Grandpa Whitfield traveled from Marianna, Jackson County, Florida to Texas alone by cattle boat at the age of 13 years. His father William Watson "Dock" Whitfield had died during The War Between the States in May 1864 in Knoxville, Tennessee. Grandpa Cebren William Whitfield's mother is Leander Mae (Ann) Bruner Whitfield Kirkland of Florida. She married William Kirkland in Jackson County, Florida a few years after the death of William Whitfield. Grandpa Cebren William Whitfield lived for awhile in Robinson (known as Robinsonville at that time) and a rural area near Wortham Bend, Texas before purchasing a section of land near the Erath/China Spring communities in McLennan County, Texas.

Grandpa's first wife was Miss Nettie Smith and they had two sons, William Madison "Will" lWhitfield and James Coleman "Jim" Whitfield. C.W. and Nettie were married 16 Aug 1883 in McLennan County, Texas, and lived in Robinson (Robinsonville), McLennan County, Texas at that time. The two sons lived in China Spring (Erath Community), McLennan County, Texas, after Grandpa Whitfield's marriage to my Great Grandmother Martha Jane Franklin on 28 July 1892, after some time he purchasing land off what is now known as Yankie Road. The 1900 census shows the two sons with Cebren William and Martha Jane Whitfield in their home in the Erath Community. Their first born child is my Grandmother, Zola V Whitfield.

Grandpa Whitfield was known to own the largest dray and mule team in Central Texas, and complied when requested to haul the limestone blocks that are the foundation for the historic McLennan County Courthouse. He also hauled stones for "The Castle" on Franklin Avenue in Waco. My Grandmother Zola Whitfield Yankie remembered playing there and walking on the stone fence around the property with the owners' little girl. She told this story many times as she loved traveling into town with her father as a child. (Information provided by Great Granddaughter Nancy Yankie.)