OUR TARLTON STORY--PART THREE/Our Tarlton Ancestors in Wayne County, Missouri

OUR TARLTON GRANDPARENTS IN WAYNE COUNTY, MISSOURI

by KEITH WAYNE RAGAN·

Abandoned Estate in nearby Ralls County, Missouri

OUR TARLTON STORY--PART THREE

So leaving behind the rawness and danger to his growing family in Gallatin County, Illinois, between the years 1820 - 1825 General Azion Tarlton had a good part of his family in Wayne County, Missouri. There was probably another voyage down the Ohio between those years of 1820 – 1825, to its confluence with the Mississippi, then up the Mississippi to Cape Girardeau, Missouri, one of the most utilized river ports of the day. Or just possibly, but the least likely, the family may have went to the confluence of the Ohio and Mississippi rivers in New Madrid, Missouri and came overland on what was to be called in later years the New Madrid to Greenville Road.

I still believe the former, and the family may have stayed in that vicinity for a year or two and one son, James Tarlton definitely did, as he married Miss Ann Murphy in Cape Girardeau County, in what today is Marble Hill, Bollinger County, on Christmas day of 1825 before moving on to Wayne County. Lavina Tarlton, certainly a daughter since this name continued to be used by this family and their descendents, married Isaac W. Smith April 30, 1827 in Cape Girardeau County, Missouri, also.

The Tarltons in Wayne County, Missouri

On the 1830 census Azion Tarlton, aged between 50 – 60 years of age, was already established in Wayne County, Missouri and sons George, John, and James Tarlton were also transcribed as heads of household. All four had their names misspelled as Talton by the transcriber. Maybe this was a mistake on the transcriber’s part, not used to hearing the southern brogue pronunciation of the family name.

The young sons of General Azion Tarlton all were born in the Carolinas. James was born in North Carolina in 1800 according to the 1850 census for Wayne County, Missouri. George was probably born in 1804 in York County, South Carolina and John about 1810, also in York County (Civil War record and 1850 Wayne County Census). For certain, a sister of the three brothers, Jane Tarlton, was there in Zion’s household when he settled into Wayne County as well. The Jackson Independent Newspaper of Jackson, Missouri, the county seat for Cape Girardeau County at that time, with an issue date of June 4, 1825 announced the marriage of Jane Tarlton, daughter of General Tarlton, to Hugh McGee. There are no census records for any state that lists a “General Tarlton (Tarleton) prior or after this timeline, so this Tarlton certainly is General Azion (Zion) Tarlton as passed down in oral family history. The location of the marriage was given as McGee, Missouri, which is located in Wayne County.

Hugh McGee is found on the 1830 census for Wayne County. Hugh and Jane are not in Wayne County in 1840, and likely were deceased or relocated. The town of McGee was named for the McGee family, almost certainly for Hugh McGee and his brother Thomas Jefferson McGee. Thomas McGee married Tabitha Cato, so you can see how these families remained linked through the passing of time. And have more history together in the ensuing years.

I hope family interested in their history and origins give some thought into how new, raw and exciting these times were for our Tarltons. It was a big land, with many different people. Small bands of Delaware and Shawnee, many western remnants of Tecumseh’s ravaged tribe, cohabited with small transient populations of mostly French trappers and miners. The early settlers were still within striking distance of the western tribes’ forays for coup, material possessions, livestock, captives and scalps. In John R. Swanton’s book “The Indians of the Southeastern United States,” Map 11 shows that a substantial branch of the Cherokee were still living in the area as of 1794 and surely some remained thirty years later when Zion hewed his first log for a dwelling.

France was the first country to claim and settle in Missouri and did not cede it to Spain until 1763. Spain eventually relinquished it back to France in 1800. And of course, in 1803 France sold Missouri to the United States as part of the Louisiana Purchase. It was the dawn of possibilities between the years 1820 - 1825 when the Tarlton clans claimed a portion of Wayne County as their own. They settled on lands that in later years would be synonymous with our Tarlton clans for generations to come.

