WK Whitehead  

My Great Grandfather 

      By Joyce Whitehead Orr

WK was 5 at the time of his fathers (Adam L) death in the Civil War in 1862 Susannah, Adam wife, filed a widows war pension. I have papers where Susannah signed her X. Thanks to these papers I have discovered there were 5 children. WK, John and James were the 3 boys that were known about but Mary and Hannah the two girls were not.

WK was a deacon in the church after he married Rachel Pratt on that 27th day of Sept in 1878. Rachel came from a family of Baptist ministers. When he came to New Market, Iowa he joined the Baptist church. The Baptist minister from New Market gave his services on that April day when they laid WK to rest in the Memory Cemetery, at the age of 67 years. Somehow I think he would have liked that.

He was a devoted Odd Fellow Lodge member. Wk was only sick for 3 days before he died. In those last 3 days Bertha his stepdaughter came to stay and help her mother Tilde. One of the last things he ever said was to Bertha, “go get me my IOOF book”, she did and gave it to him on his bed. He then handed the book back saying “now go throw it in the stove and burn it”. What a stubborn “Whitehead”, a trait that carried through to all of us.

He did not fear death; he had lost so many including a grown daughter Nola who died at the age of 21 in 1915. She was pregnant and according to story lost the baby and died doing so. Nola lived near the Dallas Center Cemetery, that must have been the reason she was buried there and I often wonder if the child was placed beside her. I hope so as she has no other family buried there. Why did she die, maybe she hemorrhaged to death, in 1915, nothing could have been done to help. She was married to John Husky. (I would love to know more on Nola death if anyone should have information please send to me)

WK had let his youngest son with Rachel, Thomas Jasper, go live with James (WK brother) in Watson, MO. I have no idea why, I heard a story that Tom was not well. He died at the age of 33 and I so wonder what caused his death. Tom and his Uncle James Marcus Whitehead are buried at High Creek Cemetery with no markers. (If anyone knows any answers to the story of why Tom died I would appreciate knowing).

At the time of WK death he lived 4 miles southwest of New Market (across from where Harold Foster lives now). WK, Tilde and their sons Frank, Horace and Lee. Paul Frances (Frank) Whitehead was was a young man that contracted TB. He died at the age of 22, four years after his father. He is buried at Memory Cemetery under the name of Frank Whitehead. When he became ill he was sent to Oakdale a hospital near Iowa City where he got better. He even put on some weight, as Frank was a small framed wiry fellow like most of the Whitehead men were at the time. Tilde in missing her son called and demanded that he be sent home. Frank did come home to please his mother and then later died.

WK first wife Rachel Pratt was a pretty, tiny woman with a long braid. I believe she loved music as the boys played the fiddle and banjo by ear, a gift from God or their mother. Loury in later years would always mention how tiny his mother was, he told his daughters stories of missing his home in Tennessee.

WK met a 25 year old woman to help him with his young children. Matilda (Tilde) Bennett a poor woman from Morristown, Tenn., had one child of her own, a 3 year old girl named Bertha. Bertha told of her mother never wanting her to go to school and she wanted to go so bad, like the other kids. Tilde would say you do not have boots so you can’t go. WK insisted that she go so he would wrap newspapers around her feet to keep them dry. Bertha told of him being a kind step father that would put her on one knee and his daughter Nola on another and bounce them up and down until they laughed with glee. No record has ever been found of WK or Tilde being married but in his Obit in the New Market Herald it stated he married Tilde Bennett on Jan 1, 1897.

click picture to enlarge

WK Whitehead and Rachel Pratt Whitehead