Samuel Woodbridge Haynes was born on 18 January 1840, in Otis, Massachusetts. His father, William Babbitt Haynes, was 37 and his mother, Mary E. Case, was 25. William Babbitt Haynes died on December 22, 1840. Samuel's mother later married James M. Whipple adopted her three children. Samuel, his brother William Jay and sister Mary Elizabeth took the Whipple name. They lived in Algoma, Winnebago, Wisconsin, in 1850 and Prescott in Pierce, Wisconsin, in 1860. He is listed in the 1860 Federal Census as a post office clerk in that city. In April 1862 Samuel and his older brother William Jay left Prescott, Wisconsin by way of wagon train arriving in Walla Walla, Washington in October 1862, then move on to Portland, Oregon on October of 1862 and then to San Francisco in 1863. He died on 12 March 1871, in California, at the age of 31, and was buried the Madronia Cemetery in Saratoga, California.