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Name: Collins Wilhight
Alias: Wilhite
Place of Birth: KY
Year of Birth: 1834
Occupation: Laborer
Eyes: Black Hair: Black Complexion: Black
Height in Feet: 5 Inches: 10 1/2
Enlistment Date: October 3, 1864
Enlistment Place: Louisville
Enlistment State: KY
Document: View
Congressional District: 5
Company: A
Regiment(s): 122nd Regt USCI
Mustered Where: Louisville, Kentucky
Mustered Out Date:
Rank at Muster Out:
Notes:
On October 3, 1864, Collins Wilhite [sic] age 30, a Black laborer, enlisted at Louisville. He was 5’10 ½” tall and was “Drafted.” He was credited to Congressional District 5. He was mustered into Co. A 122nd USCI with “a detachment of men drafted and mustered into service…” at Louisville. He was born in Kentucky and was a laborer. He was described as having black eyes, hair, and complexion. He was “drafted” on September 20, 1864. Private Wilhite was issued clothing valued at $19.04. In February 1865, he was absent from duty and in the hospital at Portsmouth, Virginia. He died in the Balfour Hospital in Portsmouth on March 17, 1865 from bronchitis. At the time of his death, he had not received any salary or bounty money. He was issued clothing valued at $43.79. Private Wilhite was indebted to “D. Haverty,” the regimental sutler, for the amount of $10. At his death, an inventory of his personal effects included one each of the following: cap, overcoat, blouse, jacket, “trowsers,” shirt, drawers, knapsack, canteen, and haversack; and two each of the following: stockings and blankets. He also had “1/2” of a “Shelter tent” and no money. Note: Collins Wilhite’s surname was spelled in a variety of ways in his military records including Wilhite, Wilhight, Wilheight, and Wilhet.
Died in war? Yes
Military Death Date: March 17, 1865
Military Death Location: Portsmouth, Virginia
Military Cause of Death: Bronchitis
Death Date: March 17, 1865
Cause of Death: Bronchitis
Death Certificate
Pension Card Link:
Pension Application Date:
Application No.: Certificate No.:
Alternate First Name: Alternate Last Name:
Widow Pension Card: Pension Card
Widow Application Date: November 27, 1865 Application No.: 116157
Certificate No.: 122188
Pension Card Link: Application Date: Application No.: Certificate No.:
Pension File: Pension File
Pensioners: Hopey Wilhite
Jennie Wilhite
Daniel Owens Wilhite
Pensioner County: Jefferson Pensioner State: KY
Number of Pages:87
Pension Notes:
Private Collins Wilhite died on March 17, 1865, Portsmouth, Virginia, from bronchitis. On October 27, 1865, his widow, Hopey Wilhite, a resident of Oldham County, applied for a widow’s pension at the Oldham County Clerk’s office (the pension index card noted the application date as November 27, 1865). Hopey Wilhite’s pension application was initially approved but not without at least three investigations. The first investigation resulted from confusion over the spelling of the soldier’s surname but was resolved. On September 28, 1867, in Jefferson County, Kentucky, witnesses Margaret Parker and Harriet Oglesby provided testimony in support of Hopey Wilhite’s widow’s pension application. “…duly sworn state that they have intimately known for more than thirty years Hopey Wilhite [Wilhight] and her husband Collins Wilhight [sic], deceased…that they were slaves in the same family and therefore have an intimate knowledge of the whole history of the aforesaid parties.” On December 12, 1868, Hopey Wilhite was granted a widow’s pension of $8 per month plus $2 a month each for her two children, Jennie Wilhite and Daniel Owens. But on August 9, 1884, Hopey Wilhite was dropped from the pension rolls after an investigation by A. C. Welch, “…on the ground that person [Hopey Wilhite] had lived an open and notorious adultery with Washington Parker.” On September 5, 1892, Hopey Wilhite appealed the loss of her pension and testified that: “As near as I can guess it was about nine years since they took my pension away from me. I asked at the time what was the matter and they said ‘never mind, you needn’t come here anymore” [to ask about it]. Hopey Wilhite testified that, “My husband left my house up in Owen [sic] [Oldham] Co. near LaGrange, Ky one Monday morning in slave times and I never saw him again.” When asked about her marriage to Collins Wilhite, and of a relationship she was purported to have had with a man named Washington Parker, Hopey Wilhite further testified that, “[Collins and I] were married the old fashioned way by a Baptist preacher who is dead, married one Saturday night, married just like the rest of them all got married—married under the old law. No, I never married again after that. No sir, I never lived with a man by the name of Parker since. No sir, that is a bad mistake. I have witnesses to that. I have not had any children since. No sir. Not a child.” In 1884, a special pension examiner, A. C. Welch, accused Hopey Wilhite of having “lived in an open and notorious adultery with Washington Parker.” As a result, her pension was suspended. In 1892, a second special pension examiner interviewed Hopey Wilhite, her daughter Jennie Wilhite, and others, and came to a different conclusion. He reported that, “Up to this time I was under the impression that whatever she said was as likely to be false as true and that we were in a house of ill fame but such is not the character of her house at all, and the bulk of her statements are doubtless strictly true. Every member of her family are very hard workers. Claimant’s daughter Jane Wilhight [sic] is very intelligent and truthful. She attributed the untruthful statements that her mother made to fright. There were no facts to justify the dropping of claimant’s pension and I recommend restoration.” Hopey and Jennie Wilhite convinced the second pension investigator that there was no truth to the accusation that Hopey and Washington Parker lived together and/or had children together. The truth, however, was that Hopey Wilhite and Washington Parker did indeed live together and had at least four children between 1869 and 1879. Hopey not only lived with Washington Parker, but often assumed his surname as did the children that they had together, and her daughter, Jennie Wilhite, whose father was Collins Wilhite. After her pension was restored in 1892, Hopey Wilhite continued to receive her widow’s pension until her death in 1929.
