| Whitener |
 |
|
| Whitener |
|
|
Summer 2001 - Burney Falls Northern California
|
The "Francis Ida Tate" Page!
Father: Lancelot Tate Mother: Martha Amanda Little Francis Ida Tate was born February 26, 1865 in Cass County Texas. Francis Ida Tate known as "Fanny" was the second child of Martha Amanda Little and Lancelot Tate. She had one older sister named Martha Jane. Francis had three younger sisters; Sara, Louisa, and Emily. Francis' father, Lancelot died when Francis was only eleven years old and her mother Martha Amanda married James W Davis two years later in 1878. Martha Amanda and her new husband James Davis had two children; James Alexander born in 1877 and William born in 1879. Francis Ida Tate married Hiram Anthony Whitener on August 17, 1884 in Booneville, Logan County Arkansas. In 1907 Francis along with Hiram and the family moved to Wheeler County Texas.
As a pre-teen youngster, I recall visiting with my Great Grandmother, Francis Ida, at her home in Wheeler. I recall the home exactly as described by Mrs Charles Warren. I also remember Francis as a very durable lady who loved to "dip snuff". Francis Ida died December 5, 1955 and was buried at the Kelton Cemetery next to her husband Hiram Anthony Whitener. At the time of her death, the immediate Herchel Whitener family lived in Fort Morgan, Colorado. I recall my father, Herchel making the trip to Wheeler, Texas for Francis' funeral.
The following recap is from "The Wheeler Times" dated Thursday, March 8, 1945. The article by Mrs Charles Warren was written following an interview with Francis Ida Tate. Francis was 80 years young at the time of the article.
The Wheeler Times Wheeler, Texas, Thursday, March 8, 1945 Wheeler Personalities By Mrs. Charles Warren Mrs. Hiram Anthony Whitener
Mrs. H. A. Whitener -- who suggested the name for Kelton, back in 1908 -- passed her 80th milestone in life just a few days ago, on February 26. She lives quietly in her quaint little Spanish Mission design home in Wheeler. Cheerfulness and sunshine emanates from her home, although she is confined there, unable to get about. With her sunny disposition and her alert mind, she keeps interested in current events, the newspapers, books, and magazines open a large realm that keeps her broad-minded and sweet and her memory is truly remarkable for one of 80 years. To spend an hour in her presence, conversing about current and past customs and events is an inspiring privilege. We had that pleasure last Saturday afternoon. As our thoughts wandered back to almost a century ago, when oxen were used in farming and laundry was done with a battling stick, time passed so swiftly that we were sorry to glean only a few of those rare morsels of early Texas history. It is regretted that only a few of those early customs may be recorded in this brief story. Mrs. Whitener, with her husband and family moved to Wheeler County in 1907. They located where Kelton now is, but at that time there were no schools, church, post office or anything, except raw untrodden land. The country was a wilderness. She said: "We organized the Baptist church in 1908, with only six members, four of whom were Whiteners. The other two were Ed Stearns and his wife. Rev. J. T. Easy acted as Moderator and following organization we called him as pastor. When the name for the church was discussed, I suggested that we call it "The Kelton Baptist Church". That was the beginning of Kelton." It was soon after this time that a small school house, 20 x 20, was built. Mr. Whitener "blazed the trail," a distance of two miles, with plow and team, so that his children could have a path to attend school. This first little school, called the Kelton school, began with eight pupils, four or one-half of whom were the Whitener children. The first teacher there was Miss Viola Rhodarmen. Mrs. Whitener continued to live in the Kelton community until February 1944. Mrs. Whitener was born in Cass County, Texas, February 26, 1865. She grew up in Cass County, on her father's (L.L. Tate) ranch, which was located on the Sulfur river. The country was thinly settled, back in sixty-five -- at the close of the civil war. Her parents had Negroes who refused to leave them after they were freed. She remembers the old Negro mammy telling ghostly stories at night. This was against the parent's rules, but the Tate children would slip out to the Negro cabin and sit tense for hours listening to the weird stories -- becoming so frightened they were afraid to go back in the dark. In those early childhood days, the Negro woman did the laundry by taking the soiled clothes to a spring nearby, where they had a pine log split in two and set up on pegs. The Negro would "battle" the clothes with a "battling stick" to get them clean. They knew of no cook-stoves in that age. The family cooking was done on a large fire-place, with Dutch ovens, griddle pans and iron pots, or kettles which hung from the top of the fire-place, with a fire built under them for boiling. No one had heard of ground coffee for sale. Peaberry coffee was bought green. It was parched, then ground in a small mill nailed to the wall of the cook room -- which was usually built out away from the house. The first ground coffee they ever bought was Arbuckle's , and the signatures from the package were saved, to secure various premiums. "Clothes were made at home, from start to finish," said Mrs. Whitener. The old-time spinning wheel was an important part of every household. They spun the thread and wove it into cloth for all garments. Another interesting feature of those times was the transportation methods which were slow and over untrodden trails. Tar-pole, home-made wagons, drawn by oxen, yoked together by huge wooden yokes, was the prevailing mode of travel. The axles of these wagons were made of seasoned hickory wood. A bucket of tar was hung on the coupling-pole, and if the wagon began squeaking, it was stopped and the tar was applied to the axle. There were many large alligators pulled out of the Sulphur river -- where the children played church, and held baptizing. The children of their neighbors -- the Day and Busby families, would join in their play, and they would baptize the cats and dogs, holding them under water until they quit fighting. Mrs. Whitener said that most of her education was received in the one-room, log school house -- where the benches were made of split logs with two holes bored in each end, with peg legs driven into the holes. There was no such thing as a graded school. She said: "I got most of my education from the old blue-back speller and the Bible." "When I was a girl of twelve, I joined Dalton Missionary Church, of Cass County, and have been a Baptist 68 years." She was married in Booneville, Arkansas, July 17, 1884, and is the mother of nine children, three of whom with her husband have passed on. The six living children are: Arthur Whitener of Wheeler; Mrs. Dona Elizabeth Davis, of Kelton; Mrs. Ina May Young of Amarillo; Lonnie L. Whitener of Levelland; Mrs. Winnie Norrid of Amarillo and Mrs. Edna Fay Wright, Dallas. She has 32 grandchildren and 17 great grandchildren. Eleven of her grandsons are in the armed services, and another will be inducted in a very short time. One of her grand daughters was an army nurse, and another is in the government ordnance plant at Pantex. One of her daughters is in the North American Aircraft plant at Dallas. The Whitener family is surely doing its part in the world conflict. The original extract from THE WHEELER TIMES, 8 March 1945, was given to Glen Wilburn Whitener on 25 May 1995 by Glenn Edward Whitener who obtained it from his father's memorabilia, Lonnie Lafayette Whitener. Lonnie was the youngest grandson of Hiram Anthony Whitener & Francis Ida Tate, the latter who was the subject of this newspaper interview.
Updated as of: 03/17/04 Copyright © 2004 - RY2K Media |
