According to information compiled by Laura Lavica "Vicie" Lemons and Johnny Henry Lemons in 1937:
"William Thomas Satathite was born in Parrish Green, Tenn. 7 Mar 1827. His parents died in Tennessee during an epidemic. He and sister Jane were brought to Texas when he was 6 years old and reared by another family."
(Compiler's note: Documentation indicates that he was more likely born in Louisiana. It is very likely that William and his sister, Jane, were taken in by David L. Field, who would eventually become father-in-law to both. This suggests that his parents died not too long after the 1840 census, probably before about 1844 when it appears that the Field clan moved to Texas.)
"William Satathite lived and farmed in Upsar County. When his children were small he moved to Erath Co., settling on Dove Creek among the Choctaw Indians.
He served as a Texas Ranger under Capt. Whittaker as he was not strong enought to enlist in the Confederate Army.
He was called to the Dove Creek fight but was exempted by Capt. Whittaker on behalf of three small motherless children & neighbor Martin was in the same company."
Compiler's Note:
Information drawn from an article written by Phillip Rutherford in a magazine that I can't identify from the copy, and from an article in "Hunter's Magazine", 1911 by John Warren Hunter (both articles received from Confederate Research Center in Hillsboro, TX) explains the incident that Wm. Thomas Satathite did not participate in:
In December 1864, some peaceful Kickapoo Indians were moving south towards Mexico, trying to get out of the way of the warring white men who were trying to kill each other. Some over-enthusiastic Confederate commanding officer in TX heard only that 5000 Indians were moving. He called all the local troops together to go ambush the Indians. His men numbered about 200. He finally found them camped on Dove Creek, charged in, and was terribly defeated. It's just as well that William Sattathite opted out of that one. The officer was court-martialed, and it was apparently something of a scandal for many years. This would explain why the incident was remembered in the family. |