John Dalton Whittington Family

John Dalton Whittington was the eldest son of Elisha David Whittington and Melina Dalton.  Elisha's father, Grief Whittington, fought in the American Revolution.  (His Pension Application.)  He married three times, the second time to Susanna Cox and Elisha was their only child.

Grief Whittington's ancestry is unknown, though there are unproven speculations as to his parents.  Autosomal DNA evidence, combined with the unusual given name "Grief", have raised the possibility that he was the product of a mixed-race marriage, but there is no conclusive proof of that.  (A Genealogy of Grief Whittington.)

Information about John Dalton Whittington, son of Elisha and grandson of Grief Whittington, is difficult to find, but he is recorded as having married Dorcas Allen and having one daughter, Esther.  He second married Delaware Princess "Adele" Dangerfield and they had six children, all born in Louisiana.

1-John Dalton Whittington
	b: 1824/25 in Rapides parish, Louisiana, USA
	d: JUL 27, 1872 in Churchville, Saint Landry parish, Louisiana, USA
 + Delaware Princess "Adela" Dangerfield
	b: abt 1834 in Mississippi, USA
	m: JUN 29, 1854 in New Orleans, Orleans parish, Louisiana, USA
	d: NOV 30, 1892 in Houston, Harris county, Texas, USA
. . 2-Ida A. Whittington
		b: 1855 in Louisiana, USA
		d: MAY 24, 1911 in Brooklyn, Kings county, New York, USA
. . 2-Minnie Whittington
		b: 1859 in Louisiana, USA
		d: MAR 25, 1909 in Houston, Harris county, Texas, USA
. . 2-Rosella A. (?Rosalee?) "Rosa" Whittington
		b: APR  1858 in Louisiana, USA
		d: SEP  1938 in Bradenton, Manatee county, Florida, USA
. . 2-William A. Whittington
		b: 1862 in Louisiana, USA
		d: APR  1887 in Lake Charles, Calcasieu parish, Louisiana, USA
. . 2-Dalton Earnest Whittington
		b: 1863 or 1864 in Louisiana, USA
		d: AUG 30, 1929 in Cook county, Hospital, Illinois, USA
. . 2-Agnes W. "Agna" Whittington
		b: DEC 20, 1868 in Louisiana, USA
		d: FEB 9, 1926 in San Antonio, Bexar county, Texas, USA

Carolyn Whittington graciously provided the research notes below.

JOHN DALTON WHITTINGTON

John Dalton Whittington died on July 27, 1872 at his home in Churchville, St. Landry Parish, Louisiana.  He was 47 when he died.  His belated obituary, written in the flowery prose of the day, appeared in the Opelousas Journal three weeks after his death. [1]

John Dalton's place of burial is not known.  There was no cemetery in Churchville, so his body was likely transported on his steamboat Palmetto back to Big Cane or possibly on to Bayou Rouge cemetery 14 miles further inland.  Both cemeteries contain old graves that were either destroyed or never marked.

Churchville was a landing on the west bank of the Atchafalaya River where the mouth of the Bayou Rouge flows into the river.  The site of Churchville no longer exists having been destroyed over the past 150 years from river flooding and dredging by the Corps of Engineers.

John Dalton was referred to as "Captain" Whittington because he was a steamboat captain at the time of his death.  At Churchville, passengers, cotton, sugar, and molasses were transferred across the levee to the steamer packets running regularly on the main stem of the Atchafalaya.  In return, the steamers brought needed supplies from New Orleans to the rural merchants and planters.  Bayou Rouge could only be navigated by light draft sternwheelers designed to negotiate the twists and turns of the bayou.  Two regular steamer lines running from New Orleans and Opelousas stopped twice weekly at Churchville.  John Dalton was responsible for piloting a smaller vessel from Big Cane to make the round-trip connection with the larger steamboats.  Many of the early cotton and sugar plantations along Bayou Rouge had steamboat landings for shipping their crops to market.

The person who penned the obituary with the initials O.S.S. was (I believe) Oglesby Scruggs Smith, a businessman of Big Cane, with whom John Dalton did business.  The request at the end to notify papers in Houston and Vicksburg provides clues to family connections.  In 1872 John Dalton's mother Melina (Dalton) Thompson was living in Galveston and had access to Houston newspapers.  Delaware Princess' brother S. S. P. Dangerfield resided in Delta, Louisiana directly across the Mississippi River from Vicksburg.

