Calmon Whitney, (1836-1880)

Headstone GPS Coordinates: 

Birth: Abt. 1836, Jonesboro, Washington County, Maine

Death: 13 July 1880, Seabeck, Kitsap County, Washington 

Relatives in Seabeck Cemetery: None.

American Revolutionary War Patriots*: Joel Whitney (Massachusetts, Maine District) DAR# A125120; Jonathan Kelton/Kilton (Massachusetts) DAR# A064429, William Russell (Massachusetts) DAR# A134815

Disclaimer: These lines have not been officially proven by NSDAR standard

Calmon “Cam” Whitney was born in Jonesboro, Washington county, Maine around 1836 to Josiah Whitney and Eliza Ann Kilton. His father Josiah worked as a lumberman. Calmon went into the same profession. 

Calmon married Hannah Adaline “Addie” Marston on August 13, 1859 in Jonesboro. On the 1860 federal census, Calmon was recorded twice. In June, he was listed as living in his father’s household. In July, he was living with his wife in her father’s household. 

Around 1863, Calmon left Maine to travel west. He was mentioned in Marshall Blinn’s 1864/1865 diaries as one of the managers of Blinn’s logging camps along the Hood Canal. Blinn referred to him as “Cam.”

By 1870, Calmon’s younger brother Herman had joined him in Washington Territory both working as lumbermen. They were listed in the census as living in Quilcene, Jefferson, Washington Territory, which is located northwest from Seabeck across the Hood Canal.

Calmon purchased land in Seabeck around the Big Beef area. He was neighbors with the Emel family. 

As far as records show, his wife Addie never came out to the Washington Territory. She sued for divorce on September 7, 1869 in Maine claiming Calmon “…neglect(ed) and violat(ed) his marriage vows willfully desert(ed) and abandon(ed)…she received no support from said Calmon Whitney since the year 1863.” The divorce was granted and finalized in October 1871.

In 1873, Calmon was connected to a woman named Kw’E-Tub-A-Lo who went by “Kate.” She was a citizen of the Twonoh or Skokomish Tribe located in Mason County. They had two children born in Seabeck: Alice Daisy born on June 15, 1873 and Calmon “Johnie” born around 1878. 

In his daughter Alice’s marriage announcement to William Pemmant in 1890, it was mentioned that she was “the daughter of Captain C.C. Whitney, of Seabeck, who before his death, a few years ago, was in command of the St. Patrick.” His son Calmon “Johnie’s” death announcement in the paper also mentioned “his father was one of the first captains on the St. Patrick, the first steamer to run regularly on Hood Canal.” The St. Patrick steamer was mainly used to make runs between Seabeck and Port Gamble.  

In the 1880 census and various Indian census rolls, Kate Whitney was listed as living in Seabeck with her children as the “head” of the household and “married.” Calmon was listed on the June 10, 1880 census as a “boarder” at the Eagle Hotel and was listed as “single.” He was noted as being unemployed for three months at that point. On July 13, 1880, he died at the age of forty-four at the Eagle Hotel. His cause of death is unknown.

Calmon was buried in Seabeck Cemetery with an upright, marble headstone with a hand pointing up to heaven. Sadly, the headstone is in very poor condition.

Both of Calmon’s children met untimely deaths. His daughter Alice was killed by her husband William Pemmant with an ax in Quilcene in 1922. She is buried in Quilcene cemetery. She had five surviving children at the time of her death. Calmon’s son Calmon “Johnie” died in Steveston, British Columbia along the Fraser River in 1896 when he was about eighteen years old. His body was brought back and buried on the Skokomish Indian Reservation. 

Calmon’s wife Kate died in 1901 in Quilcene at the age of fifty-one from cancer.  She is presumably buried in Quilcene.