Born on 31 May 1819 (and named "Walter") to Walter and Louisa Van Velsor Whitman, young Walt passed his early years in undistinguished fashion. Shortly before his fourth birthday, the family moved from its home at West Hills, Long Island, to Brooklyn. Whitman's father, a carpenter, hoped to find employment in the town, for there had been few opportunities to ply his craft on Long Island, and he had been reduced to farming and cutting firewood to earn money for his family. Besides Walt and his parents, the family also included another son, Jesse (born 1818), and a daughter, Mary Elizabeth (1821).
Walter Whitman found employment as a carpenter in Brooklyn, but he was less successful when he invested his money in real estate. Despite a fairly rapid turnover of his property— usually the family's own house—between 1823 and 1831, in the end he lost money on these transactions. During this period the Whitmans had three more children: Hannah Louisa (born 1823), Andrew Jackson (1827), and George Washington (1829). Another child, born in 1825, died before it could be named.
Whitman received a rudimentary education during the six years he attended the public schools in Brooklyn, beginning about 1825.
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