Keeping the Faith: Emily Chaney Whitehead After the War
- Donna Hechler Porter
- Jul 4
- 4 min read
A continuing series drawn largely from Laura Powers Marbut and Sarah Powers Thielbar's book David M. Chaney, 1809-1859, Allied Families and Descendants. The book has long been out of print, having been published in 1971 by Heritage Papers of Danielsville, Georgia.
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August 8, 1861, at Mt. Hope, Texas, the Mt. Hope Home Guard was organized. This was made up of men 45 years of age or older, and boys under 18 years. Their purpose was to guard the Neches River and the coast of Texas to the top of Mexico. John Whitehead took his 18-year-old son, Walter Whitehead, his body slave "Big Henry", most of his best horses, as well as most of the family's money, and went into the Confederacy.
(Marbut & Thielbar, pg 12)
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When the Civil War broke out, John Swepson Whitehead took most of the family's money, his best horses, his eldest son, Walter, and his manservant and joined with the Confederate forces. His hopes, as everyone's did, ran high at the onset that the South would win the war and quickly.
But that was not to be. The momentum the Confederate forces enjoined at the beginning was unable to be maintained, and by December of 1864, it was evident that the war was winding to a close. The South was not on the winning side.
On 5 December 1864, Emily gave birth to the couple's third child and son. The couple named him Robert E. Lee Whitehead, after the beloved general. Either shortly before Robert's birth, or shortly after, John Swepson Whitehead, now nearing 50 years of age, returned home broken in body and spirit. According to family lore, he never recovered sufficiently to even attend church. He must have worked his land as best he could, and many of his former slaves stayed with he and wife Emily, probably working as sharecroppers.
The couple went on to add five more children to the family: Laura, in 1866; Mary Virginia, in 1870; Margaret Orville, (date unknown); an unknown infant that died at birth, and George Madison, 1878.
Emily also went on to organize one of the first Baptist churches in East Texas - the Caney Creek Baptist Church. It will be remembered her father and grandfather had been pioneer Baptist preachers in Mississippi and Louisiana. Her grandfather, Bailey Eliphalet Chaney, had been imprisoned by the Spanish government for a time for preaching in a Catholic country. The Caney Creek Baptist Church is still in use today. You can go here to read more.
In 1894, John David Whitehead, John Swepson and Emily's oldest son, married Nora Mathilda Griffin, and two years later, in 1896, John Swepson Whitehead passed away at 80 years of age. It appears that around this time, John David and Nora moved into the Whitehead homeplace with Emily. The 1900 Polk County, Texas, census lists John David as the head of the household. Enumerated as living with him were Nora his wife, and children Clarence (born January 1895), Emily (born February 1896), Samuel (born July 1897), Johnnie (born Sept 1898), and Robert (born April 1900). With so many little children and so close in age, Nora had her hands full, and Emily, now 53, helped her with the children and the house.
Ten years later, the 1910 census records that John David and Nora had been married for sixteen years, that she had given birth to 11 children in that time, and that all of them were still living. Born between the 1900 and 1910 census were Clovis (born 1903), Amanda (born 1902), Alma (born 1904), Jennie (born 1905), Opal (born 1907), and Doris (born 1910 in April).
On 5 April 1911, a year after Doris was born, Nora passed away at the age of 40. Emily, at the age 74, took over the care of the eleven minor children.
When Em was 70 years of age she assumed responsibility for eleven grandchildren. her oldest son, John David Whitehead, and his family were living with her in the old home. His wife Nora died at the age of 37 leaving the children, ranging in age from 13 to one year of age. Em took charge of them, sending them to school and church, and helping to mold the substantial men and women that they became.
(Marbut & Thielbar, pg 12)
On the 5 October, 1923, when the youngest grandchild, Doris, was just past 14 years of age, Emily passed away at the age of 87.
How well she could say, "I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith." We laid her by the side of John Swepson Whitehead on a little knoll near their old home, amidst the tall pine trees, the Cape Jasmines, and her Crepe Myrtles. Many of her children and grandchildren are resting there in the Whitehead Cemetery.
(Marbut & Thielbar, pg 13)
A life-long educator and writer, Donna has always had stories in her head. When they were not swirling and gnawing, she had her head in a history book - both fiction and non-fiction. While in junior college, her grandfather gave her a family notebook with McQueen documents and family group sheets. Thus, her love of genealogy was born, and she has not stopped hunting down all the ancestors she can. She graduated from Texas A & M University with a teaching degree, and has since published five historical novels based on her family history, five books on her genealogy, and a few smallish books. Donna teaches middle-school English Language Arts and tutors privately. She dreams of life in a log cabin the woods, even as she is addicted to antique and thrift shopping.
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