Walt Whitman

1819 - 1892  (72 years)

• Name	Walt Whitman  [1, 2, 3]
  Born	31 May 1819	West Hills, Suffolk Co., LI, NY   [4]
  Gender	Male
  Died	26 Mar 1892	Camden, New Jersey   [5, 6, 7]
  Buried	Harleigh Cemetery, Camden, New Jersey
  Notes	Walt Whitman was born to Walter Whitman and Louisa Van Velsor on May 31, 1819. He was the second son in what was to become a family of five children. His family moved to Brooklyn, New York when Whitman was four. Whitman's father, though trained as a carpenter, had continually poor luck in maintaining a job throughout Whitman's childhood. As a result Whitman's family moved continually during his youth as one after another of house mortgages ran out. He attended a public school in which he was considered "a good natured boy...but not otherwise remarkable." At this school he learned only the very basics of reading and writing. However, Whitman also attended St. Ann's Sunday school, which helped to further his education. He took his first job at age eleven as an errand boy and minor clerk for the law office of James B. Clark and his son Edward. Edward took a liking to Whitman, and it was he who gave Whitman a subscription to a circulating library. According to Whitman this gift was the most important event in his life at that time. From his job at the law offices, Whitman moved from job to job in New York until in 1831 he entered the world of printing and journalism, in the form of the printing office of the Long Island Patrio Years later, in 1862, he was still in New York, having just lost a job the year before at the Daily Times, due to his insistence of writing articles on controversial subjects such as prostitution. While reading over a newspaper casualty list of the battle of Fredericksburg, Whitman saw listed "First Lieutenant G.W. Whitmore, company D." The Whitman family felt sure that this was Whitman's brother George. They may have known the names of the other officers of his company, thus deducing that it had to be him. At any rate, Whitman immediately set off to Washington to find him. It was at this point, searching through the Washington army hospitals, that Whitman saw first-hand the effect of the carnage of the war. While in Washington, he ran into a former publisher of his, Charley Eldridge. Eldridge then had a job in the army paymaster's office. He offered to assist Whitman if he should need it. In order to find his brother, Whitman continued on to Falmouth, Virginia. He found George in a camp hospital with only a minor flesh wound. While at Falmouth Whitman first discovered the joy to be found in comforting the wounded. He eventually traveled back up to Washington with a convoy of wounded soldiers. Back in Washington, Whitman contacted Eldridge, who managed to get him a job in the paymaster's office as a copyist for a few hours a day. In his letter to Nat Bloom, Whitman mentions this job as keeping him quite content. It allowed him to spend most of his hours visiting the soldiers in the surrounding hospitals. His superior was the paymaster Major Hapgood, whose name can be seen on the postscript that Whitman adds to his letter. In giving comfort to the dying, and nurturing the wounded, Whitman found his true vocation. His poetry of the Civil War, Drum-Taps (1865), reissued with Sequel to Drum Taps (1865–66), included his two poems about Abraham Lincoln. When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd, considered one of the finest elegies in the English language, and the much-recited O Captain! My Captain! For a while Whitman served as a clerk in the Dept. of the Interior, but he was discharged because Leaves of Grass was considered an immoral book. In 1873 Whitman suffered a paralytic stroke and afterward lived in a semi-invalid state. His prose collection Democratic Vistas had appeared in 1871, and his last long poem, Passage to India, was published in the 1871 edition of Leaves of Grass. From 1884 until his death he lived in Camden, N.J., where he continued to write and to revise his earlier work. His last book, November Boughs, appeared in 1888.
  Person ID	I00129	Valentine
  Last Modified	15 May 2019

  
  

  Father	Walter Whitman,   b. 14 Jul 1789, Huntington, Suffolk Co., LI, NY ,   d. 11 Jul 1855, Brooklyn, Kings Co., LI, NY  (Age 65 years)
  Mother	Louisa Van Velsor,   b. 22 Sep 1795, Oyster Bay, Queens Co., LI, NY ,   d. 23 May 1873, Camden, New Jersey  (Age 77 years)
  Married	9 Jun 1816	Rev Marmaduke Earle, Oyster Bay, LI, NY   [8, 9]
  Family ID	F0076	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

• Sources

  [S004591] Long Island Forum. Mortality in Washington, Jul 12, 1865, p.2. Walt Whitman at Smithtown, August 1941, pg.179. Among the "Leaves of Grass", Harriet G Valentine, June 1950. Whitman as a Newspaper Editor, C. H. MacLachlan, November 1963. Walt Whitman at Southold, January 1967, pg.13 [S004772] The South Side Signal, (Suffolk County Library On-Line Historic Newspaper Collection http://shn.suffolk.lib.ny.us/). Feb 22 , 1873, p.2 [S004718] The Brooklyn Eagle Newspaper, (http://www.brooklynpubliclibrary.org/eagle/). Aug 30, 1871, p.2. WALT WHITMAN, Apr 4, 1874, p.4. Walt Whitman, On A Visit to a Scenes of His Boyhood Days At Huntington, Aug 7, 1881, p.5. A VISIT TO WALT WHITMAN, Jul 11, 1886, p.10. Walt Whitman Very Ill, Dec 17, 1891, p.5. WALT WHITMAN IN BROOKLYN, Jul 14, 1900, p.18 [S004464] Age Based or Confirmed by 1850 Federal Census. Brooklyn Ward 11, Kings, NY; Roll:M432_520; Pg:241. 1860 Brooklyn Ward 11 District 2, Kings, NY; Roll:M653_770; Pg:332. 1870 Washington Ward 2, Washington, DC; Roll:M593_123; Pg:216. 1880 Camden, Camden, New Jersey; Roll:T9_774; Pg:182; ED:46 [S004591] Long Island Forum. Walt Whitman's Last Resting Place, May 1962, pg.102 [S004718] The Brooklyn Eagle Newspaper, (http://www.brooklynpubliclibrary.org/eagle/). WALT WHITMAN IS GONE, Mar 27, 1892, p.1 [S004517] Deaths Reported by the Long Islander 1890-1900, Roberts, David, (2004, http://www.longislandgenealogy.com). [S004688] Register of Marriages Performed by the Rev. Marmaduke Earle, 1793-1855, (July 1926). [S004619] Marriage Records, Oyster Bay, Long Island, New York : register of marriages performed by the Rev. Marmaduke Earle, 1793-1855, Gritman, Charles T., (New York, NY: 1926).