More details about John Dalton's life will be provided later.  The following sections provide a summary of the lives of his wife Delaware Princess Dangerfield and his six children.

DELAWARE PRINCESS (DANGERFIELD) WHITTINGTON

Delaware Princess Whittington passed away at age 58 in Houston on November 30, 1892 while on a visit to her daughter Agna.  Her cause of death was attributed to "dropsy" an archaic medical term referring to swelling of the extremities often caused by congestive heart or kidney failure.  I found her civil death record in the City of Houston, Texas Death Certificates in the digital archives of the Family History Research Center in Houston's Clayton Library: City of Houston, Texas death certificates, 1892 v. 2 (familysearch.org).  Her death record appears as image 229 as shown below.  This is obviously a modern transcription of the original record.

I also found two announcements of her death in the Houston Daily Post. [2]

The typesetting got a bit jumbled on this one.  The text on the third and fourth lines needs to be rearranged to make sense.  Agna's husband was W. M. Harveson, not Harvey. [3]

I have not yet identified the Houston cemetery where Delaware Princess is buried.

Delaware's ancestry continues to be a brick wall.  I found the name of a female who I believe is her mother, Frances M. Dangerfield, but I do not know the name of her biological father or exactly when and where she was born.  My suspicion is Delaware was of mixed-race descent which might explain why the records are so hard to find.  I believe she had a brother named Sargent Smith Prentiss "S.S.P" Dangerfield.  His 1861 New Orleans marriage record identified him as being "F.M.C" or Free Male of Color.  Prentiss, as he was called, was able to pass for white.

Louisiana marriage records show a Mrs. F. M. Dangerfield married E. R. Smith on January 14, 1846 in St Tammany Parish, Louisiana.  The Smiths settled in New Orleans where according to the 1853 and 1855 city directories, the Smiths boarded at No. 40 Circus Street.  In the 1860 federal census this couple was listed as Edward and Frances M. Smith.  Edward was listed as a clerk and a native of New York (b. ca 1815), and Frances from Virginia (b. ca 1820).  Edward R. Smith identified himself as Delaware Princess' stepfather and signed the marriage application giving his consent for Delaware to marry John D. Whittington in 1854 as she was still under the age of 21.

Edward R. Smith died prior to 1868.  His widow Frances remained in New Orleans after his death.  The 1868 City Directory shows an entry for Frances Smith, a widow of color, residing on Josephine Street between Rousseau and New Levee streets.  The 1870 directory shows Fanny Smith, a colored widow, residing at 125 Polymnia.  The 1872 directory listed Fanny Smith, widow of Edward, residing on St. Thomas Street between Jackson and Josephine Streets.  No death date or burial place for Frances Dangerfield Smith has yet surfaced.

After John Dalton's death, Delaware Princess Whittington and her children, Ida, Minnie, Rosella, William, Ernest, and Agna, headed to Galveston, Texas in 1874 where they joined the household of Clara and John W. Crozier.  Clara was John Dalton's half-sister born in Texas.  It was at Clara's house where Melina was able to meet her grandchildren for the first time before her passing in October 1874.

After leaving Galveston, Delaware and the children resided in Houston where they remained from 1875 to 1877.  It is not known exactly how they managed to support themselves during this period.  Delaware Princess never remarried, so she and the children had to find employment of some kind.  Delaware may have taught piano lessons, while the three older girls may have worked as music teachers, domestic servants, or seamstresses.  The two boys were likely engaged in manual labor suitable to their age.  The youngest girl was still in school.

In 1877, Delaware Princess, accompanied by her three youngest children William, Ernest, and Agna headed to Orange, Texas, a lumber port on the Sabine River.  The older daughters Ida, Minnie, and Rosella, were either self-employed, married, or engaged by this time.

The Whittington family's first residence in Orange was probably in a hotel or boarding house.  On March 4, 1878, Delaware Princess purchased town lots 3 and 16 in Block No. 4, for $150 (Deed Book Volume G, p. 493).  At that time Orange was about four blocks wide and concentrated around the port.

