, ME,^[2] or 4 Sep 1832, Phillips, ME. (Note: The settlement of Phillips, ME (first called "Curvo") did not commence until 1790. Micah Whitney could not have been born there in 1752.)

Micah married, 29 Nov 1779 at Gorham, ME, Hannah Cobb, by William Gorham, Esq.,^[3] daughter of Andrew and Hannah (Green) Cobb. She was born 28 Mar 1762, Phillips, ME, and died 5 Dec 1833, Phillips, ME. (Note: Hannah could not have been born in Phillips in 1762 for the same reason her husband could not in 1752. She was born in Falmouth (now Portland), ME.)

Pierce says the following:^[4]

He was a blacksmith and during the Revolutionary war was a soldier in the company from New Vineyard, Me.; was also sergt. In the war of 1812; was granted a pension in 1818. (Note: In 1869 Albert Pease published a History of Phillips, Maine. Page 4 of the history says that Micah moved to Phillips from Gray, ME in 1811. In 1812, he would have been sixty years old. Page 30 of the same history contains a list of the names of the men who served from Phillips in the War of 1812. The name Micah Whitney does not appear in this list, but four other Whitney names, including Micah's sons Eben and Andrew, do appear.)

Children of Micah⁵ and Hannah (Cobb) Whitney: (Note: Micah did not arrive in Phillips until 1811, so none of his children were born there. The dates of birth of ten of his children are recorded in the Phillips Vital Records, as many families in Maine in those times recorded their family's birth dates after moving into a town.)

i.	Sally6 Whitney, b. 11 Jan 1781, Gorham, ME; m. before 21 Jun 1805, Gray, ME, James Humphrey, b. 4 Nov 1783, Phillips, ME.
ii.	William Perse Whitney, b. 3 May 1783, Gorham, ME; m.(1) Sarah Frank; m.(2) Nancy I. Carlton. He was also known as William Peace Whitney.
iii.	Lydia Whitney, b. 3 or 8 Feb 1785, Gorham, ME, or 9 Feb 1785, Phillips, ME; d. Jun 1849, Phillips, ME; unmarried. She is buried in the Field Cemetery in Phillips.
iv.	Joel Whitney, b. 7 May 1787, Phillips or Gorham, ME; m.(1) Sally Dyer; m.(2) Sarah Ramsdell; m.(3) Betsey Chase.
v.	Charlotte Whitney, b. 16 Mar 1789, Phillips, ME; d. 4 Apr 1867, Phillips, ME; unmarried. She is buried in the Field Cemetery in Phillips.
vi.	Ebenezer Whitney, b. 15 Aug 1791, Phillips or Gorham, ME; m. Dorcas Drury.
vii.	Andrew Whitney, b. 5 May 1794, Phillips, ME, or 5 May 1795, Gorham, ME; Huldah Sweetser.
viii.	Mary Whitney, b. 30 Apr 1797, Phillips or Gorham, ME; m. Reuben Smith, b. 10 August 1797 in Otisfield, ME. They had six children. Reubin died 3 April 1876 and Mary died 26 May 1888, both in Hanson, Plymouth Co., MA.
ix.	Joanna Whitney, b. 6 or 8 Dec 1799, Phillips or Gorham, ME; d. 17 Apr 1862, Mifflin, WI; m. 10 Sep 1818, Caleb Barker Sylvester, b. 9 Aug 1783, Bath, ME, d. 16 Feb 1868, Mifflin, WI.
x.	Happy Whitney, b. 1 Nov 1801, Phillips or Gorham, ME; m. 18 May 1821, Phillips, ME, Samuel Wilson Phoenix. They resided in Madrid and Plymouth, ME and had four children, two of whom died young.
xi.	Nahum Whitney, b. 11 Oct 1803, Phillips, ME; unmarried.
xii.	Benjamin Morse Whitney, b. 19 Mar 1806, Phillips, Gorham, or Gray, ME; m. Susan Wells.

Census

• 1790, Gorham, Cumberland Co., ME: Micah Whitney, 1 male over 16, 2 males 0-15, and 4 females.
• 1800, Gorham, Cumberland Co., ME: Micha Whitney, 1 male over 45, 1 male 16-25, 1 male 10-15, 2 males 0-9, 1 female 26-44, 1 female 16-25, 2 females 10-15, and 2 females 0-9.
• 1810, Gray, Cumberland Co., ME: Whitney, Micah, 1 male over 45, [illegible] males 10-15, 1 female 45, 1 female 26-44, 1 female 10-15, and 2 females 0-9.
• 1820, Phillips, Somerset Co., ME: Michael Whitney, 1 male over 45, 1 male 16-17, 1 male 10-15, 1 female over 45, 2 females 26-44, and 1 female 16-25; 3 engaged in agriculture.
• 1830, Phillips, Somerset Co., ME: Michael Whitney, 1 male 60-69, 1 female 60-69, and 2 females 40-49.

