WHATLEY, WILLIAM M. (1837~1916) William Whatley was born April 1837, in Alabama and came to Texas in 1851. During the Civil War, he enlisted as a sergeant on May 12, 1861, at Camp Colorado in Captain Thomas C. Frost's Comapnay, 1st Regiment Texas Mounted Rifleman. This company was later designated as Company G, 1st (McCulloch's) Regiment Texas Cavalry. Whatley was discharged as a corporal.
Following the War, he worked as a laborer and farmer. By the 1900 census, Whatley lived in Kimble County and was employed by Mrs. Devon A. Armstrong on her farm (now part of the South Llano River State Park). According to local sources (the late Bessie Allsup Burt), in 1900, Whatley was encamped in a tent near the four-mile dam area, this unusual mott of seven oak trees, later destroyed by the re-routing of the highway, was known as "Whatley Oaks."
Whatley applied for a Confederate pension on July 5, 1899, and stated he had lived in the county for the preceding three years. According to Mrs. Burt, Whatley attended a Confederate reunion held in Junction, Texas. She remembered, Whatley saying there was not a dry eye in the crowd, when the band played the strains of Dixie.
William M. Whatley died on January 8, 1916, at the Confederate Men's Home and buried at the Texas State Cemetery.
Information provided and submitted by Frederica Wyatt. |
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