Image provided by: University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries, Lincoln, NE
About Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922 | View Entire Issue (Aug. 9, 1908)
The Omaha Bee No Filthy ensstloita THE OMAHA DEC Best i". West FART III. unday HALF-TQ!!E SECTION PACKS 1 TO 4. vol. xxxvm-m 8. OMAHA, SUNDAY MOENLNG, AUGUST 9, 1908. SINGLE COPY FIVE CENTS. DAVID WHITNEY PIONEER SOLDIER SUCCESSFUL FARMER Descendant of a Long T.faA of Energetic Men and Women Scoffs at a Gloomy Prophet and Makes His Way Out West to Many Adventures and an Old Age of Peace and Plenty. OLD "UNCLE" ELIPHALET POTTS, back In Maeaachuaetta, book bla white bead alowly and frowned when he heard that the Whitney boya and their father were going away ' out to the wilda of Wlsconain. That waa back in 1843. , Aa be aat In hie accustomed place in the corner atore at Bfow, Maaa., be deliTered himself of wladom thus, after hla accua tonied manner: "There ain't going to no good come to folka that bean't satisfied f to stay where the Lord put 'em. I waa born here and I atayed here ' all my life and here I be waltin' for the Lord to call me hum." It waa true Ellphalet had atayed there aU hla life and there ha waa. But beyond that nothing much could be aaid In hla favor. Ha had been one of the most rampant oppoaera to the railroad. He had pointed out that when the steam cara were started it would put all the horses out of business, to say nothing of the keepers of taverna along the high road. Ellphalet was a conservative of the hardest shell. The "Whitney boys of whom he propheeled auch a dire future, were the rising generation of a family which haa achieved much all over the world and which at that time had been a leading one In Now England affaire for two oenturtea. In spite of "Uncle" Elt pralet's calamltoua croaking, the Whitney boya went west in 1843, going by rail from Springfield, Mass., to Albany, N. Y., thence by canal boat to Buffalo and there on a "propeller," one of the first steamboats in use, to Southport, Wia., on the west ahore of Lake Michigan, where their father had taken up 400 acres of government land. t- ilUB lUO VI kl'U . UIWV w J i , " "It - " - r v. u. 1 1RK mil ham Ifvad hra nSntlniimmlT alnca IIIBUO. 119 IU I J Ul awv - ' " - ' - " " J then. But between the time he left hla New England home and the time he aettled ln Omaha he went throogh one of the fiercest and at- the same time most piotureeque conflict In the history of tha world, the Mexican war. Descendant of the Nomans The ancestral tree of the Whrtney family la exceedingly Interest ing. It possesses that absorbing fascination that cornea from an asso ciation with great names, a participation m the brilliant acenes and historic events of the centuries that axe gone. Mr. Whitney of Omaha traces hla descent from Buataoe Whitney, who went to England with William the Conqueror la 1016 and waa granted lands In Hereford shire. He was the ancestor of a long line of knights who were dis tinguished In the wars agalnat the Scotch and the. French and in the War of the Rosea, sir Eustace de Whitney waa born in 1280; Sir. Eustace Whitney, hla son, waa a member of Parliament in 1328; then came Sir Robert Whitney, member of Parliament In 1377; hia aon. Sir Robert, waa knight marshal to King Richard II; Robert Whitney waa sheriff of Gloucester In 1527; John Whitney lived la London and emigrated to the United States m 1635, aettling at Watertown, Maaa; Moaea Whitney waa a soldier in King Phlllp'a war In 1652: then came successively Abraham Whitney. 1682; Abra ham Whitney, 1724; Captain Abraham Whitney, a aoldier In Wash ington's army, born 1762; Jonathan Whitney, born 1797, and then tne generation to wnicn uavia wminey oi unuiai ueiuug. Upon the maternal aide the family haa made all klnda of noble alliancea. The wise men Who trace lineages say the Whltneya are connected in maternal line with auch aoverelgna aa William1 the Con i .queror, Henry I, Henry n, King John. Henry TO, Edward L Edward II, Edward III, Malcolm III of Scotland. Ferdinand HI of Castile, Robert, the pioua king of France, and others. Upon this list, how ever, Mr. Whitney looks through smoked glasses, and while he has no objection to receiving the glittering array of crowned heads Into tha family, he regards hla claim to this distinction conservatively. April 6, 1827, was the date of David Whttnys birth and Lima, N. H., waa the place. It waa In the heart of the conservative district, where there are few human rolling atones and where nearly every- body Bee ma to gather mosa thronghovt a long ttferime. Bat the Whltneya began to migrate early, tor when David waa stm s amall chl'd they moved to Stow, Maaa., a town formerly owned by their .ancestora. There tho father opened a general store and prospered. Then came the panic of '37 and he found himself penniless. .Then It was that he went to the far west and soon thereafter the Whitney boya followed hlin. In spite of the dire prophesy of "Uncle" Ellphalet Potts. I, I , . . : . . .V . : . ..,v. A ' " ' ' V' : " ; : ' (;;; '-A I 'A 3, ' -'. . ' ' '; V--. --.Ve.v'' ' , I I. " ,: :" . '.''