Bio: Jasper Bunyan Whittington, Bossier Parish La
Source: Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Northwest Louisiana
The Southern Publishing Company, Chicago & Nashville,  1890

Submitted by: Suzanne Shoemaker




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JASPER BUNYAN WHITTINGTON was born in Pike County, Ala., October 9, 1849,
being a son of Robert and Matilda (Keith) Whittington, the former born in
Columbus, Ga., in 1822, and the latter in Pike County, Ala., in 1834.  Mr.
Whittington, as well as his wife, was a member of the Missionary Baptist
Church, and in his native State he passed from life in 1858, his widow
still surviving him, being a resident of Bossier Parish, La.  Jasper Bunyan
Whittington was taken to Georgia at the age of five years, but after his
father's death returned with his mother to Alabama, and in 1861 emigrated
to Bossier Parish, La., where he worked for the support of his mother and
her family of four children, of whom he was the eldest.  In 1863 they moved
on the Alden place, on Cypress Bayou, six miles east of Red River, on the
Rocky Mount & Carolina Bluff road, which place was given them free of rent
by Mrs. Ruth Hughes, who then owned the place and here they made their home
until 1868, when Mr. Whittington and his brother-in-law, J. J. Wilcox,
purchased 160 acres of land on which the former is now living.  He has
increased his acreage to 280, and has 100 acres in an excellent state of
cultivation.  Having made this purchase while a minor, he paid for it
before he attained his majority, and expected to live with his mother and
her family on the place, but before this idea was put into execution he was
united in marriage to Sallie, a daughter of James and Nancy (Fowler) Keith,
which fact was so displeasing to his mother that he deeded the farm he had
just paid for to her and went to work on his mother-in-law'' place, which
he successfully tilled until 1875, when he removed to Grimes County, Tex.,
his wife dying shortly after locating there.  After tilling the soil in
that State for one year he returned to Louisiana and took charge of an
uncle's (Keith) farm, which he conducted in a successful manner for one
year.  His second marriage took place November 17, 1876, his wife being
Anna, daughter of Rev. Robert and Indiana (Dillard) Martin, both native
Georgians.  In 1876 a cotton gin and grist mill, in which Mr. Whittington
was largely interested, caught fire and burned to the ground, leaving him
almost destitute, but the following year he erected a cotton gin on the
place where he now resides, which he has continued to operate; he then
purchased eighty acres of land, which is part of  his present farm.  In
1880 he once more took charge of his mother's affairs, and was her adviser
and confidante for two years, at the end of which time she gave him eighty
acres of land, and he is her agent at the present time.  He and his wife
are members of the Baptist Church, and are the parents of five sons and two
daughters, his first union resulting in the birth of one daughter.