Narcissa Prentiss Whitman (March 14, 1808 – November 29, 1847) was an American missionary in the

Oregon Country Oregon Country was a large region of the Pacific Northwest of North America that was subject to a long Oregon boundary dispute, dispute between the United Kingdom and the United States in the early 19th century. The area, which had been demarcat ...

of what would become the state of Washington. On their way to found the

Protestant Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that emphasizes Justification (theology), justification of sinners Sola fide, through faith alone, the teaching that Salvation in Christianity, salvation comes by unmerited Grace in Christianity, divin ...

Whitman Mission in 1836 with her husband, Marcus, near modern-day

Walla Walla, Washington Walla Walla ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Walla Walla County, Washington, United States. It had a population of 34,060 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, estimated to have decreased to 33,339 as of 2023. The combined populat ...

, she and Eliza Hart Spalding (wife of Henry Spalding) became the first documented European-American women to cross the

Rocky Mountains The Rocky Mountains, also known as the Rockies, are a major mountain range and the largest mountain system in North America. The Rocky Mountains stretch in great-circle distance, straight-line distance from the northernmost part of Western Can ...

Early life

Narcissa Prentiss was born in Prattsburgh, New York, on March 14, 1808. She was the third of nine children of Judge Stephen and Clarissa Prentiss, was the oldest of the five girls, followed by Clarissa, Mary Ann, Jane, and Harriet, and had four brothers. In 1819, Narcissa had a religious awakening and converted to the

Congregational Church Congregationalism (also Congregational Churches or Congregationalist Churches) is a Reformed Christian (Calvinist) tradition of Protestant Christianity in which churches practice congregational government. Each congregation independently a ...

. She was educated at the Franklin Academy in Prattsburgh, and for a time, taught primary school in there. Like many young women of the era, she became caught up in the

Second Great Awakening The Second Great Awakening was a Protestant religious revival during the late 18th to early 19th century in the United States. It spread religion through revivals and emotional preaching and sparked a number of reform movements. Revivals were a k ...

. She decided that her true calling was to become a missionary, and was accepted for missionary service in March 1835. However, she was rejected for foreign mission because she was unmarried, a problem she solved by suddenly marrying Dr. Marcus Whitman on February 18, 1836, in Angelica, New York.Allen, Opal Sweazea. ''Narcissa Whitman: An Historical Biography''. Binfords & Mort, 1959. Her birthplace in Prattsburgh is open to the public as the Narcissa Prentiss House. While the name is not much used today, the road from Prattsburgh, New York to Naples, New York was formerly called the Narcissa Prentiss Highway.

Journey west

Shortly after their wedding, the Whitmans along with the also recently married Henry and Eliza Spalding headed west for the

in March 1836 to begin their missionary activities amongst the natives. The journey was by sleigh, canal barge,

wagon A wagon (or waggon) is a heavy four-wheeled vehicle pulled by Working animal#Draft animals, draft animals or on occasion by humans, used for transporting goods, commodities, agricultural materials, supplies and sometimes people. Wagons are i ...

, river sternwheeler, horseback, and foot. Narcissa kept a journal of the trip. The founder of

Ogden, Utah Ogden ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Weber County, Utah, Weber County, Utah, United States, approximately east of the Great Salt Lake and north of Salt Lake City. The population was 87,321 in 2020, according to the United States Census ...

, Miles Goodyear, traveled with them until Fort Hall. On September 1, 1836, they arrived at Fort Walla Walla, a

Hudson's Bay Company The Hudson's Bay Company (HBC), originally the Governor and Company of Adventurers of England Trading Into Hudson’s Bay, is a Canadian holding company of department stores, and the oldest corporation in North America. It was the owner of the ...

outpost near present-day

. They then traveled on to

Fort Vancouver Fort Vancouver was a 19th-century fur trading post built in the winter of 1824–1825. It was the headquarters of the Hudson's Bay Company's Columbia Department, located in the Pacific Northwest. Named for Captain George Vancouver, the fort was ...

where they were hosted by Dr. John McLoughlin before returning to the Walla Walla area to build their mission. Whitman and Spalding were the first white women to cross the Rocky Mountains and live in the area. She was something of a novel addition to the community for the local Native Americans, the Cayuse.

Whitman Mission

The Whitman Mission began to take shape in 1837, eventually growing into a major stopping point along the

Oregon Trail The Oregon Trail was a east–west, large-wheeled wagon route and Westward Expansion Trails, emigrant trail in North America that connected the Missouri River to valleys in Oregon Territory. The eastern part of the Oregon Trail crossed what ...

Methodist Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a Protestant Christianity, Christian Christian tradition, tradition whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's brother ...

missionary Jason Lee would stop off in 1838 at the mission on his way east to gather reinforcements in the United States for his mission in the

Willamette Valley The Willamette Valley ( ) is a valley in Oregon, in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. The Willamette River flows the entire length of the valley and is surrounded by mountains on three sides: the Cascade Range to the east, the ...

