Archive:The Descendants of John Whitney, page 241
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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. | 241 |
3672. ii. MARY REBECCA, b. Aug. 8, 1842; d. Sept. 13, 1865. 3673. iii. ELECT MAHALA, b. Dec. 26, 1845; m. Mar. 15, 1864, Dr. Julien H. AXTELL; res. Omaha, Neb. Ch.: Charles W., b. Aug., 1865. 3674. iv. STEPHEN, b. May 12, 1850; m. Emma S. IMMERS. 3675. v. FLORENCE GERTRUDE, b. Sept. 7, 1853; d. Oct. 15, 1865. 3676. vi. CHARLES, b. Sept. 13, 1856; d. Oct. 4, 1865. 3677. vii. COURTLAND, b. Aug. 23, 1862; m. Mary Augusta CLUBY. 1711. ISAAC WHITNEY (Isaac, Jason, Mark, Benjamin, John), b. Middlesex, N. Y., Nov. 12, 1817; m. Mar. 5, 1839, Sarah STROUP; b. Nov. 27, 1808; d. June 18, 1874; m. 2d, Aug. 17, 1875, Mahala STROUP; b. Aug. 3, 1825. Res. Mt. Clemens, Mich,; s.p. 1712. JESSE WHITNEY (Isaac, Jason, Mark, Benjamin, John), b. Middlesex, N.Y., May 3, 1808; m. 1835, Eliza C. SHEPHERD, b. 1819. He was a farmer. He d. Nov. 11, 1853; res. Macomb, Mich. 3678. i. JAMES VOAK, b. Jan. 4, 1839; m. Mary E. TAYLOR. 3679. ii. HORACE ISAAC, b. July 10, 1836; m. Minnie PRESTON and Mary ELIZABETH. 3680. iii. LEWIS DODGE, b. 1845; d. unm. Jan., 1865, in Libby prison; was in the 8th Mich. Cavalry. 3681. iv. HANNAH H. O., b. Nov. 14, 1847; m. May 23, 1867, Luther PARKER. 1714. JAMES WATKINS WHITNEY (Fisher, Jason, Mark, Benjamin, John), b. Italy, N.Y., June 21, 1803; m. June 10, 1828, in Vermillion, Ohio, Betsey HARPER, b. Mar. 17, 1806. She res. Kingston, Ill., with dau. Mary. Yates county, town of Italy, New York, on the 21st of June, 1803, witnessed the birth of James Watkins WHITNEY, the son of Fisher WHITNEY and Patty WATKINS, his wife. The boy James was early doomed to orphanage, for in March, 1805, the father, after an illness of three days, died, leaving James not yet two years, and Patty, his sister, not yet five years old. Yates county is mountainous, rocky and sterile, and just how its people, in those early days, wrought a livelihood is something of a mystery. But to him who hath patience and industry nothing is denied. There was, however, another requisite to insure success, in that forbidding land, viz., much hard labor. And in after years James W. WHITNEY often told his sons that he never remembered a time when he did not have to work. Those Yates county hill- sides must be cleared of the forests, and the valleys must be made fruitful. James therefore found, as he grew up, more than enough to do; and many days that ought to have been passed in the school house saw him, ax in hand, on the hill side. By and by his mother married a Mr. Wm. LEE; but still the opportunities for school were limited. We find him therefore at twenty-one accomplished about as farmers' boys of that period, viz., reading, writing, spelling and arithmetic. With his majority he struck for newer and more prosperous fields and settled in Berlin, Erie county, Ohio. Here, after some further years of hard toil, he saved enough to purchase a farm, and then began in real earnest the battle of life. But a piece of good fortune was just here awaiting him, for by accident, Miss Betsey HARPER, a young and sprightly school teacher, a relative of the celebrated HARPER Brothers, publishers of New York, crossed his path, and forthwith young WHITNEY found that he had met his fate. In June, 1828, he married Miss HARPER and took her to his farm, about one mile north of Berlin Heights. Here was his home for sex years, when he sold out and bought again some four miles father south, where he remained until May, 1848, when he removed to Kingston, DeKalb county, Illinois. His farm in Kingston was one of the most beautiful in the state; but in those early days times were hard, and the farmers often hauled their wheat 60 miles to Chicago and sold it a 50 cents per bushel. There is not much to be said usually about the daily round of a farmer's life. The crops are planted in the spring and garnered in the fall. The seasons come and go, the children grow up and marry and make homes of their own. In this family there were eight children -three sons and five daughters. But when the war of 1861 broke upon the country, these three boys all went into the army, and the father would have gone, too, but the government refused to accept him. Meanwhile one of his daughters (Eliza) had married and settled at Quasqueton, Buchanan county, Iowa, and on a visit to her in 1870 he was so favorably impressed with the place that he sold his Kingston farm to his son Samuel, and settled in Quasqueton. His life here was quiet and uneventful, and on July 24, 1081, after an illness of three days he died and is there buried. He was not a rich man, neither was he a poor man. He died leaving a competency to his widow, and a name respected by all who knew him. He d. July 24, 1882, in Iowa; res. Berlin, Ohio, and Kingston, Ill.
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