Unlike most of our other early ancestry making their way to Southeastern Missouri, our Tarlton Grandparents were a family of means and prosperity. The original Tarlton home that would come to be known as a plantation was referred to by writers of early Missouri history as “a beautiful estate” and was said to have been located about four miles northeast of the town of Wappapello. It probably did not look much different from the photo of the abandoned plantation house in the photo I have attached. That house was located in Ralls County, Missouri.

This would have placed the family in the vicinity of the high ground along the southwest rim of Mingo Swamp in what later would become Jefferson Township. Using the landmarks of today, that would place them about four miles northeast of the town of Wappapello on Highway Z on Stanley Creek. Stanley Creek empties into Mingo Swamp. That land would be passed on to Zion’s son John (SR) who patented the acreage in 1853, and after his death, to Francis Womack that married John’s widow and raised his children. The site of the Womack Cemetery of today is within the borders of the original Tarlton Plantation.

The Catos and McGees would settle to the northwest of Mingo Swamp, just up the road. It is not much of a stretch of my imagination to envision these families clearing land together, raising buildings, frolicking during “shuckings” and barn dances, and bowing heads as one during the circuit preacher’s fervent camp meeting prayer. I believe Zion Tarlton and his sons carved out a small paradise in Wayne County. It would have been backbreaking work to clear the land and plant crops, mostly of Indian corn in the early years. Remember this was Wayne County, Missouri. A land covered by forests and swamps.

In the forest canopies surrounding Mingo Swamp corn would not grow without sunlight. So, first they “girded” the great trunks of hickory and oak on the ridges above the cypress and tupelo trees below, causing the flow of nutrients to cease. The leaves withered and died and fell to the ground allowing sunlight to warm the earth underneath for the first time in centuries. Small sustenance gardens and corn were planted in the rich humus to allow for immediate survival harvests for family and livestock in those first years. In the ensuing months fires were built around the dead tree trunks, the trees felled, and gradually the land of our Tarltons became pastures and fields of plenty. These descriptions from Cletis Ellinhouse's book MINGO.

Zion and sons James, George, and John would have toiled in unison and as previously conjectured, undoubtedly, neighbors helped out tremendously as was the custom of the time in the “raising” of their homes and barns. Women’s’ work would have assuredly started even earlier than that of the men each day, and would continue into the darkness of each night as the men found their pipes and chairs in front of the fire. But, as the grueling days turned into weeks and months and the months into years, Azion Tarlton, his sons, their spouses and children would gradually find their lives transformed into much more prosperous and comfortable means. Their properties are often referred to as “plantations” in early accounts. And, they had lived to see their dreams manifested into reality.

General Azion Tarlton was a man born during the revolution and birth of the United States. He had taken his family through almost a thousand miles of wilderness to Wayne County and protected them from every kind of hardship imaginable. This was not a timid man, but a man of unbridled spirit with the ability to see past the certainty of his todays and through the mists into the possibilities of his tomorrows. His tomorrows had always been in the direction of the setting sun.

His life is testimony that he was a fearless man. He carved out his own place to call “my country,” where he could live in peace with those who settled around him and we know today that that place was in Wayne County, Missouri. Azion, John, George, and James all appear still on the 1840 census. George would be from whom we would all descend (my third great grandfather), as the father of Alexander C. Tarlton.

Their last names are spelled variously as John Trlton, Azion Talton, George Talton, and James Talton. James is separated from the other three families a short distance and is farming in Cowan Township. I believe in 1841, aged about 65 - 70 years, General Azion Tarlton, pioneer and the patriarch of the Wayne County Tarltons, slipped into final rest. As he took his first immortal step into the light, I have no doubt that it took him west.

Copyright August 1, 2009 by the author Keith Wayne Ragan and no reproduction in any form may be made without the written consent of the author.  It is intended for family files, and may be reproduced for family records.

Author's Footnote for family: General Azion Tarlton was my maternal 4th Great Grandfather: General Azion Tarlton>George Washington Tarlton>Alexander Craig Tarlton>Susan Ann Tarlton Moore>Bessie Edith Moore Wilson>Iva Delores Wilson Ragan>Keith Wayne Ragan.