The Whittingtons, Part 4: Gibson and Weston

Gibson and Weston Whitenton were among the sons of James and Frankie Whittington who left Tennessee and moved on to Texas. Two more of their younger brothers would follow them.

This is Part 4 of the series about the Whittington family of North Carolina and Tennessee and Texas.

Part 1: The James and Frankie Whittington Family
Part 2: William and Richard
Part 3: Agatha and Telitha
Part 5: George, Solomon, and Othaneil
Part 6: Cason Coley, James Henderson, Quintillian, and Frances Ann

Gibson Whitenton

Gibson (he spelled his surname Whitenton) was born 29 June 1807 in Johnston County, North Carolina. He was the fifth child and third son of James and Frankie Whittington. When he was born, his siblings were William (8), Richard (6¾), Agatha (4½), and Talitha (2). He and his next younger brother, Weston, seemed to be close friends as well as brothers.

Gibson was a member of his father’s household on the 1820 and 1830 census records for Johnston County, North Carolina. He probably appeared on the 1810 Census as well, but very probably the family was on the federal listing for Wake County and that return is missing from the archives and was never microfilmed. Sometime in the 1830s the family moved to Tennessee, and Gibson went with them.

Gibson married Elizabeth Williams in Madison County, Tennessee, on August 20, 1840. He and Elizabeth were both 33; her birth date was April 16, 1807. He had been living with his father’s family, but he and Elizabeth immediately set up housekeeping in a little home nearby. In the 1840 Census the two of them were living next door to his brother Weston’s family, and just two houses away was Gibson’s father’s family. Together Gibson and Elizabeth had the following children:

• Sarah James Frances Whitenton, born 30 September 1841 in Madison, Tennessee.

• Elender Whitenton, born 30 June 1842 in Madison, Tennessee.

• Martha L Whitenton, born 1844 in Dyer, Tennessee.

• David Williams Whitenton, born 27 October 1847 in Madison, Tennessee.

In 1850 Gibson and Elizabeth were living in District 17 of Madison County, Tennessee. Their family consisted of Sarah JF, age 9; Ellender, age 8; Martha L, age 6; David W, age 3; and a hired man, George Smith, age 18. Gibson’s farm was worth $250.

Just about the time of Father James’s death in 1853, Gibson sold his Tennessee land and went to Texas to join his brother Weston in Goliad County. In 1854 Gibson owned a horse, eight cows, one yoke of oxen, and some hogs. His total worth was $104. He had to pay 75¢ poll tax, a reminder that this was the South where elections were restricted to those who could afford to vote. His state tax was only 15¢. Probably he started out down there working for his brother since he didn’t have any real estate property on the first tax roll.

The next year his tax assessment shows he gained one cow, but his total worth dropped to $79. Gibson and Elizabeth must have been struggling at first to get established in Texas, but their circumstances soon improved substantially.

In 1860 Gibson’s farm was worth $1100 and his personal property $600. The census showed his age was 53, that he was born in North Carolina, and his occupation was a farmer. His wife and children were all identified only by their initials. The children’s ages were correct, but his wife had shaved several years off her age. People have always wanted to be younger than they are!

We don’t know what happened to Gibson during the Civil War, if he was affected in any way. Certainly he did not seem to be affected economically; the evidence is that he continued to do well, based on tax records from the years of the War.

The 1863 tax roll listed $1015 worth of property for Gibson, consisting of “Land, Horses, Cattle &c”. This is a little lower than his worth before the War started.

The 1864 tax assessment showed that Gibson’s total worth was $910, consisting of land and livestock (horses, cattle, sheep, and hogs). He had 198 acres worth $500; the original grant was owned by S. Byrnes. The poll tax had risen to $1.00; his state tax was $5.55; his county tax was $1.38⅓.

One year later his situation was a little improved. He had a total worth of $982. He had 200 acres from S Byrnes valued still at $500.

The voter list for 1867 showed that on July 30, 1867 Gibson lived in Precinct 3 of Goliad County and had been there for 15 years, which might be rounded up since it seems hard to believe that he and Elizabeth would have struggled nearly five years to get land and begin to live comfortably. Two or three years of struggle, give or take a year, seems more realistic for their situation.

On the agricultural schedule for 1870, Gibson had 202 acres of land, with 22 under cultivation yielding 300 bushels of Indian corn. His farm was worth $700. A little oddly, Gibson listed no livestock of any kind, while next door his brother Weston had plenty. It makes one wonder whether the brothers were sharing the animals that helped work the farm.

On the 1870 census population schedule, Gibson was 63 years old, still farming, and he listed his worth as $696 of real estate and $500 of personal estate. This is the highest relative value Gibson realized in the five years immediately following the War. Postwar economics caused Gibson’s relative wealth to decrease for several years after this.

Living with Gibson in 1870 were his wife, Elizabeth, and their son, David, who was 22 at the time. Also living in the same house were their daughter Sarah and her husband David Kersey. The Kerseys reported that they just got married in July, and the census was also taken in July, on the 22^nd of that month. Finally, there was a young hired man living there too, named Thomas Adcock, age 18, from Mississippi. Next door were Gibson’s brother Weston and his family.

Their daughter Martha L appears to have married Samuel H Jones in June 1869 in Dyer County, Tennessee (or Sam Johnson—there are marriage records for both names with the same bride). Perhaps she was there visiting relatives when she met him. They moved to Missouri and had a daughter in 1871, Lizzie Jane. Nothing further is known about their family, except that Martha died in 1874.

Sadly for Gibson and his children, Elizabeth died the next year on May 17, 1871. She was 64 years old. However, living near Gibson’s brother Weston was a family named Jacobs, and they had an attractive, widowed relative named Mrs. Mary Ann Jacobs. Not five months after Elizabeth’s death, Gibson married Mary Ann Jacobs in DeWitt County on October 8, 1871. What did the children think? Was this quick, or were there extenuating circumstances?

Mary Ann had been born in South Carolina on March 9, 1832. She had at least one daughter from a previous husband, but the daughter’s last name was not “Jacobs,” so there is a little mystery about Mary Ann’s relationships.

The 1871 tax rolls for Goliad County show Gibson’s relative wealth had decreased. He had 197 acres from “Squire Burns” valued at just $1 per acre, and his livestock consisted of 6 horses valued at $100, 22 cattle valued at $100, 280 sheep valued at $228, and miscellaneous property valued at $59. His total property value was set at $684. Based on the value of the land, Gibson probably was grazing the cattle and sheep on it and not cultivating any.

Gibson’s state tax was $3.42, then for some reason the poll tax was left blank, and the next column shows 17¢ for a total state tax of $3.59. His county taxes were broken down into categories for county, special, road, repair, and school taxes. His were $1.71, $3.42, $2.71, 68⅔¢, and 34⅓¢, with the total appearing to be $8.86⅔ (I know that doesn’t add up, but that’s what is written on the form). In addition to these taxes, he had to pay 25¢ to a “justices fee,” and 40¢ to a “justices commission” with a total of 65¢ to “fees and commissions.” When we complain about our taxes today, we can see there is a long history of taxes piling up on a person.

In 1872, Gibson’s tax roll showed 200 acres at a value of $250—inflation must have hit, or he was cultivating a few acres with a crop that gave him a good return. He had more value in livestock as well: 5 horses at $100, 2 cattle at $25, 300 sheep at $1 apiece. The total of his property this year was $730, a little better than the year before. His taxes were $10.47.

In 1877 Gibson’s tax roll showed apparently different lands in his possession. In this year, the original grantors of his lands were Turner for 207 acres and O’Neil for 113 acres. The value of these two pieces of land together was $576. He had 2 dogs valued at $200 and a “carriage, buggy, or wagon” valued at $50. Can you imagine today buying a dog for more than you paid for your car? His relative wealth was close to the same as five years before.

The 1880 Census found Gibson on June 22^nd of that year nursing a broken leg. He was 72 years old and still reported his occupation as “Farmer.” His wife “Marianna” was 48, keeping house, and was born in South Carolina, as were both her parents. Her daughter Florence Deeton, age 19, was living with them.

