____________________________________________________________
MILES WASHINGTON WHITLOW 1812 - 1885
Miles Washington Whitlow was born 17 Mar, 1812 on upper Big Shoals Creek, Cabel's District, Clarke Co., GA, son of Bolden and Mary Eliz. (Stewart) Whitlow. In Sept 1809, Bolden relocated from Union & Abbeville Dist., SC where he lived with his father, Nicholas Whitlow and brothers, Samuel, Jesse Nicholas, James Mosely and Thomas Whitlow.
Key events of Miles Whitlow's life:
* Miles Whitlow grew up in the frontier of Clarke and Walton Co., GA where he learned the trade of stonemason and brickmaker from his father.
* In 1820, he shows in his father's household in the US Census.
*By 1821, the family had moved to Bay Creek, Walton Co,, GA. Bolden Whitlow was instrumental in the formation of Bay Creek Baptist Church. He donated land for this purpose and the first few meetings were held in his barn. Miles Whitlow joined Bay Creek Baptist Church on a profession of faith in 1826.
* 1830: shows in household of Bolden Whitlow, Walton Co., GA.
* 1 Dec 1830, Miles W. Whitlow purchased from Benj. Jenkins, Cherokee Co., GA, DG J, p. 74.
* 1832: Miles Whitlow, poll, Walton Co. tax list.
* 1833: Miles Whitlow on Petit Jury list, Walton Co., GA.
* 1834: shows tax list, Walton Co.. GA.
* 1836: M.W. Whitlow svc GA Militia, Indian Wars.
* 1837: 2 Aug 1837, deed of Miles W. Whitlow of Walton Co., GA to John F. Goniker, Cherokee Co., GA, DB T, p. 213.
* 1836-7: Bolden Whitlow, all sons-in-law and father, Nicholas Whitlow moved to Walker Co., GA to land lot purchased by Nicholas Whitlow. 1832 Land Lottery shows Nicholas "Whitton", Cleveland's Dist., Habersham Co. GA drew Land Lot # 299, 7th Land District. The land became Cass Co., GA and is in present day Gordon Co., GA near Sonora, GA.
* 1838: Miles W. Whitlow from Geo. H Toadvine, Decatur Co., GA, DB I, p. 302-3.
* 1839-40: Nicholas Whitlow died in Walker Co., GA before 1840.
* 1839: Miles W. Whitlow from Nath'l Dunkin, Murray Co., GA DB G, p. 10.
* 1839: 21 Mar 1839, letter remaining at Monroe P.O. for Miles Whitlow.
* 1839: 23 Mar 1839, deed from M.W. Whitlow of Walton Co., GA to his cousin, James Stewart of Campbell Co., GA.
* 1839: 14 April, Miles W. Whitlow married Emaline Gholston, Hardeman Bapt Church, DeKalb Co., GA.
* 1839: 18 May, Miles W. Whitlow and b-i-l Wm I. Mathis wit. deed of Killis Barker to Sam'l Woods, Walker Co., GA, Miles Whitlow's future father-in-law.
* 1839: Nicholas Whitlow, grandfather of Miles W. Whitlow, died in Walker Co., GA and is buried in an unmarked grave in the Whitlow Family plot, now a part of Old Antioch Cemetery, Walker Co., GA.
* 1840: Miles Whitlow shows US Census, Walker Co., GA.
* 1840: dau. Eleanor Whitlow born. She mar. Wm A. Williamson 15 Dec 1862; died of breast cancer 1868. Bur. Center, AL.
* 1842: Miles Whitlow, acct # 55, Lafayette Store Journal.
* 1842: Miles Whitlow, 4 entries, blacksmith journal of Davis Fricks.
* 1842: son, John Gholston Whitlow, b. 17 May. He mar. Mary Ann Hall, dau. of Rev. Joseph Carwell & Lizzie (Ryder) Hall and moved to Parker Co., TX, Oct 1871.
* 1842: 3 Feb, M.W. Whitlow from Wm M. Autwell of Forsyth Co., GA.
* 1843: M.W. Whitlow to Sam'l H. Robins, Murray Co., GA, DB G, p. 10, 4 Jan 1843.
* 1844: dau. Martha Jane Whitlow born. Mar. Wm Holden Garrett and moved to Kennedale, Tarrant Co. TX, 1871.
* 1844: Miles W. Whitlow from Thos C. Smith, Cass Co. ,GA DB I, p. 32, 18 Jun 1844.
* 1844: Miles W. Whitlow to Moses Stroup, Cass Co., GA, DB I, p. 32, 21 Aug 1844.
* 1845: Nancy Jane Whitlow born. Mar Sanford Glen Williamson and lived Pollard's Bend & Centre, Cherokee Co., AL.
* 1846: Miles Whitlow's mother, Mary Eliz. (Stewart) Whitlow died. Bur. unmarked grave Old Antioch Cem. She dau. of James Stewart of Person Co., NC.
* 1846: Bolden Whitlow to Miles W. Whitlow, Land Lots 304, 306 & 307, 11th Dist.
* 1847: Albina Tabitha Whitlow born. Mar. Rev. Thos Wm Powell, lived Nashville, Berrien Co., GA. Letter of Rev. Powell relates how Miles Whitlow "shed tears of joy" when he asked for Allie Whitlow's hand in marriage.
* 1847: Emaline Gholston Whitlow died in childbirth w/ dau. Albina. Bur unmarked grave, Whitlow plot, Old Antioch Cem.
* 1848: Bolden Whitlow died 12 May 1848. Bur. unmarked grave, Whitlow plot, Old Antioch Cem.
* 1849: Miles Whitlow, brick mason, built the MAJ John Davis house, Kensington, GA. Ref: 1923 Walker County Messenger.
* 1850: Miles Whitlow, US Census; shows w/ 3 slaves inherited from B. Whitlow est. B. Whitlow's second wife, Mary Hamby, took one slave named Balaam to Carroll Co., AR. Former slave,Balaam Whitlow was interviewed in the 1930's WPA Writer's Project.
* 1851: M. Whitlow shows 1851 business tax list, Walker Co.
* 1853: Est. of Zachariah Gholston, DeKalb Co, GA, leaves prop & slave, Mariah w/ son, to M.W. Whitlow, heir of Emaline Gholston Whitlow. 1860 census shows Mariah Whitlow.
* 1854: M.W. Whitlow mar. Eliz. Allen Woods, 17 Dec 1854, Chattooga Co., GA.
* 1855: Miles Whitlow, 5 shares in Lawrenceville Female Academy.
* 1859: M. Whitlow, subscriber to Cherokee Landmark & Bapt. newspaper; 14 Oct 1859 issue.
* 1860: Miles Whitlow, US Census, Walker Co., GA.
* 1860: Miles Whitlow to Jesse Wallin; recorded destroyed deeds.
* 1862: M.W. Whitlow enumerated on 5 Mar Militia list.
* 1863: Jan-Feb, 3 children died of "bloody flux" over a one month period: George W., Ida and Jefferson Davis Whitlow. All bur. Whitlow plot, Old Antioch Cem.
* 1864: Cpl Miles Whitlow, Co. E, 6th GA Cav Bn, Confederate States of America.
* 1864: Miles Whitlow mentioned in 13 Sep 1864 ltr of Mary & Julia Davis, Walker Co., GA, "Mr. Whitlow slips in every once in a while" to deliver supplies and goods. This area was occupied by the enemy, at this time.
* 1866: Miles & John G. Whitlow, district revenue tax, 466 gallons, distilled spirits.
* 1867: Miles & J.G. Whitlow: Loyalty & Voter list signed.
* 1870: Miles Whitlow, US Census, Walker Co., GA.
* 1870: M.W. Whitlow wit. to bond of Archibald Bonds (b-i-l)Admstr est. of Jordan Bruce, 5 Dec 1870.
* 1878: M.W. Whitlow on Coulter Crossroads Store Ledger.
* 1880: Miles Whitlow, US Census, Walker Co., GA.
* 1881: Niece Sallie Shaw's letter mentions "Uncle Whitlow's health is not good ..."
* 1883: Deed M.W. Whitlow to Wm R. & John A. Woods, 19 Apr, LL # 254, 11th Sec, 4th Dist., brothers-in-law of Miles Whitlow.
* 1884: Letter from dau. Allie (Whitlow) Powell in Nashville, GA "Pa, can you not set your affairs to come for a short visit?"
* 1884: Deed Miles W. Whitlow to heirs of Andrew Walden, 11 Oct. 1884.
* 1884: Deed Miles W. Whitlow to Robt Daugherty, 11 Aug. 1884.
* 1885: Miles Washington Whitlow died 23 Aug 1885. Bur. Old Antioch Cem., Cedar Grove, Walker Co.., GA. Son, Miles Marcellus Whitlow, admstr. Distribution to: M.M. Whitlow, M.A. Garrett, Nanie Williamson, Albina Powell, John G. Whitlow, W.S. Williamson, s/o Eleanor (Whitlow) Williamson. Miles Whitlow owned land in Murray, Carroll, Cherokee, Douglas, Forsyth, Cobb, Harralson, Irwin and Decatur Co.s, GA.
* 1899: Walker County Messenger, x. 3-30-1899, "In memory of Mrs. Elizabeth Whitlow, nee' Woods, died in June 1898. She was happily married to Miles Whitlow." Eliz. Woods Whitlow bur. Old Antioch Cem. in the Whitlow family plot next to her husband Miles Washington Whitlow and her children.
____________________________________________________________
Note to Reader: the following letter was provided by a Whitlow cousin. It is included here because it explains a lot of Williamson relationships, and a few Whitlow connections, as well. The writer, Andrew Taylor Walden, was born 1869 in Walker Co., GA. For brevity's sake, only pertinent portions of the letter are included here:
"Thursday Night
November the 14th, 1946
4306 E. 14th Ave.
Chattanooga, Tenn
Dear Mary Jewel,
This is kind of personal information on this page. Glad to do what I have done for you. Oct. 1893, while at Vandale, Ark., I met and formed the acquaintance of James Williamson, a wealthy merchant of Vandale, Ark. - 62 years old - I met accidentally, it seems so anyway. I went in to his store to eat a snack. He asked where I was from. I told him I was from Walker Co., GA, 30 miles south of Chatt., Tenn. Well, his next question was "Did you ever know a family by the name of Williamson?" My answer, he said, was one of the greatest surprises of his life. He got up, shook hands with me, when I told him I was Allen Williamson's grandson. Well, he says, your name is Williamson. No, I say, my name is Walden. My mother was the 2nd child and oldest daughter of Allen Williamson. He said his father was born in N.C., came to Ark. when he was 20 years old, married, raised a family in Cherry Valley, Ark. and died in old age. I asked him if he had ever met any of the family before. He said I was the only one of the relations he ever met. My time was short to talk to him. He insisted that I visit him and spend some time in his home. He was 6 feet tall, weighed 220 lbs, sandy complexion, very brilliant and sociable. One brother was a Dr. in Harrisburg, Ark. The youngest brother, Hugh, was a member of the Ark. Legislature. As I was working 18 miles south of Vandale and aiming to come home soon, I never met him anymore, but the information he gave me was worth a lot to me. I told Dad about him. Dad said Granddaddy got letters from his brother, John, after him and Ma married. James told me his father was John Williamson, Sr. of N.C. and his only brother was Allen Williamson. So, this information is satisfactory to me.
Allen Williamson was the 2nd son and 7th child of John and Mary Williamson. He was born Buncombe Co., NC June 1810.
Granddaddy Allen married Mary Barnwell of Cobb Co. GA in his 18th year. To Allen and his wife were born seven children: James 1833, Emily July 1835, William Jan 1837, Sarah 1839, Glenn 1841, Abram 1843 and Nancy 1845. Their mother died and was buried at Marietta, GA, August 1845.
Granddaddy Allen, with his sister and seven motherless children moved and settled in the upper McLemore's Cove, Walker Co., GA, Nov 1847, where he came into possession of 320 acres of fine land on the Chickamauga Creek. He built a fine gristmill and sawmill soon after coming to the Cove - all run with water power. The Cove was thinly settled at that time but new settlers were moving in from NC, SC, Tenn. and other parts of GA. The county was settling fast.
Granddaddy was a local Methodist minister. While attending conference in Forsyth Co.. GA, he met and on a courtship, married his second wife, Mary Durham, Nov 1847. One child was born, Rebecca (Aunt Joe) 1848.
Uncle Glen, his wife and children, Aunt Sarah Neal, her children, Geo. and Tudy, Uncle Silas Neal, Aunt Joe and two grown daughters are bur. in Cedar Hill Cemetery.
Uncle Jim, I suppose, was buried on the battlefield in Ark. where he was killed.
Aunt Nancy, her family, Aunt Mary and sister Frank's nine month old baby girl, Myrtle Bishop are all bur. Lafayette Cemetery.
Grannie outlived Granddaddy from June 1872 to Feb 1880. As the property by his Will was her life time, it was sold the Fall of 1880. Uncle Glen was the executor. A. Andrews (Sandy) was the buyer.
Aunt Sara, her two children, Uncle Silas and his family moved to Alabama near Uncle Glen in Cherokee Co. (Ala.)
Uncle Foster and Aunt Nancy bought the Hammonds farm and gristmill, three miles south of Lafayette.
We (Jesse Walden's family) moved to Shinbone Valley near the old burned mill on Duck Creek, four miles west of Lafayette.
I was at Sarah's house about two hours in Ala. I didn't go to Uncle Glen's nor Aunt Joe's, as I had been gone some time and was anxious to get home to see Daddy, as he always was first and last in my life. I have always been glad of the love I had and the confidence I had in Daddy.
