Whitman, Marcus (1802–1847), a United States missionary, physician, and Northwest pioneer. His reports on the Northwest aroused widespread interest and led to a great migration of settlers over the Oregon Trail. The rapid American settlement of the Oregon country that followed helped the United States secure the territory, which had also been claimed by Great Britain.
Whitman was born in Rushville, New York. In 1832 he graduated from the College of Physicians and Surgeons in Fairfield, New York. Whitman, a Presbyterian, volunteered for service as a medical missionary and was assigned to the Oregon country. In 1835 he made a trip west to seek a site for a mission. The next year, he and his wife, Narcissa Prentiss Whitman, and three other missionaries set out for Oregon. Mrs. Whitman and Eliza Hart Spalding, another member of the party, were the first white women to cross the Rocky Mountains.
The Whitmans established a mission among the Cayuse Indians, near what is now Walla Walla, Washington. In addition to his religious activities, Whitman taught the Indians new methods of farming and new ways to build dwellings and provided medical care. Over the years, however, the Cayuse became increasingly resentful over white settlement and held Whitman responsible. They also blamed him for failing to protect them against diseases brought by the settlers. In November, 1847, the Whitmans and 11 others at the mission were killed by the Cayuse, in what came to be called the Whitman Massacre.
