My Genealogy Hound

Conaway Willhite, who is forward in the ranks of the live farmers and stock-raisers of Polk County, Mo., is a native of Jefferson County, Tenn., born October 20, 1826, and is the son of James and Susan (Cates) Willhite. James Willhite was born probably in Virginia, in 1790, but attained his growth in Tennessee, having removed to that State at an early age. He was a soldier in the War of 1812, and soon after that eventful period was united in marriage to a Miss Baker, who died several years afterward, and sometime in the twenties he married Miss Susan Cates, a native of Tennessee, born about 1801, and the daughter of John Cates. To this union were born four children, two now living, and Conaway Willhite being the elder. About 1866 James Willhite moved to Illinois, settling in Richland County, and there died about 1880. The mother died in Knoxville, Tenn. Conaway Willhite left his home at the age of eleven years, went with a cousin to Iowa, where he followed farming for about nine years, and then, at the breaking out of the Mexican War, he returned to Tennessee, where, October 2, 1847, he enlisted in Company H, Fourth Tennessee Volunteer Infantry, and went to Mexico with his company. He was discharged from service August 1, 1848, at Memphis, Tenn., and returned to East Tennessee in the fall of the same year, whence a few weeks later he emigrated with his father to Missouri. They located in Polk County, and there he remained until the spring of 1849, when he went with a company of men across the plains to the gold mines of California. He remained in Hamilton and Shasta Counties, Cal., for four years, engaged in mining, after which he returned to Polk County, Mo., via Central America, and reached home in the spring of 1853. Stopping there only about a year, he then returned to California with a train of cattle, and remained there until the spring of 1856, when he returned to Polk County by the former route. He was married April 19, 1857, to Miss Louisa J. Chandler, of Polk County, and settled near Bolivar, but removed to the southwest portion of the county in 1859. At the breaking out of the Civil War he was in the Home Guards until 1862, when he enlisted in Company I, Twenty-sixth Regiment Enrolled Missouri Militia, as a private, and October 11, 1864, he was promoted to the rank of captain. Afterward he organized Company E, Seventeenth Regiment Enrolled Missouri Militia, and served as its captain until the close of the war. He then retired from service by general orders in 1865, returning to Polk County, and resumed his agricultural pursuits, which occupation he has followed ever since. He takes an active interest in school matters, and, although not a church member, is also active in church matters. He is a Republican in politics, and is a member of the Masonic fraternity. His wife, Miss Louisa J. Chandler, was born December 12, 1839, in East Tennessee, and is the daughter of John and Catherine (Nicely) Chandler, who came to Polk County, Mo., in 1856. To Mr. and Mrs. Willhite were born ten children, eight now living: Laura A. (deceased); Charley S. (deceased); Lillian G., now Mrs. McDonald; Alonzo L., Claudius G., Alta M., now Mrs. Tarrant; Dollie V., William T. Sherman, Bennie Garfield and Harry Clide. Mrs. Willhite is a member of the Baptist Church.