Babette Samelson Whipple Dies at 91

The Harvard University Gazette reports that Babette (Samelson) Whipple, former psychology research at Massachusetts General Hospital and wife of the late Harvard astronomer Fred Lawrence Whipple, died on 18 Dec 2009, after a short illness. A resident of Belmont, Massachusetts, she was 91 years of age. (Her husband died in 2004.)

A memorial service is planned for April 10. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to the Babette and Fred Whipple Fund for Graduate Student Travel, c/o Amanda Preston, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, 60 Garden St., MS-45, Cambridge, MA 02138.

Farwell!!

Whipple Power!

"Wow, no wonder we have so much Whipple power!"

Those are the words of my son last night in an email sent in response to a discovery that he is a descendant of both main groups of Whipples in the U.S.

Ever since the time I realized that there are two major groups of Whipples in the United States, I have known that I am a descendant of "Captain" John Whipple of Providence, RI. At one time I thought I might be "connected" to his somewhat older contemporary, "Elder" John Whipple of Ipswich, MA (born in Bocking, England). (The two are often confused or "combined" into a "composite" John Whipple.)

(I had hoped that I was connected through Josiah Chamberlain, an early husband of my 4th great grandmother, Hepsibah Cressey. I later learned that a different Josiah Chamberlain contemporary was the descendant of "Elder" John. [sigh].)

Yesterday my mother-in-law (a genealogist of many years) emailed the news that she had discovered a connection to the Ipswich Whipples, through Elder John's daughter Mary Whipple, who married Simon Stone.

So now it turns out that I married a Whipple, and all our children are descendants of both Whipple groups. What an exciting discovery. (I've always thought there was something special about my wife. This makes her even more so!)

Query about Bishop Whipple's Long Case Clock

I just received an email from Wendy Evans, Director of the Ipswich (Massachusetts) Historical Society & Museums, asking about a clock once owned by Bishop Henry Benjamin Whipple of Minnesota. (He was elected the first Episcopal Bishop of Minnesota in 1859.)

Here is the text of her email:

An art researcher named Gloria Gray Witt called on Thursday seeking information on a 1770 long-case clock once owned by Henry Benjamin Whipple. In 1859 the clock went to Minnesota and it was sold with the estate.

She described it as 84 inches tall, 17 inches wide, with a beautifully carved image of the old man of the sea. She is seeking information about the clock for a woman in Texas.

Gloria's contact info: 951-929-2343. Long distance, so you can telephone her and she will call you back.

Address: 25878 Columbia Street, Hemet, California 92544.

You can also contact Wendy Evans directly:

Wendy Evans
Director
Ipswich Historical Society & Museums
54 South Main Street
Ipswich, MA 01938
www.ipswichmuseum.org
978-356-2811

The Whipples of Ipswich and Its Hamlet

The Whipples of Ipswich and Its Hamlet /as written and compiled by Raymond Whipple Jr. -- 2d ed. -- Beverly, MA : Minuteman Press, c2009. -- 72 p. : ill. (some col.), coats of arms, facsimiles, genealogical tables, maps ; 28 cm. -- ISBN 978-1-60402-000-7.

Yesterday I received my copy of a brand new Whipple Genealogy about the Whipples of Ipswich, Massachusetts. This isn't just any book on the Ipswich Whipples. I can think of at least two things that set it apart from other Whipple genealogies:

1. The book focuses entirely on Whipples who have been born and died in Ipswich and the town of Hamilton (incorporated from Ipswich hamlet in 1793). (Exceptions are made for the English ancestors of Matthew and John, the earliest known Whipples with "connections" to U.S. Whipples. Additionally, two descendancy charts--on a single short page--show the Ipswich Whipple ancestry of two U.S. presidents, Franklin Delano Roosevelt and John Calvin Coolidge.)
2. The book's author, 72-year-old Raymond "Ray" Whipple, is the youngest of the three remaining male Whipples still living in Ipswich. (The others are Alvin Whipple--Ray's 79-year-old brother--and David Whipple--Ray's 73-year-0ld cousin.) In an email Ray sent me earlier, he noted that the 2001 birth of his grandson in Montana marked the first time in 363 years that a child in his line had been born more than ten miles from where the [Ipswich] Whipples first settled in 1638! Eleven generations of Ray's Whipple ancestors lived in Ipswich (including Hamilton), starting with Matthew Whipple, who settled in Ipswich in 1638!
   