-;'. vv'X' "" ' ' -' 1 I (n? i '- " f1;;-':':' - ' f' -.-. r' ' . SS. , ,f ,.,' DAVID WHITNEY. In the Mexican War Four yeara paased In the wilderness. 'Then the Whitney boys did something that would have caused old "Uncle" Ellphalet, back Is Massachusetts, to open his eyes still wider and shake his head still harder. They enlisted for the Mexican war. Tbe manner of It Is related by Mr. Whitney, whose memory is as apod as though events of 184 7 had happened yesterday. "A neighbor of oura named Holmes became dtaconraged, havtng lost hia wheat crop, and, meeting my elder brother one day, aald he would enlist if he oould get someone to go with him," says Mr. Whit ney. "My brother discussed It with father and father, believing the war waa nearly over and that we would oome In for a land warrant by enlisting, consented to oar going. We left home one Friday even ing:, striking aeroEa the prairie northeast for Milwaukee. The three of 3 wa'kcd through the ulght and at t o'clock next morning arrived at 'he enlisting place where, after tbe usual examination, we were i lng we were aboard a ship and started on oar way to the far-away battlefields. Hardly were we off when this man Holmes began to get xnopy. He was naturally of a saturnine temperament. I remember he said that he would have been all right had we enlisted for only five yeara. But we had enlisted tor the war,' and he thought the war would drag on for fifteen or twenty years. Poor fellow, he never got entirely over his gloom and died finally in Mexico. "The boat carried ns as far as Toledo. There we took train and went to Cincinnati, where we secured our arms and equipment. Then we embarked on a river boat and floated down to New Orleans, where we were all loaded on an ancient sailing ship which had been condemned for passengers but was considered good enough for sol diers. The trip to Vera Cms, Mexico, took eleven days. That city had been Invested by Qeneral Scott, who had moved on Inland toward the City of Mexico with his troops and was camped at Puebla, about 160 mlloa away." Marching in the Tropics After camping at Vera Crua five days the regiment tn which Mr. Whitney and hia brother were began it march inland to re-enforce Scott and participate In the great campaign whoae object waa tha capture of Mexico City. The line of march lay along a narrow road bordered on each aide by the thick vegetation of the tropica. The aun beat down from directly overhead with all ita torridity. The American soldiers were heavily loaded with guns, ammunition,, blankets and knapsacks. They had not gone far before some of the soldiers bean throwing their blankets aside. But these were forced to go back and take them up again. Within a few daya they had begun to ascend the Cordilleras, a high range of mountains, and with the Increased altitude the temperature fell until the soldiers could hardly keep warm at night even In their blankets. Nearly two weeka were required to make the march to Puebla. But they were two weeka full of wonder. The historic Interest alone was great In that country, tbe home of the Aztecs, that unchanging race which alts today, idly, dreamily, languidly, generation after generation and watches tbe pageant of pomp and power, the rise and fall of strug gling peoplea. of ambltioue men. and aeema to aay. "Vanity, vanity, aU la vanity. What'a the use of atruggllng. Live, rat, sleep, die. That Is the bust plan to be happy." Over this same road Cortes had Vied his Invincible of Spain 800 years before and conquered the an cestors of those satne Asteca who now watched In idle wonder the advance of the American army. The city of Puebla Itself waa aet In a position unique in all the world. A plateau 7,000 feet above sea level la the aite of this beautl Jtul "dtf of Angela," so beautiful as to be fit. in hot Imagination at least, tor celestial Inhabitants. So high Is the plateau that corn, wheat, barley and other producta of the northern rones flourish there. Around It all la the sublime range of the Cordilleras. Only six miles from Puebla were the ruins of the ancient city of Cholula, once filled with the seething life of 200,000 inhabitants, now lying silent aa the tomb In the white heat of the aun. After camping in Puebla several days General Pillow proceeded toward the valley In which the City of Mexico is