Early Life
Narcissa Prentiss was born in Prattsburgh, New York, in the Genesee Valley on March 14, 1808. She was the third of nine children of Judge Stephen and Clarissa Prentiss. She was the oldest of the five girls, followed by Clarissa, Mary Ann, Jane, and Harriet. She also had four brothers. Like many young women of the era, she became caught up in the Second Great Awakening. She decided that her true calling was to become a missionary, and was accepted for missionary service in March 1835. Narcissa was educated at the Female Academy at Troy, on the Hudson before her marriage to Dr. Marcus Whitman. It was on February 18, 1836 in Angelica, New York.
Read more about this topic: Narcissa Whitman
Famous quotes containing the words early life, early and/or life:
“... goodness is of a modest nature, easily discouraged, and when much elbowed in early life by unabashed vices, is apt to retire into extreme privacy, so that it is more easily believed in by those who construct a selfish old gentleman theoretically, than by those who form the narrower judgments based on his personal acquaintance.”
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“Probably more than youngsters at any age, early adolescents expect the adults they care about to demonstrate the virtues they want demonstrated. They also tend to expect adults they admire to be absolutely perfect. When adults disappoint them, they can be critical and intolerant.”
—The Lions Clubs International and the Quest Nation. The Surprising Years, I, ch.4 (1985)
“Women generally should be taught that the rough life men must needs lead, in order to be healthy, useful and manly men, would preclude the possibility of a great degree of physical perfection, especially in color. It is not a bad reflection to know that in all probability the human animal has endowments enough without aspiring to be the beauty of all creation as well as the ruler.”
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