Marcus Whitman (1802-1847) was an American physician, missionary, and pioneer whose death, at his medical and agricultural mission, was instrumental in passage of the act to make Oregon a Federal territory.

Born at Rushville, N.Y., on Sept. 4, 1802, Marcus Whitman was educated in Plainfield, Mass., and then studied medicine with a doctor at Rushville. After receiving his medical degree from the College of Physicians and Surgeons of New York, he practiced as a doctor for eight years: four years in Canada and four years at Wheeler, N.Y.

In 1835 Whitman applied for a missionary position as "physician, teacher, or agriculturist" with the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions and was sent to Oregon with the Reverend Samuel Parker. At the Green River rendezvous they met several Indian tribes who so fervently requested missionary help that the two men returned east to ready men to go west.

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