Hines, H. K. "An Illustrated History of the State of Oregon." Chicago: Lewis Pub. Co. 1893. p. 1269. ROBERT WHITNEY a pioneer of 1847, and one of the prominent farmers of French Prairie, is a native of the State of Indiana, born in La Grange county, December 28, 1834. He is of English ancestry, his father, William Whitney, having been born in Lincolnshire in the year 1807. He married a lady of his own country, Miss Elizabeth Taylor, who was three months younger than himself. In 1828 William Whitney came to the United States, to push his fortunes, and in 1830 he sent for his wife and child, and after they came they settled in the State of New Jersey. In 1832 they went to Pennsylvania, where they resided for two years, and in 1834 removed to Indiana, where they remained nine more, but in 1847 Mr. Whitney with his little family crossed the plains to Oregon. The children then were: Joseph, Robert, James, Elizabeth, Sarah and Alice. After a journey of six months' duration they arrived safely at French Prairie, in Marion county, where he purchased a settler's right to a donation claim of 640 acres of choice land, from a Mr. Barnard. Upon this place was a log house, and thirty acres of this place was fenced. When the Whitney family began pioneer life in the new country it was but sparsely settled, but the following year gold was discovered, and with a few of his neighbors he made the journey overland to California, in 1848, and engaged in mining on the Moquelumne river. Here he remained about six months, undergoing much hardship, but returned with $1,200 in gold. He then turned his attention to farming, and became the owner of other tracts of land, and later in life he gave these to his children. His death occurred June 1, 1878, his good wife having passed away April 6, 1875. They were kind, hospitable people, well and widely known by the pioneers, and enjoyed the esteem of all who knew them. Robert was the fourth child in the family of his parents, and was in his thirteenth year when he accompanied his parents to Oregon. Here he attended school, but later entered the mines at Florence City, and in 1864 at Boice, where he worked the most of the time for wages, receiving $100 per month. He was married February 12, 1866, to Miss Hannah Pendleton, a native of Logan county, Illinois, born January 16, 1837, a daughter of Mr. Champney Pendleton, who with his family came to Oregon in 1847, settling on a donation claim on Baker's Prairie, where he died in 1857, his wife having died in 1882, in her sixty-seventh year. After marriage Mr. and Mrs. Whitney settled on the present farm of 590 acres, they having purchased it from his father, paying down $3,000, and going in debt $2,200, at 6 per cent; and this debt has all been paid, and other land, amounting to sixty-three acres, were added; but now, after selling some of it, there remain 544 acres, and it is one of the choicest farms in the county. In 1876 our subject built a good residence on the property, and has lately turned his attention to hop-raising. Mr. and Mrs. Whitney have had nine children born at their present home, and their names are as follows: George Washington; Clara B.; Oliver C.; Ardala M., now Mrs. Joseph F. Barnes, residing near her parents; Asa; Clarence; Andrew Love; Goldsby Honesty; and Lincoln. Mr. Whitney is in politics a Republican, and he and his oldest son are members of both branches of the I.O.O.F. and of the K. of P. This family is one of the highest credit, and one that is deserving of the esteem in which it is held through Marion county. ******************* Submitted to the Oregon Bios. Project in August 2006 by Diana Smith. Submitter has no additional information about the person(s) or family mentioned above.