Whipple Database
Database of the Whipple One-Name Study (WONS)
John William Whipple, M.D.
1815 - 1865 (49 years)-
Name John William Whipple Suffix M.D. Birth 26 Jun 1815 Ira, Rutland, Vermont 
Gender Male Death 19 Mar 1865 Illapel, Choapa, Chile Person ID I6841 Whipple Descendants | Dorchester MA/Providence RI Descendants Last Modified 4 Jul 2023
Father Samuel Whipple, b. 7 Feb 1773, Cumberland, Providence, Rhode Island d. Between 10 Jun 1817 and 8 Sep 1817, Ira, Rutland, Vermont (Age 44 years) Mother Amy Family ID F13684 Group Sheet | Family Chart
Family Adela Román, b. of, , , Chile Children + 1. Amedes Whipple Roman, b. of, Chile Family ID F3967 Group Sheet | Family Chart
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Event Map 
Birth - 26 Jun 1815 - Ira, Rutland, Vermont 
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Notes - SOURCE: Email from Pablo Whipple (email hidden) to Weldon Whipple, 3 Jul 2023. Cites Vermont VItal Records, 1760-1954 - familysearch.org FHL film 004705397 https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:939K-Y69B-YD. Gives birth 26 Jun 1815 in Ira, Vermont. (This disagrees with the History of Harvard Medical School published in 1905, which gives John's birth in 1820.)
!SOURCE: Email from Pablo Whipple (email hidden) to Weldon Whipple, 19 Apr 2023. Notes recent research on John William Whipple:The most significant is a page with James Atkins Noyes' notes about John Whipple when Noyes was the editor of Harvard's Quinquennial Catalogue, document you can see here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1c8jeNJWuDDqbkeWtGc9ZJ9LQFTFEvvLG/view?usp=sharing In the upper right corner, it says that John was the son of Samuel and Ann (or Ami) Whipple, and that he had a sister named Eunice.
!SOURCE: Email from Oscar Eduardo Whipple Ascui (email hidden) to Weldon Whipple, March 1997
!SOURCE: Email from Pablo Whipple (email hidden) to Weldon Whipple, 26 Feb 2019.It is not clear when John William Whipple (JW) arrived in Chile or if he came directly from the US to Chile. One source says that he was first in Bolivia. What is clear, is that he left the US soon after getting his MD from Harvard in 1852 https://iiif.lib.harvard.edu/manifests/view/drs:43381270$537i
Before attending Harvard, JW went to Brown University, at least between 1841and 1843, according to the University Catalogue. The catalogue also says his residence was in Rutland, Vermont for the year 41-42, and Providence Rhode Island for the year 42-43.
By 1857 JW was in Chile, and ask the University of Chile to validate his medical degree. Among other requirements, he had to write a dissertation about common diseases in Massachusetts (in Spanish, I have a copy). Once allowed to practice medicine in the Country, he was appointed as a state doctor in the rural town of Curico (100 miles south of Santiago, in Chile’s central Valley) during that same year. Although he was initially welcome by the community, soon after he got involved in several conflicts with local authorities because of the manner he practiced medicine, having to leave his first appointment, and practicing after in several small rural communities. At that time he was one of the few professionals in the country willing to work outside main cities like Santiago and Valparaiso. He was even appointed to Punta Arenas, a town that had been recently founded by the Chilean government in the Magellan Strait. After nine years in the country, he died in 1865 in the mining town of Illapel (180 miles north from Santiago) where he was appointed the year before to help with a smallpox outbreak affecting the area. Because he died of smallpox himself, his body was thrown to a cliff, together with the bodies of others that died from the disease.
JW story is quite remarkable and full of open questions such as why he came from Harvard to a country like Chile, to end up his days dying from smallpox while practicing medicine in one of the poorest and more isolated areas of the country at that time.
Some events after his death are more intriguing. In 1893, the US government contacted the Chilean ambassador in the US to ask information regarding John William Whipple descendants in Chile. The ambassador was informed by local authorities about who JW married (AdelaRoman), and about his son Amedes (my great grandfather), including where did he lived at that time and his professional activities. According to one newspaper article published that same year, the reason behind the interest in contacting JW son, was because JW two sisters in the US had died recently and there was an inheritance to be claimed.
Although I have copy of the report sent to the US by Chilean authorities informing about JW descendants and the newspaper article published in 1893, I never heard my father or anyone in my family say anything about this, and it seems that Amedes make no effort in contacting his relatives in the US.
In 1897 Amedes was again contacted from the US, this time by Harvard University asking details about his father’s life, also asking where his father was born in the US. Amedes answered that he did not remember because his father died when he was one year old and never heard his mother say the specific place where he was born. (a copy of that letter was sent to me by the Harvard Archive). Although Amedes did not give them news about JW birth place, The History of Harvard Medical School published in 1905 says that JW was born in 1820 in Vermont
https://books.google.cl/books?id=waMxAAAAYAAJ&dq=whipple+illapel&focus=searchwithinvolume&q=whipple+
Finaly, JW was listed as one of the claims the US had against Chile before the King of England George V, known as the Alsop Claim. These claims were mainly commercial conflicts and although I have some diplomatic documents about the case, is not clear why JW was included (mistreatment by Chilean authorities, the way he died, I don’t know)
!SOURCE: "Descendants of Christopher Whipple," emailed by Ann Winder (email hidden) to Weldon Whipple, 11 Sep 1998.
- SOURCE: Email from Pablo Whipple (email hidden) to Weldon Whipple, 3 Jul 2023. Cites Vermont VItal Records, 1760-1954 - familysearch.org FHL film 004705397 https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:939K-Y69B-YD. Gives birth 26 Jun 1815 in Ira, Vermont. (This disagrees with the History of Harvard Medical School published in 1905, which gives John's birth in 1820.)