WILLIAM BRADFORD WHITAKER
--By W. Ross Berry--
William B. Whitaker, father of Marcianna Whitaker Evans,
had been born in Halifax County, NC on April 11, 1811, the son of
James Whitaker (1773-1825) and Sarah Pullen Bradford (1776-1819).
The William Bradford Whitaker family along with several other
relatives and friends, crossed the Smoky Mountains in 1844 from
Halifax Co., NC, and traveled to Wayne County, TN to settle there.
In 1856 many of the relatives moved again to settle in
northeastern Arkansas, in what was then Greene County.
His ancestry has been traced all the way back to 1431, to Thomas
Whitaker of the Holme, Lancashire, England. (The name
Whitaker means "white acre" or "field of ripe
wheat"). One of Thomas Whitaker’s
descendants was Captain Jabez Whitaker who married Mary Bourchier.
She was of royalty, her ancestry going all the way back to
William the Conqueror (1028-1087). (He was the Norman duke
who conquered England in 1066 and, among other things, built the
Tower of London). Another interesting thing about that line
is that Jabez Whitaker had a brother named Alexander Whitaker (1587-1617)who
went to Virginia in 1611 and became a notable minister. He
performed the baptism of Pocahontas, and officiated at her
marriage to John Rolfe. A painting of the baptism ceremony
hangs in the rotunda of the Capitol building in Washington.
The book, "The Whitaker Family - A Goodly Heritage",
pub. in 1973 by Mrs. Hubert H. Hunt, Jr. of Salem, AR tells about
the Whitakers and their migration from NC to Wayne County, TN in
1844: "the six brothers - Eli Benton [Whitaker], John
[Whitaker], James Cary [Whitaker], Richard [Whitaker], William
Bradford Whitaker - and their sister Elizabeth Smith, and
families came by covered wagon train from Halifax County,
North Carolina, to Wayne County, Tennessee in 1844. With
them were a Dr. Carter, who was also a preacher; a mulatto (free)
named Joe Price, who was a blacksmith; and perhaps others.
All their families and servants must have made quite a procession.
Tradition was that they did not travel on Sundays in order that
their animals, as well as their people, might have a day of rest.
They settled on land grants around the Buffalo River, in the area
of present Flatwoods, Tennessee. In the 1860 census the
Whitakers were enumerated at Whitaker’s Bluff, Tennessee.
Later this came to be known as Pope’s Chapel."
The 1860 Slave Schedule of Greene County, AR lists W. B. Whitaker
with seven slaves. Only two other people in the county had
more slaves, so it appears that he was a man of some wealth.
In that census he was listed as being 49 years old and born in
North Carolina. The book, "History and Traditions of
Clay County, Arkansas", by Robert T. Webb states that "
the first still-and-grist mill in Clay County was operated by
William Whitaker on the St. Francis River. It was started
ten years before either Seitz or Dalton had a ferry at Chalk
Bluff."
The same book tells about the town of Scatterville (in Clay
County). It says, "It came by its name because one man
put a store at the foot of a hill, another put one at the
peak, still another put one at the foot on the other side.
The few stores and cabins were scattered about over the hills in
a careless way. Settled close around were the McNeils,
Allens, Copelands, Mobleys, Snowdens, Waddells, Nortens,
Mitchells, Golbys, Whites, Bradshaws, Deans, Rayburns, Whitakers,
and Simmons. These people were good farmers. Cotton
was raised only for home use in making clothing. Raising it
for the market did not begin until after the Civil War."
William Bradford Whitaker and Elizabeth Simmons Whitaker had
these children: Marcianna "Shannie" Whitaker (md.
Asa Delosier Evans); Eliza Ann "Pet" Whitaker (md.
Thomas Hill); Yates Reese Whitaker (md. Martha Eudora Harris, and
lived at Lafe, Greene County, AR); Sarah Weiss Whitaker;
_______ Whitaker (a son); Emma Alexander Whitaker (md. William
Hill and William E. Waddle); Florence Cary Whitaker (md. John
Hill). [Note: These three Hill men were brothers].
A few months after his death, in 1870, a lengthy obituary
appeared in the Little Rock, AR newspaper, "The Arkansas
Gazette" expressing condolences over the loss of
William Bradford Whitaker of Greene County. It mentioned that he
was a man of prominence in the community, and was a member of the
Mason fraternity, among other things.
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