Family:Whitney, Otis (1821-1901)

Capt. Otis⁸ Whitney (Otis⁷, Nathan⁶, Jonathan⁵, Jonathan⁴, Jonathan³, Benjamin², John¹), son of Otis⁷ and Betsey (Hawley) Whitney; born Seneca, New York, 13 Jun 1821; married 4 Oct 1854, in Monterey, New York, Harriett Newell Barnes, born 14 Sep 1829.

Otis Whitney, Jr., was born 13 Jun 1821, in the town of Seneca, Ontario County, state of New York, where he lived till nearly thirty years of age, working on the farm, attending school and studying law; was admitted to the practice in the supreme court of the state of New York at a general term of the court held in the city of Auburn, county of Cayuga, on the first day of November, 1847, but never engaged actively in practice, having no relish or respect for it. He traveled and taught school for three years, and then went into partnership with his brother-in-law, Tyler H. Abbey, who was a successful merchant at Watkins, Schuyler County, state of New York, and continued in business up to the fall of 1854, when he caught the western fever and decided to take the advice of Horace Greeley to "go west and grow up with the country." Before leaving he was united in marriage with the daughter of Dr. Enos Barnes, in western New York, a well known and popular physician and surgeon, and one of the earliest settlers on the west side of Seneca Lake. The newly married couple started immediately on the journey west, and finally located in Quasqueton, Buchanan County, state of Iowa, where he purchased two hundred acres of land, intending to make a farm of it, but finding more satisfactory employment in town never settled on the land. Most of the time up to 1862 was spent in clerking, overseeing flour and saw mills, and acting justice of the peace, for which office his previous study of law was especially helpful. In the fall of 1862 he went into the army as first lieutenant of Company H, Twenty-seventh Regiment Iowa Volunteer Infantry. In camp of instruction he was familiar with the drill, etc., as he had been studying the tactics from the commencement of the war and in command of and drilling a company of home guards for more than a year. In a few weeks the regiment was ordered to the field, or as the popular phrase is, to the front, and not more than half drilled or disciplined. On 10 Apr 1863, he became captain of the company by reason of resignation of Captain Jacob M. Miller, the previous captain, who became disabled and unable to endure active field service. Whitney was captain of the company up to the close of the war, and was discharged with the company and regiment at Clinton, Iowa, 8 Aug 1865. He returned to his home in Quasqueton, which he had not seen in three years, worn out, run down, and weak from constant for three years, and which continued for more than fifteen years after the war. Finding no place of business obtainable he with his family, wife and two children, went on a visit to the old folks at home in the state of New York. While on this visit he was induced to engage in an enterprise to be consummated at Richmond, Virginia, in the establishment of a dairy farm. The project was a complete failure, and mindful still of the advice of Greeley he again went west with his family to grow up again, locating on government land in Oswego Township, Labette County, Kansas, in the spring of 1867. Upon this place he lived seventeen years, when he sold out and moved into the city of Oswego, two and a half miles distant. The land sold for $31.25 per acre, costing from the government $1.25 per acre. He has continuously lived in Oswego up to date, 20 Oct 1894, aged seventy-three years four months and seven days. He has no regular business of his own, but spends most of his time assisting his son-inlaw in a coal, wood, flour and feed store; resided Quasqueton, Iowa, and Oswego, Kansas.

Children of Otis⁸ and Harriett Newell (Barnes) Whitney:

i.	Emma Hawley9 Whitney, born 2 Aug 1855; married 1 Oct 1876, Lafayette Baker, born 19 Sep 1851; resided Oswego. Ch.: Roy Whitney, born Aug. 22, 1877; died 12 Nov 1877; Clifford Otis, born 12 Jun 1879; died Aug., 1882; Edward Lafayette, born 10 Feb 1883; Florence Eva, born Mar. 5, 1885; Emma Louise, born 17 Aug 1890; Viola, born 22 Jun 1893.
ii.	Edward Otis Whitney, born 29 May 1860; married Laura M. Norris.

References

1. All data imported from Frederick Clifton Pierce, The Descendants of John Whitney, Who Came from London, England, to Watertown, Massachusetts, in 1635, (Chicago: 1895), pp. 583-584.

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