James Ervin Whitman and his family moved from Jackson County, Ohio, to Ralls County, Missouri then to Appanoose County, Iowa and finally to Pleasanton, Kansas. James' son by his first wife Mary Wills Savage, George Washington Whitman married Phoebe Elizabeth Thomas in Appanoose County, Iowa. Their eldest daughter Nellie Valentine Whitman married James Riland McLeland in Pleasanton, Kansas in 1893. When Nellie was in the mood she used to tell stories of crossing the Kansas prairie in a covered wagon with her siblings. James E. Whitman and his sons Frank, Robert Wells and George W. Whitman ran a general store in Pleasanton, Linn County, Kansas 
Whitman Store, Pleasanton, KS in doorway left to right Robert Wills Whitman, Frank Whitman, George Washington Whitman, on stool next to George is James E. Whitman family patriarch. |
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Electa Whitman, third wife of James Ervin Whitman |
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George W Whitman, father of Nellie Valentine Whitman 1893 |
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Phoebe Thomas Whitman, mother of Nellie Valentine 1983 |
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George W Thomas and Phoebe Elizabeth Jones Thomas, parents of Phoebe Thomas Whitman 1893 |
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Nellie Valentine Whitman McLeland, 1893 |
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George Washington Whitman's girls, from left to right, Nellie, Mattie, Flossie, Maree, sisters of Nellie Valentine Whitman taken 1893 |
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Mattie Whitman, 1893 |
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Maree Whitman, c. 1893 |
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