Mary Jewel, I have given you facts in this record allowing only for mistakes in dates, which I would be supposed to make. I hope you will appreciate the effort. Again, your Mother, being three years older than me, will be able to correct my dates, if they are wrong. As there has been some misunderstanding in regards to Allen Williamson's ancestors and his birth place, I will give you folks some information on the subject that I am sure you haven't got.
While I am wholly uneducated, make my grammar as I talk and write, I think people understand me pretty well, being as I am a natural genealogist, I have spent time looking up my ancestors on both sides of the house. I am glad I am the son of Jesse Walden and Emily Williamson - would not be anyone else.
Signed,
A.T. Walden
Marriages and Deaths:
James mar. Manda Robertson of Cobb Co., GA.
William's first wife was Ellen Whitlow of Walker Co., GA.
Glen's wife was Nannie Whitlow, sister to William's first wife.
Abraham died single during the Civil War. Died at home.
Emily (my Mother) mar. Jesse Walden, Oct. 25, 1855.
Sarah, mar. George Neal of Chattooga Co., GA 1859.
Nancy mar. three times: James Graham 1860, John Nevel 1864, he disappeared, W.A. Foster of Walker Co., GA 1872.
Rebecca (Aunt Joe) mar. Silas Neal of SC, 1868.
Granddaddy died at his home in the Cove June 1872.
Uncle Jim was killed in battle in the Rebel Army about 1863 in Ark.; his wife died shortly afterwards at their home in Adkins, Ark; Granddaddy brought their only child, Mollie, a little girl to his home where she died in childhood.
Uncle William's first wife, Ellen (Whitlow), died (of breast cancer), and was buried in Ala. near Center 1868.
Uncle William and his second wife died of old age at their home at Kennedale, Tex.
Uncle Glen, his wife (Nancy Whitlow) and children, Aunt Sarah, her two children and Uncle Silas all died at their homes near Center, Ala.
Aunt Joe (wife of Silas Neal, mentioned above) died at the home of her daughter, Mollie Whitlow, in Weatherford, Parker Co., Tex. (John Gholston Whitlow mar. as his second wife, Mollie Neal, 1894.)"
____________________________________________________________
The following is a news article about Miles Marcellus Whitlow, son of Miles Washington Whitlow, above (see photo of Miles Marcellus Whitlow.)
Atlanta Constitution, x 24 May 1891, p. 8:
A Wildcat Chase
LaFayette, Ga., May 22 (Special) - While Mr. M.M. Whitlow, of the Cove, was out a few days ago on the West side of Pigeon Mountain, in the McWhorter Gulf, turkey hunting, he saw a squirrel up a tree, and a catamount, a short-tailed wildcat, was after it. The squirrel took a flying leap to a nearby tree. The catamount backed down and started up the second tree, whereupon the squirrel lept back to the first. The amusing spectacle went on for some time. After a while, the catamount noticed Mr. Whitlow, standing about sixty yards away. When it appeared the cat would charge, Mr. Whitlow fired his shotgun in self defense. The gun was loaded with buckshot, the shot was fatal and the cat fell dead at his feet. When asked about the incident, Mr. Whitlow explained that he felt it his duty to protect the brave squirrel since he "wore Confederate gray."
____________________________________________________________
Mention of Miles W. Whitlow in a letter written by Mary and Julia Ann Davis of Walker County, Ga. to Susan Davis of Dahlonega, Ga:
"July 13th, 1864
Dear Aunt,
We are getting along as well as we could under existing circumstances. Have plenty of Yankees in this Cove yet and we have got rid of some of our Tory neighbors. The Yankees took some of them to Chattanooga to give an account of their behavior and it is said they are after the others but it is most too good to be true. They paid us a visit last week and took a few bushels of corn and we had a good quarrel and I told them good about their behavior. They were riding Mr. Patton's horses, two of them. Oh! How I wanted to kill some of them. Times are pretty hot in this quarter. It is reported that they had a little fight about ten miles below here yesterday and we whipped them pretty badly and captured a good many prisoners and I wish it had been the last of them. Mary commenced writing but I will finish. I received two letters from you a few days ago. One was wrote last Fall. You said something about the money you owed me. I have no use for money so don't trouble yourself about it. I can't use what I have. We have troublesome times here. The Yankees is still gathering men and carrying them to Chattanooga. Some come back while others go North. Mr. Beard just got back. They kept him two weeks. They carried Lem McWhorter by here with five mules and one horse and several other men I did not know. What few men there is in here live in perfect dread. Mr. Whitlow slips in every once in a while. Sophronia thinks John had better not come in here until after this fight is over. They commenced fighting at Shudsie's Shop and run them some way to Crawfish Spring, others to Worthen's Gap. I look for hot times in here again. I am much obliged to you for your invitation but I think we had better stay in here as long as we can. We have some Yankee friends we can buy parched coffee at 40 cents a pound, bacon at 12 1/2 cents a pound but we can't keep a horse that is able to work. If Johnson don't whip this fight, we are ruined in this country. Miz Howell is keeping school for us. Miz Johnson has a good school in Lafayette and Sophronia wants John to bring Georgia Anne home to go to school when he comes. They have taken some of the men that has taken a non-combatment oath and made them take the oath of allegiance. We are all getting along very well and I think John had better not come in here until after he sees a little further for he can't do us any good. You must excuse this writing but I have not time to finish as Mr. Whitlow is agoing out. Write often. Give my love to all and accept a large portion for yourself.
Julia"
Mr. Whitlow was Miles Washington Whitlow, subject of this sketch. One of the men who was taken to Chattanooga and never heard from was Avery Camp, brother-in-law of Miles Whitlow.
____________________________________________________________
Julia and Mary Davis were daughters of MAJ John Davis who escorted the Cherokee tribes from Georgia to Oklahoma on the "Trail of Tears" in 1836. The 1864 Davis letter was likely written in the house described below.
From a 1921 newspaper article in the Walker County Messenger:
"Liberty - Seventy four years ago Miles Whitlow burned the lime and made the brick and built the house for Major John Davis now owned by Doom Cornelison. The house and chimney were pulled down last week and in the old brick are plain pig and cat tracks made while the bricks were green."
____________________________________________________________
Chattanooga Times, x 20 May 1933, p.3:
"MILES M. WHITLOW
Miles M. Whitlow, 77, prominent farmer and pioneer resident died yesterday morning at his home in Kensington, Ga. He is survived by his widow, seven daughters, Mrs. C.F. Kaylor of Chattanooga; Mrs. Effie Davis, Mrs. H.B. Hankerson, and Miss Ethel Whitlow of Oklahoma City, Okla., Mrs. J.C. Wyatt of Cedartown, Ga., Mrs. C.K. Brooks of Chattanooga, and Mrs. Fay Evitt of Kensington, Ga.; two sons, J.R. Whitlow of Kensington, Ga., and M. Frank Whitlow of Wickenburg, Ariz.; twenty-three grandchildren and two great grandchildren. Funeral services will be held from the Antioch Church at 2 o'clock afternoon, Sunday. Active pallbearers will be the grandsons: Jack Wyatt, Harold Wyatt, Whitlow Wyatt, Franklin Whitlow, Murl Morgan and Herman Shaw. Internment will be at Antioch Cemetery."
Miles M. Whitlow sold his Walker Co., GA land about 1907 or so and moved to Wickenburg, Arizona Territory but moved back to Walker Co. a few years later.
His grandson Whitlow Wyatt pitched for the Brooklyn Dodgers and famously struck out Joe DiMaggio twice in the 1941 World Series, as this newspaper account details:
St. Petersburg Times
x7 Oct 1941
"Flatbush Heartbroken As Yanks Win World Series; Bombers Clinch Eighth Title Since 1927 With 3-1 Triumph Over Whitlow Wyatt
Ebbets Field, Brooklyn - (INS) Wyatt Whitlow struck out nine Yanks, scored the lone Dodger run after clouting a double, allowed only six hits and nearly got in a fist-fight with Joe DiMaggio - to the delight of a crowd whose ticket purchase pushed the gate for the five games to $1,007,762. But, nonetheless, it was a wild pitch by this eternally steady veteran which gave the Yanks their inch - which is all they ask for before taking a ballyard."
Miles Washington Whitlow is the great great great Uncle, through his sister, Elizabeth Agness Whitlow, who married Wm "Buck" Bailey, of the actor James Garner (nee' Bumgarner), star of film and TV (Maverick), and a veteran of the Korean War where he was awarded two Purple Hearts.
____________________________________________________________
Walker County Messenger, x 10 Feb 1881:
Captain Joel [Withers] passed through here Saturday. We don't like to see Sheriffs so far from home. They might be on business. When I heard someone wondering who he was after, I thought of an incident that occurred many years ago. I was in the woods with a negro, named Ed, when he saw three men coming toward us. I told him it was the Sheriff and his posse and that they must be after one of us, and as I had never done anything, it must be you they are after. He turned as white as possible for him to, and looked up and said: "I have done paid Mr. Bailey two dollars for his old sow, and Mr. Whitlow was to pay him the other two." When the Sheriff's posse rode past, leaving us unmolested, old Ed mumbled something about letting by-gones be, and went back to work with renewed vigor, having gotten a new lease on life." - The Editor.
Mr. Whitlow is Miles W. Whitlow and Mr. Bailey, his nephew, son of William "Buck" Bailey, who died in 1839.
____________________________________________________________
Walker County Messenger, x 27 Jan 1881:
"Uncle and Cousin: Squire Mr. James Bonds and Mr. W.B. Cumpton were all in town on Monday. The Squire is one of those lovable, genial, kind-hearted old men that it is a pleasure to meet. We believe if the right sort of widow would come along and ask him to go back to Eureka Springs, he would go. May Time lay its hand lightly on him."
Judge James Madison Bonds was the brother-in-law of Miles W. Whitlow. W.B. Cumpton was a relation to both, having married "the Widow Glenn", Eliza Camp Glenn, the daughter of Avery Camp who married Nancy Mae Whitlow, Miles Whitlow's sister.
Avery Camp was taken by the Yankees with force from his home in Walker Co. to the Chattanooga depot where he was interrogated. His answers and attitude being quite unsatisfactory to his interlocutors, he was to be put on a train bound for Camp Douglas, IL, but died before embarking. One family story has Mr. Camp burying a sack full of gold coins on the back of his property, while family members delayed entry of the Yankees into his house.
The Widow Glenn had the misfortune to find her log cabin in the middle of the Battle of Chickamauga in 1863. Her home was occupied as the headquarters of Gen. Rosecrans, the Union commander. His interrogation of her was written about in New York newspapers. She refused to cooperate. On one occasion, a captured Confederate officer was brought to the cabin to be questioned. He also refused to cooperate, telling the invading army's commander that "it has cost me a considerable amount of trouble to find your lines, General. If you put yourself to the same trouble, you will find ours."
The Widow Glenn stayed at her cabin during the battle, stubbornly refusing to leave, until a Confederate artillery shell struck it, at which point, she grabbed a duffle she had packed, ordered her slave John to her wagon, and left with her children, seeking safety with relatives in McLemore's Cove.
The Widow Glenn's cabin is a marked point of interest at Chickamauga Battlefield National Park.
____________________________________________________________
Miles Whitlow's grand daughter:
The San Bernardino Daily Sun, x 8 Jul 1961
Industrial's Wife Dies at Family Ranch
Mrs. Ethel Whitlow Van Camp, 70, wife of Gilbert Van Camp, Chairman of the Board of the 50 year old seafood company, died of a heart attack while vacationing with her husband at the family ranch near San Bernardino, it was reported Tuesday.
Married less than a year, the former San Franciscan and her husband spent each weekend at their ranch in the mountain foothills. The family residence is in San Pedro at 1006 Dodson Ave. Mr. and Mrs. Van Camp had arrived at the ranch last Thursday planning to return to San Pedro Tuesday. She died Monday.
Mrs. Van Camp also leaves three sisters, Mrs. Faye Evitt and Mrs. Mary Hankinson, both of San Francisco, and Mrs. Virgie Brooks of Chattanooga. Funeral arrangements are pending at the Mark Shaw Mortuary in San Bernardino.
____________________________________________________________
Independent Press Telegram, x 10 Sept 1978, Sunday:
Gilbert Van Camp Dies in San Pedro
AP - Gilbert C. Van Camp, Sr., who came West on a fishing trip 65 years ago and stayed to build the Van Camp Seafood Co., is dead at age 90. Van Camp, chairman of the board of the company, died Friday at his home in San Pedro.
A native of Indianapolis, Van Camp persuaded his father, Frank Van Camp, to sell his canned pork and beans business in the East, and get into the tuna business in the West in 1914.
They bought an old tuna cannery and modernized it so thoroughly that Van Camp Seafood Co. became the world's largest tuna cannery.
The company eventually shifted the bulk of its operations to San Diego and in 1963 became a subsidiary of Ralston Purina. Van Camp is survived by his wife, Mary; his son, Gilbert, Jr. of Laguna Beach; a sister, Marguerite Van Camp Mayer of Indianapolis; four grandchildren and five great grandchildren. Funeral services will be held today in San Pedro.
____________________________________________________________
Long Beach Press Telegram, x 4 Jul 1961, Tuesday:
SAN BERNARDINO - Mrs. Ethel Van Camp of the seafood canning family died Monday night, apparently of a heart attack. She and her husband, Gilbert C. Van Camp Sr., board chairman of the Van Camp Seafood Co., came to their ranch in the Del Rosa area from near here last Thursday, intending to return today. The couple visited the ranch nearly every weekend. The San Bernardino Mortuary is handling arrangements. Neighbors said a doctor who was called to the ranch reported Mrs. Van Camp apparently suffered a heart attack. She and Van Camp had been married about a year. His first wife died in 1959.
