| ABSTRACT: Geneology page includes photos and surnames. Surnames are Armstrong, Black, McCann, Pebworth, Pebsworth, Wade, Whitaker. Includes children of Henry Pebworth and Na Ka Ta Cha (Patsy Mccann) and children of John Pebworth with wives Susan Farlis, Mary Arrington, Mary Arrington, and [perhaps] Mollie Williams. Also includes 1900 Census data for Beulah Whitaker's siblings: Ramsey C. Whitaker, Augustus Whitaker, Ella Whitaker, Claude Whitaker, Hershall Whitaker, and Marie Whitaker. Place names are Alabama, Ardmore OK, Arkansas, Austin, Biltmore Hotel, Choctaw Nation OK, Durant OK, Fort Smith AK, FortWorth TX, Idabel OK, Kilgore TX, Lufkin TX, Murray State College, Oklahoma, Oklahoma City OK, Pickens Co. AL, Texas, Tombe AL, Tombeebe AL, and Tishomingo OK. Photos include Josephine Black Whitaker, Robert Lee Pebworth, Sr., Beulah Ethel Whitaker, Robert Lee Pebworth, Jr., Benjamin Warren Pebworth, Jack Pebworth, and the grandchildren of Robert Lee Pebworth, Sr. and Beulah Ethel Whitaker Pebworth. Other key words are Dawes Commission, Choctaw Nation Tribal Enrollment, Armstrong Choctaw Nation Census. |
Robert Was Officially 1/4 Choctaw IndianTribal Enrollment data recorded about 1885-1886 shows Robert Lee Pebworth as being a one-year-old Indian male, with a white mother (Mary Pebworth) and an Indian father (John Pebworth). His statistics recorded December 12, 1902, Field #638, Towson County, Fowlerville, OK, reveal Robert Lee (aka R.L.) Peb(s)worth to be #1491 on the Dawes Commission Choctaw Nation Roll. Robert Lee Pebsworth is listed as being born in 1896, fourteen (14) years old, one-quarter (1/4) Choctaw Indian with original tribal enrollment number 10332, and was the son of deceased John Peb(s)worth and Mary Peb(s)worth. |
Photo (at left) taken about 1920 includes: Robert Lee Pebworth, Sr.; wife, Beulah Ethel Whitaker; sons; Benjamin Warren, Jack, and Robert Lee, Jr. Son Billy was not yet born.R.L. was born and raised in the Choctaw Nation in southeastern Oklahoma.
Robert Lee Pebworth, Sr. and Beulah Ethel Whitaker were married July 24, 1909, by Methodist Minister J. H. Bell in Durant, Oklahoma, Bryan County. He was 23 and Beulah was 15. Witnesses were C.A. and I.A. Whitaker. |
Robert's GrandparentsRobert Lee Pebworth's grandfather was a man of English descent, Henry Pebworth [also called Henry Pebsworth and Henry Pidgeworth in Armstrong's Choctaw Census of 1831] who reportedly lived from 1790 to 1847. (Some family historians said that Henry died, according to Muskogee Records, in 1842 in Clark Co. Ark. as a result of a hunting accident and was buried by Shady GroveBaptist Church.) Robert Lee Pebworth's grandmother was a full-blooded Mississippi Choctaw Indian named Na Ka Ta Cha, whose English name was Patsy McCann, and who was born in Indian Territory, Mississippi. One family genealogist lists Patsy [Na Ka Ta Cha] as being born in 1790 and dying in 1883. (Another has Patsy born about 1800 and dying at the home of her daughter, Mary Ann, in 1846 in Curtis, Ark., Clark Co. and buried by the Shady Grove Baptist Church.) Robert Lee Pebworth's grandfather, Henry Pebworth, his Choctaw wife, Patsy McCann [a.k.a Na Ka Ta Cha], and their family were living in Pickens County, Alabama, when Indian lands were declared confiscated and Indian relocation was ordered. According to some family genealogists, Henry Pebworth and (Na Ka Ta Cha) Patsy McCann married about 1819, and both had been married previously. Before Henry Pebworth married Patsy McCann (Na Ka Ta Cha), she was married to a man named Bean. Patsy and husband Bean were parents of Jim Bean, born about 1815 in Indian Territory, Miss. In the 1831 Armstrong Census Henry Pidgeworth (Henry Pebworth) cultivated 14 acres, and there were 7 in his entire family [(no males over aged 10) and 5 males and females under aged 10)]. Henry Pebworth (aka. Henry Pidgeworth) is listed as white with 160 acres of good land in Tombeebe. Pidgeworth's wife, Na Ka Ta Cha, was cultivating 5 acres out of her 160 acres of good land in Tombe. Her family consisted of 10 persons, including 3 males over age 10 and 6 males and females under age 10. So apparently Na Ka Ta Cha had about 4 children by her first marriage. (The fact that an Indian named Cornelius McCann is listed beneath the name of Na Ka Ta Cha provides confirmation that Na Ka Ta Cha, wife of Pidgeworth, was actually Patsy McCann.) |
