Archive:The Descendants of John Whitney, page 422
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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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| 422 | WHITNEY GENEALOGY. |
6512. ii. GEO. L., b. Feb. 14, 1865; m. Lizzie CURRY. 6513. iii. WM. H., b. Jan. 8, 1868; m. Lucy E. MASON. 6514. iv. MARION HELEN, b. Sept. 11, 1869; m. Feb., 1890, Julius KNAPP; res. Washington. Ch. Blanche E., b. Aug 30, 1892. 6515. v. MINNIE E., b. Nov. 14, 1862; m. Dec 25, 1883, ----- PAINE. 6516. vi. JESSIE L., b. Dec. 21, 1871; res. Washington. 6517. vii. JAMES T., b. Mar. 9, 1875; res. Washington. 6518. viii. JOHN J., b. Dec. 23, 1873; res. Bad Axe, Mich. 6519. ix. HORACE FRANK, b. Mar. 10, 1879; res. Washignton, Mich. 3684. COL. LOREN H. WHITNEY (James W., Fisher, Jason, Mark, Benjamin, John), b. Ohio, Sept. 12, 1834; m. Apr. 2, 1857, in Belvidere, Ill., Rebecca FOSTER; b. July 1, 1836; d. Jan. 28, 1859; m. 2d, Oct. 2, 1866, La Porte, Ind., Mary MUNSON, b. Aug. 1, 1847. Col Loren H. WHITNEY is widely know as an able lawyer, a brave and gallant Soldier, and an author of considerable repute. He is a native of Ohio, and is a fair type of the men who have so ably and honorably represented that great common- wealth wherever men of learning, eloquence, and scientific attainments were needed, or the tented field required them. He was born in Berlin, Erie county, O. His mother was a relative of the famous HARPER Brothers, New York. In 1848 the family moved to De Kalb county, Ill., where Loren attended school until he was about six- teen years old, when, lured by the glowing accounts of Mississippi, he joined a number of young men of his neighborhood in a resolution to go to that state and seek a fortune; but when the time came to go all changed their purpose, excepting young WHITNEY, who started on foot, with staff in hand, carpet bag, alone, and with but one dollar and seventy five cents in his pocket. His father refused him assistance, hoping to deter him from going, but he was not made of the stuff that yields. In two and a half days he walked to Peru, seventy miles from home, and after paying for a meal he balanced his cash account and found but ten cents in his favor. Something had to be done. He offered his services to the engineer of a little steamer lying at the wharf, and about to move out. He represented that he could do anything and everything, and was engaged as boy of all work, with the stipulation that he would be paid whatever his services were considered worth. He continued in this employment five weeks, and was paid twenty eight dollars, and promised fifty dollars per month to continue, but declined the offer and went to Bolivia county, Miss., where he passed the winter. He contracted with a planter to throw up a levee on the banks of the Mississippi and made a handsome profit on his contract. He went across the plains to California in 1855, with a company of gold-hunters, and there worked a gold mine and made money enough to enable him to return and gratify his young ambition to persue a college course of study, com- pleting a four years course in two years. He was a bright and apt student, always among the foremost in his class. He then entered the law office of the late Gen. Stephen A. HURLBUT, at Belvidere, Ill., and subsequently attended Asbury University, Indiana, and still later was admitted to the bar, the committee that examined him complimenting him highly on his proficiency, though he had read law but one year. When the war broke out he was practicing his profession, but entered the army as captain of the Eighth Regiment Ill. Vol;. Cavalry, one of the best regiments in the Army of the Potomac. When Gen. McCLELLAN advanced on Manassas Gap, Capt. WHITNEY, at the head of SUMNER's cavalry, led the way. While sitting on a "Quaker cannon" at Manassas he conceived the idea of writing for the press, but before an hour's thought concluded to write a full history of the war, and carried that purpose Into execution, and his first volume was published in 1863. He served with valor in the peninsula campaign, and in the battles around Richmond, and was offered the position of major on Gen. SUMNER's staff, but declined it to accept a colonelcy, as he supposed, of one of the new regiments from his state, but when he returned it proved to be a lieutenant-colonelcy that was intended, and he declined it, but was instrumental afterward in organizing two more regiments which went to the field. During this time he wrote and published the first volume of his history of the war of the Rebellion, a work which will compare favorably with the best of the many histories of that great conflict. It is a clear setting forth of the inciting causes and philosophy of the rebellion, and an accurate and full history of the facts and inci- dents attending to its prosecution and culmination. Governor YATES requested him to organize another regiment of infantry, which he did in three weeks' time, and being made the colonel, led it to the front in Mississippi. In 1864 he was put in command of a force sent out to intercept and drive away Gen. FOREST, who at the head of a
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