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Archiver > WHITNEY > 1998-10 > 0908547634


From: <>
Subject: Joanna (Whitney) Sylvester/Micah Whitney
Date: Fri, 16 Oct 1998 9:20:34 -0500


In the Commemorative Biographical Record of the Counties of Rock,
Greene, Grant, Iowa, and Lafayette, Wisconsin is a short biographical
sketch of Caleb Sylvester and his wife Joanna Whitney. It contains the
following sentence: "She was born at Otisfield, Maine, a daughter of
Micah Whitney, who spent seven years in the Continental Army." I would
like to make two comments on this sentence.

In the vital records of Phillips, Franklin Co., Maine are registered the
dates of birth of Micah Whitney, his wife Hannah Cobb, and all twelve of
their children. Unfortunately, the places of their births is unrecorded
there. The vital records of Gorham, Cumberland Co., Maine contain the
records of the births of the first six children, all born in Gorham, The
last child was born in Gray, Maine. However, the birthplaces of the
remaining five children are, I believe, still unknown. Joanna Whitney is
one of those five children. It is very interesting to me that this sketch
attributes her birthplace to Otisfield, Oxford Co., Maine, especially
since her sister Mary was married there to Reubin Smith, and lived there
quite a few years. However, Jean Hankins, the Archivist of the Otisfield
Historical Society, has searched the Otisfield records both there and in
Augusta and can find no record of the birth of any children to Micah and
Hannah Whitney in Otisfield. Of course, they may have been born there
without being recorded. I wonder what the source was for Joanna's
birthplace in the Wisconsin resource.

The reference to Micah Whitney being in the Continental Army for seven
years is incorrect. Micah Whitney enlisted in Colonel James Scammon's
Massachusetts regiment in April of 1775 and served in it until December
of that year. He re-enlisted in the 24th Massachusetts Regiment of the
Continental Army in January of 1776, and served until January 1, 1777,
when he was discharged, and in his own words, "came home."

Ken Whitney
Silver Spring, MD

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