Next door to them on one side was the family of Gibson’s son David, a farmer like his father. David at that time was 32, and his wife, Amanda, was 26. Their son, Jesse H, was 1. David and Amanda had gotten married in 1874. Their children would be:

• Jessie Henderson Whitenton, 1879–1952
• Charlotte Elizabeth Whitenton, 1881–1960
• David Williams Whitenton, 1883–1964

David Sr. was a farmer like his father. He died in Goliad County on April 4, 1912. His wife, Amanda, died in 1920.

Next door to them on the other side was the family of Gibson’s daughter “Ellinda” as this census taker wrote it. Her husband, John Adcock, was 41, and Elender was 37. Perhaps John was a relative of the hired man from ten years before, Thomas Adcock. John’s and Elender’s children were:

• Elizabeth, 1864
• Margaretta, 1867–1891
• Alexander, 1870–1951
• William Moody, 1873–1948
• Robert Jefferson, 1876–1895
• David W, 1878–1969
• Gilbert Adolph, 1882–1957

John and Ellender moved to Pearsall, Frio County, Texas, soon after the census was taken. There Ellender died January 20, 1883 at the age of 40.

Four or five houses away from Gibson’s son David was the household of Gibson’s eldest daughter and her family. David B. Kersey was 44 at this time, a farmer, and Sarah was 38, keeping house. Their children were:

• Talitha Elizabeth, 1871–1910
• Martha J, 1874–1886
• Matthew James, 1874–1962
• Gibson A, 1876
• Elender Cassandra, 1877–1969

Sarah and David Kersey prospered and lived all their lives in Goliad County. David died in 1913 and Sarah in 1929.

The final record we have showing Gibson on his farm is a tax assessment from 1885. He had two pieces of land totaling 227 acres, valued at $681. He had 2 carriages, 2 horses, 20 cattle, and 220 sheep. The value of all of these was $840, making his total worth $1521. Gibson was a prosperous man.

Gibson died 8 January 1888 in Goliad County and was buried there beside Elizabeth. His second wife, Mary Ann, died November 21, 1898.

Weston Whittenton

Weston was born January 8, 1809 in Wake County, North Carolina. Records for Weston spelled the family name Whittenton. When he was born, his older siblings were William (10), Richard (8), Agatha (6), Talitha (4), and Gibson (1½). He and Gibson seem to have always been close.

Weston married Lucy Ann Williams in Wake County, North Carolina in about 1830 when they were both about 21 years old. They had the following children:

• John R, born in Wake County in September 1832.
• James William, born in Madison, Tennessee in mid-to-late 1837.
• Sarah C, born in Tennessee 17 April 1840.
• George M, born in Tennessee in 1843 and died between the ages of 7 and 17.
• Martha Elizabeth, a twin born in Texas on 17 February 1851.
• Lucy Ann, a twin born in Texas on 17 February 1851.

As can be seen by the births of the children, Weston and his family moved to Tennessee about 1837 or a little before. The 1840 Census shows them in Madison County, next door to Gibson and his new wife. The census has problems though, because it lists a male child age 5–10 and two female children ages 5–10 and under 5. We know the older female child should have been a male instead. Then the total in the household says 6, although only 5 are shown. One is engaged in agriculture, which of course would be Weston.

Weston and his family moved to Texas sometime after George’s birth in 1843, but before the Census was taken in September 1850. This was curious, Weston’s move. He was right in Victoria County where his older brother William died in 1849, and yet Weston never claimed any part of the estate that was being probated right at that time, with notices being posted in three different places in the county. If he had just moved there, it’s possible he missed all the notices, but it’s a stretch of the imagination to think that he moved all the way from Tennessee to the very county where his older brother was known to have been living and then did not contact anyone about him. If he moved there before, say in the mid-to-late 1840s, he must have contacted William—and if so, perhaps they had a major falling-out. Even so, why would he not claim part of the estate? Weston was not doing all that well at the time. The whole thing is odd to say the least.

The 1850 Census for Victoria County shows Weston Whittenton on September 13, 1850. Weston was 41 years old, his wife, Lucy Ann, was 39. The children were: John R (age 18), James W (age 13), Sarah C (age 10), and George M (age 7). Weston and John R were listed as farmers.

By 1854 Weston had moved to Goliad County near Gibson and his family. Perhaps some of their closeness stemmed from the relationship of their wives. Both women were from the Williams family originating in Wake County, North Carolina, but their exact blood relationship to each other is unknown.

Weston acquired a farm worth $140 on a stream called Coletto. He had a horse, 2 cows, a yoke of oxen, and some hogs. His total worth was $221. The poll tax was 75¢. His state tax was 33¢. The next year his tax report shows the same value for his farm. The livestock changed though—he had two horses, one cow, and his oxen and hogs rose in value from $50 to $65, making his total worth $255.

The 1860 Census, taken in July that year, shows Weston’s farm was more modest, worth $250, but his personal property was worth $600. His 22-year-old son James William was farming with him, and he had a young man from New York living with him and raising stock with a worth of $800. His family consisted of his wife, Lucy Ann, his son James William (age 22), twin daughters Martha Elizabeth and Lucy Ann (age 8), and Mr. F. Greenly, the stock raiser from New York.

Weston’s son John R, age 27, was enumerated twice in 1860. On June 1^st he was reported as living in Texana, Jackson County, Texas with his wife, Martha W., age 22, and their daughter, Allice L., age 3, with his wife’s family, William and Sarah Probst and their other children. John’s occupation was a saddle tree maker and he had a personal estate of $300, and his birthplace was Wake County, North Carolina. Martha was reported born in Live Oak County, Indiana. Allice was born in Goliad County, Texas. Living with the family is 77-year-old John A. Anderson, a cabinet workman whose worth is $200 and who was born in Anderson, South Carolina. In the other enumeration on July 26^th, John, age 27, was listed as a farmer in Goliad County with no estate. Martha and Allice were with him, and John’s brother James William, age 22, was enumerated with them but had no occupation listed.

It is interesting that both John R and James William were enumerated twice, with James being once with his parents and once with his brother’s family.

It seems likely that the truth must be something like this:

1. John R moved his family to Texana in late May and was recorded by the census taker there.
2. The Goliad County census taker came around and Weston reported his and Lucy’s family, including James.
3. The Goliad County census taker came back later to ask about the empty house near the Whittenton farm, and Lucy reported her son John R’s family as if they still lived there, to make sure they did not get missed by the census, and she did not know the details of his occupation nor his property value. She included William with his brother’s family (not knowing Weston had told the census taker he lived with them now), and perhaps James William did live with his brother up until they moved.

What is most interesting is that one report uses James’ first name, and the other report uses the middle name, William. That’s what makes it likely that two different family members did the reporting. Since “James” is the same as Weston’s father’s name, and “William” is short for Lucy’s maiden surname, perhaps they each favored their family’s part of this son’s name. It does make it seem as if the one son were two people though.

The Civil War erupted right after this census, and Weston’s sons John R and James William served in the Confederate Army. John enlisted in the Texas infantry, serving in the 8^th Regiment under Col. A.M. Hobby, Company E under Lt. Col. John Ireland. The regiment spent most of the War defending the coast between Corpus Christi and Galveston from Union invasion, but in March 1864 they went over into Louisiana and fought in the Battle of Mansfield on April 8. 

James William went to DeWitt County (next door to Goliad) and joined William O. Yager’s 3^rd Battalion Texas Mounted Rifles. Yager’s Regiment was consolidated with the 8th Cavalry and renamed the 1st Texas Cavalry Regiment. Pfc. Whittenton was a member of Company B. They fought a few skirmishes in Texas and then went over to Louisiana and fought in the Battle of Mansfield, on April 8, 1864, and he was killed in that battle. His brother apparently was with him because their units were put together in that battle. James’ name underwent a metamorphosis during the War. His first enlistment is under the name “J.W. Whittington.” But during his six months’ service in that regiment, his papers were filed under the name “W.J. Whittenton.” Then when he was formally listed with the 1st Regiment, it was under the name “William J. Whittenton.” From this evidence we can conclude that he went by the name of “William” and reversed the order of his names. Of course it must have been devastating to Weston and Lucy for James to have been killed.

