Katherine Connor

Katherine 'Kate' Connor (Whitfield)

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/63576863/kate-connor

Katherine "Kate" Whitfield was born 1853 in Tarboro, Edgecombe County, NC, the eldest of 6 known surviving children (3 boys/3 girls) born to wealthy attorney George William Whitfield Jr. (1829-1871), and his wife Mary Louisa Wimberly (1832-1879).

She is descended on both sides of her family tree from prominent Eastern North Carolina families. She was the paternal grandchild of George William Whitfield Sr. (ca. 1797-1842) and Catherine L. Deggs (ca. 1778-1840) who removed from North Carolina to Gainesville, Sumter County, GA as early pioneers in that District. She was gr-grandchild of John Whitfield (1760-1815) & Jemima Haywood of Craven County, NC; and a direct descendant of this family's patriarch Matthew Whitfield Sr. of England who settled in the Isle of Wight, VA ca. 1645. On her mother's side, she was the maternal grandchild Robert Diggs/Degges and Elizabeth "Betty" Lawson of Virginia who settled in Edgecombe County ca. 1760.

Her father was orphaned age age 13, and grew up with relatives in Alabama. He returned to NC to attended the University of North Carolina, and later the University of Virginia, but returned to farming on a plantation in Marengo County, AL. Still a young man, he returned to NC and became a lawyer, settling first in Shelby, then Tarboro, and finally in Wilson, where he took in Henry Groves Connor as clerk and student of law under him.

Kate would fall in love with the young lawyer and in 1871 the couple would marry. Kate was about age 18 and Henry "Groves" Connor just 19 at the nuptials.

Groves and Kate would become parents of 12 known children, only 9 of whom would live to maturity. Ten of their children are known to this researcher: George Whitfield Connor (1872), Mary Groves Connor (1874), Nils Connor (1876), Henry Groves "Tobe" Connor (1876), Robert Diggs Wimberly Connor (1878-1950), Kate B. Connor (1881)
David M. Connor (1884), Margaret Connor (1887)
Frederick W. Connor (1889), and Louis/Lewis M. Connor (1891).

Her husband would go on to achieve great success and recognition, becoming an active part of their social, religious, and civic community.

Both Kate and her husband passed in 1924, and are buried here in Maplewood. She was about age 71 when she died.