situated, there to join with General Scott in the final blow which tt was hoped would result In the fall of the capital. "We left Puebla," saya Mr. Whitney, "on August 10. The marching was rough a great part of the way. The country waa barren, with nothing In It but rocks and cactus. And then suddenly one day we topped an eminence and came In sight of the great valley of Mexico, with the beautiful city In the center of It, like a diamond In the middle of a sheet of green velvet The city waa surrounded by diverging shady paseos, bright fields and picturesque haciendas. The great lake Tescuco lay Immediately beyond the city, shaded by a floating cloud which 'concealed the bases of the volcanoes, Popo catepetl and Iztlcacihnatl, while their snowy summltB glowed brightly above In the aun. It waa a magnificent sight, but it also marked the place where strong fortifications were to be stormed and where the enemy, almost four times our own number, lay behind lntrenchmenta ready to mow ns down and aeemlngly able to do it" Mexico City la built tn the mldat of this spacious valley In a aite which is low and which is approached In all directions by great cause ways. These canaewaya were the key to the city, particularly the one from the south. There It was on August 20 that the series of five battles occurred. In each ct.ee the Mexicans were strongly in trenched; In each case they outnumbered the Americans, yet In each case the Americana were gloriously victorious. In two of the worst of these battles David Whitney was engaged, Ccntreras and Cheru buaco. Capture of Contreras "We were very doubtful about Contreras," he aayB. "Every thing aeemed against us. The Mexicans were strongly Intrenched on the heights and General Santa Ana had put so many men there that he thought there could be no chance for us to gain the position. It rained bard the night before. The ground over which we stumbled was covered with rocks, prickly pear and cactus; there were ditches filled with water and lined with the maguey plant. But this only seemed to make ns the more anxious to do something and when the signal was finally given at 6 o'clock in the morning we sprang up the heights in the rear and on the flank of the astonished Mexicans, And they, terrified like the Philistines when Jonathan and hla armor- bearer put them to flight, ran pell niell toward tho city. The actual fight lasted only aeventeen minutes and put us lu possession of theli position." The next fight of the busy day was at Cherubusco, a fortreei atandlng at one end of a bridge In the causeway loading to the city. This was built of Etone. Within the main wall was a castle and back of the castle a church rising to a great height. Early In this engage ment David missed his brother from his side where he usually stayed even In battle. He found hlin shot throuph the knee. After Cheru busco had been taken there was a call for some to remain behind and help the surgeons and hospital corps. David returned, therefore, and attended his brother. He was taken to a hospital and after tha city was taken was removed thither. But he died noon after this re movalrthe ride over rough roads in a sprlngless wagon being appar ently too much for him. After this David fell "Irk with fever and was In the hospital for a number of weeks. When he recovered ha waa engaged for a time In skirmishes with the guerillas. Home from the War When peace was finally declared he went back with hla regi ment, walking from Mexico City to Vera Crus, where they took a steamer, reaching New Orleans in four days; thence they came up the river by steamboat and landed at Cincinnati, and thenco went home by the same route by which he and his two companions had come out He was the only one of the three to return. "I was aa yellow aa a saffron bag," he says. Ills father died aoon after hla return, the loss of his son In the war apparently doing much toward causing his death. David worked for a time with a threshing machine. Then he utilized the land war rant which, as a soldier In the Mexican war, he had received from the government, and took up land near Appleton, Wis. He built a house In the town and lived there six years. Then two other families in the town decided to try their fortunes In the new commonwealth of Nebraska, which had just been oponed for settlement. David deter mined to join them. He left his wife and children snug in their Appleton home and came with the other Appletonlans south by boat to Chicago, by rail to St. Louis and then by boat up the river. Hla friends tarried in Kansas and be came on up to Council Bluffs. "I stopped the first night at the Pacific house in Council Bluffs," aays Mr. Whitney. "I asked the proprietor when I could get over to Omaha. 