For pretty much the past century, we have lived in a world where Glenn Curtiss was the most famous Steuben County person… though there were spells in there where Margaret Sanger gave him a run for his money.
*But for the PREVIOUS century, the winner hands-downs would have been Marcus Whitman.
*After practicing medicine in Wheeler from 1828 to 1835, Whitman traveled out as far as today’s Idaho as a medical missionary. Such a journey was extremely unusual… very few white Americans had been out that far west since Lewis and Clark… but Whitman would soon top that.
*Returning home he married Narcissa Prentiss of Prattsburgh, and with another local couple the two set off for Oregon, where they made homes and began missionary work, along with medical practice and business ventures.
*Whitman went to St. Louis on mission business in 1843, and when he headed back he guided the first large wagon train of settlers, establishing the Oregon Trail as a viable route. His cross-country journeys were remarkable, but he and his wife had their fame solidified when they and 12 others were killed by Cayuse Indians in 1847. (While we can regret the atrocity, we need to also remember that the Cayuse themselves had been VICTIMS of atrocities, and that the region was teeming with conflict between Indian and European, British and American, Catholic and Protestant… not to mention the Mexican War and fierce conflicts over Mormonism.)
*Besides being remembered in the name of the “Whitman Massacre,” Marcus Whitman has numerous memorials across the country.
*The Whitman Mission National Historic Site was established (under different nomenclature) in 1936.
*Whitman College in Walla Walla was established in 1859, and now has some 1500 undergrads. Alumni include “Batman” actor Adam West and Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas.
*Marcus Whitman Central School District and Marcus Whitman High are in Rushville; Whitman once lived nearby.
*Wallowa-Whitman National Forest straddles the Idaho-Oregon state line. Theodore Roosevelt established it, under different nomenclature, in 1908.
*Whitman Glacier, and the Whitman Crest, are on Mount Rainier.
*A bronze tablet in Wheeler commemorates his service as a doctor.
*A plaque at Franklin Academy in Prattsburgh honors alumna Narcissa Prentiss, and also mentions Marcus. A historical marker at the Narcissa Prentiss House also mentions him.
*A plaque at DeWitt Park in Ithaca memorializes the commissioning of the Whitman-Spalding mission party.
*Whitman’s birthplace in Rushville has a New York State Historic marker.
*In Washington state, September 4 is Marcus Whitman Day.
*In 1977, Marcus Whitman was named to the Steuben County Hall of Fame.
*Each state gets to donate two statues to the National Statuary Hall at the U.S. Capitol, and Washington donated a statue of Marcus Whitman. (There’s a duplicate at Whitman College.) His “colleague” from Washington is Mother Joseph, a Roman Catholic nun who established schools, orphanages, hospitals, and shelters throughout the region. Given the attitudes of their own day, probably they would each be horrified, if not enraged, to be paired with a “heretic.” But the times, and the mores, both march on.