Freedman’s Bank Link: View
Freedman’s Bank Notes:
On July 11, 1867, Hopey Wilhight [sic] of Louisville applied for a Freedman’s Bank account. She was a widow and was born in Nelson County, Kentucky. The name of the Hopey Wilhite’s enslaver was very difficult to read but the enslaver was from Oldham County. Hopey Wilhite named two children on her bank record: Daniel Owens and Jessy [sic].
No Freedmen’s Bureau Documents found
Mother First Name: Mother Maiden Name:
Father First Name: Father Last Name:
Siblings:
Wife #1 First Name: Hopey Maiden Name: Davis
Wife #2 First Name: Maiden Name:
Wife #3 First Name: Maiden Name:
Children: Jennie Wilhite 1860
Daniel Owens Wilhite 1862
Family Notes:
According to the soldier’s widow’s pension file, Collins Wilhite and Hopey Davis were married in July 1860 in Oldham County. Testimony in the widow’s pension file also stated that Collins and Hopey Wilhite had four children together, but that only two survived infancy; Jennie Wilhite and Daniel Owens Wilhite. Although in her 1892 pension affidavits, Hopey Wilhite strongly denied having lived with, or having had children with anyone other than Collins Wilhite, between 1869 and 1879 Hopey Wilhite had at least four children from a relationship with Washington Parker.
Family Tree:
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1870 Census Link: View
1870 Profession: Domestic servant
1870 Live with/near former enslaver? No
1870 Real Estate Value: 0 1870 Personal Estate Value: 0
1870 Ability to Read? Cannot read Ability to Write? Cannot write
1870 Census Notes:
In 1870, Collins Wilhite’s widow “Hopey Parker” (as Hopey Wilhite was listed in the Census), was 35 years old, and worked as a domestic servant. She lived in the large household of a white farmer named Covington Arterburn (1819-1901) and his family, in Gillmans community northeastern Jefferson County, Kentucky. Also in the household was Washington Parker, age 45, Black, born in Kentucky, who worked as a farmer (likely for Arterburn). This is the same Washington Parker that Hopey Wilhite denied knowing in her widow’s pension claim testimony. Three children of Hopey and Washington Parker also lived in the Arterburn household: Belle Parker, age 1; Grant Parker, age 3; and Virginia Parker, age 10 (all three mulatto); three other Black farmhands including John Parker, age 11. These were also the same children that Hopey Wilhite denied knowing in her pension testimony. There was no sign of Hopey’s two children that she had with Collins Wilhite: Jennie Wilhite or Daniel Owens in the 1870 Census.
1880 Census Link: View
1880 Profession: Keeping house
1880 Live with/near former enslaver? No
1880 Ability to Read? Cannot read Ability to Write? Cannot write
1880 Census Notes:
In 1880, “Hopey Parker” (as Hopey Wilhite was listed in the Census), widow, age 45, keeping house, lived in a large household that included her family and one boarder. The five children in the household were described as the daughters and son of Hopey Parker: Jennie Parker (aka Jennie Wilhite), age 19, servant; Belle Parker, age 11, who was at school; Peter Parker, age 8; Eliza Taylor, age 2; and Daisy Taylor, age six months. Also in the household was a boarder, Maggie Blackstone, age 19, who worked as a servant. All were described as Black and born in Kentucky. It is unknown as to why Eliza and Daisy’s surname was Taylor. In later records, their surname was “Parker.”
