Archive:The Descendants of John Whitney, page 135
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The Descendants of John Whitney, Who Came from London, England, to Watertown, Massachusetts, in 1635, by Frederick Clifton Pierce (Chicago: 1895)
Transcribed by the Whitney Research Group, 1999.
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| WHITNEY GENEALOGY. | 135 |
city, and was located on Central wharf. He was an influential citizen; with other Boston merchants and one or two in the south he had the ship built called the "Eli WHITNEY," and she was used in carrying cotton from the south to Boston. He was a man of wit and genial temperament, and had many friends and was highly respected. He was never married. 753. CAPT. SAMUEL WHITNEY (Samuel, Nathaniel, Nathaniel, John, John), b. in Weston, Sept 23, 1739; m. in Grafton, 1762, Phebe HARRINGTON; b. G. May 25, 1740; d. Marlboro, Vt., Mar 6, 1812. Capt. Samuel WHITNEY was born in Weston, Mass., and while a young man removed to Grafton, Mass., where he was an early settler. There he was united to his wife, and shortly after moved to Shrewsbury. About the middle of November, 1769, with his brother, Nathaniel, he went to Marlboro, Vt. In March, 1770, made a quantity of maple sugar and then moved from the east to the west part of the town and began anew on the premises he afterward occupied. In 1770 he opened the forest and erected a log house, in the raising of which he invited his brothers, Nathaniel and Jonas, and James BALL to assist him. In 1772, probably in March, he moved his family from Shrewsbury to Marlboro, consisting of his wife and four children. He was enterprising, laborious, and persevering, bold, resolute, and fearless, bravely surmounting the trials of a pioneer. He had a peculiar voice, better fitted for the sternness of authority than the smooth adulations of flattery. He erected buildings and opened a public house, which he kept till the close of life. The site of this prop- erty is now occupied by the West Marlboro postoffice. Mr. WHITNEY was a great hunter, and but for the prompt assistance on one occasion rendered by his sons, Moses and Guilford, lads at the time, would undoubt- edly have been killed by a bear. Mr. WHITNEY carried the scar to his grave. He d. Feb. 1, 1811; res. Grafton and Shrewsbury, Mass. and Marlboro, Vt. 1840. i. CATHERINE, or Caty, b. May 5, 1763; m. Samuel PRATT, of Marl- boro. 1841. ii. ELIZABETH, or Betty, b. Aug. 26, 1764; m. Alvin PRATT, of Marl- boro. 1842. iii. MOSES, b. Oct. 20, 1765; d. infant, Dec. 14, 1765. 1843. iv. MOSES, b. Jan. 26, 1767; m. Bernice LOCKE. 1844. v. GUILFORD, b. Jan. 2, 1769; m. Anna LOCKE. 1846. vi. SAMUEL, b. Apr. 18, 1772; m. Susanna KIMBALL. 1847. vii. MARIAM, b. June 10, 1776; m. Lyman BROWN of Jethro. 1848. viii. ZENAS, b. Mar. 14, 1779. 1849. ix. SIMCI, b. Apr. 10, 1781; m. Silence TUCKER. 1850. x. PHEBE, b. Jan. 17, 1786; m. Roswell PADDLEFORD. 1851. xi. RUPERT, b. July 27, 1789; d. May 3, 1790. He was born when his mother was in her 50th year. 755. CAPT. NATHANIEL WHITNEY (Samuel, Nathaniel, Nathaniel, John, John), b. Shrewsbury, May 30, 1749; m. Jan. 21, 1771, Mary HOUGHTON of Lancaster, b. June 1751; d. Sept 27, 1844. Capt. Nathaniel WHITNEY, when a young man, 20 years of age, with his brother Samuel Jr., on invitation of Col. William WILLIAMS, visited Marlboro, Vt., for the first time, in Nov 1769. He returned to his home in Shrewsbury, Mass., in a few weeks, where he remained until the following March, when in company with his father and brother Samuel, he returned to Marlboro. The father left the two boys and returned with he sleigh and horses to Shrewsbury. That spring, on land in the easterly part of the town, they made their first attempt at making maple sugar and were very successful in the enterprise. The same spring these two brothers pur- chased of Charles PHELPS, esq., of New Marlboro, in the county of Cumberland, and Province of New York, for £55 land near that of Governor WENTWORTH, and Samuel WEST. Capt. WHITNEY erected a log camp in the woods and began clearing his new farm. In this camp he spent the two following summers, ambitious and laborious in his new field of labor. At his request Mrs. Col. WILLIAMS cooked for him a week's provision at a time and he returned to his camp and spent the week in hard work upon it. His principal living was pork and peas and beans with a comfortable supply of bread, and occasionally with the additional luxury of trout and wild game. For his bread he brought the meal upon his back from Brattleboro, Coleraine or Greenfield, distances from 10 to 20 miles away. Upon these premises he erected the first framed dwelling in the town, which he occupied for a few years and then disposed of for Continental paper money, which depreciated in value, by which he suffered an almost total loss
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