HADEN PHILLIPS

 The following bio was taken from page 416 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

 A few years after Rusk County was created (from a portion of Nacogdoches County), Haden Phillips came from Georgia searching for land on which to build a home for his family, which would later consist of sixteen children.  In the southeastern part of the county, approximately four miles east of Mt. Enterprise, he found a desirable location and built a log house.  Haden was undoubtedly attracted to his land by the abundant water supply.  The two brooks beginning from springs on the land enabled him to control the flow; thereby assuring fresh water at all times.  Here Haden established a plantation, which supplied the needs of his large family and his slaves.

In addition to raising large vegetable gardens and orchards and his own beef and pork, Haden had a large pack of dogs, which he used to hunt wild game.  Animal skins were used as leather for making shoes.  Birds used for food were caught in nets and traps.  He had his own cotton gin to handle the basic farm product, and some of the timbers from it were used for sills in a portion of a barn still standing today.

There was a school on the plantation where his children and the children of the slaves attended.  He also provided a cemetery for his family and slaves.  The cotton was spun into thread then woven into cloth for the clothing, which was constructed by the women and slaves.  A sley or reed which was a part of one of the looms used when making cloth is not owned by one of the great-granddaughters.  She also has the frow used for making shingles for the buildings, a homemade plane used to smooth lumber, the lasts used for making shoes, and the cards used when carding cotton.

The family’s pleasant life ended September 16, 1868 when a gang led by a man named Shadden went to Haden’s home and killed him and a son, Benjamin Thomas, and a son-in-law, Asa E. Irwin.  They intended to kill four other sons, but they were successfully hidden, William, in a trunk; Gus, between two mattresses; Walt and Syl, up the chimney at a neighbor’s house after they had run there.  According to family legend, some of the gang stood on the trunk in which William was hiding to search for him in the loft.

This left Haden’s widow, Sarah Ann, with no men over nineteen years of age to help her run the plantation.  By this time the slaves had been freed, and she and the children had difficulties which caused her to lose much of their land.  She sold some of her land to get money to pay bounty hunters to search for Shadden and his gang.  Eventually Shadden was caught.  Part of the land was sold at a “sheriff’s sale” on the steps of the Rusk County Courthouse in 1876.  At present, only four hundred twenty-four acres of the original plantation is owned by Bob, Hayden, and Cliff Whitley.  Hayden is a great-granddaughter of the original Haden.

 Submitted by Mittie Hayden (Kelly) Whitley