My Genealogy Hound

JAMES L. WHITEHEAD, farmer and stock-raiser, section 29, post-office Carthage, is one of the pioneers of southwest Missouri, born in McMinn county, Tenn., Nov. 26, 1832. His father, Francis Whitehead, was a native of North Carolina; a pioneer of east Tennessee, where he settled in 1829, on the Cherokee reservation. Becoming very friendly with that tribe, on the return of their envoys from the Indian Territory, whither they were about to be removed, they (the Indians) gave such a flattering report of their new country and “the country of the Six Bulls,” that they induced their pale-faced friend, Mr. Whitehead the elder, to make the pilgrimage with them, staying in the Indian nation two years. Left there in 1839 on account of the Ross-Ridge difficulties, and settled near where Joplin now is in Jasper county. Moved to Jones Creek in 1841, where he run a saw and grist-mill until 1845, when they moved to Center Creek, where they lived until 1851; then moved to where subject now lives, and where his father ended his long and useful life Oct. 13, 1859, aged sixty-four. Our subject was married June 12, 1856, to Miss Lydia A. Crumm, a native of what is now Ozark county, Mo., born April 23, 1835. Of this union there are three children living: Louisa A., wife of George Guinn, born May 2, 1857; John D., born Aug. 22, 1858; and Mary E., born Feb. 2, 1860. During the civil war Mr. W. was a strong Union man, and early in the struggle arrayed himself under the stars and stripes, enlisting three different times before being accepted; served in Company D, Seventy-sixth Regiment, E. M. M., in all the experiences of that command until 1863, when he was discharged for disability. Then, having been previously despoiled of his property, he moved his family to Nodaway county, Mo. Returned to his home in Jasper county in 1865, and with the poor means at his disposal raised a crop the following year. Mr. Whitehead has been a member of the Missionary Baptist Church since 1851.