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William Witherington, Jr. War of 1812 - Ensign, Mississippi Territory Militia

 

 

William Witherington, Jr.

Ensign, Mississippi Territory Militia, War of 1812

 

William Witherington, Jr. was born April 11, 1773 at a place called Little Beaver Dam on Lynches Creek, Cheraws District, SC on land that his father was granted the previous year by King George III of England.  Records indicate that he was the youngest of at least four children. 

 

In 1794, Wm Witherington, Jr. married Sarah ‘Sally’ Stanley, the daughter of Sands Stanley, in Darlington District, SC.  There were thirteen children born of this marriage.

 

Sometime about 1810, Wm Witherington, Sr. sold his land in Darlington, SC and migrated with Wm Jr. and his family down to Feliciana Parish in the Mississippi Territory.

 

A few years after arriving in Feliciana Parish, William Witherington, Jr. received an Ensign's Commission dated July 7, 1813 at Washington in Jackson County, Mississippi Territory. The commission was signed by Governor David Holmes of the Mississippi Territory. Ensign Witherington was sworn to duty on September 4, 1813 at the Capitol in Jackson County, by Captain James Ware of the 17th Regiment, MS Territory Militia.

Witherington was commissioned as an Ensign immediately following the “Fort Mims Massacre” and the “Battle of Burnt Corn” with the Creek Indians. At that time, these lands of Monroe & Conecuh Counties were a part of the Mississippi Territory. A copy of the original 1813 Ensign’s Certificate of William Witherington, Jr. has been obtained from an Arkansas ‘cousin’.

 

The 17th Regiment, MS Territory Militia, was one of the units that was immediately mustered at the Capitol of Washington in Jackson County, following the Fort Mims Massacre, and was immediately dispatched to Monroe County for the building of Fort Claiborne in October 1813.

Early in 1819, William Witherington, Jr., migrated from Feliciana Parish, LA with his family and his aging father, Patriot Wm Witherington, Sr., and settled in the Fork Sepulga area here in NE Conecuh County. He obtained approximately 280 acres of land in Sections 9 & 10. His land was located immediately to the South and West of this cemetery. This included the land down to the forks of the Sepulga River, located no more than one-half mile from where we stand today. He farmed cotton and operated a ferry at the river and later built a bridge across the river which was known as “Witherington’s Bridge”.

 

Rev. Benjamin F. Riley’s History of Conecuh County records William Witherington, Jr. as, ‘one of the earliest settlers in this part of Conecuh County’.  He also served as a ‘Justice of the Peace’ as early as 1820.

 

To put this time frame in perspective for you historians in the audience, Alabama became a Territory in 1817, Conecuh County was established in 1818 and Alabama became the 22nd State of the United States on December 14, 1819.

 

William Witherington, Jr. died August 25, 1837 here at Fork Sepulga, and his many descendants are here today to dedicate this beautiful ‘War of 1812’ grave marker in his memory.  The family is also dedicating a new stone in memory of his devoted wife of 51 years, Sarah ‘Sally’ Stanley Witherington, who died here in 1845.

 

Source: This is from the dedication of the Ward-Witherington Cemetery in Conecuh Co., Alabama in November 2005. It was supplied by Bill King, a decendent of the Witherington family.