Donald White, great-grandson of Rebecca Wilks White, has graciously made these photos available. Depicted are Thomas A. Wilks, Margaret J. Wilks, and six of their children. Children, Amanda, and Clarissa, may have died young. In the 1850 Census, they would have been 12, and 3 years old respectively, and none are included in the census record. Nor are they mentioned in later family records. Son, Jefferson Wilks, died in 1864 in Claysville, Alabama, and his death may be attributable to the Civil War. The remaining eight children are known to have lived to adulthood. Of that eight, no photographs of sons, Newton and Madison Solomon, have been found.
Thomas Adam Wilks was born in Virginia in 1800. Margaret Jane Adams is believed to have been born in 1814. We do not know precisely when she and Thomas married, but their eldest child, Eliza, was born in Virginia in 1831. By 1842, they were living in Jefferson County, Iowa, as daughter, Martha, was born there in that year. They would emigrate to Texas from Iowa.
Thomas Adam Wilks.
Margaret Jane Wilks.
From left to right Julia Wilks Little, Milton Wilks, & Rebecca Wilks White. Records indicate that Julia was married to Jonas Little on 10/28/1869 in Carson, Texas. She was 24 years old. At some point she and Jonas apparently moved away from the area. In any case, she died in Palestine, Texas in 1932 at the age of 86. Rebecca married Martin Putnam White in Carson, Texas on April 4, 1869 at the age of 19. She died in 1940, the last of her siblings to pass, and is buried in the White Family Cemetery near Lamasco, Texas. Milton, the youngest sibling, is buried in the Wilks Family Cemetery, and his story is told in the Cemetery pages.
From left to right, Eliza Wilks Courtney, Malinda (Linda) Wilks Courtney & Martha Wilks Hull. These sisters, grown and married, with families of their own remained in Iowa when Thomas, Margaret, and the five youngest children came to Texas. However, the correspondence held by family descendants illustrates clearly that the family remained close despite the distance. The following postcard, written by 14-year-old, Winnie Wilks, surviving daughter of Florence & Milton Wilks, to her Aunt ‘Beba’ (Rebecca Wilks White), visiting in Iowa, with greetings to her Aunt Martha, is a wonderful example.