____________________________________________________________
MILES WASHINGTON WHITLOW 1812 - 1885
Miles Washington Whitlow was born 17 Mar, 1812 on upper Big Shoals Creek, Cabel's District, Clarke Co., GA, son of Bolden and Mary Eliz. (Stewart) Whitlow. In Sept 1809, Bolden relocated from Union & Abbeville Dist., SC where he lived with his father, Nicholas Whitlow and brothers, Samuel, Jesse Nicholas, James Mosely and Thomas Whitlow.
Key events of Miles Whitlow's life:
* Miles Whitlow grew up in the frontier of Clarke and Walton Co., GA where he learned the trade of stonemason and brickmaker from his father.
* In 1820, he shows in his father's household in the US Census.
*By 1821, the family had moved to Bay Creek, Walton Co,, GA. Bolden Whitlow was instrumental in the formation of Bay Creek Baptist Church. He donated land for this purpose and the first few meetings were held in his barn. Miles Whitlow joined Bay Creek Baptist Church on a profession of faith in 1826.
* 1830: shows in household of Bolden Whitlow, Walton Co., GA.
* 1 Dec 1830, Miles W. Whitlow purchased from Benj. Jenkins, Cherokee Co., GA, DG J, p. 74.
* 1832: Miles Whitlow, poll, Walton Co. tax list.
* 1833: Miles Whitlow on Petit Jury list, Walton Co., GA.
* 1834: shows tax list, Walton Co.. GA.
* 1836: M.W. Whitlow svc GA Militia, Indian Wars.
* 1837: 2 Aug 1837, deed of Miles W. Whitlow of Walton Co., GA to John F. Goniker, Cherokee Co., GA, DB T, p. 213.
* 1836-7: Bolden Whitlow, all sons-in-law and father, Nicholas Whitlow moved to Walker Co., GA to land lot purchased by Nicholas Whitlow. 1832 Land Lottery shows Nicholas "Whitton", Cleveland's Dist., Habersham Co. GA drew Land Lot # 299, 7th Land District. The land became Cass Co., GA and is in present day Gordon Co., GA near Sonora, GA.
* 1838: Miles W. Whitlow from Geo. H Toadvine, Decatur Co., GA, DB I, p. 302-3.
* 1839-40: Nicholas Whitlow died in Walker Co., GA before 1840.
* 1839: Miles W. Whitlow from Nath'l Dunkin, Murray Co., GA DB G, p. 10.
* 1839: 21 Mar 1839, letter remaining at Monroe P.O. for Miles Whitlow.
* 1839: 23 Mar 1839, deed from M.W. Whitlow of Walton Co., GA to his cousin, James Stewart of Campbell Co., GA.
* 1839: 14 April, Miles W. Whitlow married Emaline Gholston, Hardeman Bapt Church, DeKalb Co., GA.
* 1839: 18 May, Miles W. Whitlow and b-i-l Wm I. Mathis wit. deed of Killis Barker to Sam'l Woods, Walker Co., GA, Miles Whitlow's future father-in-law.
* 1839: Nicholas Whitlow, grandfather of Miles W. Whitlow, died in Walker Co., GA and is buried in an unmarked grave in the Whitlow Family plot, now a part of Old Antioch Cemetery, Walker Co., GA.
* 1840: Miles Whitlow shows US Census, Walker Co., GA.
* 1840: dau. Eleanor Whitlow born. She mar. Wm A. Williamson 15 Dec 1862; died of breast cancer 1868. Bur. Center, AL.
* 1842: Miles Whitlow, acct # 55, Lafayette Store Journal.
* 1842: Miles Whitlow, 4 entries, blacksmith journal of Davis Fricks.
* 1842: son, John Gholston Whitlow, b. 17 May. He mar. Mary Ann Hall, dau. of Rev. Joseph Carwell & Lizzie (Ryder) Hall and moved to Parker Co., TX, Oct 1871.
* 1842: 3 Feb, M.W. Whitlow from Wm M. Autwell of Forsyth Co., GA.
* 1843: M.W. Whitlow to Sam'l H. Robins, Murray Co., GA, DB G, p. 10, 4 Jan 1843.
* 1844: dau. Martha Jane Whitlow born. Mar. Wm Holden Garrett and moved to Kennedale, Tarrant Co. TX, 1871.
* 1844: Miles W. Whitlow from Thos C. Smith, Cass Co. ,GA DB I, p. 32, 18 Jun 1844.
* 1844: Miles W. Whitlow to Moses Stroup, Cass Co., GA, DB I, p. 32, 21 Aug 1844.
* 1845: Nancy Jane Whitlow born. Mar Sanford Glen Williamson and lived Pollard's Bend & Centre, Cherokee Co., AL.
* 1846: Miles Whitlow's mother, Mary Eliz. (Stewart) Whitlow died. Bur. unmarked grave Old Antioch Cem. She dau. of James Stewart of Person Co., NC.
* 1846: Bolden Whitlow to Miles W. Whitlow, Land Lots 304, 306 & 307, 11th Dist.
* 1847: Albina Tabitha Whitlow born. Mar. Rev. Thos Wm Powell, lived Nashville, Berrien Co., GA. Letter of Rev. Powell relates how Miles Whitlow "shed tears of joy" when he asked for Allie Whitlow's hand in marriage.
* 1847: Emaline Gholston Whitlow died in childbirth w/ dau. Albina. Bur unmarked grave, Whitlow plot, Old Antioch Cem.
* 1848: Bolden Whitlow died 12 May 1848. Bur. unmarked grave, Whitlow plot, Old Antioch Cem.
* 1849: Miles Whitlow, brick mason, built the MAJ John Davis house, Kensington, GA. Ref: 1923 Walker County Messenger.
* 1850: Miles Whitlow, US Census; shows w/ 3 slaves inherited from B. Whitlow est. B. Whitlow's second wife, Mary Hamby, took one slave named Balaam to Carroll Co., AR. Former slave,Balaam Whitlow was interviewed in the 1930's WPA Writer's Project.
* 1851: M. Whitlow shows 1851 business tax list, Walker Co.
* 1853: Est. of Zachariah Gholston, DeKalb Co, GA, leaves prop & slave, Mariah w/ son, to M.W. Whitlow, heir of Emaline Gholston Whitlow. 1860 census shows Mariah Whitlow.
* 1854: M.W. Whitlow mar. Eliz. Allen Woods, 17 Dec 1854, Chattooga Co., GA.
* 1855: Miles Whitlow, 5 shares in Lawrenceville Female Academy.
* 1859: M. Whitlow, subscriber to Cherokee Landmark & Bapt. newspaper; 14 Oct 1859 issue.
* 1860: Miles Whitlow, US Census, Walker Co., GA.
* 1860: Miles Whitlow to Jesse Wallin; recorded destroyed deeds.
* 1862: M.W. Whitlow enumerated on 5 Mar Militia list.
* 1863: Jan-Feb, 3 children died of "bloody flux" over a one month period: George W., Ida and Jefferson Davis Whitlow. All bur. Whitlow plot, Old Antioch Cem.
* 1864: Cpl Miles Whitlow, Co. E, 6th GA Cav Bn, Confederate States of America.
* 1864: Miles Whitlow mentioned in 13 Sep 1864 ltr of Mary & Julia Davis, Walker Co., GA, "Mr. Whitlow slips in every once in a while" to deliver supplies and goods. This area was occupied by the enemy, at this time.
* 1866: Miles & John G. Whitlow, district revenue tax, 466 gallons, distilled spirits.
* 1867: Miles & J.G. Whitlow: Loyalty & Voter list signed.
* 1870: Miles Whitlow, US Census, Walker Co., GA.
* 1870: M.W. Whitlow wit. to bond of Archibald Bonds (b-i-l)Admstr est. of Jordan Bruce, 5 Dec 1870.
* 1878: M.W. Whitlow on Coulter Crossroads Store Ledger.
* 1880: Miles Whitlow, US Census, Walker Co., GA.
* 1881: Niece Sallie Shaw's letter mentions "Uncle Whitlow's health is not good ..."
* 1883: Deed M.W. Whitlow to Wm R. & John A. Woods, 19 Apr, LL # 254, 11th Sec, 4th Dist., brothers-in-law of Miles Whitlow.
* 1884: Letter from dau. Allie (Whitlow) Powell in Nashville, GA "Pa, can you not set your affairs to come for a short visit?"
* 1884: Deed Miles W. Whitlow to heirs of Andrew Walden, 11 Oct. 1884.
* 1884: Deed Miles W. Whitlow to Robt Daugherty, 11 Aug. 1884.
* 1885: Miles Washington Whitlow died 23 Aug 1885. Bur. Old Antioch Cem., Cedar Grove, Walker Co.., GA. Son, Miles Marcellus Whitlow, admstr. Distribution to: M.M. Whitlow, M.A. Garrett, Nanie Williamson, Albina Powell, John G. Whitlow, W.S. Williamson, s/o Eleanor (Whitlow) Williamson. Miles Whitlow owned land in Murray, Carroll, Cherokee, Douglas, Forsyth, Cobb, Harralson, Irwin and Decatur Co.s, GA.
* 1899: Walker County Messenger, x. 3-30-1899, "In memory of Mrs. Elizabeth Whitlow, nee' Woods, died in June 1898. She was happily married to Miles Whitlow." Eliz. Woods Whitlow bur. Old Antioch Cem. in the Whitlow family plot next to her husband Miles Washington Whitlow and her children.
____________________________________________________________
Note to Reader: the following letter was provided by a Whitlow cousin. It is included here because it explains a lot of Williamson relationships, and a few Whitlow connections, as well. The writer, Andrew Taylor Walden, was born 1869 in Walker Co., GA. For brevity's sake, only pertinent portions of the letter are included here:
"Thursday Night
November the 14th, 1946
4306 E. 14th Ave.
Chattanooga, Tenn
Dear Mary Jewel,
This is kind of personal information on this page. Glad to do what I have done for you. Oct. 1893, while at Vandale, Ark., I met and formed the acquaintance of James Williamson, a wealthy merchant of Vandale, Ark. - 62 years old - I met accidentally, it seems so anyway. I went in to his store to eat a snack. He asked where I was from. I told him I was from Walker Co., GA, 30 miles south of Chatt., Tenn. Well, his next question was "Did you ever know a family by the name of Williamson?" My answer, he said, was one of the greatest surprises of his life. He got up, shook hands with me, when I told him I was Allen Williamson's grandson. Well, he says, your name is Williamson. No, I say, my name is Walden. My mother was the 2nd child and oldest daughter of Allen Williamson. He said his father was born in N.C., came to Ark. when he was 20 years old, married, raised a family in Cherry Valley, Ark. and died in old age. I asked him if he had ever met any of the family before. He said I was the only one of the relations he ever met. My time was short to talk to him. He insisted that I visit him and spend some time in his home. He was 6 feet tall, weighed 220 lbs, sandy complexion, very brilliant and sociable. One brother was a Dr. in Harrisburg, Ark. The youngest brother, Hugh, was a member of the Ark. Legislature. As I was working 18 miles south of Vandale and aiming to come home soon, I never met him anymore, but the information he gave me was worth a lot to me. I told Dad about him. Dad said Granddaddy got letters from his brother, John, after him and Ma married. James told me his father was John Williamson, Sr. of N.C. and his only brother was Allen Williamson. So, this information is satisfactory to me.
Allen Williamson was the 2nd son and 7th child of John and Mary Williamson. He was born Buncombe Co., NC June 1810.
Granddaddy Allen married Mary Barnwell of Cobb Co. GA in his 18th year. To Allen and his wife were born seven children: James 1833, Emily July 1835, William Jan 1837, Sarah 1839, Glenn 1841, Abram 1843 and Nancy 1845. Their mother died and was buried at Marietta, GA, August 1845.
Granddaddy Allen, with his sister and seven motherless children moved and settled in the upper McLemore's Cove, Walker Co., GA, Nov 1847, where he came into possession of 320 acres of fine land on the Chickamauga Creek. He built a fine gristmill and sawmill soon after coming to the Cove - all run with water power. The Cove was thinly settled at that time but new settlers were moving in from NC, SC, Tenn. and other parts of GA. The county was settling fast.
Granddaddy was a local Methodist minister. While attending conference in Forsyth Co.. GA, he met and on a courtship, married his second wife, Mary Durham, Nov 1847. One child was born, Rebecca (Aunt Joe) 1848.
Uncle Glen, his wife and children, Aunt Sarah Neal, her children, Geo. and Tudy, Uncle Silas Neal, Aunt Joe and two grown daughters are bur. in Cedar Hill Cemetery.
Uncle Jim, I suppose, was buried on the battlefield in Ark. where he was killed.
Aunt Nancy, her family, Aunt Mary and sister Frank's nine month old baby girl, Myrtle Bishop are all bur. Lafayette Cemetery.
Grannie outlived Granddaddy from June 1872 to Feb 1880. As the property by his Will was her life time, it was sold the Fall of 1880. Uncle Glen was the executor. A. Andrews (Sandy) was the buyer.
Aunt Sara, her two children, Uncle Silas and his family moved to Alabama near Uncle Glen in Cherokee Co. (Ala.)
Uncle Foster and Aunt Nancy bought the Hammonds farm and gristmill, three miles south of Lafayette.
We (Jesse Walden's family) moved to Shinbone Valley near the old burned mill on Duck Creek, four miles west of Lafayette.
I was at Sarah's house about two hours in Ala. I didn't go to Uncle Glen's nor Aunt Joe's, as I had been gone some time and was anxious to get home to see Daddy, as he always was first and last in my life. I have always been glad of the love I had and the confidence I had in Daddy.
