Whitman, Marcus, 1802–47, American pioneer and missionary in the Oregon country, b. Federal Hollow (later Rushville), N.Y. In 1836 he left a country medical practice to go West as a missionary for the joint Presbyterian-Congregationalist board. With his wife, Narcissa Prentiss Whitman, and others, he crossed from Missouri to the Columbia River country and founded a mission at Waiilatpu (now in Whitman Mission National Historic Site, near Walla Walla, Wash.). Disagreement among the missionaries and a board order (1842) to curtail their work led Whitman to ride back across the continent on horseback during the winter of 1842–43 to settle the various disputes. He was successful and returned with the "great emigration" of 1843 over the Oregon Trail. The Cayuse around Waiilatpu, never friendly, grew more hostile, and on Nov. 29, 1847, they attacked the mission and killed Whitman, his wife, and others. Later, there was argument as to whether Whitman made his ride of 1842–43 in order to "save" Oregon from the British, the boundary still being in dispute. However, this "Whitman legend" has been discredited.

Bibliography

See biographies by N. Jones (1959, repr. 1968) and C. M. Drury (1937, and 2 vol., 1973).

Whitman, Marcus

(born Sept. 4, 1802, Rushville, N.Y., U.S.—died Nov. 29, 1847, Waiilatpu, Oregon Territory) U.S. missionary and pioneer. A physician and Congregational missionary, he was sent to the Oregon region after offering his services to the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions. In 1836 he and his wife founded a mission among the Cayuse Indians near present-day Walla Walla, Wash. He helped the Indians build houses and a corn-grinding mill, and his wife opened a mission school. In 1842 he traveled east to encourage settlement of the Oregon country. On his return he joined a caravan of 1,000 immigrants to the Columbia River valley. He cared for Indian children in an 1847 measles epidemic, but he was accused of sorcery when many died while white children survived. The Indians attacked the whites and massacred 14, including the Whitmans. Their deaths led Congress to organize the Oregon Territory in 1848.

Whitman, Marcus (1802–47) physician, missionary; born in Rushville, N.Y. He established a mission near present-day Walla Walla, Wash., in 1836. After returning east, he brought over 900 settlers to Washington in 1843. Following a measles epidemic in which many Indians died but most whites survived, he and his wife were killed by Cayuse Indians.