John served until the War was over, but there is no record of when and where he and his company were captured or surrendered. On August 16, 1865, he took the oath of amnesty at the Courthouse in Victoria County, Texas.

In 1869 the tax assessment for Weston’s property showed he had 72 acres worth $300. He had three horses and 25 cows and a total worth of $480. His taxes were 72¢ for the property and $1 for the poll tax. It looks as if he had the cattle grazing the land rather than farming it. His total worth was $780 for the year, so his financial situation looked very much the same as ten years before.

Weston’s son John R still held property in Goliad County or perhaps had moved back there, for his tax assessment is on the next line. He had 5 acres worth $200, so probably he had it all under cultivation in cotton or some high-value crop. He had two horses, seven cows, and “merchandise” for a total worth of $458. His taxes were 68¾¢ for property and $1 poll tax. John’s first wife, Martha, had died before 1870, and his mother-in-law moved in with him to take care of his daughter Alice.

The 1870 Census was taken July 22^nd in Goliad County and shows Weston at age 60 (he was really 61), as a farmer with land worth $250 and a personal estate of $230. This looks as if his worth has gone down over $300 in one year, with $50 of it being land. What could have caused such a drastic decrease in fortune? Perhaps he gave some land to one or another of his children and personal property to the others.

In 1870 Weston’s daughter Martha Elizabeth (who went by the name of Elizabeth), the twin of Lucy, married Earnest August Evers. They had nine children altogether. More will be given about them later.

On May 3, 1871, twin daughter Lucy A. Whittenton married William Noll in Goliad County. They had a daughter, Christine Elizabeth Noll, born 4 July 1872. William apparently died right around that time, for Mrs. Lucy Ann Noll married Charles Andrew Johnson in Victoria County on July 6, 1874. They had three sons who lived to adulthood, and apparently two other children died young (the 1900 census recorded that Lucy had borne six children, four of whom were living).

Weston died also in 1871 (we hope it was after Lucy’s wedding). This was also the same year that his brother Gibson’s first wife died. Weston’s exact death date is unknown. The next known record of Weston’s widow shows her paying property taxes in 1871 on what she had after Weston had died. She apparently was not left any land. She had 1 horse, 30 cattle, and miscellaneous property to make her total worth just $310. In 1880 she was living with her daughter Lucy Ann Johnson, and that is the last record we have of her.

John R married again in June 1872 to Margaret Jane Probst, who was born in December 1837. She was a younger sister of his late wife. They had no children together.

Weston and Lucy’s daughter Sarah was married to a man named John W. Kuykendall, and they had at least four children:

• Dora Florence (February 1860)
• Cynthia (1862)
• John M (1867)
• James W (February 29, 1870)

In 1880 Sarah reported on the census that she was living with these four named children in Cuero, DeWitt, Texas, although her son John M was also recorded as living with his grandmother Lucy Whittenton in his aunt and uncle Johnson’s family. On January 25, 1887 Sarah married James Maddox. He died before 1900, and there Sarah was in DeWitt County alone in her home. The record shows that Sarah bore six children and that two had died before 1900. Since the four who are named above were all still living in 1900, either Sarah had children with John Kuykendall who died unnamed (there is a span of five years between two of the living children as well as the years after 1870 and before John died when she could have had children), or she had two children with her second husband and both died. Sarah died 15 October 1920.

M. Elizabeth Whittington Evers and her husband Ernest had the following children:

• William Benjamin Evers, born 11 June 1873 in Victoria, Texas. He married and had four children. He was a fire chief and I think died of smoke inhalation (must look up that Latin term on his death record!) on 22 September 1928 in Galveston, Texas.
• George Edward Evers, born 23 April 1876 in Victoria, Texas. He married and had several children. He died 6 April 1950 in Victoria.
• Eugene Evers, born about 1879 and probably died between 1900 and 1910. 
• Cynthia Birch Evers, born in April 1881 in Fort Bend, Texas. She married in her early 20s and had at least two children. She died in 1969.
• Dena Evers, born in May 1883 in Austin, Texas. She never married, and she kept house in Cuero, Texas, for her brother Rudolph and her niece Althea until she died of breast cancer in 1945.
• Rudolph Bertrain Evers, born 12 August 1885 in Victoria, Texas. He provided a home for his sister and his niece (shown on the census reports) until at least 1945. He married later, and he died in 1969.
• Earl V Evers was born 13 October 1887 in Victoria, Texas. He served in the military in World War I and married three years after he got out in 1919. He and his wife had no children. He died in 1958.
• Earnest August Evers, Jr. was born 1 May 1892 in Cuero, DeWitt, Texas. He married and had a daughter in 1917, Althea. He died in 1920 and his daughter went to live with her aunt Dena and uncle Rudolph, even though her mother was alive all those years she was growing up.

Another child is listed by Martha Elizabeth, but no dates, no names, no other information is known. It is likely that she had a baby who died near birth and thus was not named or recorded. Martha Elizabeth Evers died in 1920, and her  husband died in 1929.

Lucy Ann Johnson died May 24, 1901. John R died in April 1902 and his widow, Margaret, died in 1921 in a home for Confederate widows.

The Whittingtons, Part 3: Agatha and Telitha

This is Part 3 of a series about the Whittington family of North Carolina and Tennessee and Texas.

Part 1: The James and Frankie Whittington Family
Part 2: William and Richard
Part 4: Gibson and Weston
Part 5: George, Solomon, and Othaneil
Part 6: Cason Coley, James Henderson, Quintillian, and Frances Ann

Agatha Bless Whittington 

Agatha Bless Whittington was born 27 October 1802 in Wake County, North Carolina, the third child and first daughter of James and Frankie Whittington. Her older brothers were William, age 3 years and 10 months, and Richard, age 2 years and 1 month.

We know very little factual information about Agatha, and even what is documented is shrouded in mystery. A bond was paid on February 16, 1823 in Johnston County, North Carolina for the marriage of Agatha Bless Whittington and Alexander S. Collins. Curiously, Alexander was unable to pay the bond for the marriage license, so Agatha’s brother William provided it. Agatha and Alexander married on that day or shortly thereafter—or did they?

North Carolina census indexes yield no Alexander Collins and wife in 1830 or 1840. There is a slight possibility that they were living with older relatives: in Wake County, North Carolina, in 1830 a man in his 50s named Uriah Collins had in his household a young man and woman in their 20s who could possibly be Alex and Agatha. Uriah’s household also had a woman in her 50s who is probably his wife, and two other young women, one in her 30s and one aged 10–15. It is nothing more than speculation that these people could be Alexander’s parents and sisters, and they do live quite close to Agatha’s brother Richard and his wife. No other Collins family in either Johnston County or Wake County has any people of the right age other than this one.

Alex died in 1860 all alone and his estate went to public auction as his effects were unclaimed.

Meanwhile, apparently Agatha moved to Tennessee with her father’s family and in 1850 was keeping house for her brother Solomon, just before his marriage. And her name on that census was “Agatha B. Whittington.” Did she ever marry Alex Collins, or did one of them back out at the last minute? Were they married and subsequently divorced, and did she resume her maiden name? There was a “Catherine Collins,” age 13, living with Agatha and her brother. Was this a relative of Alex? Could Catherine be the daughter of Agatha and Alex?

In 1851 Agatha joined the Baptist Church in Madison, Tennessee. That same year she was said to have married a man named Mr. Crabtree, but no source has been located to support this. In fact, nothing further is documented of her life after the 1850 Census. She was said to have died in 1889; again, no document has surfaced to support this.

Talitha Cumi Whittenton 

Some sources say her name is Tabitha but since in the Bible verse (Mark 5:41) the phrase is Talitha cumi, most likely her name was that very phrase.

Talitha was born in North Carolina on 13 March 1805. She was the fourth child of James and Frankie Whittington, with two older brothers and an older sister in the family when she arrived.