Mary Jewel, I have given you facts in this record allowing only for mistakes in dates, which I would be supposed to make. I hope you will appreciate the effort. Again, your Mother, being three years older than me, will be able to correct my dates, if they are wrong. As there has been some misunderstanding in regards to Allen Williamson's ancestors and his birth place, I will give you folks some information on the subject that I am sure you haven't got.
While I am wholly uneducated, make my grammar as I talk and write, I think people understand me pretty well, being as I am a natural genealogist, I have spent time looking up my ancestors on both sides of the house. I am glad I am the son of Jesse Walden and Emily Williamson - would not be anyone else.
Signed,
A.T. Walden
Marriages and Deaths:
James mar. Manda Robertson of Cobb Co., GA.
William's first wife was Ellen Whitlow of Walker Co., GA.
Glen's wife was Nannie Whitlow, sister to William's first wife.
Abraham died single during the Civil War. Died at home.
Emily (my Mother) mar. Jesse Walden, Oct. 25, 1855.
Sarah, mar. George Neal of Chattooga Co., GA 1859.
Nancy mar. three times: James Graham 1860, John Nevel 1864, he disappeared, W.A. Foster of Walker Co., GA 1872.
Rebecca (Aunt Joe) mar. Silas Neal of SC, 1868.
Granddaddy died at his home in the Cove June 1872.
Uncle Jim was killed in battle in the Rebel Army about 1863 in Ark.; his wife died shortly afterwards at their home in Adkins, Ark; Granddaddy brought their only child, Mollie, a little girl to his home where she died in childhood.
Uncle William's first wife, Ellen (Whitlow), died (of breast cancer), and was buried in Ala. near Center 1868.
Uncle William and his second wife died of old age at their home at Kennedale, Tex.
Uncle Glen, his wife (Nancy Whitlow) and children, Aunt Sarah, her two children and Uncle Silas all died at their homes near Center, Ala.
Aunt Joe (wife of Silas Neal, mentioned above) died at the home of her daughter, Mollie Whitlow, in Weatherford, Parker Co., Tex. (John Gholston Whitlow mar. as his second wife, Mollie Neal, 1894.)"
____________________________________________________________
The following is a news article about Miles Marcellus Whitlow, son of Miles Washington Whitlow, above (see photo of Miles Marcellus Whitlow.)
Atlanta Constitution, x 24 May 1891, p. 8:
A Wildcat Chase
LaFayette, Ga., May 22 (Special) - While Mr. M.M. Whitlow, of the Cove, was out a few days ago on the West side of Pigeon Mountain, in the McWhorter Gulf, turkey hunting, he saw a squirrel up a tree, and a catamount, a short-tailed wildcat, was after it. The squirrel took a flying leap to a nearby tree. The catamount backed down and started up the second tree, whereupon the squirrel lept back to the first. The amusing spectacle went on for some time. After a while, the catamount noticed Mr. Whitlow, standing about sixty yards away. When it appeared the cat would charge, Mr. Whitlow fired his shotgun in self defense. The gun was loaded with buckshot, the shot was fatal and the cat fell dead at his feet. When asked about the incident, Mr. Whitlow explained that he felt it his duty to protect the brave squirrel since he "wore Confederate gray."
____________________________________________________________
Mention of Miles W. Whitlow in a letter written by Mary and Julia Ann Davis of Walker County, Ga. to Susan Davis of Dahlonega, Ga:
"July 13th, 1864
Dear Aunt,
We are getting along as well as we could under existing circumstances. Have plenty of Yankees in this Cove yet and we have got rid of some of our Tory neighbors. The Yankees took some of them to Chattanooga to give an account of their behavior and it is said they are after the others but it is most too good to be true. They paid us a visit last week and took a few bushels of corn and we had a good quarrel and I told them good about their behavior. They were riding Mr. Patton's horses, two of them. Oh! How I wanted to kill some of them. Times are pretty hot in this quarter. It is reported that they had a little fight about ten miles below here yesterday and we whipped them pretty badly and captured a good many prisoners and I wish it had been the last of them. Mary commenced writing but I will finish. I received two letters from you a few days ago. One was wrote last Fall. You said something about the money you owed me. I have no use for money so don't trouble yourself about it. I can't use what I have. We have troublesome times here. The Yankees is still gathering men and carrying them to Chattanooga. Some come back while others go North. Mr. Beard just got back. They kept him two weeks. They carried Lem McWhorter by here with five mules and one horse and several other men I did not know. What few men there is in here live in perfect dread. Mr. Whitlow slips in every once in a while. Sophronia thinks John had better not come in here until after this fight is over. They commenced fighting at Shudsie's Shop and run them some way to Crawfish Spring, others to Worthen's Gap. I look for hot times in here again. I am much obliged to you for your invitation but I think we had better stay in here as long as we can. We have some Yankee friends we can buy parched coffee at 40 cents a pound, bacon at 12 1/2 cents a pound but we can't keep a horse that is able to work. If Johnson don't whip this fight, we are ruined in this country. Miz Howell is keeping school for us. Miz Johnson has a good school in Lafayette and Sophronia wants John to bring Georgia Anne home to go to school when he comes. They have taken some of the men that has taken a non-combatment oath and made them take the oath of allegiance. We are all getting along very well and I think John had better not come in here until after he sees a little further for he can't do us any good. You must excuse this writing but I have not time to finish as Mr. Whitlow is agoing out. Write often. Give my love to all and accept a large portion for yourself.
Julia"
Mr. Whitlow was Miles Washington Whitlow, subject of this sketch. One of the men who was taken to Chattanooga and never heard from was Avery Camp, brother-in-law of Miles Whitlow.
____________________________________________________________
Julia and Mary Davis were daughters of MAJ John Davis who escorted the Cherokee tribes from Georgia to Oklahoma on the "Trail of Tears" in 1836. The 1864 Davis letter was likely written in the house described below.
From a 1921 newspaper article in the Walker County Messenger:
"Liberty - Seventy four years ago Miles Whitlow burned the lime and made the brick and built the house for Major John Davis now owned by Doom Cornelison. The house and chimney were pulled down last week and in the old brick are plain pig and cat tracks made while the bricks were green."
____________________________________________________________
Chattanooga Times, x 20 May 1933, p.3:
"MILES M. WHITLOW
Miles M. Whitlow, 77, prominent farmer and pioneer resident died yesterday morning at his home in Kensington, Ga. He is survived by his widow, seven daughters, Mrs. C.F. Kaylor of Chattanooga; Mrs. Effie Davis, Mrs. H.B. Hankerson, and Miss Ethel Whitlow of Oklahoma City, Okla., Mrs. J.C. Wyatt of Cedartown, Ga., Mrs. C.K. Brooks of Chattanooga, and Mrs. Fay Evitt of Kensington, Ga.; two sons, J.R. Whitlow of Kensington, Ga., and M. Frank Whitlow of Wickenburg, Ariz.; twenty-three grandchildren and two great grandchildren. Funeral services will be held from the Antioch Church at 2 o'clock afternoon, Sunday. Active pallbearers will be the grandsons: Jack Wyatt, Harold Wyatt, Whitlow Wyatt, Franklin Whitlow, Murl Morgan and Herman Shaw. Internment will be at Antioch Cemetery."
Miles M. Whitlow sold his Walker Co., GA land about 1907 or so and moved to Wickenburg, Arizona Territory but moved back to Walker Co. a few years later.
His grandson Whitlow Wyatt pitched for the Brooklyn Dodgers and famously struck out Joe DiMaggio twice in the 1941 World Series, as this newspaper account details:
St. Petersburg Times
x7 Oct 1941
"Flatbush Heartbroken As Yanks Win World Series; Bombers Clinch Eighth Title Since 1927 With 3-1 Triumph Over Whitlow Wyatt
Ebbets Field, Brooklyn - (INS) Wyatt Whitlow struck out nine Yanks, scored the lone Dodger run after clouting a double, allowed only six hits and nearly got in a fist-fight with Joe DiMaggio - to the delight of a crowd whose ticket purchase pushed the gate for the five games to $1,007,762. But, nonetheless, it was a wild pitch by this eternally steady veteran which gave the Yanks their inch - which is all they ask for before taking a ballyard."
Miles Washington Whitlow is the great great great Uncle, through his sister, Elizabeth Agness Whitlow, who married Wm "Buck" Bailey, of the actor James Garner (nee' Bumgarner), star of film and TV (Maverick), and a veteran of the Korean War where he was awarded two Purple Hearts.
____________________________________________________________
Walker County Messenger, x 10 Feb 1881:
Captain Joel [Withers] passed through here Saturday. We don't like to see Sheriffs so far from home. They might be on business. When I heard someone wondering who he was after, I thought of an incident that occurred many years ago. I was in the woods with a negro, named Ed, when he saw three men coming toward us. I told him it was the Sheriff and his posse and that they must be after one of us, and as I had never done anything, it must be you they are after. He turned as white as possible for him to, and looked up and said: "I have done paid Mr. Bailey two dollars for his old sow, and Mr. Whitlow was to pay him the other two." When the Sheriff's posse rode past, leaving us unmolested, old Ed mumbled something about letting by-gones be, and went back to work with renewed vigor, having gotten a new lease on life." - The Editor.
Mr. Whitlow is Miles W. Whitlow and Mr. Bailey, his nephew, son of William "Buck" Bailey, who died in 1839.
____________________________________________________________
Walker County Messenger, x 27 Jan 1881:
"Uncle and Cousin: Squire Mr. James Bonds and Mr. W.B. Cumpton were all in town on Monday. The Squire is one of those lovable, genial, kind-hearted old men that it is a pleasure to meet. We believe if the right sort of widow would come along and ask him to go back to Eureka Springs, he would go. May Time lay its hand lightly on him."
Judge James Madison Bonds was the brother-in-law of Miles W. Whitlow. W.B. Cumpton was a relation to both, having married "the Widow Glenn", Eliza Camp Glenn, the daughter of Avery Camp who married Nancy Mae Whitlow, Miles Whitlow's sister.
Avery Camp was taken by the Yankees with force from his home in Walker Co. to the Chattanooga depot where he was interrogated. His answers and attitude being quite unsatisfactory to his interlocutors, he was to be put on a train bound for Camp Douglas, IL, but died before embarking. One family story has Mr. Camp burying a sack full of gold coins on the back of his property, while family members delayed entry of the Yankees into his house.
The Widow Glenn had the misfortune to find her log cabin in the middle of the Battle of Chickamauga in 1863. Her home was occupied as the headquarters of Gen. Rosecrans, the Union commander. His interrogation of her was written about in New York newspapers. She refused to cooperate. On one occasion, a captured Confederate officer was brought to the cabin to be questioned. He also refused to cooperate, telling the invading army's commander that "it has cost me a considerable amount of trouble to find your lines, General. If you put yourself to the same trouble, you will find ours."
The Widow Glenn stayed at her cabin during the battle, stubbornly refusing to leave, until a Confederate artillery shell struck it, at which point, she grabbed a duffle she had packed, ordered her slave John to her wagon, and left with her children, seeking safety with relatives in McLemore's Cove.
The Widow Glenn's cabin is a marked point of interest at Chickamauga Battlefield National Park.
____________________________________________________________
Miles Whitlow's grand daughter:
The San Bernardino Daily Sun, x 8 Jul 1961
Industrial's Wife Dies at Family Ranch
Mrs. Ethel Whitlow Van Camp, 70, wife of Gilbert Van Camp, Chairman of the Board of the 50 year old seafood company, died of a heart attack while vacationing with her husband at the family ranch near San Bernardino, it was reported Tuesday.
Married less than a year, the former San Franciscan and her husband spent each weekend at their ranch in the mountain foothills. The family residence is in San Pedro at 1006 Dodson Ave. Mr. and Mrs. Van Camp had arrived at the ranch last Thursday planning to return to San Pedro Tuesday. She died Monday.
Mrs. Van Camp also leaves three sisters, Mrs. Faye Evitt and Mrs. Mary Hankinson, both of San Francisco, and Mrs. Virgie Brooks of Chattanooga. Funeral arrangements are pending at the Mark Shaw Mortuary in San Bernardino.
____________________________________________________________
Independent Press Telegram, x 10 Sept 1978, Sunday:
Gilbert Van Camp Dies in San Pedro
AP - Gilbert C. Van Camp, Sr., who came West on a fishing trip 65 years ago and stayed to build the Van Camp Seafood Co., is dead at age 90. Van Camp, chairman of the board of the company, died Friday at his home in San Pedro.
A native of Indianapolis, Van Camp persuaded his father, Frank Van Camp, to sell his canned pork and beans business in the East, and get into the tuna business in the West in 1914.
They bought an old tuna cannery and modernized it so thoroughly that Van Camp Seafood Co. became the world's largest tuna cannery.
The company eventually shifted the bulk of its operations to San Diego and in 1963 became a subsidiary of Ralston Purina. Van Camp is survived by his wife, Mary; his son, Gilbert, Jr. of Laguna Beach; a sister, Marguerite Van Camp Mayer of Indianapolis; four grandchildren and five great grandchildren. Funeral services will be held today in San Pedro.
____________________________________________________________
Long Beach Press Telegram, x 4 Jul 1961, Tuesday:
SAN BERNARDINO - Mrs. Ethel Van Camp of the seafood canning family died Monday night, apparently of a heart attack. She and her husband, Gilbert C. Van Camp Sr., board chairman of the Van Camp Seafood Co., came to their ranch in the Del Rosa area from near here last Thursday, intending to return today. The couple visited the ranch nearly every weekend. The San Bernardino Mortuary is handling arrangements. Neighbors said a doctor who was called to the ranch reported Mrs. Van Camp apparently suffered a heart attack. She and Van Camp had been married about a year. His first wife died in 1959.
