OUR TARLTON STORY--PART ONE/General Azion Tarlton in York, South Carolina

GENERAL AZION TARLTON IN YORK, SOUTH CAROLINA

by KEITH WAYNE RAGAN

The Battle of King's Mountain

OUR TARLTON STORY--PART ONE

In our direct line, General Azion Tarlton is the earliest that can be positively identified. It may be that his first name of General is a given name and not reference to military rank., but if so, may relate to a former family member of that rank--his namesake if you will.

Cletis Ellinghouse in his book regarding Wayne County, MINGO, does cover quite a bit, at least generally, in recognition of the Tarltons entrance to Wayne County, but he believed General Tarlton and Azion Tarlton brothers. There is nowhere--in any census or probate document-- that refers to General Tarlton. That’s is because General and Azion Tarlton were one and the same individual.

He preferred to be called Zion based on researched census transcriptions, and he was probably born between the years of 1771 – 1776. Our country was engaged in a full-blown war against Great Britain at the time of his birth and early childhood years (The Revolutionary War  (1775-1783).

One of the previously listed heads of household for the 1800 North Carolina census could represent his father, possibly James or William, and the remaining individuals either uncles or brothers. I have not authenticated this as fact, but if this was so, his family may have been in North Carolina for a while or he may have been brought to the Carolinas at an early age. He had sons that were born in North Carolina. He is listed as Zion Tarleton on the 1800 census of York County, South Carolina. He is aged 16 –26; married with wife also aged 16 – 26, and has one female child less than 10 years of age.

They would have been living in or close to the center of the Catawba tribe of Native Americans, on their east flank--traditional enemies of the Cherokee, who were on their immediate west flank. The Catawba were aligned with the British by treaty of 1763. The Catawba tribe today has the only Native American reservation in South Carolina and it is still located in York County. Having relations and trade with the native Americans would serve him well in the new and wild lands he would one day settle upon.

The location for General Azion Tarlton in York, South Carolina is one that I find intriguing to the search for our roots, in that James Tarlton of Anson/Johnston County, North Carolina just a short distance away was known to have married a full-blooded Catawba/Waxhaw Indian maiden in Andrew Jackson’s lands in Waxhaw. The stories that are handed down declare that her dowry consisted of two jugs of sipping whiskey and some horse blankets. One must conclude that two jugs of whiskey meant his bride was a looker!

And we can place our Azion and family living also in the very center of this Catawba tribe.

It is understandable why Zion Tarlton would not prefer the given name of General during that violent time in our history. The most despised name in all of South Carolina was that of Colonel, later General, Banastre Tarleton of His Majesty’s Army, for the bloody massacres that he led upon patriot homesteads throughout the entire region. If you have ever seen the movie “The Patriot” with Mel Gibson, then you can imagine the depth of that loathing. The character of the British Colonel that was the villain was based loosely upon that of General Banastre Tarleton.

The Waxhaw Massacre of May 29, 1780 during the revolution in South Carolina most certainly resulted in the family taking much abuse for their surname. In the Waxhaw Massacre, General Buford’s patriot forces, greatly outnumbered and surrounded by then Colonel Banastre Tarleton, were demanded to relinquish their arms and surrender. During negotiations and passing back and forth of the flags of conference, despicably, the BritishTarleton prepared his men for attack. As soon as he received Buford’s reply his cavalry made a furious charge on the unsuspecting and unprepared American army.

The Americans were literally cut to pieces in but a few minutes. Many begged for quarter, but absolutely none was given. Many were unarmed. One hundred and thirteen were slain; one hundred and fifty were so maimed as to be unable to travel. Even Stedman, one of Cornwallis’s British officers and a future historian of the war, wrote “on the occasion, the virtue of humanity was totally forgot.” This massacre as well as the Battle of Williamson’s Plantation on July 12, 1780 and the Battle of Kings Mountain on October 7, 1780 in York County made subjects loyal to the British Crown in general and persons of the Tarleton surname in particular as individuals to be despised throughout the Carolinas.

And it may well be what caused General Azion Tarlton to look westward for new opportunities for his growing family. Whether he was patriot or loyalist, the community in South Carolina would have as well received the name of General Tarleton at the turn of the nineteenth century, as the Israeli people would someone named Adolph Hitler in Jerusalem on May 14, 1948. Yet, it would only be fair to mention that of all the known Tory and Loyalist lists I have been able to examine for South Carolina at the time of this research, including an afternoon in the South Carolina depository for Archives and History in Columbia, South Carolina, none contain the name of General Azion Tarlton. Indeed, the locale of his origins just across the line from York, South Carolina and York itself were strong Patriot strongholds.

At some point between 1800 and 1810, closer I believe to the latter, Zion Tarleton began to move the family in the direction of the setting sun and a new beginning. He is not on the 1810 census for York County, nor has he been found on any census for 1810 by this researcher. His family was on the move, maybe through western North Carolina and eastern Tennessee, and it is probable that he may have stayed a few years in one or more of those locations.

Then, the family’s journeys continue on northward through Kentucky, possibly across the Ohio River to Ohio or Indiana where a float downstream landed them eventually in Gallatin County, Illinois. Almost certainly he had kinfolk with him on this adventure, as well as his immediate family. And it may be that families, relatives, and friends of Catos were along for part of the journey as well. While this is speculation on my part, Cynthia Beuna and Bonnie Baker Palmer, researchers as well as descendants of the McGee, Cato, and Tarlton families, believes that these families intermarried and have long histories together in the Carolinas. There is oral family tradition that General Azion Tarlton was in some way related to the Cato families. They all do end up in Wayne County, Missouri, although at various points in time during the era referred to as the Great Virginia Migration.

Copyright August 1, 2009 by the author.  No reproduction in any graphic form may be accomplished without the written approval of the author.  This research is intended for family collections and may be reproduced for family files.