Archive:The Descendants of John Whitney, page 236
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The Descendants of John Whitney, Who Came from London, England, to Watertown, Massachusetts, in 1635, by Frederick Clifton Pierce (Chicago: 1895)
Transcribed by the Whitney Research Group, 1999.
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| 236 | WHITNEY GENEALOGY. |
a small scale. Twice during the war of 1812-15, he was driven away by the British. At one time the alarm was given that the British and Indians were coming from Lewiston and they left the breakfast on the table and fled. The British set fire to the village. The Eagle tavern was of logs, 24 feet square, and had one room. In 1819 he bought the property and built a frame addition to it, and celebrated the fin- ishing of it by a dinner July 4, 1820. At that time most of the pleasure seekers went to the Canada side. In 1831 Gen. WHITNEY bought the Cataract House, which had been built in 1825, and kept it as a sort of lodging house for the surplus business of the Eagle. in 1835 he built a stone addition to the Cataract. In 1836 he disposed of the Eagle property to Benjamin RATHBURN, of Buffalo. In Sept., 1836, he rented the Cataract to Milton HAWLEY, who was unsuccessful, and in August, 1838, he took the house again with his son, S. M. N. WHITNEY, and his son-in-law, D. R. JERAULD and kept the hotel under the firm of P. WHITNEY and Sons. The addition to the Cataract, in 1835, was a four-story stone buidling, 40x56 feet. In 1842-43 he made another addition of stone, 40x54 feet. In 1845 he added another stone addition, five stories high, 42x133 feet, containing the dining room. In 1845 he built a stone kitchen addition two stories high, 25x30 feet. In the spring of 1846 he disposed of all the property to S. M. N. WHITNEY, D. R. JERAULD, and J. F. TROTT, who carried on the hotel under the name of Whitney, Jerauld & Co. In 1841-43 he purchased some river lots and connected the buildings with the hotel. AN INTERESTING OCCASION. -- An event which few men see was celebrated at the Cataract House, Niagara Falls, on Wednesday evening last. It was the celebra- tion of the fiftieth anniversary of the marriage of Gen. Parkhurst WHITNEY and wife. For fifty years had this couple stemmed life's vicissitudes, and on this occasion the numerous friends and kindred of this remarkable couple gathered in social commun- ion to bestow congratulations and renew the recollections of early days. The cere- monies of the "golden wedding" were touching and imposing and were conducted by Rev. E. W. REYNOLDS, of this city. Gen. WHITNEY emigrated to this country with his wife forty-five years ago, and they have well earned their health and happiness which is with them in their old age. That it may remain with them for many years to come is the wish of all. -- Buffalo (N. Y.) Commercial, Oct. 17, 1855. He d. Apr. 26, 1862; res. Niagara Falls, N. Y. 3610. i. ASENATH B., b. Jan. 22, 1809. Asenath Beecher WHITNEY was the eldest child of Gen. Parkhurst WHITNEY, of Niagara Falls, N.Y. She was born in Geneva, N. Y., Jan. 22, 1809. When she was a year old her parents moved to Niagara Falls. Her father was employed as a surveyor for the Holland Land Purchase Com- pany. Parkhurst WHITNEY was a very intelligent man and gave his children every advantage possible in those days. Asen- ath WHITNEY was in many ways a remarkably brilliant woman. She was a very fine scholar and linguist, speaking French, Ital- ian and German fluently, and she also was a great reader and possessed of brilliant conversational powers and was an excep- tionally good musician. In 1837 there came to Niagara Falls a Polish gentleman who was a teacher of languages. This gentle- man, Pierre de KOWALEWSKI, was an exile, having been an officer in the 10th Lithuanian Lancers, and after the downfall of Poland, his estates being confiscated by the Russian government, he came to America in company with several other noblemen -- all offi- cers and men of fine presence and courtly manners. He was a fine linguist, speaking ten languages, and thus became a pro- fessor of languages. At Niagara Falls he met Asenath WHIT- NEY in 1836 and in 1837 they were married at Niagara Falls. He died at Havana, Cuba, in May, 1854. The result of this union was four children, only one of whom, Linda Alice, b. Mar. 27, 1849, is now living. All these children showed a special aptitude for study, music and the acquirement of languages. Olympia M., the eldest, b. Mar. 20, 1839, d. May, 1865, was a most brilliant musician; Helena, b. Mar. 9, 1842, d. Sept., 1864, a fine German scholar and organist; and Frederic Whitney, b. Dec. 22, 1843, d. Mar. 1, 1861, an unusual student, a lad of the brightest promise. Linda, the youngest, has also kept up the family record. She had studied the Polish language and in 1890 translated "The Jew," which was published by Dodd, Mead & Co., of New York. It is an historical novel by one of Poland's
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