Whitman, Marcus (1802-1847), was an American pioneer, doctor, and missionary among Native American peoples in what is now the Pacific Northwest of the United States. He also helped settle the region.
Whitman was born on Sept. 4, 1802, in Rushville, New York. He practiced medicine for eight years. In 1835, Whitman was appointed to serve as a Presbyterian physician to the Oregon country by the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions. Whitman traveled to the Pacific Northwest in 1836 with his wife, Narcissa, and missionaries William H. Gray and Henry and Eliza Spalding. The group drove a cart as far as Fort Boise, Idaho, thus opening part of the Oregon Trail. The trail began in Independence, Missouri, and became the longest overland route used in westward expansion of the United States.
The Whitmans founded a mission near the site of the present-day city of Walla Walla, Washington. In 1842, Whitman left for Boston, Massachusetts, to persuade the board to keep his mission open. He also sought to promote settlement in the Pacific Northwest. He returned in 1843 with about 900 settlers. In 1847, an epidemic of measles among new settlers in Whitman’s community caused the deaths of many Native American children. Some Cayuse people, who probably believed their children were poisoned, killed the Whitmans and several others later that year, on Nov. 29, 1847. A statue of Whitman in the U.S. Capitol represents the state of Washington.
