CLIFTON PHILIP WHITLEY

The following bio was taken from page 443 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

My great-great-great-grandfather, Elijah Phillips, was born in 1780 in Georgia. Two of his sons came to Texas in 1851. One, Joel, settled in Nacogdoches County; the other, Haden, purchased land in Rusk County. I still have the deed Haden received, described by my grandmother as a "sheepskin" deed. Haden had sixteen children and I think you will find some of their names to be interesting.

On March 10, 1833, Haden married Louise Blueford Hopson, and they had five children. Their names and birth dates are: Elijah Lafayette (1834), Tilothy Walker (1836), Caroline Manphradonia (1838), Epamanondus Haden (1841), and Louisa Texannah Briggs (1843).

After Louisa’s death, Haden married Sarah Ann Rosser in 1844. Their children were: Martha Elsy Oregon (1846), Benjamin Thomas (1847), William Henderson (1849), Joel Abner (1850), Walter Thomas Colquit (1852), Mary Elizabeth Attinette (1855), Sylvanus Walker and Ida Orphelia Murtle (twins born in 1857), Sara Ann (1859), Gustavus Linwood Beauregard (1861), and Rebecca Ellen (1864).

Walter Thomas Colquit was my great-grandfather. He married Henrietta Shumate and they had eight children. The oldest was Ida, my grandmother. During my pre-school years, my parents worked, and this gave me the opportunity to stay with my grandparents. My grandparents owned part of the land Haden had bought in 1851. My grandmother was proud of her heritage and enjoyed telling me about her ancestors and what her land meant to her family. I buried my pets in the family cemetery beside my great-great-grandfather Haden (who was buried in 1868), at the time not realizing that this was unusual.

My mother is the only child of Ida and Cliff Kelly. There has been a Haden in the last five generations although my mother spells her name with a Y. The Haden Phillips in my generation is studying architecture at Texas Tech University.

My father, Bob Whitley, was reared in Bryan, Texas. His father sold Studebakers in Brazos County for over forty years. My father attended Teas A & M University before serving in World War II. After the war, he attended Stephen F. Austin University and met my mother, who was employed there. My father has a degree in agriculture and is a rancher. His cows graze on the land that Haden bought. My father appreciates the water supply probably as much as Haden did. My father’s farmhouse was build by William Henderson Phillips (born 1849). His youngest sister, Rebecca Ellen (born 1864) was married there, and my mother was born there.

Rebecca Ellen has two grandsons living in Rusk County now. They are Bob and Don Lee Wooten. Joy Williams of Mt. Enterprise is the great-granddaughter of Martha Elsy Oregon (born 1846). Other Rusk County descendants of Haden are: Marie Pirtle (Mrs. Pete), Maud Wells, James Rayford (Buddy) Phillips, and Mattie Palmer.

Since my mother has worked in Nacogdoches all my life, I always commuted with her to school there, graduating in 1979. Agriculture and sports were my main interests in high school. I am now working as a bulldozer operator for Texas Utilities Generating Company in Tatum. On November 12, 1981, I was awarded the American Farmer degree at the National Future Farmers of America convention in Kansas City. I hope that when my turn comes to own the part of Rusk County that was Haden Phillips’ land that I will manage it in a way that will make my grandmother proud of me.

Submitted by Clifton Philip Whitley