John "Jack" W Whitecotton's family came to the Dalby Springs area between 1850 and 1860 from Jackson County, Alabama.  Jack was the son of James Whitecotton and his wife, Louiza "Eza" Turner.  Jack married Matilda Lewis, the daughter of George W Lewis and Luticia Keel in 1855 in Alabama.  There is a deed that shows that Jack Whitecotton bought land in 1858 in Alabama.  In 1860 Jack and his wife and daughter were listed in the Bowie County, Texas census.  Jack was born in 1833 and Matilda was born in 1837.  There were only six children:
 1. Elizabeth S "Bettie", born in 1857 in Jackson County, Alabama.  She married John Phillip Hutchins in 1881 in Bowie County.  She died in Dallas County,
     Texas in 1925
 2. Mollie John, born in 1863 in Bowie County, Texas.  She married Harry C Savage in 1886 in DeKalb, Texas
 3. Isaac, born in 1866 in Bowie County, Texas and died before 1880
 4. Sallie Caroline was born in 1869 in Bowie County, Texas.  She married Franklin Jefferson Dalby in 1886 at Dalby Springs.  She died in Aspermont, Texas
     in 1959
 5. "Son" was born in 1872 and died in 1877 in Dalby Springs
 6. Charles Newton was born in 1874 in Dalby Springs.  He married Grace Rebecca Phelps in 1894.  He died in Wilburton, Oklahoma in 1947

Jack Whitecotton also had a sister, Louisa Safrona "Fronie" Whitecotton, who married James Robert Williams and lived in Dalby Springs and raised five children there.  They eventually moved to Idabel, Oklahoma where their son, Dr Robert Dee Williams, practiced medicine for more than 50 years.

Matilda Lewis Whitecotton had a brother, Samuel Joseph "Tip" Lewis born in Alabama in 1854, who came to texas and later to Idabel, Oklahoma that married Ada Fulghum in Dalby Springs.  I'm sure there may have been other members of both families that came here too.

There are quite a few stories about Jack Whitecotton, so he must have been a very active person.  One story is that he and two other men almost froze to death when they were thrown out of their boat on the Sulphur River during a flood.  They were trying to check on their cows.  A Negro man named Tol Rutherford rescued them in a flat boat, one at a time.  He must have been an extremely strong man since they were one-half mile from the shore.

Jack Whitecotton loved to play croquet.  He played croquet with L C Pirkey, H A Parker and J D Locke.  They spent many hours playing the game after laying by their crops.

Charles "Charley" Whitecotton was one of several young men that were engaged to clear the right-of-way for a railroad from Dalby Springs to Finley Switch on the Cotton Belt Railroad, a distance of about ten miles, through a dense hard-wood forest.  They were promised wages of $1.00 a day and jobs with the railroad.  After working several weeks they were paid with checks by the gentleman that hired them.  This stranger then left town and was never seen again, and their checks bounced.

The only church in Dalby Springs was the Methodist Church built between 1855 and 1890.  Jack Whitecotton donated land for that church.  He served in Company D, 23rd Texas Calvary from about April 1862 until 1865 in Texas and Louisiana.  His application for Confederate Pension was signed by John E Proctor and W P Alexander.  They both stated that they had known him since 1858.  The papers were dated 1906.