Madison G. Whitaker Papers

Collection

Identifier: A-0045

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

Included in these papers are deeds, survey plats, indentures, field notes, land grants, receipts, promissory notes, a limited amount of personal and business correspondence, and estate papers of Madison G. Whitaker. Also included are some genealogical materials on the Fitts and Whitaker families.

Dates

Creation: 1839-1915

Language of Materials

The collection is in English and Spanish.

Conditions Governing Access

Open for research.

Biographical or Historical Information

Madison G. Whitaker, veteran of the battle of San Jacinto and state senator, was born on April 4, 1811, in Lincoln County, Tennessee, the son of John and Nancy (Guest or Guess) Whitaker. In 1835 he emigrated to Nacogdoches, Texas, and enlisted as a sergeant in the Nacogdoches company commanded by Capt. Thomas J. Rusk in October 1835, marching with it to San Antonio de Bexar. The General Council of the provisional government elected him second lieutenant of the revolutionary army in November of 1835, but he declined the commission. Instead, he enlisted as a private in the Nacogdoches Volunteer Company.

Whitaker fought at the battle of San Jacinto and was discharged on June 6, 1836. He appears as number thirty-three in the painting The Surrender of Santa Anna by William H. Huddle, which hangs in the Capitol in Austin. Whitaker was then briefly a captain in the Texas Rangers. In 1853 he was elected senator to the Fifth and Sixth Texas legislatures, representing Nacogdoches and Angelina counties. He was a longtime member of the board of trustees of Nacogdoches University, serving as treasurer, vice president, and president, and helped to found the rural Liberty School, north of Nacogdoches, in 1836.

M. G. Whitaker was a Mason and a longtime member of the Texas Veterans Association. He married Henrietta M. Fitts on August 25, 1841, and they had eight children. He died on January 23, 1893, in Nacogdoches County and was buried in Old North Church Cemetery.

(Brown, Donald G. "Whitaker, Madison G." The New Handbook of Texas. Austin: Texas State Historical Society, 1996. p. 924).

Extent

2.00 Cubic Feet

Additional Description

Arrangement

This collection consists of 434 items described in 31 folders and is housed in three clamshell boxes and one oversize bundle. It is organized at the item level.