James Davenport Whelpley

Some adventurous man had put up four small houses on White Street, then just opened, near Broadway, and as Mr. Whelpley felt the need of exercise, and the rent was very low, he ventured to hire one of these.

[2] According to James Whelpley's obituary published by the American Academy of Arts and Science, after his father's death, "he was sent to school at New Haven, where, at an early age, he showed a decided taste for chemical study and experimentation."

Whelpley, who minded not having a father, found a mentor in Benjamin Silliman (1779–1864), a family friend, the first professor of chemistry at Yale, and the first to give there a scientific lecture on any subject.

[5] Whelpley graduated from the Medical Department of Yale College, in January 1842, having prepared a thesis dissertation, On the Unity of the Organic System, and after successfully passing an interview conducted by the "Committee for the Examination of Candidates for Degrees and Licenses.

"[6][7] After Whelpley received his medical degree, he went to Brooklyn, New York, intending to practice his chosen profession, but on account of ill-health he returned to New Haven where he occupied himself with scientific study and literary pursuits.

In January 1848, after Colton's death, his executors introduced Whelpley in the journal's seventh volume: "We beg to inform the patrons of this Review, and all interested, that the work will continue to be published as heretofore, at No.

; a gentleman who has been connected with the Review from the beginning, as one of its most valuable contributors, and for a year past, intimately associated with the late lamented editor in conducting it; and in whose abilities, principles, and judgement, we have the utmost confidence.

[Whelpley] conceived the idea of establishing a commercial colony in Honduras to develop the resources of that country and bring it into closer relations with the United States.

[5] Meanwhile, in May 1855, American mercenary William Walker (1824–1860) led a force of 110 men on a private expedition to Central America with the intention of forcibly establishing a colony based on slave labor in Nicaragua.

Accompanied by an armed party of fifty men, Dr. Whelpley went to Honduras to protect what he could there, and was detained by force by Walker, for nearly a year, enduring great privation and suffering, and at the same time impressed into service as surgeon and physician, taking care of the sick and wounded.

[5] In a letter to his class secretary, Whelpley described his time in captivity: During my forced detention I was continually active as a physician and hospital surgeon...We lived as though there was no future for us in this world, in the perpetual society of and view of death in its most revolting and horrible shapes, in the companionship of assassins and thieves, conscious of the injustice of the war into which we had been forced, and studying only by what means to escape...I succeeded with a few others in working my way to the seaport and then stealing in the darkness of night on board a vessel, and then to California, from which I came at once to New York...My brother Philip was shot through the head at the Battle of St.

Cole noted that when the group stayed for a few days near Acoyapa, "our physician had an opportunity at this, as at several other haciendas, of rendering some important medical and surgical services, for which a great deal of sincere gratitude was expressed by the relatives of the patients."