By the end of 1886 Delaware and children were on the move again.  This time they headed to Lake Charlies, Louisiana.  Whether Delaware acquired any property in Lake Charles is uncertain as a courthouse fire in 1910 destroyed many of the Parish records.

Death impacted the Whittington family again in March 1887 when William, the oldest son and primary breadwinner, died unexpectedly at the age of 25.  Following his death, Delaware Princess and Agna put their musical talents to use and opened a music school for children in Lake Charles.

In the Spring of 1888, Delaware Princess traveled to New Orleans to stay with her married daughter Rosella DeBrueys.  While in New Orleans Delaware sold her two lots in Orange (Deed Book Volume K, pages 16 -17) for $200 on May 9, 1888.  Thereafter, she made her home among the households of her married children until her passing in 1892 at the age of 58.

Descendants of John Dalton Whittington & Delaware Princess "Adela" Dangerfield.

IDA A. WHITTINGTON

Ida was a talented concert singer who achieved acclaim in New York City in the late 1800s.

Her early musical training was obtained as a young woman in Galveston and New Orleans.  She was known for her exceptional contralto singing voice.  She performed in amateur concerts in Galveston, Houston and New Orleans while honing her musical skills.  When not performing in concerts she supported herself as a music teacher and directed musical entertainments for churches and charitable organizations.  She was a well-rounded musician able to play six different instruments.

Ida contracted polio around the age of 30.  She recovered but walked with a limp for the rest of her life.  After recuperating at Hot Springs, Arkansas, Ida made her way to New York city around 1887 to begin her professional career as an operatic singer.  Her concerts were well-received by audiences and music critics, and she made many friends in the city's music circles.  Ida subtracted at least ten years off her age after she went to New York.

Ida's most active years as a concert singer were from 1888 to 1894 but she remained involved in the New York music scene until her death.  Ida became a soloist with the Carl Rosa American Opera Company and is believed to have performed in vaudeville.  During the 1890s she was a member of the Brooklyn Choral Society and played the violin for Brooklyn's Euterpe Orchestra.  After retiring from the stage, she taught private vocal lessons and participated in many charitable concerts around New York city.  She also operated a booking agency for amateur performers.  Ida was an early mentor of Laurette Taylor, the legendary Broadway actress, when Laurette was just getting started as a performer.

Ida never married.  She is buried in Moravian Cemetery on Staten Island, New York. [4]

When news of Ida's death reached her friends and family in Texas, the following announcement appeared in the Houston Post:

MINNIE I. (WHITTINGTON) GILL

Minnie lived a quiet life in Houston as a homemaker.  She married William H. Gill in Galveston on February 14, 1878. [5]  They are on the 1880 census in Houston, Texas. [6]  William made his living as a printer and typographer.  He died on April 23, 1895 from tuberculosis, an incurable disease at the time.

After William died Minnie supported herself and her daughter Erma May as a seamstress and dressmaker.  Minnie died suddenly from a heart attack while attending a friend's birthday party in 1909.

Minnie was buried in Houston's Glenwood Cemetery (Section D-2, Lot 138) next to William and her young son who predeceased her.

According to her 1900 census record, [7] Minnie stated she had given birth to two children but only one was living.  I found her second child who died on November 1, 1888.

The boy's cause of death was meningitis according to his municipal death record.  He is identified as "Child Gill" on Find A Grave. [8]

Minnie's only surviving child, Erma May Gill, became an English professor at U.T. Austin.  She died on December 30, 1949 while on a visit in San Angelo, Texas and is buried in Austin Memorial Park Cemetery. [9] [10] [11]

ROSELLA A. (WHITTINGTON) DEBRUEYS-FLOWERS

Rosella was a multi-talented individual but was also the most controversial of the six children.  She married Edward J. Debrueys on July 9, 1879 and settled in New Orleans.  Over the next 11 years the couple had six children, five sons and one daughter.  The daughter died young.  Edward made his living as a broom maker while Rosella took care of the household duties.  Rosella started her first business as a candy-maker in New Orleans in 1887.

