Marcus Whitman
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Marcus Whitman (September 4, 1802–November 29, 1847) was an American physician and missionary in the Oregon Country. He is famous for leading the first large party of wagon trains along the Oregon Trail, establishing it as a viable for the thousands of emigrants who used the trail in the following decade.
[edit] Biography
After his father's death, when Whitman was seven years old, he moved to Rushville, New York to live with his uncle. He dreamed of becoming a minister but did not have the money for such a time-consuming curriculum. Instead, apprenticing himself, he studied medicine for two years with an experienced physician and received his degree from Fairfield Medical College. In 1834 he applied to the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions. In 1835, he traveled with missionary Samuel Parker to present-day north-western Montana and northern Idaho, to minister to the Native American bands of the Flathead and Nez Percé people. At that time, he promised the Nez Percé that he would return with other missionaries and teachers to live with them. Two years later, Whitman married Narcissa Prentiss, a teacher of physics and chemistry. Narcissa had been eager to travel west as a missionary, but she had been unable to do so as a single woman.
Marcus and Narcissa made an extraordinary team. In 1836, they, and a group of other missionaries including Henry H. Spalding, joined a caravan of fur traders and traveled west, establishing several missions as well as their own settlement, Waiilatpu (Why-ee-lat-poo, the 't' is half silent). Located in the Walla Walla Valley, just west of the northern end of the Blue Mountains, near the present day city of Walla Walla, Washington. The settlement was in the territory of both the Cayuse and the Nez Percé tribes of Native Americans. Marcus farmed and provided medical care, while Narcissa set up a school for the Native American children. In 1843, Whitman travelled east, and on his return he helped lead the first large group of wagon trains west from Fort Hall, in eastern Idaho. Known as the "Great Emigration", it established the viability of the Oregon Trail for the homesteaders that followed.
The influx of white settlers in the territory brought new diseases to the Indian tribes, including a severe epidemic of measles in 1847. The limited health practices of the Native Americans and their lack of immunity to new diseases led to a high mortality rate. The zealous conversion attempts by the Whitmans as well as the recovery of many white patients fostered the belief among the Native Americans that Whitman was causing the death of his Indian patients. According to some contemporaries, including Rev. Henry H. Spalding, the situation was aggravated by ongoing animosity between the Protestant missionaries and local Catholic priests. The Indian tradition of holding medicine men personally responsible for the patient's recovery eventually resulted in violence. In what became known as the Whitman Massacre, Cayuse tribal members murdered the Whitmans in their home on November 29, 1847. Twelve other white settlers in the community were also killed.
Whitman is commorated by Marcus Whitman Central School in Rushville, NY, Whitman College and Whitman County, Washington, as well as the Marcus Whitman hotel in Walla Walla. In 1953, the state of Washington donated a statue of Whitman to the National Statuary Hall Collection.
