01Biography
Born Narcissa Prentiss in western New York, she decided as a teenager that she wanted to be a missionary, but the mission board would not send a single woman. She married Marcus Whitman in February 1836 and set out for the Oregon Country the next day. With Eliza Hart Spalding, she was one of the first two white women known to cross the continent overland. Her journal of the trip and many of her letters home were published after her death.
02Why they matter
One of the first two white women to cross the continent overland, which showed families that women could make the trip.
03How they died
She was killed with her husband on November 29, 1847, aged 39. Her only child, Alice Clarissa, had drowned in the Walla Walla River in 1839 at the age of two. The Whitmans later took in a nephew and ten other children, among them the seven Sager orphans, and two of the Sager boys were also killed in the attack. The women and children who survived were held captive for about a month before they were ransomed.
04Legacy
Her letters and journal remain a key first-hand source on the mission years. The National Park Service notes that some also remember her as a controversial figure who brought unwanted changes to the region.