Her age changes in the census records over time. In the earliest record we have for her (the 1820 Census), her age is in the correct category. In 1830 she is in the 20–30 category and was 25 years old. In 1840 she is again in the 20–30 category although she was 35 years old. The 1850 Census reported that she was 40, but she was really 45. In 1860 she lived with her brother Othnel and his wife and infant son. She was reported to be 50, but she was actually 55.

She never married and lived with her parents until they had both died; then she apparently lived with her brother Othnel.

On November 28, 1858 her brother Othnel deeded her and their younger brother Quintillion jointly a piece of land in Madison County, Tennessee, described as “50 acres off the east end of 110 acres on which he lived, given to him by his father . . .”. This deed was registered on May 22, 1861.

The Civil War was just getting under way when this deed was recorded—in fact, North Carolina’s legislature had just voted two days before to secede from the United States and join the Confederate States of America. Quince went off to war and after that to Texas. But the records don’t show what happened to the land he and Talitha jointly owned. Perhaps she bought him out; perhaps there was no money and Quince simply left.

Talitha is reported to have died 27 July 1888, but no record has surfaced to prove that date. Oddly, I have a distinct memory of seeing a photograph of her gravestone online, but I didn’t save a copy and cannot find any trace on any website that I know of, so I must have been dreaming—or it disappeared in a mysterious way shortly after I viewed it.

A Spider and the Lost $500 Bond

When researching the great uncles and aunts of my Grammy, Lillie Belle Munro Read, I came across a marriage bond for great-aunt Agatha Bless Whittington and Alexander S. Collins, dated February 16, 1823 in Wake County, North Carolina.

In looking for further records about the Collinses while they were married, I came across a probate file that possibly belonged to Alexander S. Collins. It was dated 1860 and was very brief and inconclusive as to whether it belonged to great-aunt Agatha Whittington’s ex-husband. One thing in the inventory caught my eye, however: “1 spider” it said, among a listing of kitchen items. I immediately envisioned a spider web above a kitchen cupboard, catching unfortunate bugs and keeping them out of the food. Okay, impossible. What is a kitchen implement that was called a “spider” in the 1800s?


A quick search online shows that it was a long-handled, three-legged skillet or frying pan, probably made of cast iron. 

Nathaniel Euse and James Sears and Mills L. Eure put up a bond for $500 on November 7, 1860 for Nathaniel Euse and James Sears to be granted Letters of Administration as Special Administrators over the estate of Alexander Collins. They were charged with the task of completing an inventory within three months and returning it to the Court. The Court Clerk, Henry I. Eure, witnessed the petition. The inventory was taken November 15, 1860, and that’s all that was in that file. Why wasn’t the estate settled?

On November 6, 1860, over 80% of the country went to the polls, and Abraham Lincoln won the presidency without winning a single southern state. I don’t know how long it took in those days to count the votes and come up with the final tally, nor do I know the exact date of the electoral college votes, but it would have been very soon. And just a month later, the southern states started to secede from the Union. North Carolina was the last to secede of all the southern states that joined the Confederacy, on May 20, 1861.

North Carolina was reportedly less physically affected than most Southern states by the war, having few battles fought within its borders and none of them large. But certainly it was very much affected by the fact of being at war and by all the available men being conscripted.

After the War, North Carolina was beset with political problems that were not easily resolved. In 1870 the conservative Democrats regained control, and in that year on July 4th, the Probate Court of Gates County under Judge R.B.G. Cowper granted John J. Gatling Letters of Administration de bonis non for the estate of Alexander Collins. That meant he was a successor administrator of the estate, so this new file must be tied to the 1860 beginning. Within the new probate file are some twenty-two pages of documents, including promissory notes with the name “Alexander S. Collins” on them. A search of North Carolina records reveals no other Alexander S. Collins of the right age except the one who in early life was associated with Agatha Whittington, so this must be our man.

He must have died in 1860. He himself signed a promissory note in January of that year, and then the probate started on November 7th of that year. There were notes owed the estate dated November 17, 1860 that could not mean Alexander Collins had loaned money to anyone. Since the original inventory was dated November 15th, probably the estate auction was held two days later and some of the buyers never paid up. Administrator John J. Gatling eventually sold those notes to a man named Carter for five cents. Carter was speculating that perhaps he could track down the defaulters and make them pay something after 15 years.

What happened to the earlier administrators? A search of the census records shows there were two Nathaniel Eures in Gates County, one born in 1798 and another born in 1848. The older man must have been the administrator. Perhaps he did not survive the War. As for James Sears, he was born in 1818, married in 1838, held a number of slaves in 1850, and his probate was begun in 1870. The co-signer on the original bond, Mills L. Eure, had a son also named Mills L. Eure who was born in 1838. The younger Mills served in the Confederate Army and married after the War. It was probably his father who lost the money through the chaos the War caused.

How much money was $500 worth back then? It would be a lot of money to lose. There is no exact calculator that tells us, but there are several websites that take a stab at it. According to one of them, $500 back then would now buy you roughly $14,300 worth of “stuff.” Yes, that would be a lot of money to lose back then. We do not know if they lost it or not. 

Either way, that $500 was just a drop in the sea of the troubles of that time.


Note: If you would like to have a digital file of the complete book of the series with updates, sources, and more, please send me a message.

The Whittingtons, Part 2: William and Richard

The second generation of Whittingtons, also spelled Whittenton or Whitenton, follows the thirteen children of James and Frances (Frankie) from North Carolina to Tennessee and Texas. It is impossible to overstate the effect that the Civil War had on this generation, even if we do not have enough information to fully tell the tale. Those in Tennessee saw the war very close up, with enemy troops occupying their town, vicious battles happening just a few miles from them, having to endure incredible privations and economic hardships. Those in North Carolina had fighting going on around them and touching their lives in terrible ways as well, and those in Texas, while they may not have seen the carnage of battle, lost loved ones and were affected economically as well. This is Part 2 of the series.

Part 1: The James and Frankie Whittington Family
Part 3: Agnes and Telitha
Part 4: Gibson and Weston
Part 5: George, Solomon, and Othaneil
Part 6: Cason Coley, James Henderson, Quintillian, and Frances Ann

William Maynard Whittington

The eldest child of James and Frankie Whittington, William is something of an enigma. He was named after his maternal grandfather, William Maynard. Some family researchers say that he was married young, but no records have turned up to support that claim.

William was born 9 February 1799, probably in Johnston County, North Carolina. He was just nineteen months older than his next brother, and perhaps the two little boys grew up as playmates. They showed up together on the 1800 Census for Johnston County. The family was missing from that county in 1810 and the Wake County 1810 listing is itself missing, so perhaps that was where the family was living in 1810.

In 1820 William was a young man of 21, but he was still living with his parents and ten younger siblings, and probably he was helping his father with the farm work. If he was married, there is no female in the household who could have been his wife.

In 1823 William provided the bond for his sister Agatha to get married. Apparently the groom, Alexander S. Collins, did not have enough money to provide the bond himself.

William’s signature, at the bottom, shows that although he could write, he didn’t spell his name the same way that the clerk did. Instead, he wrote, “Wm M. Whitinton.”

In 1830 William would have been 31 years old. He does not seem to appear in the Census in North Carolina, unless he is mistakenly listed as being between 40 and 49 years old, which seems unlikely. In addition, if he were one of those listed, then his wife is likely older than he, and she and the children unaccountably disappear into thin air. And he would have had to have been married in his mid-teens, which is very uncommon, although not unheard of.

Sometime in the 1830s William migrated to Texas, a well-known migratory path for North Carolina farmers whose soil was worn out or who needed new resources. The many U.S. citizens who had moved there influenced their leaders to strike for independence from Mexico, which Texas achieved in 1836. Mexico continued to make war on Texas until the United States intervened in 1846. After Mexico was defeated, the United States annexed Texas. William acquired property in Victoria County on October 3, 1837. Perhaps he was among those who fought for Texas independence and later for its annexation by the United States. The next record known of William is a tax assessment for W.M. Wittenton for land in Victoria County, dated 1846.