Trail of TearsAt the order of President Andrew Jackson, Henry and Patsy Pebworth and other members of the Five Civilized Indian Tribes were relocated to the Oklahoma Indian Territory. About 1835, Henry Pebworth and wife Patsy, who was reportedly a deaf mute, and their family settled in Fort Smith, Arkansas, on the eastern edge of Indian Territory. Children of Henry and Patsy (Na Ka Ta Cha) PebworthThe children of Henry Pebworth and Patsy McCann (Na Ka Ta Cha) were:
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Robert's ParentsRobert Lee's father was John Pebworth. His mother was John's third wife, Mary Armstrong. John Pebworth had at least three, perhaps four, wives:
The 1885 Towson County Choctaw Nation Census lists the following persons:
(Debate exists as to whether or not Robert Lee and James Walter were twins. If so, this James Walter Pebworth may have died in infancy, because the Dawes Commission Census just over a dozen years later lists Robert L. as 14 yrs. old and James as being 9 yrs. old.) I have a copy of one page (Towson County, Post Office: Fowlerville, Indian Territory, Field # 638, dated Dec. 12, 1902) of the Dawes Commission Choctaw Census that lists the following persons:
These male children were listed as having 1/4 Choctaw Indian blood with tribal enrollment having been in Towson County in 1896. Their parents are listed as John Pebsworth and Mary Pebsworth, both deceased by roll date of Dec. 12, 1902. |
One family genealogist lists the following children of John Pebworth and Susan Farlis:
Although there is some dispute about who the mothers of these children were, they all seem to have been fathered by John Pebworth (who was born to Henry Pebworth and Patsy McCann [Na Ka Ta Cha] in Indian Territory, Alabama in 1833, 1834, or 1835 and died 1896):
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Beulah Ethel Whitaker PebworthBeulah's Parents |
Beulah Ethel Whitaker was born in Lufkin, Texas on April 13, 1894. She lived in Oklahoma City and died on January 26, 1976. Beulah was the daughter of Benjamin Warren Whitaker (born either 1857 [according to his tombstone] or 1858 [according to 1900 Census] and died 1930 [acc. to burial marker]) and the lovely Josephine Susan Black. |
Photo taken about 1880's. Josephine Susan Black Whitaker, born August 1856, died 1930, buried in Ardmore, Oklahoma, wife of Benjamin Warren Whitaker |
 1957, Beulah Ethel Whitaker
Pebworth, holding her only grandson, Grady
Forbes Pebworth |
| The 1900 U.S.
Census for Precinct 5, Angelina County, Texas,
lists household #251 as being headed by Benj. W.
Whittaker, a 41-year-old white male carpenter,
born in Texas on December 1858, both of whose parents
were reported to have been born in Mississippi. His wife, Josephine Black Whitaker, is listed as being a 39-year-old white female, born in Texas in August 1856, with her parents having been born in Arkansas and Alabama. Seven of their nine children were living in Angelina County (Lufkin), Texas, at the time of the 1900 Census:
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Beulah's SiblingsAccording to Helen Vick, P.O. Box 479, Horatio, Arkansas [AR], 78142, Beulah's father, Benjamin Warren Whitaker, was born and raised in Nacogdoches County, and was the son of William Champion Whitaker and Elizabeth Wade Whitaker. Josephine Susan Black was born in 1856. Helen lists their seven children as: Augustas, Ramsey, Ella Mae, Claude, Beulah, Hershell, and Sybil Marie.Place of BurialBenjamin Warren Whitaker and Josephine Black Whitaker are buried in Ardmore, Oklahoma. Nearby are the graves of daughter Beulah Whitaker Pebworth, and some of their grandchildren, including Robert Lee Pebworth, Jr., Jack Pebworth [a memorial only, since his body was never recovered], and Billy Pebworth. |
Divorce |
