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 COU. DAINIEU WHITIIVa 
 
 OF DOVER, MASSACHUSETTS. 
 
 By Frank Smith. 
 
 Daniel Whiting, son of Jonathan and 
 Anna (Bullard) Whiting, was born on his 
 father's farm in Dover (MoNamara place 
 on Springdale avenue) February 5, 1732. 
 He was descended in the fourth generation 
 from Nathaniel Whiting, the founder of 
 the Dedham family. Nathaniel Whiting 
 first appeared in Lynn in 1638. He was ad- 
 mitted to the Dedham Church in 1641, and 
 was made a freeman in 1642, being then 
 about 33 years of age. He was by occupa- 
 tion a miller, and with John Elderkin, 
 built the first corn mill in Dedham, for 
 which enterprise they were made liberal 
 grants of land. This mill was located on 
 East Brook, and was built previous to July, 
 1641, as shown by the fact that the town 
 at that time appointed a committee "to lay 
 out a cart way to our water mill." By 1655 
 Nathaniel Whiting had acquired the entire 
 ownership in this property, which re- 
 mained in the Whiting family until 1823. 
 Nathaniel Whiting was a public benefac- 
 tor, in being with his associate the first to 
 operate a water mill for the grinding of 
 corn in Dedham, a facility for which the 
 town stood in great need, as the nearest 
 corn mill was at Watertown, which was 
 many miles away by water. 
 
 Jonathan Whiting, the great grandson 
 of Nathaniel, settled in the Dedham Spring- 
 field Parish, (now Dover) in 1725. He mar- 
 ried the same year Anna, daughter of 
 William and Elizabeth (Avery) Ballard, and 
 here they commenced their married life. 
 Jonathan Whiting had a large estate in the 
 centre of the Parish, which adjoined the 
 early settled farms of Nathaniel Chicker- 
 ing and Eleazer Ellis on Haven street. He 
 added to farming the business of a tannery, 
 which was located on Spring brook. Here 
 a flourishing business was carried on for 
 many years, the vats being remembered by 
 
 residents of a former generation. Mr. and 
 Mrs. Whiting had a family of 11 children, 
 six sons and five daughters, all of whom 
 grew to maturity and reared families. 
 Daniel Whiting, the subject of this sketch, 
 was the third son and fourth child born to 
 Jonathan and Anna Whiting. He at- 
 tended, with his brothers and sisters, the 
 Parish School on Haven street, where he 
 acquired a good common school education, 
 as his letters and papers show. In his 
 youth and early manhood he worked on 
 his father's farm and in the tannery. 
 
 The Springfield Parish finished its meet- 
 ing house in 1761. This was the most im- 
 portant institution in the Parish. The 
 same year Daniel Whiting completed the 
 needs of the Parish, in the erection, on 
 Dedham street, of the tavern, a structure 
 which is still standing, and is of great in- 
 terest as the last one of the pre-Revoln- 
 tionary taverns in this vicinity. Like all 
 early tavern keepers, Daniel Whiting was 
 a prominent man, and in his life and deeds 
 reflected credit on the Parish. He con- 
 tinued to be the proprietor of this tavern 
 until the breaking out of the Revolution, 
 and during the contest he sold this prop- 
 erty and loaned every dollar to the State, 
 without security, so great was her neces- 
 sity. The Revolution had no greater 
 heroes than those who did such things. 
 There was a small dance hall, and a bar- 
 room in this tavern, and it is believed that 
 he also had a small store in connection. 
 In the bar-room of Whiting's Tavern the 
 "Sons of Liberty" assembled and discussed 
 those mighty questions which came up for 
 consideration before the breaking ont of 
 the Revolution, and after the war was over 
 the old soldiers assembled here for many 
 years and fought their battles o'er. 
 