____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
MILES WASHINGTON WHITLOW 1812 - 1885
Miles Washington Whitlow was born 17 Mar, 1812 on upper Big Shoals Creek, Cabel's District, Clarke Co., GA, son of Bolden and Mary Eliz. (Stewart) Whitlow. In Sept 1809, Bolden relocated from Union & Abbeville Dist., SC where he lived with his father, Nicholas Whitlow and brothers, Samuel, Jesse Nicholas, James Mosely and Thomas Whitlow.
Key events of Miles Whitlow's life:
* Miles Whitlow grew up in the frontier of Clarke and Walton Co., GA where he learned the trade of stonemason and brickmaker from his father.
* In 1820, he shows in his father's household in the US Census.
*By 1821, the family had moved to Bay Creek, Walton Co,, GA. Bolden Whitlow was instrumental in the formation of Bay Creek Baptist Church. He donated land for this purpose and the first few meetings were held in his barn. Miles Whitlow joined Bay Creek Baptist Church on a profession of faith in 1826.
* 1830: shows in household of Bolden Whitlow, Walton Co., GA.
* 1 Dec 1830, Miles W. Whitlow purchased from Benj. Jenkins, Cherokee Co., GA, DG J, p. 74.
* 1832: Miles Whitlow, poll, Walton Co. tax list.
* 1833: Miles Whitlow on Petit Jury list, Walton Co., GA.
* 1834: shows tax list, Walton Co.. GA.
* 1836: M.W. Whitlow svc GA Militia, Indian Wars.
* 1837: 2 Aug 1837, deed of Miles W. Whitlow of Walton Co., GA to John F. Goniker, Cherokee Co., GA, DB T, p. 213.
* 1836-7: Bolden Whitlow, all sons-in-law and father, Nicholas Whitlow moved to Walker Co., GA to land lot purchased by Nicholas Whitlow. 1832 Land Lottery shows Nicholas "Whitton", Cleveland's Dist., Habersham Co. GA drew Land Lot # 299, 7th Land District. The land became Cass Co., GA and is in present day Gordon Co., GA near Sonora, GA.
* 1838: Miles W. Whitlow from Geo. H Toadvine, Decatur Co., GA, DB I, p. 302-3.
* 1839-40: Nicholas Whitlow died in Walker Co., GA before 1840.
* 1839: Miles W. Whitlow from Nath'l Dunkin, Murray Co., GA DB G, p. 10.
* 1839: 21 Mar 1839, letter remaining at Monroe P.O. for Miles Whitlow.
* 1839: 23 Mar 1839, deed from M.W. Whitlow of Walton Co., GA to his cousin, James Stewart of Campbell Co., GA.
* 1839: 14 April, Miles W. Whitlow married Emaline Gholston, Hardeman Bapt Church, DeKalb Co., GA.
* 1839: 18 May, Miles W. Whitlow and b-i-l Wm I. Mathis wit. deed of Killis Barker to Sam'l Woods, Walker Co., GA, Miles Whitlow's future father-in-law.
* 1839: Nicholas Whitlow, grandfather of Miles W. Whitlow, died in Walker Co., GA and is buried in an unmarked grave in the Whitlow Family plot, now a part of Old Antioch Cemetery, Walker Co., GA.
* 1840: Miles Whitlow shows US Census, Walker Co., GA.
* 1840: dau. Eleanor Whitlow born. She mar. Wm A. Williamson 15 Dec 1862; died of breast cancer 1868. Bur. Center, AL.
* 1842: Miles Whitlow, acct # 55, Lafayette Store Journal.
* 1842: Miles Whitlow, 4 entries, blacksmith journal of Davis Fricks.
* 1842: son, John Gholston Whitlow, b. 17 May. He mar. Mary Ann Hall, dau. of Rev. Joseph Carwell & Lizzie (Ryder) Hall and moved to Parker Co., TX, Oct 1871.
* 1842: 3 Feb, M.W. Whitlow from Wm M. Autwell of Forsyth Co., GA.
* 1843: M.W. Whitlow to Sam'l H. Robins, Murray Co., GA, DB G, p. 10, 4 Jan 1843.
* 1844: dau. Martha Jane Whitlow born. Mar. Wm Holden Garrett and moved to Kennedale, Tarrant Co. TX, 1871.
* 1844: Miles W. Whitlow from Thos C. Smith, Cass Co. ,GA DB I, p. 32, 18 Jun 1844.
* 1844: Miles W. Whitlow to Moses Stroup, Cass Co., GA, DB I, p. 32, 21 Aug 1844.
* 1845: Nancy Jane Whitlow born. Mar Sanford Glen Williamson and lived Pollard's Bend & Centre, Cherokee Co., AL.
* 1846: Miles Whitlow's mother, Mary Eliz. (Stewart) Whitlow died. Bur. unmarked grave Old Antioch Cem. She dau. of James Stewart of Person Co., NC.
* 1846: Bolden Whitlow to Miles W. Whitlow, Land Lots 304, 306 & 307, 11th Dist.
* 1847: Albina Tabitha Whitlow born. Mar. Rev. Thos Wm Powell, lived Nashville, Berrien Co., GA. Letter of Rev. Powell relates how Miles Whitlow "shed tears of joy" when he asked for Allie Whitlow's hand in marriage.
* 1847: Emaline Gholston Whitlow died in childbirth w/ dau. Albina. Bur unmarked grave, Whitlow plot, Old Antioch Cem.
* 1848: Bolden Whitlow died 12 May 1848. Bur. unmarked grave, Whitlow plot, Old Antioch Cem.
* 1849: Miles Whitlow, brick mason, built the MAJ John Davis house, Kensington, GA. Ref: 1923 Walker County Messenger.
* 1850: Miles Whitlow, US Census; shows w/ 3 slaves inherited from B. Whitlow est. B. Whitlow's second wife, Mary Hamby, took one slave named Balaam to Carroll Co., AR. Former slave,Balaam Whitlow was interviewed in the 1930's WPA Writer's Project.
* 1851: M. Whitlow shows 1851 business tax list, Walker Co.
* 1853: Est. of Zachariah Gholston, DeKalb Co, GA, leaves prop & slave, Mariah w/ son, to M.W. Whitlow, heir of Emaline Gholston Whitlow. 1860 census shows Mariah Whitlow.
* 1854: M.W. Whitlow mar. Eliz. Allen Woods, 17 Dec 1854, Chattooga Co., GA.
* 1855: Miles Whitlow, 5 shares in Lawrenceville Female Academy.
* 1859: M. Whitlow, subscriber to Cherokee Landmark & Bapt. newspaper; 14 Oct 1859 issue.
* 1860: Miles Whitlow, US Census, Walker Co., GA.
* 1860: Miles Whitlow to Jesse Wallin; recorded destroyed deeds.
* 1862: M.W. Whitlow enumerated on 5 Mar Militia list.
* 1863: Jan-Feb, 3 children died of "bloody flux" over a one month period: George W., Ida and Jefferson Davis Whitlow. All bur. Whitlow plot, Old Antioch Cem.
* 1864: Cpl Miles Whitlow, Co. E, 6th GA Cav Bn, Confederate States of America.
* 1864: Miles Whitlow mentioned in 13 Sep 1864 ltr of Mary & Julia Davis, Walker Co., GA, "Mr. Whitlow slips in every once in a while" to deliver supplies and goods. This area was occupied by the enemy, at this time.
* 1866: Miles & John G. Whitlow, district revenue tax, 466 gallons, distilled spirits.
* 1867: Miles & J.G. Whitlow: Loyalty & Voter list signed.
* 1870: Miles Whitlow, US Census, Walker Co., GA.
* 1870: M.W. Whitlow wit. to bond of Archibald Bonds (b-i-l)Admstr est. of Jordan Bruce, 5 Dec 1870.
* 1878: M.W. Whitlow on Coulter Crossroads Store Ledger.
* 1880: Miles Whitlow, US Census, Walker Co., GA.
* 1881: Niece Sallie Shaw's letter mentions "Uncle Whitlow's health is not good ..."
* 1883: Deed M.W. Whitlow to Wm R. & John A. Woods, 19 Apr, LL # 254, 11th Sec, 4th Dist., brothers-in-law of Miles Whitlow.
* 1884: Letter from dau. Allie (Whitlow) Powell in Nashville, GA "Pa, can you not set your affairs to come for a short visit?"
* 1884: Deed Miles W. Whitlow to heirs of Andrew Walden, 11 Oct. 1884.
* 1884: Deed Miles W. Whitlow to Robt Daugherty, 11 Aug. 1884.
* 1885: Miles Washington Whitlow died 23 Aug 1885. Bur. Old Antioch Cem., Cedar Grove, Walker Co.., GA. Son, Miles Marcellus Whitlow, admstr. Distribution to: M.M. Whitlow, M.A. Garrett, Nanie Williamson, Albina Powell, John G. Whitlow, W.S. Williamson, s/o Eleanor (Whitlow) Williamson. Miles Whitlow owned land in Murray, Carroll, Cherokee, Douglas, Forsyth, Cobb, Harralson, Irwin and Decatur Co.s, GA.
* 1899: Walker County Messenger, x. 3-30-1899, "In memory of Mrs. Elizabeth Whitlow, nee' Woods, died in June 1898. She was happily married to Miles Whitlow." Eliz. Woods Whitlow bur. Old Antioch Cem. in the Whitlow family plot next to her husband Miles Washington Whitlow and her children.
____________________________________________________________
Note to Reader: the following letter was provided by a Whitlow cousin. It is included here because it explains a lot of Williamson relationships, and a few Whitlow connections, as well. The writer, Andrew Taylor Walden, was born 1869 in Walker Co., GA. For brevity's sake, only pertinent portions of the letter are included here:
"Thursday Night
November the 14th, 1946
4306 E. 14th Ave.
Chattanooga, Tenn
Dear Mary Jewel,
This is kind of personal information on this page. Glad to do what I have done for you. Oct. 1893, while at Vandale, Ark., I met and formed the acquaintance of James Williamson, a wealthy merchant of Vandale, Ark. - 62 years old - I met accidentally, it seems so anyway. I went in to his store to eat a snack. He asked where I was from. I told him I was from Walker Co., GA, 30 miles south of Chatt., Tenn. Well, his next question was "Did you ever know a family by the name of Williamson?" My answer, he said, was one of the greatest surprises of his life. He got up, shook hands with me, when I told him I was Allen Williamson's grandson. Well, he says, your name is Williamson. No, I say, my name is Walden. My mother was the 2nd child and oldest daughter of Allen Williamson. He said his father was born in N.C., came to Ark. when he was 20 years old, married, raised a family in Cherry Valley, Ark. and died in old age. I asked him if he had ever met any of the family before. He said I was the only one of the relations he ever met. My time was short to talk to him. He insisted that I visit him and spend some time in his home. He was 6 feet tall, weighed 220 lbs, sandy complexion, very brilliant and sociable. One brother was a Dr. in Harrisburg, Ark. The youngest brother, Hugh, was a member of the Ark. Legislature. As I was working 18 miles south of Vandale and aiming to come home soon, I never met him anymore, but the information he gave me was worth a lot to me. I told Dad about him. Dad said Granddaddy got letters from his brother, John, after him and Ma married. James told me his father was John Williamson, Sr. of N.C. and his only brother was Allen Williamson. So, this information is satisfactory to me.
Allen Williamson was the 2nd son and 7th child of John and Mary Williamson. He was born Buncombe Co., NC June 1810.
Granddaddy Allen married Mary Barnwell of Cobb Co. GA in his 18th year. To Allen and his wife were born seven children: James 1833, Emily July 1835, William Jan 1837, Sarah 1839, Glenn 1841, Abram 1843 and Nancy 1845. Their mother died and was buried at Marietta, GA, August 1845.
Granddaddy Allen, with his sister and seven motherless children moved and settled in the upper McLemore's Cove, Walker Co., GA, Nov 1847, where he came into possession of 320 acres of fine land on the Chickamauga Creek. He built a fine gristmill and sawmill soon after coming to the Cove - all run with water power. The Cove was thinly settled at that time but new settlers were moving in from NC, SC, Tenn. and other parts of GA. The county was settling fast.
Granddaddy was a local Methodist minister. While attending conference in Forsyth Co.. GA, he met and on a courtship, married his second wife, Mary Durham, Nov 1847. One child was born, Rebecca (Aunt Joe) 1848.
Uncle Glen, his wife and children, Aunt Sarah Neal, her children, Geo. and Tudy, Uncle Silas Neal, Aunt Joe and two grown daughters are bur. in Cedar Hill Cemetery.
Uncle Jim, I suppose, was buried on the battlefield in Ark. where he was killed.
Aunt Nancy, her family, Aunt Mary and sister Frank's nine month old baby girl, Myrtle Bishop are all bur. Lafayette Cemetery.
Grannie outlived Granddaddy from June 1872 to Feb 1880. As the property by his Will was her life time, it was sold the Fall of 1880. Uncle Glen was the executor. A. Andrews (Sandy) was the buyer.
Aunt Sara, her two children, Uncle Silas and his family moved to Alabama near Uncle Glen in Cherokee Co. (Ala.)
Uncle Foster and Aunt Nancy bought the Hammonds farm and gristmill, three miles south of Lafayette.
We (Jesse Walden's family) moved to Shinbone Valley near the old burned mill on Duck Creek, four miles west of Lafayette.
I was at Sarah's house about two hours in Ala. I didn't go to Uncle Glen's nor Aunt Joe's, as I had been gone some time and was anxious to get home to see Daddy, as he always was first and last in my life. I have always been glad of the love I had and the confidence I had in Daddy.
