Whitaker, Jesse L.

JESSE L. WHITAKER
submitted by C. Bruce Whitaker
Jesse L. Whitaker was born in Fairview, Buncombe Co., N.C. on November 18, 1846, the son of Henry and Margaret Jerusha Harper Whitaker.

On October 2, 1866, he married Martha Rosilla Garren, daughter of Joseph and Bertha ussell Garren. Martha was born June 17, 1849 in Elijay, Gilmer Co., Georgia, although her people had been from Fairview until shortly before her birth.

Jesse and Martha lived on Flat Top Mountain in Fairview at the present site of Meyers Green House. Jesse was a farmer and horse breeder. He served in the Confederate Army during the Civil War and was shot in the left cheek which caused him speech difficulty the rest of his life. Together they had a family of nine children:

Elizabeth J., born Nov. 7, 1868, married James Fidella Jenkins on July 1, 1894 and they had a family of four children. Loweser, born October 10, 1872, died 1875.

John Whitaker, born August 7, 1870, died November 1875.

Henry Whitaker, born and died July 1876.

William McKinley Whitaker, born July 10, 1875, married Ida Lee Carver daughter of J.C. and Sarah Reed Carver and had seven children.

Samuel Whitaker, born March 15, 1879, married April 1, 1900 to Maggie Lee, daughter of John and Julia Ann Brandon Lee. They had a family of six children.

Mollie Whitaker, born April 6, 1881, married Ralph Dewey Grant, son of Vaughan and Ellen Goode Grant. They had no children.

Robert Taylor Whitaker, born June 4, 1884, married Laura Cornelius Wright on Dec. 6, 1902, the daughter of James Franklin and Mary A. Reed Wright, and had a family of eleven children.

Leora Whitaker, born 1887, married first, Charlie Sales and had one child, and married secondly Jesse Wright, son of John and Nancy Redmon Wright.

Jesse and Martha are buried in Cane Creek Cemetery, Fairview, NC.

–Heritage I, article #666, p. 364

Permanent link to this article: https://www.obcgs.com/whitaker-jesse-l/