Samuel Whitmore (abt. 1822)

Born about 1822 in Drummondville, Drummond, Quebec, Canada

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Biography

Sam, Henry (sister was born in New York) were born in Drummondville, Canada where there knickerbocker parents had gone after the revolutionary war in which their father had served at the battle of Lundy Lane. There mother died when the three children were very small. And soon afterwards their father moved to Ohio with his family and married again. Their stepmother cared little for them and their sister soon ran away from home. When Samuel was 12 yr, Henry and his father would go into the timber across the river. One day when they were deep in the timber some Indians stole their boat. When it was time to return home, the father tied his ax around his neck and told Henry to climb on his back. They would swim the river he said. Henry protested, he was afraid. The father insisted but Henry ran into the woods and hid. By this time the father was angry. "All right" he called "you can stay in the woods all night." Henry could hear his father splashing in the shallow water as he waded out into the river and he lifted his head from the bushes to watch. Suddenly his father disappeared from sight. Henry thought his father had dived and waited for him to reappear. Minutes passed, finally he began to call for help. The next day neighbors recovered their fathers body. Now with three little children of her own to care for and no husband, Samuels Step mother resented her step sons. Her cruelty was unbearable. One day the two boys were standing at the side of the road near their home when a caravan of settlers passed bound for the west. "Take us with you" the two little boys begged. "All right" the settlors said " if you can get permission from your parents you can come. " Henry said " We have no parents and our stepmother will be glad to get rid of us." The two boys Henry 14 yrs and Samuel 12 yrs, packed their few clothes into handkerchiefs tied to sticks. Henry took the single barreled shotgun and a few coppers and they started out with no word to their stepmother. The settlers were a rough crew, given to cursing with every word, but they were kind enough to the two boys and the trip to Chicago passed uneventfully. When the boys reached Chicago, they heard of the rich mines of Galena. "That's the place for us to seek our fortune" Henry said. They started out across the prairie alone. The same trail that James G Soulard had broken in 1829. The first ox team had passed over that road in 1833 just two years before Sam and Henry made their trip. They had some bread which friends in Chicago had given them, and they shot birds in the brush and roasted them beside the way. One day they looked down over the edge of a hill to an Indiana village in the valley. As they were watching, two Indians started up the trail towards them. " They are going to get us" Sam whispered. "No they wont. " Henry said and they ducked in the tall grass. After a few minutes Henry poked his head above the grass. The two Indians were running along the trail just in front of him, and as they ran, the second Indiana threw a tomahawk, splitting the skull of the first Indian. Henry ducked, pulled Sam down and making himself as small as possible. He screwed his eyes shut, but after a few minutes he felt someone looking at him and looked up to see the Indian, bloody tomahawk in hand, peering down at him and Sam. Sam and Henry could not speak. After a moment, the Indian walked silently away. When he was gone the two boys picked up their belongings and ran as fast as they could until they fell from exhaustion. When they got to Galena the boys had 75 cents. They spent the first night under a loading platform of a warehouse on the levee. In the morning they went into the store to buy some bread and cheese for breakfast. Henry inquired of the storekeeper if he knew a place where a boy could get work. The storekeeper said he did not, off hand, but he ask the boys about themselves, their parents and where they were staying. They told him all about themselves. "You can sleep on the Buffalo Robes in the back room until you find a better place." And they did. Although they ate only bread and cheese and little of that, their money was going fast. Finally it was all gone. Neither had a job. That day Sam came running back to the store. "Henry" he said, "I've got a job with a settler, working on his farm. I'm leaving right away." "That's fine" said Henry. Sam packed his clothes but forgot to tell Henry the name of the settler or where he would be. Finally late in the fall, Henry was on a hunting trip with Hodgkins (people he worked for) in Wisconsin a few miles north of Galena, and were walking through the woods when Henry heard a boy in a field driving oxen yelling "Gee" and "Haw". He gave a great shout and bounded through the brush. It was Sam! Henry couldn't spill out the questions fast enough. Sam said he liked his job and the settlor well. The settler had already bought him a pair of shoes and was going to buy him a whole new outfit for winter; boots, a roundabout, pants and a cap. "That's fine" Henry said happily. "You've got a good job Sam, stay with it."

Research

• Research has uncovered that Samuel was called John. In a letter dated 1844 from Henry Whitmore's sister Harriet Hallow Hutchings she writes that the father left the mother. The mother married a man name King and had three more children. William, Andrew Jackson and Mary Jane. Interesting. Harriet says you, Henry, call him Samuel but mother called him John. And that Samuel was in Mexico??? The letter is in the possession of Thomas Simmons a descendant of Henry Whitmore
• What happened to Henry brother? Did he marry and have a family??
• I show that Henry's wife has a brother that was also in Mexico???

Sources

• "Wisconsin State Census, 1855," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MMML-Q1P : 20 February 2021), Samuel Whitmore, Fond Du Lac, Fond du Lac, Wisconsin; citing line 3, State Historical Society, Madison; FHL microfilm 1,032,687.
• "Wisconsin State Census, 1875", database with images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MMMY-LQQ : 1 March 2022), Samuel Whitmore, 1875.
• Per Thomas Simmons, Samuel is buried in the Miners Cemetery northeast of Galena near the Wisconsin boarder.
• Memories of Jane Whitmore Williams