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UPDATED 15 OCT 2000

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WHITTEN CONNECTIONS

FAMILY HISTORY OVERVIEW

My ancestors came to America in two groups separated by some thirty years. The Frazer and Whitten lines came from Ireland between 1846 and 1860. The later immigrant families came from England, Germany, Scotland, and Wales, all in the 1880s.  

FAMINE IMMIGRANTS

The Irish "potato famine" began in 1845, due to a blight that caused the crops to rot in the field, and led to widespread hunger and starvation. During the next several years tens of thousands of Irish migrated to the United States. William Fitzgerald Frazer arrived in New York City in 1846, the second year of the "famine". After spending five years in New York City, he decided his future lay in the gold fields of California and booked passage for San Francisco via Panama.  

When William started his voyage in 1851, the Panama Canal wouldn't exist for another sixty years. Therefore, the trip involved getting off of one ship in the Gulf of Mexico, traveling by land across the Isthmus of Panama, and hoping another ship would be available on the Pacific side when he arrived. This is, providing he didn’t die first of malaria in the jungles of Panama. William evidently escaped malaria and did find a ship. He arrived in San Francisco 6 JUN 1951 on the steamship Isthmus. The trip from Panama to California had taken twenty-two and one-half days.

William tried mining, but quickly discovered that most fortunes were being made not from mining, but by supplying the miners. He became engaged in the lumber trade and built a successful lumber business in Sacramento where he lived until his death in 1901.  

My Whitten/Whitton line begins with John Whitton, who was born in either England or Ireland about 1781. The family lived in County Antrim, Northern Ireland when the 1851 census was taken. The census lists John Whitton as an Army pensioner and indicates that several of the family members were involved in the "linen industry".

The first record of the Whitten line in America (the Whitton spelling of the name was dropped in this country) is when Robert Whitten, a son of John Whitton, enlisted in the United States Army on 28 DEC 1860 in New York City. His stint in the military was shortened by health problems and he received a disability discharge in February of 1862. The year 1866 finds Robert in San Francisco along with his brother (George) and sister (Catherine). Robert Whitten married Margaret Frazer, daughter of William F. Frazer, 3 AUG 1871 in Sacramento, California. After the death of his wife Margaret and two of their infant children in 1879/1880, Robert moved back to New York where he remarried and lived until his death in 1921.

Robert Charles Whitten was born in San Francisco, California in 1876 to Robert Whitten and Margaret Frazer. He was four years old when his mother died. Before leaving for New York, his father put Robert and his brother George in an orphanage until he could arrange for the boys to join him on the East Coast.   Robert Charles married Anna Massinger, daughter of Henry Massinger and Eleanora Reiling, in 1901 in New York City. Robert made a living as a sign and carriage painter and was an avid swimmer who belonged to the Polar Bear Club. Anna died in College Point, New York in 1947. Sometime after Anna died Robert moved to Cuba, where he lived until Castro took control and then moved to Miami, Florida. He died in Miami in 1961.


1880 TO 1890 IMMIGRANTS

What motivated the later group of immigrants is less certain. Since they came from different countries, they may have been driven by different reasons. Or, perhaps they all came for the same reason, a shared vision of opportunity.

In the 1880s the United States was at the beginning of the Industrial Revolution; experienced workers were in great demand in places like the ironworks of Pittsburgh and the coal mines of Scranton and Wilkes Barre. The Hicks/Archibald and Taylor/Witchell families both moved into the coal-mining region of Luzerne County, Pennsylvania shortly after their arrival in this country. My German lines of Massinger and Reiling found their opportunity near where they landed and remained in New York.

William Archibald Sr. was born in the early 1800’s in Scotland. He married Henrietta Stockwell (daughter of Henry Stockwell and Isobel Douglas) about 1831. The only child of this marriage was William Archibald Jr. born 1832 in Kelso, a small town in southern Scotland located near the English border.

Janet Archibald, (daughter of William Archibald Jr. and Elizabeth Tranent) was born on 4 MAR 1858 in Kelso, Scotland. She married George Hicks in 1877 in Bratton, Yorkshire, England.

George Hicks (son of Martin Hicks and Mary Ann Leng) was born on 6 JUL 1852 in Fylingdales, Yorkshire, England.  George left England for America in 1884/1885 and found work as a coal-miner near Wilks-Barre, Pennsylvania. His wife Janet and their children followed in 1886. My grandmother Frances was born in America in December of 1886. By 1900 the Hicks family was living in Laflin, Pennsylvania and they remained in this area for the rest of their lives.

The known Witchell line begins with Jonas Witchell who was born about 1722 in England; the exact location is not known. He married Mary Chambers, (daughter of John Chambers and Edith Smith) in 1744 in Puckelchurch, Gloucester, England. The next three generations of my Witchell line (Daniel, b: 1760; William, b: 1791; and Robert, b: 1816 ) were all born in Westerleigh, Gloucester, England, but Robert Witchell had relocated to Blaenavon District, Wales by the 1840s. Robert married Hanna Thomas, daughter of Richard Thomas, in about 1840 probably in Wales. Mary Witchell, the daughter of Robert and Hanna, married John Taylor Jr. in 1865 in Monmouth County, Wales.

John Taylor Jr., the son of John Taylor and Mary Ann Vipon, was probably born about 1843 in Blaevanon, Wales. In 1883 John Taylor Jr. left Wales with his oldest daughter and came to Luzerne County, Pennsylvania where he found a job in coal mining. His wife Mary and the other children would soon follow. They first lived in Heidleberg, Pennsylvania (now called Dupont) and later moved a short distance East to Avoca.

Robert Witchell Taylor, the son of John Taylor Jr. and Mary Witchell, was born in 1876 in Treherbert, South Wales and came to Pennsylvania with his family. He began working as a miner when he was 14 years old and during his career worked at a many different jobs with several coal companies. He was married to Frances Hicks, daughter of George Hicks and Janet Archibald, on 17 OCT 1906.

Henry William Massinger was born about 1847 in Germany. When he was 34 years old, he sailed from Antwerp on the ship Belgenland, arriving in New York on 27 MAY 1881. His wife, Eleanora Catrina Barbara Reiling, and 5 children followed one year later on the ship DeRuyter. Henry made a living as a sign and carriage painter. He died in New York in 1925 and Eleanora died one year later.

Anna Massinger, daughter of Henry Massinger and Eleanora Reiling, was born in 1876 in Germany and arrived in the United States, with her family, in 1882. She married Robert Charles Whitten, son of Robert Whitten and Margaret Frazer, on 9 APR 1901 in New York, New York.  

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