Lives Between the Dimensions

T he five men stood beside their horses, reins in hand, staring without spoken word down the rock rubble of the road. Puddles in potholes were frozen with a crisp, hollow layer of ice. The road disappeared from their intense study a few hundred yards up around a curve among the sturdy trunks of a dense stand of hickory and oak. But, they stared intently nevertheless. As if the forests and hillsides did not impede their view at all of the community and homesteads a mile or so up the way. It was just after daylight and a bitter cold morning. There had been a heavy frost the night before and every mile they had covered since leaving the relative security of Mingo Swamp seemed to drain their bodies of what precious little warmth they had left. Their breaths exhaled through the woolen scarves tied around their heads, over their ears and mouths leaving clouds of steam in the stillness of the December morning in Wayne County, Missouri. Actually they weren’t scarves at all. Not anym...

THE MURDER OF ALEXANDER CRAIG TARLTON BY SOUTHERN BUSHWHACKERS by KEITH WAYNE RAGAN · Our Tarlton Story--Part Six Foreword In documents first rescued from Grandma Bessie Wilson’s “burning party” many years ago, Clarence Madison Wilson, JR., my uncle, saved a considerable number of “papers” mostly pertaining to Daniel Moore’s estate and passed them down to son Ronnie Lynn Wilson . Ronnie entrusted them to my care sometime back when I was in the throes of ten years research on the least known of our immediate ancestry--the Tarltons. And, as I went through each piece of paper I came upon the original enrollment records for Alexander. They are important in that the Missouri Data Base for Civil War Soldiers does not include my Great-Great Grandfather Alexander Tarlton. The state’s copies were probably among those stolen in 1866. And these records show that on September 29, 1862, Alexander C. Tarlton was enrolled in the service of the state and that he was assigned to Co....

ALEXANDER CRAIG TARLTON by KEITH WAYNE RAGAN · In this 1920 map of Wayne County, the yellow spray indicates the area of the original Tarlton estate and plantation where Alexander was born and had agricultural interests for most of his adult life.  He purchased property either a part of the original estate or adjoining  just prior to his death.  The purple spray indicates the location of his properties and home at the time of his murder.  His demise was likely here.  The red spray indicates the location of the old Moore and Rucker communities. Our Tarlton Story--Part Five It is stated that Alexander C. Tarlton was born about 1828 in the vicinity of Ojibway, Missouri in Wayne County in the book “Back Home” written by Nelson Morgan about the communities of Rucker, Cool Springs, and Taskee. In the “History Of Southeast Missouri” by Douglas it is stated that “Alexander C. Tarlton was born in 1828 at the old Tarlton home in Wayne County, Missouri, abo...

GEORGE WASHINGTON TARLTON by KEITH WAYNE RAGAN · OUR TARLTON STORY--PART FOUR The middle son of General Azion Tarlton was George Washington Tarlton, the third great grandfather for reference for all the children of Ann, Bessie, and Ted Moore , born in South Carolina in 1804. And, of the three sons remaining in the county after Azion’s death , George Tarlton I am certain was the father of the Tarlton that we know best. The 1830 and 1840 censuses confirm a son of the right age for George to be the father of our Alexander C. Tarlton, my second great grandfather. Alexander is remembered by most family as the victim of a ruthless assassination in 1864 as the great Civil War drew to a conclusion. Of the other two sons of Azion, John SR does not have a son of correct birth age to be Alexander, and James has a son of the right age, but is living on land in 1840 that that is not centrally located next to the remaining Tarlton families. James and Ann, his wife, are fo...

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...

For Our Courageous Grandmother, Mahala If you had asked me who Mahala Ward Tarlton was 20 years ago, I would have had no idea.  Once, when we had a family reunion in the Old Greenville, Missouri historic park, I remember my brother and I walking through the old cemetery by the St. Francis River and one of my aunts mentioning we had some Carltons or something similar in our family tree, and that we might find one of their headstones as we strolled through the repository of remains of Wayne County's early citizenry.  It was not to be, of course. My mother had told me, several times, the story of one of one of my grandfathers being murdered during the Civil War.  The story and the details of the cowardly act upon my ancestor remained vivid throughout all the years of my adolescence  but a busy career and a family that included three sons kept the name in obscurity until well into my late 40's when my fascination began with with my ancestry in earnest.. B...