... James and Charity Wilhite, two of the oldest settlers in this county, his father having reached the age of eighty-five years. ...
James Wilhite, P. O., Cambridge. Was born in Washington county, Tennessee, August 1st, 1796, and moved to West Tennessee, and married Miss Charity Hays, July 25, 1815. In 1816 he came to Missouri and settled in what is now Saline county, four years before the county was organized. He has six children living, his son William, once a merchant in Arrow Rock, now living with his father, and taking care of him, and five daughters. On the 14th of January, 1859, his wife died, after they had lived together forty-four years—and on the 10th day of March, of the same year, at the solicitation of his children, he married again. For his second wife he selected Miss Sallie C. White, and has ever since regarded the same as the best and most important act of his life. He witnessed the great overflows of 1843 and 1844, and greatly assisted the sufferers in that disastrous time. He vividly remembers how difficult it was to travel here in those early times, there being almost no roads but hog-paths, and poor hog-paths at that. Mr. Wilhite was in the war of 1812, under Gen. Andrew Jackson, but was in no regular battle, and has drawn pension for ten years. He was one of the men who built the first church in the county, forty-two years ago—Cumberland Presbyterian. He is now eighty-five years old and the most active man in the county of his age.