1890 Census information not found
1900 Census Link: View
1900 Profession: None
1900 Ability to Read? Cannot read Ability to Write? Cannot write
1900 Own/Rent: Rent 1900 Home Free/Mortgage: Unknown 1900 Farm/House: House
1900 Census Notes:
In 1900, “Hopey Wilheight” (aka Hopey Wilhite), age 65, Black, had no occupation and lived in a rented house at 816 12th Street in Louisville, Kentucky with her family and boarders. Both of her parents were born in Virginia. Hopey Wilhite stated that she had nine children in her lifetime but that only five were living (Note: this a direct contradiction to her pension appeal testimony made in 1892). Hopey Wilhite’s family members included: her daughter, Daisy Ford, Black, age 19 (one child born, one child living), married (no husband present), and worked as a servant; Daisy’s daughter, Thelma Ford, Black, age two; Hopey’s daughter Eliza Smith, Black, age 21, married, no children; and Thelma’s husband, Walter Smith, age 28, Black, a day laborer. There were two boarders in the household (unknown if they were related to Hopey Wilhite): Mattie Campbell, age 21, Black, working as a servant; and Lottie Baker, 19, Black, also a servant. NOTE: Today this address is a vacant lot among abandoned factories/commercial buildings.
1910 Census Link: View
1910 Profession: None
1910 Ability to Read? Cannot read Ability to Write? Cannot write
1910 Own/Rent: Rent 1910 Home Free/Mortgage: Unknown 1910 Farm/House: House
1910 Census Notes:
: In 1910, “Hopley Wilhite” (as Hopey Wilhite was listed in the Census) age 73, had four children in her lifetime and four were living (definitely wrong), widow, no occupation, was a boarder in the household of Bell Ramsey (who was likely Hopey Wilhite’s daughter, Belle Parker), age 38, widow (one child, none living), a lodging house keeper. Oher persons listed as lodgers (some were family) inclued: Arthur Bell, mulatto, age 20, a musician at a skating rink; Marshall Smith age 48, Black, single, laborer for street work; Albert Nichter, age 26, Black, musician; Peter Parker, age 36 (son of Hopey Wilhite), Black, porter at a saloon; Daisy (entered as “Daisie” Ford) Ford (daughter of Hopey Wilhite), age 30, widow, Black, maid in a private home (one child, one living); Frances Douglas, age 32, Black, widow (two children, two children living), laundress, private family; Fannie Maison, age 28, Black, widow, (one child, none living), maid for a private family; Ella French, age 49, Black, widow (one child, one living), cook for a private family; Thelma Ford, 12, Black (daughter of Daisy Ford and also listed as the niece of the head of household “Bell Ramsey”); Charles Short, age 38, Black, married, porter at a club house, and his wife Irene Short, 28, mulatto, born in Louisiana, working as a maid for a private family. They lived in a rented house at 421 10th Street in Louisville. This house no longer exists. It, along with other houses on this block, were demolished to make way for redevelopment.
1920 Census Link: View
1920 Profession: None
1920 Ability to Read? Cannot read Ability to Write? Cannot write
1920 Own/Rent: Rent 1920 Home Free/Mortgage: Unknown 1920 Farm/House: House
1920 Census Notes:
In 1920, Hopie Parker (aka Hopey Wilhite), age 82, no occupation, was living in the household of her granddaughter Thelma Smith, age 20 (no occupation) and husband Charles Smith, age 20, a laborer. They lived in a rented house at 1817 Cedar Street. Living next door was John Van Dyke (surname also spelled as “Vandyke”), age 62, laborer, and wife Daisy Van Dyke (daughter of Hopey Wilhite), age 38, who worked as a house cleaner. The house no longer stands at that address, but it was located about one block from the Kentucky Center for African American Heritage in downtown Louisville. Hopey Wilhite died on April 9, 1929.
Name: Benjamin Franklin Wilhoite
Location: Oldham County, Kentucky
Previous Enslaver:
Enslaver Notes:
According to Hopey Wilhite’s pension testimony, Collins Wilhite was enslaved by Benjamin Franklin Wilhoite (1807-1893) of Crestwood, in Oldham County, Kentucky. Wilhoite had at least two sons who served in the CSA which may explan why he did not make a compensation claim. In 1850, Wilhoite enslaved 12 persons (total of two separate Slave Schedule listings), one of whom was a good match for Collins Wilhite. In 1860, Wilhoite enslaved a total of 17 persons (total of two separate Slave Schedule listings), one of whom was a good match for Collins Wilhite. Benjamin F. Wilhoite died in 1893 and was buried in the Pleasant Hill Cemetery in Oldham County, Kentucky.
1850 Census Link: View
1850 Slave Schedule Link: View
1850 Number of Enslaved: 12
1860 Census Link: View
1860 Real Estate Value: $8,750
1860 Personal Estate Value: $6,030
1860 Slave Schedule Link: View
1860 Number of Enslaved: 17
1870 Census Link: View
1870 Real Estate Value: $15,000 1870 Personal Estate Value: $2,000
Compensation Application not found
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