Whitman, Marcus
pioneer, was born Sept. 4, 1802, in Rushville, N. Y.
Dr. Whitman, and the Rev. Henry N.
Spaulding and their young wives, set out in 1836, and crossed the Rocky mountains by the South Pass, through which John C. Fremont's party penetrated six years later. Mrs. Whitman and Mrs.
Spaulding were the first white women to cross the mountains. Whitman is credited with saving Oregon to the union. He was subsequently massacred with his wife and two children by the Cayuse Indians. He died Nov. 29, 1847, in Waulatpu, Oregon. WHITMAN, MRS. SARAH HELEN [POWER], poet, was born in 1803, in Providence, R. I. She was a poet of Providence whose Still Day in Autumn, her finest effort, still finds an honored place in anthologies. She is the author of Hours of Life, and Other Poems; and Edgar Poe and his Critics. A complete edition of her poems appeared in 1879.
She died June 27, 1878, in Providence, R. I.
WHITMAN, WALTER [WALT], poet, was born May 31, 1819, in West Hills, N.
Y. During the civil war he served as a volunteer nurse in the Washington hospitals, and, after holding a government clerkship till 1873, removed to Camden, N. J., where the rest of his life was passed. Leaves of Grass, his first book, appeared in 1855. Drum Taps, which included the now famous Lincoln elegies, When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloomed, and O Captain, My Captain, followed in 1865. His later works include, After All Not to Create Only; A Passage to India; As a Strong Bird on Pinions Free; Two Rivulets; November Boughs; Good Bye My Fancy; Sands at Seventy; Specimen Days and Collect; in prose, Franklin Evans, or the Inebriate; Democratic Vistas; and Memoranda During the War. My Captain is his most popular poem. He died March 25, 1892, in Camden, N. J.
WHITMARSH, CAROLINE SNOWDEN, author, was born June 1, 1827, in Boston, Mass. Her books include Violet; Daisy; Never Mind the Face; and the Summer- House Series on scientific subjects. She has compiled Hymns for Mothers and Children; Hymns of the Ages, the first series with Mrs. Anne E. Guild; and Prayers of the Ages.