John Wilkins Whitfield was an Indian Agent and the first delegate to Congress from the Territory of Kansas.
Whitfield was born in Franklin, Tennessee, on March 11, 1818. He went to Missouri in 1853 and soon became an Indian agent in Kansas, settling in Tecumseh. He began to take an active part in local politics and was elected a representative to Congress on November 29, 1854, a position he held until 1856. Whitfield took an active part in the stirring border warfare carried on between the pro-slavery and Free-State men. He had been a pro-slavery man in politics from the time he came to Kansas and was elected by that party.
He moved to Texas before the Civil War, and when that broke out, he organized the Lavaca County Company. He also organized the 27th Texas Cavalry Regiment, commonly called “Whitfield’s Legion,” in April 1862. He was wounded in battle at Luka, Mississippi, in 1862, and in 1863, he led the 4th Battalion Texas Cavalry at Pea Ridge, Arkansas. He was made brigadier-general in 1863 but left command due to ill health that fall. He then returned to Texas.
He died in Halletsville, Texas, on October 27, 1879.
©Kathy Alexander/Legends of Kansas, updated June 2025.
Also See:
Territorial Kansas and the Struggle for Statehood
See Sources.