 Daniel Whiting married in 1761 Mehit- 
 
I 
 
 
 able, daughter of Daniel and Mehitable 
 (Haven) Haven of Framingham, who was 
 a frequent visitor at the home of her uncle, 
 Dea. Joseph Haven, on Haven street. Five 
 children were born to them in the old 
 Tavern as follows: Mehitable, Paul, 
 Fanny, Roger, and Nancy. Mrs. Whiting 
 died in June, 1775, and her husband re- 
 mained single during the remaining years 
 of his life. Daniel Whiting was a gentle- 
 man of the old school, commanding in man- 
 ner, six feet in height, and reputed the 
 handsomest man in the County. He was 
 very erect, light complexioned, and was 
 said to bear a remarkable resemblance to 
 General Washington, who was to be his 
 commander-in-chief in the Revolution ; he 
 was born in the same month and year as 
 Washington. Mr. Whiting was loved and 
 respected by everyone. 
 
 Although left with the care and respon- 
 sibility of five young children, yet it did 
 not deter him, as it would have done a less 
 brave and patriotic man, from entering the 
 service of his country, and giving six years 
 of efficient service. During this period his 
 children were widely scattered, having been 
 pat into the homes of relatives. 
 
 Daniel Whiting engaged in the last 
 French and Indian War, and in that ser 
 vice learned the use of firearms and the 
 value of discipline, all of which he put to 
 good use in the war that followed with the 
 Motherland. He went on the Crown Point 
 expedition in 1755, and served in Capt. 
 William Bacon's Company from Sept. 15, 
 1755, to December 16, 1755. He was an en- 
 sign in Capt. Nathaniel Bailey's Company 
 from Feb. 26, 1760, to Deo. 6, 1760, and in 
 this service he went into the New York 
 campaign. He has been credited with 
 being a lieutenant in Capt. William Bacon's 
 Company, but the fact is not established by 
 the records in the State Archives. He was 
 probably a lieutenant in the militia. In 1759 
 Capt. Joseph Richards delivered to Daniel 
 Whiting 29 bayonets with scabbards and 
 other belongings of his company in Ded- 
 ham. 
 
 In the breaking out of the Revolution, 
 Daniel Whiting marched as a first lieu- 
 tenant in Capt. Ebenezer Battelle's Com- 
 pany of the Springfield Parish, at the Lex- 
 ington Alarm. Having seen service in the 
 French and Indian War, his promotion 
 
 was rapid. What was said of his neigh- 
 bors and friends was not probably true of 
 him, because of his war discipline, that 
 "they were independent in their ways, as 
 unaccustomed to discipline as they were 
 averse to it, disposed to insubordination 
 and only too ready to go ofif in order to at- 
 tend to their domestic affairs and return in 
 leisurely fashion when their business was 
 done." 
 
 On April 24, 1775, he was made a Captain 
 in Col. Brewer's Regiment. He took part, 
 with 16 other residents of the Parish, in 
 the Battle of Bunker Hill. The regiment 
 was placed on the diagonal line between 
 the breastwork and the rail fence. It is 
 said that these soldiers conducted them- 
 selves with great bravery. Capt. Whiting 
 was in the Siege of Boston, but it does not 
 appear that he took part in fortifying Dor- 
 chester Heights. Nov. 6, 1776, he was 
 made a Major in Col. Asa Whitcomb's Reg- 
 iment, and served until Dec. 31, 1776, at 
 Ticonderoga. Jan. 1, 1777, he entered Col. 
 Brooks's regiment, Sept. 29, 1778, he was 
 made a Lieut. Col. in the Massachusetts 
 6th Regiment, Col. Thomas Nixson's, and 
 served until January, 1781, when he retired 
 to take care of his five motherless children. 
 After all the danger, privation, sacrifice, 
 and suffering which he had endured, when 
 returning from the Army he was obliged 
 to borrow money of a resident of West 
 Point to defray his expenses home, and 
 which he was unable to repay for many 
 years because of the failure of the State to 
 pay him back the money he loaned her in 
 her distress. (See Narrative History of 
 Dover for petition made to the State in 
 1782). 
 