The next official record we have is his probate file. He died when he was 49 or barely 50 years old, before March 1849, apparently alone. He was living in Victoria County, Texas, and had 320 acres of land on which he had a small herd of 27 head of cattle, 55 wild and tame hogs, some bees, a horse, a plow, and one double-barrel shotgun.

With no heirs or claimants, the estate was turned over to the sheriff in April 1849 to auction it off. The appraisal was about $700 including the land, but his personal property was worth only around $220 and at auction in mid-May 1849 brought in a little over $244. From the list of his belongings, he doesn’t appear to have had much of a domestic life. He owned a mattress, three blankets, a smoothing iron, and one pot. Those are all his household goods in the official inventory.

The probate file does not say what happened to William’s land, but other land records deal with the disposal of his 320 acres, the first being dated March 12, 1849, which is the earliest date for a record showing he was dead. Dates for the distribution of his land by deeds are on 4 June 1850, 25 June 1850, 12 February 1853, and 26 November 1853.

It is a sad ending for this eldest son, all alone even though his brother Weston had moved to the same county either just before or just after his death. Apparently the brothers didn’t keep in contact for some reason, and Weston didn’t even try to claim any part of his brother’s estate. However, their younger brother Cason later named a son after the eldest brother: the second William Maynard Whittington was born in Texas in 1867.

Richard Merritt Whittington

The second son of James and Frankie Whittington, Richard was probably born in Johnston County, North Carolina; his birth date was 16 September 1800. He and his parents and older brother were enumerated on the 1800 U.S. Federal Census in Johnston County; although the census taker was supposed to use the date of August 4th, Richard appeared on the census although born six weeks later than that. His brother was William, 19 months old when Richard was born.

The family probably lived in Wake County in 1810 and would have been listed on the census for that county, but it is missing. In 1820 they were back in Johnston County, and Richard and his brother William were still at home, probably working with their father on the farm. In 1820 the family had grown to include nine siblings younger than Richard and William.

Richard met a local girl, Martha Helen Peebles, while they were living in Wake County, and he and Martha were married March 16, 1826. They had the following children:

• Mazy Helen Whittington, born June 1827 in Wake, North Carolina.
• Eliza Jane Whittenton, born about 1829 in Wake, North Carolina.
• James Thadeus Whittenton, born November 1830 in Wake, North Carolina.
• John Peebles Whittenton, born about 1837 in Wake, North Carolina.

The 1830 Census recorded Richard and his family living in Wake County. There were Richard and his wife, both in the 20–29 age category, and two little girls under five. In addition, there was a teenage boy living with them, perhaps one of Richard’s younger brothers, or a brother of Martha.

For the 1840 Census Richard and his family were recorded still in Wake County, North Carolina. They lived in the Panther Branch township. Richard and his wife were in the 30–39 age category, and their girls were now between 10 and 15. Their boys were “under 5” and between 5 and 9.

In 1850 Richard’s family was living in Johnston County, District 4, which aligns with Panther Branch just over the county border. However, Richard’s middle initial was changed to “S” and his wife was not listed, so perhaps she had died. Richard’s profession was “stone mason.” This is the census where we get the names of the children: Mazy was 22, Eliza was 20, James was 19, and John was 13.

In 1860 Richard and three of his children were living in Neuse River, Johnston County, North Carolina. Richard was 60 years old and a farmer; Mazy (“Moza” on the census) was 32, James was 28, a farmer; and John P was 23, a teacher.

Nearby was a woman named Eliza who was married to an Alex McLeod. She was the right age to be Richard’s daughter, but no corroboration has been found. Eliza was reported to have died in 1892, but no record has been found to support this.

When the Civil War began, Richard and his family played a part in helping the Cause of the Southern States. His younger son, John P, joined the Army as a volunteer. His elder son, James T, had gone into partnership with his father in farming, and they paid a portion of their goods and earnings from their farm to support the Confederacy. On October 12, 1863, Richard signed one tax bill and James signed one as his agent. The farm produced 33 bushels of sweet potatoes above the 50 bushels each family could reserve for themselves, 3000 pounds of cured fodder, and 20 bushels of oats. They paid a tenth value, which was $6.50 for sweet potatoes, $15 for cured fodder, and $6.00 for oats. The next March James signed a tax bill for Richard for 8 hogs slaughtered, paying $60 in taxes, while James signed a bill for 5 hogs, paying $27. James’s hogs yielded an average 90 pounds of pork each; Richard’s 125 pounds each.

James did not serve in the military, which is a little surprising, given that the Confederate government allowed almost no exemptions from the draft. Perhaps James had a disability that disqualified him from military service while still allowing him to farm. Another possibility is that James T and Richard may have pooled enough money to buy the services of two other men to go in James’s place, although how the Confederacy allowed anyone to do this is hard to understand, since they really needed every last man able to stand up and hold a gun. Still, it is known that this was done sometimes, and there is an index card in the Confederate records that has the name of James T Whitenton at the top, then “See personal papers of” and the names of two men and the military organizations they served in:

• Absalom Messer, Pvt, Company I, 24th Regiment North Carolina S. T.
• Simeon Stephenson, Pvt, Company I, 14th North Carolina Volunteers (after 24th N.C.S.T.)

The tax bills prove that Richard lived at least to 14 March 1864, when he would have been 63 years old. There are no further records of Richard.

John Peebles Whittenton, who had been a teacher, served in the Confederate Army in Company C, 31st North Carolina Infantry, under Captain Andrew W. Betts. He volunteered in Wake County on October 4, 1861 at the age of 24. His regiment went out to the coast in December 1861 and defended Roanoke Island. In February when half the force was sick, the Union attacked the island forts by sea and ultimately captured the entire island. All Confederate soldiers were paroled according to the custom of the early part of the war—they gave their word not to take up arms until an exchange of prisoners was effected. The following September, the 31st North Carolina Regiment was reorganized at Raleigh, Wake County.

In the interim, John P was in the village of Bartlesville near Wilmington when he was hospitalized August 10, 1862, and treated for gonorrhœa. In those days there were no antibacterial cures for venereal diseases; symptoms could be treated to make them subside though. Twelve days later, on August 22, he began to be treated for cholera morbus, the non-epidemic form of the severe gastro-intestinal illness, characterized by vomiting and diarrhœa. The common treatment in those days was a dose of calomel, which sometimes had the unfortunate side effects of loosening the teeth, making the hair fall out, and destroying gums and intestines, i.e., mercury poisoning. But somehow he recovered and rejoined his unit.

Apparently John P was not a model soldier, for on September 15, 1862, he was reduced from the rank of Corporal back to a Private as Company C was reorganized under Captain WJ Long.

His company and the rest of the regiment went to Kinston in December 1862 and participated in tactical movements near New Bern. Then they marched to Wilmington on the south coast and fought on December 16th in the Battle of White Hall on the Neuse River. From there they moved to Charleston, South Carolina and were successful at repelling enemy actions at James Island, on the seaward side of Charleston, for a time. But sickness was rampant on the Island, so they were moved inland. They were ordered to Nashville and got up the coast as far as Wilmington when the order was countermanded and they were sent back to the vicinity of Charleston. There they were in a bloody battle when the Union attacked Battery Wagner on 18 July 1862, endeavoring to capture the harbor and then Charleston itself. The Confederates, with only 1600 men, successfully defended the Battery from the assault by 9000 Union troops.

The next winter, 1863, the 31st Regiment was ordered to Virginia and joined to General RF Hoke’s division near Petersburg. They spent most of 1863 at Ivor Station, midway between Petersburg and Chesapeake. In September 1863 John P Whittenton came down sick and had to go home for 30 days. He was granted $9.90 for rations and returned to his company October 14, 1863. We have no record of what specific illness gave him this furlough. His regiment was stationed on the James River for part of the time, evidently near its mouth.

At the end of 1863, John P and his regiment were part of Clingman’s Brigade, stationed at Sullivan’s Island, South Carolina, on the coast outside Charleston. In May 1864 the 31st Regiment experienced day-and-night incessant fighting until the 31st of that month when they were sent on the railroad cars to Cold Harbor, Virginia, and participated in that horribly bloody battle, which lasted from May 31 – June 12, 1864. They were kept in the vicinity of Petersburg from that time, fighting battle after battle in the Seige of Petersburg. General Robert E. Lee was desperately trying to save the Southern capitol, Richmond, Virginia; Petersburg, just south of Richmond, was the main supply hub for Lee’s army, so that it was General Ulysses S Grant’s immediate target.

