Martha (White) McWhirter (1827 - 1904)

Born 17 May 1827 in Gainesboro, Jackson, Tennessee, United States

Wife of George Merlin McWhirter — married 1846 in Tennessee

Died 24 Apr 1904 at age 76 in District of Columbia, United States

Biography

Martha White was born on May 17, 1827 in Gainesboro, Jackson, Tennessee, the daughter of a Jackson County planter. She married George McWhirter, an attorney and farmer, in 1845.^[1] Together they had 12 children, only six of whom survived. Martha led an interesting and complex life as the founder, later in life, of the Belton Woman's Commonwealth ^[2], a commune based on the doctrines of religious perfectionism, celibacy, and Wesleyan sanctificationism.

The McWhirters moved from Jackson County Tennessee, where they lived in 1850 with Emma (4), Mary (2), and Ada (1), ^[3]to Bell County, Texas, in 1855. They settled first on Salado Creek, near the site of present Armstrong. By 1860 ^[4] their children were Emma(14); Ada (10); Jack (8); and Nannie (5). They moved to Belton, where George McWhirter operated a store and had an interest in a flour mill. In 1870 ^[5] their children at home included Ada (19); John (17); Nannie (14), Robert (4); and Sam (2).

During the 1860s, Martha "led a women's prayer group that met weekly in the members' homes. In 1866, after the deaths of her brother and two of her children, she began to believe that God was chastising her. After a prayerful night she had a vision that convinced her that she had been "sanctified," or filled with the Holy Spirit. She shared her revelation with the women in her prayer group, and other members began to pray successfully for sanctification.

Mrs. McWhirter's deepening commitment to unorthodox religious views eventually caused a serious rift in the community. Many of her growing band of female followers were unhappy in their domestic affairs, and she herself accused her husband of making improper advances toward a servant girl. She claimed to have had a revelation in which the sanctified were instructed to separate themselves from the undevout, and consequently directed her followers to continue to perform their household duties while minimizing social contact with their husbands and abstaining from conjugal relations. Eventually the women began to leave their homes to live and work communally."

The group was also known as the Belton Woman's Commonwealth and the True Church Colony. The Sanctified Sisters was a somewhat derisive term that townspeople in Belton used to describe the group. The group's beliefs, and the way they acted upon those beliefs, were considered scandalous. Part of the group's doctrine included the then unheard-of belief that men and women were equal in the eyes of God. One of Ms. McWhirter's divine revelations was that it was no longer a woman's duty to remain with a husband who bossed and controlled her, that God had made man and woman equal.

Despite resistance from the community, in its early days the group made ends meet by selling vegetables, chickens, butter and eggs. The business grew to include a laundry, a bakery, and a boarding house along with hotels in Belton and Waco. They became quite successful.

Ms. McWhirter received a sizeable inheritance from George, who left home after the couple's children had reached "the age of discretion." He spent the last years of his life in a room his wife fixed for him in his downtown office. The couple never spoke again. When he died in 1877, Ms. McWhirter said of her husband, "He believed in the sincerity of my religion and he always loved me."

In 1900 the group sold or leased all its Texas property and went forth into the wider world, not to multiply but to look for a retirement home. They went north to the Great Lakes and south into Mexico but settled on Washington, D.C. where they bought a large house on Keenesaw Avenue.

The women were often seen out and about in the nation's capital, attending the theater and lectures and the galleries of Congress. They operated a farm in Maryland and a boarding house in Washington, D.C. The national press sometimes came calling. In spite of themselves, the women were almost celebrities.

She died on April 24, 1904 in District of Columbia, and was buried at Rock Creek Cemetery in Washington, D.C. ^{[6] [7]} Fannie Holtzclaw took over the as the commune's leader. The group dwindled away as its members died, the vow of celibacy doing away with the notion of any second generation Sanctificationists.

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Sources

1. ↑ See obituary on Find A Grave
2. ↑ Texas State Historical Association History of the Belton Women's Commonwealth.
3. ↑ "United States Census, 1850", database with images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MCDK-5K8 : Tue Jul 18 01:53:15 UTC 2023), Entry for George M McWhirthe* and Martha McWhirthe*, 1850.
4. ↑ "United States Census, 1860", database with images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MXFB-Y5N : Tue Jul 18 00:59:21 UTC 2023), Entry for G M Mc Whirter and Martha Mc Whirter, 1860.
5. ↑ "United States Census, 1870", database with images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MXGJ-V67 : Tue Aug 22 00:19:41 UTC 2023), Entry for Z W McWhirter and Martha McWhirter, 1870.
6. ↑ "District of Columbia Deaths, 1874-1961," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:F7BC-BBQ : accessed 25 August 2023), Martha Mcwhirter, 20 Apr 1904, District of Columbia, United States; citing reference ID rn 4681, District Records Center, Washington D.C.; FHL microfilm 2,116,241.
7. ↑ An extensive biography on Find A Grave Martha White McWhirter

See Also

• Family Search Profile Martha White
• Texas State Historical Association History of the Belton Women's Commonwealth.