Born: July 20, 1825, possibly in Westville, son of William Martin and Dolly Branch (residents of Westville and later Bangor).
Died: after 1906, probably in Elma, Washington State
Married: Mary (m. abt. 1858); Molly Saunders (m. abt. 1906)
Children: With first wife, Mary: William F. Martin (b. 1858/59), Henry Wheeler Martin (b. 1864), Frank Emerson Martin (b. 1867), Stephen Adelbert Martin (b. 1870), Bertha D. Martin (b. 1874). The children were all born in Kansas, and went further west from there.
Chiefly known for: In the autumn of 1857 Henry shot the last moose ever seen around the Saranac Lakes. Brother of William F., Stephen, Clarinda and Susan Martin.
Henry Wheeler Martin was an expert woodsman and worked for his older brother William F. Martin at his hotel Martin's for a few years. According to Alfred L. Donaldson, Henry went out west and was last known to be near Seattle, Washington.
It is not known why Henry decided to leave the Saranac Lake area, where his two brothers William F. and Steve were doing well. He first moved to Manhattan, Kansas, around 1857-59, and farmed there for a number of years. At some time between 1875 and 1880, he took his teenage son, Henry, on an extended camping or hunting trip, but never returned to his wife and three younger children (his oldest son, William, may have died or left home). He and his son Henry stopped briefly in Oregon before settling in the town of Elma, in Washington State. At the age of 80, Henry married again, to 28-year-old Molly Saunders.
After Henry's disappearance from Kansas, his first wife, Mary, took their three younger children with her to Los Angeles County, CA, where they settled.
Though Henry appears to have been a less likeable character than his two brothers (according to family stories), two of his sons did well for themselves. His second son, Henry, was a well-liked longtime resident of Elma, Washington, and his fourth son, Stephen, owned a hog ranch in Burbank, Los Angeles County, which included the original David Burbank house. In 1926, Stephen sold the ranch to First National Pictures, which was taken over by Warner Bros. two years later, and the main Warner Bros. studios were built on the site of the Martin hog ranch. Stephen then moved to Oregon.
As of 2011, over thirty descendants of Henry Wheeler Martin are living in California and Oregon.
Sources: Census and family records.