It was October 2, 1864, the last day of the Battle of Peebles’ Farm, that John Peebles Whittenton was admitted to Receiving and Wayside Hospital, or General Hospital No. 9, Richmond, Virginia. Two days later he was moved to Winder Hospital at Richmond, suffering from v.s. in his right hip, short for vulnus sclopeticum, meaning gunshot wound. He died on October 19, 1864.

Mazy never married. She made her home with her father apparently until his death and then lived with her brother James and his family thereafter. James Thadeus was married to Martha C. Kennedy on 25 April 1869 in Johnston, North Carolina.

On the 1870 Census James and Martha had their first child, Alice. James’s eldest sister, “Mazza” was 32 and with “no occupation” was living with them.

In 1880 James and Martha had four children: Alice, Lula, John, and Walter. James’s sister “Helen” was living with the family and helping to keep house. Curiously, James, still a farmer, lost a few years and appeared as 47 on this census, and his sister was listed as being 49.

On the 1900 Census James and Martha’s birth information was given as November 1830 for James and September 1845 for Martha. James’s sister Helen Whitenton was born in June 1827. James and Martha’s daughter Alice was a widow living there with her only child, Maude G Grimes, who was born in December 1887. Walter was still living at home, born March 1879 and no listed occupation. Since James was still a farmer, perhaps Walter was helping his father with the farm work. James died 21 June 1903 at the age of 72.

By 1910 Martha was a widow living with her son Walter and his wife, and Helen M, age 83, lived with them too. She was 82 years old in 1910 and reportedly died in 1911.

James and Martha’s children were Alice Rebecca, 1870–1937; Lula M, 1871–1950; John Merritt, 1874–1931; and Walter Thaddeus, 1878–1960.

Gone with the Whittingtons, Part 1

In 1910 when 19-year-old Lloyd Read wanted to marry Miss Lillie Belle Munro of Arkansas, lately come to Oregon, his family told him no, that she came from “poor white trash.” However, although Lillie’s Southern ancestors, the Whittingtons, were not quite the aristocracy of Gone with the Wind, they had been relatively wealthy slave-holders in North Carolina and Tennessee. They had so many children in their family, though, that they did not maintain their same standard of wealth in the next generation, which included Lillie’s grandfather Solomon, and Solomon’s family became poorer still after the Civil War.

James and Frances (Maynard) Whittington

Beginning with the generation born during the Revolutionary War, our ancestor James Whittington¹ was born 23 June 1776 in Johnston County, North Carolina to Richard and Olive (Stephenson) Whittington. Richard owned property in Johnston County and had sold property before the 1770s in Edgecombe County. He and Olive had four children before James and five after. The children’s names were Lucretia, who married Asa Austin; Peggy, who married Allen Johnson; Allen Whittington; Mary, who married William Wilder; James Whittington; Sally, who married George Mainord; Richard Whittington, who married Sarah Dupree; Solomon Whittington, who married Sarah Lassiter; William Whittington, who married Sally Eason; and Jonathan Whittington, who married Clary Green 1st and Sally Allen 2nd. James’s father, Richard, had been born in Edgecombe County, North Carolina on 18 December 1748 and died in Johnston County, North Carolina on 20 October 1820, at the age of 72.

¹The surname was spelled Whittington, Witington, Whittenton, or Whitenton, depending on who was writing it in the various documents. Different branches of the family began to standardize the name using whichever spelling they preferred after about 1810. I will use the spelling for adults preferred by each family member if I can determine it.)

The 1790 census shows that Richard held no slaves, nor did any of his Whittington relatives living in his immediate neighborhood, nor did his in-laws’ families, the Stephensons. In his immediate neighborhood were 195 free white men over the age of sixteen, 317 free white boys under sixteen, 625 free white women and girls, 24 other free persons, and 422 slaves.

James and Frances up to 1820

James, as a young man in Wake County, North Carolina, married Miss Frances Maynard (also spelled Mainard and Mainord), who went by the name of “Frankie,” on 9 April 1798. Frances was the daughter of William Maynard and his wife Agatha (possibly surnamed Davron); Frances was born on 15 February 1780 in Wake County. In the 1790 Census, a William “Mainyard” lived in Wake County with three males over 16, five males under sixteen, three females, and seven slaves. This was probably Frankie’s family. Nearby lived the family of Gibson Maynard, who could easily be Frankie’s uncle. Together James and Frankie had 13 known children, born probably in Johnston County:

• William Maynard Whittington, b. 9 February 1799.
• Richard Merritt Whittington, b. 16 September 1800.

The 1800 Census shows James and Frankie living in Johnston County, North Carolina, with those two little boys. Next door to their family lived James’ father with his family of eight. James and Frankie next had:

• Agatha Bless Whittington, b. 27 October 1802.
• Talitha Cumi Whittington, b. 13 March 1805.
• Gibson Whittington, b. 29 June 1807.

The next child was known to have been born in Wake County:

• Weston Whittington, b. 8 July 1809.

and the list for Wake County is missing, so probably they lived in Wake County. They had the following children:

• George Arthur Whittington, b. 1 June 1811.
• Solomon Yancy Whittington, b. 20 July 1813.
• Othaniel Whittington, b. 10 January 1816.
• Cason Coley Whittington, b. 18 February 1818.
• James Henderson Whittington, born 8 June 1820.

Frankie’s father, William Maynard, died about 1817 and the probate took about two years to be settled. In May 1817 her brother George and others petitioned for a division of the real estate, and in November 1818 James and Frances Whittington and others petitioned for division of the real estate. Apparently William Maynard had been a relatively prosperous man; his heirs appear to have fought over exactly how his estate would be divided. His will is a mass of contradictions. After the will was settled, James Whittington appeared to have moved into the slave-holding class of society. Frankie and James inherited a slave named Dolly from the estate of William Maynard.

It is interesting to note that in 1804 the last of the northern states to abolish slavery, New Jersey, effectively created the North-South dividing line along the old Mason-Dixon line that divided Pennsylvania from Virginia and Maryland. The United States then passed its first abolition-oriented law, the Slave Trade Act of 1807, which outlawed importing slaves from overseas. Sadly, this law was widely ignored in the South. It is evident that the Whittington family obeyed the law, though probably due to economics rather than to moral conviction. They identified with their Southern compatriots.

The Family in the 1820s

The 1820 Census listed James Whittington among the heads of families of Johnston County, North Carolina. With him was a woman aged 25–45, which was his wife Frankie. There were two girls in the 10–16 category, Agatha and Talitha at the ages of 17 and 15 actually; and there were nine boys and young men. The four under age ten were Solomon (7), Othaniel (5), Cason Coley (2), and James Henderson. The youngest boy, James Henderson Whittington, was two months old when the census taker came that summer and lived only until the next May. The three between 10 and 16 must have been Gibson (13), Weston (11), and George (George was 9, but perhaps they rounded up his age—they definitely had Agatha in the wrong category). The young men aged 18–26 must have been William and Richard, who were 21 and 19, respectively.

There were two slaves in this family. One was a woman aged 26–45 who must be Dolly, and the other a young man aged 14–25. Considering that Frances was in charge of a household consisting of three men and nine children under age 16, and one of the two girls she could expect to help her with housework may have had some problems, and she was expecting another baby within a month, perhaps Dolly was a household worker. The young slave man perhaps was helping James and the older young men with the farm work. The price of slaves in the 1820s was between $300 and $400, depending on age and sex, so we can see that the James Whittingtons were now on the wealthier side of society. Most slave-holders in the Carolinas at this time were owners of small or medium-sized farms, and they had one to just a few slaves. Only the wealthy plantation owners could afford to have many slaves, as was the case with Frankie Mainard Whittington’s father.