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Beulah and Robert, Sr., were divorced around 1925. Afterwards, Robert proceeded to marry a woman whom he called 'an Indian princess.' On Jan 3, 1925, 35-year-old Robert Lee Pebworth, Sr. married 21-year-old Thelma Holman in Paris, TX, Lamar Co. Later, on Aug. 13, 1932, Robert Lee Pebworth, Sr., married Ethel Davis in Dallas, TX, Dallas Co. Beulah Whitaker Pebworth, his first wife, never remarried. |
After the divorce, the four boys' grandparents helped rear Robert and Beulah's sons. The boys worked in the Pebworth family dairy near Idabel, Oklahoma [Cousin Sherry has inherited many photos of the boys on the milk truck selling milk to the Idabel populace!], while Beulah went off to Austin, Texas, for secretarial training. Beulah worked for many years as a secretary at the Biltmore Hotel in Oklahoma, City, Oklahoma. |
Beulah's Home |
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| Beulah is remembered
fondly by her grandchildren as a stylish professional
woman who always began her letters to their father with
the words, "Ben, Darling." She owned her own home in Oklahoma City,
which daughter-in-law Earlene describes
as being lavishly decorated. Granddaughter Cindy
remembers that Beulah's house was replete with numerous
unusual accessories which Cindy decided
later in her life had bordered on being 'gaudy.' |
Based on their descriptions,
granddaughter Sue, who had been only an
infant on her last visit to Beulah's residence, assumes
that Beulah's home was furnished in the 'art-deco' style
that was in vogue in the Post-World-War-I era. Cindy relates that many of Beulah's possessions were sold when she entered a nursing home, a few years before her death. |
Robert and Beulah's Descendants |
|
 1957, Bob and Ben |
 About 1957. The first child born to Robert
Lee Sr. and Beulah Pebworth was Robert Lee
Pebworth, Jr., husband of Bess,
father of Sherry, Merrilyn,
and Cynthia. Robert Lee Pebworth, Jr.
was born August 11, 1910. Bob died in 1985; his wife Bess
died soon after.. Bob is buried in Ardmore, OK, next
to his mother. |
 Circa 1940. Robert Sr. and
Beulah's third child was Jack Pebworth,
a tennis ace who became a WWII pilot
after graduating Murray State College at
Tishamingo. Jack died in action in the Pacific
on October 16, 1942 in the Sea of Kiska
when he was caught in the wake of the Japanese ship he
had just bombed. He was decorated posthumously. Jack was
not married and had no descendants. Jack was born around
1918 and died October 16, 1942. His body was never
recovered, but there is a memorial monument to him in Ardmore,
OK |
Circa 1957. Their second child, Benjamin (aka
Benjaman and Ben W.)
Warren Pebworth, SS# 442-05-7090, was husband of
Earlene (mar. by E.H. Westmoreland, south Main Baptist
Church, on Dec. 29, 1943, Houston, TX, Harris Co.;
witnesses were Beulah and son Robert [Jr.] Pebworth),
father of Patricia Carol, Susan
Jean, and Grady Forbes. Ben was
born in Garvin, OK, McCurtain Co., on Aug.10, 1913. He
died Aug. 3, 1966, a week before his 53rd birthday. Ben
is buried in Kilgore, TX. (Rader
Funeral Home) |
|
 1985, Five of the six grandchildren
of Robert Lee Pebworth, Sr., and Beulah
Ethel Whitaker Pebworth. [Grady was not present.]
Photo was taken at the funeral of Robert Lee
Pebworth, Jr., in Fort Worth, Texas. Zig-zagging
from left to right are Cindy, Suzi,
Merrilyn, Patsy, and Sherry,
who appears to have inherited the wealth of family photos.
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URL:https://www.angelfire.com/tx2/
kainwhitten/pebworthwhitaker.html
Created May 19, 1999
By S. Pebworth Armstrong
e-mail: SPA
Last Update: December 27, 2008
In this photo, Beulah is
probably expecting her last child, Billy,
who died at the age of thirteen when the bike that he was
riding was struck by a car. (Billy Pebworth is
buried in Ardmore, OK. [Unfortunately, I have no
photos of Billy.])
Robert Lee Pebworth, Sr.
Photo taken about1920. Born 1884. Robert Lee, Sr., died
Feb. 3, 1959 in Norman, OK, Cleveland Co. (Death Cert. #
901927), buried there by the Primrose Funeral Home.
Circa 1920, Beulah Ethel
Whitaker, wife of Robert L. Pebworth,
Senior. Beulah was born April 13, 1894 and died January
26, 1976. Beulah is buried in Ardmore, OK.
Jack and Bob, full view, about 1940