For reasons unknown, Rosella abandoned her husband and five children in 1891 to start a new life elsewhere.  She disappeared for several years before resurfacing in Atlanta, Georgia in 1896 with a new identity (Edna Eva Courtney) and a new husband Robert F. Flowers.  Rosella gave birth to another son by her second husband in 1897.  The following year they adopted a foster daughter named Berta.

Robert was arrested for the murder of Berta at the family dairy farm outside Atlanta in 1901.[12]  Although not convicted, Robert and Rosella departed for Florida to escape the notoriety.  Rosella, Robert and their son Ben lived in St. Petersburg and Clearwater where Robert was a commercial salesman for the Singer Sewing Machine Company and Rosella operated a confectionary business.  They spent several years in Kentucky after the Singer Company transferred Robert in 1907.  While in Kentucky they adopted another foster daughter named Nellie.

The Flowers returned to Atlanta in 1911 followed by another move back to St. Petersburg.  Rosella was arrested for abusing Nellie in 1913 but managed to escape the charges.  The Flowers relocated to Clearwater where Rosella became a realtor.  The Flowers family moved back to Atlanta in 1917 so Ben could attend high school and college.

During World War I the Flowers lived in Charleston, South Carolina where Ben was stationed at the Naval Base.  Robert opened a sewing machine rental and repair shop, and Rosella started a dressmaking business.  At war's end the family returned to Atlanta followed by another move back to central Florida around 1921.  This time they settled in Bradenton which became their permanent home.  Rosella and Robert resumed their sewing machine and dressmaking business.

After they were grown, the five sons Rosella left behind in New Orleans tried to track her down.  I found her obituary in the New Orleans Times-Picayune printed one month after her sons learned of her death in 1938. [13]  Using clues from this obituary, I worked backwards to piece her life story together.

Here is Rosella's Florida obituary:

After leaving New Orleans, Rosella had seemingly closed the door on her past life.  I don't believe she ever reconnected with her first family or saw her siblings in Texas after departing Louisiana.  Her only son from her second marriage, Robert Benjamin Flowers, was killed along with his son, Robert, Jr. daughter-in-law and two grandchildren in a private plane crash in 1968 near Skamania, Washington.

Rosella has living DeBrueys descendants in Texas and Louisiana.  There are no descendants from Rosella's second marriage to Mr. Flowers.

WILLIAM A. WHITTINGTON

William, the oldest son of John Dalton and Delaware Princess, died as a young man in Lake Charles, Louisiana.

After arriving in Texas William became the primary support of his mother as soon as he was old enough to work.  The 1880 Orange census recorded William working as a "lumberman" meaning he was employed in one of the city sawmills.  William moved to Lake Charles with his mother and siblings Ernest and Agna around 1886.  William died at the home of Lake Charles' postmistress Mrs. Louis Leveque on March 25, 1887.  The only local announcement of his death appeared in the Lake Charles Echo:

News about William's death was telegraphed back to Houston.  An announcement was printed in the Houston Daily Post two days after his passing.

The cause of William's death remains unknown.  According to a news item published a few days previous in the Echo, Mrs. Leveque was having a second story built onto her home on the public square so it is possible William was one of the workmen and could have fallen victim to an accident.  He is presumed to be buried in Lake Charles although no grave marker is extant.  He never married and left no heirs.

DALTON ERNEST WHITTINGTON

Dalton Ernest spent the first decade of his life in St. Landry Parish, Louisiana.  After arriving in Texas in 1874 he lived with his family in Galveston, Houston, and Orange.  He moved to Lake Charles, Louisiana in 1886 where he first played in concerts with his sister Agna.

He married Selma Seybold on May 10, 1891 in Orange and the couple built a house at 1008 Front Street.  They moved to Houston sometime in 1893 or early 1894 where Ernest was employed as a streetcar conductor for several years.  The couple had two children born in Houston.  After Selma fell ill, the family returned to Orange where they were counted in the 1900 census.  They returned to Houston shortly before Selma's death.  Her death announcement appeared in the Houston Daily Post.  (It's a bit hard to read.)

Dalton Ernest married his second wife Lula May Hebert in Orange on June 26, 1902.  She was a half-sister of Selma.  Lula May was committed to the State Insane Asylum at San Antonio in 1915 and remained a ward of the state until her death.