'The hack goes over in the morning,' he Bald. The next morning I looked cut and saw an old hay rack drawn up before tha door. I thought some farmers were going out to haul hay. Just then the proprietor spoke to me. 'Ain't you going to Omaha?' he asked. 'Yes, I'm waiting for the hack,' I said. 'Well, there It is,' he said. So I got on the hay rack and rode over to Omaha. I stopped at the old Douglas house and soon got work chopping wood up north and rafting It down the river. In the fall I returned to Appleton and brought my wife and children out, making the trip in all the cold of that very cold winter and reaching Omaha in January." Life in Omaha Mr. Whitney bought a farm which Is now comprised between Thirtieth and Thirty-eighth streets and between Farnam and Daven port atreeta. He lived on this place five years. Then' the civil war broke out and he left the farm to become a clerk In the general atore operated by "Sam" and "Jlra" Megeath on Farnam street, between Thirteenth and Fourteenth streets. This was the beginning of com mercial ventures which were at times very profitable and at other times equally disastrous. First he bought a grocery store from a Frenchman. Then he went Into partnership with Samuel Megeath In the wholesale grocery business at Fourteenth and Douglas atreeta under the firm name of Megeath, Whitney & Co. He bought out hla partner In 1871 and in 1878 after other changea, he handed over hla - farm to creditors and retired. Later be was engaged also In the com mission business, which he conducted successfully for many years. He has lived for a number of years now in a nandsome home at 5010 Izard Btreet He was married in Appleton, WlB., July 31, 1851, and Mrs.. Whitney la still living and In aa good health aa her venerable husband. They have had five children, of whom two are still living. They are Burt H. Whitney, broker, who resides next to hia parents, and Mrs. Walter G. Clark, who lives with her parents. Mr. Whitney waa very 111 a dozen yeara ago and finally in despair decided to live without meat. Tbe result was that he is a hale and hearty and active man, and physicians have told him he has the pulae of a child, though he 1b more than 80 years old. All of which 'he attributes to the fact hat he uses no meat. He once belonged to tbe Odd Fellows' lodge and la of the Unitarian faith. Three of hla brothers are still living: Jonathan Whitney lives In Pestago, Wis., snd Is 83 years old; Andrew Whitney lives In Burlington, la., and la 79 years of age, and Edwin lives In Chicago, a mere boy of 77. If old "Uncle" EUi halet Potts could see David Whitney today he would be compelled to admit that he haa lived a truly broad life full of events, full of strife and action and yet tempered by that philo sophy which looka farther than the petty material things of the prea ent day. "I never worshiped money or any of the temporal things of earth. I tried to get them honestly, but failing to get them or losing them after I had succeeded never worried me," Bays Mr. Whitney, and therein lies perhapa a goodly part of the secret of a long Ufa thrpugh many strenuous yeara. Volcanic Scenes Rarely Beheld by Human Being's Mighty Eruptions in Bering Sea Which for Two Years Have Been Making and Destroying New Lands THE greatest show place In thla country In 1906 and last summer was at the southern edge of Bering sea, a little northwest of Unalaska Island, where one of the most wonderful volcanic eruptions on record waa In progress. Two new islets were lifted above the sea between two old Islets, snd the outpouring of hot lava continued till they made land all around the four high rocks: The new cones, from 400 to 500 feet high, were steaming Uke puddings. It waa a wonderful spectacle. A scientific party from the Massachusetts Institute of Tech nology arrived juat in time to see it last summer at Its beat In two aspects the scene was one upon which human beings rarely gaae. - The party had reached a place where the earth was alive and lands were in the making. Only sixteen months earlier the water was sixty feet deep between the two outlying rocks, where now waa land. Another aspect of the spectacle waa equally Impressive. These rocka stood right on the edge of s precipice where the water suddenly deepens to a depth of 6,000 feet. What the explorere saw above the surface waa merely the top of an Im mense conical mass beneath the waves. They saw only the venta or crater openings of a volcano that In course of time had risen from the bottom of the sea to a height of 6,000 feet This volcano la 2,000 feet higher than Vesuvius or Mont Pelee. The place waa already famoua, because when the two outer Islets rose above the sea their blrtB as bits of land was witnessed