The McWhirter-Walker-Kimball House

The McWhirter House is a one-and-a-half story limestone structure with a central front portico and mansard roof, a well-preserved example of the Second Empire style. It was built about 1867 for Major General George McWhirter and his wife, Martha, and is believed to be the county’s first split-level house. The house is located a few blocks northwest of the courthouse square on a sloping lot surrounded by a wooden picket fence.

The McWhirters arrived in Belton around 1855 and were involved in the religious and business communities of the town. After a series of family tragedies, Martha fell into depression and grew weary of Christianity, saying God was a “hard master” to serve. In August 1866, as McWhirter walked home from church, she claimed to hear God’s voice telling her what it meant to be “sanctified.” She believed sanctification came through dreams and visions, forms of direct communication with God.

McWhirter held weekly prayer groups at her home and the homes of other women where she urged her followers to seek similar divine revelations. Mrs. McWhirter claimed Pauline scriptural authority in which the sanctified wife was to remain in the home performing household duties but to separate herself from the unsanctified husband, both sexually and socially. Over time, the women were urged to separate themselves from their undevout husbands, and gradually an alternative communal life evolved.

In the early years, the Sisters endured hostility from the townspeople in the form of public trials for divorce and insanity, physical violence, and separation from family and friends. On one occasion, abandoned husbands formed a posse and rode to the McWhirter house to kidnap their wives and children. One man shot a bullet as a demonstration to the women of their power, but the women in the house refused to go. The men did take some of the children. The house at 400 North Pearl became a place of refuge for women who fled broken homes, broken bones, and broken hearts. As the house filled with Sanctified Sisters, George McWhirter moved into rooms over his store.

In an effort to achieve financial autonomy, the Sisters undertook various economic endeavors including marketing eggs and dairy products, taking in laundry, hauling wood, and working as domestic servants and home nurses. From the 1860s to early 1900, the women established a successful laundry business and three hotels (two in Waco). The Central Hotel, established in 1886, consisted of a three-story brick structure with numerous outbuildings, a vegetable garden, and chicken coop.

The women also owned three farms outside Belton. Two of the farms were rented out, but the third was used to raise vegetables for the women and customers at their boarding house. All the work on the farm was done by members of the commune. Some women helped take care of the other members. One woman who had studied with a Temple dentist took care of dental problems. Another woman had studied cobbling and provided shoes. Some wove rag rugs or knitted and crocheted items to be sold. Others taught the children.

Despite early disapproval, however, the Sisters were so successful in their business pursuits that when dreams told them to leave Belton for Washington, D.C., the town was sorry to see them go.

The house was later home to the family of two U.S. Army four-star generals, Walton Harris Walker and his son, Sam Sims Walker. The historic home was later purchased by Dr. and Mrs. Robert Kimball.

The Woman's Commonwealth of Belton, Texas. https://dchrisman.weebly.com/index.html

“McWhirter, George and Martha, House – Belton, TX – U.S. National register of Historic Places. http://www.waymarking.com

“Belton Historic Homes Tour Features McWhirter Home, Beginning of 19^th Century Sanctificationist Movement.” Salado Village Voice, April 15, 1992.

Lamanna, Mary Ann and Jayme A. Sokolow. "Belton Woman's Commonwealth," in Handbook of Texas Online. https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/belton-womans-commonwealth