The table of contents give a flavor of the book:

1. The Author's Lineage
2. The Grant
3. The Early Years (1475-1638)
4. The First Three Generations (1638-1750)
5. The Next One-Hundred & Fifty Years (1750-1900)
6. The Twentieth Century (1900-2000)
7. The Church
8. The Schools
9. The Military
10. Community Service
11. The Presidential Connection
12. Whipple Marrying Whipple
13. The Family Clock
14. The Land
15. The Cemetery
16. Bibliography

You can purchase your own copy of the book from the author for $26.00 ($23.00 + $3.00 shipping). Mail your request to:

Raymond Whipple
49 Mill Street
South Hamilton, MA 01982

As I have time to go through the book more, I will post additional observations. Thank you Ray, and congratulations on your new book!!

Amiel Weeks Whipple

I just received a note from Blaine Whipple, noting that Fort Whipple in Prescott, Arizona, was named after General Amiel Weeks Whipple. Blaine's note cites an article in The Daily Courier entitled Days Past: The First Christmas in Prescott - Part I.

This is a good excuse to say a few other things about General Amiel. He was born 21 Oct 1817 in Greenwich, Hampshire County, Massachusetts. He died on 7 May 1863 in Washington, D.C. from wounds received while defending Washington at the battle of Chancellorsville during the U.S. Civil War.

During the decade preceding his death, Amiel was a first lieutenant in the Army Corps of Topographical Engineers. He led a government expedition in 1854 to determine the most practical route for the Pacific Railroad. (Note: This was more than 10 years before the first Pacific Railroad--the Union Pacific Railroad--was completed further north in the United States.) Instructed to follow the 35th Parallel of north latitude, Whipple traveled east to west. In western Arizona, he drifted south of the 35th Parallel because of the scarcity of water between today's Kingman and the Colorado River. He then went upstream to present-day Needles and continued along the 35th Parallel to Cajon Pass and the Los Angeles basin.

Amiel has left his mark numerous places in the U.S. Here are a few:

• Fort Whipple, Prescott, Arizona. Fort Whipple, established to protect Prescott, Arizona's first territorial capital, is now the site of a Veterans Administration Hospital. See also the North American Forts web site.
• Whipple Mountains and Whipple Bay, California. The Havasu Magazine mentions both. It also mentions the plant Yucca Whipplei (also known as Our Lord's Candle), named after Whipple.
• Fort Myer, Virginia, was originally named Fort Whipple. The fourth paragraph of the Fort Myer page of the Arlington National Cemetery web site begins a discussion of that Fort Whipple.

I'm still trying to verify whether the flower Whipple's Penstemon (Penstemon whippleanus) is named after Amiel Whipple. It is found in Arizona and many places in the western United States.

For a deeper look into the life of Amiel Weeks Whipple, you might start with these:

• Shelburne, John P., and Gordon, Mary McDougall. Through Indian Country to California : John P. Sherburne's Diary of the Whipple Expedition, 1853-1854. -- Stanford : Stanford University Press, 1988. ISBN: 0804714479

• Furgurson, Ernest B. Chancellorsville 1863 : The Souls of the Brave. -- Vintage Books, 1993. ISBN: 0679728317
  

Amiel Weeks Whipple appears in the Whipple Genweb.

Nate Whipple

A letter to the editor in a recent issue of The Valley Breeze suggested that sidewalks be added along the entire length of Rhode Island's Nate Whipple Highway.

The letter reminded me of my own visit to the Nate Whipple Highway in 1999. Here's the photo I took in July 1999:

We saw several other locations named after Nate. Here is what the Nate Whipple Medical Center (on Nate Whipple Highway, of course) looked like that same day:

We also visited Whipple Station--part of the North Cumberland (R.I.) Fire Department:



Nate Whipple served as fire chief from 1925 to 1963. You can see Nate's ancestry in the Whipple Genweb.

What do you know about Nate Whipple? Was his middle name William or Winthrop?

Fred Whipple Dreamed of Space Travel

Childhood polio ended Fred's dream of playing tennis, according to the Web site www.amazing-space.stsci.edu, but a high school astronomy course ignited an even more passionate interest.

"My interest in space travel began in my teens," Dr. Fred Whipple wrote in the preface to "The Collected Contributions of Fred L. Whipple, Vol. II" (Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory/1972).

Born Nov. 5, 1906, in Iowa, www.amazing-space.stsci.edu said the boy could "add up customer's (sic) purchases in his head" at the grocery store where he worked. Over his 97 years, Whipple discovered five comets and an asteroid named Whipple, his International Space Hall of Fame biography stated. He was one of the first to discern that stars other than our sun emit radio waves.

So begins an article entitled "Space History: Whipple dreamed of space travel," published November 1 in the Alamogordo (New Mexico) Daily News. (Click here to read the entire article.)

Fred is in the Whipple Genweb at http://whipple.org/32739.

(Special thanks to Blaine Whipple for submitting this article.)