Archive:The Descendants of John Whitney, page 353
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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. | 353 |
which would serve to illustrate the progress of the town, the two centuries of its existence. In previous years he had served as chairman of many important com- mittees, and he was made chairman of the committee of fifteen, chosen by the town, April 3, 1882, to arrange for the approaching bi-centennial celebration, and was also selected as the president of the day, and for nearly a year was untiring in his efforts to make the occasion one of credit to the town. Though overruled by a majority of the committee in some of his plans, he still labored with unflagging zeal to make the celebration a success. But he was not destined to see the long looked for day for on the 7th of March, 1883, a little more than two months before the celebration was to take place, after an illness of a few days of pneumonia, he passed from the mortal to the immortal sphere. The committee in rendering their report of the celebration to the town in 1884, speak of Mr. WHITNEY in these words: "His long and minute acquaintance with the history of the town, together with the large amount of statistical, biographical, and other valuable information which he had fathered, made his death a great loss to the committee and town." While he practiced law to a considerable extent after his removal from New York, the duties of his profession were somewhat subordinated to the management of a large farm that devolved upon him, and to the care of other extensive real estate of which he was the owner. Though originally identified with the Democratic party, he earnestly espoused the anti-slavery movement that resulted in the formation of the Republican party. During the war of the rebellion he was among the foremost of his townsmen in the support of those measures that led to the triumph of the great principles of freedom and equality embodied in the Declaration of Independence made by our Revolutionary fathers. He represented the town in the lower branch of the Massa- chusetts legislature in 1846 and 1847; and again, the district of which Stow was a part in 1879. He was a member also of the state senate for the year 1850. He married Miss Lucia Mead WHITNEY, daughter of Moses and Lucy (GATES) WHITNEY, of Stow, who still survives. She is a lineal descendant of Thomas GATES, one of the original twelve settles of the town and was born on the farm that he occupied. He died s. p. March 7, 1883; res. New York City, and Stow, Mass. 2782. JOSEPH ADDISON WHITNEY, (Cyrus, Isaiah, Isaiah, Isaiah, Thomas, John), b. Harvard, Oct. 23, 1802; m. Oct. 11, 1841, Hannah FLETCHER of Boxboro, Mass.; b. Apr. 3, 1811, in Kennebunk, Me.; d. Rockford, Ill., Sept. 23, 1873. Joseph Addison WHITNEY was born in Harvard, Mass. For a few years prior to his death, he engaged in the real estate business at Market Square, in Boston, Mass., and was so engaged at the time of his demise. He d. in Boston, Feb. 10, 1847; res. Boston, Mass. 5300. i. JOSEPH A., b. Aug. 3, 1842; d. unm., Worcester, Mass., Dec. 24, 1876. 5301. ii. ALBERT, b. Feb. 7, 1844; res. Boston; unm. 5302. iii. MARY F., b. Feb 7, 1846; m. Jan. 18, 1872, Edwin F. Kenrick; b. Malden, May 5, 1845; res. St. Paul, Minn., 53 Hatch St. Ch.: Mabel Florence, b. Arlington, Mass., Dec. 28, 1872; Edith Fletcher, B. Arlington, Mass., Dec. 22, 1874; George Albert b. Arlington, Mass., May 20, 1777; Grace Winifred, b. St. Paul, Minn., Sept. 7, 1883. 2783. BENJAMIN FRANKLIN WHITNEY (Cyrus, Isaiah, Isaiah, Isaiah, Thomas, John), b. Mar. 21, 1804; m. June 16, 1827, at Harvard, Louisa LAWRENCE; b. May 17, 1808; d. Jan. 6 1887. Her genealogy given in Genealogy of John LAWRENCE of Wisset, Suffolk, England, whose father, Henry, came to Charlestown, in 1635, and who himself settled in Watertown, Mass., soon after. Louisa (L.) WHITNEY died Jan. 1887. Her mother was a BIGELOW, genealogy given in BIGELOW family. It would be easy to write of the grace of her L. (L.) W's. youth, the loving, and able care of a model mother for her large family, of her sore trials, of her cheerful, social, helpful spirit. Her firm and loving hand saved the family, for instance, at one time from absorption in the Skeneateles (N.Y.) Community, where her husband, infatuated by FOURIER, and eldest son, spent some months, and in many crises of changing fortune. He was born in Harvard and soon moved with his parents to the old ancestral home of his grandfather on the extreme eastern slope of Oak Hill, next the Boxboro line. As a boy he experimented on the problem how to improve the poor native apples. He was always, through his long life, trying experiments, more to see what could be done than to reap any pecuniary reward. He was one of the very first to raise improved grafted applies and this first attempt was made without his father's
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