Mary Jewel, I have given you facts in this record allowing only for mistakes in dates, which I would be supposed to make. I hope you will appreciate the effort. Again, your Mother, being three years older than me, will be able to correct my dates, if they are wrong. As there has been some misunderstanding in regards to Allen Williamson's ancestors and his birth place, I will give you folks some information on the subject that I am sure you haven't got.
While I am wholly uneducated, make my grammar as I talk and write, I think people understand me pretty well, being as I am a natural genealogist, I have spent time looking up my ancestors on both sides of the house. I am glad I am the son of Jesse Walden and Emily Williamson - would not be anyone else.
Signed,
A.T. Walden
Marriages and Deaths:
James mar. Manda Robertson of Cobb Co., GA.
William's first wife was Ellen Whitlow of Walker Co., GA.
Glen's wife was Nannie Whitlow, sister to William's first wife.
Abraham died single during the Civil War. Died at home.
Emily (my Mother) mar. Jesse Walden, Oct. 25, 1855.
Sarah, mar. George Neal of Chattooga Co., GA 1859.
Nancy mar. three times: James Graham 1860, John Nevel 1864, he disappeared, W.A. Foster of Walker Co., GA 1872.
Rebecca (Aunt Joe) mar. Silas Neal of SC, 1868.
Granddaddy died at his home in the Cove June 1872.
Uncle Jim was killed in battle in the Rebel Army about 1863 in Ark.; his wife died shortly afterwards at their home in Adkins, Ark; Granddaddy brought their only child, Mollie, a little girl to his home where she died in childhood.
Uncle William's first wife, Ellen (Whitlow), died (of breast cancer), and was buried in Ala. near Center 1868.
Uncle William and his second wife died of old age at their home at Kennedale, Tex.
Uncle Glen, his wife (Nancy Whitlow) and children, Aunt Sarah, her two children and Uncle Silas all died at their homes near Center, Ala.
Aunt Joe (wife of Silas Neal, mentioned above) died at the home of her daughter, Mollie Whitlow, in Weatherford, Parker Co., Tex. (John Gholston Whitlow mar. as his second wife, Mollie Neal, 1894.)"
____________________________________________________________
The following is a news article about Miles Marcellus Whitlow, son of Miles Washington Whitlow, above (see photo of Miles Marcellus Whitlow.)
Atlanta Constitution, x 24 May 1891, p. 8:
A Wildcat Chase
LaFayette, Ga., May 22 (Special) - While Mr. M.M. Whitlow, of the Cove, was out a few days ago on the West side of Pigeon Mountain, in the McWhorter Gulf, turkey hunting, he saw a squirrel up a tree, and a catamount, a short-tailed wildcat, was after it. The squirrel took a flying leap to a nearby tree. The catamount backed down and started up the second tree, whereupon the squirrel lept back to the first. The amusing spectacle went on for some time. After a while, the catamount noticed Mr. Whitlow, standing about sixty yards away. When it appeared the cat would charge, Mr. Whitlow fired his shotgun in self defense. The gun was loaded with buckshot, the shot was fatal and the cat fell dead at his feet. When asked about the incident, Mr. Whitlow explained that he felt it his duty to protect the brave squirrel since he "wore Confederate gray."
____________________________________________________________
Mention of Miles W. Whitlow in a letter written by Mary and Julia Ann Davis of Walker County, Ga. to Susan Davis of Dahlonega, Ga:
"July 13th, 1864
Dear Aunt,
We are getting along as well as we could under existing circumstances. Have plenty of Yankees in this Cove yet and we have got rid of some of our Tory neighbors. The Yankees took some of them to Chattanooga to give an account of their behavior and it is said they are after the others but it is most too good to be true. They paid us a visit last week and took a few bushels of corn and we had a good quarrel and I told them good about their behavior. They were riding Mr. Patton's horses, two of them. Oh! How I wanted to kill some of them. Times are pretty hot in this quarter. It is reported that they had a little fight about ten miles below here yesterday and we whipped them pretty badly and captured a good many prisoners and I wish it had been the last of them. Mary commenced writing but I will finish. I received two letters from you a few days ago. One was wrote last Fall. You said something about the money you owed me. I have no use for money so don't trouble yourself about it. I can't use what I have. We have troublesome times here. The Yankees is still gathering men and carrying them to Chattanooga. Some come back while others go North. Mr. Beard just got back. They kept him two weeks. They carried Lem McWhorter by here with five mules and one horse and several other men I did not know. What few men there is in here live in perfect dread. Mr. Whitlow slips in every once in a while. Sophronia thinks John had better not come in here until after this fight is over. They commenced fighting at Shudsie's Shop and run them some way to Crawfish Spring, others to Worthen's Gap. I look for hot times in here again. I am much obliged to you for your invitation but I think we had better stay in here as long as we can. We have some Yankee friends we can buy parched coffee at 40 cents a pound, bacon at 12 1/2 cents a pound but we can't keep a horse that is able to work. If Johnson don't whip this fight, we are ruined in this country. Miz Howell is keeping school for us. Miz Johnson has a good school in Lafayette and Sophronia wants John to bring Georgia Anne home to go to school when he comes. They have taken some of the men that has taken a non-combatment oath and made them take the oath of allegiance. We are all getting along very well and I think John had better not come in here until after he sees a little further for he can't do us any good. You must excuse this writing but I have not time to finish as Mr. Whitlow is agoing out. Write often. Give my love to all and accept a large portion for yourself.
Julia"
Mr. Whitlow was Miles Washington Whitlow, subject of this sketch. One of the men who was taken to Chattanooga and never heard from was Avery Camp, brother-in-law of Miles Whitlow.
____________________________________________________________
Julia and Mary Davis were daughters of MAJ John Davis who escorted the Cherokee tribes from Georgia to Oklahoma on the "Trail of Tears" in 1836. The 1864 Davis letter was likely written in the house described below.
From a 1921 newspaper article in the Walker County Messenger:
"Liberty - Seventy four years ago Miles Whitlow burned the lime and made the brick and built the house for Major John Davis now owned by Doom Cornelison. The house and chimney were pulled down last week and in the old brick are plain pig and cat tracks made while the bricks were green."
____________________________________________________________
Chattanooga Times, x 20 May 1933, p.3:
"MILES M. WHITLOW
Miles M. Whitlow, 77, prominent farmer and pioneer resident died yesterday morning at his home in Kensington, Ga. He is survived by his widow, seven daughters, Mrs. C.F. Kaylor of Chattanooga; Mrs. Effie Davis, Mrs. H.B. Hankerson, and Miss Ethel Whitlow of Oklahoma City, Okla., Mrs. J.C. Wyatt of Cedartown, Ga., Mrs. C.K. Brooks of Chattanooga, and Mrs. Fay Evitt of Kensington, Ga.; two sons, J.R. Whitlow of Kensington, Ga., and M. Frank Whitlow of Wickenburg, Ariz.; twenty-three grandchildren and two great grandchildren. Funeral services will be held from the Antioch Church at 2 o'clock afternoon, Sunday. Active pallbearers will be the grandsons: Jack Wyatt, Harold Wyatt, Whitlow Wyatt, Franklin Whitlow, Murl Morgan and Herman Shaw. Internment will be at Antioch Cemetery."
Miles M. Whitlow sold his Walker Co., GA land about 1907 or so and moved to Wickenburg, Arizona Territory but moved back to Walker Co. a few years later.
His grandson Whitlow Wyatt pitched for the Brooklyn Dodgers and famously struck out Joe DiMaggio twice in the 1941 World Series, as this newspaper account details:
St. Petersburg Times
x7 Oct 1941
"Flatbush Heartbroken As Yanks Win World Series; Bombers Clinch Eighth Title Since 1927 With 3-1 Triumph Over Whitlow Wyatt
Ebbets Field, Brooklyn - (INS) Wyatt Whitlow struck out nine Yanks, scored the lone Dodger run after clouting a double, allowed only six hits and nearly got in a fist-fight with Joe DiMaggio - to the delight of a crowd whose ticket purchase pushed the gate for the five games to $1,007,762. But, nonetheless, it was a wild pitch by this eternally steady veteran which gave the Yanks their inch - which is all they ask for before taking a ballyard."
Miles Washington Whitlow is the great great great Uncle, through his sister, Elizabeth Agness Whitlow, who married Wm "Buck" Bailey, of the actor James Garner (nee' Bumgarner), star of film and TV (Maverick), and a veteran of the Korean War where he was awarded two Purple Hearts.
____________________________________________________________
Walker County Messenger, x 10 Feb 1881:
Captain Joel [Withers] passed through here Saturday. We don't like to see Sheriffs so far from home. They might be on business. When I heard someone wondering who he was after, I thought of an incident that occurred many years ago. I was in the woods with a negro, named Ed, when he saw three men coming toward us. I told him it was the Sheriff and his posse and that they must be after one of us, and as I had never done anything, it must be you they are after. He turned as white as possible for him to, and looked up and said: "I have done paid Mr. Bailey two dollars for his old sow, and Mr. Whitlow was to pay him the other two." When the Sheriff's posse rode past, leaving us unmolested, old Ed mumbled something about letting by-gones be, and went back to work with renewed vigor, having gotten a new lease on life." - The Editor.
Mr. Whitlow is Miles W. Whitlow and Mr. Bailey, his nephew, son of William "Buck" Bailey, who died in 1839.
____________________________________________________________
Walker County Messenger, x 27 Jan 1881:
"Uncle and Cousin: Squire Mr. James Bonds and Mr. W.B. Cumpton were all in town on Monday. The Squire is one of those lovable, genial, kind-hearted old men that it is a pleasure to meet. We believe if the right sort of widow would come along and ask him to go back to Eureka Springs, he would go. May Time lay its hand lightly on him."
Judge James Madison Bonds was the brother-in-law of Miles W. Whitlow. W.B. Cumpton was a relation to both, having married "the Widow Glenn", Eliza Camp Glenn, the daughter of Avery Camp who married Nancy Mae Whitlow, Miles Whitlow's sister.
Avery Camp was taken by the Yankees with force from his home in Walker Co. to the Chattanooga depot where he was interrogated. His answers and attitude being quite unsatisfactory to his interlocutors, he was to be put on a train bound for Camp Douglas, IL, but died before embarking. One family story has Mr. Camp burying a sack full of gold coins on the back of his property, while family members delayed entry of the Yankees into his house.
The Widow Glenn had the misfortune to find her log cabin in the middle of the Battle of Chickamauga in 1863. Her home was occupied as the headquarters of Gen. Rosecrans, the Union commander. His interrogation of her was written about in New York newspapers. She refused to cooperate. On one occasion, a captured Confederate officer was brought to the cabin to be questioned. He also refused to cooperate, telling the invading army's commander that "it has cost me a considerable amount of trouble to find your lines, General. If you put yourself to the same trouble, you will find ours."
The Widow Glenn stayed at her cabin during the battle, stubbornly refusing to leave, until a Confederate artillery shell struck it, at which point, she grabbed a duffle she had packed, ordered her slave John to her wagon, and left with her children, seeking safety with relatives in McLemore's Cove.
The Widow Glenn's cabin is a marked point of interest at Chickamauga Battlefield National Park.
____________________________________________________________
Miles Whitlow's grand daughter:
The San Bernardino Daily Sun, x 8 Jul 1961
Industrial's Wife Dies at Family Ranch
Mrs. Ethel Whitlow Van Camp, 70, wife of Gilbert Van Camp, Chairman of the Board of the 50 year old seafood company, died of a heart attack while vacationing with her husband at the family ranch near San Bernardino, it was reported Tuesday.
Married less than a year, the former San Franciscan and her husband spent each weekend at their ranch in the mountain foothills. The family residence is in San Pedro at 1006 Dodson Ave. Mr. and Mrs. Van Camp had arrived at the ranch last Thursday planning to return to San Pedro Tuesday. She died Monday.
Mrs. Van Camp also leaves three sisters, Mrs. Faye Evitt and Mrs. Mary Hankinson, both of San Francisco, and Mrs. Virgie Brooks of Chattanooga. Funeral arrangements are pending at the Mark Shaw Mortuary in San Bernardino.
____________________________________________________________
Independent Press Telegram, x 10 Sept 1978, Sunday:
Gilbert Van Camp Dies in San Pedro
AP - Gilbert C. Van Camp, Sr., who came West on a fishing trip 65 years ago and stayed to build the Van Camp Seafood Co., is dead at age 90. Van Camp, chairman of the board of the company, died Friday at his home in San Pedro.
A native of Indianapolis, Van Camp persuaded his father, Frank Van Camp, to sell his canned pork and beans business in the East, and get into the tuna business in the West in 1914.
They bought an old tuna cannery and modernized it so thoroughly that Van Camp Seafood Co. became the world's largest tuna cannery.
The company eventually shifted the bulk of its operations to San Diego and in 1963 became a subsidiary of Ralston Purina. Van Camp is survived by his wife, Mary; his son, Gilbert, Jr. of Laguna Beach; a sister, Marguerite Van Camp Mayer of Indianapolis; four grandchildren and five great grandchildren. Funeral services will be held today in San Pedro.
____________________________________________________________
Long Beach Press Telegram, x 4 Jul 1961, Tuesday:
SAN BERNARDINO - Mrs. Ethel Van Camp of the seafood canning family died Monday night, apparently of a heart attack. She and her husband, Gilbert C. Van Camp Sr., board chairman of the Van Camp Seafood Co., came to their ranch in the Del Rosa area from near here last Thursday, intending to return today. The couple visited the ranch nearly every weekend. The San Bernardino Mortuary is handling arrangements. Neighbors said a doctor who was called to the ranch reported Mrs. Van Camp apparently suffered a heart attack. She and Van Camp had been married about a year. His first wife died in 1959.