The next children to be born to James and Frankie were:

• Quince Tillian Whittington, b. in 1822.
• Frances Ann Whittington, b. 14 January 1829.

On 16 February 1823 daughter Agatha Bless Whittington married Alexander S. Collins in Johnston County, North Carolina. Her eldest brother, William, signed the bond for the marriage license. Perhaps her groom was too poor to afford it.

According to Diane Bollert’s research, the Whittingtons were members of the Primitive Baptist Church of Johnston County.

The Family in the 1830s

The 1830 Census showed James and Frankie living in Johnston County, North Carolina, with nine children, two of whom are a mystery. Talitha was a young woman now, possibly helping her mother in the house. Solomon and George were between 15 and 20 and surely would be helping with the farm work, as would Cason and Othnell, between 10 and 15. Even 8-year-old Quince would do his share of chores. The girl under 5 was baby Frances Ann, but there were two other small boys, one under 5 and one between 5 and 10 who are unknown to us. It could be that these were two children born in that seven-year period between Quince and Frances Ann, and perhaps they died as children and their names were lost to posterity. Another possibility is that they were children of William, who was said to have been married quite young, but no record of his family has yet turned up. If this were the case, there was no woman in the household who could be William’s wife, so either William’s wife had died, or the scenario was something entirely different.

Even with all those boys to help with the farm work, one of the two slave women on the 1830 census, one age 10–23 and the other age 24–35, was probably working with them in the fields. By this time, landowners with many slaves were discovering that they could make a lot of money by hiring their slaves out to other farms. The Whittingtons may very well have had hired slave labor to work in the fields as well as using their own slave and the sons of the family. It seems likely their other slave was working in the house, helping Frances with the children and the enormous amount of work all these people would generate. The older of the two slave women could be Dolly, if she was 26 in 1820 and was 35 at this census, taken a different time of the year.

Frances had borne 13–15 children in thirty years and was probably worn down with all the work. In 1830 she was 50 years old; she had 11 boys and men, four women, and a baby to feed at least three times every day. The laundry must have taken two full days a week, and the ironing a full day, and sewing or mending would have to be done every day, not to mention the daily cleaning and regular heavy scrubbing, carrying water, etc. Their culture and circumstances would have led them to believe the slave women were necessary, especially since James was obviously wealthy enough to afford them.

This evidence shows that James had become prosperous. The slaves’ cost was around $600 then, which would be about $15,400 in 2012 dollars. James probably sold the young slave man he had owned in 1820 and bought another woman, unless these two slave women were a mother and her 10-year-old daughter, born just after the last census. Slave women and girls were worth more than slave boys or young men, until the men were about 25 years old, and then the cost became about equal. Various studies have shown that it was actually less expensive to employ farm workers than to own slave workers until the farms were turned to cotton, but at this time they were planted in various crops including tobacco, but cotton was not yet king. The economics and politics and the culture of the time were somewhat complicated, to say the least.

During the mid-to-late 1830s, James Whittington and most of his grown sons moved their families to Tennessee, settling near Jackson in District 17 of Madison County. Tennessee historically had belonged to North Carolina, but it was made a separate territory in 1790 and then a state in 1796. Madison County lies in the west part of the state on the Gulf Coastal Plain, the 10-mile wide eastern border to the Mississippi River.

James’ son Richard did not move with the family. He had married Martha Helen Peebles in North Carolina on 16 March 1826 and had a farm there into the 1860s. On October 3, 1837, son William acquired land in Victoria County, Texas, so perhaps he moved from North Carolina all the way down there. Son Weston had married Lucy Ann Williams about 1831 and had a son born in North Carolina in 1832. Weston’s next son was born in Tennessee in 1836; he had bought property in Madison County on 26 December 1835, the first of the family to do so. James had bought property in Johnston County, North Carolina, in the summer of 1836, and then two years later he bought land in Madison County, Tennessee, on September 13, 1838.

Tennessee was being settled at a faster rate in those days than it had before—the wilderness seemed just about tame there. The Indian Removal Act had been passed in 1830, and in 1838 and 1839 President Martin Van Buren’s administration forced more than 17,000 Cherokee Native Americans, along with their approximately 2,000 black slaves, off the land and sent them west. In came the white settlers with their own black slaves.

After moving to Tennessee, helped or not, Frankie died early in 1839 at age 59, probably worn out by childbearing and the heavy work of those days. The family name began to change. Back in North Carolina, it was mostly spelled Whittington. In Tennessee it began to be spelled Whittenton, and some branches of the family would adopt Whitenton later on.

During the 1830s the Whittington family would have been interested in and partial concerning the various political changes that affected the Southern way of life. The Nullification Crisis in South Carolina established the precedent of a state rebelling against the Federal government over the issue of states’ rights, and President Andrew Jackson himself stated that the next crisis between the states and the federal government would be over the issue of slavery.

The Family in the 1840s

The 1840 U.S. Census lists Father James and his family in Madison County, Tennessee with two of his sons living very close by. In his household, James had one boy age 15–20 which was Quince. He had three boys age 20–30 which were Othnell, Solomon, and George. He was between 60–70 years of age. On the female side he had a girl between 10–15 which was Frances Ann. He also had a young woman in the family between 20–30 who must have been Talitha, although she was 35 years old at this point. But she seemed to always shave years off her age in later census records, so this is not too surprising. The total in the household was 10; there were three slaves with the family. Two female slaves were in the 24–36 and the 20–24 age categories. These women could be the same two slaves listed in this household in 1830, but if so, the older woman cannot be the same one as in 1820 unless the ages assigned her are way off in one census or another, which of course is possible, given that Talitha had lost a good ten years off her age and could have been the one giving the information to the census taker. The slave boy was 10–24; he could easily be a son of one of the women.

The number of persons engaged in agriculture in this household was four, and since Othnell, Solomon, and George were all farmers as soon as they were on their own, they must have been three of the workers. It seems likely that James himself was the fourth, which leads to the rather surprising conclusion that probably none of the slaves was helping with the farm work. But with Frankie recently dead and a little girl still to rear, perhaps one of the slaves was devoted to little Frances Ann as a nurse-governess. Talitha may have had some mild mental disability—perhaps that was why the family seemed to consider her younger than she really was. One of the slaves was certainly in charge of the household work.

With thirteen children in James and Frankie’s family, this gets a little complicated, but we will try to say where each of the children was during the 1840s.

Son William didn’t appear in the 1840 Census because he was in Texas, and at that time Texas had declared independence from Mexico, winning its war officially in 1836 but continually being attacked by Mexican forces, particularly those under Santa Anna, until the United States intervened in 1846 and annexed Texas after beating Mexico in 1848. A tax assessment exists for W.M. Wittenton in 1846 in Victoria County, where he eventually died.

In the 1840 Census, son Richard M. Whittenton lived in Panther Branch, Wake County, North Carolina. He had a wife and two boys under ten and two girls ages 10–15 listed with him. These children were Mazy Helen, Eliza Jane, James Thadeus, and John Peebles.

On August 20, 1840, son Gibson married Elizabeth Williams in Madison County, Tennessee, and the two of them appeared in the Census four households above his father’s family. Gibson was recorded as working in agriculture.

Next door to Gibson was Weston’s family in the 1840 Census listing. Weston had a wife age 20–30, same age as he; they had three children listed. They had a son under age 5 who was James, age 3. They had two daughters listed on the census, the elder age 5–10 who should have been a male, John Rufus, age 8; and the other a girl under 5 who corresponds to baby Sarah. Curiously, the total number for this family was listed as 6 although only five tick marks were present on the census. Sometimes census takers got things wrong. Perhaps when he came around, all the children, along with their cousins, maybe three dogs and four cats and the family pig were all around him making noise and he couldn’t hear the mother right. Sometimes it simply was because the family was not at home and the census taker asked a neighbor to describe the family. Weston was recorded as working in agriculture.

Son Solomon got into trouble in 1841 in the Madison County Court for having fathered an illegitimate child with a woman named “Louvisey Manor” in McNairy County (south of Madison) two years before and failing to pay its support, but the Court decided it had no jurisdiction over the case since the mother and child had lived two years in McNairy County from the time of the birth, so Solomon was apparently off the hook. There is no evidence that he ever recognized this child as his own, and perhaps it was not.