References

• See Archive:Phillips, Maine, Vital Records

1.^  Source

2.^  Source

3.^  "Nov. 29, 1779, Micah WHITNEY & Hannah COBB; by William GORHAM, Esq., Gorham (A:32)," according to Kelley, Judith Holbrook, ed. and transcr., Clayton Rand Adams, ed., Marriage Returns of Cumberland County, Maine, Prior to 1892, Maine Genealogical Society Special Publication No. 29 (Rockport, ME: Picton Press, 1998), p. 70.

4.^  Frederick C. Pierce, The Descendants of John Whitney, Who Came from London, England, to Watertown, Massachusetts, in 1635 (Chicago, IL: The Author, 1895), p. 121.

• Family History, Volume S(4), Sylvester, Daughters of the American Revolution library, Washington, DC.

• Listed in Daughters of the American Revolution membership records 157305 (issued 1920), 476629 (issued 1960), 481880 (issued 1961), 515332 (issued 1966), 569548 (issued 1972), 717023 (issued 1988), 727930 (issued 1989).
  

From DAR #476629: "My ancestor's (Mica, Micah Whitney) place of residence during the Revolution was Buxton (now Gorham, Maine), Mass... served as a private in Capt. Jeremiah Hill's Co., Col James Scammons 30th Regt., muster roll dated Aug 1, 1775; enlisted Sep. 27, 1775... also Company returns dated Sep. 27, 1775; including abstract of pay Aug 1, 1775; also order for money in lieu of bounty coat dated Oct. 26, 1775 (Massachusetts Soldiers and Sailors, Vol. 17: 238)." Notes that the middle name "Peace" was given to William because he was born on the day the war ended.

• The History of Gorham Maine, by Hugh D. McLellan, Picton Press, Camden, ME (originally published 1903 by Smith & Sale, Portland, ME), 1992. Pages 438, 829, 833-834.
  

"Micah Whitney, son of Abel, was a blacksmith. He served in the war of the Revolution and was a sergeant in the War of 1812. He married Hannah, daughter of Andrew and Hannah Cobb."

• Our Pioneering Families, Genealogies of Whitney, Groathouse and Lignitz, researched and compiled by Vivian Gail Morrow Wade, Dec. 1986, first edition. Self-published manuscript available at DAR Library, Washington DC. Pages 63-73, 80, 83, 90.
  

"Buried at the Rufus Bean Farm on the bank of the Sandy River- unmarked graves for him & Hannah in 1843." "Sally Whitney and James Humphrey lived circa 1850 at Avon, ME. Sally Whitney and James Humphrey lived circa 1850 at Salem, ME."
"Lydia Whitney never married, lived with bro. Ebenezer; died in old age." "Charlotte Whitney never married - lived with brother Ebenezer until he married - buried by him in Field's Cem., Phillips, Maine." "He, Ebenezer, married late in life; was a farmer, mill man, civil engineer. He laid out the first wagon roads in Phillips." "Mary Whitney and Reuben Smith lived in Mass- no other records known." "Happy Whitney and Samuel W. Phoenix lived in Phillips & Madrid Maine- then moved to Plymouth, Maine." "Nahum Whitney lived to old age- no record known of his family."

• Commemorative Biographical Record of the Counties of Rock, Green, Grant, Iowa and Lafayette Wisconsin. Chicago: J. H. Beers & Co., 1901. Pages 432-433.
  

"... spent seven years in the Continental Army. Two of his sons took part in the battle of Lake Champlain during the war of 1812... Ancestors of this family came to Massachusetts in the seventeenth century, and many of its members were prominent in the civil and military affairs of the colony." "Joanna (Whitney), who was distinguished by her industrious and frugal habits, passed away at the age of sixty-three years. She was born at Otisfield, Maine, a daughter of Michael [this is undoubtedly a typo: other sources list it as Micah] Whitney, who spent seven years in the Continental Army. Two of his sons took part in the battle of Lake Champlain during the war of 1812, another son, Joel, became a leading citizen of the town of Phillips, where he operated a store and mill, and served in the Legislature." "Benjamin Whitney was town clerk and a school teacher."

• Vital Records of Gorham, Maine. Maine Genealogical Society, Special Publication No. 7, Compiled by Marquis F. King, Second Edition. Picton Press, Camden, Maine 1991. Birth recorded on page 172.

• Whitney Whistler, Spring 1986, by Mary Anne Shields, donated by Cape Canaveral Chapter Daughters of the American Revolution. Pages 60, 61.

• Whitney, Kenneth L., The Ancestors and Descendants of Ebenezer Whitney and Dorcas Drury Parlin (Silver Spring, MD: The author, 2003).

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Copyright © 1999, 2006, 2007, 2010, 2011, Robert L. Ward, Kenneth L. Whitney, and the Whitney Research Group.