1722 - 1793

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• Birth	18 Nov 1722	Stow, Massachusetts   [2]
  Gender	Male
  Died	14 Jan 1793	Stow, Massachusetts   [2]
  Person ID	I80366	Brainard (Brainerd) / Foster / Fish
  Last Modified	27 Oct 2005 00:00:00
  Family	Elizabeth GATES, b. 30 May 1724, Stow, Massachusetts
  Married	14 Feb 1746/1747	Stow, Massachusetts   [2]
  Children	1. Mercy WHITMAN   2. Zechariah WHITMAN, b. 22 Aug 1747, Stow, Massachusetts   3. Jane WHITMAN, b. 1748   4. Elizabeth WHITMAN, b. 1750   5. Thomas WHITMAN, Capt., b. 1751   6. Edward WHITMAN, b. 1753   7. Margaret WHITMAN, b. 14 Jan 1755, Stow, Massachusetts   8. Mary WHITMAN, b. 14 Jan 1756, Stow, Massachusetts   9. Lucy WHITMAN, b. 1758   10. Anna WHITMAN, b. 1760   11. Sarah WHITMAN, b. 1761   12. Susannah WHITMAN, b. 1762   13. John WHITMAN, b. 1764   14. Lydia WHITMAN, b. 1764 > 15. Daniel WHITMAN, b. 7 Mar 1765, Stow, Massachusetts
  Family ID	F35253	Group Sheet

• Notes

  [gurley.FTW] Inherited the Alcock-Assibet farm and a portion of the livestock, at Stow and the Whitman grant at Henniker, N.H. from his father. Had 15 children, all of whom survived their parents. Seven of the fifteen moved to New Hampshire. ZECHARIAH WHITMAN OF STOW Zechariah4 Whitman (b. 13 Nov. 1722 Stow, Mass., d. 4 Jan. 1793 Stow, Mass.), son of John3 and Margaret (Clark) (Damon) Whitman of Stow; m. 4 Feb. 1746 Elizabeth9Gates (b. 30 May 1724 Stow, Mass., d. 16 June 1791 Stow, Mass., dt. Daniel and Anna Gates of Stow; - 15 c. Micro Bio: Named in father's will. Received Alcock-Assabet farm at Stow and Whitman grant at Henniker, N.H. Soldier, Revolutionary War; listed in DAR Patriot Index Both buried at Stow. Children named inDescendants _ John Whitman of Weymouth, Mass. | Zechariah Whitman, the fourth son of John3 Whitman of Stow, married a neighbor, Elizabeth Gates, in 1746. Her grandfather, Stephen2 Gates, Jr., had been among the first settlers at Stow, and her father had served five times as Selectman. (SeeAppendix V.) Zechariah and Elizabeth settled on his father's Alcock farm, one of the most beautiful in Massachusetts. The sparkling Assabet River flowed through it and emptied into the Concord River only a few miles from the site of Walden Pond, made infamous a century later by Henry David Thoreau. It was in this natural setting that Zechariah and Elizabeth reared their fifteen children, and all were educated. When his father died in 1772, Zechariah inherited the Assabet farm outright. It is also believed that John3 Whitman gave to Zechariah his New Hampshire land, for the next year Zechariah's third daughter, Margaret, and her husband, Timothy Gibson, departed immediately after their marriage for Henniker. They selected 2,500 acres of richly timbered acres, built a home in the village, and Timothy began to cut and sell the timber. They were followed eventually to Henniker by six of her brothers and sisters, but none of Zechariah4's brothers or their children settledthere. The Revolutionary Period Zechariah4 and Elizabeth (Gates) Whitman had lived a good and happy life for thirty years when it was disrupted by the Revolution. The people of Massachusetts - r had been discontented for a decade over heavy taxes and illegal searches imposed by the British, but a crisis point was reached when patriots, refusing to pay tax on imported tea, dumped it into Boston's harbor. Other patriot groups began to form, and militiamen were trained on village greens for an eventual military confrontation. In April 1775, the British commander at Boston heard that some secret munitions were stored at Concord and determined to seize them. Paul Revere rode through the night rousing the countryside - "to arms! to arms!" - and when word reached Stow, Zechariah Whitman, then aged 54, assembled with the local militia and marched to Concord Bridge to bar the British. There they were joined by remnants of Minute Men who had taken a stand at Lexington and escaped after being scattered by the British. When the King's troops arrived at Concord Bridge, the Minute Men held them off and forced them to retreat back to Boston, but the Revolution had begun. By June, a Colonial army had been formed and was besieging Boston. The Conti-nental Congress appointed George Washington commander of the army, and he arrived in Massachusetts to take charge, accompanied by Gen. Horatio Gates (no kin to Zechariah's wife). Zechariah's second son, Lt. Thomas5 Whitman' volunteered under Gates's command, and Edward5 Whitman, then a young merchant at Boston, served under Col. Paul Revere. In New Hampshire, son-in-law Timothy Gibson was elected to the Provincial Congress in 1775, and then was made a Captain in the Continental Army. Also serving were sons-in-law Lt. John Smith and Capt. Solomon Taylor. All are listed in the DAR Patriot Index. Aftermath 4 Zechariah and Elizabeth (Gates) Whitman lived long enough after the Revolution to see a new nation formed, its Constitution ratified, and the beginning of the migra-tion of the next generation away from the Puritan home of their forefathers. After 45 years of married life, Elizabeth died in 1791 and Zechariah in 1793. They were buried in the Stow cemetery. Zechariah's will has not been found, but it is believed that as the eldest son, Zechariah' Whitman, Jr., was established at Westminster, 25 miles west of Stow, he left the Alcock-Assabet farm to second son, Capt. Thomas5 Whitman, and divided the remainder of the New Hampshire grant (the tracts not bestowed on his daughters as dowries) among his other three sons, Edward5, John5 and Daniel5 Whitman. Zechariah5 Whitman, Jr., whose first home at Westminster was a log cabin, prospered by building other homes, and by the time of his father's death, he was third on a list of landed proprietors at Westminster. He built a hotel and many houses at the edge of town which hecame Whitman's Village. His daughter, Sarah6 Whitman, married Joseph Spaulding and moved to Caratunk, Maine. Their son, Joseph7 Spaulding, Jr. (1798-1885), became one of the most prominent men in the lumber in-dustry in Maine. He purchased over 30,000 acres of forest lands and established a sawmill at Richmond, running logs from the forests down the Kennebec River to the mill. Timothy and Hargaret5 (Whitman) Gibson, who had begun the family migration to New Hampshire in 1773, removed to Brownfield, Maine in later years. Their sixth son, Abel6 Gibson, took over their Henniker homestead and was elected to the state legis-lature. One of his sons, Paris7 Gibson, graduated from Bowdoin College, moved to Minneapolis, Minn., and founded both the Cataract Flour Mill and the North Star Woolen Mill. He later developed the site of Great Falls, Montanna. Daniel5 Whitman, the youngest son, joined his brothers and sisters at Henniker in 1792, and it was he who later removed to Virginia and founded the Southern branch of the Whitman family. (See Chapter Vl.) Zechariah4 and Elizabeth (Gates) Whitman of Stow had 130 grandchildren. I am happy to share information. The majority of this work is sourced with primary proof. Family Tree, however, chooses to use itself as the documentation source when you merge files. Contact me for the proper citation if one is missing. Please share w

• Sources

  [S2789] First Families of America, Virkus,, Vol. 5. [S2776] gurley.FTW. Date of Import: Aug 2, 2000