Son Cason Coley did not appear in the 1840 census, and we have to wonder whether he had gone to Texas or where he was. He was 22 at the time of the Census. He later appeared to have acquired land near where William lived, but William died all alone, so Cason Coley could not have been with him. Maybe Cason Coley went wandering around the west until he felt like returning to Texas.

On February 5, 1844, Father James married Mrs. Kettura (Katherine) Lester Betts, a 57-year-old widow, in Madison County, Tennessee. She owned 300 acres in Madison and Haywood counties, a single plot left to her by her husband William Betts, who had died September 7, 1835.

Son Gibson and his wife Elizabeth probably moved over to Dyer County, northwest of Madison County, by 1844. Their daughter Martha was born there, and then they moved back to Madison County.

On February 5, 1846, son George Arthur married Martha Elizabeth Bledsoe in Madison County. He was 35, she was 19.

During the 1840s, son Weston moved to Texas, first living in Victoria County near where his brother William had acquired land several years before. He eventually settled in Goliad County.

The baby sister of the family, Frances Ann Whittington, married Christopher C. Harris on 14 February 1848 and moved to Arkansas; nothing further is known about them.

Down in Texas William died at the age of 49 or just 50, before 12 March 1849 in Victoria County. I have not been able to trace whether he ever married or what became of his children if he had any. His death records show no heirs at all, not even his brothers. Dates for the distribution of his land by deeds are on 4 June 1850, 25 June 1850, 12 February 1853, and 26 November 1853. His personal estate was auctioned in May 1849 and the rest of his estate settled by October 1851.

Politically, the 1840s affected the Whittington family chiefly by the United States having acquired Texas and several territories at the end of the Mexican War. Many Southerners were moving to Texas as cotton gained in economic importance and farmers depleted their soil by overplanting it with cotton. They looked to the southwest for new lands and were glad when Texas was added to the U.S. as a slave state, giving them the rights and freedoms they had been used to and also helping to balance power between the North and South in the U.S. Congress. However, this led to a four-year struggle between political forces over the issue of slavery that ended short of war when the Compromise of 1850 was signed, allowing California to join the Union as a free state in return for the Territories of New Mexico and Utah (which encompassed the present-day states of Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, and Nevada) to allow slavery.

The Family in the 1850s

In 1850 Father James, with his wife Kettura, had a farm worth $1000, which in 2012 value would be approximately $60,000. He had four slaves, and his sons Quince and Othnell, ages 23 and 30, were working as farmers for him. His daughter Talitha also lived there (it says she was 40, but she was really 45—and the census shows that she was illiterate as well. With all the rest of the family being literate, including her sisters, this seems to indicate that Talitha might have had some sort of disability, though she was not listed in the “insane” or “idiot” columns).

The slaves were two women ages 60 and 25, a young man age 23, and a boy age 9. The older woman, born about 1790, could have been Dolly, with them from 1817, if her age in the 1840 census was off by about 9 years (which could easily have been the case). The younger woman could be her daughter or the man her son; or they could have been a married couple. No doubt the younger slaves were working the land with the sons.

In 1850 daughter Agatha had split with Alexander Collins and was keeping house for her brother Solomon, who was not married. (Alexander Collins died in 1860 in North Carolina; he apparently never remarried.) With Agatha and Solomon Whittington was a 13-year-old girl named Catherine Collins who might be Agatha’s daughter, but we have no way of knowing. She could be another relative of Agatha’s former husband. Agatha was going by the name of Whittington again and married a Mr. Crabtree the next year. Also in 1851 Agatha joined the Baptist Church in Madison, Tennessee. That is the last we know of her until she died in 1889 at the age of 86.

In 1850 son Gibson and his wife Elizabeth had moved back to Madison County from Dyer County, Tennessee. Their farm was worth $250, and they had four children: Sarah James Frances, age 9; Elender, age 8; Martha L, age 6; and David Williams Whittington, age 3. They had no slaves; instead, they had an 18-year-old hired man named George Smith

In 1850 son Weston was in Victoria County, Texas with his wife, Lucy Ann, and their four children: John R, age 18; James William, age 13; Sarah C, age 10; and George Maynard, age 7. Their farm was about 140 acres and they were doing well. Weston had no slaves; he and his elder son had cultivated a part of their land and they were raising pigs. They had oxen to plow their land.

Son George and his wife, Martha, lived in Madison County, Tennessee, with their three children when they were recorded in the 1850 Census: James Maynard, age 3; Mary Frances, age 2; and Thadeus, 8 months. George had no slaves, although he had a farm worth $300; he had only a part of it under cultivation. In 1853 George and his family joined the Baptist Church of Madison, Tennessee, the same one his sister Agnes had joined two years earlier.

Solomon in 1850 was farming, but he had no property worth anything and lived next door to his father, so he was probably still helping with his father’s farm; however, his fortunes were about to change.

The farm work was probably too much for Father James. He was 74 years old in 1850. At the end of the next year he gave his sons Solomon and “Otel” (Othnell) gifts of parcels of land. First he gave Othnell 110 acres on November 28, 1851, and a month later he gave Solomon 50 acres on December 20th.

Certainly James Whittington must have been slowing down at the end of 1851. Just two and a half years after dividing the bulk of his land between his sons, he died on May 20, 1853. It is interesting to speculate on the family dynamics that led to this curious division of land. Othnell, it seems, was the heir to the bulk of his father’s property. The older sons—William, Richard, Gibson, Weston, and George—all seemed to have acquired property without their father’s giving it to them, but perhaps he had helped with money. William of course died before his father. The rest of the older sons were married before their father passed away.

Solomon appeared to have been the black sheep here. Until he married in 1851, his father appeared not to have helped him, and then only at the very end of the year, and with less than half what the younger, single brother was given a month earlier. Presumably Cason Coley had been helped to acquire land in Texas in the same way his older brothers had been.

The daughters were not given land by their father, but perhaps they were given dowry money. After Agatha’s marriage ended, she moved into a house with her brother Solomon and kept house for him. Perhaps they were two “black sheep” together.

Father James may have provided for his other children, if the action of Othnell ten years later in granting his sister Talitha and his brother Quince jointly fifty acres can be construed as complying with James’s wish that Othnell take care of them.

After James’s Death

James Whittington had such a large family to provide for that it seems to have somewhat depleted his resources. Certainly none of his children attained the wealth that their father had acquired, and several of the children had very large families themselves. It was probably economics that encouraged four of the five brothers who relocated from Tennessee to Texas. The eldest son, William, went there first, perhaps as early as 1837, and maybe Cason Coley went about the same time. Next Weston migrated in the mid-to-late 1840s, and Gibson joined them after Father James’ death, probably about 1854. Finally, after the Civil War ended, Quince went to Texas, probably to escape the consequences of not finishing his military service during the War. George, Solomon, and Othnell stayed in Tennessee, and of course Richard never left North Carolina. Of the daughters, Talitha stayed in Tennessee with her brother Othnell’s family. We don’t know where Agatha went after marrying Mr. Crabtree. Frances Ann ended up in Arkansas, her husband obviously one of those who took advantage of the opening up of the southwest, although they didn’t go as far as Texas. Of all the family, only Othnell had the kind of wealth approaching that of their father. He was the only slave owner of them all as well.

By the 1850s many slave-owners, excluding the very wealthy plantation owners, had realized that selling their slaves was more lucrative than keeping them to work the land. By those times in Tennessee it was definitely more economical to hire workers rather than to own them. Even Othnell with his greater acreage and personal property than his brothers in 1860 owned just three slaves, a woman and her two little sons, compared with their closest neighbor who had 18.

Each of James’s children has a fuller description of his or her own life as an adult. Click the links below to go to the rest of the posts.

Part 2: William and Richard
Part 3: Agnes and Telitha
Part 4: Gibson and Weston
Part 5: George, Solomon, and Othaneil
Part 6: Cason Coley, James Henderson, Quintillian, and Frances Ann