"Illustrated History of Lane County, Oregon." Portland, Oregon: A. G. Walling,
publisher, 1884.  pg. 490.
 
JOHN WHITEAKER
     The former Governor of the State of Oregon, was born in Dearborn county,
Indiana, May 4, 1820, and was brought up a farmer.  When the mighty shibboleth
of gold was wafted from the Pacific shores to those of the Atlantic the echoes
thereof found our subject in the midst of his agricultural pursuits.  He at once
set to work to cross the plains to the new Dorado and became one of that vast
band of "forty-niners" who found their way into the ravines and gorges of the
Sierra Nevada in the search for gold.  but his horoscope had been already cast
and the fiat had gone forth that Oregon should be the scene of his triumphs.  In
1852 he came to that state and in the spring of 1853 took up his residence in
Lane county; here he has engaged in agricultural and pastoral pursuits, and it
was while attending to his flocks and herds that he was called by his
fellow-citizens to assume the highest executive gift that it was in their power
to bestow upon any one at home.  The governor's record speaks for itself, it is
written on the pages of fame and inscribed on the hearts of his admirers.  He is
now a hale and hearty man with many years of usefulness yet before him.  He
married in Putnam county, Missouri, August 22, 1847, Miss N. J. Hargrave, a
native of Adams county, Illinois, and has had the following sons and daughters:
Francis (who died on the plains), John C., Nancy A., Mary E., Ben and James H.

 
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Submitted to the Oregon Bios. Project in May 2005 by Diana Smith.  Submitter
has no additional information about the person(s) or family mentioned above.