 CoL Whiting saw a long service in the 
 State of New York. In the "Border Wars" 
 against the Indians, Tories and British 
 soldiers. Col. Ichabod Alden of the Mas- 
 sachusetts Sixth Regiment had command 
 of the fort at Cherry Valley, where on the 
 11th of November, 1778, a fearful massacre 
 took place. The attack was made at noon- 
 day and "gave the settlement a complete 
 surprise notwithstanding all our endeavors 
 to the contrary," wrote Major Whiting. 
 The officers of the regiment were stopping 
 at the house of Robert Wells. The officers 
 fled from the Wells' mansion as they saw 
 the enemy approach, but Col. Alden, who 
 
 Gift 
 
 Author 
 (Person) 
 
tarried for a moment, was killed on the 
 road by a tomahawk. Major Whiting for- 
 tunately reached the fort in safety, where 
 he took command. Of this attack he wrote 
 "had it not been for the great activity and 
 alertness of the troops they had rushed 
 within the line." Major Whiting held the 
 fort against the Indians in a fearful en- 
 gagement which continued for two days, 
 the Orst attack lasting for three and a half 
 hours. On the 13th of November, after the 
 enemy had withdrawn. Major Whiting 
 sent out parties to bring in the dead. Such 
 a shocking sight of savage and brutal bar- 
 barity they had never before seen. The 
 dead were mangled and scalped, some had 
 heads, some legs, and some arms cut off, 
 while others had the flesh torn off their 
 bones by dogs. 
 
 It was the plan of the British to separate 
 New England from the rest of the colonies; 
 to blockade the coast and keep the Tories 
 and Indians active on the frontier and so 
 crush out the Continental Army. In 1779, 
 Gen. John Sullivan was appointed by 
 Washington to break the power of the In- 
 dian allies of the British, and he assigned 
 to him a third of the Continental Army 
 with which to do the work. A fortitioation 
 was built by the Indians at Newtowne,near 
 Elmira, where it was believed Gen. Sulli- 
 van would pass. It was strongly fortified, 
 but under the command of Gen, Sullivan it 
 was captured and the Indians and Tories 
 routed. In this memorable battle, which 
 is coming to be seen as one of the decisive 
 battles of the Revolution, Col. Daniel 
 Whiting commanded a part of the garrison 
 under Brig. Gen. Enoch Poor, the Massa- 
 chusetts Sixth Regiment. 
 
 On his return to civil life. Col. Whiting 
 gathered his children around him and in 
 
 May, 1781, took up his residence in Natick. 
 Six days later. May 28, 1781, was witnessed 
 the curious custom of the times in warn- 
 ing, by the constable of the town, this 
 prominent and distinguished soldier to de- 
 part from the town. In 1787 he had better 
 standing, and was made one of the town 
 "Wardens." Col. Whiting later returned 
 to Dover, where he resided for a time. Like 
 most officers of the Revolution he was a 
 Freemason, but the lodge in which he was 
 made a mason is not known. He was one 
 of the petitioners in 1801, for the setting up 
 of Constellation Lodge in Dedham, but he 
 did not become a charter member of this 
 lodge. Through some irregularity he was 
 unfortunate in securing the bounty land 
 which was granted by the United States 
 Government to the soldiers of the Revolu- 
 tion, and through the faudulent act of 
 another, he lost this bounty which he had 
 go laboriously and faithfully earned. Col. 
 Daniel Whiting died in Natick, at the home 
 of his son-in-law, Ebenezer Newell, Oct. 17, 
 1807, and was buried in the family lot in 
 Highland cemetery in Dover. On Arbor 
 Day, 1892, the pupils of the Sanger Schoo 
 in Dover, planted an elm tree, with appro- 
 priate exercises, in memory of Col. Whiting, 
 which stands on the Common near the 
 town sheds. Coming generations can rest 
 beneath this tree and from the spot see a 
 portion of the farm where he was born ; 
 the tavern which he built ; and the place 
 where he is buried. His commission as a 
 Lieut. Col. in the Continental Army hangs 
 upon the walls of the Dover Historical So- 
 ciety— Sawin Memorial Building— and a 
 marker of the Sons of the American Rev- 
 olution marks his grave, which is only a 
 short distance from the old historic land- 
 mark, the Whiting Tavern, which he built. 
 
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 
 
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