Memorials › Elisha David "Lige" Whittington
Elisha David "Lige" Whittington
24 Mar 1804 – 1883
| Birth | 24 Mar 1804 |
| Death | 1883 |
| Added by | Angelina Davis on 02 Feb 2020 |
| FaG | https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/206765107 |
Bio
Born to Grief Whittington and Susannah Cox. Family legend has it that Elisha was the blacksmith that made the Bowie knife. An inscription at the Alamo says the knife was made by "a Louisiana blacksmith." In her book, "Looking Back, A Narrative History of Bayou Chicot", Mabel A. Thompson of Ville Platte, Louisiana says that Elisha was that blacksmith. Jim and Rezin Bowie did, in fact, live at a plantation close to Elisha, near Lamourie, in Rapides Parish, and their normal course of travel would have brought them by Elisha's shop. It was said that Bowie whittled the shape of the knife he wanted out of wood and gave it to Elisha to make for him. Mrs. Thompson writes that she talked with Elisha's granddaughter, Mrs. Lois Whittington DeVille, who said, when a young girl, she saw a book of Elisha's that had the drawings for this knife. The evidence does not bear out this family legend, however: "The Bowie knife, which was made famous by Jim Bowie in a duel on a sandbar near Natchez, Mississippi, was first made by his brother, Rezin Bowie, who wrote in 1838 "The first Bowie knife was made by myself in the Parish of Avoyelles" (Louisiana). Rezin, brother of Alamo hero Jim, was living in Avoyelles at the time he had the knife made by his blacksmith, Jesse Clift, according to a letter from Bowie's daughter to the LSU president written in the 1880s." "In a recently discovered letter to Col. David F. Boyd, dated September 14, 1885, Rezin's granddaughter, Mrs. Eugene Soniat, gave further details. 'This instrument, which was never intended for ought but a hunting knife, was made of an old file in the plantation blacksmith shop of my grandfather's Bayou Boeuf plantation, the maker was a hired white man named Jesse Clift [sic], he afterwards went to Texas. My mother, Mrs. Jos. H. Moore then a little girl, went to the shop with her father, heard his directions, and saw Clift make the knife.' " Elisha was buried somewhere in Bayou Chicot, Louisiana.
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Family
Spouse
- Melina Dalton Thompson 1806–1874 FaG
- Lucinda Futch Whittington 1818–1902
- Mary Milam Whittington 1828–? FaG
Children
- John Dalton Whittington 1824–1872
- Elisha Whittington 1834–1918
- Mary Josephine Whittington Courtney 1834–1877
- Martha Whittington Dorman 1839–1912
- Modella Whittington 1849–1915
- Leona Whittington Willis 1851–1922
- Tobias W. Whittington 1854–1935
- Mary Luvina Whittington Jenkins 1857–1936
- Thomas J Whittington 1858–1902
- Sara Viola Whittington Thompson 1859–1934
- Ethan Allen Whittington 1863–1941
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