____________________________________________________________
MILES WASHINGTON WHITLOW 1812 - 1885
Miles Washington Whitlow was born 17 Mar, 1812 on upper Big Shoals Creek, Cabel's District, Clarke Co., GA, son of Bolden and Mary Eliz. (Stewart) Whitlow. In Sept 1809, Bolden relocated from Union & Abbeville Dist., SC where he lived with his father, Nicholas Whitlow and brothers, Samuel, Jesse Nicholas, James Mosely and Thomas Whitlow.
Key events of Miles Whitlow's life:
* Miles Whitlow grew up in the frontier of Clarke and Walton Co., GA where he learned the trade of stonemason and brickmaker from his father.
* In 1820, he shows in his father's household in the US Census.
*By 1821, the family had moved to Bay Creek, Walton Co,, GA. Bolden Whitlow was instrumental in the formation of Bay Creek Baptist Church. He donated land for this purpose and the first few meetings were held in his barn. Miles Whitlow joined Bay Creek Baptist Church on a profession of faith in 1826.
* 1830: shows in household of Bolden Whitlow, Walton Co., GA.
* 1 Dec 1830, Miles W. Whitlow purchased from Benj. Jenkins, Cherokee Co., GA, DG J, p. 74.
* 1832: Miles Whitlow, poll, Walton Co. tax list.
* 1833: Miles Whitlow on Petit Jury list, Walton Co., GA.
* 1834: shows tax list, Walton Co.. GA.
* 1836: M.W. Whitlow svc GA Militia, Indian Wars.
* 1837: 2 Aug 1837, deed of Miles W. Whitlow of Walton Co., GA to John F. Goniker, Cherokee Co., GA, DB T, p. 213.
* 1836-7: Bolden Whitlow, all sons-in-law and father, Nicholas Whitlow moved to Walker Co., GA to land lot purchased by Nicholas Whitlow. 1832 Land Lottery shows Nicholas "Whitton", Cleveland's Dist., Habersham Co. GA drew Land Lot # 299, 7th Land District. The land became Cass Co., GA and is in present day Gordon Co., GA near Sonora, GA.
* 1838: Miles W. Whitlow from Geo. H Toadvine, Decatur Co., GA, DB I, p. 302-3.
* 1839-40: Nicholas Whitlow died in Walker Co., GA before 1840.
* 1839: Miles W. Whitlow from Nath'l Dunkin, Murray Co., GA DB G, p. 10.
* 1839: 21 Mar 1839, letter remaining at Monroe P.O. for Miles Whitlow.
* 1839: 23 Mar 1839, deed from M.W. Whitlow of Walton Co., GA to his cousin, James Stewart of Campbell Co., GA.
* 1839: 14 April, Miles W. Whitlow married Emaline Gholston, Hardeman Bapt Church, DeKalb Co., GA.
* 1839: 18 May, Miles W. Whitlow and b-i-l Wm I. Mathis wit. deed of Killis Barker to Sam'l Woods, Walker Co., GA, Miles Whitlow's future father-in-law.
* 1839: Nicholas Whitlow, grandfather of Miles W. Whitlow, died in Walker Co., GA and is buried in an unmarked grave in the Whitlow Family plot, now a part of Old Antioch Cemetery, Walker Co., GA.
* 1840: Miles Whitlow shows US Census, Walker Co., GA.
* 1840: dau. Eleanor Whitlow born. She mar. Wm A. Williamson 15 Dec 1862; died of breast cancer 1868. Bur. Center, AL.
* 1842: Miles Whitlow, acct # 55, Lafayette Store Journal.
* 1842: Miles Whitlow, 4 entries, blacksmith journal of Davis Fricks.
* 1842: son, John Gholston Whitlow, b. 17 May. He mar. Mary Ann Hall, dau. of Rev. Joseph Carwell & Lizzie (Ryder) Hall and moved to Parker Co., TX, Oct 1871.
* 1842: 3 Feb, M.W. Whitlow from Wm M. Autwell of Forsyth Co., GA.
* 1843: M.W. Whitlow to Sam'l H. Robins, Murray Co., GA, DB G, p. 10, 4 Jan 1843.
* 1844: dau. Martha Jane Whitlow born. Mar. Wm Holden Garrett and moved to Kennedale, Tarrant Co. TX, 1871.
* 1844: Miles W. Whitlow from Thos C. Smith, Cass Co. ,GA DB I, p. 32, 18 Jun 1844.
* 1844: Miles W. Whitlow to Moses Stroup, Cass Co., GA, DB I, p. 32, 21 Aug 1844.
* 1845: Nancy Jane Whitlow born. Mar Sanford Glen Williamson and lived Pollard's Bend & Centre, Cherokee Co., AL.
* 1846: Miles Whitlow's mother, Mary Eliz. (Stewart) Whitlow died. Bur. unmarked grave Old Antioch Cem. She dau. of James Stewart of Person Co., NC.
* 1846: Bolden Whitlow to Miles W. Whitlow, Land Lots 304, 306 & 307, 11th Dist.
* 1847: Albina Tabitha Whitlow born. Mar. Rev. Thos Wm Powell, lived Nashville, Berrien Co., GA. Letter of Rev. Powell relates how Miles Whitlow "shed tears of joy" when he asked for Allie Whitlow's hand in marriage.
* 1847: Emaline Gholston Whitlow died in childbirth w/ dau. Albina. Bur unmarked grave, Whitlow plot, Old Antioch Cem.
* 1848: Bolden Whitlow died 12 May 1848. Bur. unmarked grave, Whitlow plot, Old Antioch Cem.
* 1849: Miles Whitlow, brick mason, built the MAJ John Davis house, Kensington, GA. Ref: 1923 Walker County Messenger.
* 1850: Miles Whitlow, US Census; shows w/ 3 slaves inherited from B. Whitlow est. B. Whitlow's second wife, Mary Hamby, took one slave named Balaam to Carroll Co., AR. Former slave,Balaam Whitlow was interviewed in the 1930's WPA Writer's Project.
* 1851: M. Whitlow shows 1851 business tax list, Walker Co.
* 1853: Est. of Zachariah Gholston, DeKalb Co, GA, leaves prop & slave, Mariah w/ son, to M.W. Whitlow, heir of Emaline Gholston Whitlow. 1860 census shows Mariah Whitlow.
* 1854: M.W. Whitlow mar. Eliz. Allen Woods, 17 Dec 1854, Chattooga Co., GA.
* 1855: Miles Whitlow, 5 shares in Lawrenceville Female Academy.
* 1859: M. Whitlow, subscriber to Cherokee Landmark & Bapt. newspaper; 14 Oct 1859 issue.
* 1860: Miles Whitlow, US Census, Walker Co., GA.
* 1860: Miles Whitlow to Jesse Wallin; recorded destroyed deeds.
* 1862: M.W. Whitlow enumerated on 5 Mar Militia list.
* 1863: Jan-Feb, 3 children died of "bloody flux" over a one month period: George W., Ida and Jefferson Davis Whitlow. All bur. Whitlow plot, Old Antioch Cem.
* 1864: Cpl Miles Whitlow, Co. E, 6th GA Cav Bn, Confederate States of America.
* 1864: Miles Whitlow mentioned in 13 Sep 1864 ltr of Mary & Julia Davis, Walker Co., GA, "Mr. Whitlow slips in every once in a while" to deliver supplies and goods. This area was occupied by the enemy, at this time.
* 1866: Miles & John G. Whitlow, district revenue tax, 466 gallons, distilled spirits.
* 1867: Miles & J.G. Whitlow: Loyalty & Voter list signed.
* 1870: Miles Whitlow, US Census, Walker Co., GA.
* 1870: M.W. Whitlow wit. to bond of Archibald Bonds (b-i-l)Admstr est. of Jordan Bruce, 5 Dec 1870.
* 1878: M.W. Whitlow on Coulter Crossroads Store Ledger.
* 1880: Miles Whitlow, US Census, Walker Co., GA.
* 1881: Niece Sallie Shaw's letter mentions "Uncle Whitlow's health is not good ..."
* 1883: Deed M.W. Whitlow to Wm R. & John A. Woods, 19 Apr, LL # 254, 11th Sec, 4th Dist., brothers-in-law of Miles Whitlow.
* 1884: Letter from dau. Allie (Whitlow) Powell in Nashville, GA "Pa, can you not set your affairs to come for a short visit?"
* 1884: Deed Miles W. Whitlow to heirs of Andrew Walden, 11 Oct. 1884.
* 1884: Deed Miles W. Whitlow to Robt Daugherty, 11 Aug. 1884.
* 1885: Miles Washington Whitlow died 23 Aug 1885. Bur. Old Antioch Cem., Cedar Grove, Walker Co.., GA. Son, Miles Marcellus Whitlow, admstr. Distribution to: M.M. Whitlow, M.A. Garrett, Nanie Williamson, Albina Powell, John G. Whitlow, W.S. Williamson, s/o Eleanor (Whitlow) Williamson. Miles Whitlow owned land in Murray, Carroll, Cherokee, Douglas, Forsyth, Cobb, Harralson, Irwin and Decatur Co.s, GA.
* 1899: Walker County Messenger, x. 3-30-1899, "In memory of Mrs. Elizabeth Whitlow, nee' Woods, died in June 1898. She was happily married to Miles Whitlow." Eliz. Woods Whitlow bur. Old Antioch Cem. in the Whitlow family plot next to her husband Miles Washington Whitlow and her children.
____________________________________________________________
Note to Reader: the following letter was provided by a Whitlow cousin. It is included here because it explains a lot of Williamson relationships, and a few Whitlow connections, as well. The writer, Andrew Taylor Walden, was born 1869 in Walker Co., GA. For brevity's sake, only pertinent portions of the letter are included here:
"Thursday Night
November the 14th, 1946
4306 E. 14th Ave.
Chattanooga, Tenn
Dear Mary Jewel,
This is kind of personal information on this page. Glad to do what I have done for you. Oct. 1893, while at Vandale, Ark., I met and formed the acquaintance of James Williamson, a wealthy merchant of Vandale, Ark. - 62 years old - I met accidentally, it seems so anyway. I went in to his store to eat a snack. He asked where I was from. I told him I was from Walker Co., GA, 30 miles south of Chatt., Tenn. Well, his next question was "Did you ever know a family by the name of Williamson?" My answer, he said, was one of the greatest surprises of his life. He got up, shook hands with me, when I told him I was Allen Williamson's grandson. Well, he says, your name is Williamson. No, I say, my name is Walden. My mother was the 2nd child and oldest daughter of Allen Williamson. He said his father was born in N.C., came to Ark. when he was 20 years old, married, raised a family in Cherry Valley, Ark. and died in old age. I asked him if he had ever met any of the family before. He said I was the only one of the relations he ever met. My time was short to talk to him. He insisted that I visit him and spend some time in his home. He was 6 feet tall, weighed 220 lbs, sandy complexion, very brilliant and sociable. One brother was a Dr. in Harrisburg, Ark. The youngest brother, Hugh, was a member of the Ark. Legislature. As I was working 18 miles south of Vandale and aiming to come home soon, I never met him anymore, but the information he gave me was worth a lot to me. I told Dad about him. Dad said Granddaddy got letters from his brother, John, after him and Ma married. James told me his father was John Williamson, Sr. of N.C. and his only brother was Allen Williamson. So, this information is satisfactory to me.
Allen Williamson was the 2nd son and 7th child of John and Mary Williamson. He was born Buncombe Co., NC June 1810.
Granddaddy Allen married Mary Barnwell of Cobb Co. GA in his 18th year. To Allen and his wife were born seven children: James 1833, Emily July 1835, William Jan 1837, Sarah 1839, Glenn 1841, Abram 1843 and Nancy 1845. Their mother died and was buried at Marietta, GA, August 1845.
Granddaddy Allen, with his sister and seven motherless children moved and settled in the upper McLemore's Cove, Walker Co., GA, Nov 1847, where he came into possession of 320 acres of fine land on the Chickamauga Creek. He built a fine gristmill and sawmill soon after coming to the Cove - all run with water power. The Cove was thinly settled at that time but new settlers were moving in from NC, SC, Tenn. and other parts of GA. The county was settling fast.
Granddaddy was a local Methodist minister. While attending conference in Forsyth Co.. GA, he met and on a courtship, married his second wife, Mary Durham, Nov 1847. One child was born, Rebecca (Aunt Joe) 1848.
Uncle Glen, his wife and children, Aunt Sarah Neal, her children, Geo. and Tudy, Uncle Silas Neal, Aunt Joe and two grown daughters are bur. in Cedar Hill Cemetery.
Uncle Jim, I suppose, was buried on the battlefield in Ark. where he was killed.
Aunt Nancy, her family, Aunt Mary and sister Frank's nine month old baby girl, Myrtle Bishop are all bur. Lafayette Cemetery.
Grannie outlived Granddaddy from June 1872 to Feb 1880. As the property by his Will was her life time, it was sold the Fall of 1880. Uncle Glen was the executor. A. Andrews (Sandy) was the buyer.
Aunt Sara, her two children, Uncle Silas and his family moved to Alabama near Uncle Glen in Cherokee Co. (Ala.)
Uncle Foster and Aunt Nancy bought the Hammonds farm and gristmill, three miles south of Lafayette.
We (Jesse Walden's family) moved to Shinbone Valley near the old burned mill on Duck Creek, four miles west of Lafayette.
I was at Sarah's house about two hours in Ala. I didn't go to Uncle Glen's nor Aunt Joe's, as I had been gone some time and was anxious to get home to see Daddy, as he always was first and last in my life. I have always been glad of the love I had and the confidence I had in Daddy.