. Then, in 1840, mountain man

Joseph Meek Joseph Lafayette Meek (February 9, 1810 – June 20, 1875) was an American pioneer, mountain man, law enforcement official, and politician in the Oregon Country and later Oregon Territory of the United States. A trapper involved in the fur tr ...

, whom the Whitmans met on their journey to the area, stopped off on his way to the Willamette Valley. Built at Waiilatpu, the settlement was about six miles (10 km) from Fort Walla Walla and along the Walla Walla River. At the mission, Whitman gave Bible classes to the native population, as well as teaching them Western domestic chores that were unknown to the Native Americans. Besides the missionary goals of converting the natives, she also ran the household. Her daily activities included cooking, washing and ironing clothes, churning butter, making candles and soap, and baking. Her letters home recounted her loneliness and life at the mission. On March 14, 1837, on her twenty ninth birthday, Whitman gave birth to the first white American born in Oregon Country. She named her Alice Clarissa after her grandmothers, and she would be their only natural child. Unfortunately, the child drowned in the Walla Walla River on June 23, 1839, at age two. Unattended for only a few moments, she had gone down to the river bank to fill her cup with water and fell in. Though her body was found shortly after, all attempts to revive her failed. However, other children came to the mission, including the Sager orphans, to whom Whitman became a second mother. Just before winter, in late 1842, Marcus traveled back east to recruit more

missionaries A missionary is a member of a religious group who is sent into an area in order to promote its faith or provide services to people, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care, and economic development.Thomas Hale 'On Being a Miss ...

for the mission. During the time he was away, Whitman traveled west and visited other outposts in the territory including Fort Vancouver, Jason Lee's

Methodist Mission The Methodist Mission was the Methodist Episcopal Church's 19th-century conversion efforts in the Pacific Northwest. Local Indigenous cultures were introduced to western culture and Christianity. Superintendent Jason Lee (missionary), Jason Lee was ...

near present-day

Salem, Oregon Salem ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Oregon, and the county seat of Marion County, Oregon, Marion County. It is located in the center of the Willamette Valley alongside the Willamette River, w ...

, and another mission near

Astoria, Oregon Astoria is a Port, port city in and the county seat of Clatsop County, Oregon, United States. Founded in 1811, Astoria is the oldest city in the state and was the first permanent American settlement west of the Rocky Mountains. The county is the ...

. Marcus returned with his nephew, Perrin, from his trip east in 1843.

Whitman massacre

Throughout their time in

, the Whitmans periodically encountered trouble with the native tribes. The Cayuse and the Nez Percé tribes were suspicious of the activities and the encroachment of the Americans. As early as 1841, Tiloukaikt had tried to force them to leave Waiilatpu and the ancestral homeland. In 1847, a

measles Measles (probably from Middle Dutch or Middle High German ''masel(e)'', meaning "blemish, blood blister") is a highly contagious, Vaccine-preventable diseases, vaccine-preventable infectious disease caused by Measles morbillivirus, measles v ...

epidemic broke out among the native population, which lacked immunity to the disease and it spread quickly. The American population had some limited immunity to measles which meant a lower mortality rate than the natives. This discrepancy stirred discontent among the natives who felt Marcus was only curing the white people while letting Indian children die. The resentment boiled over on November 29, 1847, when Tiloukaikt and others attacked the mission, killing both Whitmans. This event would be remembered as the Whitman massacre, in which eleven others were killed, including the young brothers John and Francis Sager. Many more were taken hostage. Five Cayuse were hanged for murder; see Cayuse Five.

Likeness

According to author O. W. Nixon, who published a portrait of Whitman drawn after her death: "No authentic picture of Mrs. Whitman is in existence. This portrait of her has been drawn under the supervision of a gentleman familiar with her appearance and with suggestions from members of her family. It is considered a good likeness of her."

References

Bibliography

*Jeffrey, Julie Roy. ''Converting the West: A Biography of Narcissa Whitman''. University of Oklahoma Press, 1991 *Schwantes, Carlos Arnaldo. ''The Pacific Northwest: An Interpretive History''.

University of Nebraska Press The University of Nebraska Press (UNP) was founded in 1941 and is an academic publisher of scholarly and general-interest books. The press is under the auspices of the University of Nebraska–Lincoln, the main campus of the University of Ne ...

, 1989, 1996 *Thompson, Erwin N. ''Whitman Mission National Historic Site: Here They Labored Among the Cayuse Indians''. National Park Service Historical Handbook Series No. 37, 1964 * Eaton, Jeanette. ''Narcissa Whitman: Pioneer of Oregon''. Harcourt, Brace, & Co., 1941

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Whitman, Narcissa 1808 births 1847 deaths People murdered in 1847 19th-century American people 19th-century American women People from Prattsburgh, New York American Presbyterian missionaries Presbyterian missionaries in the United States Cayuse War Female Christian missionaries Female murder victims Oregon Country Oregon pioneers Oregon Trail Washington (state) pioneers Pre-statehood history of Washington (state) People murdered in Washington (state) Cowgirl Hall of Fame inductees