Family:Whitney, Josiah Dwight (1819-1896)
Prof. Josiah Dwight8 Whitney, L.L.D. (Josiah Dwight7, Abel6, Aaron5, Moses4, Moses3, Richard2, John1), son of Josiah Dwight7 and Sarah (Williston) Whitney, was born 23 Nov 1819, Northampton, MA. and died 18 Aug 1896, Lake Sunapee, NH.[1]
He married, 5 Jul 1854, Louisa (Goddard) Howe, daughter of Samuel and Mehitable May (Dawes) Goddard. She was born 17 Dec 1819, Manchester, England, and died 12 May 1882, Cambridge, MA, aged 62 years 4 months 26 days, of strangulated hernia.[2]
Louisa Goddard had married firstly, 1 Mar 1842, John Howe, Jr., son of John and Hannah Williams (Heath) Howe. They apparently were divorced.
John Howe, Jr., married secondly, 27 Dec 1854, Emma Dana. He died 16 Oct 1870, Poughkeepsie, NY.
Josiah remarried secondly, 26 May 1871, Cambridge, MA, Louisa (Goddard)(Howe) Whitney,[3] who had been his first wife.
Prof. Josiah Dwight Whitney was born in Northampton, MA, 23 Nov 1819. He was graduated at Yale in 1839, and then spent six months in the chemical laboratory of Dr. Robert Roma in Philadelphia. In 1846 he joined the survey of New Hampshire as assistant geologist under Charles T. Jackson, and remained connected with that work until May 1842, when he went abroad. For five years he traveled on the continent of Europe, and pursued chemical, geological and mineralogical studies. On his return to this country in 1847, he engaged in the geological exploration of the Lake Superior region and, with John W. Foster, was in the same year appointed by the U. S. government to assist Charles T. Jackson in making a geological survey of that district. Two years later the completion of the survey was entrusted to Foster and Whitney, who published "Synopsis of the Explorations of the Geological Corps in the Lake Superior Land District in the Northern Peninsula." (Washington, 1849), and "Report on the Geology and Topography of a portion of the Lake Superior Land District of the State of Michigan;" (part. i., copper lands, 1850; part. ii., the iron region, 1851]. On the completion of this work, he traveled for two years through the states east of the Mississippi river for the purpose of collecting information with regard to the mining and mineral interests in this country. His results were issued as "The Metallic Wealth of the United States, Described and Compared with that of Other Countries" (Philadelphia, 1854). In 1855 he was appointed state chemist and professor in the Iowa state university, and was associated with James Hall in the geological survey of that state, issuing "Reports on the Geological Survey of Iowa" (2 vols., Albany, 1858-59]. During 1858-60, Prof. Whitney was engaged in a geological survey of the lead region of the upper Missouri, in connection with the official surveys of Wisconsin and Illinois, publishing, with James Hall, a "Report on the Geological Survey of the State of Wisconsin" (Albany, 1862). He was appointed state geologist of California in 1860, and engaged in conducting a topographical, geological and natural history survey of that state until 1874, when the work was discontinued by act of legislature. Besides various pamphlets and annual reports on the subject, he issued six volumes under the title of "Geological Survey of California" (Cambridge, 1864-70). In 1865 he was appointed professor of geology in Harvard, which chair he still retains, with charge of its school of mining and practical geology. The degree of L.L.D. was conferred on him by Yale in 1870. Prof. Whitney was one of the original members of the National academy of sciences, named by act of congress in 1863, but he has since withdrawn from that body. He is also a member of other scientific bodies, both at home and abroad. In addition to contributing to the American Journal of Science, the North American Review and similar periodicals, he has translated Berzelius' "Use of the Blowpipe" (Boston, 1845), and is the author of the "Yosemite Guide Book" (San Francisco, 1869). Prof. Whitney has made a specialty of collecting a library of geological and geographical books. Mount Whitney, the highest mountain in the United States, was named in his honor. His wife Louisa Goddard, was born in Manchester, England, 17 Dec 1819; died in Cambridge, 13 May 1882; is the author of "The Burning of the Convent, a Narrative of the Destruction of the Ursuline school on Mount Benedict, Charlestown, by one of the pupils" (Cambridge, MA, 1877), and "Peasy's Childhood, and Autibiography" (1878); resided Cambridge, MA.
For more information see Archives - Biographies
Children of Josiah Dwight8 and Louisa (Goddard) Whitney:
i. Eleanor Goddard9 Whitney, b. 29 Nov 1856, Northampton, MA; d. 14 May 1882; m. 30 Jun 1880, Cambridge, MA, Thomas Allen, Jr., son of Thomas and Ann R. (-----) Allen, b. ca. 1850, St. Louis, MO; artist.[4]
Census
247 311 Josiah D. Whitney 64 M - None $9100 Mass. Clarissa J. " 49 F - " Clarissa " 60 F - " Elizabeth " 65 F - " J. D. " 30 M - U.S. Geologist " Maria " 19 F - " Edward P. " 17 M - Student " Attended school James L. " 14 M - " Attended school Alice D. " 9 M - " Attended school Henry M. " 7 M - " Elizabeth Putnam 28 F - " Catherine " 1 F - Wis. Margaret Dagley 25 F - Ireland Illiterate Eliza Hunt 14 F - Mass.
303 363 John Howe Jr. 31 M - Manufacturer Mass. Louisa " 31 F - England Annie " 8 F - Mass. Ellen " 30 F - Ireland Josiah Whitney 30 M - Geologist Mass.
- 1860: not found.
- 1870: not found.
- 1880, Cambridge, Middlesex Co., MA:
Josiah D. WHITNEY 60 Self M M W MA Prof Of Geology MA MA Louisa WHITNEY 60 Wife F M W ENG Keep House MA MA Ealenor G. WHITNEY 21 Dau F S W MA MA ENG Elizabeth PUTNAM 20 Niec F S W CA MA MA Mary CARTY 35 Oth F S W IRE Servant IRE IRE Ellen MORAN 35 Oth F S W IRE Servant IRE IRE Thomas ALLEN 30 Oth M S W MA Artist MA MA
References
- All data imported from Frederick Clifton Pierce, The Descendants of John Whitney, Who Came from London, England, to Watertown, Massachusetts, in 1635, (Chicago: 1895), pp. 485-486.
1.^ Josiah Dwight Whitney, at Wikipedia.com.
2.^ "Massachusetts Vital Records, 1841–1910," from original records held by the Massachusetts Archives. Online database: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2004; volume 338, page 59.
3.^ "Massachusetts Vital Records, 1841–1910," from original records held by the Massachusetts Archives. Online database: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2004; volume 236, page 129.
4.^ "Massachusetts Vital Records, 1841–1910," from original records held by the Massachusetts Archives. Online database: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2004; volume 317, page 61.
Copyright © 2006, 2009, 2010, 2015, Robert L. Ward and the Whitney Research Group.
