Whale, wail, wale, weal, welt

In looking for more facts pertaining to the discussion on "to whale/wail/wale on someone," to hit, to beat. I'm finding some interesting things.
The words "wheal," "weal," and "welt" also have some relationship to "wale," more or less, but that doesn't lead much of anywhere.

Webster's 1828 does not have any verb "to whale."
The 1913 Webster's has this verb, written as such:

Whala , v. t. (imp. & p. p. Whaled (?); p. pr. & vb. n. Whaling.) (Cf. Wale. ) To lash with stripes; to wale; to thrash; to drub. (Prov. Eng. & Colloq. U. S.) Halliwell. Bartlett.
I'm sure "whala," ending with an A, must be a mistake, even though it appears at the three or four websites that are based on the 1913 dictionary. It has to be a typograpical error, possibly in the print edition, more likely in whatever scanned edition was shared by these different websites.
The order of the entries is no clue; they run, "Whahoo, Whala, Whale." This edition does make separate entries for noun, verb, and adjective use of the same word (for example, Wet, Wet, and Wet on the same page), so that also is no clue. Yet no one else on the World Wide Web seems to know of "whala" except for Webster 1913. No, I take that back, it's a surname and there are also a dozen hits for it used as a (jocular?) variant of "voila".
What were the references of Halliwell and Bartlett supposed to mean?... I don't find Halliwell, but the Online Book Page has a link to:

Dictionary of Americanisms, by John Russell Bartlett (1848) http://www.merrycoz.org/voices/bartlett/AMER14.HTM

which has:
WHALING. A lashing; a beating.
(citation:)
But it is possible that we may, at some future time, go to war with England her writers and speakers
having spoken disparagingly of us, while her actors, half-pay officers and other travelling gentry carry their heads rather high in passing through our
country for which "arrogant" demeanor we are bound to give her a whaling! N. Y. Tribune, Aug. 1847.
That "Dictionary of Americanisms" looks useful for other discussions. I see who the elusive Hallilwell must be, from another entry:

DOUGH-NUT. A small roundish cake, made of flour,
eggs, and sugar, moistened with milk, and boiled in lard. Webster. Halliwell has donnut in his
Provincial Dictionary, which is no doubt the same
word.
I see there are some other interesting books reproduced at the Merrycoz site, such as Webster's speller, with a full section on pronunciation rules:
The American Spelling Book, by Noah Webster (1800?) http://www.merrycoz.org/books/spelling/SPELLING.HTM

Best Donna Richoux