Dalton Ernest was a professional carpenter for most of his working career.  His line of work kept the family on the move.  Ernest was employed at various times in Houston, Port Arthur and sawmills around southeast Texas.  In addition to his carpentry skills, Ernest was an accomplished musician and could play multiple instruments.  He taught music lessons whenever he wasn't doing carpentry work.  He retired from manual labor around 1920 and spent the last decade of his life alternately living with his two grown children in Port Arthur and Houston.

The obituary I found for Dalton Ernest is on the MyKindred.com website.  The Chicago address appearing on his Illinois death certificate (1325 W. Congress) was the location of Chicago's Salvation Army for men..

ARTHUR WHITTINGTON (POSSIBLE CHILD OF DALTON ERNEST AND SELMA)

According to the 1900 census, Selma had given birth to four children but only two were living.  Houston municipal death records contain the name of a white infant named Arthur Whittington who died at the age of 8 months on May 1, 1894 of marasmus (malnutrition).  His name also appears in the Houston Mortuary Report published in the Galveston Daily News of May 6, 1894, pg. 3, col. 4. [14]  His place of burial is presently unknown.  The names of Arthur's parents were not identified in the records however it is my theory, based on circumstantial evidence, that baby Arthur could have been a child of Dalton Ernest and Selma.  D. E. Whittington was the only Whittington listed in the 1894-1895 Houston city directory.

INEZ WHITTINGTON

Inez was the only known child of Dalton Ernest's second marriage to Lula May Hebert.  She was born on May 22, 1904, at the Whittington residence at 1008 Front Street in Orange.  The baby's birth was announced in the Orange Tribune:

Inez's birth certificate (above) can be found on FamilySearch.org but is considered a damaged document and is hard to read.

Baby Inez did not live very long.  Her parents took her to Jasper, Texas shortly after her birth where she passed away on July 3, 1904.  The location of her burial is presently unknown.

Inez was misgendered as male on her death certificate.  She likely died from what was then known as cholera infantum, a fatal form of gastroenteritis, caused by drinking contaminated milk from an unsterilized bottle.  Many parents and doctors of that era were unaware of the dangers posed to infants from bacteria caused by poor hygiene and sanitation practices.  The disease was sometimes referred to as "Summer Complaint" because it appeared during hot, humid months.

AGNA R. (WHITTINGTON) REYNOLDS

Agna overcame many hardships in her life.  She graduated from high school in Orange, Texas and afterwards taught music in Lake Charles to help support her mother.  She married William Moultrie Harveson, a carpenter, on December 31, 1888 in Orange.  They settled in Lake Charles but lived in Houston between 1891 and 1894 where Moultrie was employed in the carpentry trade.  The family returned to Lake Charles around 1894.

Moultrie was struck and killed by a locomotive on April 24, 1895 near Crosby, Texas.  His Coroner's Inquest record can be found on the Portal to Texas History website in the Harris County Inquest Proceedings Book on p. 339. [15]

Moultrie's death left Agna destitute with four small children.  She moved back to Houston to be closer to her siblings.  Agna married her second husband Harvey Herbert Reynolds on June 29, 1898. [16]  He worked for the Houston City Street Railway Company and Agna was probably introduced to him by her brother Ernest or one of her Harveson brothers-in-law who were employed at the same place.  This marriage was short-lived, but Agna kept the surname Reynolds after the divorce.  Agna returned to teaching music to make ends meet.

After the murder of a son-in-law in 1911,[17] [18] [19] and her family's involvement in a high-profile Houston criminal trial in 1912,[20] Agna relocated to San Antonio where she became a dedicated church and social worker.  She sang and played the guitar at the county poor farm and hospitals, mentored young soldiers and prisoners, and taught music at an unwed mother's home, among other benevolent activities.  She was well-known and beloved in San Antonio for her charitable work up until the time of her death on February 29, 1926 in Houston. [21]  Her birth date given on her death certificate is Dec. 20, 1873, but she is one year old on the 1870 census and eleven on the 1880 census, which was enumerated June 5, indicating a birth date after June 6, 1868, probably December, the month shown on her death certificate. [22]

Footnotes