DR. WILLIAM WOOLWINE
The following bio was taken from page 452 of the book entitled "Rusk County History" compiled and edited and used with permission of the Rusk County Historical Commission.
Transcribed by Claudia Schuster
Submitted by Gloria Briley Mayfield, Rusk County TX Coordinator
An early-day pioneer physician who practiced medicine in Rusk, Panola, and Nacogdoches counties was Dr. William Woolwine, born June 14, 1814 in Christiansburg, Montgomery County, Virginia. He was the sixth child of John Woolwine (Johannes Wohlwein) and Margaret Rebecca Haymaker (Hammacher, Hamacher, Hamaker), who were of German descent.Dr. William is said to have obtained his education at the University of Virginia and at the Medical School at Knoxville, Tennessee. His extant letters clearly demonstrate that he was a very highly educated man.
About 1834 in Tennessee, he married Mary Louise Tunnell, who was born on July 25, 1819, in Knox County, Tennessee. Her parents were Robert Tunnell and Elizabeth, said to be a Johnson.
In November 1840 the Woolwine family moved to Texas, settling in the area which became Caledonia, Rusk County. The doctor received a land grant from the Republic in 1842. The family remained in Rusk County except for a short time in 1860 when they resided in Chireno, Nacogdoches County, Texas.
A firm believer in education, Dr. William is said to have acquired a good-sized library to which he allowed his daughters access at all times. On February 1, 1845, he was appointed one of the trustees of the Rusk County Academy in Henderson. During the years 1865-1866, the doctor served as a justice of peace. A dedicated physician, Dr. William would go day or night in all kinds of weather to relieve the sick. He was attending a patient in Panola County when he died May 19, 1870. Burial was in the neighboring woods at the foot of a sassafras tree located near County Line Cemetery.
William’s wife died on March 2, 1880, in Weaver Community near Timpson, Shelby County, Texas. She is buried in an unmarked grave in Weaver Cemetery.
The Woolwine children are as follows: Margaret E., born in 1836 in Tennessee, who married Oliver E. Branch and died in 1859 in Texas; Maria Louise, born October 6, 1840 in Tennessee, who married Lucian B. Polk first, and John B. Keating, second, and who died on November 1, 1879 in Rusk or Panola County; Harriet Matilda, born April 1, 1844 in Texas, who married George Newton Weaver, and died November 27, 1923 in Timpson, Shelby County, Texas; Nancy Emily, born April 6, 1846 in Texas, who married William H. Evans, and died in 1929 in Houston, Texas; Virginia Tennessee, born December 31, 1848, who married Samuel William Weaver, and died August 20, 1936, in Center, Shelby County, Texas; Louemma Douthit, born April 8, 1853, who married John Forsyth first, and Charles S. Haden second, and died February 1, 1930 in Timpson, Texas; Guliaelma, born January 18, 1856 in Texas, who married James Reagon Vaught first, and Leonidas Houston Weaver second, and died in Clarksburg, California; Henrietta Letitia, born July 6, 1859, in Texas, who married William Henry King, and died December 29, 1906 in Timpson, Texas; and three sons, born in 1842, 1850 and 1857 respectively, who died in infancy.
Submitted by Marieta Childs