and recorded. The latest eruption began In 1906, and the technology party waa sent out laat year to aee what was going on. Prof. T. A. Jagger of Harvard, the geologist of the party, has written an account of the erup tion for the Bulletin of the American Geographical Boclety, and the facts given here are from his nar rative. When the Trouble Started The troublea began 112 yeara ago. Bogoslof, as the Russians named it, rose above the sea with a turmoil that frightened the folks on Unalaska, forty miles away. It Is now known as Castle Rock and Is much smaller than formerly. During the tecent eruption it waa so bom barded by falling stones and volcanic sand that its pinnacles are much sharper than they were a little over a year ago. Another Interesting tact la that the whole Island waa lifted during eight montba of 1906 and 1907 about twenty-five feet higher above the sea than it was before. Prof. Jaggcr says that thla meana either that a large mass of lava Is spreading aldewlse below and lift ing the volcano on Its back, or the whole sea floor la slowly warping upward and carrying tbe chain of islands with it. Thla lonely rock had no companion until 1888. Ita Area had left It and It waa the home of many sea llona and guillemots. Then another great convulsion came and a new islet was born about a mile and a half away. It kept changing; its size and shape until It finally became an extinct, flat-topped rock, now known as Orewlngk, the name of a Russian geog rapher. Vessels have long steamed between the two Islets snd they have) commonly been known to mariners as the Bogoslof Islands. Early la 1906 OJ&CS taaims llvaly again, and when the government steamer Albatross arrived there on May 2 9 it reported that a new rock had appeared from which immense volumes of steam were escaping through new venta in the mass. It was named Met calf Cone in honor of the secretary of the navy. It was ascended later by Robert Dunn In spite of the steam and temperatures up to 212 degrees at the steam venta, and he found it surmounted by a great column of lava that formed a pinnacle whose top was 390 feet above aea level. Prof. Jagger saya that it was like the famous tower or spine of Mont Pelee, a mass of lava pushed out In nearly a solid condition so that It could not flow down like the lavas of Hawaii. Another New Peak Then in the spring of last year Captain Dlrka, a local trader, brought newa that a still newer peak bad risen beside Metcalf Cone. The cutter McCulloch visited the acene in July and gave the name of McCulloch Peak to the new steaming heap. It also reported that Metcalf Cone had split In two. half of tt collapsing, bat the great lava spiue was still there and waa revealed In all Ita grandeur from the too to the sea edge. This was the situ ation when the technology party arrived on Au gust 7. Great changes were constantly occurring. Mc Culloch peak was the most aensatlonal object, a steaming heap of lava bouldera. Rocks were tumbling, now and then, from the rising cliffs above to the foot slopes. But on the whole, every thing was quiet, though dangerous looking. The ateam rose la various plaoea from rifts Is the hot rock of McCulloch peak, and all the water around la turbid and hot The remarkable prevalence of life among these sceneB astonished the explorers. The hot earth waa heaving and heaping, but hundreds of sea Hons disported themselves in the waters and lay along the shores of the new lands, and the cilffa were alive with innumerable sea birds that seemed to luxuriate in the volcanic warmth, and even amid the steam and heat and sulphur of McCul loch peak they were laying their eggs in the hoi low of the rocks and rearing their chicks. -In places even land grasses were beginning to grow, and beetles, mites, ticks and flies were found. There was another great convulsion after tha technology explorers left, and it was destructiva rather than constructive. On September 1 tha people living on Iliulluk saw a dense black cloud rhlng hdI the air was full of sulphur fumea. Then volcanic ash and sand began to fall and there were rumblings In distant Bogoslof. Peak Had Disappeared When the McCulloch again visited the group in October It found McCulloch peak absolutely gone, a steaming lagoon in its place and the rest of the island that embraced the bills piled high with fallen debris. The half of Metcalf Coue as well as tho two l.ler rocks was still standing. We do not know what has happened since. Perhaps other cones have arisen. It is unfortu nate that no observers have been in that neighbor hood since October last to study the remarkable processes of volcanoes among these Islands. The newa that this year will bring from the Bogoslof group wUl be awaited with Interest.