Mary Jewel, I have given you facts in this record allowing only for mistakes in dates, which I would be supposed to make. I hope you will appreciate the effort. Again, your Mother, being three years older than me, will be able to correct my dates, if they are wrong. As there has been some misunderstanding in regards to Allen Williamson's ancestors and his birth place, I will give you folks some information on the subject that I am sure you haven't got.
While I am wholly uneducated, make my grammar as I talk and write, I think people understand me pretty well, being as I am a natural genealogist, I have spent time looking up my ancestors on both sides of the house. I am glad I am the son of Jesse Walden and Emily Williamson - would not be anyone else.
Signed,
A.T. Walden
Marriages and Deaths:
James mar. Manda Robertson of Cobb Co., GA.
William's first wife was Ellen Whitlow of Walker Co., GA.
Glen's wife was Nannie Whitlow, sister to William's first wife.
Abraham died single during the Civil War. Died at home.
Emily (my Mother) mar. Jesse Walden, Oct. 25, 1855.
Sarah, mar. George Neal of Chattooga Co., GA 1859.
Nancy mar. three times: James Graham 1860, John Nevel 1864, he disappeared, W.A. Foster of Walker Co., GA 1872.
Rebecca (Aunt Joe) mar. Silas Neal of SC, 1868.
Granddaddy died at his home in the Cove June 1872.
Uncle Jim was killed in battle in the Rebel Army about 1863 in Ark.; his wife died shortly afterwards at their home in Adkins, Ark; Granddaddy brought their only child, Mollie, a little girl to his home where she died in childhood.
Uncle William's first wife, Ellen (Whitlow), died (of breast cancer), and was buried in Ala. near Center 1868.
Uncle William and his second wife died of old age at their home at Kennedale, Tex.
Uncle Glen, his wife (Nancy Whitlow) and children, Aunt Sarah, her two children and Uncle Silas all died at their homes near Center, Ala.
Aunt Joe (wife of Silas Neal, mentioned above) died at the home of her daughter, Mollie Whitlow, in Weatherford, Parker Co., Tex. (John Gholston Whitlow mar. as his second wife, Mollie Neal, 1894.)"
____________________________________________________________
The following is a news article about Miles Marcellus Whitlow, son of Miles Washington Whitlow, above (see photo of Miles Marcellus Whitlow.)
Atlanta Constitution, x 24 May 1891, p. 8:
A Wildcat Chase
LaFayette, Ga., May 22 (Special) - While Mr. M.M. Whitlow, of the Cove, was out a few days ago on the West side of Pigeon Mountain, in the McWhorter Gulf, turkey hunting, he saw a squirrel up a tree, and a catamount, a short-tailed wildcat, was after it. The squirrel took a flying leap to a nearby tree. The catamount backed down and started up the second tree, whereupon the squirrel lept back to the first. The amusing spectacle went on for some time. After a while, the catamount noticed Mr. Whitlow, standing about sixty yards away. When it appeared the cat would charge, Mr. Whitlow fired his shotgun in self defense. The gun was loaded with buckshot, the shot was fatal and the cat fell dead at his feet. When asked about the incident, Mr. Whitlow explained that he felt it his duty to protect the brave squirrel since he "wore Confederate gray."
____________________________________________________________
Mention of Miles W. Whitlow in a letter written by Mary and Julia Ann Davis of Walker County, Ga. to Susan Davis of Dahlonega, Ga:
"July 13th, 1864
Dear Aunt,
We are getting along as well as we could under existing circumstances. Have plenty of Yankees in this Cove yet and we have got rid of some of our Tory neighbors. The Yankees took some of them to Chattanooga to give an account of their behavior and it is said they are after the others but it is most too good to be true. They paid us a visit last week and took a few bushels of corn and we had a good quarrel and I told them good about their behavior. They were riding Mr. Patton's horses, two of them. Oh! How I wanted to kill some of them. Times are pretty hot in this quarter. It is reported that they had a little fight about ten miles below here yesterday and we whipped them pretty badly and captured a good many prisoners and I wish it had been the last of them. Mary commenced writing but I will finish. I received two letters from you a few days ago. One was wrote last Fall. You said something about the money you owed me. I have no use for money so don't trouble yourself about it. I can't use what I have. We have troublesome times here. The Yankees is still gathering men and carrying them to Chattanooga. Some come back while others go North. Mr. Beard just got back. They kept him two weeks. They carried Lem McWhorter by here with five mules and one horse and several other men I did not know. What few men there is in here live in perfect dread. Mr. Whitlow slips in every once in a while. Sophronia thinks John had better not come in here until after this fight is over. They commenced fighting at Shudsie's Shop and run them some way to Crawfish Spring, others to Worthen's Gap. I look for hot times in here again. I am much obliged to you for your invitation but I think we had better stay in here as long as we can. We have some Yankee friends we can buy parched coffee at 40 cents a pound, bacon at 12 1/2 cents a pound but we can't keep a horse that is able to work. If Johnson don't whip this fight, we are ruined in this country. Miz Howell is keeping school for us. Miz Johnson has a good school in Lafayette and Sophronia wants John to bring Georgia Anne home to go to school when he comes. They have taken some of the men that has taken a non-combatment oath and made them take the oath of allegiance. We are all getting along very well and I think John had better not come in here until after he sees a little further for he can't do us any good. You must excuse this writing but I have not time to finish as Mr. Whitlow is agoing out. Write often. Give my love to all and accept a large portion for yourself.
Julia"
Mr. Whitlow was Miles Washington Whitlow, subject of this sketch. One of the men who was taken to Chattanooga and never heard from was Avery Camp, brother-in-law of Miles Whitlow.
____________________________________________________________
Julia and Mary Davis were daughters of MAJ John Davis who escorted the Cherokee tribes from Georgia to Oklahoma on the "Trail of Tears" in 1836. The 1864 Davis letter was likely written in the house described below.
From a 1921 newspaper article in the Walker County Messenger:
"Liberty - Seventy four years ago Miles Whitlow burned the lime and made the brick and built the house for Major John Davis now owned by Doom Cornelison. The house and chimney were pulled down last week and in the old brick are plain pig and cat tracks made while the bricks were green."
____________________________________________________________
Chattanooga Times, x 20 May 1933, p.3:
"MILES M. WHITLOW
Miles M. Whitlow, 77, prominent farmer and pioneer resident died yesterday morning at his home in Kensington, Ga. He is survived by his widow, seven daughters, Mrs. C.F. Kaylor of Chattanooga; Mrs. Effie Davis, Mrs. H.B. Hankerson, and Miss Ethel Whitlow of Oklahoma City, Okla., Mrs. J.C. Wyatt of Cedartown, Ga., Mrs. C.K. Brooks of Chattanooga, and Mrs. Fay Evitt of Kensington, Ga.; two sons, J.R. Whitlow of Kensington, Ga., and M. Frank Whitlow of Wickenburg, Ariz.; twenty-three grandchildren and two great grandchildren. Funeral services will be held from the Antioch Church at 2 o'clock afternoon, Sunday. Active pallbearers will be the grandsons: Jack Wyatt, Harold Wyatt, Whitlow Wyatt, Franklin Whitlow, Murl Morgan and Herman Shaw. Internment will be at Antioch Cemetery."
Miles M. Whitlow sold his Walker Co., GA land about 1907 or so and moved to Wickenburg, Arizona Territory but moved back to Walker Co. a few years later.
His grandson Whitlow Wyatt pitched for the Brooklyn Dodgers and famously struck out Joe DiMaggio twice in the 1941 World Series, as this newspaper account details:
St. Petersburg Times
x7 Oct 1941
"Flatbush Heartbroken As Yanks Win World Series; Bombers Clinch Eighth Title Since 1927 With 3-1 Triumph Over Whitlow Wyatt
Ebbets Field, Brooklyn - (INS) Wyatt Whitlow struck out nine Yanks, scored the lone Dodger run after clouting a double, allowed only six hits and nearly got in a fist-fight with Joe DiMaggio - to the delight of a crowd whose ticket purchase pushed the gate for the five games to $1,007,762. But, nonetheless, it was a wild pitch by this eternally steady veteran which gave the Yanks their inch - which is all they ask for before taking a ballyard."
Miles Washington Whitlow is the great great great Uncle, through his sister, Elizabeth Agness Whitlow, who married Wm "Buck" Bailey, of the actor James Garner (nee' Bumgarner), star of film and TV (Maverick), and a veteran of the Korean War where he was awarded two Purple Hearts.
____________________________________________________________
Walker County Messenger, x 10 Feb 1881:
Captain Joel [Withers] passed through here Saturday. We don't like to see Sheriffs so far from home. They might be on business. When I heard someone wondering who he was after, I thought of an incident that occurred many years ago. I was in the woods with a negro, named Ed, when he saw three men coming toward us. I told him it was the Sheriff and his posse and that they must be after one of us, and as I had never done anything, it must be you they are after. He turned as white as possible for him to, and looked up and said: "I have done paid Mr. Bailey two dollars for his old sow, and Mr. Whitlow was to pay him the other two." When the Sheriff's posse rode past, leaving us unmolested, old Ed mumbled something about letting by-gones be, and went back to work with renewed vigor, having gotten a new lease on life." - The Editor.
Mr. Whitlow is Miles W. Whitlow and Mr. Bailey, his nephew, son of William "Buck" Bailey, who died in 1839.
____________________________________________________________
Walker County Messenger, x 27 Jan 1881:
"Uncle and Cousin: Squire Mr. James Bonds and Mr. W.B. Cumpton were all in town on Monday. The Squire is one of those lovable, genial, kind-hearted old men that it is a pleasure to meet. We believe if the right sort of widow would come along and ask him to go back to Eureka Springs, he would go. May Time lay its hand lightly on him."
Judge James Madison Bonds was the brother-in-law of Miles W. Whitlow. W.B. Cumpton was a relation to both, having married "the Widow Glenn", Eliza Camp Glenn, the daughter of Avery Camp who married Nancy Mae Whitlow, Miles Whitlow's sister.
Avery Camp was taken by the Yankees with force from his home in Walker Co. to the Chattanooga depot where he was interrogated. His answers and attitude being quite unsatisfactory to his interlocutors, he was to be put on a train bound for Camp Douglas, IL, but died before embarking. One family story has Mr. Camp burying a sack full of gold coins on the back of his property, while family members delayed entry of the Yankees into his house.
The Widow Glenn had the misfortune to find her log cabin in the middle of the Battle of Chickamauga in 1863. Her home was occupied as the headquarters of Gen. Rosecrans, the Union commander. His interrogation of her was written about in New York newspapers. She refused to cooperate. On one occasion, a captured Confederate officer was brought to the cabin to be questioned. He also refused to cooperate, telling the invading army's commander that "it has cost me a considerable amount of trouble to find your lines, General. If you put yourself to the same trouble, you will find ours."
The Widow Glenn stayed at her cabin during the battle, stubbornly refusing to leave, until a Confederate artillery shell struck it, at which point, she grabbed a duffle she had packed, ordered her slave John to her wagon, and left with her children, seeking safety with relatives in McLemore's Cove.
The Widow Glenn's cabin is a marked point of interest at Chickamauga Battlefield National Park.
____________________________________________________________
Miles Whitlow's grand daughter:
The San Bernardino Daily Sun, x 8 Jul 1961
Industrial's Wife Dies at Family Ranch
Mrs. Ethel Whitlow Van Camp, 70, wife of Gilbert Van Camp, Chairman of the Board of the 50 year old seafood company, died of a heart attack while vacationing with her husband at the family ranch near San Bernardino, it was reported Tuesday.
Married less than a year, the former San Franciscan and her husband spent each weekend at their ranch in the mountain foothills. The family residence is in San Pedro at 1006 Dodson Ave. Mr. and Mrs. Van Camp had arrived at the ranch last Thursday planning to return to San Pedro Tuesday. She died Monday.
Mrs. Van Camp also leaves three sisters, Mrs. Faye Evitt and Mrs. Mary Hankinson, both of San Francisco, and Mrs. Virgie Brooks of Chattanooga. Funeral arrangements are pending at the Mark Shaw Mortuary in San Bernardino.
____________________________________________________________
Independent Press Telegram, x 10 Sept 1978, Sunday:
Gilbert Van Camp Dies in San Pedro
AP - Gilbert C. Van Camp, Sr., who came West on a fishing trip 65 years ago and stayed to build the Van Camp Seafood Co., is dead at age 90. Van Camp, chairman of the board of the company, died Friday at his home in San Pedro.
A native of Indianapolis, Van Camp persuaded his father, Frank Van Camp, to sell his canned pork and beans business in the East, and get into the tuna business in the West in 1914.
They bought an old tuna cannery and modernized it so thoroughly that Van Camp Seafood Co. became the world's largest tuna cannery.
The company eventually shifted the bulk of its operations to San Diego and in 1963 became a subsidiary of Ralston Purina. Van Camp is survived by his wife, Mary; his son, Gilbert, Jr. of Laguna Beach; a sister, Marguerite Van Camp Mayer of Indianapolis; four grandchildren and five great grandchildren. Funeral services will be held today in San Pedro.
____________________________________________________________
Long Beach Press Telegram, x 4 Jul 1961, Tuesday:
SAN BERNARDINO - Mrs. Ethel Van Camp of the seafood canning family died Monday night, apparently of a heart attack. She and her husband, Gilbert C. Van Camp Sr., board chairman of the Van Camp Seafood Co., came to their ranch in the Del Rosa area from near here last Thursday, intending to return today. The couple visited the ranch nearly every weekend. The San Bernardino Mortuary is handling arrangements. Neighbors said a doctor who was called to the ranch reported Mrs. Van Camp apparently suffered a heart attack. She and Van Camp had been married about a year. His first wife died in 1959.
____________________________________________________________
Family Members
Parents
Siblings
Advertisement
Records on Ancestry
Advertisement
