The Whitworths became residents of Montgomery County, before 1800.  Their accomplishments are not recorded among those of great statesmen, politicians, or historical figures.  Their accomplishments are recorded in the  faces and lives of each generation that followed them.  Fendal Whitworth is the Patriarch of this local family.  He along with many of his children moved from Lincoln Co NC into that area that is now the boundary of Cheatham and Montgomery.  Just off of Hinton Road, the early land holdings, of Fendal, John and Philmon are to be found.  The Whitworth Meeting House (an early Methodist Preaching point on the Asbury Circuit) can no longer be seen on the Whitworth lands but the logs were moved and used to build the present day Walton’s Chapel UM Church.   The only visible sign of a Whitworth past is the small family cemetery off of Hinton Road on the present day McCormack Farm.   In the 1840s, a mass exodus of the Whitworth family occurred.  Some went to Shelby Co, TN others to Mississippi, Missouri, and Texas.    John Whitworth, Fendal’s son stayed and became the progenitor of the Whitworth name in the area.  He and his wife Lousia had at least 5 children;  James and William are the only ones known by name.  William Henry Whitworth lived in Montgomery and Cheatham County. William was a farmer and  sawmill operator.  In 1850 William married Elizabeth Person and had 6 children.  In 1856 Cheatham  County was formed from Montgomery and William became a resident of that county.  In 1861 He was serving with the Confederate Army as a Private,  in Company E of the 49th Regiment of Tennessee.  In 1862 he served with, Company K of the 49th. TN.  In  Aug. of 1864 he was shot and wounded and was then stationed at the Ocmulgee Hospital in Macon Georgia for recovery.   After the war he returned to the West Cheatham area.  In 1866 he married  Martha  Jackson and had seven more children. William’s son John married Margaret Rinehart in 1878.  They lived in the Fredonia Community and he along with several family members are buried in the old Fredonia Cemetery.  John was a riverboat man and traveled extensively during his life.  To carry on the family name only one son was born (along with two daughters)  named William Harvey Whitworth.  Harvey married first Ora Toler Riggins.  Thus the Whitworths became intermarried with Chisenhalls and Fosters of West Montgomery.  Harvey was the father of 11 children by three wives. (Susie Summers, Ora Toler Riggins, and Ruby Smith.)  These children  now cover several counties of middle Tennessee, Kentucky and beyond.  Harvey’s last son by his second wife was Cecil Whitworth.  Cecil was a carpenter and construction superintendent before retirement.  The labor of his hands and the skill of his craft are evidenced in many of the homes and business’ of Clarksville and Montgomery Co.  Cecil is the father of this writer along with three brothers. Larry, Bart and Kim Whitworth.

Submitted by Jerry Whitworth
 

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